They say its like crack.

I knew about this Facebook thing a few months ago. Everyone said it was SOOOOOO addictive and the last thing I need is another internet addiction. So I avoided it for a few weeks and then finally went to check it out. I am proud to say, I was in and out in about 20 minutes - I found a few kids I used to teach and that was that. Back to regularly scheduled internet browsing.

Well, yesterday both my sister and my sister in law told me that they are on facebook and finding so many people they know - so I gave it another shot. Made a profile for myself, figured out how to do the searches right - and WOW. It *is* like crack. I got one reply from a friend request, and suddenly I'm hooked. One night browsing around and I've found about - fifty people, I guess? Maybe more?

I started a group for digiscrappers, since there doesn't seem to be one yet. If anyone's interested, its here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2441301769

So, yes. I know you don't have any more time to spend on the internet. But you will FIND time, I promise.

Shutterfly book is HERE!

I finally got my first Shutterfly album in the mail today - so exciting to see all these pages printed and bound in a nice little album! It reminded me of getting high school yearbooks - I just kept going through it over and over again and looking at every little detail on the pages. I already have a little list of things I'll do a bit differently next time - I am just so glad I finally have one done! Its going to motivate me to do a lot more now that I can actually hold a book in my hands and turn the pages! Its worth it!

I have that two page layout to upload - what a pain! Next time I am thinking of doing a two page layout, somebody smack me around really good until I come to my senses. They drive me crazy from beginning to end! I started this one weeks and weeks ago, and just couldn't get it finished. I was never happy with it and to tell the truth - I am still not 100% happy with it but I am *very* happy to finally have it all saved and done with. Anyway, here it is:



Well, that's small. Add that to the reasons I *must* remember not to do 2 page layouts anymore. They're a pain to upload and then they're too small. I will upload the individual pages to my gallery, but they will also look stupid when they are cut apart so - whatever!! Its done! YAY!!!

Its a drippy Tuesday after a drippy, wet and cold May long weekend. Which is how it is for every May long weekend for as long as I can remember, so its not like I am surprised. It could be bikini weather on Thursday before May long, and it will always ALWAYS be miserable for the weekend. Always. It is a rule.

The sun did peek out for about an hour and a half on Saturday, and the kids went nuts. All down the lake you could hear doors slamming as people came OUTSIDE after peering out at the dripping cold misery for days. The sun! It was OUT! The wind - there was none! The lake was calm!

Within minutes, we were bombarded with pleas from the children to GO TUBING. That is right, the same weekend where you pack your long underwear because its twice as likely to snow as to be sunny - the kids wanted to strip down to their swimsuits, go in the icy lake and get dragged behind a boat in a tube. We held them off for about an hour or so, saying that the lake was cold, saying that it would rain again soon - whatever to appease them. Finally we said - look, if you can get into your swimsuit and stand outside and not freeze, then ask us about tubing.

So, they did. And we said - Look, if you can go into the lake and you can stand the cold, then talk to us about tubing. But it was too late because Uncle Craig was itching to get his sea-doo running and the children had blocked off all of their pain/cold receptors and were running for their life jackets. Before I even had time to run to get my camera, they were flying around the lake on this massive three-seater thing. Let summer begin!!

M. finally asked to come in - not because she was cold, but because her LEGS were sore. Uh-huh.

I think I have some more work to do on that layout - so I won't post it in the gallery yet and you'll have to wait for the credits. I think its mostly Angela Spangler stuff and a Kimberly Geswein template.

True to form, it clouded over again and was cold and wet and rainy for the rest of the weekend - and it still is today. I got a LOT of scrapping done this weekend because it was perfect to just sit in the cabin and stare out the window at the rain. Not much else to do, except relax and do a few pages.






We also had a birthday party for M. - she wanted a 'surprise' birthday and though she did have her party at the pool last weekend, she was pouting that she didn't get to have a 'lake birthday' like she always does. So we didn't tell her she'd be getting a party this weekend, and she was surprised. It was just a little party with her cousins and our neighbor - and the girls decorated baseball caps with glitter fabric paint. They had a lot of fun!

Birthday girls!

As always, you can see nou-nou somewhere in the picture. He was a gift for her first birthday party at the lake - and here he his hanging out at her sixth birthday. She isn't the type to make a big dea about dragging her nou-nou with her everywhere so I don't notice him around until I see the pictures - he's always in the background somewhere.

