Saturday Skating

So much fun yesterday. The kids skated on our neighbours backyard rink for 2 hours. I was practicing taking some pictures. I always expect that they will turn out better than they do but I did get a couple of shots. Here is the gaggle of girls that was skating.

Old Navy Back in the Good Books

Well, after my little rant about Old Navy I called their customer service line to find out how to resolve the situation. The man on the phone was helpful and told me what I should do. I went back to the same store today - unfortunatley Ms. Sharon wasn't there but a delightful woman by the name of Lori solved my problem and made me happy. She returned the shirt with no discussion and to boot threw in $10 worth of gift cards for my troubles. The funniest part was Meredith standing at the counter when I was telling the story saying "the other lady with the blond hair was mean to my mommy". When we walked away from the counter Meredith said "mommy that lady was so nice. Let's go to her the next time we come". Lori standing at the counter had a big smile on her face. Thank you Lori, you made my day and little Meredith's too. Good-bye butterfly shirt - hello super cute Valentine's shirt!

First Layout of 2008

I have done other scrapbooking related stuff but this is my first layout of the year. My kids with there crazy DING! Love this picture - so glad I captured this word and their actions.

Journaling reads "Okay you girls crack me up. I am trying to get a nice picture of the two of you under the tree and this is what I get DING! It started earlier this year with Uncle Richie but now it is your word. When you are acting crazy, you automatically look at each other, your eyes go wide, your mouth opens and your finger goes up - DING! Just like a light bulb going on. Anytime you say DING it makes me laugh and smile. It does the same to you. The two of you crack me up."

Mish Mash of Stuff

Well here we are Thursday, a week and a day after my last post. How does that happen? Craziness, I guess. Andy's parents came last Thursday for a visit. We had a great time and they enjoyed being with the kids. Andy and I went curling on Friday night and won our first game in 2 years - we were celebrating! Saturday we went downtown and saw the outdoor curling rink - the girls got to throw a few rocks. On Sunday it was the Scrapping Turtle Auction, that was a lot of fun. And here we are Thursday after a busy week.

Before Andy's parents got here we finished up the spare room painting and I finished cleaning up my scrap book area (you wouldn't know it now). If feels great to have these projects done.

Old Nursery

New Room with my Grandma's Quilt
It feels great to have this room done.

Here is my scrapbook area before



and after the reorg.



Totally loving my Making Memories embellishment centre.


My last comment is a rant. You know that something that sets you off and totally bugs you. Well that happened to me yesterday at Old Navy. Meredith got a shirt for Christmas and after 2 washes there was a big tear along the button seam. I took it back to the store yesterday to get it replaced. Of course they didn't have any of the same shirt left. This led me to have a little run in with the store clerk. She wouldn't return the shirt because I didn't have the receipt and the tags were cut off. Well of course it didn't have the tags on it, it had been worn. She was rude and not very helpful and after very curt words were exchanged she offered to give me $3.99 for the shirt. Are you crazy. I left in a huff. The good thing is that my SIL has the receipt and I get to go back to the store and get my money back. The shirt cost $12.99. Bad customer service just irks me. Especially when they are not willing to provide a solution. The product was faulty and it wasn't that I just wanted to return the shirt. Anyways - I hope you have a good Thursday.

Oh yeah - got my first job to make 25 cards for a friend that is starting her own business. So excited about it. I have lots of work to do now. Hopefully I have some time this afternoon.

Guest Designer

The gals over at Circle of Scrapping Friends asked me be their guest designer this week. Each week they post a challenge or dare for people to complete. The challenge this week is mini books. I made an acrylic album for one of Avery's teachers. I love how it turned out. If you haven't dropped by their site, you should go and have a look.

Out with the Old

Well, I finally took the plunge this weekend and took down the wallpaper in what used to be our nursery. This room has been changed into our guest room and the girls share the other room. I have to say that I was sad. This was one of the last reminders of baby things in our house. I think that I wanted another baby but the other important party involved was happy with two. Taking apart this room was adding some real closure to the situation. I am okay with it but yes feeling sad. Kind of crazy that wallpaper would do this. I will post pictures of the transformation when the room has been put back together. The one thing that I am excited about is that I am decorating this room so that I can use the quilt my grandma gave me for my wedding. It is coming out of storage and will be displayed in this room. Excited to see what it is going to look like. Happy Monday.

Urgh!

Cleaning up my scrapbook area and realizing how much stuff I have. Kinda has made me depressed. I have stacks of stuff - I had enough product to give 24 giveaways at my class yesterday. Oh well can't go back but I definitely need to be AWARE going forward. Still not done the reorg but looking forward to getting it done. I will post pictures of my new space when I am done. I am excited to have it all cleaned up.

I was driving the other day and was thinking about all the Mer-isms that come from Meredith. Thought I better write some of them down - cellaphone, Mudder, Sure, silly Meredith, actually. I want to do a layout about this one day, now I have written it down so I don't forget.

My Word Canvas

I created this canvas to display my word "AWARE". I have it hanging in my scrapbook area. I love how it turned out. The kraft paper piece comes out and has a list of things that I want to be aware of.

New Start

Each year I feel excited by the start of a new year. It is my hope that my family stays healthy and happy and that we achieve all the goals we set for ourselves. It is my hope that we have fun times, build great memories and have lots of laughs. It is also a time when we have to revisit the goals that were not accomplished. I do have some of those. It is also a time when I want to get back on track - for me that means healthy eating and excerise. Again for 2008 this is one of my goals. Along with this goal I have chosen a word, a word that has meaning for me and will help motivate and lead me through the next year. No I didn't come up with this concept, it is inspired by Ali Edward's.

In 2007 I chose the word FOCUS. It is amazing how the word grounded me and how often I thought of that word and what it meant to me. This year my word is AWARE. The dictionary meaning of the word is: having or showing realization, perception or knowledge; having knowledge of something; implies vigilance in observing or alertness in drawing inferences from what one experiences.

The is a list of some of the things I want to be aware of:
Aware of what makes me happy
Aware of what is important to me and my family
Aware of what I put into my mouth and how I treat my body
Aware of how I am feeling
Aware of the moment and living there
Aware of doing what I want to do and not what I think that I should do
Aware of the environment around me.
In 2008 I want to be AWARE.

Have you chosen a word - I would love to hear about it.

Tobogganing, Wii, Raclette, Snow Forts

That is how we ended 2007 and started 2008. We celebrated with Andy's sister and family from Ottawa. I don't think that I have laughed as hard in a long time. We started the celebrations with some tobogganing and then a raclette for the kids and then the grownups. We played cards and Wii and ate too much food. The kids had their special New Years at nine and the adults barely made it to 12 but we did see the ball drop. I am not into video games but the Wii is so much fun and it involves some activity. Watching the kids play was funny but watching the adults, hilarious. There were many matches of tennis and boxing happening. Although this post is a little late - Here's to a great 2008. Happy New Year's.

December 26-29

We were Ottawa bound on Boxing Day to celebrate with the Ottawa gang. We ate, played, opened presents, visited and had lots of fun doing wintery things - tobaganning, skating. We visited Andy's Grandma and all the great aunts. All the cousins got to do lots of playing together. It was great to spend time with family having fun! Here are the pictures to prove it!

My favourite photo.

My SIL & BIL have made a tobaganning hill in their backyard for the kids. So much fun. I took these pictures of Andy coming down the hill. I missed the last shot when he crashed into me and I landed on top. I saved the camera though!








CRASH!!!