Santa's Garden Progress

Well here's my progress to date (and still learning to use the new camera at 6:00 am ;))

Santa's Garden-Gail Bussi

We arrived safely from Grand Falls at about 4 yesterday, then had the task of digging out my car (although I can't complain to much as our neighbor cleaned out most of our driveway while we were away) so I could get to the airport to see my brother off. What a foggy, wet drive, yuck! To make matters worse I'm not overly familiar with the new exit system to get to the airport so navigating that in the fog was not fun (although I could navigate my way to the mall blind folded and backwards)

Besides the numerous errors in the chart/model (why can't The Cross Stitcher put their errors in a file online??) I've really liked stitching Santa's Garden. I can't wait to have it up on my walls next year. Arriving home it was nice to see the Christmas cross stitches up, guess I didn't appreciate them as much when I was home before where I haven't been out travelling since retreat. It was also nice to be reminded what a large living room we do have (when my stitching stuff doesn't creep up there).

Today's my last day of work at CARIS and my first trip back to my gym since going on vacation. I think I'll be half dead by new years as I have 4 exercise classes in two days on the roster (so I can get my microfibre shirt and recharge after having so many tempting cookies and cakes around ;)).

Some Final Happy Dance's for 2005

Well, we've arrived safely in Grand Falls after waiting out the storm in Miramichi all boxing day. We took the long route which took us past our house to drop off some presents and avoid the crappy 'highway' that's a short cut (I wasn't up to moose, bad conditions, transports and no gas stations or anything for almost 2 hours). I really enjoyed being home an extra day with my family, it's been bittersweet knowing that next year Christmas will be different for me without my brother coming home. Where we're spending it is a bit up in the air although I think I'll follow my parents anywhere they go ;) It's just so rare that we're all home at the same time now a days. Matt's been considering adopting two of my 'grand nieces' although we're still looking up proper degu care and costs, they were sooo fun to play with and much funner than the fish he's been considering buying ;) Now to see if my brother's dumped them off at the store yet.

Back to stitching...I've been plugging away at Santa's Garden and hope to have it done before 2006 rolls around, I'm VERY disappointed with the model that was stitched and the lack of checking over the chart, one symbol isn't there although on the model it looks the same as the hat so I'm going with that and the three sided stitch is not stitched on the model as in the directions. Sigh... Now to check the site to see what's up.

Here are my two latest Happy Dances

Cindy Valentine's Sugar Plum

Mill Hill's Northern Lights Santa

It's Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve Greetings from the Miramichi! Yay, we've all arrived Safe and Sound, Patrick from Ottawa, Steven also from Fredericton on Thursday and Matt on Friday, and also dearest Marge (my PC). It's been odd having limited computer access as mom and dad's pc is having issues to the point it's unusable, odd for computer developer moi to be away so long.

We're gearing up for our big Christmas Eve Balderdash game and food fest, the potato skins just need to be coated, the jalapeno poppers are ready to go in the oven, cookies and squares galore and whatever is left of the caramel corn I made earlier in the day...proved too tempting for some ;) I think while the family is at church (we went to the 4 pm catholic mass as mom and dad's church doesn't have a minister and their only service is at 9, much to late for one anxious monkey) we'll do the rest of the breakfast prep and then I can further examine my Mirabilia Christmas Fairy Kit that arrived with Matt on Friday, it's going to be so hard not to start it before the holidays are over ;)

Alex was good at mass so he openned a gift from Tracy, Daryl and the girls which he is over the moon with, a Star Wars game for the tv. His expression when he saw it was priceless ("hey dad come here and check THIS out"), anyway, I wasn't the camera chick so here's the closest we have to his look ;)

This will be the last Christmas Eve wish from the Scott-Côté's...next year we'll be the new and improved Côté's ;)

Halfway Through The Work

Sheesh, this massive amount of kindergarten homework is seriously cutting into my stitching time! Oye! I do have a really good start though on both Gail Bussi's Santa's Garden, although I need to look up an error in the pattern and I also have a good start on my Mill Hill Northern Lights Santa. Last night mom and I had a chick flick night and watched The Skeleton Key and Must Love Dogs (really liked that one), which involved a whole lotta stitching ;) Although I had to frog out almost an entire row of Algerian Eyes due to some confusing numbers, should have been one strand instead of 2 but saw the 2 not realizing it was the Anchor conversion. Sigh...

Today has also seen some progress on NL Santa while Alex and I watched The Polar Express on a break after doing 5 pages of work this morning. Yay! This afternoon mom's heading south to pick up the boys and the degus so Alex and I'll be baking and plugging away at more work, sigh... Dad should be returning home tonight so Alex is hoping to get swimming, he swam the length of the shallow end on his own (minus his 'super' suit even).

Arrived Safe And Sound

Yay, we made it to the Miramichi safe and sound yesterday via the bus, we made really good time, so good that my parents hadn't arrived at the bus station when we unloaded. It was alot of fun juggling 3 suitcases, 2 carry on's, 1 cabbage patch kid, a 5 year old and a car seat! Didn't do that much stitching on the bus, I did separate out some threads though for a Mill Hill Santa though. We hadn't been here too long before we took Alex swimming, I was amazed that he can now swim the length of the shallow end.

Today we did some of the huge stack of homework that was sent home, and sigh...Alex's good concert clothes, including a pair of brand new khakis have gone completely awol :( What's worse is they were 'emergency only' clothes that he should never have been wearing in the first place >:( Oh well...I just hope the children's place gets some replacements in. To get an idea of just how much was sent home one booklet of the three has 30 pages, I'm sure they're really doing THAT much work in school this week.

After lunch we headed over to the Zellers here and I found one more set of indoor icicle lights for my house finally. Yay! Then I ran into my friend Darren's mom and found out he was finally flying in for Christmas (I don't think he's made it home for Christmas since graduating from NBCC 8 years ago) so that was kind of neat. I also headed to the gym here and finished off the Order of the Phoenix while running. Now to go do some laps at the pool :)

Gifts Delivered

Well the last of any gifts that I need to take care of went out the door in Alex's backpack this morning, a box of Sarah's Sweet Delights truffles for his teacher and two boxes of Pot of Gold Excellence chocolates, one for each teaching assistant. Mind you in all of the hussle and bussle I forgot to pack the bath ring for Jackson and the tape of Callie when I see Eleni at my going away lunch today. I'll probably make a quick trip up to the house to retrieve them over the 'coffee break'

I was really tired last night, Alex and I had a major freak out session after groceries (and not at each other). As we were heading to our car we looked both ways and crossed a good distance away from a car that had just loaded someone in (not in a spot) when they put it in reverse full blast never seeing us. I kept pushing Alex in a diagonal pattern but he was scared stiff. I was so upset I had the urge to kick the bumper and hard when it finally came to a stop, narrowly missing us. That incident pretty much put my head in a state of exhaustion for the rest of the evening.

We returned home and made some spaghetti which we ate in the living room so Alex could watch the Sponge Bob christmas special. After he went to bed I wrapped the gifts, had a power nap then watched Joey. I made some pretty good progress on Christmas Medley and it should be done by the time I leave Sunday.

Today's my big farewell lunch which I'm looking forward to, Boston Pizza was full but I'll take Keystone's anytime ;) Then at 3:30 we'll be having our staff party here so I'm pretty excited about that too. I'm hoping to convince Matt to make a trip out to see the Christmas lights tonight or tomorrow, I think that would be alot of fun :)

Stitchy Stuffy Night!

mmmmm.....cookies. Everyone brought their 'A' game to the exchange at last night's stitching night and now I'm stuffed. When I got home Matt and I sampled the Kris Kringle cookies, cookie dough truffles, two bite pecan pies and whipped shortbreads, yum girls! (oh and we taste tested the mini cheese cakes as I hadn't had a chance to before I brought them...just to make sure they were ok)

I had alot of fun last night, even if I didn't participate in the stitching exchange this year. I've just found everything hectic with school fundraisers, regular christmas stuff and planning a wedding to get in another ornament. I worked on the chain stitching for my Cindy Valentine ornament (now hopefully some new beading thread will appear in my mailbox tonight) and then went back to stitching on my Heart In Hand Christmas Medley :)

Tonight I don't have too much on the schedule. I need to pick up Alex's teacher's present and some light groceries to make some stuff up so Matt doesn't starve next week (like that would happen). I'll definitely be watching the Chrismukkah OC special tonight, I've gotten out of watching the show but those episodes are too funny! Only 3 more sleeps until the trip to the Miramichi :)

Productive Night

Well there wasn't as much stitching involved but I did do some chain stitching (who ever invented that stitch??) on my Cindy Valentine Sugar Plum ornament. From 6-8 I made supper, tidied up the kitchen, made up cute little recipe tags and packaged up my 12 half dozens of mini cherry cheesecake cookies.

After getting Alex to bed, I tidied up my stitching corner and got some of the laundry started, as well as started the task of cleaning out the fridge before I go away on Sunday. Fun stuff. At nine I settled into my 'den' and frigged around with the Chain stitch and was wondering where on earth I'd put my Heart in Hand Christmas Medley pattern while watching Bones. It was particularly good last night and I loved the whole Christmas storyline. I really haven't been able to go back to CSI after I started watching that show!

Yesterday was also the day that my 'going away' lunch was announced, I got alot of jabber messages of well wishes which was so sweet (probably the reason I got more choked up than usual watching the Christmasy Bones). Friday should be a blast, my going away lunch at Boston Pizza followed by a Christmas Party during office hours that I don't have to find a sitter for that afternoon, sweet.

Tonight's the big cookie exchange at stitching, I can't wait! I'm also looking forward to seeing what every one is up to. I'm proud of myself for getting all of my stuff ready to go on time! Sometimes things are a bit helter skelter and I'd almost expect it that way this close to the holidays (although this has me a bit scared)

Giving Notice

Well, that's what my day was about yesterday, all of the hullabaloo about writing a proper, unbridge burning, resignation later and getting up the nerve to hand it in. I'm not someone who can do things like that very easily and where my manager was out most of the afternoon I took it to HR, probably easier where I didn't know him as well and wouldn't get overly emotional, just choked up. What a whirlwind, bon voyage lunch this friday, yay :)

Last night I did all of my exchange baking during the commercial breaks on Corner Gas and Degrassi, another thing down. While the shows were on I cleaned up my little corner of the living room some as well. Things will be nice and tidy before I leave (and hopefully I'll return with everything in the right order). I just need to put cherries on the mini cheesecakes tonight and then I can sit back and stitch...well after making some gingerbread men for DS.

