Yes, I am still blogging, are you still reading?

Yes I am still here! It has been a very busy month, which I'm sure it has been for all of you as well.

I had a great Christmas how about you? We went from one party to the next and now yesterday I crashed, I didn't get out of my pj's and went to bed early, I am still in them now too, lol, I suppose I better change before I go to the bank.

I am not sure if I posted about Dale's utter dislike of putting up Christmas lights or not, I had asked him once if he would do it and got a very unsavoury reaction so I didn't ask again. Well guess what happened on Christmas Eve? lol Yep, he put up the lights! I don't know exactly why he did it but I'm happy to have them up and they look pretty, he did not waste any time however in telling me how ridiculous he thought it was that people would endanger themselves to put up Christmas lights on their houses, haha, ok, whatever, it was your decision. lol

1000 Visitors!

Wow I cracked a 1000 vistors! I was going to do something special for number 1000 but I was too slow to be fast! lol :o) Thanks for dropping by!

A 2 for 1 post

Some of you may have noticed that things have been a bit rough for me the last couple of days, I suppose it's the proverbial "when it rains it pours" and that's exactly what it seems like lately. I am very over whelmed with everything. I feel like I've got too many hats, wife, mother, daughter, sister, Avon rep, Partylite rep, friend, and I'm trying to keep everybody happy and it seems that I'm being slammed on all sides lately. I know out of these hats which are the important ones: wife and mother and at the bottom are Avon and Partylite. Trying to keep it all together it seems is turning out to be more than I can bare. I do Avon and Partylite to try and contribute as best I can to our family financially but then I'm torn in so many directions. For example today I had a PL customer email to say that one of the pieces in her order is missing, I apologized and asked her what I could do about the situation, her responses were along these lines: "I guess I'll just chalk this up to another one of my xmas shopping disappointments" I was thinking seriously? It's just a candle and I can replace it for you or give you something else. Anyways after a frustrating day of back and forth with her I think I've got it figured out, my friend has one and that she's willing to part with and now if the lady would just get back to me to let me know if she still wants it this will be over. Then this afternoon I get my Avon order, one customer had ordered a pair of boots a few weeks ago and they've been back ordered since then, there is a paper in the box that says the boots are not coming, GREAT! Another problem, now I have to contact her too and break her the bad news, she was rather excited about these boots. It just seems like one thing after another, this on top of a huge fight with my sister which I will not get into and some issues with others too. Can you hear me screaming? Yea, I think I'll just pop another chocolate in my mouth. lol......................mmmm......that's better! I really need a girls night out and soon, any takers?

Now on to the comment that she had said, "xmas" that just absolutely grates on me, it find it highly offensive. You see it everywhere now, in store windows on advertisements, even commercials on TV talk about "the Holidays" instead of Christmas, "Happy Holidays they say" that's all fine and nice but I believe in "Merry Christmas". I believe in the virgin birth of my Saviour Jesus Christ and I celebrate it at CHRISTmas, not xmas, CHRSTmas. Xmas is just a politically correct way of saying Christmas so that it does not offend people who are not Christians, how would any of these other religions feel if the world decided to change the name of one of their sacred holidays to something more "politically correct"? How about "xakhi" instead of vaisakhi for the sihks? How about "xadan" instead of for ramadan for muslims? or "xsak" instead of vesak (buddist new year) for budists? I think they would make a big stink about this, why is it that the world does not think twice about cutting out and changing anything that is Christian but they don't do the same for the other religions? It is a double standard.

It's beginning to feel like Christmas!

It snowed yesterday! Me and the girls were quite thrilled, I know that to those of you that live east of us it's really no big deal but it is a big deal here. When it snows here all of a sudden everything looks clean and feels nice and cozy and Christmasy, I love it!

This also is when BC'ers (most of them I should say) forget how to drive, it seems that as soon as the first snowflake hits they go crazy, if they are in a car they start to either drive painfully slow or ridiculously fast and if they have a 4 wheel drive all of a sudden they are invisible, and inevitably end up in the ditch. My Dad is from Ontario, he thinks he knows how to drive in the snow, I think he's a scary driver in normal weather never mind when it's snowing! lol Any tips on driving in it from you people who live in it all winter?

On to other things, Alexa had her school Christmas concert on Friday, as Dale and I are still there waiting for it to begin he was making little comments here and there about the church and I said "have you never been in here before?" "no" he said, I thought: "that's terrible" "that means that in 3 years of being in school he had not made it for 1 single thing that has happened for her" the word to describe it that came to me was 'disgusting' I was thinking it's no wonder she's asked so many times over the last week if he was going to come. His work has taken priority over everything in his life and it's very hard for me to understand this. I know it's because he wants to get out of debt and be free of it but at what cost to his family?

I am so tired of going to everything alone, parties, things from school etc etc. and I'm tired of having to take the kids with me just about everywhere, have you tried Christmas shopping with a couple of curious little girls? lol That's hard! I would love to go to the states to the outlets in Seattle, I've never been, but Dale's never home to go with us and it's too far for me to go with the girls by myself and I don't want to go totally alone either so what do I do? Just not go..... The other day I was at Costco and I bought the newest Tinkerbell movie, the lady that checks the receipt asked me: "where is the DVD" and starts digging through my stuff, I quickly ran around the cart and whispered in her ear that it's a Christmas gift, when did Costco actually start digging through your carts? Anyways, the girls were none the wiser so that was good. Oh sorry bout that, totally didn't plan on ranting to you about my frustrations! :o)

Yes I am still here

Yes everyone I am still here, it has been one heck of a busy week and it seems that no end is in sight! Isn't that how it always is though, especially at this time of year? This week is the last week of school before Christmas holidays (YEEEESSSSS!!!!!!!!) I am only slightly excited about this, lol, and there are lots of things going on too: On Tuesday the school is going skating, on Thursday the girls are invited to a kids Christmas party at a friends house and I am a mommy helper, on Friday the school is going to the Clova to see a movie, on Saturday is a friends Christmas party (this is the one that I told you about that is themed 'Griswold Christmas' we have to dress up as characters from the movie, hilarious!), on Sunday is an extended family Christmas party and then on Monday is my girlfriends Christmas party.....phewf, that's exhausting just writing all of it! haha It will all be fun.

I have been pretty busy this week too which is partly why I haven't blogged since last Monday, the other reason being that my computer is painfully slow and I can't seem to figure out whats wrong, it's driving me crazy! It seems a little better tonight after a freind told me how to fix something, we'll see......

Anyways, an update on the Christmas card count: 6! I have only sent one out so far to a friend in the states. Today I ordered some family pics that I want to put in the cards so when I get them on Tuesday I will be getting them out....I hope! heehee I am a HUGE procrastinator............please pray for me that I can change that, it's a big problem for me.

So how are you?

First Christmas card in the mail!

I am celebrating today, I got my first Christmas card in the mail!!! Thank-you JK, lovely picture! So now I've got 3 altogether hanging on my Christmas card holder, one from CC, one from KM (congrats on the newest addition) and then the one today, I can't wait to see how many more will be added! :o) Yes I know how this sounds, I am probably way too excited about this but I love Christmas & I love getting mail so this is a perfect combination in my mind! lol

On to other things, do any of you ever notice that your husband (sorry guys) does not listen? I had a doctors appointment this afternoon at 3:45, Dale was supposed to be home until 6:00 and then had to go to work, well he got called in early and he phones me to tell me this as I'm on my way to the docs. Now I'm thinking as he tells me this, "what exactly would you like me to do about that right now, particularly since I am on my way already and my appointment was 5 minutes ago" So I tell him "well I guess call my mom to watch the girls" I just assumed this is what he did, I get to my appointment and the doc wants to send me for an x ray so I head upstairs right away to see if I can get it done, there is no line up, awesome, as I sit down I text Dale just to fill him in on what's happening and I get called before I even finish the message. He texts back "why now, I have to go" by then I was already done, so I called him, "why would you go and get that done now when you know I have to go to work?" he says "ah...I thought you were already AT work and the girls are at mom's" He did not hear me say call my mom. AAHHH! So now he's mad at ME and it's MY fault that he didn't get off to work sooner, I tell him I would be home in 20 min and quickly head home, he didn't even wait for me to get home, I passed him on the road and the girls were at my mom's already. Why he did not think of this on his own is beyond me, my mom is the backup plan whenever stuff like this happens. Anyways, that was a few hours ago and he has not called me or anything, so he's mad, now do I call him to apologize even though I don't think I need to?

