Snowdrops....

Snowdrops flowering both in my Mom and Dads garden AND in the lanes close to their home......

British postbox....

My Sisters very British postbox.....this is just across the road from Louise's house....and along from where my Nephew catches the bus to school.....I just thought it was a great example of a very English looking mailbox ;)

Stonehenge

Day 1 in the UK and on our drive home to my parents house, we stopped off at Stonehenge, which is about half way between Heathrow airport and Yeovil, my hometown. After a 9 hour flight we weren't too tired to fit in a little tourism ;)

Update from Blighty

Just a little update from the other side of the Atlantic....I can't blog properly as I can't upload any pictures or anything and it's frustrating to blog without pictures as I have taken soooo many and all I want to do is add them!!!

Anyway, the renovations were stressing me out so much last week that it was either put me in the psychiatric hospital or send me off to my parents for a holiday......so here I am in England for a few weeks holiday with Sam and Abigail!

I'm missing Lloyd and the older children very very much :( in fact I miss Canada sooooooooo much. It's fun to be back here - and interesting......but yes, I have to admit that I really miss Edmonton and 'familiarity'!!! - I miss all my craft things in the evening and Lloyd - most of all Lloyd :(

But its nice to be back here and have a break from the snow and Sam and Abby are loving being able to play outside in the garden with no coats on and play soccer out there - we've been to the beach and played in the waves and got SOAKED.....we've been to Stonehenge......been shopping, we're off to London for a night this week....lots of visiting...we have Lloyds parents coming tomorrow for the day...

So thats my little update but you'll have to wait for the pictures - I might be able to add some Tuesday night at my Sisters. Lloyd told me to go and buy a Macbook but I think I will just wait until I get home....you can wait that long right????? ;)

Swap bot

Www.swap-bot.com

A few people have been asking where I sign up for all of the ATC swaps, so I thought I'd add the link again for you all. Don't forget there is so much more than atc swaps - you can swap all kinds of things from candles, letters, teas, to candy, crafts and postcards and you can join from anywhere in the world.

Have fun!!!

Tonights sunset for you

Like my kitchen?

So, this is my kitchen for the next few weeks...just an oven...yep......thats IT!!! An oven! No sink...no counters...no floor...no ceiling....no walls! hmmmmmm...this is going to be INTERESTING!!!!!

Don't forget you can follow the renovations along at:

home-renos.blogspot.com/

Valentine card for Lloyd....

This is the mini album I gave to Lloyd for Valentines Day on Saturday.....it has a lot more pages than this but I'm not adding them all here.....

A few from Susannahs dance....

The stage area at the garden centre was tiny, but the girls did very well fitting in there to do their dance.....and they all had fun dancing for everyone! the next time they dance for an audience will be for their recital in April :)

the girl with the shaved head had 'gone pink' to raise money for cancer and had had her head shaved that week for charity - she also had two hearts shaved into the back of her head for Valentines Day - good for her - she does this every year to raise money :) very brave :)

Other dancers.....and the girls teachers...

Teacher Rachelle (in the front of the line up in the green outfit) is also the Mom of Chris and Laurences friends Chris and Scott) so it was nice to see her dance again. And the other lady speaking at the microphone is the girls dance teacher this year. Susannah especially adores her and Susie is a big favourite of hers I know and gets lot of hugs from her!

Susannah and friend...

On saturday we had to be at the Salisbury Garden Centre mid morning as Susannah was dancing in the Strathcona County Mayors art show......(or something or other....).

This is Susannah with a school friend as they waited to go on to do their dance! Her friend kept whispering to Susie "Your Mom is taking pictures AGAIN" and they would turn and pull funny faces......

Saturdays Winter Wonderland.....

Frosty trees that we woke up to on Saturday....

Sam......cuddled up with me......

This is Sam cuddled up on my shoulder one morning last week while I watched the Global breakfast news....

HSM Cheer Team Member!!

Abigail was given this Cheerleaders costume for her birthday from Grandma and Grandad Thorpe. Isn't it great? It will make a great Halloween costume in the Fall and is big enough to fit over Abby's coat if it's a cold Halloween too :)

Birthday dinner at Boston Pizza.....

Abigail chose to go to Smitty's for her birthday dinner, but Smittys in Sherwood Park closes at something ridiculous like 4pm on a Friday, so we couldn't go there.....so we chose to go to the BP's on Wye that has just been refurbished. It was good because despite being supper time on a Friday, we got a table straight away (for 7 of us thats pretty good)!

Oh and the pictures of Chris are supposed to look a certain way because he wanted them for his FB profile pic lol!

It was a funny meal - Susie and Abby were on their DS's to begin with and then I used on and we were chatting via picto-chat - Chris was texting, Sam was watching Wall-E on Lloyds i-phone and Laurie was using my i-phone to play games. Lloyd started complaining that we were all on our little gadgets and not communicating - but I WAS communicating with the girls - chatting via pictochat in fact it was fun getting Abigail to write to me even though we were sat opposite each other hahahaha. But we switched all our phones and DS's off and chatted instead hahahahaha. I didn't realise that other people could log in to pictochat and join in - Abby and I were chatting and writing to each other and all of a sudden some other girl in the restaurant logged in and started chatting to us......weird! No clue what table she was at lol Abby and I were writing funny things and I was drawing hearts and saying 'I love you' and then some girl logs in.....