Wow!

Well, It's been over a year since the last time I posted anything and almost a year and a half since I was posting regularly. I have no excuse. I'm lazy and I should be shot. Ok, that last one is taking things a bit far, but seriously I used to love reading blogs and posting to mine, but I can't even remember the last blog I read. Oh wait, I lie. I was looking at Christine's blog yesterday for the first time in forever after getting a notification on facebook from her. But other than that I can't remember the last time I checked one of my fave blogs....

Oh well, here's one post and here's hoping that I can get back into the swing of things with both reading and posting.

I won't go into long boring details of my life in the last year, because I'd end up writing too much, then I'd get bored and never finish the post. Instead I'll tell you about my year in point form. Too bad I don't have time or I'd do a powerpoint presentation and load it up..... heyyy..... that's an idea! No, No, Bad Christine. If I do this in point form I might actually finish it.

• Olivia started kindergarten last September. She loved it for all of one day before she started asking if she could sleep for "just 5 more minutes". Though she does still love school, she just hates getting up.
  
• I started working in mid September as a teller at the Bank in my town. (no names mentioned here) I've been there for 10 months and I don't hate it yet. I think that's a record for me. :)
  
• I haven't stitched more than a few dozen stitches since I last posted an update on my stitching. I seem to have lost my stitching mojo.
  
• I have been making more cakes lately and I'm really enjoying that.
  
• We finally got Rachel potty trained after many many MANY months of false starts. She had no desire for the longest time and I'd have to force her to sit on the toilet, but she's finally good, though we still use pullups at bedtime. We're not completely done with diapers yet. Soon hopefully.
  
• Rachel is finally old enough (3) to farm her out to the grandparents for sleepovers! (Can I get a 'Booyah' here? - Sorry, too much Kim Possible!) and she's had a few of them recently.
  
• I've been to the funeral home twice for two different people in the last week, so it's been a fairly sad week overall.
  
• My DH, Jason lost over 50 pounds in the past year. He even came in first place in a "biggest loser" weight loss competition at his work and ended up winning $500.00 in gift cards.
  
• We used the $500.00 to go towards a big swingset/Jungle jym for the kids.
  
• We had a bear in the yard a few weeks ago, now I'm scared to let the kids go out to play on their new swingset.
  
• I, unfortunately, haven't lost 50 pounds. I haven't even lost 5 pounds. :(
  
• I'm very excited that Torchwood will be airing in Britian starting next week and I'm looking forward to watching the new adventures of Captain Jack Harkness and his band of merry men, (god I'm such a geek. lol) even if it is only 5 episodes.
  
• I think I actually cried when I found out David Tennant will be leaving Doctor Who. *sobs*
• We got a new kitty at the Fredericton SPCA a few months ago. He's doing great. He has to be the most patient cat in the world to put up with my kids. He's a big Orange Long Haired tabby. The kids named him Fluffy, though Rachel couldn't remember that for a while and kept calling him Fuzzy instead.

I'm reaching at this point to think of anything else, so I think I'll end with a few pictures of some of the cakes I've done since I last posted some.

Olivia's "Totally Spooktacular" 5th Birthday Cake

October 2008

We had a dressup Halloween party for Olivia's 5th birthday since she's so close to Halloween and she decided she wanted a "Witch Barbie" cake. I ended up having to special order the Barbie off of Ebay because apparently Mattel only makes the Halloween Witch Barbie for "Target" each year at Halloween ... So, since there are no Target stores in Canada I paid WAY too much for the doll on Ebay.

Here is the second cake I made for Olivia's birthday. We rented the Bowling Alley and invited pretty much the entire class to the party and I didn't know for sure how many would show up so I made a second cake in case the first one wasn't enough for all the kids and parents who were there. I ended up taking 3/4 of it home. lol.

Rachel's "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" 3rd Birthday Cake

April 2009

This was Rachel's 3rd Birthday cake. She wanted a "Somewhere over the Rainbow" party. Do you know how freaking hard it is to do "Somewhere over the Rainbow" that has nothing to do with Wizard of Oz? HARD!

