Wednesday!

Today was a silly-weird day for me! I got the kids off to school and went to bed!!!! I *never* ever ever EVER sleep during the day. Even when the kids were babies, never. I couldn`t. But I was just tired from yesturday 2:30am so I was tired. I woke up at 5:45am to get Mack up and then got him off at 7am. Wake up Kennedy at 6:45 am for her treatments for 15 mins. Then, once Mack is off. Downstairs again with Kennedy for her breakfast and pack her lunch Then, back upstairs so she can shower, etc. Then back down at 8am to watch her get to the bus stop. Basically I went back upstairs and feel asleep until 11AM!!! O-M-G!

Woke up, showered. Ate. Ran to the bank for daycare stuff. Then to Treasured Memories and Goodwill (see below for my finds!!) then Shoppers to mail dads parcel (yeah!!) and register mail something to the gov`t for daycare stuff. Then a little shopping there!

Home for supper now. Kids came home...

Fabe took Mack to his dentist for his braces xray. Macks tutor is coming tonight...

Thats about it!

Books!

Some books! Kennedy was super happy that I found Diary of A Whimpy Kid...she reaallllllly wanted to read one! I found a good Christmas Craft idea book. And for me, a Christmas book. Sounds pretty good, a group of ladies in a knitting club who are tired of being so overwhelmed at Christmas time, go on strike and leave it up to their husbands :o) Sounds neat...

Goodwill shopping today!

My new vintage casserole dish.

Nativity 'guys', Kennedy is going to make the barn from a shoe box.

Have I mentioned it lately, how much I looove Goodwill? Looove it! I was happy with all of their Christmas stuff there because I love older treasured stuff and thats what it is. My favorite find was the Mrs.Claus (down below). Also, I love the casserole dish I got...totally old and vintage. With my new house, I want to have a collection of dishes. I don't want them all to match. I want different things, older things. I have been buying kitchen stuff that will 'go' with my house but it has uniqueness to it. I use to think that the dishes all had to match and what not. But now I prefer for them to be a collection of things that I like. So, thats my plan. I haven't bought *a* dishset, I have bought pieces here and there of pieces that I love. So, we'll see how it goes. I look forward to hitting Goodwill on a more regular basis. I mainly will shop for decor things...as I don't need any kitchen stuff ( I have too much!).

The candles are from Shoppers. I am using only battery operated candles for now on. I have tried to avoid anything with fire hazards so needless to say, NO candles will be burnt in my house anymore. I love candle light, but I need to use fake ones. Thats not to say under direct supervision we might ligh one, like Jane (from escapingthecity.blogspot.com ) shared her candle-lit dinner idea, I might try that...but they will be blown out immediately!!! I'm very pleased that there is such a good selection of battery operated candles. Today I found tealights at Shoppers!!!

Wednesdays finds...

Mrs Claus with her baking! Its so cute! I had to buy it! -------->






Today I had to hit Goodwill! I was at Treasured Memories buying a gift certificate for a Christmas gift and took a quick stop there! I was so happy with my finds :o)

My new wreath!

Not from Goodwill, but what I listened to for most of the day!

My first latte of the season! EGGNOG latte! Yummy!

The end of Tuesday.

I'm pooped. Going to bed at 2:30am and still waking up fairly soon after has make me utterly pooped out. I'm literally waiting for bedtime to come so I can send the kids to bed and go to bed myself. I'm sooo tired.

Kennedy and I ran out to Staples to REbuy my tags for my filing things. Plus while there she needed chalk-but white ones and colored one. Then, she 'needed' the chalk holder things so her hands don't get chalky. THEN, she needed dry erase markers with different colors and pencil crayons for home and then finally she needed folders. Yup we all have a folder in Kennedy rooms. What she will put in there, I don't know. But yeah.

We had a great supper! It turned out yummy but I didn't end up making yorkshire pudding since Kennedy and I ran out and took longer then expected. I will make it Thursday.

Tomorrow, I will be taking on my MAJOR paper organizaion. I can't wait to be done it!!!!! I will get the kids off to school then do the regular cleaning, etc. Fabe is off so he will try to distract me. I will do the paper stuff for a while...then, maybe do a litle shopping? THEN Mack has his braces fitting at 4pm. Then his tutor is coming.

