Our New Means of Transportation

For the past few months, Cor and I have been talking about getting a new vehicle. Our windstar is now 10 years old and is starting to show and act its age. There are several minor things wrong with it but in the long run probably not worth doing as the repairs would cost more than the van is worth.

So we have been looking around at different SUV's. I most definately do not want to get another minivan. I want something that will easily fit us but not have any sliding doors.

We test drove a Ford Edge, a Ford Escape, a Dodge Caravan (I know, a minivan) and a Hyundai Santa Fe. I loved the Santa Fe. The other 3 were okay but it was the Santa Fe that I fell in love with. Both Cor and I easly fit in the front and with Cor being so tall, he has no problem of feeling caustrophic at all. There were some Dodge vehicles that he couldn't even get into to they were so cramped.

So after some negotations, I am now the proud owner of a 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe, which is deep water blue with grey leather interior. The one stipulation I had for a new vehicle was that it had to have heated seats :) and I gottem!!

I will include pictures of it on my next post as it is back in the shop right now getting all the protection stuff put on it, inside and out. Right now I am driving a crappy loner 2 seater car, did I mention that I hate cars?

As for my dad, he has been at home for just over two weeks now and is doing much better. He should be allowed to drive again soon but this has been more of a wake up call for him more than anything. He now has to eat a little more healthier (no more bedsnacks of junk food) and he is going to have to do some more strenous exercises (not just curling and golfing). He has kept busy and has just finished building a new bedframe for Kat.

We are all just so grateful that he is doing well and his spirit is still just as good as ever!

The Longest Night of My Life

Just a quick note to let you all know what has been going on around here for the last few days.

On Wednesday night, while my dad was working at the Blades hockey game, he suffered a heart attack. My cousin, D, happened to be at the game and was standing with my dad while he was being the goal judge (the dude that flicks the red light on when there is a goal). He thought he was suffering from bad indigestion but when it got too bad, he decided to go and see the EMT that is always at the game and happened to be at the same end of the ice as where he was.

The EMT took him to the ambulance where they did some tests that revealed what was happening. They called into the city for a paramedic that would meet the ambulance on the way to University hospital. The paramedic was able to administer nitro spray to my dad to help with the attack.

Once at the hospital, he was put in a room where he was given some meds to see if it would help and when it didn't he was then taken to have an angiogram. The angiogram indicated that the main artery that runs behind his heart was totally blocked and with the use of a stint (mini balloon), they were able to remove the blockage totally. From that moment on the pain went from about an 8/10 to a 1/10.

My mom was not at the game and Cor was working the night shift. My mom called me about 9:30 to have me come and get her and take her to the hospital.

I had the brains to call Cor right away and have him come home before I jumped in the van go to my mom's. My brain was on auto pilot as I don't' remember much of the trip to her house. I do remember calling L from the van though. She is my next door neighbour and close friend. I asked her to go and sit with the kids until Cor got home. Thank goodness for friends and neighbours that will drop what they are doing to help you out.

Dad is now doing very well although he is still in coronary care. I think the only reason that he is still there is because there are no beds available in the ward that he will need to be moved to.

He will be allowed to come home in another 2-3 days and from there he will be on many different kinds of medications. But that is the least of our worries as long as they do their job that is all we care about.

We are, and especially dad, are all grateful for the way that night turned out. Almost every hockey game, Josh goes to the game as well but he decided to sit this one out so he could go to his friends for supper.

We are grateful that my dad was at the game so that he had access to the ambulance right then and there and to my cousin D who was there and helped dad out when dad decided to go and see the EMT. It is amazing the turn of events and the way things go.

