My Grayson..

Jasper!

Our crazy cat!

Sams latest creation!!!

Sam made another lunchbag puppet today - this time a lion!!!! It was a nice way to spend half an hour after a busy morning out! We spent this morning at the Esso having breakfast with Val and Rhonda and their Daughters! Great fun! Thanks guys - we had a lovely morning!

The financial meltdowns' effect on the UK.....

Hahahahahahaha

Val sent this to me this morning :) Too funny!!!

I guess the Queen needs those sausages that she keeps in her hand bag now!!!! :)

Leaving.....

This morning Habitat For Humanity came to pick up a few things. One of the things I love about our contractor is that he devotes a lot of his free time/ business and money to Habitat For Humanity. It's his charity of Choice and he supplies his machinery and tradesmen for free when he can - and when he renovates homes like ours he recycles as much as he can into new homes for Habitat.

Through this we were able to donate some things we had hanging about here - things we thought were no use to anyone as well as some things we knew were in great condition but we of no use to us any more. So this morning the truck came by and took on a refrigerator, oven, washer and dryer that had been stored in the workshop.

That I was fine with.

But we also said goodbye to our big red couches.

Our HUGE, SQUISHY, WONDERFUL, ENORMOUS red couches that we had chosen together as a couple in Scotland when we first got together and set up home. When we built our first home together. We had this big brick built home in Scotland and no furniture to fill it with so we went and chose these two HUGE couches to go in the living room - we wanted sofas so big and wide that we could lie lengthwise together. Lloyd wanted beige or cream (he had no kids lol) but I spotted these dark red sofas from across the store and LOVED them!!! Then we saw these curtains and a rug in Marks and Spencers that matched perfectly and the whole room looked sooooo great :) So warm against the cold grey Scottish skies :)

I have so many memories of those sofa's - of friends in Scotland coming over - of babies being born and being cuddled on them - puppies and kittens being snuggled on them...cuddling Lloyd on there....Christmases by the Christmas tree...babies propped up in the corners...toddlers asleep or curled up not well......family movies....even having them shipped overseas when we emigrated. I thin every friend that visited and ended up sat on them found they couldn't resist curling up their legs and sinking back into them - they were just THAT kind of sofa!!!

So I'm really sad to see them leave this afternoon. Gone. Still in great condition. Only 6 years old. Years left in them. I hope wherever they end up...they are well loved and make someone very happy :)

public for a day or so..

My blog is only open to the public for a day or so as I am posting about something regarding my blog in a forum I belong to. After that it will return to being private with the limited number of readers that were reading before yesterday.

HTH

House move!!!!

The other morning I was about to get into the shower when the power in our house went off. At first I thought it was the workmen outside doing something outside, but when I looked out of the front window, I saw Fortis were in our yard - I knew they were due to come and cut down the trees by our electric wires, so I thought maybe thats what they were up to! Then I noticed a HUGE grey thing in the road and realised they were removing the wires across the road so that a house could be moved along the road!!! How neat!

Sam and I grabbed the camera and sat in the bedroom window to watch the action! They worked really fast to get the wires down and move the truck slowly down the road and then get the wires back up and running! We were only without power for about 8 minutes!!! And totally worth it to see such a HUGE object being moved down such a small quiet rural lane.

Don't forget you can click on the piccies to see them bigger!!! :)

And one I made at home....

.......using the kit Tess sent me home with.....but with my own stamps, ribbon etc.....

Christmas card making on World Card Making Day!!

Last night I was invited to a Stampin Up party at Staceys house - Stacey writes the 'Mollys People' blog (link to right) so I was thrilled to be invited and finally get to meet Stacey!!! Actually (sorry Stacey) I was even more thrilled to meet Molly! hahahaha who is the SWEETEST ever little dog!!! I am not a fan of little dogs at ALL! I like BIG dogs! So I was quite surprised at how much little Molly won my heart last night! But Stacey has a new dog named Cooper (a Basset Hound with those gorgeous Sad Sam eyes and those droopy big ears - who is also gorgeous but poor Molly is feeling very upset! So Molly spent a lot of time with her head on my knee getting her chin stroked!

My (wonderful (AMAZING) sweetheart of a) friend, Tess was running the party and taught a class on making Christmas cards, and we each got to make the above cards - I left at 10:30 and the others were still making cards (which I am going to make in a few minutes) but I am thrilled with the ones I made - which look so much better in real life because the pictures I took of them are terrible - I took them in the window without the flash and I'm too lazy to do retakes!

Stacey, thanks so much for having me over last night! It was so lovely to meet you at last :) But really, you HAVE to stop giving those poor children those special 'vitamins' ;)

Cupcake ATC....

Here is my ATC for the Cupcake Swap at Swapbot! It's called 'Cupcake Love'......It's only 1 as I only get one partner for this swap - so it's the same card but I added two pictures as for some reason it looks very different in each picture and the writing around the edge is glittery but you can't see that in both pictures :)

ATC's for Swapbot!

Here are the ATC's I made for the Garden ATC swap at Swapbot!!! And I finally got to use my ATC stamp from Scrappers Haven on the back :) These are miniature works of art the size of playing cards that you swap with people in swaps with different themes - and this time the theme was 'my garden'.

