Recently....

As you've noticed, I haven't been all that bloggy lately. Not sure why. I think its because I'm just not taking pictures of anything, and I think blogs need pictures! Aye aye aye!

Lately, I've been keeping myself busy with gardening (er, keeping my 1/3 of my garden alive), keeping my eyes on a very mobile Lliam and chasing after him with baby Anbesol (as he has 4 teeth already through AND about 4 more pushing through) its been a disaster around here, going to the Ranch.

On saturday was my little nephew's birthday party. It was such a perfect day. It was 23 degrees out, sun shining, and a little breeze. We took the horses out for a ride, and tried out my Aussie saddle. The kids had a blast running around outside, popping balloons and un-poppable bubbles. We had amazing BBQ burgers, and to round out the meal, we had a "Wiggles" cake for dessert.

Today, on my holiday monday, I'm staying inside. Its way too cold to do fun stuff with the kids. I'm going to finish the laundry, and maybe take the kids to the wave pool.

I'll post pics soon. Lliam is just growing like a weed. He'll be one year old on May 24th!! Can you believe it?

I know!





Happy 100 posts to me!!!! WOOOT

Birthday Redemption

My birthday has now come and gone. May 7th was my big day. I hit the big 3-1! Now officially in my 30's. Birthdays always seemed so special to me, but ever since I hit 30, they have just been regular days. This year was no exception. I was in Cardston selling baked goods that we spent 17 hours the previous day preparing. My sisters and mother are trying to fundraise for our trip out to Vegas in October. So we decided to sell our baking at the Farmer's Market. We baked Cinnamon Buns, Sweet Buns, Banana Loaf, Lemon Loaf, Ginger snaps, white chocolate Ginger Snaps, hand rolled chocolates, snickerdoodles (caramel and chocolate dipped pretzels), Apple pie, Bumbleberry pie, and last but not least Apple turnovers....yes, we baked ALL of these the day before, PLUS decorating all the packaging they went in! LONG LONG LONG day....Did it pay off? Well, not too too bad. I was a cranky pants most of the day. I was going on NO sleep, cranky kids, I was PMSing something fierce, and I just couldn't shake the grump off. The bake sale was a little dissappointing. I really thought more people would have bought our stuff. A lot of work went into that, and I just thought we would have sold more. Oh well. You never know what the consumers are craving these days.

The end of my birthday was drawing near. I travelled back up to Calgary, and made it to Girls Night. I'm so glad that I went. One of the girls baked me a cake, and it truly was the highlight of the night. She bakes and decorates cakes for a living, and OMgosh, it was one of the best cakes ever! It was a chocolate peanut butter cake, with almond flavored frosting! **drool** it was fabulous! I'll post the pics as soon as she posts them on facebook. Trust me, way cute, and way yummy!

Lliam is almost one year old!!! Can you believe that its been a year already?! A year since I've started my blog as well. No kidding! Lliam is cutting about 4 teeth at the same time, so cranky is his favorite mood lately. Not cool. I'll be glad when the teeth are all in. He's also standing up on anything he can get his hands on. He's mastered the crawling, and soon to be walking. *tear* my baby is growing up.

I just gave my "I'm not returning to work" notice at the office. Sad and yet not. For so long my career defined me. And now my new job, SAHM, I'm finding a new rewarding career. I love learning how to make life at home easier, more economical, and fun for the kids! I'm into planting gardens, learning how to dehydrate food and store it, and learning how to make home made bread not taste like home made bread. Yeah, thanks You Tube...its amazing what crap is on that site! I waste almost as much time on that site as I do with facebook.

Just tonight, Jos and I went to see Star Trek. AMAZING MOVIE. I watched the Original Star Trek as a child, and grew to love Star Trek: The Next Generation (seriously, who didn't fall in love with Ryker?!) This movie exceeded my expectations. I loved that Jos and I could have that time together. I rarely see this man, and it was a nice treat to watch it together. On our way home, he let me pick out my birthday gift. A brand new LG X120 Whatchamacallit. Its so cute.





It was a perfect end to the day. Thanks Jos for the mini laptop.

Now to watch the Hockey game and WIN!! GO CANUCKS GO!!!

The Blogger Blues

I don't feel like blogging. Nope. Not at all.

So this is my blog post saying that I don't feel like blogging.

I am in a Bad mood.

I have cranky kids that I need to not duct tape to the walls.

I'll write when I have something to say.

7 year itch?! Its all good!!

