I Need This!!

How cool is this new workstation from Ikea!!  If I wasn't moving in a few months, I'd get one so that my kitchen island could be freed up for ummm cooking, instead of being a catchall for computer stuff.

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Wintery Pregnancy Page

Close to My Heart

It was just announced the other day that we are now officially allowed to talk about our Close to my Heart business on our blogs! Woo-Hoo! I always have tons to say about how this company has enriched my life and how awesome their products are. Now I can tell you all about it! I have been very busy building my business for over a year now, and am just as excited about it now as I was when I first started. Blogging has fallen by the wayside, as I spend my free time focusing on this business and hobby of scrapbooking/papercrafting. Hopefully this new announcment from CTMH will inspire me to start posting some of my projects and talking a bit about what I am doing in my studio these days.

Elections 2008

It has been a long, long time since I blogged, and I am doing so now in a desperate attempt for help with a decision on voting. I have always voted NDP, the party which best fit my previous worldview. In recent years, I've changed, maybe had my eyes oped a bit...who knows why, but I am feeling the need for some harsh changes in our country. I want to see criminals treated like a menace to society and put away where they can't harm my family or friends. I want our country to stand up for itself and not let other countries lay claim to our North and just march in and exploit it. I want to see people take the threat coming from the middle east seriously and react to the threats of terror and destruction with some outrage and realize that we need to protect our children from a future of spreading muslim extremism. And yes, I am willing to pay for this with my tax dollar! I'd rather pay for a safe and secure future now, than be looking back wishing we had done more!
There, hopefully if any of this has offended anyone, you'll tell me why and help me out here with the decision of who the heck to trust with this country's future! I am open to any opinions!
Thanks for helping!

My kind of recipe!

BAKED STUFFED CHICKEN

6-7 lb. Baking Chicken
1 cup Melted Butter
1 cup Stuffing (Pepperidge Farm)
1 cup Uncooked Microwave Popcorn
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush chicken well with melted butter, salt and pepper. Fill cavity with stuffing and popcorn. Place in baking pan with the neck end toward the back of the oven. Listen for the popping sounds. When the chicken's ass blows the oven door open and the chicken flies across the room . . . TIME TO EAT!

Hmmmm

I've been away from Blogging for so long that I am at a loss for words. That is so unlike me.......maybe it is because today was a complete gong show and my brain is fried, or maybe my life is just really that boring?
SNAP....just snapped the elastic band that I have around my wrist. I am trying a new method to reinforce positive thinking. Whenever a negative, self-defeating thought enters my mind, I snap the elastic and it hurts like a SOB and somehow I will start associating negative thoughts with pain, so I will have less negative thoughts and more positive ones. That, or I will just stop thinking all together.

The laptop saga is over I hope!

Mamaloup is back online....for now. I had to send the laptop in a second time because when they returned it after replacing the motherboard, the keyboard wasn't working. Now they replaced that too so hopefully nothing else will crap out. Seriously, I will not buy a refurbished laptop ever again!
Having been away from the online world for over a month I realized just how much time I had been wasting reading blogs of people I don't know, and how little I actually missed them...lol. I have been having so much fun scrapbooking and building my new business that not being online has been a blessing in disguise. I am going to change my computer habits so that I stop wasting valuable time glued to the screen.
1 I will only read blogs of people I have actually met, or really admire.
2 I will only look at one scrapbooking site per day
3 I will only shop online when I need/want something....no browsing
4 When I have need of writing a long complicated email, I will pick up the phone instead
5 Same goes for catching up with friends
I also have realized that having a social life is so important to feeling whole. I have met some great people and keep my social calander full with play dates and coffee dates. It has made such a difference being able to count on Patrick to be here with the kids for a few hours a day. When he was away so much, I couldn't seem to get it together, or have enough energy, to plan a social life. Now I know that if I need some recharge time, I have the ability to do more than just take a nap or a bath. His university classes are very demanding, and he isn't available as much as we would like to spend family time together, but at least his schedule is somewhat predictable.
I must install some stuff on the laptop now, so that I can post some pictures! Hopefully I can do this myself, but I have a feeling it will take a few days for Patrick to get around to helping me.
Bye for now!

