hump day giggles...

courtesy of my hubby:

New Words for 2007 * SALAD DODGER. An excellent phrase for an overweight person. * SWAMP-DONKEY A deeply unattractive person. * TESTICULATING. Waving your arms around and talking bollocks. * BLAMESTORMING. Sitting round in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible. * SEAGULL MANAGER. A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and Then leaves. * ASSMOSIS. The process by which people seem to absorb success and advancement by sucking up to the boss rather than working hard. * SALMON DAY. The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die. * CUBE FARM. An office filled with cubicles. * PRAIRIE DOGGING. When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on. (This also applies to applause for a promotion because there may be cake.) * SITCOMs. Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids or start a "home business". * SINBAD. Single working girls. Single income, no boyfriend and desperate. * AEROPLANE BLONDE. One who has bleached/dyed her hair but still has a 'black box'. * PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE. The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again. * ADMINISPHERE. The rarefied organisational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the "adminisphere" are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve. This is often affiliated with the dreaded "administrivia" - needless paperwork and processes. * GOING FOR A McSHIT. Entering a fast food restaurant with no intention of buying food, you're just going to the bog. If challenged by a pimply staff member, your declaration to them that you'll buy their food afterwards is known as a McShit with Lies. * 404. Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found" meaning that the requested document could not be located. * AUSSIE KISS. Similar to a French Kiss, but given down under. * OH - NO SECOND. That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just Made a BIG mistake (e.g. you've hit 'reply all'). * GREYHOUND. A very short skirt, only an inch from the hare. * JOHNNY-NO-STARS. A young man of substandard intelligence, the typical adolescent who works in a burger restaurant. The 'no-stars' comes from the badges displaying stars that staff at fast-food restaurants often wear to show their level of training. * MILLENNIUM DOMES. The contents of a Wonderbra, i.e. extremely impressive when viewed from The outside, but there's actually naught in there worth seeing. * MONKEY BATH. A bath so hot, that when lowering yourself in, you go: "Oo! Oo! Oo! Aa! Aa! Aa!". * MYSTERY BUS. The bus that arrives at the pub on Friday night while you're in the toilet after your 10th pint, and whisks away all the unattractive people so the pub is suddenly packed with stunners when you come back in. * MYSTERY TAXI. The taxi that arrives at your place on Saturday morning before you wake up, whisks away the stunner you slept with, and leaves a 10 Pinter in your bed instead. * BEER COAT. The invisible but warm coat worn when walking home after a booze cruise At 3:00am. * BEER COMPASS. The invisible device that ensures your safe arrival home after booze cruise, even though you're too drunk to remember where you live, how you got here, and where you've come from. * BREAKING THE SEAL. Your first pee in the pub, usually after 2 hours of drinking. After breaking the seal of your bladder, repeat visits to the toilet will be required every 10 or 15 minutes for the rest of the night. * TART FUEL. Bottled premixed spirits, regularly consumed by young women. * PICASSO BUM. A woman whose knickers are too small for her, so she looks like she's Got 4 buttocks.

and i forgot...

that i actually got some scrapping done this past weekend!

here's one of them, based on pencil lines sketch #36. took a pic because my scanner didn't like the lumpy bumpy bits of it, so it ended up with a big flash spot on it. but you get the idea. used old rob & bob papers from a past S! kit, along with the unmounted elsie fontwerks stamps. simple, but cute! i colored in the stamped letter with pencil crayon to match the papers. and pop-dotted the letters in various heights for the title. love the summery colors!

migraine monday

oh i hate migraines.

woke up with it, and thinking i wasn't working today, was quite happy to get myself showered and dressed and was planning on just taking it easy.

didn't work out that way - ended up spending the afternoon in the city working. the good thing was that at least being on the far west side of the city, and leaving there smack in the middle of rush hour, i was still home in an hour.