Just Another Saturday

Hello out there! Long time no write! I can't believe how little I write compared to my friends L and M. I don't know how you do it to; be able to write every day like that. To me, it seems like just yesterday I posted my last blog and here it has been over a month.
Things here have been rolling along fairly smoothly. Work for me has been busy as we have gotten a new coworker to take over another persons position who has temporarily taken over another persons position before she goes on maternity leave. The nice news is that I received a two part raise, one which took effect Jan 1 and the other on Mar 1. It is nice to be appreciated and I am very happy about it all.
Home has been all right with all of us feeling the dregs of the weather and no one at all happy to think that we still have at least one more month of snow, if not longer. Of course we had another dump of snow yesterday which makes for about 5 feet of piled snow on our front lawn. In all the years that we have lived here, we have never had this much snow. Between the cleared sidewalk and the street, there is about a 6-8 inch height difference as there is that much packed snow on the street. We are beginning to think it will take months for it all to melt and we will never have a decent summer. Green grass is on everyones minds.
Shorty has been practicing hard for track and basketball. I went and watched him at a community track meet on Thursday. This was a meet for just relay races. The night before, I had taken Shorty shopping to buy a decent pair of sweats because what he was wearing was not all that great. When we got to the track meet and saw half the kids running in jeans I wondered what I was so concerned about. Shorty ran two races. He was ran 4th in the relay race. The first race they came in 3rd out of 6 and the second race they came in 5th out of 6. As this was Shorty's very first time at a track meet, I felt he did really well. I was very proud of him.
Boo has been busy doing a lot of babysitting and getting ready to finish grade 8. Last weekend she had a valentine's party where she got to invite several friends. They are a great group of kids, who except for being fairly loud, are friendly and well behaved. I never have a problem when Boo has friends over.
With the two new high schools being built on the west side of Saskatoon, the girls are getting excited about attending Bethlehem school which will be the Catholic school. In fact, it is not just the girls who are excited, I am sure the whole west side of Saskatoon is excited.
The project is called the Blairemore Centre. Two schools are being built at each end of the Centre, one the catholic school, the other the public school. The centre will be joined by a civic centre, which will someday house a new library and an olympic sized swimming pool to name a few. This is the first time that the the two school boards have joined together to build such a project. If you are interest in reading more about the Blairemore Centre, please go to http://www.saskatoon.ca/org/leisure/programs/blairmore/index.asp to read more about it and see actual plans for the site.
For those of you originally from Saskatoon, you would not recognize the city coming in from Asquith. The highways have totally been altered to accomodate all of this and 22nd street now runs all the way out to the Dalmeny turnoff. Since my parents live along that highway/street, it is very bizarre to look out and instead of seeing cars going by at 100km/hr, there is actually a set of lights there that people have to stop at.
The schools, although still in the building stage, are set to open for September, 2007. The schools will only have grade 9 and 10 to start, with a new grade being added each year, as the kids go on to the next grade. Kat will be in the first class to graduate from Bethlehem, and Boo will be the first class to go from Grade 9-12.
Although the school board has proposed the school having to wear uniforms, it was voted down by the parents, largely due to the cost of the uniforms. Who would want to pay 30 dollars for one pair of pants and 25-40 dollars for t-shirts and sweatshirts? We can dress our children for much cheaper than that. We figured the initial cost would be around $250 to get them first dressed. I can dress 3 children for that when we hit the sales as Sears :)
Kat only decided this past week that she is going to switch to the new school. This year, she has been going to ED Feehan and has really enjoyed it (although her marks don't reflect that part of it). Her initial plans were to stay at Feehan, which we had no problem with. But in the last week or two, her friends have been all talking and most of them have decided to make the switch. When you are 15 years old, it is not what the school is offering, but what your friends are doing. Kat has come right out and said, that although Bethlehem has some classes that she wants and Feehen doesn't offer, she is switching mainly because her friends are switching. I am okay with that :)
In the years to come, we will be seeng a new Walmart built, which we are being told will be the biggest Walmart in Western Canada. A new one just opened on the south side of Saskatoon, and this store is HUGE. We have only been to it once, but we couldn't get over how big it is. And to think that the one that will be built by us will be even bigger, holy cow! Other stores will be built as well and this will be the newest box mall in the city. It is nice to see this side of the city finally being recognized and having things done as opposed to it always being on the east side of Saskatoon.
My day today has to include cleaning as we are having friends over tonight that we haven't seen in over a year! Why are Saturdays always cleaning day??? Oh yeah, cause I don't clean during the week LOL
Happy Saturday!!

The Great Blizzard of 2007

I am sure many of you have heard by now about the blizzard that struck our city on January 10, 2007. The day before, the t.v. and radio were givings us warnings about the blizzard but when you see clear skies, it was hard to imagine that the storm would really show up.

On the morning of the 10th we had gotten up about about 6:00am to the wind blowing in excess of 50km/hour. We looked outside and although it didn't look too bad, you could see the snow swirling making it hard to see. At that moment I decided it wasn't worth sending Kat to school as she would have to walk to the bus stop and I didn't want her doing that.

Cor started his truck around 7:00am and he left the house at 7:10am to go to work. His work is outside of the city and he normally is able to take the back roads to get to work and not have to go through the city at all. He called about 20 minutes later to see that he was stopped on the side of the Dalmeny road because he was unable to see more than a few feet in front of him and any of the other vehicles he saw were all in the ditch. He decided to turn around and come home as it wasn't worth risking his life to try and get to work.

He got home about 10 minutes before 8am and by that time, Boo had decided to stay home and Shorty was ready to go to school. Since Cor was going to wait until it got light out, I knew he could take Shorty to school and therefore I could attempt to get to work earlier. I had the van running and was ready to leave by 8:00am. I drove out of the driveway knowing that I wouldn't be traveling any faster than 40km per hour the whole way. From our house, I was unable to see farther than 2 houses down the street.

