The first day.....

It's been a lovely first day of the year.....such a late start after our very late night last night!  I scrapbooked quite a bit today - working on finishing my JYC album.  I also started my January mini album - I have so loved the one I created for December/ Christmas, that I thought I'd like to have a go at making one for each month of this year.  January's will be all in shades of blue - to emphasize the cold weather!!!!

I also decluttered Sams room and managed to get rid of two big sacks full of STUFF!!!  I feel really pleased to have got rid of so much as he really only uses a few things - his Lego/ k'nex, his toy soldiers and his cars.  Apart from that his favourite things to play with are duct tape and cardboard boxes etc that he can 'create' with.  I went through his book shelf and got rid of all the books he has outgrown too.

We had a lovely big New Years dinner - a repeat of our Christnas meal, with roast chicken and crispy oven roasted potatoes...brussel sprouts, swede, parsnips, yorkshire puddings etc etc.... we even had Christmas Crackers to pull again AND a yummy Marks and Spencers Christmas pudding!!!

I really missed having Laurence here though :(  he chose to stay at his friends house for another night!!    I chatted with him online for a little bit but will be glad to have him home tomorrow so I can wish him Happy New Year properly.

After dinner we played a game that Sam had for Christmas which turned out to be soooo much fun - it's based on the 'I Spy' books and I was soooo useless at it that Chris ended up coming to help me but he was no better at it than me!!!  Susie won both games we played....she was great at it!!!

Then Abby and Sam headed for bed and the rest of us curled up to watch the Star Trek movie which we hadn't seen yet.  We really enjoyed that!!!  Now Lloyd and I are watching the news and about to go to bed.

Tomorrow we are off out to get Laurie....we have some errands to run and we may even head to the movies.....only two days until school starts and Lloyd goes back to work :(  Time is flying now!!!

I hope you have all had a lovely first day of January wherever you are and whatever you have been up to!  Have a lovely weekend!

2010

This is me.  Now.  The morning after a VERY late night.   The morning after New Years Eve.  It's mid day and I'm sat in bed still.....THINKING about getting up......Chris is still in bed - and I'm sure wherever Laurence is, he is still in bed.....but everyone else is up already.  Only just though.  Blegh....iphoto doesn't do you many favours does it lol!  Almost as bad as passport pictures!

So,  I thought I'd try and work my way through a list of prompts I have for a year of blogging...and the first one is to post a picture of myself.  So. Here I am.  2010.  January 1st.  Almost 40.  Well, in a couple of years ;)

What is 2010 going to bring?  Actually I have no clue!!  Most years I have had a vague idea of what the year is going to have involved...or at least a few things...a trip or an event....or SOMETHING...but this year I don't think we have any plans really - except for Lloyds new business - and of course thats VERY exciting!!  The rest - we'll take it as it comes and enjoy the unknown.

Oh, we do have our little trip planned - but I don't know much about that because Lloyd won't tell me exactly when it is or where we are going!!!  Hhmmmm!!

So, 2010...a year of surprises...a year of relaxing and I'm quite interested to get to New Years Eve and look back and see exactly what it brought us!!!

Happy New Year!!!

Scenes from New Years Eve.....

We had a lovely New Years Eve....Laurence was at a party, but the rest of us had a party supper of a baked Brie (in the Brie baker our neighbours gave us for Christmas)  and chocolate fondue.....then we watched Night at the Museum 2 with a yummy box of Purdy's chocolates :)

That finished just in time to count down to the ball dropping in New York City (10pm our time) so Abby and Sam saw midnight in Eastern Time....we had silly string, party horns, and sparklers for them....then they went to bed and had glow necklaces once they were tucked in to bed!!!

After they were in bed we watched The Ugly Truth until just before midnight and then we stopped the movie to see the fireworks in Edmonton......watched those and continued the movie....then it was bedtime....

We used up the rest of the silly string at Midnight our time - playing with Kitty - making him jump each time we sprayed it and he was chasing it etc - it was funny!

It was a really nice, cozy, relaxed, warm, snuggly New Years Eve :)  and I spent the whole evening thinking how lucky I was.  I hope wherever you were to celebrate, that you were feeling equally content.    Sometimes the simple things are the best :)

Whose bright idea was it...

to buy party horns?????  Sam is running round the house blowing his this morning - ignorant to the fact that I am FAR too old to stay up until 2am celebrating these days.....and that I am now already struggling to focus on my word of the year....

Just BREATHE......  ;)

More coffee Lloyd....bring me more coffee......

New Years Eve 2009

The last day of 2009.  So hard to believe that this year is almost over.  It's ending so much happier than last year!  This time last year Lloyd was packed and about to head off to the airport for his flight to England.  He saw the New Year in on the plane - he doesn't quite remember seeing the New Year in because he was sleeping but he thinks the flight attendants brought round champagne and wished him Happy New Year....

I stayed home last year with the kids and we had lots of treats and games and we stayed up and watched Mamma Mia and watched the ball drop in New York too then I got very drunk and Susie and I were dancing to Abba music loudly at midnight - one of the boys filmed me dancing on the sofa.  I was very upset and sad and fed up that Lloyd was away from me in the midst of chaos here at the house - yes I was so sad for him that his Grandad had died, but it was New Year, the back of my house was missing and I had no kitchen at ALL.....we literally had an oven....I think we may have had a sink but we had nothing else.  The pipes kept freezing because the back of the house was missing and all we had was plastic sheets over part of it and the empty shell of what was going to be the new kitchen - the workmen were on holiday until after New Year and here I was in the middle of nowhere on my own with 5 kids and all these animals :(  At New Year :(  

Yes I was totally selfishly miserable :(  

So I got drunk and ate junk and danced and sang badly and had fun and the kids ran around blowing those horrible blowy horn things, high on sugar!!!