Let's try that again

I thought that I would fill you all in on my progress of yesterdays to-do list. I did not get very far although I wasn't sitting around eating bon bons and watching soap operas afternoon either.

I did get the groceries for dinner and made dinner, the soup was DELICIOUS I also made herb & garlic and cheddar biscuits to go with it, this is an epicure recipe, I will not do these again, I did not like the herb & garlic in it, maybe next time lemon dilly? I don't know. I cleaned the kitchen too although you wouldn't know it this morning, I hate the fact that when you clean it never stays that way, especially with small children running around, they pull things apart behind you as you go. Maybe I'll get to the lights today, Dale did say he would help me which was surprising because I never said anything about it after after asking the first time. The decorations didn't happen either.... See told ya, I am always quite ambitious with my plans on days like that and never get it all accomplished. lol

Honey do lists

What a glorious day it is here! It is cool and crisp and the sun is shining beautifully! God sure knows how to make em doesn't he?

Yesterday Alexa didn't have school so I planned a trip to the USA to do some shopping, we left in the afternoon and had a great time, got some deals, and even got to meet up with a long lost friend which was so fun, Thanks Beth for meeting us!

In the morning I checked to see how long the border line ups were and they were any where from 35-50 minutes, I wasn't too thrilled about that but I packed some snacks, books and the portable dvd player and off we went. When I checked the line ups I said a quick little prayer asking the Lord to "give us favour with anything we set our hands to today." When we got to the border there were 3 wickets open and only 2 cars in front of us in our line! It was great we just sailed through, on the way back we had to wait longer but not by much which I thought was funny because it was late at night and we left at 2:30 in the afternoon. To those that answered my questions about crossing the border with the kids on my facebook: the birth certificate is fine for Brooklynn and they never asked for a letter from Dale, thanks for your help! :o)

I always make plans for the days like this, they are always far too much than what I would actually get done but it's the thought that counts right? Oh.....maybe that's just for gifts and cards....lol So today, it's now afternoon so lets see how much of it actually happens......

1. clean up the mountain of clothes that is in the hallway right now that I made Alexa throw in there in search of her winter jacket, there was method to that madness, I though we will throw it somewhere where I will be forced to deal with it rather than ignore it which would be much easier.

2. clean the kitchen

3. get groceries for dinner, on the menu tonight: cheddar potato soup and biscuits yummy, thanks "Miss you are no lady" for the idea

4. put up the Christmas lights around the deck: I asked Dale if he could help me put up the lights to which he replied that he wanted to wash the truck, and if he helped me do the lights that it would just make him mad. I don't understand what his deal is with Christmas and decorating, every year it's the same thing, I do it all, which I don't mind but if I ask if he can help me hang a string of lights where I can't really reach all that well he grunts and groans and puts on a big pout. The funny thing is that when I have it all up and done he thinks its nice! lol He asked me why I needed help putting up the lights around the deck, I said well it's easier if two people do it, one can string it and put the zap straps on and the other holds the rest of the lights, not to difficult in my mind, that way none of them accidentally get stepped on, which happened last year when I did it by myself.

5. write Christmas cards, yes I did decide to write some, I'm just cutting down my list

6. get the rest of our decorations from storage and put them up, this involves the help of Dale which he is less than thrilled about, he doesn't know that this is on his "honey do" list today, lol.

So it is just after 12:30 on Saturday afternoon and I've got 3 days of stuff to do on my list, I'm hoping at least there can be a start on it. :o)

Deals and Blessings

I just wanted to pass along some deals that I found in the last couple days..... If your kids need any outer wear Old Navy and the Childrens Place outlet in White Rock have 40% off on coats etc. I love that Childrens Place outlet! Awesome deals there! I got Brooklynn a new winter coat, it's one of those 3 in 1 ones where you can zip out an inner jacket, regular price was $70 then a super cute quilted vest with a fur lined hood, it was regularly $26.50, then a winter hat and then I got Alexa a new pair of snow pants, can't remember the regular price of that either, and a sweater for her as well, anyways, my total bill was only $112!!! I thought that was amazing especially since the jacket alone was $70 regularly! I was quite pleased! I had kind of been squeezing Brooklynn into last years jacket but I was starting to feel sorry for her because it's just too small, so when I saw that deal I grabbed it.

Then today I got a huge bag of cobs bread for free! I am finding pretty much every day the Lord is blessing us, it may be something big, it may be something small but it's always a reminder to us that he's looking out for us and has not forgotten us in our time of need.

Christmas Cards

Do you write out and mail Christmas cards? I have been contemplating whether or not to write and mail any this year because I don't hardly get any. I would do the ones for friends that I see regularly etc but I am not sure about doing them for all the other people I have sent to over the years. For me it hardly seems worth the effort involved when I hardly get any from those that I send to, I have sent ones to family in Ontario and to Sweden and only get a couple from the Ontario family and never any from Sweden. I can't remember if it was last year or the year before but I counted how many cards I sent out and it was like 50 or something and then counted how many I received and I think there were 20 or 25. I sort of feel like why bother when they don't see the importance of sending us Christmas greetings and keeping us up to date on what's going on in their families? Am I just having a bad attitude here? Or would this bother you too? I love getting the family letters, pictures and Christmas cards but maybe other people don't feel the same way.

Christmas times a comin

Today is December 1st!!!!! Yes, that means that the Christmas season is officially upon us and I couldn't be happier about it! I have started putting out a few decorations here and there and thought today I would do some more. Dale hates it, he figures that people shouldn't start decorating or playing Christmas music until December 24th lol, not me, I even changed my alarm clock radio station to Praise 106.5 because they are playing Christmas music all the time now!

Last year was a terrible Christmas for me, I was in a depression that was way worse than normal and I could have cared less that it was Christmas or that it snowed for it, normally I would have literally been giddy about it. I am making up for lost time this year! Even though things are extremely tight this year I have been able to find bargains and have seen the Lords hand in that area. I really would like to go to the US to do some shopping but don't want to go alone, anyone want to go with me?

I don't have as many people to buy for this year, we are not doing exchange with my family which I think is very said, I love the whole gift thing, not necessarily getting but giving, I love picking out the perfect gift that shows them how I feel about them. That is my love language, 'Giving/Receiving of gifts' For me to give a gift shows you that I love and appreciate you and to receive one shows me how much you love and appreciate me, if for example Dale doesn't get me a Christmas gift or Birthday gift, even though in my head I would know why (lack of money) in my heart it would feel like he's stuck a knife in and spat on me saying I hate you. I really wish this wasn't my gifting, I don't know anyone else with it and people don't understand it and I know that it comes across as selfish, (my feelings about gifts) and that's not at all where it comes from.

Alexa's blessing

As most of you know I have been taking a Spanish class, I love it! Anyways the last 3 weeks Alexa has wanted to come along, she just sits quietly and colors, I think probably she wants to come because it gives her some quiet time away from Brooklynn to do something she loves.

Anyways, last week our teacher could not find the markers she needed to write on the easel to teach us, they looked everywhere and came up empty. Alexa then volunteered her markers for the class, everyone was so grateful cause the class would have been ruined otherwise. Well just about all of her markers got used up, they all went dry and the teacher had to keep switching them out for a new color and Alexa was more than willing to donate them. After the class was over I took her to London Drugs and let her pick out a new set to replace the other ones and she was so excited about that.

Well yesterday we had class again and she wanted to come, we get there and as we are getting settled in the classroom one of the other guys in the class (he is taking it with his wife) goes up to Alexa with a big set of new markers! She was quite excited, I said "See look what happened? You lent your markers to the class and now you've been blessed and got 2 brand new sets!" I LOVE it when the Lord shows himself in even the small things like that, that he would show a 7 year old little girl that he even knows the desires of her heart and that yes HE cares even about markers! I'm tearing up right now just thinking about it, what a special moment for her! Thank-you Lord!!!

My readers

I can tell sometimes on my blog where people are from that are reading, and I don't know who you are, I just wanted to say hello to you! I have seen that there is one from Auckland, New Zealand, I have no idea who you are but I wanted to say "Hello!" and thank-you for reading, you are my furthest away reader! :o) Another one that I've seen that I don't think I know is from Woodstock, New Brunswick, Hello to you too! I know that there are others and thank-you for taking the time to come by and read my blog! And hey, feel free to join my group of "followers" all that means is that you read my blog regularly, you just click on follow, you can still remain anonymous or pick a name for yourself, one person that's following me I have absolutely no idea who it is: TJ, if you want to TJ, let me know who you are. (that the really curious side of me coming out there! lol)

Have a great day!

