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

just a little tired

what a crazy day today. started out with dh giving me a little poke, and then a whispered "honey, i'm sorry, the alarm didn't go off!!" and me jumping out of bed. the god-awful time?? 5:55am. i am NOT a morning person. blech.

out the door at 6am, (no, i did not shower, i was going to the pool anyways this morning) and off to work. the reason for the nasty time? there were Kraft VP's in town this week i guess, so off i went to tidy up a store in anticipation of their visit today.

after that, was off to the pool for my niece and nephew's last swim lesson of this session. had a grand time in the pool!

then, off to another nearby store to do some more display tidy up and filling.

then the mad dash home - went for my last tanning minutes (aka - SNOOZE!) and nails done before holidays on saturday.

then wait!! had to go back to the city again for another couple hours of work.

my grand mileage total for the day? 300 km. crazy. one of my sister's friends asked me this morning if i minded driving so much. i suppose if i did, i wouldn't be doing the job i do. i do get mileage, so it is a bonus.

so now we're into the home stretch for holidays - 54 hours till we head to the airport for some r&r. still feel like i have alot on my plate though. and not completely packed. i'll get there, even if it means not getting to bed on friday night. it'll be more like a nap if anything else.

i did find something way cool today to take with me:

now how fun is this?? i thought it was too cute! will be taking it with me down south - and the best part is that a straw fits in the hole in the top - and its leakproof when the lid is snapped shut.

gotta love it.

(and if you need one for yourself - its from starbucks. for twelve bucks. but it made my day!)

busy week ahead!

only 5 more sleeps until we head off on our holiday! man has time flown by. and i'm sure this week will be no exception.

workwise - i really could use a clone this week. not that i worked today, or will work tomorrow, but i got 3 phone calls today that rounded out wednesday, and i already have friday more or less filled (the kids are off school that day, so wasn't wanting a full day anyways). and i still have thursday free as well. wednesday i could probably have filled 10 hours with what everyone is wanting, but i have other stuff on the go that day as well. as it is, will be heading into the city at 6am so that i can still make swim lessons with my sister at 9:45. after that, i have a stop to work in the same area for hopefully only an hour or so. then heading back home for 2 appts, one at 1:30 and the other at 2. funny how nobody can really plan ahead!!

very cool - sue has her site open at justcre8.com what a fabulous job she and her team have done! lots of familiar faces over there... i wish her luck!

quiet day for me at home. got the kitchen tidied up, put in 4 loads of laundry, went to wal-mart (twice) cooked dinner, read blogs, downloaded pics from my camera... speaking of, will show a couple of funnies here:

this is my mom - during our pedicure outing on
saturday... what a hoot!! it seems like we all have
issues of some sort with our toes - mom's got
some sort of weird thing happening - this was
when her lovely gal was fixing it. my mom had
the most priceless look on her face!!







and there's my grandma at the far end - she too
enjoyed being pampered! my poor mom- she
was wondering what she had gotten herself into this time!









and me just enjoying - it was so nice to have some pampering!! my toes are a beautiful bright pink. definitely right for a south bound holiday!










and one of my sister - check out the baby bump!
can't wait for another little one to snuggle!



we had a lovely time there - the chairs we were in were those massaging type ones, gotta love it!












there's a call for a snow storm tonight - although we aren't supposed to get it, the city is forcasted to get up to 15 cm of snow. crazy crazy weather!

and on a "prep" note for holidays, i actually put stuff into my suitcase today. not done yet, but it sure doesn't seem like much. i'm thinking its because it's still not exactly warm enough here, i'm not used to the warm weather clothing. i do want to have room for a pillow though, as the hotel reviews are consistantly saying that they suck. i got the boys in gear today too, b has pretty much everything packed other than underwear and pj's, j is in the same place too. so that's good. i always stress about not having enough stuff to wear. or the stuff i might want. but its all good. still searching for a lightweight pair of black pants. but if i don't find any, oh well.

hey, and thanks to mona and lacintha! ((((HUGS)))) ladies!! you made my day :) !

gotta change things up

and now things are pink. hope i don't scare anyone away - not that there are all that many people that read my blog anyways. not that there's anything all that interesting. or regular.

what can i say? i just seem to forget to blog. its not something i think of doing regularly. reading blogs however, i do that regularly. like daily even. so why don't i blog more often? maybe because i don't feel like i have anything terribly interesting to say. and then i feel like i'm just rambling. about nonsense.

anyone else feel that way?

you know its march...

when you get it all in one day. the weather i mean!

spring in alberta can be a challenge at the best of times. ok, who am i kidding? its a challenge year round!

so i get up this morning, and its rather blah, grey, cloudy, and only 0C out. head out to work a few hours later, and i couldn't see much of anything on the highway. why?? oh, only a blizzard of sorts, lots of lovely fluffy flakes. by the time i arrived at my destination 45 minutes later, the wind had died down, and the roads were basically wet and sloppy. the sun was trying to peek through.

when i left a couple hours after that, the sun was shining brightly, the snow/wet was gone, and it was quite beautiful out.

fast forward to 4pm. looked outside at my pathetic dog. standing in the HAIL that was coming down!! not big summer hail, but small pellets. opened the door to let him in, and it was thundering out! what the heck? its march for goodness sake!

and now, 3 hours later, its again sunny, albeit cool.

welcome to spring in alberta!

it's monday...

... and i have the day off!

i can't quite believe its been more than a month since i've last blogged. busy, i suppose!

just finished up with working the sales route i was covering last thursday, it was 7-ish weeks that i covered for the new gal. worked with her tues, wed, and thurs. i really like her, and glad to have met her. from the sounds of things i may be covering her route again for 6 weeks starting the end of april as she will be going in for surgery.

and the countdown is on for holidays! we're leaving in 12 days for puerto vallarta with my entire family! eleven of us - should be good times! with the preparation comes a flurry of shopping. i'm so glad that stores do have things like shorts and bathing suits out, even though the weather is not exactly spring-like. dh and i purchased new suitcases on the weekend. we have some, but not enough for all 4 of us. totally loving mine - it looks like this:



yes, its pink. what can i say? totally fell in love with it when i saw it. and it was on sale for $80. dh got a grey and orange one. the thing i was most surprised about is that it has a 15 year warranty! crazy.

well, if i'm going to make my 10am appointment i better get a move on. shower and all that! hope you're having a great monday!

happy valentine's day!

well, my day started out quite well i think! made a card for the dh and tucked it into his lunchbox last night. quite cute if i do say so myself! will see if i can borrow it to post a pic. he liked it i think - got a kiss out of it this morning!

got myself out the door and down to the courthouse for 9am to see what i could do about my little speeding ticket from just before christmas (oh yes, that was a merry ho-ho to me!!) since i know nothing about how this all works, the last one i just paid as we were going on holidays when it was due, i went to check in and was informed that i would need to sit and wait for the first appearance prosecutor. so i sat. and waited. in the uncomfortably close confines of the waiting room. my personal space was invaded from both sides, behind and in front of me. nothing even on the walls to read, so sat and looked at the people's shoes around me. i sat there for about an hour. then saw the guy. he reduced my penalty to about half - $85 from $161 with 1 less demerit. so that's all good, i would say!

went to the city to go work after that. stopped in at the last chance liquidators - they liquidate costco merchandise. the cool thing, today they had all clothing 40% off, so picked up 2 t-shirts for myself and a pair of swim trunks for ds#1 for our mexico holiday.

stopped at our mailbox on the way home, and there is my delivery notice for my S! kit. i want to go get it, but it is so darn cold out, i'm not going to go back out again until tomorrow. will pick it up on my way out in the morning. pretty pathetic if you ask me!!

and dh is cooking us valentine's dinner. can't wait to see what he's coming up with. i got dessert on my way home - chocolate lava cakes, strawberries and ice cream.

circle journal overload

wow. i must say i feel just slightly overwhelmed with circle journals at the moment. i love to peruse them as i receive them. sit on them for a week or two to digest their content. decide what i'm going to do, and take pictures if i need to. then maybe in the last week before the mail date is due, actually complete the process and do up my layout for them.

until this week.

i received 2 cj's from teresa, for the group i am hostessing. now 2 at once isn't a big deal. nor are we in any rush as we are running months AHEAD of schedule. yes ahead. no, that doesn't seem to happen often in circle journal groups. it is not the norm.

now, like i said, 2 is not a big deal. until a humongous box arrived on wednesday (or was it tuesday?) with - count with me - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - FIVE more journals. so that makes seven in my possession.

holy crap.

theoretically, seven months of work arriving at once. yipes.

the good thing? i got off my butt and spent the day today devoted to circle journals. i dug up old photos. i scanned. i cropped. i even snapped photos. i pasted. i inked. i stamped. i did a ton of hand journalling. and at the end of the day, i now have 4 of those 7 journals completed.

i must say i'm rather please with myself. creativity is in the house.

Tag - you're it!

Ok, so I haven't done this one yet. And if you haven't done this one yet either, consider yourself tagged. And if you have, good for you LOL!

