Friends Never Say Goodbye

And yet here we are this past Saturday night saying Goodbye once again to Joann and Chris as they continue their career adventures to New Jersey.

Congrats DR. CHRIS WARREN, by the way, on the PhD AND on the new job position. SO absolutely proud of you!

The move they are making is a great one. A big step on the way to a promising future. Even though New Jersey isn't too far away and even though I don't currently see them A LOT it still feels like I'm really missing them already.

Here's a picture of the 3 of us girls - Myself, Vicki, and Joann on the fabulously comfy Ikea couch.














Joann and Chris,
Thanks so much for the great time on Saturday night - yummy snacks and yummy dinner, great conversation and lots of laughs!
Here's wishing you a safe vacation back home in September, a productive move to your new apartment in New Jersey, and all the success life could possibly bring. You guys are awesome and you deserve every happiness. Love you, miss you already! And I really hope Jamie and I can visit you in the near future when you get settled away in your new home.

BABY!

Congrats!! to Jason and Steph on the birth of their son, Tristan Jason, born at 9:13am today weighing in at 6lbs 1.5 oz.

Stephy called Christa about 5am this morning to say she was going to the hospital cause she "thought" she was in labour. lol....4 Hours later, she has the baby! I'm absolutely flabbergasted at how quick that was (I can only wish!). What a lucky girl!

I wish them all the best with the new addition and many joyful days ahead.

I just can't wait to meet Tristan!

Smorgasbord

This weekend was quite an eventful one...Not necessarily for Jamie and I...but eventful none-the-less.

Three weddings that I personally know of...CONGRATS TO:
Vicky and Corey
Jill and Kevin
Dwayne and Tanya
I've seen pics of all three weddings and they all look SO different but yet SO beautiful!!

Happy Birthday to SIL, Amanda!

As for Jamie and I, we spent the weekend enjoying some much needed relaxation. Actually, I was a little annoyed at Jamie's ability to relax a little TOO much. We definitely have opposing definitions of the word. When I think of a relaxing weekend, I think of having no plans but still doing something: going to the movies, taking a drive somewhere, getting stuff done around the house, etc. When he thinks of a relaxing weekend: Couch, sleep! lol :) In all fairness, I suppose I must admit that he did take about 20 minutes out of his time to do some vacuuming. And we did go to Christa's and Kristen's on Saturday night for supper. So, I guess I should stop complaining and enjoy the non-running around.

Prego Update: Still haven't heard from the obstetrician about an appointment but I do see the midwives on August 21st. Baby Bean (which is what I affectionately call him/her in relation to it's current size) is making me rather tired especially when I have to get up to pee at night and then toss and turn in an effort to make my sore back comfortable. But I'm feeling rather good and for the most part haven't had any sickness worth talking about. Lucky, I hope I continue to be blessed with a "good" pregnancy.

In scrapbooking news, I've been asked by a friend to make 2 gift albums of his kids as Christmas presents for their grandmas. I'm excited about it. It's a lot of work especially when I've been feeling a lot of scrappers block but it'll give me a bit of cash to use for our Christmas gifts. It's wonderful to get paid for something you enjoy doing. Cross your fingers for me that it turns out beautifully.

Here at work and almost time to go for lunch. Jenny has brought leftover homemade pizza to share and I am so frikkin excited about it, I can't even stand the wait! Bye for now!

Storm Brewing

We had a bit of a thunderstorm last night. Apparantly tornados touched down in some surrounding areas, luckily we didn't get that part of the storm. It was so freaky to see the clouds rolling in like a big purplish-black sheet across the sky. Jamie thought it was so cool so we took some pics. Here they are:

*If you have a crappy monitor, such as ours at home, you won't be able to see a single thing in these pics. On my camera screen and here at work they look pretty good.

In this first one, you can see the line on the horizon of the "normal"

night sky against the black clouds rolling in.

Overhead looking from our house to the neighbours,

the clouds are freaky and moving fast!

On the bright side, thunder showers should bring some relief to the crazy heat wave. Maybe that's why Jamie was so excited about the rain clouds.

Ketchup Anyone?

There was an article in the Acton paper the other day that I read and was absolutely dying to post and share with you all. It was entitled (or something similar): "The 7 Deadly Ketchup Sins". Because Jamie threw the paper out with the recycling last night, I can no longer post the article in its entirety. I did a google search, but as I feared, the Acton Digest or Acton Chronicles or whatever the heck our town paper is called doesn't yet constitute enough internet-importance. And so, because of my great love of the most wonderfully diverse condiment, I have decided to delve into the recesses of my short-term memory to bring you just some of those 7 deadly sins and then proceed to pick apart each inaccurate point written by obvious anti-ketchup people.