My Story #3

Well it's been a few weeks since I wrote part 1 and 2 so here goes part 3......

The last one I wrote was about my best friend "Jake" one thing that I forgot to put in there about that situation with him when I got married was that he did show up for our wedding, I had asked him to be an usher as well as I had asked his brother. His brother did an awesome job, he showed up in a nice suit and the whole thing and "Jake" showed up in jeans and an un-ironed striped shirt, just his normal clothes that he would wear every day, I was not impressed, "you mean you could not have made the effort to at the very least get a little dressed up?" I thought. I saw him as I was walking down the aisle and he didn't look too happy, he was sitting on the end of the pew about 4 or 5 rows from the front, he left in the middle of the service and I never saw him at the reception. I was quite disappointed.

Dale and I started dating on November 18th, that was when he asked me to "be my baby tonight and maybe for a long time" lol up to that point he had not kissed me yet so I thought now that we were "going steady" that it would happen, nope, it didn't. It didn't happen that night or the next or the next, finally he told me that he was not going to kiss me until I told him that I was ready. Here is me: "what the heck? how embarrassing! how can I say I'm ready for you to kiss me? that takes all the romance out of it!" lol So I finally got up the nerve to tell him I was ready, it was so dumb, lol, he kissed me, it was alright but I was so nervous that I couldn't think about the actual kiss. They did get better after that, so that was good. heehee

Dale and I quickly found ourselves talking about getting married, on New Years that year we said that we hoped to get married the next year. We started praying about it fairly soon after. Dale had been engaged before and he had prayed very specifically about whether or not to marry that girl. He prayed that the Lord would bless him financially, he prayed that the Lord would bless him with a certain amount of money, within a week or two he was nearly broke, that was a very clear answer. He decided that he wanted to pray along the same lines when we were talking about getting married, it freaked me out because I knew what had happened before but I decided to trust him and to trust the Lord that He knew best. Dale prayed for a specific amount of money, our answer came and it was not only met but exceeded, it was also a very clear answer to our prayer. When I found out I cried, I rarely had had an answer to prayer that was so abundantly clear.

We got engaged soon after, it was not at all romantic :o( lol. We were going to go out for dinner and Dale was getting ready, I was sitting on his bed reading a magazine while he got ready. He just turned around with the ring and said "Will you marry me?" I, of course, said yes. He did it that way because he thought I could see what he was doing and couldn't figure out a way to get the ring in his pocket without me seeing, I wasn't even paying attention to what he was doing. He said that he didn't even have a plan on how to ask me anyhow.

All of the wedding plans came together nicely, there were no problems or anything, I loved planning it and I loved our wedding, I would do it again in a heartbeat but Dale thinks it's dumb to renew your wedding vows :o(

Organization

I have been very busy the last few days with getting my house organized, it's still a work in progress but I at least feel pretty good about the living room, dining room, and kitchen. Now on to the other rooms.....It's something I have had to do for a long time but the task was so big that I thought I just can't do this it's too much! My in-laws were going to come and visit in the next couple weeks and I thought well this HAS to be done by the time they come so I guess I'd better get started. It was a lot of work and today I'm tired so it was nice to have a day off, I stayed in my jammies and got to sleep in and then the girls and I had a nap in the clean living room in the afternoon, so nice!

I was on facebook this afternoon and realized that my cousin had de-friended me, not that we are real close or anything but, it kind of bothered me. I use facebook as a way of connecting with people and getting to know them better etc. Would that bother you? I guess I think its strange because I have friends in Europe and Australia that keep in touch better than some family, anyways I think that family is very important, you may not always have friends but you will always have family because they are your blood, although I have many friends that I feel closer to than I do to family.......

Trusting the Lord

Many of you know that things have been rough for us lately, money is very tight and it is really stressing both of us out incredibly. We pay pretty much all of our bills late, not by choice but because we just can't do it any other way, I get phone calls nearly every week from people wondering when to expect money, at which I respond "I am doing the best I can" and I tell them what is going on with Dale's work.

Since Monday I've had 2 recorded calls from one place saying that "they see that the lines of communication need to be opened" lol They called last week too and I told them what was happening and now they called again on Wednesday morning and it was an actual person and he asked me if things had improved, I'm like seriously? you think in one week it would have gotten that much better? lol I didn't actually say this to him but I kind of laughed and told him that they still owe us from August through til now. I was able to send them a payment on Monday and so he was happy about that. :o)

It's just been one of those weeks, on Monday night my glasses literally fell apart in my hands, I fought off tears all night because of it, they broke where it was not fixable, Dale glued them but they only held together for a day and then broke again. My mom had some old glasses that were almost exactly the same shape and so I took those to the glasses place and my lenses fit perfectly in, so that was great!!! I really need to go see the optometrist but that costs money too. Then on Tuesday morning I go to do some laundry and my washer is broken! Ah! What else?! My dad came and looked at it and he was able to fix it, we were so happy that it was something that could be fixed for free! Thanks Mom and Dad!

We are sure that the Lord is working in our lives and we are trusting Him to pull us through, we just need to remind ourselves of this daily and not let the enemy pull us down.

Fall #2

Ok so I know I said I love fall, I still do, but all of these wind/rain storms are getting a little old. Last night we had a reprieve which was nice but had one each of the two nights before, and now they are calling for another one tonight, really?! Come on! I enjoy the storms but not so much at night when I am home alone and the power goes out and the girls freak out, thankfully that has not happened that many times this year but I still get ready with all the candles going just in case.

Last spring I made up an emergency kit, I put in boxes of cereal, pasta and canned sauce, jarred vegetables, powdered milk etc as well as batteries, battery operated lanterns, and a flash light that does not require batteries (what an awesome invention!). I am so thankful that I have those lanterns now, I have no idea why it never occurred to me before to have these before, now if the power goes out I can just put one in the each of the girls rooms and not worry about leaving it on, that only took 13 years to figure out! lol

Tonight I am off to Spanish class again, only 2 more left, I'll be sad when it's over I am really enjoying it. This morning I talked to my father-in-law, they just got back from several months in Sweden, when he answered the phone he said something in Swedish to me and the response that formed in my mind was Spanish! haha I did take a Swedish course once too so I know a little bit, the basic greetings etc but I had to laugh at my own reaction, that I was getting the languages mixed up.

Monday

Hi everyone! Sorry I've been out of the blog universe for a few days, I couldn't think of anything to post. lol Not that I have anything real exciting now though...........

Last night we had one heck of a storm, both Dale and I were awake quite a bit of the night because of the wind, Brooklynn woke up crying because she was scared, poor girl, Alexa slept right through so that's good. We did wake up to no power but thankfully it came back on in time to get Alexa ready for school.

For quite a while now I've been working with Brooklynn to get her potty trained, she turned 3 in October but she just couldn't seem to get the fact that she needed to do her business on there all the time not only some of the time. Well she's been dry for several days now, hallelujah!!!!! She seems to have a stronger bladder than Alexa, lol. I'm finally seeing the end of diapers!!!!

On Friday I went with my sister to some craft fairs, that was fun, I always enjoy going to those things. It definitely put me in the Christmas mood, I wasn't feeling it quite yet before that but now I'm slowly pulling some decorations out and thinking about holiday baking. As for the plan for today, the exciting task of paying bills or at the very least paying some of them....until I run out of money. :o( No fun to say the least.

I Need a Hug

Do you ever have those days that seem like nothing goes right or rather that maybe they go ok but for whatever reason in your mind nothing is going right? Today was one of those days for me.

All afternoon I felt like bursting into tears, I wanted to thinking that maybe I would feel better but I couldn't cry. Before you start asking if it's just PMS, I will say that no it's not, maybe post PMS, is there even such a thing? lol

The day started out not that great, I have not been sleeping that well for a few nights now and last night was no different. Yesterday I shaved my legs but before I did that I tried this new thing that I got sucked into buying at one of those trade shows called "Smoooth Legs" the idea is to buff off the hair on your legs and eventually having it be gone altogether forever, kind of like a guys legs that wears cowboy boots all the time and he's got not much hair where the boots touch his calves. Anyways, what it really is like is a round disk with sand paper on it and you don't buff, you sand it off therefore causing extreme pain after the fact and shaving after it because it didn't really work that well only causes more pain. All this to say that I go to bed, my one leg is killing me so I get up go and rub an antibiotic ointment all over it and then loosely wrap a tensor around so the ointment doesn't come off on my sheets, I then spend the entire night tossing and turning because either my leg is hurting or I'm trying to keep the bandage from coming off.