Speaking of Alex, he was wonderful in his concert yesterday! We're so proud. Matt had a hard time spotting him at first as his telltale red hair was covered in gold tinsel with a star sticking off the top! There was one little boy in his class that sang his little off key heart out, it was just sooo cute. Speak of the devil, his alarm just went off time to go :)

Yet Another Weekend Gone By!

I did have a 'finish' this weekend, sewed the button on this tonight ;)

Dry Turkey-Raise The Roof Designs

Besides that we actually had a very quiet weekend. Friday evening Alex and I made tags with my stamps and sizzix dies. Saturday only consisted of a trip to the mall to pick up our "The Côté's" ornament and mail Shannon and Logan's parcel off as I needed Matt to drive me, poor Betty was acting up which will require her to go see the garage sometime this week.

Today has also been pretty quiet. I slept in so I didn't make it to church, then made some spaghetti sauce and a cake, tidied up some of the stuff that had accumulated while I was sick and then we all hopped in the car to go see Narnia. I really liked it, and would so love to adopt the little girl who played Lucy, she was too cute for words! It's been almost 20 years since I read the book, all I remembered is that I really liked it. Hopefully after I do my baking tomorrow this week will be a little more productive stitching wise!

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week

Q :Have you done any charity stitching, been in one, or would like to organize one?

A: Yes I have done charity stitching, I stitched on a lovely bag that our "Friends That Count" group raffled off at last fall's retreat. I'm a hands on charity person and like to ensure that what work on actually makes it to public sale. I wouldn't be interested in organizing charity stitching, probably because I wouldn't like to nag people to get something done. Stitching is supposed to be relaxing not something that has big deadlines looming (that's what works for ;))

I Hate Being Sick!

Yay, day two home this week, sigh...I've been so achy that I haven't been able stitch either. I thought Tuesday's day of rest would have cured me but it didn't. Yesterday I mistook my uneasy feeling as anxiety over reports that a small plane had crashed, knowing my dad was out flying that day as my reason for not feeling too hot and headed to the gym, no sooner than after I went to wipe down the elliptical did the chills not return. I spent the afternoon at work with my 'work sweater' on with my big columbia wrapped around my legs popping advil. By 5:00 I felt great! At 7 I headed out to pick up Cathey's ornament at Sears engraving (and to order an engraved 'The Côté's" ornament for us) when the clerk I was dealing with was asked by another for directions to the Ramada, when he didn't know (they weren't an age group that would probably realize that the Ramada took over Howard Johnson's) I piped up that I knew, and the cashier asked me when I was done to give the lady directions. When I went over and started giving directions she asked where the nearest cab company would be to call, seeing as the function I was going to was two buildings over I offered to drive her after I picked up some Christmas gifts for Logan. Gee, it was only until she was following me out that I realized how fast I walk around when I shop ;)

The Ladies Night for Breast Cancer was awesome, they had a 20% off store discount, a masseuse, wine tasting, goodies from the Happy Baker/Chef (can't remember the name but they made an awesome bite size chocolate mousse tart with raspberry jam hidden inside), jewellry cleaning (my ring sparkles) and Healthy Chef was there too making thai and curried shrimp flambéed in Jack Daniels (yum yum yum). There was a fashion show by Lindor but where the youngest model was pushing 45 I didn't really feel like it was for me ;)

When I returned home my back started tingling, I thought it was from the massage but withing a couple minutes of hitting the sack I had severe chills again and was up half the night, sigh... Today I spent the day mostly in bed until the 'sick sweat' smell got to me and I ambled downstairs to through the sheets in the washer. Now I'm just mustering up some strength to go out and pick up Alex, sigh...of course it's a day where Matt's driving and gets in too late to pick him up himself. Oh well! Here's hoping everyone else is getting in a heck of alot more stitching time than me ;)

A Day of Rest

Yesterday was a day of rest for me, I wasn't feeling too hot (chilled in fact) so I took a rare sick day and got about 5 hours sleep. I didn't move too far from bed besides to drive Alex to school in the morning. Thankfully I had some stash in my room so before nodding off to sleep I got a good start on my exchange ornament for next week, and actually finished the stitching part that evening, now just to sew on about 12 beads and hemstitch. I also called in my order for a frame for SB's Merry Season so it may actually make it up on the walls before Christmas ;)

I did get 8 of my christmas cards done over the course of yesterday, that's about the one thing that I'm slightly behind on ;) While whipping up some supper for the boys I did manage to dip my marshmallow logs into caramel and roll them in pecans to account for some of my christmas baking ;)

Tonight I'm heading over to the Green Village for a Ladies Night for Breast Cancer research, I could really live in that store come christmas time. Hopefully before I go I'll have enough time to get my beads sewn on ;)

It's Monday Already?

Where on earth did the weekend go, the closer we get to Christmas the faster the days seem to fly by! Friday I arrived home with some pop, a bottle of red and a bottle of green, along with some icecream to make some floats for our tree decorating. While we were waiting for Matt to arrive home I twisted the ribbon to fall from the top of the tree and got all of the ornaments out and ready to hang. I even got the lights on the mini tree ;) So after supper we decorated both trees and watched Santa Claus is coming to town with our floats and the pringles Matt picked up the night before. Alex LOVED the special, especially where it was a show that answered some of his "why" questions ;)

Saturday I woke up before the boys and snuck out to a Body Pump class before my holiday decor class. The decor class was fun but the first project was VERY time consuming leading to the ink dyed ornaments kind of turning out crappy (they should have had more time to dry between coats), but I'm so happy with the rest of my projects we'll just forget about that ;) Alex LOVED his Christmas jeans and is actually wearing them now at school. After supper on Saturday we headed to the Christmas tree festival which was alot of fun, Alex was particularly taken with a tree that had all kinds of christmas related jokes on it. Saturday night I finally got to stitch again, only to get to the border of my band sampler to find that my Blue Spruce was AWOL after my floss ring came apart at retreat so I worked on my Cindy Valentine Sugar Plum's as we were watching The Grudge and there were too many suspense sections for me to concentrate on The Wedding.

Sunday morning Alex and I watched Strawberry Shortcake's Christmas ;) Faith Ann saved my project and I went for a walk to pick up some Blue Spruce, I had alot of fun checking out everyone's Christmas displays along the way. After lunch we FINALLY headed out to see Harry Potter, Alex went over to visit my grandmother and Matt and I finally got to see it (we've had NO luck finding sitters lately and not for lack of trying). Poor me LOST it at the end of the movie, I can just imagine how much worse I would have been had I not read the book. I think the fact that we're also an only son family at the moment makes me a bit more vulnerable to some of the touchie moments in the books/movies ;) We had a very nice dinner at my grandmother's after the movie and then headed home. I finished the band sampler while watching last week's LOST and headed to bed.

Tonight should be pretty low key, I woke up with all the inklings of a cold coming on (something I've been trying to ignore for the last couple of days but was worse this mornign), I probably would have taken a sick day today if I didn' t need to go to the framer's today, sigh... Oh well, that just means plenty of stitching time tonight ;)

Twenty One!

Nope, not the game, not the big birthday to celebrate being legal everywhere in North America, 21 lbs gone, yippee!

To Trim A Tree

Well that's our mission for tonight, the exterior lights are all lit (and on a handy dandy remote that I found at Zellers so I don't have to go out and manually plug them in and unplug them), the tree is up and lit and all ready to decorate!! I can't wait. We plan on getting some munchies out and trimming it while Santa Claus is Coming to Town is on tonight on CBS.

Yesterday was one of those crazy shopping days, I searched in vain to replace the interior icicle lights and I don't think they make them anymore, exterior ones are all over the place and the rest are all LED or swag lights...sigh... My last hopes, walmart or the dollar store ;) I did buy some star lights just in case I couldn't find some and I'll just move the icicle lights from the picture window to Alex's room. Oh and on my travels I found a light up house (6$) for what I hope will one day be a christmas village, my mom and grandmother have them and I just love them!

We also went out after Matt got home (he was supposed to pick us up on his way to dropping off one of the guys in the carpool but neglected to mention that he'd be getting off work early so we missed him) and headed out to the coop where he got some new Levi's and a pair of Columbia khakis (for under 30$). He usually scores some really good clothing deals there before christmas. Because we'd had a late night we got some subway and headed home.

Due to all of the decorating I didn't get a single stitch in yesterday :( It's a good thing I at least got another chapter and a half read on the Order of The Phoenix or it would have been a complete anti Katie time day!

Happy December

Gee...it feels like September weather outside, I'm predicting a very green christmas. Not that I'd let the weather dampen my spirits though ;) We had a really nice dinner with mom last night, I made my chicken kabobs and we polished off the Bailey's cake (warning very addictive) and then after playing with Alex and reading the new books Mom bought him and putting him to bed, we loaded mom's car with the gifts and dad's ladder and she bid us good night... only to return 5 minutes later as stupid me forgot to put the wreath in her car (I'd gotten a bit too concerned with the fact that Matt was handling the gifts).

After that I popped Celine's christmas CD into the DVD player and started bringing the boxes upstairs. One of my sets of indoor icicle lights has gone AWOL!!! I'll have to get that along with another extension cord this evening. Matt was mocking mortification when I came in to put up icicle lights in the computer room ;) This morning I moved the armchair into our room and made room for the tree which I'll be setting up tonight so we can decorate it Friday. I was so excited to read Faith Ann's blog and see that the christmas tree festival was back++, I've missed it for the last two years.