so it's almost 10:30pm, and its still there. i took my meds like i needed to this morning, but it hasn't gotten any better. off to bed here shortly, and hopefully it will be better in the morning. i need to be bright eyed and bushy tailed - need to be out the door by 7:30 for work. the good thing is i'll be home by lunchtime, and should be able to hang out in the sunshine that we're finally getting again!

fabulous friday!

happy friday to all my friends :)

had a busy/productive day at work today. worked with a couple of the summer student to get an entire cracker section moved at one of the Co-op's today. the impressive thing was that it took us a whopping 4 hours to get it all done. the rep was quite surprised, she figured it would take us the majority of the day. woot!

then i headed off to a couple other stores to get a few odds and ends done, and now home. and a decent time for a busy friday at that.

dinner tonight is an easy one - big ass homemade subs. looking forward to that!

hoping to get in a walk tonight, it looks like it could rain, if it felt like it (LOL) not like its unusual for june - it seems to be the rainiest month here. but the grass and flower beds are looking awesome! our backyard grass is somewhat trashed - with having two big-ish dogs running laps back there it's not as happy as it could be. can't wait until we get our pathways in.

happy friday!

that didn't last long!

the chair that is!

it was gone when i went in to work today. odd. maybe someone remembered they left it by the roadside! LOL

some interesting tidbits from my day:

had a phone interview with a company (yes, i'm out kicking tires at the moment - just feeling restless and un-challenged) for a supervisory position for alberta. would be looking after about 20 merchandisers province-wide, something i would be good at, given the amount of merchandising experience i have and the variety of products i've worked with.

then, about 6pm, got a phone call for another job with some company (who? i have no idea!! didn't catch it when he called) for another merchandising position with them. who knows. i guess i applied with them last year sometime, so it could be anybody. anyways, i should be hearing from the regional co-ordinator in the next day or two to set up a face to face interview with him. the fellow i spoke with said that he was calling me back (apparently again?) after reviewing my resume now that they are actively looking to fill a position right now.

hmmmm... looking like i have a few options again. who knows. or maybe i'll stay where i'm at. it all depends on what is offered to me and where i can go with it all.

went to get the boy's SIN numbers today. now that is an exercise in patience. i got there about 3:30, and there was a large amount of people sitting there waiting. and waiting. and waiting. in the first 45 minutes i was waiting, not one single person, count them ZERO, were called in to talk to one of the people. i tell ya, i need a government job. maybe they were all on coffee. (sorry to any of my civil servent friends!!) but what a mess. and then there was the guy next to me, giving off one of those hmph/sigh noises every minute or so. like come on. i could pick my nose if you'd like and you could watch. maybe that would give you enough interesting things to look at instead of those crazy noises that the rest of us could also make. maybe like some weird demented sigh band or something.

blah.

raining again today, and it's not looking good for the weekend either. esp for dh - he was planning on getting our decks/porch stained this weekend. its long overdue, and he even ordered the stain for it. talk about being ahead of the game. but it'll be nice on monday. maybe that will become my project if i'm home.

well, that's it for today. dh is running behind as he needed to get the stereo replaced in his car - its crapped out on him. works once in a while. good thing it's on warranty still. the good thing about it being 7pm and not having dinner yet? he's bringing home vietnamese for dinner. yum.
and then we'll be watching pirate master. good show.

buh-bye!

have a seat...

and enjoy the view!

LOL spotted this on the side of the highway this morning on my way to work. on my way back just had to stop and take a picture. i'm guessing someone is missing a piece of their living room set now!

is it over already?

it's sunday night, and it's been a wonderful weekend for us. (did ya miss me?? LOL)

dh's birthday was on friday, and they let him leave early as we went camping for the weekend.

we didn't go too far - just off to the mini-lake 12 minutes from home. it is a good place to go for us to just get away, so don't laugh too hard! i had to work for a bit on friday morning, and the kids had the day off, so i toted them along with me, then off to costco to stock up and then back home again. dh got home just before 2pm, and i wasn't too much ahead of him - only arrived back at home about 1:30. we were packed and out the door without too many left behind necessities, the kids and the dogs by 3:45.