Thursday, I offered to take the baby for the day. Mom has daycare subsidy stuff to sort out so I offered rather then dragging her little one on a bus in this freeeeezing weather. So we will see. Kennedy wants me to keep her until supper time so Kennedy can play with her. She begs me to have another baby....lol!

This weekend is suppose to be freezing, so I won't be doing much at all. I'm sure Macks friends will stay over. Kennedy can have a sleepover too. And we will stay home and warm!!!!

Thats what my week is kinda looking at at this point. We'll see...

New Fish.

But we don't name them. Fabe had his 2 white fish for a long time now. He picked out 2 daniels, well 4 actually but only 2 lived. The one ALWAYS chases the other one. So I was out with Kennedy tonight and she wanted to look at the pet stuff (eye roll). So we went to PetsMart (Yes, I was there yesturday to buy the Snuggie!). Anyhow, we picked out 2 black Mollys. So it was a laugh for Fabe and I, he was like "oh yeah, my white guys will take down your black guys!" It was funny! Somehow we end up with black and white 'things'. Like, our dog..black and white. Our house used to be off white with black trim, Our decor turned out to be off white and black accessories at my old house...my kids...(lol) and now our fish. We don't plan it that way...just happens.

So anyhow, we will see if they are still alive tomorrow.

Totally Tuesday!

Today we are enjoying the kids being home (see post below).

Other then that, Kennedy wants to go to Staples today for chalk as she is out. Which is okay, because I bought tabs for my filing system thingy that I bought the other day and the box of labels is gone. Gone. So, I have to rebuy them. Tomorrow, while the kids are at school I'm going to organzie our filing systems. I can't wait to get it all organized. All of the paper stuff kills me, so this will be good to have a place to put our mail. Tomorrow Mack has his xray for his braces, he will be getting them in January! His teeth are straight and good but he has a gap in between his front 2 teeth that he really hates. Thankfully I was blessed with good straight teeth. But I know so many people who have 'bad' teeth and they are very self conscious about it. I didn't want that to stop him from smiling. So, we have to 'grin and bare it' and get them done. So for 1 year he will have braces. We first decided on the invisalign http://www.invisalign.com/Pages/Home.aspx but then we thought more about it. You have to take it out to eat. I know Mack, he will loose it. And for the thousands of dollars it is, I can't risk it. So for the same price, we decided on good ole' metal braces :o) Its 1 year, so worth it.

Today I have to go back to cooking supper. Well I *did* cook pork chops, mashed potatoes and cauliflower last night. Today I'm making pulled pork in the slowcooker with potatoes in there (remember, LOTS of potatoes here!!!) and brussel sprouts AND yorkshire pudding (lol, Jane!)

Tonight, we will watch one of the many PVR'd Christmas movies with the kids. If Fave is off early enough then we might attempt the tree. We will see.

I'm happy to share, I'm DONE my dads parcel. I just have to add in my cookies and off to the mail it goes today....thank God!!!!

I still have SO much shopping to do, but it will get done...I'm not going to stress about it.

Other then that...thats whats up in my world today!

The Kids are Home!!!!

Last night Fabe and I headed to the airport in much anticipation to get our children home :o) It was sooooo nice seeing them come through the ARRIVAL gate! I was so happy! I'm not sure if I will send them again on a week long trip-at least not that far! They are SO tanned. Horrible mother I am, didn't even think about it..but I didn't bring them winter stuff. We had the van running the WHOLE hour waiting for them. They had shorts, sandals and hoodies. Awful! Thankfully they weren't cold and the van was hot so they were fine! Kennedy was excited to show up her found seashells and the gifts she bought for Fabe and I. They bought Fabe some Cubian cigars. Me, the man and lady wooden people. We use to have the wooden man and lady at our old house, but obviously with the fire they were lost. I was so happy they bought me a set again! So sweet!

They were happy that I had their bedding all washed and their rooms were clean...they were so happy to sleep in their own beds! Such a good feeling. We all went to bed so content. We got to bed about 2am. We all slept in a bit today, and the kids are just enjoying their day at home relaxing. They return to school tomorrow. We unpacked their stuff already, laundry is going. Kennedy is washing her shells then she is going to varnish them and give one to each classmate. She is so thoughful!