1. Pertaining to Hot Dogs: Ketchup should only be used on hotdogs if you are under the age of 18. The point being that after the age of 18, it is considered "childish" to request less sophisticated toppings than onions or sauerkraut or relish. All together now: "EEEEWWWW!". And even then it is not appropriate to dress the hotdog bun, but only the dog should be dressed with condiments. Well I dare say I would never ever in my entire life eat another hot dog EVER not even EVER if could not dress both the dog and the bun in oodles of oozing ketchup.

2. Ketchup should not be kept in the fridge. I guess that's why the bottle says "refrigerate after opening"? Also, it just tastes better in the fridge.

3. Ketchup should never be used as a second topping over gravy. GASP! What? I have no comment other than "Egad!", my mind simply cannot process this statement.

4. Ketchup should never be used as a "sauce" on steak costing more than $1.99/lb. In my opinion if it costs more, then you should absolutely enjoy the savoury cut of meat to the fullest. Ketchup makes food taste better. Therefore if you want your expensive steak to taste better then adding ketchup just makes sense.

5. The ketchup bottle should also be kept clean and wiped free of any spillage on the lid after each usage. I am in complete and total agreement, nothing worse than a nasty sticky ketchup bottle.

6. Ketchup should never be used on chicken but should always accompany french fries, hamburgers, and eggs. Why must we be so judgemental? Why does the chicken have to suffer? And whilst many people do add ketchup to their eggs, I personally find this rather gross. But people, I am open-minded. If you enjoy ketchup on your eggs, I say go for it. If you enjoy ketchup on your chicken, I say go for that too.

7. If you are a guest at another house and ketchup is not on the table, you are not permitted to ask for it. What kind of inhospitable guest doesn't have ketchup as a regular part of their table spread? If you are this person, do not invite me over to your house for a meal. Please. lol :)

and I will add a #8. in honour of my hubby

8. Heinz - there's no other Keinz. I must admit that while living with Jamie I have become quite fond of Heinz Ketchup. BUT, if it comes down to "No name" ketchup or no ketchup at all, then I choose the NO NAME brand fo' sho'.
Happy Birthday Heinz - 130 years old this year! (Click for some interesting trivia tidbits).

This post goes out to all of you ketchup-lovers out there. (Tho' I doubt anyone could love ketchup than Jamie and I combined. And then add my brother to the mix and it gets ridiculous!)

And also to Jennifer, the biggest non-ketchup lover I've ever met in my entire life. I just don't understand it!

Evil Mood

Yup, I think I've finally hit a day when I feel like I am an absolute emotional train wreck.

So far today (and it's only 8am) I am annoyed because of the following:
- Couldn't sleep last night because I was too busy trying to stop my teeth from chattering and my body from shivering after my dear hubby decided to crank our air conditioning.
- Finally got to sleep and awakened yet again to go pee (so far peeing in the night has got to be the most annoying part of being pregnant).
- Really bad hair that is now suddenly very oily as opposed to me only ever having to wash it every second day before. Whattup wit dat?
- Really terrible oily acne-ridden skin...can we say 15 again?
- Boobs hurt tremendously.
- Packing up for work only to find that Jamie had taken BOTH OF OUR lunches from the fridge instead of just his own. I have no idea why in the world he would take both but he did and now he has to drive all the way across town to bring it to me because it's leftover homemade pizza from last night's supper and there's no way I'm doing without it. Pizza at lunch will be for certain one of the high points of my day.
- Spilled mascara over my shirt while doing my makeup this morning.
- Bloody hot outside but I have to endure a freezing cold office and wear a sweater all day long.
- Was called in to my doctor's office on Saturday (when your doctor calls you on a Saturday you know it can't be good) and diagnosed with a Bicornuate (heart-shaped) Uterus...My family doctor is confident all will be well but there are possible complications...now I have to wait for the OB to call me in and find out what the deal is and try to keep the worry-level down in the meantime.
- Feel like I'm starving to death this morning.
- Not nearly getting enough scrapbooking done.
- Had to come into work this morning....MONDAYS!...UGH!

So there you have it...kinda feels better to get it all out. Thanks for "listening" :)

Robeez.Com

Stephanie had these on her blog and I think they are just so adorable that I had to post about them too.

And I'm pretty sure these are the same kinda ones that Marianne was wearing on Sydney when we were camping May24. Hers were purple and oh so cute!

Here's the website http://www.robeez.ca/

There are so many different designs... I'm in love with them all. There are rocking horses, peas in a pod, butterflies, rubber duckies, elephants, watermelon, snails, dragons, ladybugs, ice cream cones, etc. etc. Any of the cute little designs you could possibly think of.

And you know they must be cool when Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts & Heidi Klum are wearing them on their babies (not that it should make a difference what the "stars" wear but it certainly shows the success of these gorgeous little booties).

And most importantly, gotta love supporting a great Canadian company created by a mom with a problem and lots of creativity!

