The middle of the week!

Annie came over today and made me finally fix my screen in the screen door and the screen on the patio door. Thank you sooooo much. She has turned into the "fix it queen". I worked yesterday and you know what, working in health care really sucks some times. We are so short staffed and summer is coming which means vacations and so it will only be worse for staffing, but the only thing that matters any more is the #$%^^& budget. No money for more help and who cares about quality work anymore. It's all about doing as much as you can, with as few people as you can, and as quick as you can. Very discouraging.
I was surfing the blogs just now and I found this link to an "etsy" shop for a purse you can buy online and I wondered if Angie supplies the materials for these purses. Check this out: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5650091 Talk about recycling! Have a good one.

Happy Monday!

Okay, it's happy Monday for me because I am off today. Go back to work tomorrow. Had an amazing super time at the Paper-arts-a-thon on the weekend. This was the best organized and action packed crop I have ever been to. I have organized crops before and I know they are a lot of work, but this was over the top. Our goodie bags were personalized. The food was delicious, and I'm sure I gained 12 pounds. Eggs rolls at midnight, belly dancing at two in the morning, ice cream after that, it went on and on. But the most amazing thing was how much money we raised for Holly and Terry's Joints in motion marathon. Over $9600. Wow! I did gets lots of exercise though, laughing till my stomach and face hurt, a late night walk around the fire hall with some very strangely dressed?? friends, lots of walking to the kitchen to eat and a round of "dirty shadow's" with Angie and Jill in the wee hours of the morning. I was like a zombie all day yesterday. Now today I have wash to catch up on, Connor has soccer tonight and Sarah has a rehearsal for her dance review next weekend. Tues I work and the kids have Judging for 4H, Wed is soccer for Sarah, Thurs is soccer for Connor and Band concert for Sarah, Fri I work and nothing that night. Thank God! So another nice relaxing quiet week in Harmony. Have a good one.

Sarah is back home!

Sarah had a great trip to St. Anne's U. But I am sooo happy she is back. I got a little taste of what the house will be like in a 4 years when she goes to University and I do not like it! I will never be one of those parents who says they can't wait till the kids are gone, (I don't think I will) She was quite tired though. She says she finds herself starting to think in french, which is a good sign that she is really understanding. They even got to go "clubbing" as she put it. I guess there was a band at the campus pub and so they got to go listen. But they all had to wear bracelets to say they were "dry". Not really sure how I feel about that one, but she had a ball. I am trying to pack some of my stuff for Sat, the paper-arts-a-thon. It is really hard to fit an entire scrap room into a few bags. How does one know what you might need or feel like working on at 3 in the morning. I better get back to it and get to bed, gotta work again tomorrow and getting up at 530 really sucks.

Eleven!

That is how old my little boy is today. Can I still use the term "little". He is always soooo excited about his birthday. If you did not know it was his b"day, he would be very happy to tell you it was. This morning he said to me "Mom, today is going to be a great day. Not only is it my birthday, but it is country day at school and I have woodworking tonight!" Life does not get much better than that when you are eleven. Guess we could all take a lesson from that. Each grade 5 student at school had to do a project about a country. Connor picked Italy, cause we were there in Oct. Today they set up in the gym and the rest of the school and the public (parents) can go see all the projects. They had to make some food from that country. Connor wanted to make bruschetta (sp?) Now for anyone who knows me you realize how much I don not enjoy cooking. But, it pays to have a chef in the family, cause Uncle Mike made the bruschetta with Connor yesterday, and it turned out great! Thank you Mike.

Sarah is gone to St. Anne's University until Thurs afternoon with her class trip. She was a little nervous about two nights away, because I have always chaperoned her trips before. She will call me before bed, so she felt better after we decided she could call.

Dad, did you notice the hat Connor has on? Since hockey season, he has had to switch hats three times. Once Totonto got beat out, he wore his Pittsburgh hat, when they got beat out, he started wearing his sens hat because they were the only Canadian team left.

Have a great day and enjoy the sunshine!

Jump...Jump...Jump

That's the theme around here. We got the trampoline put together yesterday. There was a break in the rain for about an hour and Jeff was home so we put the thing together. It was not as hard as I thought it would be, and lots of fun to be had after. Here are some photos of Sarah and her friend Christie on it today. Connor had hurt his back earlier, while playing crack the egg. I tried it too. No there will never be pictures to show of that. I finally was able to book out trip to BC. I spent three hours on the phone with aeroplan. Apparently people book at least a year in advance when you want several seats especially in the summer. Unfortunately, a year ago, I did not have enough points. Anyway, the kids and I go on Aug 22 and Jeff comes on the 24. We will visit my sister in Nanaimo and his sister in Port Hardy. Jeff comes home on Sep 1 and we come home Sept 3. We were very lucky to get any thing . Dad, I have not given up getting to Ottawa, it just did not work with this time period. I am looking at some time in July, I hope!!! This will be the longest time Jeff has taken away from the farm. Hope nothing happens while we are away. I am just finishing some of my homework for book club tomorrow night. Later

Farewell to Two Much Fun!

Well, last night was the "Mystery Night" at 2MF. It was so great to see the majority of the die hards there. There was cake and coffee, of which I restrained myself from having cake. Ria and Paulette gathered us round and read a heartfelt farewell to all of us. They will be closing June 30 after 5 (kick ass years of fun) years. We were all shocked and upset. But I know this was not an easy decision for them as they have put their hearts into this store. It is really more than a store, they helped create a family of crazy scrapbook product junkies. I will miss it very much, but I hope now they will have the time to have as much fun scrap booking as we have all had over the past 5 years. I know we will continue to get together some how. All the best RIA and PAULETTE. No one will ever take you place. I better get back to work, everyone is on break and I am holding down the fort.

Some of this and lots of that!

Bad blogger again! Yesterday Annie and I went to Halifax. It is so great having her here to hang with. Anyway, I was getting Sarah and Connor a trampoline for their birthdays. They have been wanting one for a long time, so I had the idea that if they did not have a "friend" party, I would use the money for that and put it towards the trampoline for the b'days. They both agreed so yahoo!!!! we do not have to have a "friend" which describes "other peoples kids who do not know how to behave at parties" party! They had a really nice one at Costco. When we got there, there was a sign that said if you had the damn coupon, it was $100 off. So I said to Annie, where do you get this coupon, she looks around and rips the sign off the shelf and takes the coupon off and gives it to me and says, right here! I nearly died. But $100 is a lot of money, so I bought the trampoline. I was supposed to go to 2MF today and make my magnetic board that I missed in Jan but can you believe I forgot about it until this afternoon. What the hell is wrong with me? My mother bought Connor a new bike for his b'day and I had to return that to Crappy Tire this morning because he rode it twice and the gears are not working. He was so upset about it this morning. Here is a picture of Connor watching the Senators game the other night. Well, after he fell asleep. He is wearing team Canada attire because all he has of the Sens is a ball hat my dad sent him a couple of years ago, that only recently touched his head. He figures since they are a Canadian Team the Canadian cloths brings good luck. He fell asleep still wearing the finger.

These are pictures the kids doing their chores. There are a couple of beef calves that are motherless so the feed them bottles of milk at night. They are in the beef barn which is below our house and get to drive the 4wheeler. Funny, I'm thinking if they had to walk they might not be so willing to feed the calves. They take turns driving. Would have been good if I had taken a picture of them feeding the calves before they were weaned but that would require me to go to the barn.

Also, I am de-cluttering and have a scrapbook tote I would like to sell. It is in perfect condition except for the dust. (which I will give away for free) It is a crop-in-style that I bought 5-6 years ago. I am asking $30, if anyone is interested or knows someone who might be, just let me know.

Happy Mothers Day...

....to all the mothers. Is there anything cuter than a little boy who makes sure he gets up this morning before I leave for work (yah, I'm working!) to give me my mothers days card and coupons and a plant pot. He told me I could pick out any flower at the nursery and he would buy it for me. Sarah, she was still sleeping because we did not get back from the dance competition until 11 last night. But she has been working on something in her room this week that involves flowers from 2MF. It was so cute, she saw these flowers in one of my magazines and asks me if I go to 2MF could I pick her up some of theses flowers and she would pay me back. But she needed them before this weekend. Can't wait to see it. Sarah's hip hop class did a dance at the millennium dance contest yesterday, they did well, and got a bronze medal. They were saying the adjudicators were very hard marking so a bronze was very good. It was a very different dance then what I am used to watching Sarah do, but she is having so much fun with her friends and loves going to dance again. It's been a long time since she has been happy dancing. Let me tell you there were some amazing young girls there who can really dance, jazz and hip hop. It was really enjoyable to watch. We went shopping at Mic Mac to find Sarah a dress for the semi in June. She is so tiny it is hard to find a dress for her. She tried on several and got very discouraged. There were some at Le chateaux she like but all too big. I said we would go to the Halifax shopping center but she was down and did not want to. But we went and guess what, we found the dress she really liked in her size, XXS. It is strapless (yikes) pale yellow, very simple but very pretty, makes her look too grown up. Got a little sweater for her shoulders. Spent too much, but it was the only one. I better get back to work.