I did squeak in a row of smyrna cross stitches yesterday and hopefully a whole lot more tonight ;)

Scrappy Excitement

I'm so excited, I signed up for my first scrapbooking tools decor class at Compupro. I like the idea of being able to use my tools for stuff around the house as well. Here's a peek at what we'll be doing (I can't wait to make the stamped holiday jeans for Alex...now to find a non brand name pair that doesn't have trucks all over them at the superstore that I won't feel guilty about seasoning up ;))

A Nice Visit

I can't believe it's been so long since I got home, I've been a tad on the homesick side for over a month now, first it was soaring gas prices, then thanksgiving, halloween, retreat, bazarre...weekends really seem to be at a premium, so it was really nice when mom came over for a visit last night. While we were awaiting her arrival I made an Irish Cream Cake (omitting the nuts and quartering the glaze). It was sooo good, and now I also have some bailey's in the fridge to try out that commercial with the flaming marshmallow!! I love roasted marshmallows and I can only imagine how good it would taste to dunk a flaming one of those in a small glass of Baileys. Mom came with a new book for Alex, which almost made him miss the bus this morning as he was trying his darndest to read it. We had bought him a book at the book fair that between the site words he's learned in school and the occasional picture words in the book he can actually pretty much read on his own (proud mommy here!). Alex did read the story to mom, maybe to make up for his flying saucer almost connecting with her noggin ;)

Mom left shortly after Alex went to bed and I started the task of organizing the Christmas gifts that need to go home. The big gift for Alex went in the car last night but the rest are in two garbage bags and three shopping bags (stocking stuffers included and items that need to be set up before the big morning ;)). I don't know what I'm more excited for, the chance to go home or Christmas!! After doing all that and unloading the dishwasher to put another load in and tidy up the kitchen I stitched a band and a half on my sampler and headed to bed.

In other news I'm a great aunt...well not quite but as close as I'll get for awhile with my brother arriving home to find two new degus in the cage! Guess they weren't both male as the store keeper had said ;)

It's a Wrap!

Oh my goodness, I was on a wrapping spree last night. I wrapped ALL of Matt's gifts last night, made some executive decisions on things to be wrapped for Alex and what wouldn't be and left out for Santa's display, wrapped my grandmother's gift, Patrick's gift and a little something for someone else ;) I was so excited when I got to the door and there was the last parcel of gifts that I was waiting for! I think there are two DVD's to wrap and then it's just hap hazard wrapping of stocking stuffers. I also started organizing the stocking stuffers into individual bags. My closet is finally looking like a closet again!

In other news my basement is now as fresh as a flower again. Yay! Now to clean up the rest of the house and buy a storage tub at lunch today for all of Alex's outdoor stuff that he's outgrown. We went to bed early last night as I was pretty tired. I did finish the row I was working on on the band sampler and then it was lights out for me.

Tonight I'm seriously hoping to get the indoor lights put up before Matt gets home, one less thing to do and maybe cut out some tags with my sizzix machine. Then after Alex goes to bed it'll be stitching and watching Bones (and maybe wrapping those last DVD's). I can't believe I'll have my Christmas wrapping done before the first of December, yippee!

Wild and Wacky Weekend

Oh my, can I have another weekend to recover from this one?? I arrived home Friday to end up multitasking loading the baked goods into the Corolla and making supper so we could be out the door at 6:30 (oh this also involved scraping the car). We arrived at the school with all of the goodies and I was amazed at how many women knew my son's name, I'm hoping that it's just because with his red hair he's easy to pick out in the crowd and not that he's been in trouble ;) After dropping off all of our goods we headed to Sarah's Sweet Delights and tested wedding cakes. I couldn't convince Matt on the maple buttercream filling but I do like our choices, a kahlua fudge cake with plain buttercream for the open house and an irish cream cake with wildberry butter cream for the anniversary piece (although I don't think we'll be able to resist it for a year!)

Saturday I woke up at my normal work time for some odd reason so I went out and worked on the band sampler until Alex got up, then I snuggled with him for a bit and after that put out the remainder of the outdoor lights. I can't for the likes of me figure out how we hooked them up last year with only the two cords so right now I only have lights on the deck, the deer and spiral tree will have to wait until I can get to the store. I didn't get a chance to put up the interior lights yet in the windows, I think I'll do that tonight.

After all the lighting was up we woke up Matt and got ready for the bazarre. Alex had sooo much fun and won quite a few prizes, I picked up some more books at the book fair and I got a quick look around the craft, playdough, second treasures and bakesale tables and then it was time for me to work the basket table (each class does up a theme basket that are raffled off). I sold tickets to one of our CBC television personalities and they sold out on my shift so I got to mingle abit more.

Finally in the afternoon I got to steam our carpets downstairs and pulled the affected area of the one in the guest room up and javexed it down. That was fun. After that we bundled up and headed to the parade. Matt took alot longer to get up from his nap so we ended up in parade traffic :( We were heading over to my grandmother's (just past the parade route on main st) to park so we took the ring road, only to find a HUGE detour that took us way out to the Lake and all in back of the mall, and eventually to the nursing home. I was a bit panicked so we parked in the church parking lot instead and rushed to brookside drive. Of course all of this was in vain as we were still 15-20 minutes early ;) Alex LOVED the parade, he was dancing and singing and wishing every single person a merry christmas. After the parade we did stop by my grandmother's to drop off her wreath and visited for a bit.

Sunday we awoke to a beautiful dusting of snow, although that meant scraping the car before church. I can't believe it's advent already. There were two little boys being baptized during the service so it ran a bit later than usual. The Sunday school now joins us for communion and after the service I think Alex had more people come to shake his hand than the minister (his hair seems to attract alot of attention). I had planned on going to a class at the gym but was too tired and took a nap. For supper Matt took us out to celebrate my offer to the Diplomat, we hadn't been there in years!! It was so nice to go out for a fancy dinner :) After Alex went to bed I wrapped up some more gifts and then stitched during Desperate Housewives (I so loved the part where Brie pulled out the shotgun in her best dress ;)). Now back to the grind...

Totally Baked!

Well, no stitching to report for last night, just a tonne of baking completed. So, for tomorrow's bake sale I get to drop off tonight, 4 loaves of cinnamon swirl bread, 3 dozen pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, 2 dozen browned butter frosted brownies (aka butter finger bars), 2 dozen 'Worth Hoarding" Chocolate bars from the 2004 JCS and a dozen low fat chocolate cupcakes (1 box devil's food cake, 1 can diet coke and 2 egg whites), topped with marshmallow fluff (surprisingly low points value) and the awesome snowflake sprinkles Faith Ann gave me :) The house smelled sooo good last night, besides all of the cooking smells all of the Garden Creek Christmas wreaths arrived, it was soooo nice!

This morning the roads were a mess and I got stuck in a traffic line behind a ding bat going 30 under and slamming on their brakes every 3 minutes to check the roads. Do people not realize that just because they're doing it on some point of the road it doesn't mean the chain of traffic behind them can as they're all on different segments of road and ice, especially on hills... Here's my vote on mandatory driver retesting ;) It's not as if the city doesn't have a public transportation system, even if it's flawed for these rare occasions...sigh...

Tonight I'll be vegging with my stitching, that is of course AFTER I drop off the bake sale goods AND go wedding cake testing at 7 :) Tomorrow is super family day, with the bazarre at 11 and the parade at 5, then maybe some celebratory Boston Pizza as the minor flooding dampened (no pun intended) plans on Tuesday :) I'm also hoping to get the rest of the outdoor lights up today/tomorrow and start on the indoor ones. Our wreaths are up so the house is finally starting to look festive :)

A Visit With Santa 2005

Presenting Santa's Favorite Red Headed Elf ;)

Let The Insanity Continue!!

Last night, after picking up Alex's Santa picks and some of the sale items at the coop we headed home with our prize lobster rolls (the coop only has them during the membership appreciation sale) and some nice new Oshkosh pants for Alex's Christmas Concert (16$). After supper while Matt bathed Alex I vacuumed up another dish pan of water out of the carpet, now I'm just waiting for an available appointment from the steamer people! After Alex was in bed I made another two loaves of cinnamon bread dough, a batch of cupcakes which Matt begged and pleaded to have just one and a pan of my butter finger squares. Now tonight I just need to frost the squares and cupcakes, put the base for the other squares in the oven along with the loaves of cinnamon swirl bread and maybe make a batch or two of cookies (it's amazing how much more you can whip up with a little prep, a kitchenaid, breadmaker and a dishwasher ;))

In stitchy news I finished one row of the band sampler. I'm really looking forward to some stitchy time this weekend now that all of the christmas shopping is done. Although I'm going to have to start going to body pump on weekends instead of on Wednesday's at lunch. The normal instructor is on leave and the two backup instructor's that were lined up have injuries or christmas commitments, sigh...

Stitching Blogger's Question of the Week

Q : Do you always sign your projects? If not, why? If so, do you use your first name, initials or what?

A : Nope, can't say I do. Although occasionally I do put my name on the back of the frame. To begin with I never did find a small letter font that I liked that went with any of the patterns I did so in the beginning that's why I never signed my projects. Later, I discovered the secret pleasure of having our work on display and hearing people's honest comments about it and then getting to say "you know, I stitched that". At retreat I try to put my items out when no one is looking so I can get some honest feedback and I really enjoy going to the FREX and hearing strangers talk about my work, I'd rather enjoy the feedback now when I'm alive than tap into the heirloom stuff, but that's just me ;)

The Lord Giveth, the Lord Taketh Away...

Yesterday it poured in Fredericton, I drove through water that I didn't realize was so deep that it was really dangerous and that the road should have been closed...I didn't even think about what I might come home to, maybe I was just too excited/nervous about the job offer with the province. Alex went down to play on his computer and I noticed a little water around our overflow vent, sigh, so I started vacuuming. This lead itself to Matt coming home late as he was looking for celebratory flowers and arriving to a hysterical me as the water just started gushing and all I could think of was saving the christmas gifts (which are all high and dry) and the books that I hadn't gotten around to putting on the headboard of one of the beds as it is still in need of paint but trying invane to keep up with the water flow with a mini shop vac! Thankfully Matt was cool, calm and collected about this and grabbed some dustpans and some garbage cans and actually scooped up the water! Our basement hall carpet wasn't finished so I rolled that up as quickly as possible so now we just need to have guest room one steamed and my craft closet, sigh...

