weekend!

well, its been a busy weekend around here so far - and its only saturday night!

last night we had the neighbour over and a weiner roast in the backyard. its so nice that the weather is starting to feel like it should!

got up at a reasonable time today, and jobs were split down the middle to inside and outside work.

dh, the neighbour and ds#1 finished the fence between our houses. we'd fenced the perimeter of our yards 2 summers ago, but at that time decided to not put the fence up between as we spend alot of time together, and for sheer ease, going from one deck to the other it was easier than going out one gate and back in the other. (read: lazy) so that's done. along with the height reduction of our slightly mis-proportioned pergola. it would have been fine if our yard was larger. but its not. so bringing it down by a foot and a half has made a huge difference to the coziness of it. it was just a bit too tall. so now it works. i won't even get into how 3 men and a preteen were able to lowere the structure. lets just say i didn't stick around just in case it happened to all come crashing down!

so what did i do? (obviously i ended up with the inside work) first thing after my coffee, i put an angel food cake in the oven to bake, and started cleaning the carpets on the main floor. gross. i'm sure i could go back over it again tomorrow and the same amount of yuck would come out of them. its not that we're dirty, or that we trample through the house with our shoes on, or that its even old - carpet to me is just plain yucky. but its what we've got. so i cleaned them. took the cake out of the oven at the appointed time, and finished up with the carpets. the nice thing is that they do look so much better! from there, prepped the turkey we were having for dinner and got it in the oven, and off to the shower for me. the rest of my day went by in a blur. having company is great - i clean the house only to have to clean up after they're gone. but all in all, it was great!

my parents, grandma, sister, brother in law, niece and my nephew all came out to celebrate my parent's upcoming birthdays. dinner prep was very easy, my mom brought her cream-cheese mashed potatoes, my sister brought a spinach salad, and my grandma made her amazing rice pudding. i did the rest of it - the turkey, gravy, broccoli with hollandaise, a hot tomato dish (yum!), carrots, and the angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream.

and my parents were happy with the gifts we got for them. its hard shopping for them, because if they don't already have it, they probably either don't want it or don't need it. but it was all good, we found a really neat copper bowl thing on a stand that they can either put plants in or use as a gussied up drink bucket. a little bit on the "spendy" side (as my sister put it) but worth it as it was for the two of them.

i think one of the better things about having my family out here is that everyone cleared out shortly after 7pm. the kitchen was more or less tidy, there's a few dishes left to be done (i'll get at them in the morning) and the dishwasher needs to be emptied.

so i had time to scrap a bit tonight and got that cute little ali edward's mini album done with the transparencies. was hoping to have it done for today for my parents, but will drop it off to them this week. will post pics of it maybe tomorrow, lighting sucks in our house at night!

tomorrow is a lazy day, will get the laundry done for the week. amazing race and desperate housewives is on tv (gotta love it) and leftovers from tonight for dinner. can't get much easier than that! hoping its nice and will putter around outside tomorrow.

ttfn!

tagged...

by Mona!

Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog! OK, here goes:

1. I am so utterly a homebody its not even funny. I would rather spend time at home than go out on my days off or in the evening. Pathetic.

2. I was a total geek when I was a kid. I got straight A's until I was in high school. I took piano lessons for 15 years. I sang in in the Calgary Youth Singer's choir for 10 years. I was a Brownie and Girl Guide (even have school pictures taken in the uniforms!! *GEEK*). Wore horrible glasses.

3. I am afraid of horribly afraid of heights. This includes the fact that I won't even go up two rungs on a ladder.

4. I am a huge procrastinator.

5. I could easily pack up and move somewhere else (HOT!!) without looking back.

6. I can't stand cold. Not to mention if I get a chill, I have a very hard time shaking it- and more often end up with a migraine because of it.

7. And a comment (very true) that was made to me today - I turn as brown as an Indian (sorry to anyone with dark skin!) in the sun. (The other person was asking me where my tan has gone!!)

Now, who to tag??
Lacintha, Patti, Heather, Elia, Anam, Rhonda and one more goes out to someone who hasn't done this yet!

layout of the night

hey check it out!! got a layout done tonight - loving it!! my absolutely adorable nephew - he is just too cute!

its not on black cardstock- its just on white, but to post it shows up better with the border.
lots of heidi swapp stuff going on - i have sooooooooo much of it, i hoard it, because i love it! but with the 25/50 no buy challenge, i'm using it! its looking great with holiday pics, so i better get on it LOL.

up close and personal...!

its not too often you catch me on the other side of the camera, but if you do, its because i've done it myself! so here's a few i took of myself for the DT call for JustCre8. i'm not good at do-it-yourself photography, and after numerous takes this is what i came up with! a little photo-shopping to get rid of a few little imperfections, and its all about me LOL!

its thursday!

worked today, which was good - not too hard, but enough to get me out of the house and earn my keep!
had a little bit of retail therapy time this afternoon. got me some cute pink shoes, will take a pic of them maybe tomorrow, and a pair of black shoes too. strikes me as odd that those crazy ballet flat shoes are "in" yet again. but what's a girl to do? i needed something a bit dressier, but not heels, they just don't work for me for what i do. so they'll do. and payless has a bogo 50% right now, so $40 for 2 pairs of shoes works. wandered a bit more at the mall, found a cute black lightweight v-neck sweater on sale from $40 for $10, and a pink cashmere (yes *cashmere*!) cardigan on sale for $20 from $100. yes, its true. i couldn't believe that one either. so total score! looking at my spring "wardrobe" (ha! can't even call it that!) things are looking pretty sad for working girl clothes. even today, was just too warm in my khakis. so hopefully these few additions will help.
off to banff and canmore early tomorrow morning. like 6am. ugh. i am SO not a morning person. but it is a good money day. mileage is great for me going out there! as long as the alarm goes off (unlike a couple weeks ago) i'll live. working through the weekend this week too. but a girl that got to bake on the beach last week has to work this week!

here's a few more pics...

aren't my mom and jonah just too cute?? and my cutie-patootie nephew - he is such a doll!
where i was last thursday night... the blessing today is that it was gorgeous out today and no snow - but its still can't beat sitting on the beach!

a couple more

found these totally fun pirahna joe shirts in the gift shop at the resort- really the only "touristy" stuff we purchased. they even have these fun little teeny tiny stuffed pirahna's hanging off the bottom edge of the t-shirts! too cool! (the little stick men on the back are water skiiers and scuba divers - how fun!!)



my cute for words niece and i:




and one of my dad and i, there aren't alot of pics of the two of us...


love this picture of my niece, taken after dinner one evening:

and this was *who* she was watching so very intently - a cutie patootie kitty, who in turn was watching the birds in the tree so very intently!

a quick layout i finished up today - quite happy with how it turned out, other than the now crappy scan of it!!

the good, the bad, and the aftermath...

we're home!

what a great vacation we've had... a week on the beach in mexico - what more could we ask for?
we stayed at the fabulous riu jalisco in nuevo vallarta. 5 star, poshy-type resort, all-inclusive. a gift from my grandma, for all of us. we all got there in one piece, and with all of our luggage in tow. with 11 of us, you can imagine the pile we had! i counted 11 suitcases, 9 carry-ons, 2 playpens, and 2 strollers. what a crazy amount of stuff to haul along!

the good stuff is we got there - this is where we stayed... a view of the courtyard from the backside of the resort - the front is really nothing to write home about, as you arrive in the bus its not terribly impressive.

yes, it is bigger than life!there are 700 rooms,

and only 4 elevators located in the main lobby. so... if you're at the beach or pool, and you want to go to your room, you either walk down to the lobby, up the elevator, and the circle back to your room, or, you take the stairs closest to your room. we took the stairs. more than a few times. i guess that justified the excess of food and drinks we consumed over the week!

the lobby is quite pretty, with the fountain in the middle of it. there are lots of comfy couches to sit in and relax while sipping on a fancy drink or two from the lobby bar. this was where we hung out in the evenings after dinner, people watching and just relaxing! we could have gone to see the shows that they put on, but they were quite loud and not our cup of tea.



the best part of our day was the time we spent on the beach. i think we found a new baywatch recruit there too... isn't this kid just growing like a weed? i tell ya, we'll be beating the girls off our front porch very soon!the kids all had a great time playing in the sand, boogey-boarding, and jonah went out in the kayaks a couple times as well. things were low-key, but alot of fun! i love the beach, and had it been up to me, i would have spent even more time down there than we did!























i'm definitely a sea and sun lover - although i have paid for it this time around! (more on that in a bit - in the bad!) and its not complete with a pic of my tootsies and the view i enjoyed every day we were there:



ok, for the bad - coming home is always such a downer - its such an adjustment for both body and mind! i've been freezing cold since we got home, it did warm up considerably today, but not before i went out to pick up a few groceries and odds and ends. the best thing about coming home was that the house was clean, my awesome cleaning lady was here while we were away, so it was nice that i didn't have a mess to come home to.

i think while we were away all the mosquitoes found me. i have more bites than i would have at home in the summer here! pile those on top of the peeling bits on my chest and shoulders, coupled with the hives i was hoping i wouldn't get. (i have a weird sun allergy that doesn't always act up - i have been ok the last couple of summers, but this trip i ended up with them!) i am a big ball of itch. and it sucks. rene got quite a few bites as well, we can play connect the dots on his legs! if only mine were that far apart! i have far more bumps on my body than i can count!!

and the aftermath? reality sets in with a thud! LOL we got all the laundry done today, as well as caught up on our tv shows that we had missed. with it being sunday, we watched a total of 3 hours of amazing race, thursday's survivor, and desperate housewives tonight. made the laundry folding go by lickety-split! not sure when i'm heading back to work this week, the kids are off on their spring break (we were gone a week too early) so its not necessarily a bad thing. i know i'm working wednesday through till monday for sure, but not too sure about the early part of this week. dentist appts on thursday for all of us (i'm not looking forward to it - i have a mouthful of things to look after on that end). i got a few prints done up today of the 338 pics we have from being away. funny thing is there's only a couple of me. will have to see what i can find that my sister took, and get those ones from her.

and one last look at dh and i, before we got on the bus to head to the airport to go home. gotta have a corona momento if you've gone to mexico hey?? not the best pic of me, but oh well, it was holiays LOL