Monday, July 30, 2007

Kyle said...

So, Kyle was desperate to go back out side and play on the swingset. He's had some trouble getting balanced and staying on the slightly slippery swings, but we mastered it this afternoon with a little coaching and some practice. He was quite proud of himself and wanted to go out again after dinner and play some more, so I went out with him.

This is what he said...
"I love my swingset!"
thinking...
"I think we should get another red one."

He told me this very matter-of-factly, so I asked him where we'd put it and he proceeded to give me directions to the front yard ("go straight and turn and the put it in the back yard" - aka the front yard!) and told me it would be good there. You gotta love how kids think - if one swingset is good, then two would be better, right? Can't blame him
when I think that way about lots of things!


I read this quote in the back of my new Card Creations magazine and after really enjoying the bit of time I spent outside with Kyle laughing and playing on the swings tonight, it really came back to me!

Enjoy the little things, for one day, you may look back
and realize that they were the big things.

-Robert Brault


Remember to enjoy the little things today and leave me a comment to let me know what it is you enjoyed!

The 2Peas Blog Challenge was sort of a random photo thing, so here's mine:
This was taken at my aunt and uncle's place just outside San Francisco that I recently blogged about and there were so many of us staying there that this is what the entrance looked like!

Cheers,
Colleen

Toys for everyone...


Can you believe all those new scrapping toys?? We were lucky enough at work to be involved in a promotion with Making Memories for Mother's Day with their totes. The more totes we sold, the more goodies we'd get! It was a great deal for customers because not only did they get their totes, but they got product from Making Memories too!! They just sent a card in with a copy of their receipt. Well, we did very well and these were the toys that arrived this week for each of us!

I can't even begin to tell you how much I need that paper trimmer! That thing is like "butta"! My old one is an ancient gray Fiskars and it's more than done it's duty, but I needed a new one, so this is perfect. The other things (tag maker kit, grommet kit and tag curler) are bonus toys that I haven't even had a chance to play with yet, but will soon!! I'll post the results!




Not too much going on around here really, but it was one of those days where I felt like I had put in an 8 hour day by 9am! Kyle was up early and, of course, Nathan wasn't far behind and then Tracy dropped Sophia off. The kids have been really good and both the "babies", as we call them, had naps this morning. Sophia was apparently up 3 times last night with her teeth bothering her no doubt. Anyway, got some laundry done as well as just some picking up. There's more laundry to do, but it'll wait!

We had lunch and then played out in the backyard. A wonderful friend, Laurel, lent us the baby swing since they weren't using it and the kids had a great time. Kyle wanted me to take his picture and posed for it. The little ones wouldn't even look at me when I tried to take theirs!! The only thing was that Sophia wasn't very happy when I took her out of the swing to give Nathan a try!! I kept Nathan busy "riding" the trike while Sophia was in the swing. All three of them are napping for a bit again now since I wore them out playing outside this afternoon!

Guess that's about it for now. Going to have a relaxing night at home and maybe scrap a bit and watch Hell's Kitchen, but that's about it. George has some overtime tonight and has to go back to work after it gets dark to do wasp nests! No thanks...

Enjoy your evening!
Cheers,
Colleen

Sunday, July 29, 2007

It seems like forever since I blogged, but it's really only been a few days. The reality is that it's been a busy few days though! I worked at Precious Memories on Thursday evening for my regular 4 hours, but then it was back Friday night until midnight. There has been a 40% off sale on anything regular price that started Friday, so it's been busy too. I worked all day yesterday and I'm going back again today for a full day! No rest for the wicked!

I have managed to get a little scrapping in here and there in the meantime though, so here are my latest creations...





A couple of these are for the new smaller (8X8) album that I've started about random childhood memories thanks to an online friend (Debbi) who is an amazing scrapbooker! Also managed to get some more recent pictures scrapped, so it's been a good week!

Let's see, what else is new? Not a whole lot! I'm feeling a little exhasted with all the work at the store after looking after Sophia all week too, so I think I'm going to have to make a couple of early nights and get some good sleep this week so I can do it again next week! We've got people on holidays at the store, so I'm getting some extra hours. I really don't mind, but I just need to remember not to stay up too late which I have a tendency to do! I get my second wind about 9:30pm and then I want to stay up!

