From the land of Oz!

We have the GREATEST company at the farm right now! It's been so much fun having (some of ) the Oliver Family here. Of course no one has tried to knock themselves out on open windows just to out-do me...yet. But there was a race between me and Carlene to see who could get stuff on the table faster. Well I guess it was a one-sided race in all reality. But still I won!

Anyway...it's so great to have them here! My children are in LOVE with the blonde one pictured above. And so far I have managed to make her cry, twice. So that's pretty good.

That Picture

Readers, start with the "Success" blog and then move to this later or the odd picture doesn't make any sense.

Well probably it won't make much sense anyway. And I think my readers are dwindling down quite a bit. In fact it could be that the only person that reads &/or comments is pretty much IN this picture. But still, here's the picture. And I didn't try to cut Cat off, she took the picture. Which, since I am in the centre of it and not chopped off, may just prove the extend of her love for me...

Success!

This year my KittyCat and I organized our church's annual "ladies night out". We went with a 'coffee shop' theme. I must say, it went really, really well! My big sister (GloTox) and Jammer were our 'entertainment'--they sang. Our speaker was none other than Jammer's mother/GloTox's mo-in-law. The three of them did so well. The women had a good time, there was lots of laughter and everyone seemed so relaxed. The feedback has been really good.

One of the best parts about it was how fun it was to do something like this with Cat. It was so cool to just be on the 'same page' without having to really explain to each other what we wanted the end result to look like. We just knew, totally on the same page! So here's my 'shout out' to Cat--you are so supercool and I am so thrilled to call you my girlfriend! Much love.

Of course having my GloTox and Jammer there was equally great, if ever you see them headlining at your local coffee shop go in, order a mocha, sit down and prepare to be entertained & delighted. They are a great singing team!

When I first moved to K-town I just prayed so hard for 'a few good girls' & God totally answered my prayers, you guys are the bestest ever!

Didn't Quite Work Out.

Went to Ikea this weekend (twice). Had a real dream for a new desk for my office. It looked much like this (but with better legs, hate those legs)...



Unfortunately the wind had another idea (it was on the luggage rack on top of the van). I don't think it's gonna end up looking quite the same sadly.

Clarity.

Well there seems to be some confusion over my week-long stint of working. So to clarify for those not in the know--

I work at the K-Town school. Substitute teacher. Have been for about 5 years.

Sometimes I work lots. Sometimes not so much. Usually the second one b/c I have kids at home and unless I can find childcare I can't go. The kids don't want to stay at home all alone even if you put out food and water!!??

So there you go. It's not hard physical labour--don't worry, I'm still not that kind of girl.

Mmmm. Lovin' it.

I very easily give in to the 'whim' items in the grocery store. You know, the ones on the ends of the aisles that you stroll by. Well I usually grab one of those. Last shopping trip it was these. And now I am so into them I can hardly WAIT until my next break when I get another one. I have to really make myself ration them one a day.

Anyway, it's a busy week. I am a full time working girl right now. I feel like work is interfering with my coffee dates. Makes me bitter against work.

Thank Goodness!

Number of hours the power was out in my community: 35

Number of hours I spent without power: 2 and a half. WHY?

Because we have a generator. We turned that sucker on and life could resume!!! I did laundry, watched TV, had hot coffee, made supper...all my regular scheduled appointments. Didn't have to cancel one. Thank GOODNESS for my generator. Also that fireplace was pretty darn handy because while other people were struggling for warmth I was opening the window a crack because it was up to 26 in the house.

I even heard one sad, sad story where a girl had to feed her kids nutrigrain bars for supper and then huddle with 100 tea light candles for warmth. Nope, not here. 26 degrees. And we had pizza.

Ahhh, generators and fireplaces.

Happy Love Day!!!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! It's been pretty exciting around here I tell ya. I did some vacuuming. Then had lunch of heart-shaped grill-cheese sandwiches seen here:

Then we made some cupcakes as seen here:


Then Jammer and her little Jam-ettes (or Jam-Jam's whichever you wanna call 'em) came for coffee. We downed two pots and talked about it's organic goodness. I made lasagna and sent one home with said Jammer and Jam-Jams. So we'll eat that soon. And that's about it. Not too exciting.

But just so everyone isn't thinking I'm a deadbeat of a mom, you see those little heart grill cheeses and cupcakes. And I did let the kids HELP with those cakes, I did. Have pictures to prove it.