we had a great spot this time, it was a spot we hadn't had before. it didn't have anyone behind us, there was only green space, and then the "lake" itself. very nice if i do say so myself. we didn't have to contend with too many people coasting through our space or ogling either. (the one thing i hate about most campgrounds!) our friends joanne and lyle joined us later that evening (they both had to work their regular hours) so we hung out and started a fire, only to get rained on (not to mention the crazy thunder and lightening show!!) but we did sit outside under the awning until about midnight.

saturday was a fairly lazy day, b and i made the quick trek home to pick up his forgotten inhaler, and i snuck in a quick shower. then back out, and i got to have a bit of a nap.
steak for dinner, marshmallow s'mores for dessert, and it was a beautiful night.

today we managed to get pack and home by 12:30, then unpacked and laundry started, then some puttering in the yard and cleaned up the kitchen to fix the whirlwind that had occured in there. my parents and grandmother came out for dinner tonight, dh got his birthday cake, and we had a great visit. dh did a great job of getting most of the laundry in today as well, so i'll get the rest of the job done tomorrow - there is one heck of alot of folding to be done!

something we did learn this weekend - kikanue does NOT like little dogs. she sure wanted joanne's doggie for dinner. and it was not a good scene. i felt absolutely mortified. something we just need to keep in mind for future reference!!

and some cool "town" stuff - a dollarama opened up here this last week. the kids and i popped in there on our way home on friday. awesome. and a REAL dollar store in that things really are $1 or less. not often that you find that anymore. the only annoying thing is that they only take cash. what the heck is that? oh well. maybe we'll just spend less that way then!

and we're getting a sobey's here as well. which is way cool in my opinion. we have an IGA already, but i'm sure they'll be closing with the sobey's opening. they haven't broken ground for it yet, but i'm sure it will be started soon. the thing i really find lacking here is a good deli counter. the IGA used to be decent when we first moved here, but seriously went downhill when extra foods opened. the sobey's in the city have amazing deli departments, and the bakery department can't be beat. we're not so small town anymore, but that's fine with me. don't get me wrong, i do love the small town bit, but sometimes it can be frustrating!

boy i'm yappy tonight. lots to say i guess!

changed up my music on here again tonight. this song is just awesome, and i didn't know who it was by. now i do. wow. i used to listen to country all the time when i was younger, but not so much anymore. i do love this song though. happy music for the ears!

i hope you all have had a great weekend as well, summer is just too darn short, and the more weekends like this one, the better!

updated blog list!

just quickly updated the blogs/websites i visit regularly. if you don't see yourself on there - let me know!!

have a happy wednesday!

terrific tuesday!

well, its been a great day to be outside! i mucked around in my pond today and got a bunch of things repotted and happy :) things are starting to come along, even a couple of things i wasn't sure about (namely my $20 a pop water lilies - they're sprouting now!!) beautiful day out today, and just heard a few thunder booms, so i'm sure we're in for a bit of rain in the next little bit! the yard can use it, so i won't complain too loudly! gotta love the hot and sunny weather when we get it - summers are just too darn short for my liking!


here's a quickie of the rat pack:
aren't they just too cute! my two big guys and niece and nephew. the little one isn't in this one, i don't think my sister would have liked us too much if we had a 2 week old rolling around in the grass with the rest of them! LOL

hope you're having a terrific tuesday as well in your neck of the woods!

happy birthday b-man

to my b-man:

9 years old yesterday!

happy birthday buddy - you are one of a kind. a free spirit. a little bit of wild. insightful. growing up. the baby still of our family.

you make us crazy. we love you dearly. you still cry at the drop of a hat. you want to grow up, yet you still want to be little. you are the one that keeps us on our toes. always thinking, always coming up with new things to make us laugh.

you love your archie comics. you love your computer games. you love to laugh.

happy birthday b!