If my Laptop ever returns

I have been bad, oh so bad! No regular posts coming from the land of laptoplessness! Patrick is ALWAYS on the computer doing his homework, and although it's a tough call, I guess that is more important than my blogging.
The only real BIG news from here is that I am now in business as an Independent Consultant with Close to my Heart. For anyone who doesn't know what that is....god forbid....it is a Scrapbooking and Stamping company that has the most awesome products in the industry. I am really excited about it, and have been enjoying playing with all my new toys in the consultant kit. Now it's time to buckle down and start teaching and selling! If anyone is interested in checking it out, go to www.closetomyheart.com. I will (when I get my laptop back) post pics of some cards and whatnot that I've made recently with CTMH products.
Ta Ta for now

Buy your own underwear!

Ok Lauren this one is for you.....

I was thinking today as Patrick showed me yet another pair of his pants with a hole in the crotch, that I may have to bite the bullet and start clothing the third child in my family.  I just dont understand why some men have such a hard time with the survival basic of, clothe thyself!  He will probably kill me when he reads this, but do you know that his mother still buys his underwear (she only visited 2 times in 5 years we were in BC).  Yes sad, but true.  One time we were shopping together and she wanted us to buy him underwear, when i said, he is a big boy, he can get his own, oh boy did i get ....the look....of death!  The way i figure it is that if he wants to wear underwear that is falling apart that is no ones business but his own.  Now that his pants are suffering the same fate, i must jump in and save our family reputation.  I dont want to be know as that ratty family down the street. 

Macaroni Monday

I havent forgotten about all the Mac attack addicts, I am just experiencing technical difficulties with my brain....I mean laptop.  For some reason I cant use the apostrophe, access pictures (yes Jen I have them backed up...could you just have that baby already!!!), or do some other necessary stuff.  I could tell a gross story instead....kidding.

Even Grosser

Sounds like I grossed some of you out with my last post.  You would have loved to be here today as I heard it a second time.....just after dinner.  I am contemplating calling the city to lodge a complaint, but which department do I call, poison centre or pollution control.  Is there a dangerous gasses dept.?  Anyhoo, on to another, grosser, potty training story...no i dont have anything more exciting to talk about.  Quinten is now officially out of diapers, except for when we go out and i wont know where the closest bathroom is.  The transition was actually really easy, except for a couple of mishaps.  

Lesson 1,

What to do when your toddler poops on the bathroom floor while you are having a dinner party.

Step 1 - Giggle yourself silly...what else can you really do?

Step 2 - Gag a couple of times

Step 3 - Get husband to clean up the mess while you have a talk with the child about where poop goes ie: in potty, not on floor (at least he was in the right room)

Doesn't smell like roses

I was just about to post about how much I love our new house, and how great it is to be in a single detached home instead of a duplex. Then I was letting meeker out (we just flew her here on Monday), and the neighbour had his window open and he let out a HUGE fart. Come on.......at least it's not the smell of Pot wafting in like at our last place, but hmmmm, if I am actually able to smell his gas........ewww.
Hopefully we'll be done painting soon and I can post some pictures.

Boxes have kicked my ass!

This move I resolved to leave no box unpacked in storage until the next move....and I have almost met that challenge. The only problem is that all the stuff from the boxes is spread out in the basement and garage waiting for a home. I am so ready to call it quits, I just want everything nice and organized. Anyone want to come organize my house? Or paint? We managed to get the kids rooms painted (with help from Patrick's Papa) and the paint is drying on the walls of the family room as I type (no more orange...hooray).  I was starting to get a headache from staring at those bright walls all day.  Now we just need to do EVERY other room in the house and we're done!!

Seriously though, I think we'll like it here.  People who come to the door actually notice my Baby Asleep sign and knock lightly....not that this is why I think we'll ike it, but it shows that people are considerate here.  Ha.....listen to me......Next week I'll be complaining about those darn kids partying down the street.

Ta Ta for now

One for all the Dads

So the exhaustion blunder...or otherwise known as the "what the f*** were you thinking Patrick” escapade. All you parents out there had better take a seat, and the soon to be’s take very careful notes. We were in Thunder Bay after an eight hour drive, having left Winnipeg at 4am. I was driving round and round the block trying to find parking close to my uncle’s restaurant and was completely having a nervous breakdown. I stopped in front, told Patrick to take over, and said I’ll take Quinten and meet you inside. About 10 min. later I was sitting in the back room with Q and my aunt, when Patrick comes waltzing in with a big goofy smile.....which abruptly turned into a look of horror I can’t even describe. He gasped, literally gasped, like you hear in the movies, and took off at a full run. Took me a second to realize that he didn’t have Alia with him. She was back in the car sleeping away totally oblivious. Moral of the story is that, yes, it can happen to you, and that there is a point to my much made fun of routine I go through when leaving anywhere.....OK two kids, a diaper bag, shoes, pants...we’re good to go.