The 2Peas Blogger Question today was this:
Make a list of your top ten things on your mind right now.
At the time you blog.
Date it.... mark down the time.. and just number 1-10 and write the first 10 things that come to mind.. no censoring..

1. Library books were due yesterday.
2. My foot hurts - need to see doctor?
3. Want to scrap rather than going to work.
4. Need to make an appt at the massage therapist.
5. The theme music to Big Comfy Couch is really annoying.
6. I wish I were still sleeping.
7. Might need another cup of coffee this morning!
8. Need to do grocery shopping/cleaning sometime today
9. Big Brother is on tonight.
10. Need to send a few thank you cards.

This would be a fun thing to do once a month for a year just to see what changes and what stays the same! I know the cleaning/groceries won't change!!
Cheers,
Colleen

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Pet Peeve

OK, I know this totally doesn't bother some people and I don't really know why it bothers me the way it does, but I just don't get people being late. The blog challenge over at Scrapperie was about pet peeves and this is one of mine! Especially since I've had kids, people seem to excuse it as if you're so unorganized once you have kids that you can't get anywhere on time. I'm not saying I'm never late because unexpected things happen, but it bothers me when I am and stresses me out to be completely honest. I guess I figure that with cell phones these days too that the common courtesy of a phone call would be nice. **Rant over**

The 2Peas blog challenge today asked Do you use stamps with your layouts? I have to admit that I don't very often. I use them a lot more o cards and even at that I forget about them! I don't have a lot of them and I'd like a shelf for them so that they were out in front of me rather than in a little plastic bin where they are now. I think it's mostly that I forget about them rather than the fact that I don't like using them on layouts. Haven't even been using my lettered stamps lately though either, so maybe I should get them out! **Personal challenge**

Well, not too much else going on here today. I don't have Sophia, so I decided to drive George to work so that I could have the car. Nathan is down for an early nap since he got up so early this morning and then we're going out to do a few things once he gets up. Need to go pick George up later too obviously, but hoping that maybe both the boys will nap this afternoon and I can scrap!

Cheers,
Colleen

Monday, July 23, 2007

Quiet time...





There are voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and
inaudible as we enter into the world.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson


So often I think we forget that we need to take time for ourselves and this seems to be the first thing that we sacrifice when we get busy yet it makes us better people for taking that time. Whether it be some time to read, scrapbook, have a long soak in the tub, or whatever your "thing" is, you need to remember to do it for yourself. This is as much a reminder to me as anyone else. I find that I don't take enough conscious time for myself and I eventually notice when I'm not doing that because I find my patience not there in the way it needs to be to take care of three kids! Can you tell that this is one of those days?

I've been doing lots of reminding myself to take a deep breath before saying anything today! I don't think the rain and being inside helps either on days like this, but I think that may have stopped, so maybe we can get out for a walk later.

The funny thing is that I'm in a good mood actually, but I notice that my fuse is a little shorter. I took care of Sophia Mon-Thurs last week as well as the boys of course (as usual), but then worked Thursday and Friday night at the store as well as Saturday and Sunday! Doesn't leave too much time for me. This week is going to be the same, so I need to be more conscious of doing a couple of things for me! I really do enjoy working at the store too, but I just need to plan my own time out better when I have more hours there!





OK, so the blog challenge at Scrapperie today was to give a review of something, so this picture of my mini book is part of my review of the Bind-It-All system that I got to try out yesterday! One of the teachers at Precious Memories where I work, Tobi, did a demo of the machine yesterday for customers and I wanted to try it out so that I could tell customers about it. We got to make these cute little 3X6 mini books and the system is soooooo easy to use. I tell you, if you like making mini books, this is the thing to buy! You can put the holes is all of the paper for the book at once and then it'll go through two sheets of chipboard at a time too, so you can do your covers at the same time. Then, you just cut the coil binding to the length you want and drop it into the holes and then put that in the machine and push the handle down to close! Simple and fabulous!