(sorry mom's a little late - i think we just had an all-round busy/great weekend!)

i dare ya...

it was a gorgeous day here today, and ending up not having to work after all, and keeping b home this morning because i was supposed to have worked and was going to take him with me because it would have meant an extra trip back to the city for his dentist appointment, and because i could...

i sat on the back deck with b for most of the day, made phone calls, gave myself a pedicure, and just had an all round nice hang out day with my kid.

so i dare ya...

dig out your footbath that has dustbunnies in it, or if you don't have one of those, find a basin, throw in some warm water, some sudsy nice smelling stuff, and have a soak. but you gotta do it outside. (and maybe, just maybe, let your kid(s) join you and watch the bliss on their faces when they can look after their tootsies too) and eat an ice cream cone for good measure.

come on - i dare ya!

wednesday = hump day

no, not *that* kind of hump...

LOL just the usual midweek kind of hurdle, the final fling towards the weekend!

last night i made an awesome shrimp with peanut sauced pasta

and boy was it good! check out all the awesome ingredients in
this:

cilantro, homemade peanut sauce, shrimp, rice noodles, snap peas, asparagus, and some lime for on top. wow. good eats!

interesting enough, rene quite liked it too, even though he has a strong aversion to peanut butter. it was just never something that he ate as a kid. same thing as tuna. in germany, it is basically the last thing you would eat, as it is rated as cat food.


we went out for an extra long walk last night with those crazy dogs of ours. we were out quite a bit longer than usual, probably walked about double what we normally do, as we hadn't gone in a couple days as the wind makes both dh and i somewhat miserable. kikanue had a bit of a rough walk, she was barking at anything that moved.

heading off to work today, hopefully in not too long a time, i have to put a call in to see if the order has arrived yet, as it is on the other side of the city. mind you, by the time i get there, i'm sure it will be!!

jonah's theatre production is opening tomorrow night. it's called "Strathmore Theatre Players Spring Variety Show" and runs only tomorrow and friday evening. he's pretty pumped about the whole thing! i'm thinking about attending the dress rehersal tonight to take some pics of the star!!

and here's a couple of pics from the other day:

i tell ya, we have some crazy dogs - they love to wrestle!

it smells sooooooooo good!

have had a nice monday :)

spent the morning with my sister and 2 nieces and nephew. got to cuddle the little peanut while mommy went in to meet with the surgeon for my nephew's hernia's that he will be getting fixed sometime in the next couple of months. poor little guy!

went to the mall after the hospital, and had lunch and a quick wander before heading home.

and what is that smell??

i've got a roast in the oven cooking with a marinade/sauce for vietnamese subs - or also known as bahn bo. yum. one of our favorite things to eat. and super duper easy. we like them with chicken as well. the bread you get at the sub shops is different than what you can find at the store, but using baguettes is close enough. the difference is that the vietnamese bread is light and crispy on the outside and very soft and melt in your mouth on the inside. baguettes tend to be a chewier outside crust and doughier on the inside. but its all good either way.

tomorrow will be an at home day for me. hope to get a layout done, i started it late last week, and haven't sat down at my desk much over the weekend. wanting to submit it for a DT call, its not a paper store, but something else. am i being cagey? oh yes, but will post it after their call is up. i would really like to get into something but have had a hard time of it so far. it'll happen, i know, just working on it can be the hard part.

here's another pic of b i haven't posted yet from our holidays. love it! we were going to the chinese dinner place that night - he looks so cute!

sunday night and a week's recap

wow, can't believe its been a week since i've posted anything. it was a crazy hectic week around here for me. not that i get super busy, but things just start to pile up and then its the weekend, which are also never dull for us!

i was covering the sales route that i had been on so many times before, and in some ways, just as uneventful as usual. in other, more eventful than i would have liked. and not in a good eventful way.