So we will enjoy the day with them, before they go back to work for reality...but only 8 school days until they are HOME for 2 weeks !!!! Jane, we should plan a get together with our kids (finally) for their Christmas break!?!?!

Scenes from Monday...

I had to splurge and buy some Eggnog...I just love it sooooo much!!!! So I enjoyed a cup of that with my whipped shortbread cookie...yummmmmy!!!!!

Then I got back to LAUNDRY!!!!!

Dear Eggnog,

I`m so happy you are here for a visit again this year. I truly wish I could see more of you throughout the year though :o) You are good...

Snuggie...

I hate the commercial for them, its soooo tacky! But I`m sorry, I HAD to buy Bandit one. I was going to wrap it for him for Christmas Day but I had to give it to him today :o) He seems to like it...lmao!

Monday!

Today I had a whole bunch of running around-

Sears- I bought my nephews some Hot Wheels ski's and they came in they were BARBIE ones! So I reordered and took them back.

Blockbuster- Returned a movie too late, they called and said we now own it! Paid my fees and pick up my new movie.

Shoppers- Holidays gift lotto tickets and mailed a letter!

Dollarama- Bought some gift boxes for my cookies for my dads parcel.

Staples- Bought Fabe and I each a filing system thingy. GONE will be the mail he has stuffed everywhere in my kitchen! More organzied here we come ;o)

PetSmart- Buy my dads dog a Christmas gift and Bandit a Snuggi (okay, I know...but I HAD too!)

Sobeys- We desperately needed groceries. I hadn't cooked all week with the kids gone..we had no milk, bread, etc...it was pretty bad.

Then home to unload all of this crap-meanwhile FREEZING my butt off!

Earlier today, I had to shovel my moms van out of the backyard (yes, I parked it on the grass-worst renter here!!!) then it snowed a million feet and there was NO way it was coming out of there so I had to shovel it out and pin the gas to the floor and pull it around front. Didn't even get stuck-sweet!

I put the clean bedding on the kids beds and ours...I have about 2 loads of laundry to do then I'm done the whole house, at least the kids laundry will be summer stuff and you just have to stick it for storage back into their plastic totes.

I'm doing to get my van from the dealership once Fabe comes and gets me...then I will start supper.

I bought 2 more bags of potatoes! We already had 2.5 bags. So I'm going to try to cook lots of potatoe dishes this week.

Thats whats up so far....

I will post photos from around here...later :o) Have a good day, stay warm!!!

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Whipped Shortbread...

Easiest Cookies ever:

1.5 cup flour

.5 icing sugar

1 cup butter

Beat with an electric mixer for at least 10 mins, until smooth. Place by spoonful on ungreased cookie sheet for 15 mins OR until golden around edges...at 325. They are soooo good..melt in your mouth :o)))) Taste soooo good frozen!

Scenes from Sunday....

Gift wrapping and a few decorative things around the house...

Well this is getting quite boring, weekends with no children. I don't think that I would enjoy this life anymore...thank GOD they are coming home tomorrow night I will sleep better knowing they are under the same roof (and in the same country!) as us!

I love the table runners, from this great little store on ebay. Its where I bought the quits from too. I love them!!!!

Today I woke up at 9am. Fabe headed out for some service calls he got called in. I immediately went to work, stripped our bedding off and threw it into the washing machine. I brought up ALL of the gifts from the basement, wrapped them all then took them upstairs to the bonus room for where our tree will be. Thankfully its all done :o) I still have some shopping to finish-but the main thing I'm working on is my dads parcel. As we speak (lol), I'm making some whipped shortbread cookies to add into his package. I wrapped up all of his gifts so he would be able to open his parcel prior to Christmas. So, I'm pretty much done that. I still have some more orders from Sears coming in so that should help to finish it off. I feel like I have so much to do. Thankfully, the basement is perfect now...phew-so I can focus on this stuff. The tree should go up this week/weekend and thats the extent of the decorating we will do. I cannot wait until next year to really put everything up! I can't wait!!!!!

So now the gifts are wrapped, cookies are baking, dads parcel is almost done, I have only a little left to do in terms of shopping. Now, I just want to make a list of things that we will want to do on the kids holidays and start taking in some festive activities. I'm feeling ba-humbug-ish!

Well, gotta make another batch of cookies :o) Photos to come...