Well as some of you may have heard from my facebook statuses, that this weekend was Jos and I's 7 year wedding anniversary. We take turns at who is in charge of planning the anniversary date. This year it was Jos' turn. We think. All I knew from the beginning was he wanted $XXX transfered to our visa card. Now, as the suspicious person as I am, I began to piece things together. You know, when you see something out of the ordinary, its assumed that its part of this mystery weekend...

Example :

"Jos, where are my new jeans?"

"I dunno, maybe the wash...?"

"Jos! They aren't there. I've looked everywhere, and I want to wear them today. They were JUST in our room 10 mintues ago!"

"Well, I don't know where they are."

That kind of stuff definately strikes me as "something is UP!"

Example #2:

"Debbie Jo, do think we'll be using this suitcase any time soon? So I should put it downstairs by the laundry then? Okay."

Also triggers that...um...Sherlock Holmes in me.

I truly love to be surprised, but its so hard to NOT FIND OUT.


So I figured we were definately going somewhere for the weekend, its just a matter of where. So I let THAT be the surprise.

The plan was put into action.

Saturday

10am - have a shower, get ready for the day

11am - call sister and giggle for an hour and plan the summer activities

12pm - feed lunch to the kids, bathe them and dress them

1pm - work out in the garden for a bit. I'm digging up my gravel pit backyard and turning a portion of it into garden space for a cute veggie garden. Its hard work.

2pm - relax for a bit

3pm - Watch You Tube, blog, stalk other people's blogs, play scrabble on Facebook.

4pm - continuing to waste time on Facebook

5pm - get the kids ready to pick up my step sister at the airport and take her to the Ranch in Nanton.

6:30pm - arrive at the ranch, where no one was home yet. Let the kids play around the house, and another car pulls up. It was OUR other car. Lance (my little bro) was driving it. He had it full of suitcases and supplies for the kids.

6:45pm - the cat is out of the bag, that the kids are staying at the Ranch, and Jos and I are continuing our drive down to Waterton for our weekend getaway.

7:15pm - we get in the car, and start our scenic drive down to Waterton. I decided not to take the boring Hwy 2 drive down there, but instead, we jotted over to Hwy 22 and took the back way (Paralleling the Rockies) all the way down. It was a 1/2 hr longer that route, but far more scenic.

8:30pm - we take a wrong turn at Pincher Creek. We back track 5 mintues and continue on in the right direction

8:45pm - We slam on the brakes for some wildlife on the road.

8:50pm - We slam on the brakes for some wildlife on the road.

8:55pm- We slam on the brakes for some wildlife onthe road.

9:00pm - We slam on the brakes for some wildlife on the road.

9:15pm - We arrive in Waterton National Park.

9:16pm -We slam on the brakes for some wildlife on the road.

9:20pm - We arrive at the Glacier Suites in Waterton.






10:00pm - FALL ASLEEP! - its been a long day.


Sunday

8:00am - we head down to the lobby for some complimentary breakfast. It was so yummy, but I do not recommend getting the "Beef sausages" if you enjoy eating things that resemble a small horses parts, go right ahead. Other than that, it was fabulous.

9:00am - Start our brisk walk around Waterton Lake. The wind nearly blew us over! It was warm (15 C) but the wind was so crazy! We weren't prepared for that kind of wind. My ears were starting to ache.





9:15am - decide to drive into Cardston to gas up, pick up a few things we needed for the hotel. Things that were forgotten when men pack secretly for women. Like hairbrushes!!

10:00am - surprise mom at her work, and visited for a bit. She was so happy to see me. We had some good times. Did you know that "Yesterbay" sounds a lot like "masterbate" in pig latin? Yeah, who knew!

10:45am - Go to the only store open in Cardston on a sunday. Find some more treats and conditioner (because only a few hotels actually supply it in their complimentary soap dish)

11:00am - take the relaxing drive back to the Park, and stop at every For sale sign to check out properties.

11:45am - Arrive at the park, and make our reservation for dinner.

12:30pm - Drive up a mountain road and plan to go on a hike.

12:59pm - Realize that EVERY trail is packed with snow. Not fun.

1:05pm - eat our picnic lunch on the way down the mountain.

1:30pm - Decide to finish our walk around the lake. It was SO WINDY, but I was prepared this time with a toque. MUCH BETTER.

2:30pm - Stop to look at the falls that everyone that goes to the park gets their photo taken at...you know where I am talking about.

2:45pm - get back to the hotel and take a nap. Watch a movie.

5:00pm - Oh this is getting pretty fun without KIDS!!



6:30pm - arrive at the restaraunt for dinner.