Dale gets up early to go to the dentist, he had to get a crown put on, when he gets home he's grumpy cause his mouth hurts and because he just had to put out $1000 on his teeth, which for some reason almost seems like he thinks is my fault. (Note: this is probably me misinterpreting things but in my current state of mind..... lol) After a little lunch he then leaves to go and work on some hay stuff, great! SO not great, he's always gone. Can you hear me whining right now? lol

Then I end up having a huge argument with my sister, not the preggo one. Fantastic, she asked me what was wrong between the 2 of us, I answered, nuff said. Blah! Then Dale came home, I had made chili in the afternoon for dinner thinking maybe that would cheer him up that I would have something ready for him to eat when he got home and before he left on his trip again. He ate a little and said it was good but didn't feel like eating much cause of his mouth being sore, ok, I get that.

He leaves and I get Alexa to taste the chili cause she's hungry and I wanted to make sure it wasn't too spicy for her, that was a no go, much to spicy for her! Awesome! (I hope you sense the sarcasm here lol) So I pull out a box of whole wheat mac and cheese and that is what the girls are eating now. I had put one chipotle pepper chopped up really fine in the pot, it gave the chili a nice smokey flavour but I thought after the fact that maybe I should have gone with a less is more mentality with the pepper, I could have always added more later.

I also helped Alexa get caught up with homework which is always a challenge hence the reason she is back in school and why I'm not homeschooling anymore. She has so much because she was off school for several days, she's had a really bad cold with a fever and with all the H1N1 craziness I didn't want to take any chances.

So here I sit, the girls are eating mac and cheese in the living room watching Barbie and the Three Musketeers and I'm thinking when is it bed time? and I can't wait until Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice comes on! How was your day?

Loved ones #2

As a follow up to my last post about how quickly things can change I thought I would let you know how that has been proven again in our lives just today.

Last week one of Dale's 2nd cousins passed away, I'm not sure exactly how old she was but she was somewhere in her 50's or early 60's, she didn't have cancer or any other sort of disease, it sounds like it was a rather quick thing, she had some sort of lung issue that had come up. Now just tonight we find out that her sister has cancer, she is only in her early 40's! She's got 4 children 2 of which are young, under 6 I think, she's going through chemo and radiation and the doctors are doing all that they can but the cancer is in a few different places. She does not know the Lord, which is very sad, we are praying for her healing and for her salvation as well as for the entire family, believe with us and pray!

We also have a very close friend who was just re-diagnosed with cancer on the exact same day as last year, October 14th 2008 she was diagnosed with cancer when she had gone to have something else looked at and on October 14th 2009 exactly the same thing happened, absolutely amazing! We are also praying for her and for her family for healing and salvation.

These are the sorts of things that I am talking about, how quickly life can change, one day you are trucking along (no pun intended) and BAM there is a road block or detour.

Loved Ones

Last week my Mom had a car accident, I don't think it was her fault but according to ICBC it is, even though the guy that hit her admitted fault. Anyways, I'm not writing this to debate who's at fault I'm writing this for another reason.

My Mom is ok, if you want to call it that, she's got an extremely sore shoulder and emotionally she's bothered by it of course. I took her to the doctor the other day and at just about every light that turned yellow she flinched, I felt so bad for her.

This whole thing got me to thinking about the fragility of life, how quickly things can happen. I have thought about this a fair bit before because of the line of work Dale is in, especially in the winter being on the road all the time with the ice and snow and other drivers who may not be so good at driving, things can change in an instant. I have often thought about it when we've been having a disagreement and he's left on a trip and I think, I need to make this right before he goes but am too stubborn to say anything. How would I feel if something happened to him and our last words to one another were that of argument not I love you's. I know someone who lost someone very close to them very quickly, one moment the person was at her house and with in hours so were the police informing her of the devastating news.

I want to tell you please please please as best you can always make right the wrongs, always leave your loved ones with everything good between you, always tell them that you love them, hug them and love on them!

Adventures of Brooklynn

I have been making a huge effort to get Brooklynn potty trained, she's doing pretty good but for whatever reason wants to still wear a diaper, she will still go potty but she wants the diaper, strange. The other day I was working at the computer and Brooklynn comes in and with just a shirt on says very matter of factly "So Mommy I went potty and I cut my hair" WHAT???!!! This is the second time Brooklynn's hair has been cut by a child, the first time Alexa did it and that was only a couple months ago, she was still growing her hair out to fix that. I have no idea how I'm going to have her Christmas pictures taken now with hair like this! AHH! Here is a before and after:

Yummy Recipes

I am so sorry I have not posted in a few days, I've been pretty busy, but now I'm back and have a couple of great recipes for you!

I got these from my friend Carole, I'm pretty sure she would be ok with my mentioning her name on here since she comments with her name and not with anonymous. lol

Carole said to me: "You HAVE to try these, sooo good!" And I wholeheartedly agree.

Aunt Betty's Pork Chops:

• Brown pork chops, pork steaks or pork ribs
• sauce:
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1 tsp of dry mustard
• Place in baking dish
• Bake at 350F for 45 minutes
• variation: add 1/2 tsp of chili powder

So I have made this twice now both times with pork steaks, the first time I followed the recipe exactly but as I typed this I realized that I was supposed to brown the meat before putting in the oven lol oh well, they still tasted good, they were a little tough though and I thought maybe it was the cut of meat, maybe chops would have been better, maybe if they were cooked at a longer and lower temperature, so I decided to try it in the crock pot the next time. The second time I put them in the crock pot, I just mixed up the sauce, put a little in the bottom of the pot and then put the raw pork steaks in and poured the rest of the sauce in and made sure to have every steak covered in sauce. They were sooo good, fall apart tender, exactly what I wanted. I put them in at about 11:30am on the low setting and they were in there until about 6pm. My consensus is that longer and lower temp is better, I do have to try this with a different cut of meat though, I'll let you know how that turns out.

Along with the meat I made corn fritters, these are so yummy! You HAVE to try this!

Corn Fritters

• 1 can of cream corn
• add 2 beaten eggs
• 6 tbsp of flour
• 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• dash of nutmeg
• prepare like pancakes in a frying pan

With this recipe I did not have nutmeg so I added some Lemon Dilly mix (from Epicure Selections) to it and it was very very good. (I can hook you up with some if you would like lol)

I definitely recommend trying these they were both very tasty and easy, right up my alley! Let me know what you think of them when you try them.

My Story part 2

How did you like my story so far? I got a couple of comments, that's fun for me, I think I've told you that before though. lol Man is it ever a windy stormy night! I hope the power doesn't go out, I have a whole bunch of pretty smelling partylite candles going just in case, I hate it when the power goes out at night and you are not prepared.

So I left off yesterday with me and "Jake" and that ending when I started dating Dale. I told you that we hung out all the time, we would sit on the couch and hold hands even sometimes, crazy that we never got together but I guess since he was not all that sure, indicated by the fact that he didn't want other girls seeing us together it's no wonder lol. I suppose that was the sign that "He's just not that into you" One time in the summer before I started dating Dale, me and "Jake" were at Mount Baker, just hanging out and looking around and we came upon some rapids, it was beautiful; I thought to myself: "lets do a test here" and I said "I bet if I fell in there and died you wouldn't be upset, you wouldn't even cry at my funeral" What a dumb thing to say! lol he was standing behind me and put his arms around me and put his head on my shoulder and said "Yes I would, I would be very upset" I was quite thrilled with this, the fact that he was holding me and all, I had that giddy feeling in my stomach. Here is my internal dialog: "OH MY GOODNESS! HE'S HOLDING ME! THIS IS WHAT BOYFRIENDS AND GIRLFRIENDS DO!!! AAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" lol Yea, I know what you are thinking, crazy right? My friends that we were there with were even saying to me quietly that they thought he liked me and we were all giggling about it lol. Do you remember that "M & B"? Nothing happened from that event, things went on like normal, we kept doing stuff together and I was rather disappointed. Then came September when we went to young adults and I met Dale and we started dating.