Saturday...

Well today I slept in until 10:30am. No, I'm not sick. Just needed a good sleep. I had a pretty hard week this week, and the weird thing is the kids are gone yet I still was *SO* busy! Weird...I still had to set the alarm clock and what not.

Today, I did some laundry....trying to get all of the bedding washed in the house. Then I cleaned up my craft space and then made my friends son a birthday card as I had to attend his party today. Last ngiht I got my hair done=as you can see in my photo above! I went to my friends house, and there was a mutal friend who I don't talk to anymore (toxic friend, as Jane would say!) and it was a little weird. I had no kids, therefore a perfect reason to escape outta there early! So then I went to Best Buy to grab Mack a gift. I came home, took Bandit for a walk then shovelled some of the sidewalk. I wasn't going too, but going for a walk opened up my eyes and I was cursing the houses that haven't shovelled yet. We have shovelled but it was blown again. So I shovelled it as best as I could. Since we live on a main road, I wanted to make sure its clear as there are bus stops (right outside the house! literally!)...then I checked my email when I got in and was SO happy that the kids emailed me :o))) I was soooo happy!!!!! They made my day!

Tonight we are meeting another couple for supper. I'm super excited to hang with them tonight!

Tomorrow, I'm going to try to finish up my dads package and wrap his stuff and mail it...as well as wrap some of the gifts. I can't believe that the kids will be home Monday night (yeah!!!)...

Have a good night, drive safe :o)

Scenes from Saturday....

Chaos!!!!!

More Chaos!!!!!!

And I chose to stay nice and warm in the afternoon, all alone...relaxing :o)

Yeah!!!! I heard from the kids!!!!

Mack----Hi were having fun in cuba the weathers great here we went into varadero in a 60 year old convertable it was sooo cool I'm kinda looking forward to come back home though because i hate traveling sometimes but it's nice here Love you bye. ~Mack.

Kennedy--Hi mommy this has gone by so fast . The pool is so cool .The ocean is sooo pretty.We went into varadero . we went in a cool car with no roof the weather is so hot i can"t wait to show you what sea shells i got .the food is pretty good . i got lots of pineapple juice .Rikki and mack love the free food and drinks .today my stomach really hurt alot grandma said i am probably home sickness.the people are so nice to us love you guys so much love kennedy:]


Rikki---- hello there hows it hanging ? well its really really awesome here, we are having so mcuh fun i love it here. mack kennedy and me LOVE the ocean, i just love the clear water the weather is amazing here. i think youll think this is oretty funny but lol mom was getting mad about every second day becasue the maide would give mom coffeee one day and then mom well be happy to get more coffee the next day but every second day they didnt give mom coffee and then mom would get mad, so then she ahd to go to the maide and ask them for some more coffee and then mom would say.. " that make me mad i NEED my coffe in the morning" it was really funny. and then one day we got locked out of our room for 6 hours and mom was pretty mad about it, yeah mom said that she wasnt going to come back here anymore, well thats about it toodlez Love Rikki :)

Friday...

I have been so happy today that I don't have to leave the house to brave the roads. However, I did make a hair appt for 4pm today (yikes!) and I hate winter driving so I'm not sure if I will keep it. I really should as my hair is LONG overdue for color! So I might as well. Good thing, its only 10 mins at the most from my house! After that, I think Fabe and I will enjoy a snowed in Friday night and watch some movies or what not. After my appt I will grab something from Starbucks and come home and keep warm. I actually LOVE days like this. Its weird to think that my children are enjoying the sun, ocean and pools all day long and here I am snowed in with almost blizzard conditions! Weird! I miss them so much, thankfully the week is flying by and soon enough they will be home with us. A week is just too long without them...since the fire both Fabe and I have been super protective of them. I know its not a good thing at all, but I almost wanted to not send them to Cuba. We use to love our weekends off without the kids, but not anymore. We really can't be bothered sending them anywhere. My mom use to take them almost every weekend and not anymore...maybe once a month, if that. I'm not sure what it is, but I think that had the fire happened at someones elses house...what if they didn't wake up? I know, so not healthy!