Baseball caps hanging on the 'art' line:

I also finished a 2-page layout this weekend but I have to go through all the bother of splitting it in half to upload - so if you don't see it in a few days, bug me about it and I'll try to get it posted.

Another Mother's Day

Mother's day present for my MIL

We had a good weekend - and a good Mother's day, and as always my very first ever Mother's Day present also had her birthday this weekend. She's six years old now - how time flies!

M's birthday party was at a local pool with family and friends - the pool is indoor and very dark and humid and poor for pictures so I only have one picture of the actual pool party to share but I can assure you she had a WONDERFUL time. I bought a bunch of beach balls and swimming goggles for party favors - those went over well:

The girls on the ride home

The pool with a bunch of the beach balls, there are kids in there too, somewhere:

In other news, I am slowly losing my mind with this whole 'husband away for eight weeks' situation. Last week was okay but this week I have meetings every. single. night. of the week, and throw in some T-ball practices and a T-ball game for good measure. The kids will never get to bed before 9 pm, and 8 is their usual bedtime. Mornings are just fabulous when all the kids are tired and nobody wakes up on time. This morning we must have broke some land speed records - I woke up in a panic at 8:28 to a COMPLETELY quiet house - all the kids were still asleep!! By some miracle I got the two big girls up, dressed, breakfast, lunches packed, hair and teeth brushed, coats and shoes on and out to the van - the baby woke up just as we were ready to head out the door and that was perfect - just tossed her in the carseat and we were at school at 8:49. And to think some mornings they are ALL up at 7:30 and we very rarely get to school before 8:55, with the baby still in her pyjamas and last night's diaper, of course. Every morning when we get to school with no time to spare, I vow that we will get up earlier, try harder - we will make it. We will not be late anymore! We can do it!

But you know what, the truth is, it doesn't matter if we wake up earlier - time just gets wasted - things are lost and disorganized and kids are WHINY and I get stupid ideas like "Oh, maybe I should BRAID her hair this morning" and - the last ten minutes always takes fifteen minutes, and before I know it, we're late as usual.

I have no idea how it happens*** but BY FAR it is more effective to wake up late. We should do that every morning. Anyway, despite the fact that we had a great start this morning, and made cookies and bought groceries this afternoon - we still screwed the day up badly at around 5:30 when I forgot about T-ball practice completely so now my kids will have no clue what they are doing when we go to our first game tomorrow. And we managed to end the day with mayhem because I lost my mind temporarily and decided I could take all three children to a MEETING that started at their usual 8:00 bedtime. Because the meeting was at the neighbor's house and of course if my kids were already bathed and in their PJ's, they would sit quietly on the couch and watch TV while mom had a quick meeting - right??? What's an extra half hour past bedtime, if they are quietly watching TV on the neighbor's couch? Why not?

Do I even have to tell you how that ended? With me dragging three kids home - two completely wired on chocolate chip cookies and one screaming tired and miserable. They did not sit quietly on the neighbor's couch - oh no. They woke up the neighbor's kids - and the five of them ate cookies and had pillow fights and did everything BUT sit on the couch quietly and watch TV while we had a meeting in the kitchen, constantly interrupted by cookie requests and getting up to tone down the ruckus in the next room. And with all the interruptions, the 30 minute meeting dragged into an hour and a half meeting, and so I finally got the kids tucked into their own beds at just before ten. With any luck we'll all sleep in tomorrow and get to school on time!!!

*** that is a complete and total lie. I know exactly how it happens. If we only have a half hour to get to school, I don't make coffee, and the TV stays off.

Yay, Shutterfly! Boo, Photoshop!

At the end of April, Shutterfly sent me an email offering me a free 8x8 album if I bought something (anything) from them between April 23 and 27. That's an offer I can't refuse! And solved the problem of getting a bunch of my St. Louis pictures printed - everyone who went uploaded their photos there and so I could pick and choose from everyone else's pictures. I took plenty of my own but I fought with my little Nikon camera for half the trip. It hit the ground rather hard tonight (by accident!) at my nephew's birthday party so hopefully it will work better now.