I was so sore last night and feeling pretty gross from the gym and water control workout and I didn't dare shower until 10 when the water level in the overflow drain had gone down about a foot. It was a good thing Bones was up to its awesome antics ('you're a professor, shouldn't you be using your mutant powers or something?' Agent Booth's response to Dr Brennan asking for a gun permit) so that took my mind off the basement for a bit. I even got half of one of the more labour intensive rows done in my band sampler to try to keep up with my one band a night goal.

Today is parent teacher so I hope Alex has improved some since we started working with him. Then tonight I'll be baking (which I'd hoped to do last night) and then stitching through Smallville and taping Lost. Now to get in queue to have my carpet steamed by the pros!

Omigosh!

Well, a long time ago I had meeting...and to make a long story short...they've now offered me a position!! I'm so excited/nervous it isn't even funny. Next year is going to be such a huge change between the wedding and now the job. Who says life is dull?? ;)

Giggles Happy Dance

Yay, a Giggles happy dance...now if I only had a digital camera, the pic will have to wait on my roll of film getting close to completion (plus my anal retentive self would like to do a small fix to the 'w').

Last night was fairly peaceful. When we arrived home Matt had left for the after hours clinic so Alex and I did his homework and then I made a double batch of bread dough and the base for some squares for the bakesale Saturday and threw those in the freezer. Alex was very excited that we were having the maple pork for supper to which I had a mini 'yay, he gets excited over real food finally' moment.

Matt returned home just before Alex's bedtime, with a good chunk of dad's Clive Cussler book read from the long wait at the clinic. After Alex was tucked in and I showered I sat down with Matt and Giggles and caught last week's Lost. I was finding it really annoying as the transition between days felt like a deleted scenes reel on a DVD but the end was pretty intense. I can't wait until Wednesday, Lost should be awesome and there is supposed to be a 'smack down' in the fortress of solitude between Clark and Spike 'er Brainiac/Prof Fine on Smallville.

Nothing too much on the schedule for tonight, I've gotta do some more prep work for the baking challenge at school and then Bones is on at 9. I'm going to sort through my current project box and rid it of any floss colours that are not needed in The Wedding and then it's back to stitching that project ;) Oh if only I could clone myself and send the clone to work, that or win the lotto :)

On The Verge

Oh it's so hard to come in to work when I'm *this* close to a stitching happy dance! If I only could have stayed up an additional hour last night Giggles would be complete now! Beading is done and now it's just doing back stitching around the letters "S" and "N" and backstitching a couple tufts of snow and his pompom. Thankfully the beading is all done and I didn't run out of Kreinik as I thought I would.

A Weekend In Review

Sigh...where do the weekends go? We had a fairly busy weekend++

After work on Friday we came home and got Matt and went to Sarah's Sweet Delights to set down the ground work for our cake, next week we go for the taste testing to see what flavors we're putting on our anniversary layer and what's going on the gift openning layer (the lord beaverbrook has dessert included in the meal price so we're only serving the cake the next day). After we wrapped up there (and trying one of her delicious eggnog white chocolate truffles) we headed up to the Fredericton Mall to attempt to Wake Up Santa. Alex LOVED the magician's show (thanks Faith Ann for letting us know about it), although by the end of the night I think our eardrums were going to shatter from all the little kiddies eeks and shreeks at the magician. It was so cute listening to them singing christmas carols to try to wake up santa (he was REALLY in bed). Instead of waiting in the insane line we went and had supper and then came back for Alex's trip to Santa which consisted of "Hi, I'm Alex and I love Star Wars", only waiting about 5 minutes.

Saturday morning I took Alex to the kids crafts session at Kents where he painted a christmas decoration. Then we headed over to Green Village to check out the christmas decorations (I could so move in there), went to see my grandmother who wasn't home (while we were on that side of the river) and then headed into the dollarstore which had the folders that Karoline had at stitching night, they're too neat!! A duotang with 10 plastic page protectors that you can slide your current project in and out of (much more helpful when working on an SB). When we returned home I worked on Giggles and then took a much deserved nap. That evening we went to Williams for some fish and chips and then I worked some more on Giggles' beading. Oh...and I made three batches of playdough for Alex's school's Christmas Bazarre!

Today was also quite busy. At 12 I headed to Zellers to take advantage of the 10% off coupon Faith Ann had dropped of (thanks again) Friday and I'm now FINISHED my Christmas shopping (including stocking stuffers). YAY!!!!! When I got home and hid the stuff I then cleaned out the coat closet and sorted hats and mittens into some nice new canvas baskets I'd picked up while christmas shopping. Then I went out and put up the new hooks for my christmas lights and put the lights up on one side of the front deck (hoping Matt won't notice if I do them gradually). Now it's off to making supper and hoping I can finish off Giggles tonight, lots of tv involved so it's definitley doable :)

Did I Celebrate 19lbs?

I know I've been down that much for a couple weeks but didn't want to make an official post until AFTER retreat, seeing as I wouldn't have much control over my meals for 4 days ;) But after my Newbody class today it was official!! I'm so close to being in another tenth place number :) It was kind of fun being at retreat 25lbs lighter than the last one (I'd lost the other 6 between last april-july).

Stealth Mode

Yeah, my car now runs in stealth mode ;) Yeah, I know it was loud when I took it in (or I wouldn't have taken it in ;)) but now it's quieter than when it arrived in Fredericton in the first place! I don't know what else they did to Betty (I name my vehicles) but she's also alot more responsive so I really need to start watching my spedometer. I remember many moons ago when Betty first joined the family in 96 that this was a 'problem' however in the last couple of years it hasn't been....now if only someone could turn back the clock that effectively on me for 200 bucks ;) Now whenever I pick people up they won't hear me coming...

Last night Alex and I went to look at fabric for the bridesmaid dresses for Lisa's wedding which was fun. We picked up some candycane ice cream on the way home along with some pizza toppings. After Alex went to bed and I showered and made my Silkweaver's order for a piece of Golden Harvest linen for my Ottawa Sampler, I plunked my butt down to bead and watched Joey, my taped episode of House and CSI for the first time all season (curls into ball and goes into Night Stalker withdrawl). Beading is coming along quite nicely on Giggles and I'm hoping to finish him up by mid-day tomorrow.

Today or tomorrow I'm hoping to finalize the wedding cake and then put out the exterior christmas lights. There's just so much to do ;) I think the boys will be tenting downstairs tonight which will be fun for Alex. Oh is it 5 yet???

Welcome Logan!

Yay, Shannon's had her not so little (9 lbs 1 oz) boy last evening. I was sooo excited to see the pictures of him this morning. It amazes me how technology can make it feel like my friends in Ottawa are just next door!

Stitchy night was great! There was lots of oooh'ing and aaaah'ing over Faith Ann's new framed pieces, they both look so pretty. I needed it last night too, after grocery shopping and fretting over the fact that the car was going in the shop (she didn't sound too good) in the morning it was nice to sit back and stitch to the point of beading. I did get a little distracted and checked out the Usborne catalogue that Faye had brought in and of course ordered some really nice books for Alex for Christmas. We also got into a discussion about the new provincial nutrition policy which is going into effect, which has crossed a line in my opinion and of course Alex's school made the CBC about it. I'm not so sure anymore that Alex's pumpkin chocolate chip muffin came home the other week because he didn't have time (1/4 cups of chocolate chips in the entire batter isn't going to completely negate the cup of pumpkin, half cup of carrots, 1/2 cup of wheat germ, honey instead of sugar, low fat eggs instead of egg and applesauce instead of oil, sheesh) and kind of makes me angry considering I had to hear from an ashamed child that he had been sent to the office twice and only then did I find out he needed help with his fine motor skills. It was the one and only time I ever sent a baked good to school and I firmly believe it to be better for him than his low sodium/low fat ham on whole wheat sandwich. sigh... Anyway off of my soap box...

Today's trip to the garage wasn't as expensive as I was thinking, phew... Just the water pump and AC pump going and seeing as I haven't used the AC since 2001 due to a leak (it is a '94) they bypassed it for me, I'm soo anxious to hear it purr again. Now for a nice walk over to the northside of the city after work to pick her up.

Eleni and Jackson were in today and I finally got to Williams (hence the need for walking to pick up the car). My land he's grown and looks like the picture of health! I got to give her the Alfred Angelo brochure with the bridesmaid gowns in it, another wedding thing done ;)

Tonight I'm not sure what I'll be up to, I'd like to stitch and do the beading but with things being so crazy I may do something with Matt if he's not busy. Now that my Nightstalker has been cancelled I have some tvless time to either compute or read my HP book :)

It's Stitchy Night

Yay, just what I need, some retreat debriefing, I'm really looking forward to a stitchy night with the girls! ;) Last night after making some pumpkin muffins, making two batches of marinade (one for tonights chicken kabobs and another to put in the freezer), doing a load of laundry, homework, bathing Alex and finishing up a warlock quest, I finally got to plunk my butt down and stitch while watching Bones. Oh how I love Angel...I mean David Boreanaz ;) I really like the show's dialog, it's got the same kind of witty/pop culture references/dead panning/sarcasm that I adored in Buffy and Angel, mix that with an anthropological/scientific concept and I'm hooked. Considering how engrossed I was in the show I did get quite a bit done, I should be beading about an hour into tonights stitching session :)

Last night I lugged the remainder of the christmas gifts in while the boys were too busy to notice (besides the parcel I'm awaiting from amazon which has Alex's Laugh With Chirp book and one of my brother's presents, oh and a little something for Matt). I'm actually really excited about the Matt component of that parcel, without going into detail as goodness knows when he reads this it's come highly recommended and I managed to get it for 10$ off the regular price. Now to continue wrapping. I also developed a stitching strategy for a band sampler that I'd like done for christmas which has me pretty excited without slowing down my Wedding progress too much ;)

Can Retreat Actually Be Over??