it started out with me going in to one of the stores the friday before last. as it was a long weekend, they would rather me work and get calls done on the friday rather than having to pay me extra for working on the holiday. and that's fine with me. i would rather that too, as then i get 2 days off instead of only 1 (as i work most saturdays).

so off i go into one of my not so favorite stores to service, and the general manager says to me "make sure you stay away from D today - he's NOT in a good mood. just let me know what's up when you head out." ok, no problem. this store manager, B, is awesome. he knows that i know what i'm doing, and trusts me as well as will back me up no matter what.

so D, of the jerks that works in that particular store, starts in on me as soon as he spots me. "what the hell are you doing here? oh no, no WAY you're writing an order today." and so on, just the usual kind of crap he pulls even on a regular order day.

i smiled pleasantly, and let him know i was writing the order, when he snarls at me "you make sure that you talk to me before you leave!" now, me, not being the stupid person that he thinks i am, i went about my way, and had the store manager paged to let him know what i had put in for an order before i left. and he was perfectly fine with my what i had put in. if i had talked to D, he would have cut it back by at least half, and given that he had already cut back their weekend order with the other rep, they would have been out of stock on a pile of items.

so fast forward to thursday... my week had been going well, and i knew even before going in, that they would again be jerks like they always have been. so i see the store manager first and he gives me a head up that, yes, indeed, those two jerks were on the warpath.

so J, one of the other ASSistant managers, hauls me off to the back room to berate me for ordering, when not a single full case of anything was back there. of the 85 pieces i had ordered, there were about 10-ish cases total product that were left over. like give me a flipping break. by the next day, all of that could go out on the shelf. hello, you ARE a grocery store. you sell food. people come there to buy food. strange concept, that.

so spoke to the regional sales manager later that afternoon and told him what was going on. interestingly enough, i have been the only one to finally relay this back to him. we all want to think that its all part of the job, but now, he has labled it as abusive, unexcusable behaviour. for the real sales rep, this all may be a relief in the end for her, she's been told off, been rude to, and had more than her share of headaches there too. and for the last rep, she had one heck of a time as well. and for the other lady that has been sharing this particular coverage for the last while as well. the rsm is wanting to nail those two jerks to the wall. especially as they just don't want to co-operate.

the person in all of this that i feel the worst for is the store manager. if those two a-holes treat him like they treat us, wow. makes you really want to plow the hr people in the union office for that.

ok, enough negativity.

we had a busy weekend. i worked for a bit on saturday, came home, and chilled out on the deck after digging up some of my multitudinous iris' for one of my neighbours to put in her yard. then i had a snooze. on the deck. how awesome is that?! we had a fantastic dinner of bbq'd beef ribs, salad, corn on the cob, and beans. yum. sat out on the deck playing cards till after 10pm. gotta love it!

today i got a sleep in until 9am. then after a bit of reading on the computer, did some house tidy-ing (it was a mess - not to mention the sticky kitchen floors!) washed the kitchen floor, washed up a few dishes, gave the boy's bathroom a wipe, ran the vacuum around for a bit, and then sat on the deck to wait for the other relief rep to pick up the computer. had a visit with her, then spent the rest of the afternoon outside. the people across the street had rented an aerator for the weekend, so we paid them $25 to use it to get our front lawn done and our neighbour's as well. jonah mowed the front lawns first, then after rene was finished up with that crazy aerator, jonah ran around both yards with grass seed and fertilizer to perk things up. i finished digging up the iris' on the side of the house, and sent a few more across the street, moved some of them around in the side yard, put some in our backyard flowerbed that rene filled with dirt yesterday, and the last of them went to the people across the back alley. yes, there were alot! so happy to have that little job done and be able to spread the love around!

had a leftover's dinner of some soup that i made on our snowy day on thursday, (that kills me! snow and not too warm on thursday to tank top weather on sunday!!) then headed out to get some groceries with the b-man.

its been a productive weekend!