I missed Lloyd :(

And now here we are a year later already and things couldn't be more different!  We got up early and drove Laurence into town to his friends house as they have invited him to sleep over and go to a party with them.

Lloyd and I went to Starbucks for coffee/ breakfast and we had a stroll around Chapters - got myself a new book and magazine - and a new book light (this one I AM going to keep hidden from the children). We really went to the mall though to get a box of crackers for tomorrows big dinner - and I was really happy to find a box at half price in Chapters.   I also ran to the dollar store to get sparklers for tonight, and Silly String, blowers, table cloth and party plates etc etc.....nothing like leaving it to the last minute ;)

Now we're all set to celebrate :)  And this year I have Lloyd here with me :)

Breakfast for four...

Yesterday Laurence was at a sleepover, Susannah was at her second day of sleepovers, and we had to drop Chris at a house for a sledding party close to Rundle Park.  We decided to make the most of the day and so we took the two little ones to breakfast at Denny's downtown before heading to the museum.  We aren;t normally fans of Denny's but it was close by and child friendly.

I have to say that the food was REALLY good yesterday and so was the service!!  We had a great time in there and all came out really happy and full after our yummy breakfasts :)

Test post

Just testing out my new iphone app for blogging!!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Just BREATHE......

THIS website sums up EXACTLY why I have chosen the word BREATHE as my Word of the year for 2010.  Oh YES!!!  Yes it does!!!  I just couldn't have put it better myself!!!

There are certain situations that I plan to switch off fro and when they start to annoy me again I plan to just remind myself about my word - and just BREATHE......

And just like the song goes:

"So cradle your head in your hands,

And breathe... just breathe"

Last few days of Christmas.....

It's the last few days of the Christmas holidays and we are determined to make the most of them :)  I still have my decorations up at home, and as they still had their trees decorated at the museum, I took pictures of Abigail by them :)

I will take the decorations down at the weekend - and for sure on Monday when the children go back to school and we get back to our normal routine.  I don't feel sad that Christmas is over this year - I'm not happy it's over either - I feel content - I KNOW I made the most of every moment this December and we did sooooo much and really did make this Christmas special and fun and full of memories, and because of that I feel ready to let it be over.

I have my special JYC/ December Daily journal to remember it by and I have new classes starting in the new year to work on :)

That said, New Year isn't here yet, Lloyd and the children are still on 'Christmas Holidays', our cupboards are still full of Christmasy treats, and so we are still in 'Christmas mode'....

It will last until the weekend for sure :)

Stabbed By Mistake.....and Sam's Bison!!!

Of course, NO trip to the museum is complete without saying hello to Sams bison!!!  He LOVES the bison in the Aboriginal Exhibit.  He always stands and looks at it for ages and asks all kinds of questions about it before moving on.  It's interesting to hear his questions and see how they are developing as he gets older.  We also had to go and see 'Stabbed By Mistake's' Headdress.  We were amazed that Sam remembered his name!!!  He remembered the name and exactly where in the exhibit it was - so I guess we must go to the museum a lot :)

Fun at the museum....

Oh the delights you see!!!

Scenes from the Royal Alberta Museum....

Robert Munsch at the Museum.....

Sam LOVED ringing the doorbell above, whiule Abigail loved looking in the refrigerator below:

Abigail and I made up our own story by covering up certain words in these sentences:

We had great fun turning the boards to make the characters look VERY strange:

Sam and Abby decided that playing ring toss was MUCH more fun than actually doing the word searches they were supposed to be doing although Abby had found most of the words before she joined in the fun:

Building stories in the picture above, and performing a puppet show in the picture below....something to do with pizza delivery if I remember correctly ;)

Listening to stories in the car:

Mud puddle fun:

Today we went to the Much More Munsch Exhibit at the Royal Alberta Museum.  We had a really nice time there (as always) apart from the terrible HORRIBLE food, service and drinks in the cafe which was really disappointing because the food in there is normally FABULOUS and I sooooo look forward to going in there - it's normally really healthy and really fresh and today it was sooooo bad that I asked for a refund!!!!  Good job we had been out for a lovely breakfast that filled us up first thing in the morning!!  We had just been looking forward to coffee and a treat - thats all :(

Anyway, apart from THAT we had a lovely time and the children really enjoyed the exhibit.  Lloyd and I also enjoyed the Diamond Exhibit - I was really surprised that they have only been mining for diamonds in Canada since the 1990's!!!!  Wow!!    It was a fascinating Exhibit.  We entered our names to win a diamond - wish us luck ;)

Word of the year for 2010 - have you chosen yours????

Have YOU chosen your one little word for next year?  Need help to choose your Word of the Year????  Use this wonderful tool at Christine Kane's fabulous blog!!!

Another site you might find helpful for choosing your word is the Steady Mom.

I have chosen my word to reflect on for the upcoming year,  and my word is going to be:

BREATHE

There are many reasons for this...some of which I will go in to in another post....