Dentist visit!

I just got back from my check up at the dentist. I really, and I mean really do not like going to the dentist. This phobia dates way back to when I was a kid and bit the dentist once. Anyway, I make myself go. But I have a molar in the back that has an old filling in it. She said there is "something" going on under the filling and if I want to keep the tooth they need to take the filling out and fix it. It may need a "ROOT CANAL" Have you ever had one? I have, it's not very nice and I am freaking out. But I guess since my daughter faces jaw surgery in a few years I should stop complaining. Annie is coming out today to play in my flower beds. Some of my plants are too big so I will give her some pieces. Tracey, if you come pick them up I will share with you too.
For anyone who uses photo shop, I found this really cool blog. Every Fri she posts a tutorial about using photo shop. She does a lot of digital scrapping, which I am not really into, but it's a great way to learn how to use this amazing program.
The link is: http://spraguelab.squarespace.com/ Don't you just love this "techno geek world"
Gotta put the groceries away and get some laundry moving and dig some flowers and finish my book club projects. Can't wait for book club, cause I missed last month so it seems like forever.
Later

Monday and gonna be warm!

Monday morning again, but at least it is going to be nice out. We had a few tense moments this morning. Don't you love it when your son says 5 min before the bus comes, "I need a project board for today" Like I can just whip one of those up on demand. So of course the tears come, because now he won't be able to finish his country project today. So looks like I have to head to staples this afternoon so he has one for tomorrow.

Here are some pictures of my sister Tracey and her family from their vacation in California. They live in Nanaimo, which is tooooo far away from NS. Corey is her husband and Kaylie is the oldest, Hannah is the youngest. Looks like they had a great time. We sure miss you guys alot. But they will be here for Christmas this year. And if I ever get my butt in gear I would book some tickets to go see them on my vacation in Aug. I better get on that tonight.

It's Saturday morning!

Trying to decide between cleaning out the shed, cleaning out the "other" side of the basement, doing more laundry or digging in the flower beds. What really sounds good is curling up with my latest trashy Nora Roberts book and reading. Not that that will happen. Sarah has a science test to study for and she needs help in organizing her self to study. Connor has a friend from his hockey team from Bridgetown coming over for the night. So I'm thinking no time for me. I was in to 2MF yesterday, and realized that book club is only two weeks away and I have not even read the paper to think about what the homework is. So what am I doing at the computer. These flowers were from this year! Later

So Annie called me this morning complaining about me not posting. So I am going to her house today to show her how to set up a blog, then I can nag her too. I have been spending my days off trying to get caught up with the farm paperwork. We only have a small business and the amount of paper that goes thru this house is insane. How many trees do we waste sending bills. You know what I'm thinking. Give up sending bills, don't you agree? Why can't they email them? Maybe I will ask.

Sarah had to be at school this morning at 640 to go to Halifax for a band music festival and then shopping at Halifax Shopping Centre. She was so excited and has some babysitting money burning a hole in her pocket. I have to pick her up at 1130 tonight. Might have to set my alarm for that.

I posted this picture to introduce you to my new daughter "Connorette". The hair is out of control. Jeff is losing his mind over it. I think he is still cute. My way of thinking is "say yes to the hair so I can say no to piercings and tattoos." Looks like a great day outside, so enjoy.

May 1 can you beleive it!

So, I survived my five days of work. I know to all those people who work full time, you are thinking, "shut up" . But I do also do the books for the farm (which is what I should be doing now) and I do all the running around with the kids. So, why am I feeling guilty...I do not know. The weather has been crappy. I have not been exercising and I feel like crap too. I am doing no scrap booking, which is driving me crazy, because I keep buying all this really great stuff. So, I think I need something to perk me up. Any ideas??? My sister Annie is almost all done unpacking which is great and Tracey is home from California although I have not been able to connect with her yet. Dam that 4 hour time difference with BC. I am posting a photo of Annie from a couple of years ago because I did not want her to feel left out. Not really sure what was up with the faux fur.