Oh we had a wonderful weekend at retreat!! We started with a shopping trip in Moncton where I found some presents for Alex at Old Navy and the Disney store (6.99 adult and children's shirts yippee). Our first stop however was at Barbara Ann's Cottage, it was sad to see it so empty. Then we headed to BYC and picked up more stash, I picked up some new fabric, the latest Lizzie Kate santa(*2) and tiny tidings, some NN perle cotton, mill hill beads and my candle wrap pattern. :) We were disappointed to see Atlantic Fabrics had gone out of business, good thing I got my membership money's worth out of my Sizzix purchase. Michael's was sooo pretty with all of it's Christmas decor, I really hope the rumor is true and that there's one coming to town this spring. After all this, and a stop at the Roots outlet store we headed to Montana's and I had the best apple butter bbq rib tips ever!! It was fun to meet up with Lisa and Dawn her other bridesmaid. We then lugged all of our purchases to Cathey's grandmother's who graciously took us in for the evening. I never thought I'd be the first one to sleep at half past ten, but of course we did some power shopping.

Friday morning I was up at 6:30 and read in the dining room until Cathey got up around 7:30 or so. We did make it to Wildwood by 10 to 10 so we were doing pretty good. It was great to see everyone again although we were by ourselves (fredericton group wise) until about noon. For supper we headed to Pizza Delight (friday 's supper was only available to those that had paid for thursday night too) and Lucy, Angela and I shared an amazing Santa Fe chicken skillet pizza on a garlic sesame crust, yum. When we returned to camp I finished up Dry Turkey and assembled my Joy Needleroll.

Saturday was a relaxed day, we checked out the local craft fair and I got two cute tole painted ornaments at a steal. We also headed to Frenchy's where I found Alex a Children's Place shirt and a pair of Calvin Klein jeans for 4 $ total ;) We also stopped at the dollar store where I found Alex a whoopie cushion for his stocking. Saturday I was good and got the imprint of the angel done for Giggles between then and time to leave on Sunday.

Saturday night we got a bit foolish ;) During snack we decided to see if the whoopie cushion worked so I snuck down to our circle and placed it under Tracy's cushion as she had a nice hard chair for it to sound off against. When she sat down during door prizes the expression on her face was priceless but we couldn't hear it. Apparently it had made a little "wvooot" sound and she was looking around to see where it came from, when she brought it back over we were laughing so hard we were in tears and just then Lucy's name was called so we put it on her chair and she was laughing so hard she plopped down on it and it let out a big one. I then lent it to the quebec group while we were checking out an inflatible duck on a toilet that Cathey and I were accused of putting there. Gee just because we got out a whoopie cushion and had our top 5 things to do at retreat shirts on doesn't mean we were up to that nonsense ;) When we returned from our duck hunt the cushion was on my seat so I picked it up and noticed Cathey talking about the duck as we got settled back in so I made a split second toss which landed perfectly on her seat. I haven't laughed that hard in ages :)

Sunday it was sad to see people packing up (oh and I bought more stuff at the BYC mini store, bad me, but the little Zweigart elves were there from the back of this years JCS) but I still stitched away. I was so happy to receive Tracy's ornament in the exchange. We packed up after lunch and headed home. We got stuck behind a fire truck who wouldn't let anyone pass for half an hour, when we finally got to the accident I would say a moose had been involved as the car was totalled and the roof crushed :( Alex was very excited to see me arrive home and that just topped off the perfect weekend !!

My Bags Are Packed...

I'm ready to go. I'll be waiting here outside my door...I can't wait for Cathey to pick me up (ok, I can't sing or ad lib songs). I'm so excited for retreat it isn't even funny, I REALLY need a couple days away without the *poof* 'what do you want?', sometimes I really feel like the genie in Aladdin. What's worse is Matt has been on his air exchanger rants, to top off wanting to move the wedding as three guests *might* be invited to another wedding the same weekend as ours. Good grief. I get really frustrated as his sinus problems are stemming from something that needs to be fixed medically (and free in Canada) but would rather shell out money to help it. I'll be soo glad to veg in Moncton tonight!!

Last night I got all of my stuff together for retreat and it's sitting in the kitchen. I almost forgot my light but I'm sure Cathey would have reminded me. It was so hard trying to decide what to pack for projects, you hate to lug too much stuff but it's nice to have a back up project should you need to frog as that's not what retreat is about ;) I packed up my new jammie pants which I'm sooo excited about (comfortably wearing a size smaller rocks). Also yesterday I did my weigh in and I'm officially down 19lbs since the engagement but 25 since the last retreat so I packed some of my nicer clothes for a 'look at me now' moment. I'd still like to take off at least another 15 but I'm much happier at this weight, I have my face back!!

Yippee in three hours we'll be hitting the road!!!!!!!

One More Sleep Til Retreat

I don't think I've ever needed retreat more!! Between wedding date craziness, poor Alex getting sent for quiet time at school and trying to remember my french it's been one crazy month already. I definitely need the stitching break before the holiday season!!

Last night while waiting for the minister to arrive (which the church office failed to notify us that he'd had surgery) I actually ornamentified while watching Bones. It was my first attempt at gluing an ornament and I must say I was very pleased! I also put a hanger on my retreat exchange ornament and put them both in the tote.

Tonight I'm heading out for groceries, making the filling for a tortiere for the boys while I'm away and then packing, lots of fun that's all going to be!! Oh well, just one more sleep...

A Little Bit of Everything Looks Like A Whole Lotta Nothing

Last night I had great intentions of finishing Dry Turkey, not so. Matt did finish the vacuuming which meant I did get the kitchen and bathroom floor scrubbed and I did get the mirrors cleaned in the bathroom and did another load of laundry so I was all set to stitch after tucking Alex in. He had a time out handed out by Matt just before bed so I hopped in bed to give him a little tlc and to say our prayers together. After our standard Now I Lay me Prayer I did my own little one to thank God for Alex and when I was done Alex bursted into tears and said he'd been to the principal's office that day and on Halloween. The poor little guy was soo ashamed. So I stayed in his room alot later than expected explaining that he needs to learn to control his mouth just like he needed to learn control for potty training, that tomorrow is a new day and that it was very good that he was honest about it and that we still loved him very much. I calmed him down and stayed in bed until he was sound asleep.

I didn't feel like stitching much after that so I emptied out the tote for retreat and started packing. I logged into the computer for a little bit and then headed to bed, reading half a chapter out of the Order of the Phoenix and then turning out the light. Alex seemed in much better spirits this morning and I kept reminding him that today was a new day and after a whole lotta hugs he was ready to go to school. I was going to meet up with a friend for lunch today but she had to cancel and where I don't have my book on me I don't feel like running on the elliptical so I think I'll go home and do some serious retreat packing. I can't believe its only two more sleeps away!!

A Shoppy Weekend

Wow, I never thought I'd see that title. Years ago when we were poor and living in an apartment I seemed to do a heck of alot more shopping ;) This Saturday was the annual 20% off sale at the mall so I dropped in for a peek after taking the bottles in, visiting with one of the nicest wedding cake vendors around, picking up my frame and stopping by market. By the end of my little excursion Alex had two new pairs of Jeans from the Children's Place, I'd bought a Christmas gift for friend Shannon (from my brief Acadia stay) and her bundle of joy they're expecting any day now, a cute little christmas themed Christmas object to go with my brother's gift and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles playset which walmart had for 39.99 instead of the 59.99-69.99 Sears wanted for it. Yippee!

Sunday I worked more on the Dry Turkey by Raise The Roof that I thought I'd finish (but more shopping ensued), tonight though... We took Alex to Chicken Little and then I picked up my pants that I was kicking myself for not buying when they were 20% off at laSenza and got to show Matt what I wanted for Christmas in there (and YAY, I'm down a size in there). I definitely needed new pj pants for retreat, my pink ones keep falling off or are hanging way too low for public viewing ;) Matt took us to A&W for supper, which I just don't crave anymore so it was no biggie.

When we got home we started tidying up, which lead to an incident with the vacuum. Matt usually cleans an area then vacuums it, well Saturday he tidied the living room so I assumed that would be his first area of attack when he started the machine up...fast forward to Sunday where the machine still hasn't been going and Alex needs a bath. I got Matt to vacuum the hair and fuzzies in the bathroom before splashing kid was inserted and for some reason instead of heading to the logical area, being the living room, he headed to the hall. Not too long later I could hear a very ticked off Matt from the basement. Apparently he'd stuck the head of the vacuum into our room before it was tidied and he'd managed to catch the end of a spool of perle cotton and overheated the motor! I felt only slightly to blame as he knows he should tidy up before actually running the vacuum into a room (especially with Alex now playing with action figures and their itty bitty parts) but I bit my tongue and kept on tidying up. ;) He eventually turned back to a nice shade of human.

Tonight I need to ornamentify (which I'd planned on doing this weekend before shopping ensued), finish Dry Turkey and get packing for retreat. I can't believe it's only 3 more sleeps away!!! :)

2005 Dragon Dreams Christmyth Happy Dance

Well, here's my Satyr finally although the scan sucks...I so need a digital camera!! This makes his poor eyes look huge! But I'm happy dancing none the less...not only for that but the 4% raise I received today to...just in time for retreat shopping!!

Back to School

Today I got to go to school twice, once as the bus must have broken down as it drove up the road, turned into the subdivision and disappeared for 25+ minutes, how much longer I don't know as I put Alex in the car and drove him to school as I was late for work. Then I got to return to the school at 9 to read to Alex's class :) I almost burst into tears as he lead me to the rocking chair, he looked too proud. We read The Spooky Old Tree (which is my old book) and What Makes a Rainbow, Alex's other favorite book. The girls in his class REALLY like the WMaR book as it has ribbons that pull through with each colour and eventually makes a rainbow.

Last night I did get some stitching in, although I went to bed fairly early (I can't seem to stay up to 10 with this time change). I finished the cross stitching on my DD Satyr, now to backstitch it when I get home. Cathey's convinced me to stitch Raise The Roof's Dry Turkey so I guess I'll be bad and not work on the wedding ALL weekend. I also need to do some ornamentifying before reatreat. This time next week I'll be counting down the minutes until we head for Moncton/Bouctouche!! Yippee!!

I've been sorted

be sorted @ nimbo.net

Finally, A Stitching Night!!

Well, finally after a little break I got some stitching in, though it was not nearly as productive as it could have been (ie: half the colours had decided to go into hiding) but I did get the 2005 Christmyth Satyr started while watching Smallville and Supernatural. Yay that means one less hour (Smallville was an original broadcast) of taped shows that I'm behind on :) I even managed to get a chapter of The Order of the Phoenix read last night yay!!

It was so nice going grocery shopping kid free last night, I was in and out of there in a flash and home and unloaded the car before Matt arrived home with Alex. I'm hoping to get to do that more often!! Mind you the one thing I didn't think about was swapping out the booster seat where I don't have to drop Alex off at Tracy's in the morning, I'll now have to make a detour on my morning trip to work to drop it off.

I was so ticked off shortly after supper when I listened to the messages on the phone, 1 friggin days notice for Home and School, I plan on speaking with the principle today or tomorrow about this. It's not as if they didn't know the last meeting time at the last meeting >:( Matt doesn't get home until the time the meeting starts normally on thursday and one day doesn't give nearly enough time to juggle his driving schedule, and I'm sure I'm not the only parent in this boat (or one similar). Pretty much all evening appointments for optometrists and dentists are also on Thursday so if people knew in advance not to book said date instead of being forced to choose between being involved in the school or facing another month or two long wait for an appointment, grrr...

This morning I got up a bit earlier than my alarm thanks to Matt turning on the light to find his keys so I made some pumpkin spice muffins for lunch. This particular recipe has alot of amazingly healthy items hidden in it (wheat germ, carrot) and today I tried sub-ing out the butter for applesauce and not a single difference in taste or texture (and they were already from the healthy cookbook, making them even better is a bonus). I just didn't feel like maple pork for lunch, which is odd because Alex ate most of mine. He even asked for my pork over his french fries, wow! I don't know if it's school or what but he now says 'trying new things is good', now that doesn't extend to the vegetable world but he's definitely now interested in lean cuts of meat, yay!!

Presenting My Trick or Treater! :)

Onto The Order Of the Phoenix!

Yay, I finally finished The Goblet of Fire last night!! Finding time to do my own reading has been so much harder since we had Alex that's for sure! I passed up my Tuesday night shows, headed straight for my jammies and tucked myself into my health sheets and started reading. Of course having my 40 minutes on the elliptical end with a character dying didn't spur this on or anything ;)

I was zonked when I got home, we got stuck in a huge traffic jam (which Matt had heard about but didn't bother to talk about as it didn't effect his schedule, I would have taken the Mazzerole Settlement detour) and came home to homework, blah! I really didn't feel like cooking but managed to pull together a very easy recipe for chicken parmesan off of the Kraft site while helping Alex with printing. This recipe essentially bakes the chicken in a can of primo tomato sauce with a couple tablespoons of parmesan stirred in, and later lightly topping the chicken with some mozzerella. Because there's a tonne of sauce I usually cook spaghetti noodles and serve the chicken and sauce on top and just serve it spaghetti style to Alex. Well...last night he took me up on the offer to try my chicken and lets just say I had about half my chicken breast! Tonight has maple port on the menu, I can't wait!

No stitching to report from last night, I was busy reading. I may try to stitch up Jennifer's latest Christmyth tonight to add to the collection. I'm actually semi looking forward to doing groceries after work too, A) to avoid the 5 pm traffic with construction and B) I've asked Matt where Wednesday is his work at home day to pick up Alex from daycare for a couple of weeks so I don't have to bring him grocery shopping, yay!

Happy Haunting

Wow....it's finally over! I'm one tired momma this morning that's for sure. We started off the night at about 5:30, Alex was a bit too excited and was running and not being very careful, which lead to me barking and I HATE doing that. After about 8 houses I heard a big crash, when the door was openning the kids shuffled and Alex fell between a small open section between someone's deck and house. He ended up with only a scratch and was ok, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as he slowed down and was alot more aware of his surroundings after that. Trick or treating went much smoother after that.

At about 7 we parted ways with Tracy and her girls and Laura and her daughter and headed for a quick detour to Faith Ann's. I parked down on the road so Alex could get some real use out of his flashlight instead of randomly pointing it at objects. We were about 10 steps away from the door when he said "Mommy, this is one of your cross stitching friends isn't it" (ie: mommy, I know you want to talk stitching but keep it short as it's my trick or treating night). We'd brought treats for her little guy as Matt was late getting home and missed them on their trick or treating run. Alex was over the moon about his Zwak punch, and asked for it for breakfast this morning (good thing I'd put it in the fridge last night). On our way back to the car Alex made a b-line for the playhouse which he thought was a halloween haunted house ;)

We finally got home and Matt had been creative with our jack's, putting the two smaller ones around the walkway. He'd arrived home late so he'd missed the kids, I never thought I'd see the day when I received less kids than my parents who were up 700% at 7 kids! We put our cauldron of candy out beside our witch and headed out to do part of our street. We even got to meet the new people on the block who are our age, yay! Alex got to pick one candy before bed, brushed his teeth and passed out and I wasn't too far behind him, briefly reading some Potter before drifting away to sleep (darn time change). Poor Matt wanted to watch a spooky movie but I was beat and tired...this weekend perhaps.

Good bye Daylight Savings Time

Well, having an extra hour to sleep is always good, and we needed it Saturday night as Alex needed to sleep in our bed after 4, he's just so wiggly and I'm not one to share my pillow!

We had a very nice weekend and productive. I raked a portion of the yard Saturday while Matt resealed some shingles and trimmed the tree that was rubbing against the house when windy. The boys went to get their hair cut and I went on a fruitless boot hunt but did find Alex some Christmas jammies ;) Saturday night I went to bed at 10 after getting mad for stitching in the wrong colour, after picking up what I thought was the rest of the white thread but when I put it under my mock ott-lite it wasn't the same, probably one of the shaders.

Due to our unexpected bedroom guest we didn't make it to church this morning but did attend the area's neighborhood watch halloween party. Alex had a great time roasting weenies, playing games, chasing the other power ranger and facing off against the three darth vaders. He even came in second place in the guess the weight of the pumpkin contest and won himself a cheeseburger and fries from mcdonalds. We also carved pumpkins today, we had so much fun carving our big one that we carved our two decorative pumpkins too! I have a tonne of seeds to roast when I find my recipe!! I also made some really good low fat/low cal pumpkin muffins out of Crazy Plates, much moister than my weight watchers recipe for them and for about the same points. I've done some frogging and stitching tonight as well as set up for the trick or treaters as I won't be getting home first tomorrow night. Now off to bed...

TGIF!

I'm so looking forward to the weekend. I'm hoping to get some stitching in on The Wedding and hopefully either finish off HP & and the goblet of fire or be pretty close, although we'll have to take a break in there somewhere to carve the pumpkin ;)

Last night was relatively quiet, with the exception on a new cousin (second or third, I forget how that goes) for Alex and a note from school informing us about performances and that the money was due yesterday, sheesh. It also involved getting groceries (my least favorite chore) and getting to bed early. ;) Oh and I did wrap 3 christmas gifts!! Another one of Matt's gifts arrived in the mail yesterday (thankfully on a day where he doesn't get to the mail first ;)) so now he's pretty much shopped for, dad's done and so is my brother Steven, plus most of Alex's toy related gifts are bought too! I love being almost done early!

Rita Skeeter Returns!

I have now renamed 'crazy bus stop mom' to Rita Skeeter, when she showed up at the bus stop (to drop off mittens for her son) today my stomach did a flip flop. Why Rita Skeeter, well for anyone who's read at least the 4th Harry Potter book they'd know that (unless there's some epiphany at the end of the book that I still haven't gotten to, hopefully today on the elliptical...) she's someone who takes and ounce of the truth and twists it into a tonne of tabloid news. So today instead of having our little mother son talk at the bus about our days I kept the conversation on quick little facts about our surroundings, I think Alex may have sensed this as it was the first time he's ever shouted back 'have a great weekend mom!' Why weekend I don't know but it sure made me smile. :)

Last night was a stitchy night, supper was a breeze as it was the one day a week to delve into the B-grade pizza box that showed up last week, yum! Then I headed over to Faith Ann's to pick up my ultra cool pumpkin cottage and I finally got to see the house which is so nice, I loved the colours. I'm soo going to paint some of mine after this wedding!!

I did get some stitching in last night after Alex went to bed, story time ran into the beginning of Smallville so we read the last couple pages in the living room. Alex wanted to watch too as he's pretty obsessed with superheros but thankfully as soon as he said that it was a commercial break so he was scooted to bed. I then parked my tooshie on the loveseat and stitched away at the weddding. I think this is going to be the first pattern I make a working copy of to mark up! I dropped by the computer room on my way to bed and logged my character in to pick up her Robes of Arcana and headed to bed.

I'm really not looking forward to grocery shopping tonight, not one little bit! Thankfully I don't need that much as with the trip to gram's for supper friday and the bgrade last night I have two meals to carry forward to this week, yay! Less planning!

Not much notice

Why do I sometimes feel that all the people that make home and school decisions are stay at home moms?? I guess my number one reason would be the lack of notice they give anyone but their inner circle, sigh. Case in point, bizarre organization, a whopping 2 days notice, some of us do exist that actually plan our weeks well in advance to juggle housework/kids/work/evening appointments so as not to take time off of work, thankfully I'm not a working mom with shift work either, 2 days just isn't enough and frankly inexcusible when you can post said information on the schools website. They want their wreath campaign to be successful, well how is is going to be when I just received it at 5 yesterday and have to have it in Thursday when Alex goes to school? It's too bad as I probably could have sold quite a few at work where the prices are pretty good in my opinion, I think I paid15-20 the last time I bought a wreath and this time I'm getting a the big puppy as well as a swag for the side door for the same price, much better ;)

Last night wasn't as stitchiy a night as I was hoping, however I did get lots of quality little boy time so that made it all worth while (and I even won for once at Candyland!!). Tonight there will definitely be some stitching going on as Smallville's on and I might as well start getting caught up on my taped shows ;)

15 more sleeps until we leave for retreat!

Another Movie Night!

Well maybe we weren't out on the town last night but when I arrived home Matt suggested we go for a walk to the Esso and grab a movie for later, knowing that Batman Begins came out last week...So while the roast continued cooking away in the slow cookier we headed over and there were a couple widescreen copies left, yippee!! My poor legs, after a brutal step class walking to the store wasn't as carefree as usual, they felt like lead!! After supper and convincing Alex that roast beef may look stringy when it's tender but really tastes good we made some pumpkin chocolate chip 3 pt muffins and he headed to the tub. He and Matt were reading a story by the time I got my shower and it was off to bed for him. We then settled in to watch Batman but due to the darkness of Gotham my stitching got cut short really quick ;) Oh well, a stitching break here and there never hurt anyone ;)

Today doesn't have anything on the agenda, I may skip the gym as I'm getting a cold and just read Harry Potter as I really need to finish it up before the movie comes out. Tonight I'm hoping to get caught up on at least one taped show before bed which may even be possible before Alex heads to bed where supper is late on evenings Matt's driving ;) Then it'll be trying to finish another chapter of Harry, stitching on the wedding and heading back to bed. ;)

FOUND!!

Yay, Alex's hoodie has been returned after a trip to the wrong household!! I know its silly to get upset about a material object but I'm a bit more attached to it due to it being a) a gift and b)his first ever day of school shirt! (Plus moss/olive green is just too cute on my little red headed guy!!)

Busy as a Bee

This weekend went by so quickly I think I blinked it away. I feel so spoiled that we've had my mom in town for almost a week!! Friday we headed over to my grandmothers for some most excellent spinach tomato lasagna and called it an early night as Alex seemed a bit tired from all the extra attention.

Saturday we got up and put in one of the two new 7 day programmable thermosats, thermostat 2 was more of a problem than the other three as we ran into trouble in the bathroom, more wires than expected and a thermostat directly wired into the box and not on a breaker (leading to very ticked off Matt, a trip to Kents, no power for a couple hours, etc). After Matt returned home I finally planted my fall bulbs, all 63 of them (tulips, daffodils, crocus and something else...can't think of the name right now) just to stay out of the warpath ;) That afternoon we headed up river with mom and gram to visit my great aunt which was neat, I got to look through some very old leather bound albums of my grandmother's ancestors picks. Alex was having fun playing with one of my late great grandmother's stuffed bears and was perplexed by a racoon pelt that was there.

Saturday night we got out for a movie which was fun, something Matt and I haven't done in a long time!! Sunday morning I finally got to talk to the minister and we'll be confirming the date with the church this week, yippee!! We then headed over to gram's and this visit I noticed that she now has my late grandfather's RCAF tags on display as well as a pair of baby moccasins that were hers (what a great history weekend ;)) . We picked up my brother (and got to visit the Degus) and headed to the Snooty Fox, yum! In transit I hit a squirrel, sigh, but he appeared fine as he was climbing the tree when I looked back :( I had their stuffed chicken supreme which is sooo good (chicken stuffed with spinach, feta cheese and garlic with a red pepper sauce), while mom tried out their roasted veggie sandwich. I love that place!!

Sunday afternoon was quiet, as was the evening, just some stitching (pulled out The Wedding again) and watched Cold Case and Desperate Housewives (where smallville was last night I don't know :() I talked with Lisa for a bit about wedding details and Alex called mom on her last night in town to wish her good night, then we talked for a bit more. I've really enjoyed being in the same town with mom even if it's only temporary ;) Tonight will be all about stitching after Alex goes to bed, I'm sure he'll be pretty pooped as he has a field trip this morning down to the Country pumpkin, I hope it stays dry!!

Only 17 more sleeps until we leave for retreat!!

Stitching Blogger's Question

Stitching Blogger's Question
Do you mark or hi-lite your patterns or can you follow them without any markings? Do you make copies to mark up, or do you mark originals?

I normally don't mark up my patterns, I usually don't have mark up copies as most of the designers I stitch have replacement pattern programs, although if I notice the creases starting to get worn while I'm still working on it I will make a working copy. I do good enough keeping my nest of threads, scissors, fabric in order, I can just imagine me trying to juggle a highlighter too ;)

A Fruitless Hunt

Sigh...Tuesday Alex's good Gap hoodie (which looked ultra cute) didn't come home, which has happened a couple times before. After it didn't come home Wednesday I sent a note to school and it's not there and not at afterschool care, he knows better than to take it off on the bus but we'll still check there but I'm pretty bummed. If it wasn't part of his first day of school outfit I wouldn't be nearly as cheesed at the possibility that it got sent home with the wrong kid, eventhough I labelled it, sigh...

I missed Stitchy night Wednesday but got to spend it shopping with my mom which was fun++, I found an awesome present for Alex to boot. I did get to drop in for a bit as Lucy had offered to send the deposit cheque for me and I had money to drop off and pick up, plus my finished projects to show off for a little bit ;) I was glad to hit the sack that night as we'd been to a grueling body pump class at lunch.

Last night after groceries/supper/bath/bed I logged into Warcraft for a bit with Matt and openned up my R&R Reproductions Java Moon for the Samsarah ornament this year and I don't know what they did in the dyeing process but the whiff of whatever it was when I openned the bag almost knocked me out (well just a wee bit of overdramatization there ;)), but it did stink. After working on his belly for a bit it didn't stink as badly. I'm hoping I can finish what threads I have for him this weekend and just be waiting on my 'straglers' order from Janice ;) I think everyone will know when it comes in as I'll be posting finishes left right and center (I'd rather wait than sub threads if possible).

Today's a pretty clean slate, there's the option of going to the newbody class at lunch but I'll wait and see what mom's doing, I do the same routine week after week so having a week to do something different and get some visiting time in makes being flexible fun ;)

To Tell The Truth

Yay, I love dealing with people that are less than truthful! I finally got ahold of the school board transportation director yesterday afternoon and wow, what a story he was told. Thursday she told me she wanted to move the bus because of the guy across the road wanted to drive over (instead of having his kids picked up 4 minutes earlier) then Friday it was 'he's having a hard time getting up in the morning', to which I pointed out how unsafe the other exit (it's a U driveway to an apartment complex) was to which she agreed only to call school board to request the change anyway a couple hours later. Apparently she told school board that all parents had agreed to the change, hello?? and that her kids had been crossing the road all year and that was dangerous. They have been picked up every morning at the same time on the other side, so yay, school has introduced a busy bodied liar into my daily schedule, great! Eventhough I had the stop changed back I'm surprised that they would change it based on one woman's word and without physically assessing the safety for ALL children getting on the bus. This morning I dropped Alex off elsewhere just to avoid the wingnut when she was told the final decision.

Last night Alex and I stopped at Tracy's for her Creative Memories sell off, I picked up alot of neat stuff for my wedding album. Alex followed her 11 year old everywhere and wanted to move in, sigh... After supper, homework, bath, bed, I finally got to watch Mr Deeds which I'd borrowed from Angela. My goodness I laughed, especially where Deeds was saving the cats from the burning building. I stitched some as well although my get up and go for this ornament has got up and left. I stitched in the wrong colour for a little bit last night and will need to check my DMC book to see if there's much of a colour difference between 553 and 554, sigh. I don't find the one that I stitched in coordinates that well with the adjacent colour but I can't see one shade making that big a difference, it's more of a conflict of hue.

Tonight I have nothing on the schedule, hopefully mom is coming to visit tonight which would be nice. Eventhough we saw mom and dad on Thanksgiving it was kind of hectic so it'll be nice to have a quality visit. I'm sure she'll hear all about Alex finally getting to be the class leader yesterday which he's been waiting to be since school started. He was soo proud yesterday!!

A Super Stitchy Weekend

This weekend was the complete opposite of last, a VERY nice change. Lots of stitching involved!! I finished Britty Christmas Kitty, restitched the twill stitch on my Love Needleroll and beaded it (now waiting for the threads to come in), stitched the majority of Cindy Valentine's Sugarplum (just waiting for NN thread for some klosters and the beads to come in) both sides, and started the Water's Edge ornament incase it's the retreat ornament this year as it was the only one suggested so far, thought I'd better start it as I needed to psych myself up for it, but now that I see it on fabric I'm falling in love with it (one of the ones where the picture is deceiving).

Alex and I headed to Wallace and Grommit on Saturday, had to move twice though, once for a three month old and another for a birthday party, I'm so glad we made the last minute decision to move away from the birthday party as they really acted up, just what you want after spending $25.00 on tickets and concessions. Besides the annoyances the movie was awesome! Alex is finally at the age where he's picking up on some of the more tame subtle humor, although the middle age spread jam was totally over his head. Oh... I almost forgot the penguins from Madagascar featurette, my goodness they make me laugh with 'Hoover Dam' and 'Shitake Mushroom'.

Yesterday we attempted to see the minister after church but our service ended up running into the 11:45 service, which never happens, so I sent an e-mail and if I don't hear from him I'll see him next Sunday (I'm just so anxious to get the ball rolling especially where the reception site is tentatively booked!!)

Another Little Happy Dance

Britty Christmas Kitty

18 lbs Down!!

Maybe stress is a good thing, down to 18lbs even after Canadian turkey day ;)

Stressed To The Max

My goodness, my stress level is through the roof! Why oh why couldn't Matt listen to me when I told him you needed to book things in advance+++, right now we've possibly got a room on the 20th of May but there is one couple that had it tentatively booked before us, however the hotel can't get ahold of them to get the confirmation cheque so I don't know how that's going to go. Right now I have the hotel tentatively booked for the 13th, which doesn't give me much breathing room between maid of honour duties but I've got a fiancé that doesn't want to budge, grrr....

Then I get a call yesterday from 'dream job' that they need someone even better than my supervisor, do people not realize that not all organizational structures are the same?? I rarely see my manager and to do my review my supervisor provides him with all the info. Let alone HR seemed to think I could just track him down like that, HAH! that was at 3 yesterday and he's STILL in meetings. I've decided with the surgery and wedding stress that I'm in no frame of mind to certify for bilingual so I have to break it to them that I only want to be put in for the anglophone position, between med tests and appointments and actual work meetings and training I really can't take anymore time off. Ughhh...

Then yesterday at the bus one of the fathers wanted to move the bus stop as he 'couldn't make a left' to get home (from a U driveway, turn your friggin car around). He yelled at me this morning when I took my son to the regular stop to which I replied that unless he went through school board to get it approved which he never would due to safety concerns I was staying put. The bus comes to the other side of the road stop 3 minutes before ours if you can't get up 3 minutes earlier then drive your kids to school, don't endanger other peoples kids by putting the bus at an angle where it's end is too close (but not directly in the line of vision) to a joining street so that turning traffic can't see the lights. Good grief.

With all that I was stressed to the max by the time I got home last night, I put a frozen pizza in the oven which I rarely do..., after we ate I laid down for a bit before the christmas bazarre meeting and slept through half of it so I decided not to go. Instead I finished stitching what I need to on the LOVE needleroll, found the remainder of the threads for Britty Christmas Kitty and then headed to bed. Here's hoping I get ALOT of stitching therapy on the weekend!!

Stitchers Question Of The Week

How do you ‘non-hoopists’ who use a rotation system handle it (as it seems to be lot easier if you are in good terms with hoop)? Do you have several scroll frames? Do you use Q-snaps or maybe something completely different? Or do you just have one or two big projects and others are small enough to be kept in hand while stitching?

I'm a stitching free spirit, when I taught myself to stitch it was with itty bitty kits that were too small for hoops so I never really got into the hoop, qsnap, scroll bar craze so I guess this really doesn't apply to me.

Jump For Joy HD

Joy Needleroll (JCS 03)-Jeannette Douglas

Well it was actually stitched on the weekend but here's my HD picture ;) Now to get the ribbon to tie the ends!! I should have cropped but was too tired last night to access the software by the time this arrived via e-mail last night from dad ;) I plugged away at restitching the Love needleroll which is now all ready to bead and am just waiting for the pearl petite treasure braid and fyrewerks to finish it. I'll probably redo the twill stitch as the stitch instructions in the back do not give the same diagonal effect, e-mailed Jeannette and am waiting to see if she did anything special or if it was just her thread. I've figured out a way to accomplish the same effect and I'm hoping she's just going to confirm what I've already thought of ;)

I've been so zonked for energy this week it isn't even funny. I even taped Lost (not to happy with ABC for moving it so late in the evening) so I could hit the sheets! I'll probably get caught up at 8 tonight seeing as Global no longer airs Joey before Survivor, sigh... Speaking of Joey we watched last weeks and when we turned it off the vcr just happened to be on Friends and my goodness I hadn't realized how much I missed that show! It was the Christmas in Tulsa episode with all of the flashbacks and I then put in a request to start collection the old seasons on DVD. ;) Oh wait, I have a Christmas Bizarre meeting tonight, maybe I won't get caught up at 8 after all... sigh... Why oh why do they only give people 2 days notice about these things, don't they realize that most mothers work now a days and with gas prices up some of us actually make an effort to lump all of our trips in one?? sigh...

Only one more sleep until the weekend thank goodness!

Maid of Honor Happy Dance...

Omigosh, I've been asked to be a maid of honor!!! I'm sooo excited. I've never been in a wedding before (besides reading), yippee!! I was so excited just about the engagement and I found out about that a day ago that I'm pretty darn bubbly now!! Then to top it off Matt gave me a date tonight, so here I am waiting not so patiently for the church office to open at 9!

As for stitching I did do some last night, I have the hearts at the top of the Jeanette Douglas Love needleroll stitched in, and one snow flake (actually the cardinal is done but needs to be restitched due to an off by one, I dislike stitching over one, error which then put the other snowflake off). I also think I'm going to redo the twill stitch to get the same diagonal effect that's on the model. So essentially after lost tonight I should have everything (maybe even some of the hemstitching) done and just be waiting for my RB threads to arrive.

Tonight should be pretty relaxed, as was last night, not having to cook for two days straight is a godsend!

Happy Thanksgiving

Whoa, what a weekend!! I think I need another long weekend just to recoup ;) We spent most of Saturday/Sunday doing that extra little bit of cleaning, dusting the blinds, stripping the beds and doing the prep work for the meal, peeling the potatoes, making and cubing the bread for stuffing, chopping the onions, making pre dinner munchies and some squares. Sunday afternoon Alex and I took a little break and headed over to Green Village to check out their annual halloween maze. Alex thought it was just great. Then we got some icecream and checked out their halloween decorations, picking up a bat wind twirly thing to hang where the hummingbird feeder is in the summer. They've started to get their christmas decorations out but the big trees weren't up yet so I saved my mailing list gift certificate for another trip ;) Monday went off without a hitch, with the exception of the after meal conversation, I swear if one more person suggests I elope I'm going to scream. It wasn't my decision to wait this long to get engaged so why should I give up on my dream wedding, some people's lack of enthusiasm about the wedding really riles me up! Thankfully my two new 7 day programmable thermostats arrived thanks to dad so I had those to play with after everyone left. Now we just need two more for the master bedroom and Alex's room :)It's so nice to be able to save energy and wake up to a warm house!!

On the stitching side this weekend was surprisingly productive. I finished my Joy Needleroll and just need to pick up some ribbon to ornamentify it, all the finishing sewing is done. My Silkweaver bundle arrived on Friday so I started on my Love needleroll only to realize my Needle Necessities was AWOL so I had to put it down after 2.5 bands (mind you I found it Monday, after spending the weekend convinced it was at work), after that I started Britty Christmas Kitty, working over one when you've been cleaning all day isn't nearly as relaxing!! Britty should be done this week and Love should be done minus the Rainbow Gallery Fyrewerks and pearl petite treasure braid I'm waiting for. I've decided to take the entire month off of stitching the wedding and working on ornaments, I should have a fair showing for retreat ;)

Seventeen

Yippe, the official total lbs gone is 17, plateaued around the birthday weeks but now back on track, yippee!

Still No Serenity

Well we didn't get to Serenity last night either, sigh... I wasn't much in the tv watching mode either, but I did watch Night Stalker again which was pretty good. It's amazing how my tv watching has switched, Thursday night's are pretty dead now (well if we were in the states I'd have Smallville to watch but it airs here on Wednesday, sigh). I logged a little time into WoW and worked my my Jeannette Douglas Joy Needleroll which will be finished tonight, they have been such a delight to work on! Here's hoping my ornament cuts come in from Silkweaver tonight so I can get a jump on Love until my Rainbow Gallery FyreWerks and white treasure braid come in!!

When we got home last night after going winter boot shopping (I've learned the hard way to do it sooner than later or else it ends up costing $$$) and surprisingly finding a General Grievous for Alex's stocking (he has one that is minus an arm) we headed home to put up my new pumpkin windsock. When I was trapsing across the wet yard (grass is STILL GROWING, arghhhh....) I noticed a beige spot on my indian corn! I went to investigate as I thought it was one of the husks falling down...nope EATEN!!!! Good grief. When I mentioned it to Matt when he got in he said that Wednesday when he was working at home he heard banging on one of the doors and went to investigate, no intruder at the kitchen, looked out the living room and nothing there either. He threw back the curtain on the front door and whoosh, off takes a blue jay. So much for my 4$ Thanksgiving decoration!

My appointment with the doctor went well, I was so pleased. She warned me it may take awhile to get into the surgeon I wanted but my gut really told me to stay away from the bozo at the breast clinic. I was later venting to a friend of mine who had a relative that had seen said bozo and personally regarded said bozo as a cold hearted, uncaring butcher. I'm a bit more at ease with the thought of going to see a surgeon we've already had contact with before with Alex who everyone else highly recommends. yippee!!

Now to think of how I'd say all this in french to have any hope of passing my bilingual test...

One of Those Days

Yesterday I had myself pretty worked up about this whole 'surgical' option, then I picked Alex up at daycare and the mother who doesn't strap her kid in (and in my opinion shouldn't be allowed to reproduce) shows up and started to lecture Alex which I put an end to, she won't lecture her own kid but attempts to lecture mine who was only helping pick up her daughter's mess??? Anyway, I was still talking to Tracy and left about 10 minutes later. There was 'mother who should not be allowed to reproduce''s baby out in the car running all that time, abject idiot. We then headed to the coop for groceries and arrived home to Matt painting the deck, now we just have the floor and posts to do!! Yay!

I was pretty fidgety as even though I told the assessment clinic I was going for a second opinion there was a letter in the mail booking me, arghhh.... Yay and an appointment for testing that they never bothered to mention. Then I logged into my computer and there was a letter stating that they wanted to screen me for the bilingual position as opposed to the english I wanted, just what I need more stress! I've retained my comprehensive french the 10 years I've been out of school but its my level of communication back that needs work, sigh... I managed to finish stitching the hem stitch on my needleroll, sewed the seam and stuffed it. An ornament for me and an ornament for retreat are now done, yippee!!!

Well off to see if I can get referred for a second opinion!

Seven

I just love lists ;)
7 Things I Want to Do Before I Die
1. finish stitching my stash
2. pay off the mortgage
3. expand our little family
4. see Disney World
5. Finish painting the deck, only to tear it down in a year or so and put a new one up with semi transparent stain
6. have another nova scotia duck tolling retriever
7. visit Cuba

7 Things I Can Do
1. Juggle three hectic schedules and make sure everyone has clean clothes and a healthy meal
2. Stitch in the car
3. Stand up for myself
4. Play Clarinet and Sax
5. Organize and efficiently execute christmas brunch and thanksgiving dinner
6. Pick up toys and clothes with my toes
7. Mow my own lawn

7 Things I Can't Do
1. Drive a standard
2. Tan
3. Pass up the occasional fish and chips
4. Read in a car
5. Go on carnival rides that involve alot of spinning (thankfully roller coasters are still in)
6. Sleep on my back
7. Bring myself to touch a reptile or rhodent with a tail (guinea pigs are fine)

7 Things That Attract Me to Another Person (in random order)
1. Honesty
2. Intellect
3. Wit
4. Height
5. Compassion
6. Adventurous
7. Anything that makes me more complete knowing them

7 Celebrity Crushes
1. Tom Welling
2. James Marsters
3. David Boreanaz
4. Matthew McConaughey
5. Matthew Fox (gosh I really do like Matthew/Mathieu's)
6. Josh Lucas
7. Jamie Bamber

7 Things I Say the Most
1. Arghhh....
2. Is it Friday Yet?
3. I wish I were stitching
4. I love you
5. Taco day is friday, not saturday, sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday or thursday
6. You'd drive alot better if you pitched that cell phone of yours in the ocean.
7. Can you turn that down please??