Bro-in-La's

Congrats to my brother in law on getting hitched yesterday! Here he is with me and our sister in another New Year's photo:

I hear the wedding was lovely and we wish we could have been there.

And just so that I am not picking favorites here's me and my OTHER bro-in-law:


And though I do have an o-so-lovely picture of me & my oldest, nearest, dearest bro-in-la from New Years, I prefer this lovely picture of him and his REAL sister:

My New Baby.

Well this morning my husband brought me a little present. And he was frozen solid. Currently he is in my porch, on my heating pad, under my blankets, surrounded by my towels trying hard to live. (Did you get that he is in my HOUSE, he is on MY heating pad, using up MY towels).

Oh and now he's using my blow-dryer to dry off a little.

Oh where are my dots?

So I switched over to my new version of Blogger, which was a huge step for me. I hate change quite a bit. If it isn't broken, WHY fix it? But my Jammer insisted I'd be fine so I switched. Anyway, now my little map is gone and it had all these dots and I looked like I was popular and people were actually LOOKING at my blog. Which greatly increased my self-esteem.

Now the little map is gone. Someone (Ang &/or Leigh) please step up and re-pimp my blog. I need to see my dots again. I need the boost in self esteem.

Bookwork. Sigh.

So it seems the end of the year has come and kinda gone. Now I need to quickly pull my bookwork together and get it to the accountant. Which makes me realize I'm not 17 anymore. Anyway, I am listening to my playlist and right now there's the song "Beautiful Blue" by Holly McNarland which is truly a beautiful song. Anyone with high speed should go download it and see if you agree. I just really like it. Oh see now it's "Here Without You" by 3 Doors Down. So I have to leave and give the song my full attention (Glo, you understand my feelings towards this song).

She's blogging again.

Just so everyone who cares knows, my little Jammer is back in the land of the blogging...it's a beautiful thing.

Happy New Years!!

HAPPY 2007!!!! How was everyone's time last night? We had a pretty okay night here at the plantation, I think. Here are some highlights (lowlights?)

First we have me and my sister enjoying our coffee. Isn't my mug GREAT?

Next it is me and my hubby in a rare photo-op.

This is 2 of my bro-in-laws enjoying a little dill-pickle-hot-sauce-dip that they created all by their little selves (well sorta, the dill pickle part was there, the rest they added themselves. So really they added only one ingredient. But proud of it they were.) Anyway, sorry for ridding the world of that little concoction early, I didn't realize that hot wings were meant to be served with just that dip.

And finally me and my girls, who I adore more than anything and who I am so grateful to have in my little ole life. In our defense this was taken at the END of the evening when we were headed for beddie-bye and just had to get one more shot in there. We looked WAY hotter at the start of the evening.

How was your Christmas?

How was everyone's Christmas?? What did you do? We had a good Christmas, busy and fun. The kids got spoiled rotten but that's the way it should be right?






And of course my sister in law is out which is always fun!! She has always been the BEST helper around here lately! I hate that I have to give her back to stoopid Vancouver soon.

But now Christmas is officially OVER. In fact I even took down my trees and put them away (apparently my tree wasn't really that great anyway right Mark?). My freezer and fridge are full of food and other festive "gear"--all ready for New Years. Does anyone have any great plans for New Years? We are mostly just going to sit around drinking drinks and eating food. But I get to do it with my girlz (all of them this year) so I think it'll be fun. Isn't it great to have a group of friend where sitting around looking at each other and talking stupid is considered a really good time?

Creepy Santa.

The idea of a man dress up in the Santa costume and parading around has always frightened me a bit. Last week at the kids skating lessons "Santa" magically appeared on the ice to skate with them. (As a side note--his pants? WAY to short). Most the kids under 5 were actually frightened of Skater Santa.

Then I was reminded of the time when I was much younger (you can take your guess as to my age from the picture) and shopping with my cousin. "Santa" sitting on his throne called us to come up and take a picture. Should have known he was creepy yelling at us but we thought 'fun' and went. So we sit down on his lap and he grabs the teddybear that is supposed to be a prop and says "we'll need to use this too" and places it on his crotchal area. Somehow we didn't run away, we stayed and let Santa's little elves take the picture first (b/c everyone wants a picture of Santa accousting you). Now you can see where Santa decided to put his hands for the photo-op. Yep. A little butt action, which turned out to be not enough b/c when we went to leave he decided that would be a good time to pat the butts of his new little friends as we walked away. Creepy Santa. CREEP-Y Santa.