I finally got the Shutterfly book done tonight about 40 minutes before the midnight deadline. I added a bunch of extra pages so with that and the shipping to Canada, the total for my 'free' album came to $12.00. I don't think that's bad at all to have almost 30 pages printed and hard-bound into a custom album. I can't WAIT for it to get here. Here's the preview if anyone's interested:

My FIRST photo book!

Sorry, Kimberly - I did end up editing a few of my layouts (read: all) - just little things that would have made me crazy if I would have printed them like that. Since I was in there re-sizing stuff to fit and moving things in from the edges a touch so they wouldn't get cut off - I adjusted some MEAN drop-shadows and changed a few elements that I would never use on a LO now. Minor stuff really but it took me ALL day. I was 99% done and previewed the book, and I noticed that *one* page had the journalling cropped off of the side. So I went back and moved the .jpeg file so it fit well on the template, re-saved and uploaded it again, but it was *still* cut off - so strange! I had to go back to the original layered file and change it but every time I tried to open the file in Photoshop, it would freeze up. Then Photoshop would take 20 minutes to shut itself down, and lock up the whole computer in the process. This went on for over an HOUR, and I was ready to rip out every hair on my head. I finally decided there was something wrong with the file on the laptop, so I had to dust off the old desktop and do it from there - slow and painful but it finally worked, but not before I uploaded that same file to Shutterfly 5 times trying to get it right.

Sorry for boring you with all that - but it was the kind of misery that *has* to be shared. On to better things - maybe a few pictures to share - oh, and speaking of misery - I'll try to upload a video of A. whining because her dad doesn't come home at 5:30 like he's supposed to. She usually can't stand any of us by 5 on any given day so she hangs on my legs and lays on the floor sobbing until her dad gets home. But the thing with him being at school is that he DOES NOT come home, so it goes on forever and ever until I manage to distract her with food, throw her in the tub and then put her to bed.

DH and both of his babies

Since that photo was taken (last week, I think) we've had a lot of rain and a little sunshine so now our lawn and the whole valley is a brilliant green. I can't believe how much it has changed in just a few days. The rain can stop any time now, the girls' t-ball practice was cancelled today and is rescheduled for tomorrow.

I finished another layout tonight - M. has a very well-loved bear called nou-nou, and he got pretty dirty at the lake last weekend. Usually nou-nou isn't supposed to play outside but she took him to the playground and he took a roll in the dirt and was very grey. M. was pretty upset so instead of putting him in the washer, we gave him a bubble bath in the sink. And we had ALL KINDS of help. You can see A. eating the bubbles in one of the pictures. When we had him all clean and towelled off, M. sat in the laundry room and waited for him to come out of the dryer. He's almost good as new again, now!

NOOOOO!

How could I forget that my baby learned a new word this weekend? You can guess what it is! I was taking her back home from the playground and she ran in the opposite direction - I told her to come back with me and she paused and said...... NO! and that felt good, so she said it again, more forcefully.

So here it is, another milestone. We notice first steps and first teeth and all that - but when they start to tell you "No!" - its a whole new ballgame!

But is it? I mean really - was she having any trouble communicating "NO!" with the whole shrieking routine - stomping in a circle, collapsing on the ground, shaking her head and feet and arms back and forth wildly? I suppose she's been communicating "No!" quite clearly for as long as I can remember. I don't think she's going to stop all that, by any means - its waaaaay too effective. But this is so much sassier. We're in trouble now, I know that for sure.

All by myself (sort of)

We had a lovely weekend at the lake - back to reality now. My husband is gone to school for 8 weeks, but he comes home on weekends so its not all bad. The baby hasn't noticed that he's gone yet but I expect there will be hell to pay when she figures it out. She started mentioning something about dad around about the time he'd usually be home for supper - but then I gave her some macaroni, and a bath, and then my mother in law came over to watch them while I went to a meeting, so she was well distracted. Tomorrow could be another story.

Income tax return deadline was midnight tonight and so I got that done - I had it finished a few weeks ago but the file saved wrong or something so when I went to submit it, I couldn't get it to open. So I had to do it all over again and instead of getting $33 back, now we're paying $88. Whatever. Its done. If I did it wrong, I get money back. I can live with that.