I managed to find items in rainbow colours instead of actual rainbow stuff for the most part. The rainbow on the cake is made of Royal Icing made several days in advance, the border is Smarties. (I had a huge bowl of pink and brown ones left over afterwards.) The rest of the cake is just blue buttercream icing and white buttercream icing.

But then look what the inside looks like!

This was pretty neat. Find the tutorial here.

I had taken the rainbow off the top of the cake when I was cutting it and I put it back on to take this picture of the inside. I didn't realize until later that day that it was on backwards with the broken side of the rainbow showing instead of the good side.

Johnny's "John Deere" 60th Birthday Cake

June 2009

My most recent cake was a John Deere cake for my Father-in-Law's 60th Birthday. This one is just plain Buttercream and a printed John Deere logo that I cut out and traced onto the white buttercream with a toothpick. I then filled it in with a #16 star tip and yellow and green buttercream icing I coloured myself. It came out pretty good except for the little wow in the front of the cake where it's not quite even.

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully this won't be the last you hear from me for another year.

(Side note: it's been over a year and I see Blogger still has the freaky formatting problems that drive me completely batty. I've already had to stop myself three times from throwing my mouse against the wall when trying to get the post looking right after I uploaded my pictures.)

Happy Birthday (party) Rickey

Today is my step-father's birthday. Well, not his birthday, that's not until Tuesday, but today WAS his birthday party. Mmmm... Turkey supper with all the fixins. Gotta love a FREE turkey supper.

Here was my contribution to the celebration. This "Maple Leafs" Birthday Cake!

Rickey is a HUGE Leafs fan, and has a rather large collection of Leafs memorabilia, most of which NEVER EVER gets used. The two coffee cups with the Leafs logos on them that we gave him for Christmas several years ago sit on a shelf in the kitchen. He won't use them. The Zippo lighter with the Leafs logo that my Mom got him for Christmas one year isn't even out of the package, and the rest is the same. So, when we walked in today with this cake he was pleasantly surprised, expecting just a plain Chocolate cake with chocolate icing. But he then proceeded to tell me that he loves it but "we can't eat it!" Lol. Well, too bad, there were four little kids running around that put a stop to THAT idea rather quickly.

Random Winter Pictures

A shot of my backyard in mid afternoon with the moon above the trees.

Same location, just a closeup of the snow covered fence.

Olivia, Rachel and Jason out playing in the snow.

My kids and husband in their first snowfort.

"Pew Pew" - Olivia pretending to shoot at me from lazerbeams on her wrists.

(She's been watching Buzz Lightyear on Playhouse Disney lately)

Rachel eating snow. Don't worry it wasn't yellow. *heehee*

One more thing...

I know, I know, I don't post anything in like forever, and then I try to make up for it with three in one day?! But I can't believe I forgot to post a special Congratulatory message to my little cousin Kayla for becoming a recent High School Graduate!!

Congrats Kayla! We love you!!

Kayla at 2 years old.

Kayla, at 17 years old when she got her grad pics taken.

9 years and a few days

On Tuesday, it was 9 years since my grandmother passed away.

I've been thinking about her a lot the past few weeks. Knowing that the anniversary of her death was coming up soon, I planned on doing a post on my blog all about her on that day. But, as usual, I forgot about it on Tuesday. I was checking my Aunt's blog today (I haven't checked ANY blogs in about 2 weeks.) and saw her post and it reminded me that I missed the day.

(Here are Grammy and Grampy shortly before they got married)

I miss my Gram terribly. When I was young we were very close. Mom had me when she was quite young, (16) so my grandparents helped out with me a lot. I spent a lot of time with both of them, but as I got older and became a teenager I spent less and less time with my grandparents. I mean, what 16 year old wants to go sit and talk with her grandmother instead of going to a party. lol.

(Here they are on their wedding day)

Like many typical teens I never really listened much when she used to talk about what things were like when she was younger.

I wish I had spent more time listening to her. I miss her voice.

I miss her laugh. She had such a great laugh.

(Gram and Grampy having a good time. I'm not sure when this was taken.)

She raised 5 children

and had 9 grandchildren.

She was such a vibrant woman. And she was so very beautiful.

(l-r: My Great Grandmother Eva, My Grandmother Alma, My Mother Cathy and me I'm guessing sometime in the summer of 1978)

In her later years, she couldn't tell her stories any more. She had some form of dementia. We think it was Alzheimers Disease but we're not 100% sure. She'd start telling some story about a friend or family member, or even herself, and halfway through would have no idea what the ending was. She just couldn't remember. She used to get so frustrated. She knew what she wanted to say, but she just couldn't seem to get it out.

(5 Generations of women - Top row: My mother Cathy and Grandmother Alma, Middle row: My Great Great Grandmother Alma and My Great Grandmother Eva, Bottom center: ME!!)








One day, shortly before she passed away I was visiting with her and she kept making these frustrated noises and patting my arm, but she didn't say anything. I asked her what was wrong and she looked at me and said "I know I love you." She didn't know my name and couldn't remember who I was, but she knew the one thing that mattered. That she loved me and that I was important to her.


(Grampy and Grammy at my Aunt and Uncle's wedding in 1991 I think)

I wish she could have been at my wedding. I wish she could meet my kids. I wish I could talk to her for just one more day. I wish, I wish, I wish... But wishing doesn't really help now, does it? All I can do is remember her as best I can and make sure my kids know about her and love her too.

I Miss you and Love you Gram.

Alma Mary Caissie

May 19 1937 - March 27 1998

Little Rachel Sleepyhead

I was puttering around in the kitchen around 7:00 tonight and Rachel was sitting happily in her high chair eating a little snack of grated cheese and some warmed up veggies when I noticed that she was being rather quiet. I snuck over and found her sound asleep!

Here's the picture

Here's the video
(Click on this picture to watch the video - will open a new window)

Happy Holidays and all that jazz

I came on to post and realized that I never posted an update about Wanda. I guess with all the hustle and bustle of Christmas, once the operation was over and done with I never thought to put it up on here.

Well, everything went wonderfully. The surgeon told Tina (Wanda's daughter) that these were the best set of Donor lungs he's EVER seen and she was able to breathe on her own almost immediately after the surgery. She was kept on the ventilator for a few days because the pain meds she was on were so strong, she slept too deep and occasionally "forgot" to breathe, but once they stepped her down a bit she was fine to come off the ventilator.

She's still in the hospital, but mainly becuase she's waiting for her anti-rejection drugs to arrive. Apparently when you're a NB Transplant patient, you have to wait for the drugs to come from NB. Ontario pays for all the transplant meds for it's citizens, but if you're an NB citizen you only get the anti-rejection drugs paid for... and they have to come from an NB Pharmacy... Not a big surprise there... NB is horrible for their medical coverage, but I assumed that anything paid for by one province would be the same in all the others... I guess I was wrong on that count.

Tina is doing a wonderful job of keeping everyone updated on Wanda's CarePage. It's a free site where a patient signs up and anyone who wants to keep up on their progress can sign up (for free) and subscribe to their updates. If anyone is interested in keeping tabs on her progress and doesn't already have the link, the page is http://www.carepages.com/. You need to sign up and then put her patient name in. (wandanorthrup)

Here's a picture of the Ornaments I (**finally**) finished for Olivia & Rachel this Christmas. This was my very first attempt at "finishing" anything other than to frame it. It's definitely a learning experience. Most of which is trial and error. I've made a few errors, now I know what not to do next time. I still haven't done "Our" ornament (mine and Jason's) I stitched the back piece last night and plan on finishing it before the new year. It never made it on the Christmas tree this year, but at least it'll be finished in 2006 and ready to put on the tree next year. I think I might try to get a few ornaments stitched up soon for next year. Hopefully that means that I don't have to try and do it all at the last minute next year. Not likely, but hopefully *lol*

Christmas went well here. We had a mountain of stuff in the living room under the tree. So much that we sat there looking at it wondering where it all came from. I mean, I know WE didn't buy that much. Santa brought Olivia a Dora the Explorer scooter and some Magnetic letters (for the fridge). He brought Rachel a play center with a "tent" to crawl inside of and a baby doll that squeaks when you squeeze it.

Here are a few "before" and "after" pictures...Before the kids got up and after the carnage! lol

Rachel had so much fun for her very first Christmas! She opened quite a few of her own presents, but when she did, we spent most of our time trying to keep the paper out of her mouth. She had quite an obsession with eating the wrapping paper. Olivia had a good time, because she not only got to open her presents, but about half of Rachel's too.

The girls got a big wagon from my FIL. One of the ones that have the fold up seats and cup holders. It'll come in very handy next summer when we go somewhere. Right now Rachel is a bit too young to spend much time in there, But by this summer it'll be perfect to haul both of them around. It's fun for them and will make my travelling life so much easier. They got a ton of toys and clothes and books. My mom got Rachel her own solid oak rocking chair. She got Olivia one her second Christmas and she saw the exact same one at a store recently and decided that Rachel needed her own as well. We've got Rachel's put away right now, since she's too young to use it now and we don't have enough room downstairs to keep things out that have no chance of getting used. Olivia also got her very own Race Track! She loves it. You "wind" the cars up and put them on the track and they go around and chase each other. It's meant for younger kids, no guns to control the speed, no track that has to be put together every time -- it just folds up when you're done-- and nothing hard they have to do. Another big hit with Olivia was the Care Bears they both got from Rob, Angie and Tyler. Olivia sleeps with hers every night now, and most nights tries to take Rachel's too!

We got so much this year. My FIL got me a Water dispenser that has both hot and cold water and a new pair of Jeans. Now I don't have to heat bottles, I just use the already pre-heated water! My MIL got me a new shirt and got both Jason and I a good shredder. My Mom and her bf got us a $50 GC to the Future Shop and a rain check for a bread maker. Of course, Canadian Tire never has anything in stock when it's on sale, so we're getting it as soon as it's back in. My DH got me lots of stitching stuff. I got a new scroll frame, floss I needed for a project I want to start, a new pattern for my stash -- Fairy Moon by Mirabilia, as well as a few small odds n ends. He also got me a new blouse and some new PJs (both which need to be exchanged).

Jason got a Table saw from his Dad -- which prooves his pet theory that if you think you want something, just borrow it enough and the person you borrow it from will get the hint... He's had his Dad's table saw in our basement for probably 6 months now. lol. His mom and her bf got him a 2gig card for his mp3 player, and the shredder I mentioned above was for both of us. I got him a biscuit jointer, a 4x8 sheet of Pegboard for his workbench and a bunch of the "pegs" to hang the tools on, a case for his mp3 player, a Map book from the girls, and a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember right now. For those who don't know what a biscuit jointer is, basically it's a tool to join pieces of wood together, especially when building furniture.

I've spent the last few days trying to decide what I'm going to do with my new pattern. I need to figure out which fabric to order. This is the reason I LOVE the "Fabric Choices" page I've linked to here, and in my sidebar. You can try out almost all the designs from some of the most popular designers out there (Miribilia, Lavender and Lace, Passione Ricamo, and Teresa Wentzler) and with many of the different specialty fabrics available from some of the biggest names in Hand Dyed Fabrics (Silkweaver, Sugar Maple Fabrics to name just a few) and using the magic of Photoshop, the patterns have a transparent background, so you can get an idea what the pattern would look like on each individual fabric! Like I said, GREAT SITE. You can also load your own fabric or picture scan to check it out. Anyway, after hours of looking through fabrics from many designers and weighing price and colours I think I've decided to go with Silkweaver's "Enchantment" Linnen. Here's an idea of what this should look like using this fabric. Of course the fabric doesn't look exactly the same every time, but hopefully it'll be close enough, because this is the look I fell in love with.

What do you think?

