Keeping busy.....

Since Lloyd left, we have been very busy - celebrating New Year, recovering from New Year, getting the house back to normal after Christmas, watching LOTS of movies, crafting, crafting and MORE crafting!!!!

We miss Lloyd very VERY much, but have been enjoying lots of late nights......VERY late nights and VERY lazy mornings......even Susie said she hasn't been dressed before lunch this week since Daddy has been gone!!! But then we haven't been to bed much before midnight either Ooooooops!!!

Susie has been bringing me big mugs of coffee in the morning and peanut butter on toast. Laurie brings me tea in the afternoon and Chris brings me Baileys and ice in the evening......

See my children have an AMAZING role model in Lloyd :)

I miss you Lloyd. I have no one to warm my feet on at night.

Weekend with the In-laws

So yes, Lloyd is in England - he left a few days ago and says that basically the country is worse than when we left and no we won't be returning any time soon and yes he hates it there and yes he's miserable. Good. So he should be without me.

Tomorrow he drives down to my parents house where he will spend the night, see Oliver, have fish and chips (sooooo NOT fair) and go food shopping for things to bring home, and pick up all the goodies that my Mum hoards for ME!!! Oh and give her the bag of goodies I sent over for them!

Of course this journey is rather hazardous because

A. he will be VERY tired because he is jetlagged and made this worse as he didn't sleep much tonight because he waited up to make sure I got home safely because we went out for the afternoon on icy roads. Not that he could do anything if anything happened because he is in ENGLAND duh!!!!

and

B. he will be driving on the wrong side of the road on icy English little roads!!!!! the steering wheel will be on the wrong side!!!

Cold -my arse!

So Lloyd tells me he's cold! And he expects bloody sympathy!!! Hahahahahahaha!! Aawwwwww poor thing! He says it's cold and damp and bloody horrible where he is. And he can't warm up!

Poor thing!

Well let me tell you I was a little LESS than sympathetic ;) I had JUST received an email from the weather network informing me that that we had a weather warning that windchills of -40 and colder were imminent in our area and that these are DANGEROUSLY cold.

HEAR THAT LLOYD?????????


and I think in England tonight they are WORRIED that it might get as cold as -9c and wow how on earth will they cope??????

OMG!!!!!

hahahahaha!

I swear they get half way across the atlantic and they turn into pussies!!!!

It's gone!

In case some of you have noticed, I've deactivated my facebook account for a while. I'll probably be back in the future, but I want a break from it for now.

So if you noticed you were one friend less today, thats why ;)

Chris was totally upset that he had been dropped by one of his friends today - until I told him I had deactivated my account - OMG you should have seen the relief on his face when he realised it was ONLY his Mother!!!!! hahahaha!!

Anyway, you can no longer get hold of me via facebook - email or phone or cell is the way to go until I reactivate FB.

Oh and we also got rid of our answering machine. My friend Lori talks a lot of sense and is totally the same as me - she NEVER listens to her messages and we were both talking recently about getting rid of our machines because it is pointless having them. We let the messages build up until we have about 25 messages then we hit delete without listening to them and constantly feel guilty because we don't get back to people. So lets just NOT have a machine - that way people will just call back if it's important!

New year, new changes :)

If I'm important enough to you then you'll call me or email me to say hi. If I'm not then don't. We'll both have learned an important lesson from that - won't we?

For the new kitchen!

My friend Samantha gave me this for Christmas, for our new kitchen.....it's a cheese board.....I LOVE cheeses, and always have a great selection in the fridge of blue cheeses, camemberts, various strong mature cheddars, boursin's, feta....my favourite cheese is Y-Fenni a cheddar with ale and mustard seed mmmmmmmm!! but I will try any :)

The coasters here are so pretty and have little soft pads on the under side to protect furniture. I think I am going to put them on the window sills in the new sunroom. We're having wide sills. Wide enough for plant pots. People will be tempted to put drinks on them :(

It's a little cheese board but very pretty :)

Samantha dressed up the present with a piggy chocolate lollipop thinking of Charlie :) She also gave me a Poinsettia and she made some Candy cane reindeer for the kids for the Christmas Tree :) Thanks Samantha! I love it :)

Dr Oz

Today I am starting Dr Oz's Wholegrain bread and EVOO plan.....he suggests eating a slice of wholegrain bread dipped lightly in EVOO before dinner.....it's supposed to be REALLY good for you! Great for your cholesterol levels and all round health! If you are over weight then its good for losing weight by the way ;) If you aren't then it doesn't matter....it's just great for your health ie part of the healthy meditteranean diet.

Of course those of you who don't watch Rachael Ray - EVOO = Extra Virgin Olive Oil!!!

Eat the bread slowly, ten minutes or so before your main dinner. The bread should be 100% WHOLEGRAIN. And the EVOO coldpressed EVOO.

It reminds me of a deli Lloyd and I went to in Edinburgh (lynne, it was down near that gorgeous bed store 'And So To Bed...') and they made these amazing sandwiches with really thick bread and they drizzled olive oil over the bread.....yum......

The boys....and Chris's idea of a joke ;)

Here are the boys playing.....yes the only pics I have of them just about lol.....and can you spot Chris's idea of a joke in the list of names in the scoreboard - the way he typed in the names on purpose????? Oh hahahahha Chris lol!

Oh and can you see my strike???? My one and only?????? sigh.......oh well.......at least I got one....right Stacey?????? lol!

Lloyd and I.......

Fun at the bowling alley..........

Susie...and the food.....

Here is Susannah at the bowling alley.....as well as the kids digging in to the food we ordered - which was DELICIOUS!!! Lloyd and I didn't have lunch so mid afternoon we were hungry - we ordered some food from the bar at the alley and when it arrived it was HUGE!!! Nachos and fries - so the kids shared it with us - a bar snack fed all 7 of us!!!! It was amazing food! the nachos were covered in fresh olives, tomatoes, chili peppers and fresh cheese and served with sour cream and a spicy hot salsa and were sooooo yummy!!! The fries were great too! Everyone tucked in! Drinks all come with free refills!

So much better than Sherwood Parks bowling alley! And you don't have to book to have the gutter bars raised!

Abby's turn!

Abigail takes her turn on lane 27!!! :) She came second in the whole game and even got a strike :)

Bowling fun!

This afternoon we headed to the bowling alley for some fun at the lanes! Instead of our usual 5-pin place, we headed to a bigger 10-pin place in Edmonton. Lloyd had been there before with the boys, but the rest of us had not been there before. We love it though and think we are going to make it a regular thing - maybe having a monthly Thorpe family bowling night in 2009! We always have a great time when we go bowling - it's something we all enjoy - even those of us who are USELESS at it ;)

A wonderful Christmas story!

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7800822.stm

I think this Christmas story is wonderful is so wonderful, mainly because this girl was given her name by her Catholic Grandfather, and was then teased badly throughout her school life. With the birth of her Son on Christmas Day, she finally feels as if she 'fits' her name.

The family live in the same city as Margori, the little girl we sponsor :)

Stretching her legs!!!!

Even Charlie was happy to get out and stretch her legs on a warmer sunny day!

Making the most of a warmer day...

-6c today so out on the sledding hill for some winter fun and to get some fresh air and exercise - it doesn't hurt to burn off some energy either!!! After weeks of -30 wind chills and being cooped up indoors even with the help of indoor playgrounds now and then!

I love this!

jenlemen.com/blog/?p=566

I just HAD to share this post from one of my favourite blogs!!! I think there are times we could ALL do with reading something like this! Stay grounded!