The 2Peas Blog question was about scrapbooking style. I guess I would say mine is mostly about clean lines with maybe a little graphic thrown in though I'm always up for a challenge and like trying new things. I'm inspired by the work of a lot of other people these days, so it's hard to clearly day what my style is though I know I'm draw to certain types of things.

Well, better be off since I think I hear at least one of the little ones! Have a great day and take some time for yourself...I know I will later!

Cheers,
Colleen

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Rainy Day Dance Party!

OK, so the weather week really hasn't been very nice and this is in stark contrast to the mid 30s weather we has last week when we had every fan in the house on and every window and door open! The rain has been fairly constant all week and yesterday was no exception. I thought about taking George to work so that I could have the car, but then I worked last night and it would've meant going and getting him at the end of the day and then dropping the 3 of them off here and heading right on out to work. That just seemed like too much!

The boys really do need to burn off some energy during the day, so we sort of play tag in the house or hide and seek or whatever will do the trick. Yesterday, I happened to be checking out some blogs and came across Samm Livett's and Kyle was suddenly dancing away to the music on her blog. Well! That was the beginning of a dance party that lasted pretty much the rest of the day on and off!!

Tracy came over with Sophia for a visit while we were dancing away and they joined the party as well! Kyle had to play a couple of his favourites for Tracy too - YMCA being first on that list!


This is Kyle doing his break dancing for me when I asked him to dance so that I could take his picture!
Nathan wouldn't sit still long enough without heading directly for the camera for me to get a picture of him dancing!
When George got home from work, Kyle immediately started telling him about the "music list" on my "scrapbooking website". He played YMCA right away for George and started singing what he thinks the words are and George said to me, "Sounds like you've been listening to this for a while!" My response was "Pretty much all day" and he just laughed. So, thanks Samm because we more than got our exercise and burned off our excess energy today thanks to your blog!

Today's Blog Challenge @ 2Peas ~ Are you the type of scrapper who likes to get idea books to help you scrap? If you don't what do you find to help you get ideas?

I do get idea books to help me though not as often as I used to because I use other scrappers and their online layouts as inspiration as well. My favourite idea book right now is Ali Edwards' A Designer's Eye for Patterned Paper.

Cheers...
Colleen

Friday, July 20, 2007

Okonomiyaki and Friends



Well, most of you reading this know that I lived in Japan for 3 years and have taught English to international students here in Vancouver for about 10 years since. I've made some amazing friends and always enjoy it when some of them come back to visit! I recently had a few students/friends that I taught here in Vancouver come for dinner and a visit. The best part was that they offered to make dinner and my favourite Japanese food! The weather was so nice that we moved the table out onto the deck and had a great meal and a few beer out there!

Masaki and his wife Kayoko were both my students while in Vancouver and Shihoko was in some of the same classes, so they all met here. Shihoko is still here studying at BCIT, but we all managed to get together when Masaki and Kayoko were here on vacation. We had a great night with the amazing dinner they cooked called okonomiyaki. I guess the best way to describe it is as a Japanese pizza and you can put almost anything in it. I have just potato and cheese in mine since I don't eat pork, beef or seafood and those are the most popular things to put in!

We also ended up with two kinds of cake for dessert since Kayoko and I both got one. Kyle was quite happy about that!!

If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend trying okonomiyaki! It's not the easiest food to find here, but soooo good! I make my own once in a while too, but, like most food, it always seems to taste better when someone else makes it!

Cheers,
Colleen

Thursday, July 19, 2007

A rainy Thursday...

Well, it's another rainy one here, so we're not doing too much today. We've already had a little dance party in the kitchen after we had breakfast and I just put both Nathan and Sophia down. Sophia often doesn't sleep in the morning, but seems to need a little rest and this morning she was even rubbing her eyes, so we'll see. I think she's teething today too because little things are bothering her that wouldn't normally.

