Things you can do in a community pasture

Last weekend we were invited to a 'barbecue' at my brother in law's fiancee's sister's house. Got that? Anyway, we figured it might be an important barbecue so we made a point of showing up. As it turned out the 'barbecue' wasn't at the sister's house, or even in her yard. It was in a pasture. There was a white tent set up in the middle of the pasture, within walking distance from the road. We had our suspicions at that point that this wasn't going to be any ordinary barbecue.

It had poured rain for a few days before - and that morning, so the pasture was very boggy and just so we knew we shouldn't attempt to drive in - there was a 4x4 stuck up to its axle about halfway between the road and the tent. By the time we got there it was very hot and sunny so we just walked in from the road carrying some salads and the kids and whatever. I was glad I didn't bring a fancy pair of shoes. If I owned a fancy pair of shoes - which I don't.

Arriving at the tent, it looks like Martha Stewart might have dropped by to do some decorating inside. There's a table set with wine glasses and an interesting centerpiece of field grasses, paper lanterns, etc. I strongly suspect that this isn't going to be a barbecue, but since I am not one to argue I begin washing lettuce for the caesar salad I was supposed to contribute. My lettuce-washing was interrupted when a big truck decided to risk the mud and flew through the soggy pasture to park by the door of the tent. And, inside:

Careful! Don't get mud on that dress!!!

Next thing I know, there's a bunch of pretty bouquets being handed out to her sisters, and his sister - and the lady I thought must be from her side of the family is actually a JP or something, and she's getting a picnic table hauled over to the middle of the pasture and we're all moving over there to watch my brother in law and his fiancee getting MARRIED.

instant bridesmaids, just add flowers!
We are gathered today to witness....

Exchanging rings

So, there you have it. I have a new sister-in-law!! It was such a perfect way to have a wedding and we really enjoyed the day there. We had a nice supper, the kids ran and played, the bride and groom had their pictures taken - the rest of us sat in lawnchairs and drank wine and enjoyed the evening. Just as it was getting dark we were all chased inside the tent by a torrential downpour which made getting back to the road VERY interesting in the dark. Did I mention the kids caught a snake earlier in the day and let it go somewhere between the tent and the road? And that this is a pasture? You know, where COWS graze? Yeah - so the walk back was pretty scary. But the rest of the day was perfect.

Just for Stacey

We've spent the last few Saturday evenings out on the quad:

Looking down at our house (the last one) from the top of the hill

ie/ from where my children went when they ran away from home 2 weeks ago.

From the top of one of the sand hills

Taking a break at the quad shack

Heading across the PFRA pasture, along the top of the valley

Where the train tracks go over the culverts

I'm not impressed about the mud.

(I know, there's still skin showing. I'm not nearly muddy enough!!!)

All the pretty horses

Since we have one night this week without anything to do - and it happens to be the same night that the Musical Ride is in the community where my sister lives - I decided to take the girls. I still remember the first (and last) time I saw the Musical ride - I was about six years old and completely enthralled. So I couldn't wait to take the girls to see it.

They absolutely loved it - we were outside waiting when they rode past my sister's house and A. loved the sound of the horses' hooves on the pavement. If you ever ask any of my kids what sound a horse makes, its never 'neigh' - always "pitty-cupitty-cupitty-cup"

So A. was saying "pitty-cupittycup" all the way to the fairgrounds and through the parts of the show where she wasn't jumping and bouncing and singing. She liked it, to say the least. I fear that it was one of my children who said "its a big line of BUTTS!!!" very loudly at the very beginning when all of the horses lined up to get permission to begin the ride- and well, we *were* seated on the butt-side. Something a 6 year old couldn't help but point out.

There. Now everyone gets to see their butts.

The weather was beautiful - sunny and warm and amazingly, NO BUGS. Its been raining so much the last few weeks, everything is shockingly green - I regret not bringing my good camera to take pictures, but it just didn't make sense to juggle that along with everything else. The crappy Nikon did get a few shots - and I will upload some video tomorrow if I can figure out how.

The girls meeting "Leanne"

I didn't get very good pictures of the kids with the horses, mostly because I had A. in the sling and she wasn't letting me get close enough to take pictures - she kept bailing out the front because if we got close enough, she wanted to touch the horse TOO. She has no fear, that little one. I just gave up, put the camera away, and took her right up there so she could touch the horse. My nephews, on the other hand, were having none of that. Horses are good from far, but far from good.

Here, Christy - this is why the ride is musical. ;)

Just for Heather, the "Music Box Dancer" part:

No time to blog!

If you're counting (and I am!) this is the end of week 7 out of 8 weeks without DH at home. He is home every weekend, thank goodness. But its a hectic time of the year to start with, and I will be SO GLAD when its over. One more day, then one more week. I think we'll make it.