Pregnancy Update

Well, so far this week I've had a couple of pregnancy trials. We really got a scare on Monday morning and had to go to the hospital. But thankfully bloodtests and an ultrasound showed that all is well and baby is healthy and happy. Also, some cramping today but I'm told that's "normal" as long as there's no bleeding. I guess my uterus is really starting to stretch and grow now. Today is probably the first day that I've had that bloated/like I've gained weight feeling. Oh the craziness that will be happening to my body. Again, it's exciting but yet scary all at the same time.

Great news: I just found out that two college friends of mine, Kerri and Amanda, are BOTH due in September with their first babies. Kerri is having a girl and Amanda is having a boy. Wow! So Exciting! I wish them both congrats and all the best with the new little ones. It's been so long since I've seen them both (2 years in fact) so it would be really wonderful to find a way to get together when the babies come along.

On a completely different subject, totally gotta agree with Christa on the "Sexyback" song by Justin Timberlake. Really cool. Hey Christa, I actually heard it for the first time driving to work with Kristen last Friday.

And lastly, we were supposed to go to the Toronto Zoo this Saturday but dearest hubby decided to ditch me and agreed to play in a softball tournament in Orangeville. I'm not impressed at all that he's cancelling our date, especially since it's forever since I've been to the zoo and I was really looking forward to going. And you know what he said when I was upset, "Well it's not every weekend that I get to play softball, I see you every day" AHHHH!!! Can you believe that?! I told Christa today that we were backing out and said, "I swear if he had a scrawny neck I would have wrung it." But oh well, whatever, I guess him being passionate about softball is better than him not being passionate about anything...BOYS!!! UGH!!!

Here's to Many More

A year ago today it was just clearing up from raining very heavily and making me worry slightly (that may be an understatement) over having our ceremony on the beach. Red Clay up to the Wazoo, a stuck-in-the-mud catering van, Tara's hubby becoming a chaffeur for guests in our SUV to avoid more cars getting stuck in the mud, Bridesmaids making sure they had a sweater in tow for their sundresses, and a nervous giddy bride later, and we were enjoying a sunny sandy PEI 6:00 wedding. Dad prayed for it (the sun) for me and I know from experience that God answers those prayers :) No Joke!

Jamie and I just came home from camping a couple of hours ago, we were napping as the phone rang and mom's voice says, "Happy Anniversary!" and believe it or not, I was like, "Oh my GOODNESS!!!" because Jamie and I had completely forgotten!!! AAAHHHH!!! Mom laughed at us and said, "um, I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing!" (Thanks Mom for the reminder). I guess we may be off to a really great start of years with no gifts/no cards/not even a thought to our very important date. Regardless honey, thanks for a great year, you're wonderful and I love you, here's to many more happy ones to come, and a healthy baby to join us next year!

"The Me Blog" Challenge #4

Christa first brought my attention to THE ME BLOG. She was reading Leslie's Blog (we discovered her blog because of Tara) lol...what a circle...anyways, I've been wanting to post a layout for a challenge and I just couldn't resist this week, I had so many ideas floating through my head and so many pictures and stories from my parents. This is my submission:




















Journalling reads:
I've "interviewed" my Mom time and again, especially regarding her childhood. So much so, in fact, that she will ask me, "Are you writing a book about me?" Perhaps I won't write a book, though I'd like to try one day, but mostly I just want to remember. Unfortunately her life, for the most part was not one full of "favourite memories". Rather my mother's story is mostly filled with sorrow and hardships. She even admits to having "blocked out" many of the details. But for the details she remembers I have made plenty of scribbled "jot" notes in my journal:
*Small fishing village in Newfoundland. Isolated. No road out of town until 1958.
*Her Dad diagnosed with Leukemia in 1961. Salvation Army officers would visit when he was sick.
*Committed to God in final months of his life.
*He died in 1962 at the age of 38. My Mom was only 10 years old.
*August 21/63: Attended funeral. Rained. Salvation Army cemetary on the hill.
*Younger brother only a few weeks old.
*Social Services in those days = No help!
*Had to cut own wood - green wood, had to dry it in the oven, would smoke out the house.
*Their house? No bathroom, 3 bedrooms, no living room.
*No Food! People in town would try to help them and scrounge up food for them to eat.
Grandparents lived next door - no help! Not welcomed.
*Holes in Shoes.
*Mother went to St. Johns' for surgery on a brain tumour summer of '62.
*Lived with Aunt Pansy and Aunt Betty.
*Couldn't be a child anymore. Had to take care of 5 younger siblings.
*Life Not Easy!

I know I'm supposed to give credit to the scrappin supplies I've used on this page but I have no idea. I just have so much miscellaneous scrap items in my little room, I just take em out and use them, and haven't the slightest clue who the designers are. What I can say is this - almost all of my supplies have been bought at Michaels or at www.discountscrapbooksupplies.com or the wonderful dollar store.

Thanks for looking,
Myrna