tomorrow i'm off to meet up with my sister in the morning, she has a specialist's appt with my nephew, so i'll look after my nieces while she's doing that. maybe i can get some photos taken of the new little one!

and if you've gotten this far... here's a funny for ya - that goofy tigger dog actually hung around long enough for me to take his picture - he's terrified of my camera!!

have a great week!

winners!

well, its been a rainy day here, so we spent most of it inside. kinda boring for a long weekend monday, but what can you do?

we watched deja vu - the movie - this afternoon. it was really really good! has us sitting on the edge of our seats, only because it made you think of what was going to happen next! if you haven't seen it, i would recommend it!

there has been a break in the rain tonight, and the sidewalks were dry, so after dinner, and watching ramsay's kitchen nightmares (what a hoot that show is!) dh and i took the dog out for a quick walk. they haven't done too well with being cooped up inside the last couple of days. its just too wet for them to be let loose for too long in the yard, they end up coming in with rather wet feet, and i hate washing floors!

so on to the winners: (yes, winners! i'm feeling generous today!)

congrats to Bonnie (in scotland) and twistedsoda!

please email me your mailing addresses to jzankl at telus dot net

congrats ladies! Bonnie, you'll be getting the 7gypsies book and some other little goodies i dig up, and twistedsoda, you'll be getting some fun stuff i have hidden in my stash!

one more monkey

to jump on the bed!

my sister and the newest addition to their family - what a cute little chickie she's going to be!

i'm sure this was taken pretty much as soon as she was tidied up a bit after she was delivered!

mom's sure got a glow going on *wink*










and one proud daddy to go along with a house full of princesses now!



















and one with auntie too, can't forget that!






the rest of the pics are of the new *big* brother and sister - and grandma, grandpa, and great-grandma too! everyone got to check her out!


allie making sure she's real!dad with all his kids!








congrats guys on your new little addition to your family - she is just a little doll!

she's here!

my new niece is here, she arrived this morning about 10:45am, weighing in at 8lb 3 oz. her name is samantha kern - kern being my sister's and my maiden name. she is a little cutie pie!

and i could kick myself, forgot the camera when i popped in to take a quick peek at her and mom at 2-ish this afternoon. had it in the van with me, but forgot it as i was juggling a booster juice smoothie for my sister, as well as mine (my lunch) on my way up. oh well, mommy has taken a couple of pics that i will retrieve from her later!

after that i went to catch up with the S! girls - kim, connie and rhonda - after picking up my guys, then my two adorable twin niece and nephew (my mom wanted to go see the new little one too - she was doing babysitting duty!), had a very short but good visit. nice to see you ladies! gotta do it again when i may have time to actually breathe! LOL

we're hoping the weather clears up here tomorrow, it was a yuckky day, windy and just not nice. the good thing about dh being at home alone for the day is that he got all the weekend chores done! laundry, emptying the dishwasher, and just generally being domestic!
hoping for the better weather as the doggies aren't in a good frame of mind tonight - no walk because i can't handle the wind. and they are just a little on the rambuncious side of things.

don't forget to post a comment and i'll add you to my little goodie RAK in the post below!!

the new kid on the block and other random things

well, here she is - Kikanue - the newest addition to our household!

she is a black lab cross, and the sweetest girl! she has an awesome temperment, she loves to play lick tigger till he gets cranky (LOL) and just hang out like us girls like to do! she hasn't had alot of leash training, although she has already improved a lot since we got her on monday (nightly walks are a thing in our house now). her and tigger do laps around the backyard as their morning exercise, and the two of them quite like each other. she's won the rights to the bed the last two nights, more because once she flops down and goes to sleep there's no moving her! she is crate trained which is cool, so when i leave for the day she heads in there while i'm out. i don't have to worry about two rambuncious dogs tearing the house apart while i'm not here.


she's having a grand time exploring the backyard, and finding all sorts of goodies that tigger has forgotten about- including his boneyard! i had forgotten how "mouthy" labs can be - they like having their mouths busy, but at the same time she leaves off limits things alone, like shoes, toys, etc. we're sure loving having her around!