After Dale and I got engaged "Jake" came over to my house and was in our back porch and he was bawling his eyes out to my parents cause he was so upset that I was engaged, I didn't understand, "I thought we were just friends?" "I thought you wanted nothing to do with me that way?" "I liked you and you didn't respond?" I will never forget his face that day, I felt so bad for him but also was quite confused about it. "Why?" I still don't understand why, do you? After a while I asked him to be an usher at our wedding, I would have asked him to be my "man of honor" but thought that people would think that was strange.

About 4 weeks before our wedding he calls me and asks me to meet him for coffee, I was excited, I thought maybe he's come to terms with it and wants to be friends again. I don't know why but I took Dale with me and then he waited for me in the car while I went in to have coffee. Here is the conversation: he says after the hey how are ya's and all that "I want you to marry me, you can keep your dress and everything and use it at our wedding but marry me" I was shocked, how is this happening to me???!!!! I didn't know what to say, I was so thrown for a loop. After I went out to the car to Dale and he asked me "What did he want?" "Uhhhh...........hhmmmmm........yea.......well........he asked me to marry him" Dale flipped, he was so mad that "Jake" was trying to steal me out from under him so to speak.

I didn't know what to think, I was so torn because on one hand I had my best friend whom I had liked on and off for years and on the other I had Dale, I loved him, he loved me, we had answers to prayer that helped us to decide to get married, we've only been together for 9 months, "Jake" and I had been friends for several years. What a problem this had created for me, I thought I was sure about Dale, this had me wondering if I missed something in God's plan for me, was "Jake" the one and I missed it somehow?

The next day I went to work, I worked at Wendy's at the time, my mind still swirling, I hadn't given him an answer and I didn't know what to say yet. Meanwhile back at home a guy comes to the house with a big bouquet of beautiful roses for me, my mom, thinking they were from Dale sent the guy to my work. He comes in the middle of the lunch rush and gives me the flowers and I thought they were from Dale too, until I opened the card, they were from "Jake" OH MY GOODNESS!!!! All the girls at work were all giggly and thrilled for me that Dale had sent me flowers to my work, "How romantic!" Oh man, I could hardly keep myself together, I didn't say anything to the girls, I just took the flowers to the back and gathered myself together and went back to work.

This decision plagued me until my wedding day, as my Dad is driving me to the church he's giving me the "Are you sure you are doing the right thing and marriage is forever talk" I was so torn up, I didn't know what to do, on the way to the church!!! Can you believe that?! On the way there I decided two things: (1) Dale and I had prayed very specifically about whether or not we should get married and had very specific answers to those prayers (this I will tell you more about another time) and (2) I can't cancel or postpone the wedding now because all of our family and friends are there and I can't disappoint them, and it would be so embarrassing. #2 is the most crazy reason to get married, but for me that is a huge thing, what people think of me, I didn't want people to be mad at me.

My decision to marry Dale was the best one I could have ever made, there have been times in our marriage that have caused me to doubt it but the answers to prayer that we got were amazing and that has always brought me back to trusting my decision. I am so thankful that the Lord gave us these answers because without them I can see now that I might not have been able to stick out the hard times.

My Story part 1

So I ended up keeping myself awake for a long time last night writing a blog post in my mind lol. Oh man, that's not good, here I was thinking of funny things that have happened to me and little inside thoughts that I now look back on and cringe...I think I will share these with you, it may get a bit long but that's ok, I hope you enjoy! :o)

My earliest memory is one that I'm not entirely sure is a memory or if it's just a dream that I had once, I know silly eh? I have a terrible memory, I do not remember much from my childhood and this really bothers me. Anyways, so my earliest memory is of when I was 2 or 3, I'm not quite sure, but I was at my Oma and Opa's house in Ontario and it was Christmas time, I remember walking around their dinning room table and there were some stairs that went up sort of in behind the table. I suppose when my Mom reads this she will correct me if this is wrong, like I said I don't know if it's actually a memory. Isn't it funny how we sometimes are just not too sure about some things that happen in our lives? Maybe that's just me! haha!

I have 2 sisters and 1 brother, I don't remember my sisters being born but I remember my brother, I was 10 and my Dad came to school and I was in class, he pulled me out into the hallway and he kneeled in front of me and with a red face and tears in his eyes he said "You have a baby brother!" I cried, man that is such a clear memory for me, I will cherish it forever, I don't think that my brother knows how special he is to all of us, he was a surprise and most certainly a blessing. The poor guy though with 3 older sisters! lol We dressed him up as a girl once and put make-up on him and he was pleased as punch, hahaha, I remember it like it was yesterday!

Oh! That reminds me of another time my one sister, "C" and I were playing and the other sister "J" wanted to play with us soooo badly, we said ok, reluctantly, we didn't really like to play with her because she always told on us and sometimes it wasn't even the truth but mom always believed her. So we go to play and say to her: "Hey how about we tie you to this tree, won't that be fun?" she says: "Yea!!!" So with a huge goofy smile on her face she lines up to the tree and we tie her up, lol, oh we were so mean!!! Then we ran off to play on our own, victory!!! She won't bug us now!!! lol After a while my Mom comes outside to see what we are doing and sees "J" tied to the tree with a huge smile plastered on her face. Mom: "What are you doing tied to that tree???!!!" J: "Angela and C are playing with me!!!" Oh man, now we are in trouble! haha Wow that was mean but it still makes me laugh.

Then there was the time that Mom told us not to touch the pet birds we had, she went out to see my Dad in his shop and we decided to pet the birds then we couldn't catch them to get them back in the cage, by the time Mom got back in the birds had no tail feathers left, we were in real trouble, spanks from both mom and dad that time. One time we came into the living room and could hear this squeak on and off it would go "squeak" "squeak" "squeak" Mom finds "C" behind the couch with her hands around our kitten and she's squeezing it and making it squeak, and she thinks this is hilarious. lol Needless to say she got in big trouble for that one, poor little tortured kitty! So for the rest of our growing up years we were always threatened with and it was talked about getting spankings like the "birdies and the kitties" haha

When I was a teenager about 13 or 14 I got my first boyfriend, he was my first kiss and I was rather thrilled when that happened. lol I think he was cheating on me at his school though. lol When I was 16 I was asked out by another guy, he was a couple years older than me but he had a cool car, I didn't really like him that way but I went out with him anyways mostly cause I felt sorry for him and didn't want to hurt his feelings, poor guy. He was my first "french kiss" and oh man was it ever disgusting! lol I sure hope he's learned to kiss better than that now. lol
Then there was the guy who had a major crush on me and I wanted nothing to do with him, he wore sweat pants all the time and when he would come over he would lay on the floor and we would talk, one time I noticed he was pitching a tent, I'm like OH GROSS!!!! If I didn't like him that way before I DEFINITELY don't now!

When I graduated at the commencement the teachers paired us all up to walk up the aisle when we were done with the program, I was thrilled, lol, here I was paired with a not too bad looking guy who was semi popular and I had to hold his arm! WHOOO HOOO! My parents have a picture with me walking with him and I have a huge smile on my face, I was not just smiling because I was graduated but also cause I got to walk with this guy holding his arm, so dumb, I know but it's funny now.

I had a best friend (a guy) all through high school and before I started dating Dale, we did everything together, over the years I had crushes on him but he would get a girlfriend and I would give up, we were great friends and had fun doing stuff together. When I was 19 I liked him that way again, I had started a college course and met a girl there who invited me to her church to attend the young adults group there, so I went, it was the same young adults group that my friend (lets just call him jake) also went to and my friend from school knew him. The next time I was going to go I talked to jake and said lets go together, his response was one like this: "well ok, but I don't want to go in together because I don't want the other girls thinking that we are dating" Well that wasn't a blow to my ego at all! I said "Ok", how stupid! Anyways we continued to hang out and be friends until I started dating Dale. I will tell you more about this in a later post.