I made it to 33rd where it is totally open and was able to keep going down the street. About 3 blocks up, I had to slow right down as it seemed everyone else decided to go to work at the same time and they all decided to take the same street I took. No problem, I had given myself an hour to get to work knowing that if I got to work early, there would be plenty to do as I knew the cancellations for appointments would be coming in right left and center.

About halfway up 33rd street, my windshield wiper blade decided to come undone after I tried to clean it. Not good. So I pulled onto a side street to see if I could fix and luckily I was able to.

I made it to work without too much incident and it only took me 35 minutes instead of my usual 12-15.

I was working the front desk that day and we have a huge window that I can look up from my desk and see all the way to the street, which is the corner of Circle Drive and Miller Ave. That day, there were times when I could see the lights at the intersection, but as the day went on, I wasn't able to see more than 2 feet past the window.

Cor by 9:30am had been able to drop Shorty off at school and make it to work himself.

Things at work were going as expected with the 5 phone lines ringing non stop of people cancelling their appointments. We were able to stay on top of it and by noon almost everyone had cancelled their appointments.

At 1:00pm, I got a call from my best friend D to tell me that they had cancelled school and that her husband would pick up Shorty and bring him home for me. Shorty called me a while later to tell me that he got home safely.

By 2:30pm, the radio was telling people that if they were going to go home they had better try and go now. Our bosses at work conferred and talked to each of us to see if we thought we could make it home and if we could that we were free to leave. One of my coworkers, Ryan, who lives close to me came up and asked what I thought of us going home together. We could either take both vehicles or just one. I offered to take our van as I know how reliable it is and Ryan only has a small car. He said that worked for him and told me to get ready to go. So I command started the van and called the office manager and told her that Ryan and I were going to attempt the drive home together. She very willingly came and relieved me at the front desk. By this time the radio was telling us of all the roads the city police were closing, including some of the bridges.

The ride home was one of the most scary and bizarre rides of my life. I let Ryan drive as I didn't think I was brave enough to attempt it. So off we go. Our first hurdle was at the corner where our work is, Circle Drive and Millar Ave. It was blocked at one side by the police as they were only letting a few cars get onto the freeway going east at a time. Luckily were were headed west. We finally manuvered through all the vehicles in the intersection and made it to circle drive to head west. Driving seemed to be fine as long as we stayed in the middle of the road as there were cars stopped and abandoned on the right side of the road and many cars were in the left hand side trying to turn to side streets to get home. We decided to take the freeway home even though it is totally open and we knew that the drive would be treacherous. Except for stopping so that one lady could get her windshield wiper that had fallen off of her van, we were able to go without too many problems. There were still cars parked along the side of the road that were abandoned but for the most part, we were able to travel without problems. We made it up to Laurier Drive as I decided I wanted to get my friend's husband to come with us so that I wouldn't have to drive alone after dropping off Ryan.

We picked up Dave with little incident and then started off to Ryan's house. He only lives about 1/2 mile away but because of people being stuck in the middle of some of the roads, we had to do some back tracking. We were able to drop off Ryan without any problems and Dave then took the wheel. Again, the main problems were trying to see and make sure we didn't hit another vehicle. At one point, we were trying to go down a fairly main road but due to a school just getting out, there were a lot of people on the road walking, as there were no sidewalks that were travelable (is that a word?). We ended up having to come to a complete stop due to a van that was in the middle of the road, stuck and abandoned. After the cars behind us finally got turned around, we were able to due the same and were then able to make it home safely.

When Dave got my van home, I was very ready for a drink and thank goodness for a strong vodka at that moment. I thanked Dave over and over again for helping me out and he walked home from our house. Corey, in the meantime, was also in the process of making his way home from work, but his start out was much worse due to his workplace being out in the open in the country. Their parking lot had already blown in once and had been cleared out. Corey knew that his truck wouldn't make it through the snow, so he caught a ride with a coworker who also lives close to us and has a 4x4 truck. He was able to make it home about 1 hour after me.

It was not much more fun when we found out that Cor's dad had ended up in a ditch around 2:00pm and was still in the same spot at about 5:00pm. We had no way to get to him and ended up calling a different friend who has a 4x4 to try and get out to rescue him. In the meantime, my f-i-l was finally rescued by some men in a truck only to have that truck go into the ditch as well. They were all finally rescued by people on skidoos. Cor's dad ended up staying the night at a farmhouse on the Dalmeny road that he knew. The cool thing is that Cor's dad was mentioned in the paper.