her and tigger have a great time playing, but as tigger has been the only dog for such a long time, he's not quite sure how to take it all in. he doesn't get too jealous, but he sure doesn't like getting french kisses!!

the two of them are very similar in size, which is also a great thing! not too big, and not too small - just right for us.

in other news - dh has been doing great with his weight loss challenge at work. i've been trying very hard to cook healthy meals, and he's been working on his portion control. he's lost 5 pounds or so so far, and i'm right behind him, i've also gone down about 5 pounds. we've cut back on our pop consumption, as well as the snacking after dinner. go honey go!

my sister went in to the hospital earlier this evening, in the hopes that it was "time" for her little one to arrive. unfortunately she's gone back home, so no new little one yet! false alarm for the time being!

my neighbour across the alley is also due anytime. i went over the other afternoon to take some buddha belly pics for her before her little one comes along. they turned out quite well, and she's asked me to take some of her peanut when it gets here as well. she's hoping for a girl, and has even said that if its a boy it will go home nameless as they're quite baffled for a boy's name that they both like.

i'm looking forward to the long weekend, i do have to work on saturday for a bit, but will have the rest of the weekend off, which is nice. hoping to catch up with some of the S! ladies for a coffee on Saturday afternoon - its been a while! also on S! news, my may kit should be here tomorrow from the looks of things. the colors look like they will be fun to work with!

so sad that grey's anatomy is done for the year. it seemed like there was so few episodes this year. looking forward to the fall season premiere, it looks like there will be quite a few changes on the show! dh watches all the time now too, he's hooked as well. (tee hee!)

ok, and now if you've read this far, i have a little RAK to draw for if you post a comment here between now and monday night - a fun little 7gypsies rubber band book! i know i have some other fun things i can throw in as well!

happy birthday mom!

well, a little bit early anyways, tomorrow is her big day! she's seriously thinking about retiring at the end of this year, and i think that would be a good change for her. she loves to travel, and i think she would pursue that more if she wasn't working full time anymore.

happy birthday mom!

so i worked yesterday on a reline (changing the order of products) of a cookie and cracker section at a co-op in the city. i met 2 of the summer students that kraft has working for them, and the 3 of us made a good team for the day. we finished up the entire aisle in about 6 hours, which is decent. take a look next time you are in a grocery store and see just how much stuff is in that area! the interesting/funny thing was the two of them did the cookies, and i got all the crackers moved, shelves moved, everything labelled and back in place in the time it took the 2 of them to get the cookies done. experience i suppose.

this is the main pic for a layout sitting on my desk that i really want to get done before i spill something on it. but just having problems with the flow of it. amazing photos of bailey when he was playing by himself the last day we were on holidays on the beach. he hadn't been in the water yet, so he was dry, but he was doing this totally cute little cha-ching dance. the light was amazing, his reflection showed up off the wet sand as well. so i have 7 pics, 6 are small, like 1 1/2 by 3 inches and the big one is 5x7. i have the title on it, hand drawn and some chippie letters. i just have the urge to do this one justice as i love the photos so much.

where oh where did my mojo get off to??

the title of my layout is solitary moments. i loved being on the beach that early in the morning - not a soul around, and beautiful golden light.

working tomorrow too, not too full of a day, 2 stops are the same thing i did today - putting together these ridiculously heavy metal racks for a crystal light display. i told the rep today that it was a boy's job, not a girl's job. he helped me get one together, but took off and i was left holding the bag, er, metal, by myself. heavy crap. had to recruit someone to help me get them on the sales floor, and then the floor manager had a stupid moment with his pallet jack when we were putting them in place, and managed to tip 1/2 a skid of water bottles onto the floor. nothing broke, but what a PITA to put them all back up again.

so tomorrow i have 2 more to put together, and my usual stop at the chestermere safeway to do their usual rearranging for the week.

tomorrow night my gf and her dh are coming over for a few drinks, looking forward to that. our dh's haven't met, but they'll be fine i'm sure. guys are just like that.

saturday is a bit of work again, and then off to my sister's for a bbq and early mother's day celebration. sunday is a work around the house kind of day. will probably do some plant hunting on our travels on saturday, and i really need to finish tidying up my front flower beds. my knees have been just aching this last week, so bending down isn't making them very happy at all.

on a bit of a fitness note: i don't exercise. i figure with all the lifting, walking, carrying i do in a day, i don't need much more. but, dh is on a weight-loss challenge with the people at work, so we've been trying to walk every night. tonight was about a 3km walk, which isn't too bad, and only took us about 30 minutes. the bonus is that the kids are going out with us too, along with our crazy dog (thanks shell!) so we're spending time out of the house for a bit. tonight was walk #3 of the week, we probably won't go tomorrow, but we will saturday and sunday. so 5 times isn't so bad for just getting on it and doing it. we're also trying to eat a bit better (i'm a good cook if i do say so myself) so i'm working on lower cal meals and such. tough, but at the same time easier as we're not looking for such big/hot meals as we do in the winter. tonight was grilled pork chops, grilled veggies and rice. and it was great :) .

so i think that's it for today - wow - long winded! have a great weekend everyone!

spring is in the air

here's the stuff we've gotten accomplished so far this year:

paging...

lacintha!!

what the heck did you do to your blog??? wanting to check in to see what you're up to and i'm told i'm not allowed. hello?? looking for you girl!

lost

ever lost something that you know you saw just a minute ago? or a day ago? you know exactly where you put it, left it, whatever, wherever.

i've just done that.

and its not that its a huge deal, its just that it was where i left it just yesterday. and now its not there. its not something expensive, or even important to anyone but me. but nonetheless, its not where i *know* it was yesterday.

i know i'm disorganized. i can use something on my desk, and can't find it not even 2 seconds after i put it down. and then find it an hour later after frantically looking for it and its right there in front of me where i put it down in the first place. sometimes i think i'm really going nuts.

usually its not a big deal, i eventually find where i've left something. i'm not the type of person who throws things away haphazardly, you can tell by the inside of my van looks. and my desk.

example: i found a bank statement in my van today from 2 years ago. is it pertinant now? no. but it could have been 2 years ago, when i stashed it away in my "organizer" between the seats. so its pitched now, into the recycle bin.

so why would i find that bank statement today? because i was hunting for what i was missing. and that missing item i left paperclipped to another bit on my seat (aka my vehicular office). and i need it. and now its not there.

my van is slightly tidier for all of that. i threw out all the misc papers and junk, all the empty water bottles are in the bin to go to the bottle depot, found a couple of lipsticks under the seat that i've been looking for, put my winter coat and scarf into the closet in the house where they belong, ditched my stepstool that i use for work sometimes in the back (since its been lounging on my backseat for the last month or so), but still didn't find the itty bitty laminated card i'm looking for. i'm thinking maybe its stuck between the seat and the back (that thought just occurred to me as i'm typing this).

i never quite know how my van gets to be in the state its in. but i suppose because most weeks i'm in it for up to 5 hours, depending on my drive for the day, things just accumulate. like travel mugs. why don't i bring them in that day? most likely because i'm schlepping other junk in the house and don't have enough hands. garbage? it seems like when i have garbage to throw out, there isn't a bin handy. and alot of the stuff that ends up in my van can be recycled. like the 2 inches of training manuals i threw out today from like 4 years ago. again, something that really shouldn't have been in there in the first place, but i hadn't taken out before hand.

so anyways, i now have something important missing in action. i've only had it for just over a week, so it hasn't been used (although i should have already).

what is this tidbit?

my medical insurance card. and i need it to change our prescriptions over.

crumb.

maybe its between the seat. one can only hope!

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