I knew Dale from growing up and seeing him and his family at churches and church events. He was also going to this young adults group and so I saw him there and had a thought: "Hmm I wonder?" Then I saw him at my friends house, the one that had invited me to young adults, she also hosted a weekly bible study and who do you think attended that? Well Dale and his sister of course! lol One week I decided to ask everyone if they wanted to go to hear a radio preacher speak in Delta, I was hoping Dale would say he wanted to come, no one said anything, awe, shot down, oh well. After the meeting I was talking to Dale outside and he said he would love to go with me, BAM first date!!! I was thrilled, I was secretly hoping that he would be the only one to agree to go. lol A week or so later we went, it was boring and we left early and went to Ricky's to have coffee, now I hate coffee for the most part, I will drink it but it's not my first choice, I ordered coffee cause that's what he ordered and I didn't want to seem uncool. We had a nice talk and got to know each other better. After that one date Dale called me to ask if I wanted to come and ride along in the truck with him, he was driving dump truck then and moved around heavy equipment in the evenings, I had a really bad ear infection to the point I was a bit dizzy, but I didn't want to say no because I didn't want him to think I wasn't interested so I agreed and I pumped myself full of tylenol and off we went and had a great time.

The night he asked me to "go steady" is a funny story, we were going to a house party from someone from young adults, he had a pick-up truck and we had to go and pick up a friend of his to give him a ride. On the way to get his friend this is what Dale says to me "I was wondering if you would like to be my baby tonight and maybe for a long time?" Here is me inside: "WHAT THE HECK IS HE TALKING ABOUT????" "TO SAY BE MY BABY TONIGHT MEANS SEX I THOUGHT HE WASN'T LIKE THAT, I WANT TO WAIT UNTIL I'M MARRIED, WAIT A SECOND, THAT CAN'T BE WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT, HE'S A GOOD BOY, FROM A GOOD FAMILY.....OOOOHHHHHH I get it, he's asking me to be his girlfriend! Gotcha!" I said yes of course but my internal dialog was absolutely hilarious. I was beaming.

Well we saw each other every day after that until way past getting married. We started dating on November 18th and got engaged at the beginning of May and got married in August, 9 months.

I think I will stop there for today and I will pick up tomorrow where I left off, I hope you are enjoying my story! :o)

Bills

Man do I find the beginning of the month stressful, not just November I'm talking about any month. I have a stack of bills and I have to decide which ones get paid on time and which ones are going to be late, AGAIN! I hate that! We were supposed to get paid today and now that's been put off until tomorrow and so now I'm watching the bank account to see what's going to bounce, and Dale wonders why I have been getting so many tension headaches lately? lol Not only that we have one person that does not cash his checks that I send him in a timely manner, which I hate, the check is dated October 9th and it's still not been cashed! AHH! Hopefully he doesn't decide to put it through before we get paid. All this is why I've been making more of an effort with my Avon and Partylite businesses, anything helps and I make good money on the partylite shows whether they are parties or just book parties, the last one I did was a book party and I made $81 bucks! I'm good with that! Every little bit helps!

Halloween

So I know that at the beginning I had a lot of comments on one of my posts but now it seems that hardly anyone is commenting, is anyone reading this? lol Please feel free to comment, I love them it encourages me to continue, and not to worry I was not dissolved in tears from that earlier post I was fine, so please comment!

Last night was Halloween, I took the girls to the party at the school, it was fun but there weren't as many people there as other years, probably a combo of it being on a Saturday night and maybe peoples fears over H1N1. We had fun, it was too bad that Dale was away though...oh well, we are getting used to it now, or rather I am I should say, lol, the girls maybe not so much.

As I'm laying in bed last night I was thinking about a friends status comment, she said:

"...IS BEWILDERED AT FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST CELEBRATING HALLOWEEN! WHAT DOES LIGHT HAVE TO DO WITH DARKNESS! ARE THEY JUST BLISSFULLY UNAWARE?"

(she always writes in all caps) Anyways, this had me thinking, I have taken the kids to the party at the school and then a few houses afterwards for several years now and never have we focused on the evil parts of halloween, I don't want my kids to feel as though they are missing out on anything but I don't want to cater to the devil either. I know the roots of halloween and I know that it is not what it is based on for many people now a days, now it's just all fun and candy and parties and unless you are a which or something that's all that it is, so what is the right thing to do? I'm not sure, still thinking on that one. What are your thoughts? What would be the right thing to do?

Mish Mash

Today I went with Alexa's class to the Reifel bird sanctuary, I could have spelled that wrong lol, anyways it's a place out past Ladner, BC. We saw lots of different kinds of ducks and birds, we even had chickadees eating out of our hands, so cool!!! I am certainly paying for all the walking there now though, my foot is killing me, feels like I've got a knife stuck in the bottom! OUCH! I suppose I should tell you why my foot would be hurting eh? lol On Tuesday I had a wart burned on the bottom of my foot for the third time, it didn't hurt as much as last time but yesterday and today it hurt quite a bit, strange.

So now I'm just taking it easy, made a simple dinner for the girls, Kraft macaroni and cheese but wholewheat! Crazy! They love it, I'm so glad, now I don't need to feel quite so guilty about feeding it to them! lol Maybe I'll pop in a frozen pizza for myself after they are in bed.

Yesterday I heard of an interesting weight loss trick. On this weeks cover of Women's World magazine is Karina Smirnof, (sp?) from Dancing With the Stars, and she says that to stay slim and to lose weight she follows an old Russian remedy, having a tablespoon of olive oil in the morning every day before you've had anything else. I think this is interesting because there are many healthy properties to olive oil but I wonder if it really does aid in weight loss, the article said that women have tried it and not dieted and lost weight just from taking the olive oil, hmm.

Today we are on day 2 of dry pull ups with Brooklynn!!! Praise the Lord, there IS an end in sight!!! :o) She has not had one accident today or yesterday, fantastic, I'm so proud of her! She has even been out shopping a couple times with no incidents. :o) :o) :o) Can you tell I'm rather thrilled? lol

Tomorrow is Halloween, I'm not big on it, I usually take the girls to the "Hallelujah Party" at Alexa's school as a nice alternative, they like it and it's fun. What are your plans?

Spanish

In 2007 our landlord hired 6 men from Mexico to come and work on the farm where we live and they were to live in the basement of our house. We don't live down there the only thing that I do is the laundry down there, which is also their kitchen. When the landlord told us that this was happening, I freaked out to say the least, we were not happy about it, I was thinking with 2 kids and Dale being gone as much as he is and then having 6 stranger men coming to live with us, this was NOT good, we were very uncomfortable with the idea and so were members of our families. Have them come here ended up being the best thing for us, we loved having them here, they were so friendly & helpful, they loved our girls and reminded them of their own families back in Mexico. They became part of our family and we became their Canadian family, they call me their Canadian Momma. lol

Then in 2008 they came back again, some of the same guys and a few new ones, they even brought us gifts, so nice! In 2009 they came back again and there were even more this time, 9! I feel so bad for them, they are so grateful to come here and work for a little better than minimum wage doing hard field work and they send almost all of it back to their families in Mexico. We have really grown to have a heart for these people, we feel that there could be some sort of ministry there for us but we don't know what yet. The first year one of the guys told us that he had to sell his truck to come here to work, he had 3 or 4 pairs of pants and 4 or 5 shirts and that's it, I said why don't you get yourself something new that's not ripped? He said, it's better for my family to have the money than for me to have some new clothes. So sweet! They would take the girls and I out for dinner to McDonald's after we had taken them shopping, and that was a BIG deal for them, they look at going to McDonald's or any other restaurant as a really special treat, I felt so bad because I thought, I don't really think twice about taking the kids to McDonald's, it's not that big of a deal and here they are paying for us!!!

One of the guys calls us regularly and he is always so happy to talk to us as we are to talk to him. We have such a heart for them and want to do what ever we can to help them. I am currently taking a Spanish class and I am loving it! We both have learned a lot of Spanish just from living with them and now taking the course I am understanding it more and getting all of the "fill in words" which is so fun! When I went on a trip to Alberta last summer the guys told Dale several times that I had to come home that they missed us and when we came home they cooked up a big BBQ meal as a celebration that we were home, they usually only do BBQ 'ing if its a party or special occasion.

So here is what I want to say to you: look for ways to be stretched, ask the Lord what it is that he wants you to do, it could be the best thing that has ever happened to you, you could end up with more blessings that you know what to do with.

Hasta Pronto amigos!

Odds and Ends

Well not too much response on what you would like to read on here, is anyone reading this? lol I really should be heading to bed now, morning comes far to soon as far as I'm concerned, one of these days I'm going to have to become a morning person.

I think I'm just going to write about some odds and ends today, hope that's ok.

Today was a fun day, I got to go and have a make-up make-over at John Casablancas school in Vancouver! Dale's cousin is going to school there and she needed a model and I was the lucky girl, it was so fun, got my make-up done twice and had the afternoon out what could be better? I even came home to find that Dale had made chili for dinner and fed the girls and then he had to leave on a trip, so that was so great not to have to worry about supper.

I am not looking forward to tomorrow, I have a doctors appointment to get a nasty wart that I caught from a swimming pool burnt off, this will be the third treatment, the last one was so painful, I seriously could have used crutches for a couple days my foot was that sore......yea, so excited about that.

How many of you are worried about the H1N1? I am getting a bit concerned, I trust the Lord will protect us, I am not getting the vaccine and I will not being giving it too my children, will you???

Sundays

Happy Sunday everyone! I love Sundays, relaxing and not having to do anything. Sundays are our family day, we rest, play with the girls and then in the evening it's Americas Funniest Home Videos, our favorite show and then after the girls are in bed, Desperate Housewives, but I have now decided that I think I should start taping it because Dale hate that show, lol.

Yesterday I went with my sister to Babies R Us to register for her upcoming baby, she's due January 15th. I am so excited, I can't wait to meet the little one! We had a nice time picking out everything for baby! Then last night Dale planned a family outing (this rarely happens) to go to the Mane Event at the Chilliwack Heritage Park, the Mane Event is an everything horse show, country wear, feed, grooming supplies, horse trailers, everything you can think of to do with horses. At the end of the night they have a show where horse people (and their horses of course) show off their talents it was pretty cool and the girls loved it. Now this afternoon I am going to take Alexa out to the mall for a bit for a Mommy/Daughter time, I love these times, no interruptions and we can just spend time her and I.

Now on to something else, I want to know what do YOU want me to write about? What do you want to read? I would like some input so that I write things that people like to read. A couple of people have said they want to read something that stirs the pot so to speak, lol, and I like to write about those things too, stuff that causes people to think and to comment, I love the comments, it shows me that people are actually reading. So let me know what you think, I am looking forward to the responses! :o)

Blessings

On a whim I decided to go with the girls tonight to Costco, first I had to go and pick up a check from Dale's work, which was not there, :o( It's supposed to come tomorrow. Anyways, I got my daycare check from the government in the mail today and I also got paid for some Avon yesterday so I had a bit of money and thought "Let's go to Costco" So I go to the bank, cash my checks and head over there. First we go to the "restaurant" it is so cheap and very good pizza and fries, it was good, the girls liked it too. I had been thinking that maybe I shouldn't be eating out but we were hungry and not home so did it anyways. Then we do the regular Costco shop, check everything out, look at the clothes, books, toys etc. I got one Christmas gift and one other gift for something else and got some groceries as well as pair of pj's for Alexa and some pull-ups for Brookie. All the while I'm being careful because I know how much money I have in my wallet-$180.00 and I don't want to go over that because I have to be so careful right now with the way things are for us. So I go to the till and the girl rings everything through and she says $173.11, I start pulling out my cash, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 160, at this point my wallet is looking a little empty and I'm having a minor worry that I've gone over, 165, 170, wallets empty, uh oh, I don't know what else I've got, I open my change compartment, 172, 173, 173.01, 173.11!!! Victory!!! I had literally change left!!! Can you believe that?! As I was shopping I had no idea how much I had spent but God worked it out perfectly, if I had grabbed one more thing I would not have had enough! God is so good!

After we had been home for a while Dale came home from his trip and I tell him this story and he says that last week he had something similar happen to him. He has this card that he uses when he fuels up the truck and it accumulates points for every so many dollars spent and for the points he gets kind of like gift certificates to spend in the store and he got a $10 one that day. So he grabs a sandwich and a coffee and is trying to think about what else he needs and he thinks "oh yea, I need some of those light bulbs for the truck" so he grabs a pack of those and then remembers that he needs gum as well. So he puts these things on the counter and says "that should be close" to the cashier and after it's all rung up it's $9.99!!!! He had no idea how much it was going to be! It is so cool to see the Lord at work in our lives even in the small things, what a blessing!!!

Fall

This morning I woke up and lay there thinking about what to post, I had a hundred ideas running through my mind, lol. Funny thing is I can't remember hardly any of the ideas! haha Oh well they will come back to me, yesterday's post was inspired by something that happened that morning but so far it's been an uneventful morning save for the fact that Brooklynn is running around here naked but that's not anything too exciting it's her newest thing, she loves being naked lol, and her bum is so cute! haha, I love baby bums. So I just thought that I would start typing and see what comes to me.

As I sit here typing I can hear the rain pouring down outside and see the beautiful fall colors out my window, I love fall! Oh, now I hear Mighty Machines on Treehouse with their dumb voices for the machines and the girls fighting about something, fantastic, what else is new? I would rather talk about fall....

I love Fall, I love the colors, I love the excitement that starts brewing that Christmas is coming soon, I love the cozy fires, and warm blankets. I love that I get to start thinking about Christmas decorating, shopping and what to buy for people, & parties! I suppose maybe other people think differently about it, maybe they see death because all of the leaves are dying and falling off, maybe they hate it because it's a sign that winter is coming and that means months of cold and snow.

I have been several times to Ontario in the Fall and WOW we've got nothing on them, the colors there are absolutely fantastic, I highly recommend going out east to check it out some day. What I do hate about fall is all the rain, although that's not just special to fall, we get lots through the winter and spring too. I do like the storms that come though, I know maybe that's weird, but I like them, all except for when the roof on the house starts leaking, that really bugs me, then I've got buckets in the living room and blankets or towels over things, the leaky roof has already wrecked several things including my sister-in-laws wedding picture. :o(

There are things that I like about other seasons too, I love the newness of Spring, all the daffodils and tulips, I love the freeness and warmth of Summer, camping, holidays, & NO SCHOOL! lol

Well I've got some errands to do today, including delivering some Avon books and product, gross in this rain but oh well, my pretty pink hat is good for that kind of weather! Let me know what is your favorite season, what do you like about it? why?

Have a great fall Friday!!!

A Horrific Discovery

I am in my 30's now and had not really thought too much about aging and the things that come along with that, wrinkles, gray hair, sagging, memory problems etc. Those things have crossed my mind as a possibilities but I thought "oh those are far in the future" Maybe it's like that for all of us, maybe we are all in denial of our bodies aging because our minds are telling us otherwise. For me I still feel the same on the inside as I did when I was a teenager and I look into the mirror and go wow, what happened, somehow I don't look the same as I did in my wedding picture and I didn't even see myself changing! lol

I went shopping with someone a while ago and she was telling me about a recent shopping trip she had: she is in her early 40's, she went into Sephora to use a gift certificate that she had gotten as a birthday gift, she walks in and the sales girl asks her what she can help with. "Well I have this gift certificate" "Well what would you like to get?" says the girl "Well I'm not too sure" says my friend. Anyways, the long and short of it is that the girl suggested looking into some anti aging skin care and my friend was rather horrified that the girl was suggesting that she would need such things. lol "I'm only in my early 40's!" lol

I had always been rather proud of the fact that I don't have any gray hair, now yes I do highlight it some but I've never found any grays and have asked the hair dresser to check just to be sure, nope, no gray she says. Now that brings me to today, as I'm getting ready to go to a meeting at the school I'm putting on deodorant and think, I need to shave, yuck, (it's not that bad, just a little stubble lol) and then to my absolute horror I see that not all the hairs are the same color!!!!! Some are WHITE!!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!! How the heck did THAT happen???? I know that my grandmother was gray at an early age so it runs in the family but man, really?! So I guess that I should swallow my pride and admit that I am no longer gray free. :o(

Now I have to go shave and erase all the evidence!

Cheesy chicken pot pie

Tonight I made my first recipe out of the Krafts What's cooking magazine: Cheesy chicken pot pie.

It was super easy and quick, my kinda recipe! lol That and most loved it, that's a change! lol My girls are so hard to please in the food department, so frustrating! They'd be happy if all we ever ate was mac & cheese, spaghetti, mr. noodles, or pizza, SOO healthy! Alexa was eating it and shovelling it into her mouth I said "do you like it?" "um no not really I just want to go with Daddy so I'm eating fast" Daddy was about to go and load some hay for somebody, and here I thought I had success! lol Dale loved it and Brooklynn liked it so 3 of us out of 4 aint bad.