Well, that's enough for today. I should get a LITTLE bit of housework done before Jason gets up. I started the post at 9:51am and now it's 12:03pm, so I think I've spent long enough on here. lol. Mind you, that's including many breaks to play with the kids and do all the normal "Mommy" stuff. I've probably only been on here half an hour or so in total, it just seems like a lot more.

Waiting for news

Wanda, a good family friend has been in Ontario for several months now waiting for a lung transplant. She was told several months ago that she only had about 18 months to live if she didn't get the transplant. Well, Jason called this morning from work and informed me that last night when she was talking on the phone to her son (one of Jason's best friends --like a brother) her beeper went off for her transplant. Apparently the opperation was supposed to get underway sometime in the middle of the night and she would be in surgery until sometime this afternoon.

I was so excited when Jason called me this morning to tell me what was going on. All I could think of was what a wonderful Christmas gift someone gave to her.

Organ donation is something that everyone should think long and hard about. No one can make the decision for you, but really... what do you need the organs for once you're gone? Just think that the person who might get your organs could be someone's mother or father, someone's wife or husband, someone's sister or brother. You'd not only be changing that person's life forever, but the lives of their friends and families as well.

I've downloaded the Organ donation card from the gov't of New Brunswick website.
Click on the small picture to see it full size and please please please print it and seriously consider filling it out. Also please talk to your friends and family about your choices. They're the ones who ultimately make the decisions and if they don't know what you want, they may not do anything about it.

If you live outside of NB, please contact your local government office to find out where you can get a card of your own.

Now, I'm off to wait and see how her surgery went. *crosses my fingers, toes and anything else that I can cross* We love you Wanda!!

A visit with Santa

Rachel and Olivia on Santa's lap at the Regent Mall in Fredericton yesterday.

Rachel's Ornament and other things

I haven't had a lot to say lately, so I haven't been posting much... just a few jokes for the past few days. Life's been fairly slow lately. I haven't even been stitching. I've been a bit tired in the evening and have been spending it laying on the couch in front of the boob tube. I know, I know... if I were stitching I'd be sitting in the same place... It's not like it's a physically draining thing, but I just find that if I'm concentrating, it's still more tiring than just laying there "vegging".

One day last week I fell asleep in front of the TV around 9:30. I got up a few hours later and went straight to bed and slept right through... I think I just needed to catch up a little. I'm normally a night owl and am usually up till midnight or later (sometimes MUCH later) almost every night, then up around 8 with the kids. Olivia hasn't napped since a few months before Rachel was born, so I don't get a chance to catch up during the day like I used to... I guess I just needed a week or so of earlier bed times to catch me up a bit.

I did manage to get Rachel's Ornament finished -- the stitching and beading at least, I still haven't gotten either one "finished" in that it actually makes a real ornament. Right now it's still just a small piece of Aida with some floss and beads on it. I need to get my butt in gear... maybe tonight since there's nothing on TV. lol. I say that like it might actually happen... I've been saying that for a week now and I'm still in the same boat! Here's a picture

I haven't been in much of a Christmassy mood lately. Not a total "Bah Humbug" kind of mood or anything like that. I'm still semi-excited... but I just can't get into that really excited Christmassy mood that usually hits once we get this close to present day *grin*

I got some news from my Mom the other day. My Great-Grandmother is not well. According to mom the doctors have given her anywhere from hours to weeks to live. Her body is just shutting down. Sometimes I feel sad and other times I feel like I should feel more.

There's a bit of a back story to this... For those that don't know me in person, or have just never heard about this. My Grandmother, her only daughter, had Alzheimers Disease and passed away in March of 1998. Several months before Gram died, Grampy asked Nannie (my Great-grandmother) to come home and stay with them. They pretty much knew Gram wasn't doing well and thought it would be good for her to have her mother around. Nannie said no. She wasn't going to move home to New Brunswick. (She lives in Ontario and has for as long as I can remember.) Then a few months after Gram died, I heard through the grapevine (the family) that Nannie had OFFERED to move to Saint John (here in NB) to look after her ex-boyfriend's son because he wasn't well... (BTW, don't let her hear you calling him her BF though... According to her, he was just her "boarder". For 40 years! *wink*) Anyway, after I heard about her offer to move back to NB to take care of Joe's son, I got mad. VERY mad. She can do that for her "boarder's" son, but not her ONLY child!?! I've been hanging onto this anger for a lot of years and I know that even though she's not going to last much longer I'm still having a very hard time letting it go.