During the night, the wind tapered down and the city cleaners started to clean. Many of them cleaned without stopping for many hours. Police and fire crews were actually taking these drivers cups of coffees to help keep them warm and awake. Vehicles that were abandoned were all towed to the closest parking lot and left there. People were able to call a certain number and were told from there which parking lot their car was in.

The next day, all the schools in the city were closed. Corey had taken the day off from work to help his dad get his truck and he was able to drive me to work. It was still a busy day at work, but mostly it was all about the the big storm of '07. For a good look at what the storm looked like, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYs7AP8UPic this shows very much what it looked like here.

Well, I wanted to post my story as I am sure many other people will also be doing.

Our New Year's Eve Tradition

A couple of years ago we used to invite our friends over and do a potlock midnight lunch. That stopped when the wrong mix of people were brought together and one family got upset and left early. We realized that wasn't the way to bring in the new year so instead we switched to a family day and evening that was much more enjoyable.
We spend the few days before the 31st getting ready. This year Cor replaced the carpet in our family room with laminate flooring. The old carpet was extremely gross looking and we are much more happier to have laminate as opposed to carpet.
We like to buy our own used movies and can ususally get them for about 10 dollars a movie. These are the movies that we picked to watch. We managed to watch all but the far left two. Everyone gets to pick one movie and it is a group decision about what we want to watch. It is a big mixture as you can see with a horror, a love story, a cartoon, an action and a comedy.




We started watching the movies about 3:30pm. We buy and make lots of food that is all finger food and munchies that we put out at the beginning and then are able to munch our way through the whole evening. We had everything from mushroom, spinach and crab dips to spring rolls, shrimp rings and chicken fingers and chicken wings and sausage and pickles and cheese. For dessert there was cream puffs and fruit to dip into chocolate.



Here is Shorty digging into the food. He wasn't all that hungry when it first came out but little by little he ate more and more. That was what it was there for.

We finished the evening by 1:30am and all was well. Kat left after the third movie to go and visit with her friends on msn. At 14, I am impressed we were graced by her pressence for 3 of the movies. Not bad at all :)



Now imagine that there are two more pictures that I have somehow managed to delete and will now have to wait until tomorrow to add. One is of Boo lying on the floor and the other of Kat laying on the couch. I can't figure out why this program hates me so much. Argghhh.

More Christmas Day Pictures

I had wanted to add these other pictures when I did the one for Christmas Day but the stupid thing wouldn't let me add more than 5 pictures. So here are the two that didn't make it.



This is Boo with Shorty in the background. She got pretty much everything she wanted off of her Christmas wish list.
This is Shorty opening up his T.V. We had a time keeping that thing hidden. When we first bought it, we took it to mom and dad's and dad hid it in his garage/workshop. The problem is that Shorty spends a lot of time over there and so dad had to cover it and surprisingly enough Shorty never asked about it. Then on Christmas Eve, dad had wrapped it for us and left it out in the open for us to take home later that night. We were all out there having a smoke when Shorty comes out and sees the wrapped box. Next to the wrapped box is our fireplace, which wasn't wrapped because we knew we were getting it. Shorty doesn't even see the fireplace and starts asking us why our present was wrapped when we knew what it was. It was everything I could do to keep a straight face and answer his questions. Later, when we went home, Cor made a special trip out to go and get a coke, but also picked up the t.v. and the fireplace. When he brought the fireplace in and got it set up, Shorty never even asked about the wrapped box, which was still in the back of the van. That box was finally brought in after midnight when they were all sleeping.

So that is our Christmas pictures. Next up will be from our New Year's Eve tradition.

New Year's Day and My Resolutions.

January 1, 2007.
Wow! I can't believe how fast this past year went. Does anyone have any resolutions? I have a couple and they are:

1. Lose more weight. I joined weight watchers in October but I haven't been all that faithful of sticking to it. My goal is to lose 2-3 pounds a week.
2. Exercise. I have these great pilates and exercise ball videos that I never use. I want to start exercising more. I don't like walking very much, I would rather do a video for 20 minutes a day and be done with it.
3. Stay more organized. I have been working on this for a while and have been making great progess. Corey got me a label maker for Christmas and I have been having lots of fun labeling all of the containers in the basement. This morning, Corey and I went through all the boxes and now everything is put in correct containers and they are now labeled along with the lids, so that doesn't get screwed up anymore. I bought these great containers from tupperware in the hopes that my pantry will be organized soon.
4. Continue to scrapbook and do other crafty things so that I don't feel like I never do anything for me.

I think that is about it. The good news is that except for the exercising, I have been doing all this stuff before today, so it is more a matter of continueing to do it as opposed to just starting it.

Happy News Year!!!!

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.