Cheesy chicken pot pie
3 cups chopped cooked chicken
3 cups frozen vegetable blend
2 cups Kraft double cheddar shredded cheese
1 can low fat cream of chicken soup
1 can refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

heat oven to 375F
combine first 4 ingredients in a 13 x 9 inch baking dish
unroll dough; place over chicken mixture
bake 20-25 minutes until crust is golden brown

So here is what I would do different next time:

I would like to use some fresh vegetables in it, I am not a big fan of frozen vegies, carrots and beans have weird consistency that doesn't go away with cooking, the peas and corn were good in it though.

I did salt and pepper the chicken, it doesn't say to do that in the recipe but I did and it was good, I might even try some of my epicure seasonings next time.

You don't have to use kraft cheese, you can grate up your own, it's cheaper anyways and I used a mozza cheddar blend, it was fine.

The crescent dough was not big enough to cover the whole 13 x 9 pan, you could try and stretch the dough but then it separates, so if you wanted you could buy 2 can's, use half of the 2nd one to cover the rest of the chicken.

So try this one and let me know what you think!

Troubled

So I have been thinking all day what I should write for the day but I'm coming up blank, Dale said I should write about where to get good bargains, coupons etc, then I was thinking about talking about my Spanish classes and why I'm taking them and I do want to write about those things but not today, my mind is still buzzing about all the fuss from the responses to my post about home parties.

So I just want to be make sure that it is very clear to all of you: I cherish my friendships and love you very much! I am very much a people pleaser and that is too my detriment sometimes, I have trouble with boundaries every now and then. Maybe because I am in need of reassurance that yes I am a good person and you love me, I hate that about myself, I don't know why I need that but I do. That is why some of the comments have bothered me so much.

Thank-you to JG, JK, MVH, CP, and CC for your support, that means a lot to me and I love you too!

Home parties #2

So it seems that this topic is one that generates some responses! lol I am glad because I have always wondered what people thought.

I agree with you that most of these companies are far too expensive. Recently I was at a trade show and saw the Princess House booth, I went and checked it out just to see what they had, well the lady was trying her darndest to get me to have a show and went on and on about how everything in the catalog is half price and what a great deal, so I look in the catalog, half price is still like $30 and up, way too much! There are some companies out there that I do think are worth it like Epicure for example, great products, taste great, and no fillers and additives - good in my book.

As far as the reason I host these parties, no it's not to try and suck my friends into buying something, truly I just want to have friends over for a little get together, I did try that once without having a 'selling party' and I had a few people come and it was nice. I am most definately NOT using my friends, if that's what you think I am very sorry it has never been my intention. Anonymous #5, there is no need to be mean and say I'm not a true friend, please always look at my heart, I'm not a user and I love my friends dearly, they are what keep me sane most days.

As far as why I sell it? Well it's really the only way that I can make a little extra money for our family without having to put my kids in daycare. I recently was offered a part time job, Dale and I figured out how much I was going make, how much daycare was going to cost (and I have to pay for daycare even with family) and it worked out to like $3 bucks an hour plus then the taxes needed to be taken off! Who wants to work for that? With what I do I can work from home if I choose, at any time of the day, and make WAY more than that.

I just hope that my friends realize how special they are to me and that I in no way am using them, I hardly ever get invited out anywhere and if I invite you over for one of these parties, it's not so that I can benefit from the free stuff or whatever, it's so that I can have a short time cure for my loneliness. Don't fell sorry for me please, that is not why I am telling you this, I'm telling you so you can see my heart.

Wondering....

Here is something that I have wondered about for quite a while: do you like going to home parties?

What I mean by home parties is Tupperware, Pampered Chef, Epicure, Partylite etc etc. I am not asking this because I sell Partylite I am genuinely interested in what people think of them. When you get that call from your friend or family member inviting you to her annual Pampered Chef party, what is the first thing that runs though your mind? Is it: "Oh man, not again" or "Oh this will be fun to see some girlfriends and get out for an evening"

I love getting invited to these parties but seldom have success with them when I have them, sometimes I get a few turning out and sometimes hardly any, now I'm told by my sister that this is because I have too many of these parties and my friends just don't want to come but I'm not sure if that's the case cause I only have maybe 2 a year if that. When you go to the parties what are you thinking when you go? Like do you think "Ok, I will by a little something to help my friend out" or just go for the night out?

Anyways, I was just wondering, please post your comments in the comment section for all to see, you can remain anonymous if you like.

Thanks!

Just a thought.....

So last night I went to a lady's apartment in White Rock to get her Partylite order, she's really nice and friendly. We are sitting there talking about the orders and we hear outside someone yelling obscenities at the top of his lungs going up and down the street, this was at around 9:15pm, he goes on for a couple minutes and then goes away, several minutes later he comes back up the street and does it some more, she's like what a nut bar, I'm like...ah...yea, no kidding! Then we hear him closer, still shouting and going on and on, he was in the building not far from her door! We were getting a little nervous, so the lady goes and puts the chain lock on her door and we get back to work but the guy continues. Then she goes I'm going to go see what the %$#* is going on here and grabs her stick from the window and goes out to see what's going on. AHH!!! So she opens the door and is holding her stick in front of her like a baseball bat and says: "what the %$#* is going on here, I've got guests and this is really embarrassing", I was standing there looking at the guy and trying to figure out what the heck is going on and he proceeds to say that the guy that lives across the lobby is driving him nuts and that he want's to see the guys blood right here on my first, at this point I notice that he's got something in his hand, and I can't tell exactly what it is, I'm looking and looking and it looked to me like it was a small gun, just big enough for his hand. Now I should say that I'm not 100% sure that that is what it was but it sure looked like it. So I take a few steps back into the apartment and I'm trying to think what to do and how the heck is this happening! Just then the guy says "oh good there are the pigs (the police), I want to talk to them" and he opens the door and the cops say stop talking to that lady and come out here and talk to us and he leaves.

My friend comes inside and we were both pretty shaken up, we couldn't even talk or think straight for a few minutes, we needed to gather ourselves together. She said his eyes were really funny, I didn't really notice but he was probably on drugs and it's probably a good thing that the neighbor was not home otherwise there might have been even more trouble. I felt so bad for my friend because she was so embarrassed, I'm like it's ok, these things happen. When it was time for me to leave I was very thankful that I decided to park right across the street and didn't have to walk to far in the dark, the lady watched me to make sure I was safe.

So this whole thing got me to thinking.....With the way things are now a days, when I hear of people getting killed or hurt and they were at some seedy place or whatever, I think wow that's too bad but I'm not that surprised because they were at an unsavory place. I now realize that it's not just at "those" sorts of places that bad things happen, here I thought I'm just going to this lady's house in White Rock, it's safe there, I don't even think twice about it and a nutcase comes by, it very quickly could have turned into something very bad. It taught me a lesson that's for sure. I am so happy that I have the Lord watching out for me and protecting me and my family!

What are your thoughts? Is it just me and my naiveness that thinks this or do you have the same thoughts?

Welcome to my blog!

Well I have been mulling over writing a blog for a while, I enjoy reading them and I enjoy writing and thought that maybe I should start one of my own. I'm not sure what I will be writing about quite yet, probably just a little of this and that but for now how bout just a little info about me?

I am 33, a stay at home mom, married, my husband is a truck driver and he is away quite a bit. Now I should clarify that a little, he is away a lot BUT not like some of the other guys that we know, one friend, he seems to get home about every holiday (Christmas Easter etc) or so, THAT must be hard! I find being alone with my girls so much does get on my nerves but I am so blessed to have great kids and a great family to rely on. I don't work outside of the home but I do sell Avon and Partylite just to try and get a little extra money, and I really enjoy both.

So this afternoon I FINALLY got the chance to go through my Kraft What's Cooking magazine, I love that magazine! I am always looking for quick and easy recipes that taste awesome and this one is chock full of them! So I decided I'm going to cook my way through the magazine, I've never done that before but I thought why not? The recipes look good, easy and inexpensive and that's what I'm looking for. I'll bypass the desserts, don't need to add anything else to my..... ahem...diet. lol So I will post on the progress and let you know how each recipe turns out. I have a friend who is currently cooking her way through Julia Childs Mastering the Art of French Cooking, it sounds good but maybe that will be something for me to try when I'm less busy, several hours to make one dish is just not something I can do right now. lol Although I think I might try the Beef Bourginon (sp?), that sounds so good!

So I will leave you with that, I wish you a great weekend! And please, if you have any suggestions for me pass them on! :o)