Rocket launch

We were at Scholars Choice last night and got a FAB deal on a rocket launch set in the sale there - and with our discount, the rocket packs were just over a $1 a set!!!! We were thrilled because the children played with this at the Open House at the Wilderness Centre last week and loved it so much, so we wanted to get them a set! As you can see , this set sends the rockets really high - the set they played with last week was for younger children, but this set is for age 8+ so Susannah can join in the fun too and yet Sam can still fire the rockets up!

Interlude....

We took a few minutes from our VERY busy day and went for a quiet walk around our land this lunchtime....it was nice to get some fresh air and some peace and quiet. We sat down by the bees and watched them come and go....looked for the squirrel that now lives in our woods, and had fun crunching through the Fall leaves. It's another warm day here and was lovely to be outside for a while.

This is such a busy weekend and I am trying not to get a migraine, so it was nice to take a walk outside with Lloyd and Sam.

Friday

The kids are home today - well the younger 4 anyway - Chris has school today because his school comes under a different schoolboard now - he's under Edmonton schools and the younger ones are Elk Island Catholic.....This didn't work out so well last night when one of Chris's friends had a birthday party last night and Chris had to be picked up early because for him it was a school night - he of course had decided he was taking today off of school and was sleeping over - Uh NO!!!!! Sorry Chris!!! So we picked him up at 11pm which is quite generous in my mind at 15 years old on a school night considering he has to get up at 5:30am to leave with Lloyd at 6am for school!!

He was fine though and all went well and to be honest I was more than happy when I found out that the stupid parents (Yes it was Supermom again) had let their Son have a party at the playground in the middle of the village (instead of their acreage) on a Thursday evening with a firepit with kids from 14 years of age - 20 years of age from 8pm until probably midnight or later - close to a lake with alcohol and fire UNSUPERVISED. How considerate knowing there were kids and families living right next to that park and people who have to go to work the next day. And the birthday boy left at 11pm but many gate crashers stayed after 11pm to annoy all the neighbours - I am so glad Chris left before the 11pm noise curfew as I am sure the police were probably called before long.

Don't the parents THINK???? Why didn't they have it at home on their acreage where they could control noise and gate crashers and safety and alcohol etc etc???????? STUPID......

Today I picked up some friends of the children and we drove down to a swimming pool Val had recommended in Leduc - Leduc County schools were open today so I knew the pool would be nice and quiet! Millennium Place pool in Sherwood Park is now open again and refurbished and all the schools are closed today so I knew the pool would be crazy busy today - so we avoided that place today - Sam hates it there when its busy. Blackgold pool was so lovely and quiet and we had a great time! Stayed for lunch and then headed home. The children are here playing and then I will run them home. Then Lloyd and I are going out for a couple of hours tonight.

This weekend is very busy and I am so tired I am kind of wishing it wasn't so busy - I really need a break. We were planning on getting to the homes and interiors show as we still have a few things we need to get chosen for the kitchen, but we can't even fit that in now :( I don't think we will have much time to do anything this weekend. Just rush around - not the kind of weekend I like at all and after a busy week like I have had I am not looking forward to it at all :( My diary for next week is already filling up and I just want life to slow down :(

The workmen say they will knock down the wall of the kitchen in the next two weeks - so just after Thanksgiving I will not have a kitchen! I guess that is when the stress will really begin! Yikes! I am trying to decide whether to put Sam into preK after Christmas or not - he loves it but I am not sure I want to do all the rushing about through those wintery months or start again after Easter. I'm thinking of giving it a break until after Easter.

Thursday ramblings

I'm writing more because I'm on the laptop sat in bed and have no access to pictures (lol) so you have to put up with my ramblings instead! Oh the joys of wireless internet!

It's going to be 26c again today :) Woohoo!!!! :) Last night we had dinner out by the fire pit - potatoes baked in the fire with salad and it was so lovely and the children were all in tshirts and shorts :) Val came over for the afternoon and I took Fall pictures of her children - the only problem is that really that didn't come out all that great because they all look like Summer pictures - the sun was so bright and the children were in tshirts and Summery clothes because of the heat! So Val - if you want some more taken when its much cooler just let me know! Sometimes they're better on cloudy days without the bright sun! More Fall-like! Lol!

Today we are meeting Val at the Esso for breakfast and then Sam and I are off to town as he has Pre-K class all afternoon. We have to wait in town a little afterwards and meet Chris from the bus. Lloyd is meeting a friend for dinner tonight downtown so Chris is getting the transit home.

Tuesday night the girls had dance and we had the bookmobile at the playground outside the hall where the girls have dance. As the weather was so gorgeous we spent the whole evening in the playground. Lloyd was pushing Sam on the swings etc and I got chatting with one of the Moms there who has a Daughter in Susannahs dance class. She spent the Summer in the UK travelling around so was telling me all about that and how much things cost there compared to here (ie the price of a McD's meal and the price of a ticket to get in somewhere etc etc, the price of deli meat etc etc) She has boys who will probably be in Sams class at school if we are still here then (hope not!!)

Well I have to leave in 30 minutes so really should get out of bed!!! Byeeeeeeee!!!