A=Available – nope, not for a long time
B=Best Friend – Rene
C=Cake or pie – I like pie. Apple pie. Pumpkin pie. Cherry pie. Strawberry rhubarb pie. Blueberry pie. Do I get it often? Nope. Can't bake a pie unless its storebought crust. Love my grandma's pie crust.
D=Drink of choice – Coffee first thing. 2 cups. And Coke. With ice.
E=Essential item you use everyday – Hairdryer
F=Favourite color - Pink
G=Gummy bears or worms – Worms. the sour ones from Wal-Mart.
H=Hometown - Calgary, AB
I= Indulgences – My nails, Pandora charms and sb supplies.
J= January or February - February. Usually warmer than January!
K=Kids and names – DS1 - Jonah, DS2 Bailey
L=Life is incomplete without - friends
M=Marriage date – Aug 20, 1994
N=Number of siblings – 1 sister
O=Oranges or apples – Oranges
P=Phobias or Fears – Those big-ass spiders that grew in our yard last summer. Hope to heck they're gone this year!!
Q=Favourite Quote – oh dear. i don't know.
R=Reason to smile – blogs!! i read too many of them!
S=Season - summer
T=Tag 3 or 4 people - Its up there. At the top. I think I'm last.
U=Unknown fact about me – ?? I have no idea.
V=Vegetable you don't like – Probably the one and only thing I will NOT touch - brussel sprouts.
W= Worst habit – I bite my nails. (when they're not acrylics)
X=X-rays – I think only my teeth. Maybe some when I was young. I don't remember!
Y=Your favorite food – Vietnamese soup or subs. Sushi.
Z= Zodiac Sign - Libra

Musings

just some thoughts as they come to me, after all its been almost 2 weeks since i last posted (why does this sound like "father, i have sinned, it has been 2 weeks since my last confession"?)

- work is going well. keeping busy, keeping my head above water, trying to fill C.'s shoes for the time being. i've put in some great orders the last couple days, so that should help the sales numbers for the territory!

-driving in freezing rain is not fun. its not even that the roads bother me so much, its the iced up windshield that bothers me. and when the little "washer fluid low" light comes on when i'm on the highway.

- bubble baths. mmmmmm... need i say more?

- reading a great kid's book at the moment "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke. my ds also has the next one in the series "Inkspell" which i'm sure i'll pick up as soon as i'm done this one. great read!

- caved and picked up a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts on the way home from work. love how when you go in and the "hot" light is on - you get that warm, soft, yeasty, sweet, unbelievably caloric donut to savor while you're waiting for your order to be filled. not to mention that i'll be feeding my niece and nephew one tomorrow morning after swim lessons. that should get them good and wound up before i say 'bye!! (yes i'm very very mean. those poor children are sugar deprived!)

- yes, swim lessons. going to the Y again tomorrow morning for the mommy workout LOL. actually, loving the bonding time with my niece and nephew. A. usually hangs out with me for some girl time in the pool, while J. has graduated to sitting on my lap afterward while we have "lunch" before i head out to work. last week it was so cute when J. was sitting with me, picking through my wrap to pull out the cucumbers for his own consumption. what a turkey! and little A. - she is loving the jumping in the pool. she plays coy, then all of a sudden launches herself at me, giggling the whole time.

- and my not so little boy J. has now launched himself into the lucrative money making world of being a (pre)teenage babysitter. he has his first "gig" this coming weekend, with a trial run tomorrow night for a couple hours. i'm sure he'll be in there like a dirty shirt - and being only a couple blocks away, he knows we'll help him out if he gets stuck!

- in a bit of a scrapping rut at the moment. haven't done anything in a couple weeks. maybe because i'm getting slightly ticked at PSE. its happened before. if i can't figure out how to do what i want with my photos, i just shut down for a while till i figure it out. that being said, i am dedicating saturday to scrapping while dh is making sausage. that is a guy thing. more on that in a minute... i also have 7 cj's to work on. 2 from the group i'm hosting, and 5 from another. ACK!! but!! wait!! that should fuel some creativity if nothing else!!

- yes sausage. dh made some wonderful jerky and smoked pork tenderloins on the weekend. the jerky is thicker, more like that kippered beef stuff you can find at 7-11 in the middle of the night when you're craving salt. and the tenderloins have yet to be tasted. they are currently drying in the garage fridge where the temptation of "just a nibble" is gone from inside the house. we should be able to sample this tomorrow, maybe thursday! he and ds are planning on making some bratwursts and mettwursts on saturday. looking forward to the mettwurst myself, this is one of my favorite types of sausage!

- i replaced the destroyed curtains in our bedroom. a lovely brown linen-y type of fabric. chocolate brown. now for a new duvet cover!!

- and a parting giggle.
we discussed last night that there were swim lessons today after school. we discussed this morning that there were swim lessons today after school. ds1 told ds2 to meet him after school to go to swim lessons. what happens?
i pull into the garage after work at 3:45. first indication *something* is not right - the dog is in the yard. did my lovely housekeeper forget to let him in before she left? hmmm. i walk in the back door, spot ds2's boots by the front door. where is he? downstairs at the computer. why? because he FORGOT about swim lessons. tell him to get moving so i can take him over, just as ds1 blasts through the front door, after running all the way home from the pool to find the daydreamy child who has forgotten about his swim lessons. i tell ya. if his head wasn't screwed on he'd leave that behind too. and he was PUMPED about swimming. go figure. i think he takes after his mother.

maybe a new challenge?

tuesday morning as i was out and about doing some work, made a few phone calls to reps to find out if they had anything else for me to do in the next couple days as i was in the city anyways. speaking with one of them, he mentioned that he was planning on coming out one evening for a drink at the bar. well, to make a long story short (not sure i want to talk about it much anyways) told him that i was no longer working there so we'd have to go for a drink elsewhere another day. that led to him asking me if i was looking for anything else right now. the easy answer? no, not really, thinking of taking a break for a little while and then maybe finding something else if i decide to.

so he asks me if i would be interested in something else. like what? well, he tells me that one of the other reps is leaving, and that if i was interested he would put my name in the hat with his recommendation. that is what my "next step" career wise i'm looking for. and i asked him if he thought i was even ready for that, given i don't have alot of experience yet. (relief is ALOT different than actually working the job!) he told me yes, i was more than ready.

somewhat daunting, as i looked up a similar job posting for the same company, and the first thing there is university degree. nope. don't have one of those anywhere in my drawers.

so on tuesday afternoon, i got a phone call from my boss, that i will be covering for one of the reps indefinitely, as she is moving on to another route. (the guy that quit.) ok, that works for me.

so out i go with C. today, just to do some review of her route and refreshing of my working knowledge of the computer i work with. and of course, have to do a little chatting along the way. so she told me that there is someone that is more than likely to be getting her route, but that the person is not as impressive as was first thought. but that does open a door, because there is usually 1 or 2 people waiting in the wings so to speak as a contract person, for exactly this type of situation when an opening comes up.

hmmmm.....

C. is also looking to put in a good word for me with the big guys, as well as K., the one who wants to recommend me as well. so maybe bigger things are on the horizon yet.

but in the meantime, i'm content to do what i am doing. i enjoy what i do, without the pressure of having to "perform".

and then i come home to my totally wrecked bedroom. at least the dog had the decency to leave my waterbed alone. the curtains however have experienced their untimely demise, along with the roses dh got me last week.

quote that i spotted today on the side of my "real simple" magazine, and fitting i think:

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." - Josef Campbell

Hmmm...

I am certainly not a regular blogger am I? Actually, somewhat surprised that it hasn't disappeared due to lack of use! Don't things ever expire in cyberspace? I'm thinking not.

Anyways, here's something new!!

Since my last post, months and months and months ago, alot of things have changed.

- I started a new position with Kraft Foods in September. LOVE IT! I work on my own schedule, which is the nice part, but I'm also gaining alot of experience as I also do relief work for the sales reps. Which is where I want to be in 6-8 months. The cool thing is that my boss also recognizes this, and told me that she will help me get there even though it means I would no longer work for her. Perks galore! Hockey tickets a couple of times now, and lunches out with the reps. Gotta love it! The other bonus? Going down 2 pant sizes since September. I'm quite happy with the way my body is looking again!

- DH moved to a different job as well, the beginning of October. Doesn't particularly care for it, he is only staying right now because he does like his boss, and we're going on holidays the end of March. Hard to start something new and say "oh, by the way, I'll be gone for a week..."

- Kids are well back in the swing of things now that Christmas is over with. They're both loving curling, bonspiels start soon. Swim lessons in a couple of weeks again, thanks to their great-grandma for Christmas. That should keep them off the computers some. They are both techno junkies!

- Gotta love a grandma. She sold her house last spring, and hasn't done anything yet with the funds. So now, she's taking us - all eleven of us - to Mexico for spring break. Wow. A week on the beach. I *so* can't wait. Will be looking forward to a tan, a getaway, and those awesome photos. Bonding time? Well, we'll see.

On my creative side, things are starting to look up. Been playing more with PSE, and winning! Have fixed up some not so great shots to make them better, and then, they are all the more better to scrap with. Which leads me to the challenge with the S! girls - a 25/50 layout challenge. Basically, the rules are simple. When we complete 25 layouts we go into a draw for a goodie, courtesy of HeatherS!. When we complete 50, she'll send us a goodie - period. BUT, we can't shop other than getting our kits. There's the challenge. NO SHOPPING. ACK! But I love to shop!! I'm part way there, I've gotten 7 done in the last couple weeks, which is more than I've scrapped in the last 4 months. So that is good. :) Makes me smile!

Will leave with these couple of photos of my niece and nephew from their b-day celebration last week. Yes, they are now printed and will be my next 2 layouts. Love these monkeys, they are too cute!