7:00pm - order our steaks, and watch the Canucks game.

- WE WON!! 3 games in a row!! GO CANCUCKS

8:00pm - start filling the jacuzzi tub, and turned the TV in its direction. We turned on Mamma Mia! It was such a fun show, that I didn't realize I was still sitting in a luke-warm tub.

10:00pm - bed time.


Monday

8:00am - go down to the lobby, and order something different this time.
French toast it is.
It was ok...Reminder to chefs out there...French toast it to be made with Texas Toast...not end pieces of regular bread.
tsk tsk tsk...still yummy though.

10:00am - check out, and head back to Cardston to give back the borrowed
toque from my mom. Stop by her other work at the Flower shop. Mom looked
busy. I offered my help.

10:30-12:20pm - I helped mom do floral arrangements, vases, and other
chores around the shop. I sure miss those days of owning one. Said goodbye,
and started back home.

1:30pm - stopped in Fort McLeod for some subway...Drive thru SUBWAY!!!
No kidding!!

3:30pm - arrive at the Ranch. Saw the kid...wait...Kid?!
Where is my other one. Anthony was the only one I saw!
He was soaking wet from playing with the garden hose,
and begged to stay with Grandpa at the ranch. Where
was Lliam? He went to WORK with Nana Wendy! Yeah!
To work! So we had to wait until she got home from work
to be able to leave with the kids. Not that that was a bad idea.

5:30pm - fired up the BBQ for some costco steak!
Oh geez, steak 2 days in a row?! Yes please!

7:30pm - realize that its still 20C outside, and take the
horses out for a ride. The sunset was beautiful, and there
was no wind, and it was just perfect.

9:00pm - drive home back to Calgary, and sleep!!!


This weekend seemed jam-packed because it WAS.
I wouldn't trade it for the world. I spent 2 amazing
days with my sweetie, and 100% was perfect.
No kidding. Perfect. There were no awkward
moments, frustrating moments. Just relaxing and
romantic.

Thanks Jos for such a wonderful weekend.
I'm going to have a hard time, when its my turn next
year, to top this!

I love ya babe.



P.S. I have no idea why blogger is not fixing my size of my type. This is crazy! Sorry about that.

A little Easter Walk

It was a gorgeous day today. I just love the beginnings of spring! Its funny how warm 15 degrees above zero feels! I decided to take the family on a walk/hike in Nose Hill Park. My sister (Katherine) and her husband (Zed) called from Lethbridge saying they want to hang out today. So I waited for my other brother (Lance) to get home from work, then we all jumped in our vehicles and headed to Nose Hill. We put Anthony in the jogging stroller, and I strapped Lliam on my back for the first little bit. Uncle Lance wore him for the rest of the hike.


Here is Lance wearing my baby.



Here is a pic of Zed.



And Katherine...




of Katherine and her husband together...



of Me and Katherine...






This is of my sweetie.



any similarities to this "I AM smiling" character?



Yeah, its so hard to get him to smile for photos. Did the US military forever taint my husband's ability to smile for the camera forever and ever?



NOPE! There you have it. Proof my husband CAN smile for the camera. Er....yeah.


And...that's the "end" of the story.

My little brother drank a raw egg...*ew*

I really wish I had closed my cupboard door! So embarrassing.

Oh the things I dare my little brother (Lance) to do! LOL

My week-long project

I can't believe this time has actually come! I have finished a project! For those of you who don't know this about me, I love to start projects, but I don't finish them. Lately, I've gotten used to doing projects and doing ONLY that until its finished. I ignore chores, cleaning, children (Oh wait, I shouldn't admit that) until the project is completed!

A few months ago I crocheted a blanket for Lliam. Its brown and black camo, and so adorable. I don't have pics of it...I'm lazy. The blanket is looking at me right now, but I've already uploaded all my pics for this post, so THERE BLANKET!

Last Saturday I bought some fabric to do a rag quilt. I've always wanted to try doing one. I'm not a quilter by any stretch of the word, but I do enjoy a good craft. Especially if it enhances the appearance of my house for really cheap. I'm not a great sew-er either. So this project was going to take some real dedication and patience. Bwaa haa! (Evil laugh)

The Idea:




The Machine:




The final Product:



So there you have it. Now I'm giving it away to my grandmother who is in hospital fighting lung cancer.



The kids are growing up fast. Here is Mr. Lliam at 10 months.



This is Anthony before his first day of swimming lessons. He loves it, and I've booked him in for the next session!



Mmmm, I gotta go...I'm grilling steaks on the Q, and it smells frickin' awesome!!!