She and Nathan are a good pair this morning because he's been a bit off since he got up too. I think part of his problem is being tired though because he woke up really early, I'm hoping he'll be in a better mood after a nap. It was funny this morning because I put Sophia down first while Nathan followed me and then he trundled down the hallway to his door going "Ni ni Ni ni" which means night night for him. It's always a little harder when we can't get out and run around too, but we've been singing, dancing, playing peek-a-boo, ball and with the trucks already this morning as well as having a few books out!

I feel like I had so many things to write about and now my mind is a bit blank...

Well, how could I forget the GREAT news I got from Down Under?!?! One of my very best friends, Julie, told me that she and her family (DH, Simon, and boys, Alex and Rhys) are coming to Canada at Christmas time!!! I can't believe I haven't seen her/them in 5 years since we got married and I'm very excited! We're looking forward to a good chat and a Starbucks eggnog latte! Julie and Simon are busy getting the kids all geared up in winter clothes! Can't wait to see you all!

Now, we also had a wonderful visit the other day from my grandma (mum's mum) from Vancouver Island. We don't see her as often as we'd like what with the ferry and everything, but it makes it that much more special when we do! She came over and mum did (and brought lunch!) too. I was watching Sophia, but Tracy managed to have a quick lunch with us, but had to rush off back to work afterwards. We got a few pictures though Kyle wasn't in to having his picture taken this day unfortunately!






I guess the only other thing I have to post about today is a new layout that I finished last night. There was a cyber crop going on over at Scrapper's Daily Dose that Debbi T so kindly invited me to, so I finished this one for a few of the challenges there. I'm doing some random memory layouts with older pictures and this is one of the few I have with my grandpa (dad's dad) who passed away in 1984. I did this layout about the chair that he used to sit in in the living room and the game Tracy and I used to play with him.



The journaling on it says...

I so clearly remember my grandpa's big golden coloured recliner that was his favourite place to sit. It was in the doorway of the living room and you had to pass him if you were coming in from the other part of the house. It used to be a game for Tracy and I to try and get by him. We would even go so far as to go outside and around the house to be able to get to the other side without him catching us because if he did....he'd tickle us silly!! I think it used to work both ways that sometimes he would let us through, but there were times we'd let him catch us too!!

Well, guess that's about it for now. Going to go have a quiet cup of coffee for a minute while Kyle is busy and then I think we have a Diego game to play!!
Cheers,
Colleen

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

I finally scrapped again!

Well, it certainly took me a while to get back at my scrapping after our vacation and I won't say that I'm totally back into the swing of things, but at least I did a couple of layouts. This first one is a funny one about how Nathan stole Kyle's whole apple off the table one day and started happily munching away! he was quite proud of himself!


This layout was inspired by Debbi T. Her stuff is amazing and she's been working on this book of random memories where she pairs up memories and pictures of some kind even if they're not perfect for that moment. The idea is that you get the memories scrapped! I took her idea and a layout idea as well actually and this was the product. It's about how Tracy and I used to get to stay up late and watch Love Boat and Fantasy Island , but there was a catch! We had to watch Lawrence Welk with her first!

I'm afraid that's about all I've got time for right now, since Sophia will be here shortly and I think I hear Nathan. Kyle's already up and I'm recovering from a bad food allergy attack yesterday though I don't know what it was I ate that made me so sick either and that's a bit worrying. And the best part was that later last night, I also managed to burn my arm with some boiling water last night! The good news was that we also had a wonderful visit with Grandma yesterday, so I'll try and get those pictures posted soon (they're on Tracy's camera!).

Cheers,

Colleen

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Amazing place!

OK,I really do need to do some blogging about our trip, so I'll do it in parts and add pics to go with it! We took 3 days driving down and I was a little apprehensive about it, but figured we'd be OK because we had a long time to do it and we'd just stop when we needed to. That's exactly what happened! The rest areas along I-5 are great and we just pulled in when we needed to and everyone had their stretch and a pee break.















On the first day, mum had packed stuff for sandwiches for lunch. It was good to get out and let the kids run around and just do what we wanted rather than sitting in a restaurant! We had great weather all three days, so that was never an issue either thankfully.