I am working on a Shutterfly album - I hope to have it ordered by tomorrow night because the sale ends soon. I found this layout that I started a couple of months ago and didn't get very far with - but I found all of the elements (the stars etc. ) in another kit and I'm finally happy with it. So here it is:


So, that will go in the album along with about 19 other layouts - I am having a hard time deciding which ones to use and what order to put them in. I really just make pages without any particular plan in mind so there's no theme or anything to go by. I think to simplify things, I'll just say its my favorite layouts from my first year of digiscrapping. Then they don't need to really 'go' together. I think I made my first page in May last year, so its almost a year now and I might as well make an album to celebrate. I can't wait to see all of these pages printed out, but I am scared that I'll see all the mistakes I made and want to redo all of the pages.

I cheated.

I've never used a quickpage before but when I saw this one, I knew I could make it my own. I added a little photo and curved frame in the corner, some journalling and a picture of my baby's toes. And it *was* quick - I guess that's why they call it a quickpage. Its available at www.oscraps.com - and full credits are in my DST gallery.

Skunked!

In the wee hours of the morning yesterday, we were awoken by a smell. That is right, a smell so strong and so bad that it WOKE US UP. It was unmistakably skunky, but so strong that we had to be worried that maybe there was some kind of gas or chemical leak causing it - or (heaven forbid!) a skunk actually in our garage or something. We confirmed that the smell outside was at least as bad as the smell inside, and decided that there must be a skunk in the yard. So I went back to sleep with eyes watering and a headache brewing from the horrible smell. It wasn't any better when I woke up the girls for breakfast, and that is when I noticed Percy scratching at the patio door. His normally white front was streaked with yellow lines - by the looks of things he must have been sitting on that skunk when it sprayed him. And he wanted IN! I don't know, if he smelled that bad from the other side of the door, his chances of getting inside were pretty slim.

He eventually gave up and ran off somewhere for most of the day, I scoured the internet for getting skunk smell off of a cat. And apparantly, there aren't a lot of cats getting sprayed by skunks, because all the instructions and magic potions assume you're washing a dog. I have to think that a dog would probably be a more willing participant than a cat. What's all this about "leave on for five minutes" and "if smell persists, repeat several times..."

This is a cat. There are no 'repeats' when washing a cat. It needs to be a one-shot deal. Because after the first time you wrestle him into the tub, he KNOWS what's up and there is no way on earth he's going to allow it to happen a second time. And there is no 'leave on for five minutes'. Who exactly is going to hold a skunky wet angry writhing cat for five minutes? Certainly not ME!

Tonight, Percy finally returned home, bringing the smell with him. I had a rubbermaid tub full of warm water and baking soda/peroxide mixture and a bottle of "Skunk off" waiting in the garage for him. And DH went running for his mom's house, so he was no help whatsoever. I would have thought he'd stay just to make fun of me wrestling a stinky wet cat, but whatever. I can do this better without an audience.

Oblivious Percy wondering "Hey, what's with this pink tubful of water?"

It was wet, and disgusting and the smell was unbelievable. But we got the job done. I rubbed Percy down with the baking soda mixture BEFORE I put him in the tub, and he actually allowed it for the full five minutes. Being put into the tub was a whole other story, though. He completely lost his mind. I felt sorry for him but since the alternative was to shoot him and bury him in a deep hole far, far away - I was determined to hold him down long enough to get most of the smell off of him. Then I wrapped him up in a towel like a baby and we both worked at getting him dry enough to hang out in the garage overnight. There is nothing as pathetic as a wet cat.

Pathetic Percy vowing not to be friends with me anymore

Today, he's looking a lot fluffier and his white parts are whiter than they've been in years. He still smells a little bit skunky but it will have to do. Unfortunately our other cat Casey decided to hang out on the porch swing with skunky Percy all day yesterday - which is odd because usually they can't stand the sight of eachother. So Casey stinks too and he's going to need a bath when he gets home. He's not as fluffy or as stubborn as Percy is, so hopefully the worst is over.

Easter got in the way

I haven't posted anything in awhile, I could blame it on Easter but that was over a week ago. I've been busy. Doing what, I really can't say. Its finally nice outside, we can go out in short sleeves and as long as there's not a gale force wind, its pretty comfortable. The snow is all gone, and the mud is pretty well gone now too. I am just waiting a little longer to put the winter clothes away because we all know it will snow for sure if I do that.

I got hung up for three days trying to make a layout with my Easter pictures and its still awful so I am more likely to delete it than post it here. Its a few wasted hours of my life that I'll never get back so I am reluctant to delete it but I am certainly not going to mess with it anymore, either. I moved on to other things:

This is my tribute to Mini Eggs. We've had plenty of time to devour the three family-sized bags of regular Mini-Eggs, and three large bags of Poppin' Mini-Eggs, and its getting hard to find them in stores again - so we bid farewell to the Mini-Egg for another year. Its sad but the truth is, I'd be 900 pounds if those things were available year-round. My youngest daughter has discovered Mini-Eggs, and like her mother - she doesn't share well. She spent much of Easter morning hovering over the dish of Mini-Eggs we had out on the kitchen table and snarled at anyone who got too close. Not that anyone would actually eat them after she drooled all over them (which is what happens when you shove three in your mouth at once) - even *I* have standards when it comes to drooled-on candy!


This one is a layout for my baby and my grandma. She always says that to my babies - whatever it is... a poem? Verse? Just her own saying? I don't know, I googled it and came up with nothing. But it needed to be scrapped.

Spring break, and long awaited St.Louis layouts!

Well, they are long-awaited for me, anyway! I made these right after I got home from STL but I had to wait for Kathy to get her new Spring Ribbon essentials up in the store before I could post them. I love getting to see and use this stuff before its up in the store, but the waiting is torture!

This is a two-page layout so you're supposed to imagine them side by side - I used one of Emily Farnworth's new Plug n' Play templates to make it. I am not sure if I can get them to show up side by side on the blog but I'll give it a try:




We went to the Winter fair this weekend - really a nutty idea with three kids, but whatever. Everyone else does it!!! And that's precisely the problem - EVERYONE else does it. It is absolute lunacy to go there on Saturday, with a baby in a stroller and two kids it took us an hour to get to the petting zoo, and when we finally got there we just turned around because the lineups were too long. We could have gone any other day of the week, but we went on the craziest day because I like to see the heavy horse events and Fred Penner was playing for the kids. It is even more insane to try to stay there until 10:00 pm for the final event, the 6 horse hitch. But we did it anyway, because I like to see it.

This year was the 100th anniversary so they had the Budweiser hitch there. So I went to see the horses in St. Louis a few weeks ago, and this weekend I got to see the whole hitch in action, dalmatian and all. Very impressive for someone who likes that kind of thing, which I do. Do you think I remembered my camera? Not a chance. I do have a few pictures we took in the barns though, but none of it all hitched up in the ring.

So, here's me with the one they have on display in St.Louis





And then, deja-vu, here I am at the Winter Fair with the girls:



Is it just my imagination, or do I look so much more relaxed in the first photo??

The girls really enjoyed Fred Penner - and as luck would have it when he went over to a table to sign autographs after the show, we ended up first in line. He was really great with the kids - brought the girls around to the back of the table for pictures, and figured out from her name that he could speak to her in French, so he did. Its so good to see her understanding and responding back to people like that, and I think she's starting to think its really neat when she finds someone outside her school or family who speaks French, too. She also had a little chat with Sister Cecile this week when we went for tea at the hospital where my mom works.

the girls and Fred Penner

Backtracking now, we had spring break last week so the girls and I did a little bit of travelling - went to visit my mom and dad, and then took a day to go 'down home' and visit both of the grandmothers and some cousins. The girls discovered Nanny's old Nintendo and were soon hooked on Super Mario Brothers. When I was younger, Nanny and Grandma Silver both had their own Nintendo systems - Nanny was Dr.Mario champion and Grandma Silver was always quite good at Tetris. I always thought it was great to go visit my grandmas and they didn't just have the Nintendo 'for the kids to play with' - they were addicted to it, too!!

Discovering Nintendo at Nanny's house

More traditional 'grandma activities' at my mom's house - baking cookies
A. wasn't really invited for cookie-making but was in there like a dirty shirt, anyway:
Grandpa tried to intervene, but she was having NONE of that:

A critical point in the negotiations:
Finally, an agreement is reached, acceptable to all parties:

SPRING!

Well, its spring break for the kids at school, and it actually feels like spring weather-wise. The snow is melting but there is still a pile of it in the backyard - I can't quite get to my flowerbeds yet but if we have a few more days like this it won't be long.

DH brought the girls' bikes out yesterday - and we've been going for walks and rides in the wagon. We even tried to fit all five of us on the quad and took a little ride up to his grandparents' house. We do fit, but its pretty tight! Since we don't go very far or very fast, it works for now but if we are going to be doing this as a family more often, I'd like my own quad someday. He ordered a new rear seat from Cabelas and it will help out a lot in that department, plus it has lots of storage for my camera so I'll be able to take it with me when we go riding this spring. I'm probably the most annoying passenger ever because I insist on driving slowly so I don't miss any of the scenery - and because I am constantly stopping to pick flowers and take pictures. Its so beautiful out here and that's what I love about the quad - we get to see places we probably wouldn't see otherwise. I think DH likes exploring all of the old trails and the sand dunes and the hills and to tell the truth, its not really that big of a deal to get him to drive slowly because he doesn't ever want to get the quad DIRTY. When we didn't have the quad he'd always like to load all of us up in the van and go for drives all over the countryside. Even a trip to the dump is an adventure and he's disappointed if we don't all come along.

These are all reasons we wouldn't make good city people, I suppose! Who goes to the dump for fun? That's just crazy!

ANYWAY, spring is in the air here, and you might be able to tell from this LO that I'm excited about it. Its been a long winter and I'm looking forward to green grass, short sleeves and tulips blooming.


This is my first LO for Jennifer Howland, using her "Airy" paperpack, I also found Kathy Moore's "Essentials Stamped Alpha" tied in really well for the title. Full credits are in my DST gallery.

101 things...

My first posted LO with Kathy's stuff - her studio is now open at Scrapbookgraphics. I actually have three more that I will be posting as soon as I get the green light - I have two pages scrapped from the St. Louis trip that I can't wait to share.

Awhile back, DH put on a hockey-stick-taping clinic in the kitchen. I probably should have been paying attention, but the girls seem to be getting the hang of it. There was also a 'stick curving' lesson but it involved use of a blowtorch so we all stood back.

Digi update

With all the St. Louis excitement, I haven't posted much about what I am scrapping these days. I decided I had time to be on another CT and specifically wanted to work with a designer instead of a store this time around. Knowing my luck and probability with CT's, I applied for three hoping to get one - and was shocked to get three acceptances! All on the same day, too - so my head was spinning but now I have three fabulous ladies to scrap stuff for, and I'm jumping right in now that I am back.

Here is my first LO, using Emily Farnworth's "Cold Play" kit. When I was on polkadotpotato CT, I had the HARDEST time choosing between Emily's kits when I was assigned to her. I desperately wanted to do a winter page with this kit, and so now I did! Full credits in my DST gallery.



My other two CT's are Joyful Heart Designs (Jennifer Howland) and a three month guest spot with Kathy Moore at Scrapbookgraphics. com I am so excited - I have something done with one of Kathy's kits already but I can't share it just yet - and I have some ideas for one of Jennifer's kits so will hopefully have something up by this weekend. Not only that, Nina has some fabulous new stuff out right now - I just need more hours in the day!!

Meet me in St.Louis - the great Mom's getaway!

The whole gang

So, we did a little bit of touristy sightseeing in St.Louis. First stop was the Budweiser brewery which is interesting to me, of course - because its a brewery, and I like beer. I had NO IDEA how fabulous it would be. There are chandeliers in the horse stables, fancy woodwork and tile work and beautiful brass trim and everything, everywhere. It was surprising for me because I expected to be touring a working brewery - something very sterile and industrial - but I felt like I was touring a fancy billionaire's estate or something. Its really worth seeing even if you don't like beer, which I can't imagine, but whatever.



So, what they say is true, you do get free samples when you tour a brewery. I was fully expecting they'd just hand us a dixie cup full of beer on the way out, but they actually have room set up sort of like a bar and you can have TWO FULL GLASSES of beer, for free. They even provide pretzels. Since I could have two drinks, I tried out the Bud Light knowing I'd probably like it, and then took a chance on this pink beer. No, your eyes are not failing - that is a glass of pink beer. Or a 'malt beverage' to be exact - it tasted nothing like beer, but it was still very very good. I hope we can get them in Canada, I'll have my summer beverage all lined up. Its a strawberry flavored "Peel" - highly recommended.


We went out for a nice supper at the St. Louis Fish Market which was very good but I was expecting to be able to pick out a whole live lobster and eat it, and that just didn't happen. It wasn't even on the menu so I had a steak. No surprise there! After supper we went for a night out on the town - at the Big Bang Duelling Piano Bar I don't have to tell you that we don't have piano bars, much less DUELLING piano bars, where I come from. So I really, really enjoyed this place. Great music, lots of dancing and singing along - we had a lot of drinks and a lot of fun!

(above) Beth, Kris, me and Michele at the piano bar,
(below) Me with Laura and Chris

The next day we went for a tour of the famous Arch, which freaked me right out the more I looked at the thing and realized that if I were go to the top of it, there would be nothing but 600 feet of air below me. That's different than going up to the top of the Eiffel tower or something where you are up high, but at least there is something substantial between you and the ground.
We travelled up in these little pods that look like something directly out of Spaceballs. They clunk and bang all the way to the top and if it wasn't for good company in the pod, I'd have probably been clawing the door to get out (and the door looks very much like I wouldn't have been the first to do that....) We laughed nervously (and boisterously) about elevator nightmares and such things, and before we knew it - we were at the top.

me at the top of the Arch, avoiding looking down
looking down from the arch, the city of St.Louis including their shiny new fabulous home-of-the-World-Series-champions stadium. :)
after the arch some of us went for lunch at the School Street Station in Laclede's Landing they had board games set up so we played Trivial Pursuit together
l/r: Beth, Julie, Kelly, Ann, Sue, Eleanor, Geri, Michele and Kris

So, with the touristy stuff out of the way, we planned to just stay in the hotel and hang out that evening - there were almost 20 of us and we came to St.Louis to spend time together - so we did. Our hotel rooms at the Residence Inn St.Louis - Downtown had lots of room and full kitchens, so we were able to make a potluck-style feast right there in the hotel room. We spent the evening laughing until we cried, or crying until we laughed. I did a lot of the latter I am sure there will be plenty of teary-eyed pictures of me posted all over the place, so I won't do it here.

Carrie, Sarah, Geri and Chris - dishing up supper
Christy laughing till she cries, behind her - Kris, Karen, Sarah and Bethany
(we were all wearing our ugliest PJ's for the night in)

Over the weekend lots of people asked who we were and why we were in St.Louis together. The best answer I have is that we are all friends, we've known each other online for years - some of us have kept in touch for almost 7 years since this all started when I was pregnant with my first baby, who will be turning 6 in a few months. They've asked if it was weird when we met for the first time, was anyone uncomfortable - did you like them as much as you thought you would? Were they how you thought they would be? You know, everyone was exactly how I imagined they would be, only even better. I already know who they are, but to see them in person - hear their voices and know what it sounds like when they laugh - its pretty amazing after all of these years. Sometimes I would just sit there and watch and listen - because I couldn't believe we were all there, together. It was fun, and amazing and I can't wait to do it again, someday. For all of you (you know who you are!) who couldn't make it this time around - I know it will happen again and I'll have the chance to meet you all. Its been so long it doesn't matter WHEN it happens, as long as it does happen, someday. And for everyone who shared this wonderful trip with me - thank you for being so amazing. I couldn't imagine having a better time, but I know we will manage it whenever we get the chance. :)

Okay, I lied. Here are a few pictures of me sobbing:

The realization that Heather really IS leaving, in a few minutes, for real

BETHANNNNNYYYY!!!

saying goodbye to Christy, forgot to get a picture BEFORE we both were crying

Me with Eleanor and Geri. The three of us are on Emily Farnworth's CT together now - I'm not sure if Emily knew what she was getting into!! :)

Home for a rest...

You'll have to excuse me,
I'm not at my best
I've been gone for a week
I've been drunk since I left
These so-called vacations will soon be my death!
I'm so sick from the drink, I need home for a rest!!!

Well, its not *quite* that bad, I didn't drink that much. But I did have a few and I had a wonderful time, and I am SOOOOO tired. I'm more sick and tired from the travelling, than the drinking! I flopped into my own bed just before midnight last night, and I left at 4 am on Wednesday, so its been a long haul. I had every possible trouble getting through the Toronto airport, and mark my words, I will NEVER EVER EVER take an international connecting flight out of that airport again. So help me.

Aside from airport issues, my trip was incredible. But I have to grouch about my flights for a bit before I can move onto the good stuff. I didn't make my connecting flight in Toronto, despite the fact that I got off the plane and RAN through the airport to baggage claim, and I only waited 5 minutes in front of the carousel before asking for help - they told me that my flight was boarded, my luggage would be another 20 minutes, and I would miss it. I fell apart right there because the lady who was 'helping' me also told me there wouldn't be another flight to St.Louis until tomorrow. There is no way in hell I was planning to stay in that airport overnight so I started to freak out a bit. Then she sent me a bunch of wrong places, I lost my purse (yes, that is right - LOST. MY. PURSE) and I knew exactly where it was but they wouldn't let me back through security to get it - etc. It was just a mess and people sent me to see people who said, you're not in the right place, go here instead, etc. And then I finally got to the woman who DID help and with a few keystrokes, got me on a flight to Chicago, which would get me into St.Louis by 10 pm. Not bad! I thanked her a million times and went on my way.

Until I got to US customs where the guy looking at my passport said "You're going to Chicago? Why would you go there? Its horrible! You will circle endlessly above the airport and never land. It is so huge, you will never, ever get out of there. I will take a layover anywhere before I will ever fly out of Chicago. Have fun!"

Me having no fun whatsoever in Chicago's O'Hare airport while I waited an hour for a plane to stop circling the airport and land, so that we could board it.

See? That sign says O'Hare airport. What the HECK am I doing in O'Hare airport?

Hrumph. So I went back slightly into panic mode wondering what I am getting myself into flying into CHICAGO when I couldn't even handle Toronto. But I made it to my connecting flight in Chicago with no problems - they just delayed the flight almost two hours and so I didn't get into St.Louis until after eleven, they lost my luggage of course, I waited in line for an hour dealing with that - ah, the JOYS of air travel. But I made it!!

And that was the last worry I had for four days, while I had the time of my life in St.Louis with my friends. Then it was back to the airport, and everything went smoothly until I got to Toronto, again. Another short international connection, with customs etc. I ran until I thought my heart would explode, I freaked out when the baggage claim took forever, I rushed through customs and security and ran my ass off for a few more miles and got to the gate just in time to board my flight. Sweaty and dying of thirst, I was one of the last to get on board but settled in for TWO HOURS of sitting on the plane waiting for it to move from the terminal. Which it did not. They didn't have a pilot, one would be running from the other end of the airport (how fitting!!) to fly our plane. Then when he got there, he discovered a problem and so they had to wait for mechanics. Then it couldn't be fixed so we had to get off the plane and haul ourselves and our luggage to another gate (and not a nearby gate, heaven forbid, but one far away!) and wait to board THAT plane, and THEN wait for it to fill with fuel and whatever, and FINALLY two hours after Iwas supposed to be in Winnipeg, my flight left Toronto. We got into Winnipeg at just after 4 am, and after waiting for luggage (mine was lost AGAIN!!!) and waiting in the freezing cold for a cab for 20 minutes - I finally got to the hotel at 5 am.

So is it just me, or is the Toronto airport quite possibly the Gateway To Hell?

I'm going to post this so that I can put all the good stuff and pictures in the next one, so it will show up on top. :)

Going somewhere!!!

So, at four in the morning I hopped on a Greyhound bus, and now I'm in the Winnipeg airport waiting for my flight to Toronto. I am ON MY WAY!!!

I'm nervous about this whole flight connection/customs thing that is going to have to happen in a heck of a hurry in Toronto but otherwise, things are going well so far. Apparantly the whole network of computers for the airline went down causing a 1 hour delay this morning but they seem to be working through it and predict that I'll only be delayed 10 minutes going into Toronto. Not bad - I am just so worried about missing that connection. I should have pretended I was an unaccompanied minor or something so they'd make sure I know what to do and where to go when I get there.

Ok, so hoping they'll call my flight soon. I'm sitting on the floor next to the only outlet in the boarding area. I wonder if people used to care so much where the outlets are in an airport. :)

The weather is clear and gorgeous in Winnipeg - well looking from the window anyway. I have a window seat on the plane so there should be lots to see.

WOULD they please stop calling every flight but mine 10000000 times? Its making me nervous that I missed something!!

Meanwhile, in the bathroom....

The other day while I was busily posting my clean "after" pictures - the baby was being too quiet. The picture is fuzzy because she was caught in the act:

CAUGHT!!!

Mom, you look kind of angry. Here - have a pantiliner!