My beautiful girls

Here are a few of the pictures I took yesterday of Olivia and Rachel in their Christmas Dresses. Aren't they gorgeous! The photo session didn't last long because of a pre-nap meltdown from Rachel and an "everyday" meltdown by both Olivia and me, but I got a few good pics that might be ok to tuck into the Christmas cards.

I borrowed some black faux velvet from Kerri, and draped it over the couch. The girls are sitting on the floor with their backs to the couch. I turned it around so it faced the window, then I turned on my stitching lamp so it was facing them. It supposedly has a "natural light" light bulb. Personally, I think it's much more blue tinted than natural light is, but it's not nearly as yellow as a normal bulb and does look quite a bit closer to natural light than anything else I have in the house. Unfortunately I forgot to turn off my flash and I still ended up with a bunch of pictures that had a bad glare on their skin and I had to fix the red eye in nearly every picture I took...

I think I might try it again later, but with either the white or the navy velvet that I borrowed from her as well. Hopefully this time I remember to turn off my flash.

I had this one cropped in nice and close to a vertical picture, but for

some reason Blogger won't let me upload it. Baaaaad Blogger!

This is the one Janice thinks I should use for the Christmas Pic.

I'm not quite sure which one it'll end up being though.

This one isn't in the running for the Christmas picture since

Rachel isn't in it, but I just wanted to post it because it's such

a nice picture of Olivia.

More pics missed from October

I've decided to post a few more pictures that I should have posted in October. (and two from even earlier than that. I wasn't sure if I had posted them before or not and I was too lazy to check *lol*)

April 26: This was taken on Rachel's first day home from the hospital.

August 26: We went out for the day and Rachel needed a little nap. I thought this picture was so cute with her cuddling the cow. We call her "Bessie". (The cow, not Rachel *lol*)

October 1: Olivia has been facinated with making funny faces lately.

October 1: Here's another funny face.

October: Here is a picture of the painting we had done for my grandfather's 75th birthday. It's a painting done of his house by a local artist. Click on the picture to see a larger version and see if you can find the cardinal. (She puts one in every painting she does.)

Here's the original picture (taken last year by my uncle) that the artist worked from for the painting. Isn't she an great artist. BTW, she didn't paint the roof colour wrong. She thought it was grey as it looks like in the picture, but she took a drive out to his house to double check on something and found that it's acutally green.

October 6: Olivia taking a rest on the lawn while playing outside.

October 6: We had my uncle come over and take some pictures hoping to get a good family picture we could put on some Christmas cards. I love this picture, but it wasn't quite focused and it's a bit too blury for printing. Most of the others didn't turn out because, well, any of you with kids know how hard it is to get two of them looking in the same direction at the same time. *lol*

October 7: Olivia bowling for the first time. My cousin had her daughter Josie's birthday party at the local bowling alley. Olivia had a blast!

October 8: Rachel grinning from ear to ear. Get a look at those two pearly whites!

October 11: Roasting marshmallows on a campfire in our back yard. Strangely enough after one marshmallow Olivia didn't want to eat any more. She liked roasting them, but didn't want to eat them... Strange... if I didn't know better I'd wonder if she were really mine. *lol*

October 19: No story behind this picture. I just love her expression.

October 23: Rachel was 6 months old this day and we started feeding her solids.

October 24: Olivia's 3rd birthday and she started figure skating today. She LOVES it!

October 31: It's Halloween and here are Mommy and her girls all dressed up at a Halloween Party that morning.

October 31: Candy Day. As you can tell Olivia is pretty wired. This was our last stop at Nannies house before we went home for the night.