So that's the story of me, my cousin and Santa from the mall.

Slow in Bloggerland.

Things have been pretty quiet in bloggerland. I thought perhaps after a month and a half I could throw in a new entry.
So in no particular order, here are some of the new things in my world (not too exciting I'll warn you).

1. Got a new computer. Didn't go with the portable model. Went with the keep it on the desk but it has more capacity model. Maybe find myself a used portable model at some point? Ebay maybe? Anyway, I can take silly pictures of myself on it and I do. Like this one where I am doing all my favorite things: drinking coffee, talking on the phone and playing with my computer.

2. Put up my Christmas tree(s). Yep, plural. See there is MY tree, which looks pretty much the same every year and that's how I like it. Of course with a daughter in school I am bound to get those oh so precious handmade ornaments. Those don't go on my tree--ever. The hubby calls me the Tree Nazi but still, despite the ridicule, no handmade ornaments on my tree.

So I got this one for the kids to put their ornaments on. I think that's a decent compromise.

3. My daughter lost her first tooth.

4. My bro-in-law got engaged & has announced he and his Mexican bride will be living in none other than K-town!!

Seriously, I think that might be it. Let the comments begin--unless of course everyone gave up on me. Which I could understand.

The Second Party.

Well I made it through the busy week. And there seems to be another one coming. So I am thinking this is the way of it now?

Sunday was my son's fourth birthday (where did the time go???). He wanted a race car birthday so I accomodated. Here are a couple pictures of his party! The first is the kid table. This year I needed to add a whole second table to make it big enough!













The second is the checkered flag I made my own little self (with garbage bags and dollar store table clothes) and put up on the ceiling. I think it turned out pretty darn cute if I may say so myself. The odds that good that next year he'll have to pick a dirtbike birthday and the year after a Nascar birthday and so on with any sport that has a checkered flag. And when we run out he'll have a "Chess" or "Checkers" birthday.

A busy week ahead.

EEk. The week looks so busy this week.

Monday - Pumpkin carving in the Kindergarten classroom. Seems that if you donate the pumpkin you also come and CARVE the pumpkin. Then run home, pick up the other two kids and back into two for Glo-Tox's birthday feast a la Jammer.

Tuesday - HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Quite frankly, I'm just not that into Halloween. However, with three small kids it seems as though you simply MUST go back into town and collect candy from strangers (okay, not exactly STRANGERS but you get the general point).

Wednesday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY! My baby turns TWO!!! So we'll start the day by dropping the Kindergarten girl at school, then coffee-ing at Jammers, then head home to decorate for a party!!!!!! Mental note: gotta make lasangna at some point before this. Oh, and a cake.

Thursday - Clean up b'daying and then back into town for the first SKATING lesson. This is now to be a twice weekly trek to K-town for skating.

Friday - Again, to Kindergarten, then coffee. Then home to make some sort of snack and wait for my FOUR kids to come home on the bus. We get to have Glo-Tox's kiddies here!!!! WHOOPPEE. Mental note, call the bus driver to see if he can fit another three kiddies on the bus.

Saturday - Day of rest? Surely not. Clean, yes, CLEAN because...

Sunday - my one and only beautiful, bestest-ever son turns FOUR!!!!!! So we'll be having another party, another cake, & more decorations!!!

So basically it's a busy week and I need to clean out the soccer-mom van and get prepared for drive-drive-driving!!!

Oh fine.

Well here's an update. But remember you asked for it. And if you didn't ask for it then you are still checking back and reading about it so either way you deserve to be bored by my tales.

A couple things that have happened...
1. Thanksgiving came and went and I ate copious amounts of food at my Mom's. Most especially her lemon mirange pie, which Ross, you may remember from the wedding as being darn good lemon pie. Also hung out with my cousin/friend Ray-Ray and of course Glo-Tox, MyNiz and Co. all of which are great people.
2. Pumpkin Deliveries - If you want one of my home-grown pumpkins please visit Moose Jaw, Regina, Saskatoon, North Battleford, Unity or the K-town Redi-Mart. Now go. Buy one.
3. Japanese Experience - Not just you Dean/Dane though I am THRILLED to have found your blog. And I also have your address from the blog so I can send you odd and sundry things. Anyway, the OTHER Japanese experience was yesterday when some friendly Japanese blokes came by to check out the farm. And eat lasagna. Not made by me.

There that's it for now. I'm living a dull life right now.