We were into the hotel the first 2 night before dinnertime, so we pretty much went into our rooms, dumped our stuff and headed off to eat before the kids got too crazy. We ended up at Denny's both nights just because it's not that expensive, there's lots of choice and it's family place. The first night went quite well, but the second night was a little later and Nathan was pretty burnt out and tired, so I ended up having to walk him around the restaurant for a while. Not the most relaxing dinner with him climbing all over George and I!

The third day, we jut sort of took it easy in the morning because we weren't that far away and had told Scott and Toni that we'd be there sort of mid-afternoon. Nathan was up early and mum heard us, so she came over because she'd been sharing a room with Trace, Brian and Sophia, but they were all still sleeping (after Sophia was apparently up half the night). Mum and I took Nathan for a walk (because Kyle was still sleeping too) and went to a coffee place I'd seen the night before and had a really nice morning sitting have a coffee outside and watching Nathan play. It was a great way to start the morning.

We went back to the room and we all went next door for breakfast, but Nathan and I only last about 10 minutes. He was getting tired because it was a little later on and wasn't co-operating, so I told George to get us take out and the 2 of us went back to our room. It just wasn't worth fighting him for an hour in the restaurant and it sure wouldn't have been relaxing! This way, I just let him run around the hotel room and we played.

We were on the road again and other than getting separated once and being slightly concerned about whether or not we had the directions we needed (on paper), it was a smooth go. A little stressed there at one point, but all was good! Now when we got there, I picked out their house from mum's description because of all the windows on the front! Then, I also saw the stairs up to the house that mum was talking about - more than 100! I couldn't imagine doing it every day that's for sure...

The stairs were worth it though and I understand why Scott and Toni can put up with it because the house is gorgeous as is the view from it! And let's face it, if all of us can invade their place and there's room for all of us, then it's a good size too! We ended up downstairs and that worked well. Mum and dad were upstairs and then Trace, Brian and Sophia were in the guest house!










It was soooooo wonderful to see Scott and Toni again. It always just seems like way to long when we do! They were fantastic to put up with all of us that's for sure. We also got to meet Jade who's 4 and a half. She's staying with them for the summer and I believe she's Toni's cousin's daughter. Regardless of the familial ties, she's an absolutely wonderful little ball full of non-stop energy! She and Kyle hit it off and were like siblings shortly after they met with the whole love/hate thing and sometimes irritating the heck out of the other person!

This is a HUGE thank you to Scott and Toni for putting up with all of us for the time we were there! It was a wonderful visit, but seemed to be over all too quickly though I'm sure they were happy to have their house back!!

Well, I guess I'll stop there for now... it's going to be a hot one here, so it's going to be a matter or keeping cool in the 30-35 degree heat!
Cheers,
Colleen

Monday, July 09, 2007

Catching up...again!

Well, I can't say I've been very good about updating my blog of late! We were, of course, away for our trip at the end of last month and I do have some pics to post.

I haven't been doing any scrapping, so I have nothing to post there! Just can't seem to get back into it since we got back. The last week or so has been warmer and I find I'm not as likely to do it in the evening if it's warm. I do need to just jump back in and get started though! I've been doing a fun photography challenge at Scrapperie though and having fun with that. Think I'm going to do a mini album at some point with the pictures.



I haven't been watching much TV though I'm watching 2 reality shows right now. I admit to watching Hell's Kitchen. Gordon Ramsey just makes me laugh. I'm not saying I'd go on that show if you paid me, but I figure the people that sign up for it now know what they're in for! I'm also watching Big Brother which started last week and it'll be on for the summer! I got hooked on this the very first season and have watched it since. The only thing is that I'm not working downtown anymore, so I can't pop into the little restaurant across the street from the school called "The Dish" to see Andrew (the owner I believe) and have him give me the scoop on the online feed!! It's a fun summer thing anyway!

I've also picked up a book again! I'm reading a nice light summer book called "Anybody Out There?" by Marian Keyes. Got it out of the library after some of the girls at Scrapperie were reading it as the book of the month and it's written in a very cool way with a lot of time changes. It's really good to be reading again and I'd like to keep it up!

Well, think I hear Nathan, so I'd better run!
Cheers,
Colleen