Last week was absolute hell. The DVD player self-destructed earlier in the week but we barely missed it, until we had no TV. The night the TV went down, I took the DVD player apart with a screwdriver, held a flashlight under my chin, and tried in vain to locate the laser-eye thing that I was supposed to clean with a Q-tip to get it working again. After about 20 minutes of swearing, I realized that the problem is much more likely the fact that the thing doesn't spin anymore. So I told my husband not to come home unless he was carrying a new DVD player. Then, I called the satellite company over the weekend - they couldn't do anything since we live in a rural area so I had to make my own arrangements to get it fixed - the guys did come out here but they took one look and got back in their van. They can't fix my dish - the problem is the trees grew or something (in a week??) and they need to be cut or we need to cement a pole in the ground in a particular spot and make some kind of bracket to attach a dish to, and THEN call them and they'll get it working again.

Seriously, now. Do you not see me here, alone with THREE KIDS in the house. No husband. No TV. We will certainly not survive until whenever this pole is constructed and cemented and hooked up to a sattelite dish. You know what's going to happen. Don't be surprised if one of these mornings you see me climbing those trees, barefoot in my pink spongebob PJ's, with a wild look in my eye and chainsaw in hand. Its getting close, I tell you. Its been RAINING for three days straight. Pouring rain. Don't think I can't use a chainsaw. I don't even have to climb the trees, I can take them out at the base.

Of the 7 weeks we've been without a dad/husband in this house - we have also been three weeks without the Good Brush. You know, the one that keeps the children from screaming (as much) when I brush their hair. We did manage to find the brush that comes apart whenever it encounters a knot. So, every morning has been a total joy. To add to the misery, the tangle spray went missing on Tuesday and has not been seen again.

At the end of last week I thought I was on the edge of a nervous breakdown of sorts. My kids ran away on me Thursday at suppertime, they aren't supposed to leave the YARD, but somehow while I was getting supper for the baby, the older two got out of the house, across the street, and climbed the hills across the street. It was a very windy day so they couldn't hear me yelling and just kept on climbing, and I watched them reach the top, thinking they'd turn around and come back down. But they disappeared over the top of the hill and didn't come back. I had no idea what to do - I actually had to phone my husband who is 5 hours away and ask him what to do. He said to phone my in-laws and send his dad to go find my girls. I felt like the worst mother on earth - they were gone, there are bears and cougars and lord knows what else up there - who knows where they went? My father in law found them - the kids could see the school yard from the top of the hill so they ran down the other side and were playing there when he found them. But that's when I started to think maybe I can't handle this anymore. My kids ran away and I didn't even know what to do - I must be losing it.

However, this week is much, much better. I've had a little help and it goes a long way. I'm so much more relaxed, I don't feel so alone - I have more patience with the kids and I am no longer overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done. Its been a long seven weeks but we just have a few more days, and its going to be over.

Even with all the chaos, we're getting a lot done. I've kept my flowerbed weeded, and the lawn and dandelions somewhat under control. The there are baskets of clean, folded laundry in among the piles of dirty laundry. The dishwasher runs daily and the house isn't quite ready to be condemned. The kids eat three times a day and M. gets to school every morning. We wrapped up preschool and t-ball. We've ripped apart the deck on the house, and I've done a lot of paint scraping and a little staining so hopefully it will be done this weekend. I have been going to one bazillion meetings and I even arrived on time for some of them. There is so much happening right now and a lot to do - I can't put it all on hold just because my husband is away. We have a library opening in the next couple of weeks, where there was no library before. We had a successful used book sale last weekend, and the shelving went in last week, the books should be arriving next week - we have a librarian training and some last -minute details to iron out - but it is REALLY HAPPENING, and I am so excited. Its all going to be worth it in the end - I just need to hang on for one more week.

Somehow in all that, the scrapping fell by the wayside - but I did find enough time to do a couple things this week.

layout for my friend for her daughter's first communion

coffee cup insert for Father's day

that goes in a travel mug like this:

I am also thinking I'll get him a pair of crocs for Father's day - but he's going to have to pick them up himself since he's the one living in the city. Oh well, saves me agonizing over colors. I told him to get a pair for my father in law, too!

Weekend at the lake

A. is going to be a water baby. She soaked three outfits before we finally gave up and put her in a swimsuit - then she just sat in the water and played.

Oh, we needed this SO BADLY. An absolutely beautiful weekend at the lake - the water was like glass most of the time, the sunshine was warm but not too hot - and we just relaxed and had a good time. We had our first campfire, and the water was warm enough that the kids could play in and around it for hours and not turn purple.

C. playing in the water for hours, and hours

There were cousins at the lake for the girls to play with - boy cousins, but they would do just fine. We barely heard a whine or whimper out of any of the kids, they played so well together.
Within the first hour M. was already changing her usual mealtime conversation to include blood and gore to impress her audience.

M's mealtime dissertation on what the cat dragged in...

Boys are different. Fun, but different.

But, now we're back - its back to real life and school and meetings and babysitters and a pile of dandelions and long grass to mow. I don't mow, but its looking like I'm going to HAVE to - when I find the time - not sure when that will be. Three more weeks of school for DH - this can't be over fast enough for me.

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: