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)