ANYHOW, today I finally cleaned and organized the WHOLE basement! Fabe is off today, but he had to take my van in for servicing. So I cleaned down there and figured everything out. Wow, what a HUUUGE difference. Before it looked (honestly!) like a hoarders house. It was THAT bad!!!! So its now clean. Mainly we needed to use the family room (which has no furniture anyhow) as the storage room for the new-old house stuff. All of the brand new stuff we have bought (well anystuff even Goodwill finds)...is stored down stairs. We needed to clean up the spare rooom so people can actually use it. I'm very proud of the basement, I can actually use it now for wrapping gifts! I have the gifts all sorted into whose is whose and I'm working on getting my dads package together so I can mail it. I want to bake some cookies and stick them in there too. I feel sad not seeing my dad as much as I would like too. I hope that we will be able to see more of him this year coming up..I miss him :o(

Well, its a few hours later...I went and got my hair done! Yeah!!!! Much much MUCH better now!

So Fabe is making some supper for us, cabbage rolls *yummy* we are going to make some hot chocolate and popcorn and enjoy a movie...we already watched "Four Christmases" and it was soooo good. So we will see what else we can watch!

Well, have a good weekend. I have a birthday party tomorrow (solo I guess, no kids!!!) other then that, nothing else...tomorrow night we are going out for supper with another couple!!! I'm soooo excited!

Small update.

Kids are in Cuba right now. I miss them like crazy and pray that they are safe. They went with my mommy for the week. They left Monday...will be back Monday.

Dec 1st, I sold the daycare. Yup, I did. I need to not have the huge stress of the centre right now...I will miss it so much...the kids even more. But for now, its what I needed to do. I'm very happy with my decision but fear I will regret it later. For now, I will focus on me. I bought the daycare Nov 1st last year, then the house burnt down late that night...since then its been daycare, daycare, daycare...I didn't deal with ALOT of things prior to the daycare...because the house took over another major incident that happened (miscarriage) Oct 31, Daycare Nov 1st, house fire Nov 2...one stressor covered up the other stressor. So anyhow, for now I will be dealing with my life...

I might work part time. I just can't justify being home when the kids are in school-but for now I need too. Summer, I hope to have off and just enjoy...soon enough I will be busy with the house...so we'll see.

The house is almost fully sided. Right now, its all drywalled and taped. Painitng should start soon. It looks so good, so I'm really looking forward to moving there. We finally bought some furniture from the Brick (Macks suite and the living room couch set). We have so much more to buy, but we will get there.

Other then that, thats about it :o)

Babysitting today!

Today I'm babysitting a 7 month old baby girl!!! She is sooooo good and omg, SO cute :o)

I've been having so much fun taking care of her..she is so cute!!! Just the little things, feeding them...feeding her a bottle, rocking her to sleep, playing peek-a-boo, soooooo many other things makes it so much fun! Her mom had a procedure done at the hospital today and she didn't have anyone to watch her after it...so I offered. Of course, my house is NOT babyproof at all...but I made do. I found some of Kennedys toys that she could play with and kept her busy with them. Just playing on the floor on her tummy with those little toys sure kept her busy. We hit Walmart and GAP. Mom is young and single...so I bought some clothes to help her out (and to help me!!! I love girl clothes shopping). Anyhow, so I bathed her already...(saves mommy having to do it)..washed her stuff for her (saves mommy having to pay for laundry!)...and she is all ready to go...but she has been sleeping for the first time today...for a few hours now. She is just so good. Of course, no crib in my house...so I made her a bed on Macks floor with some blankets. I can't wait until she wakes up. I'm going to take her home later tonight but first I will tire her out agian for mom and she hopefully won't have to do much for her...just get her home and put her to bed...so much fun having a little one around again...

Getting ready for Christmas...

Well I haven't had the time yet to start to prepare for Christmas. I don't know how much I will do since it will be more work for me to unpack it plus pack up house stuff. Too much work to do...so we will do a few things but nothing major-another Christmas without being able to enjoy a house of beautiful decorations...*sigh*. Anyhow, we will do a tree but once the kids are back. I will bake, but not yet. So here are a few things so far that we do have up and on display! Hopefully the tree will be done next weekend as I have gifts that I need to add under it! Not sure if we will do the BIG tree or the little one...hmmm...

Scenes from my space :o)

Upstairs in my 'studio' (haha!)

Messy, messy!!!! I've been busy!!!!

My pile of cards, so far...

My cards...