Makeup to mud in 3 seconds flat

wow,

well let me tell you. I had a wowsa week. came back from a fun retreat, feeling a little tired on the plane, thought nothing of it. then woke up the next day with such a pain in my left side. decided since Jim was home to just lie down till I felt better. I slept...till the next day, like logged in 20 some hours, woke up still feeling awful, figured now to the hospital cause it must be my appendix or something.  a little poking and prodding and left with antibiodics for an infection. Wiped me out!!!! like I have been a zombie where I haven't got dressed all week. poor kids!!! anyways, tired today, but on the mend. Jim was bugging me pretty hard, I have such a huge habit of drinking from taps in any sink. you know where you cup your hands to drink water. anyways, maybe it had something to do with it, maybe not, but I bet I won't do that trick for awhile anymore. so I hae decided that I will catch up my blogging and forums next week, I'm just a little too wiped out to log in computer time. sorry. but next week I hae projects to show you, lot's of fun stuff.till then.

r u having a garage sale?

ok, so tonight I got all the carseats out on the lawn, had the kids overnight bags ready to go so when my inlaws came to get the kids they would be all ready. A lady comes up with her husband driving in the car, "Are you having a garage sale".
hmmmm.

Now yes, I agree I have lot's of kids, that come with lot's of stuff. but really, are you that intrusive to invade someone's property WITH 2 vehicles still parked in the driveway to ask that? Then of course my boys start talking to them, I was like, get back here, don't talk to strangers. Especially ones that are now just asking random people for a garage sale. strange? I think so. I would NEVER in my life approach someone.

anyways, it takes all kinds. Sitting in the airport right now, seriously bored, answering emails, and then on the other hand wishing our airport had the restaurant open so jim & i could have had dinner together. Instead he left, I grab a muffin. yeah! cannot wait till the expansion when they add a restaurant IN the security area. oh to dream... I mean I guess it is not really a big deal, but you know I'm almost to 60 flights this last 5 months and that is ALOT of waiting time. It would be great to kill time for the 60-120min. oh well. stop complaining, at least it is better than it used to be. it used to be like one room, literally. Okay not quite that bad, but Fiji had a bigger airport than us and they are a 3rd world country.

so what else is going on this weekend? I'm off to the mountains for a retreat. Excited, actually really excited for the drive there. Katharina is always a fun travel companion. I'm sure the giggles will be intense, with probably a call or two to Jackie to share the giggle. IT's contagious. But the Just Cre8 crop begins tomorrow am and runs all weekend. come and go, jump in on challenges, have fun. Really it is a great way to be stimulated, challenged, see other works of art. And I have to say, the cre8ive crew is so full of ideas!!!!!!  I am hoping for internet so i can jump in for some few peeps to see the games, play and chit chat! the best part, is you can do it from your pjammas.funtastic!!!!!

Well I watched Idol last night, I never have seen this show ever. I've seen recaps on commercials, saw a pinch where that funny chinese guy sang. but you know me, no time for tv, but I thought I had packing to do, lot's of little to do's. Well I was impressed. I couldnt believe all those stars that come out to sing! OMG! I would have loved to have been in that audience! seriously. I actually loved that funky guy. He could really rock it out. But I think it might have been a little too much for a gay guy that had that extreme look to win. too bad, cause I think he was far more interesting to watch. The other guy was nice, ok, but not worth biying a concert ticket for. But really, Cyndi Lauper...Time after Time It should have been Girls Just wanna have fun!!!!!THE bikini girl...what to say? I mean really, what to say. but that judge was so funny. she was an excellent performer with a good sense of humour. I actually probably might watch it if that was the show every week.

but I was informed that idol is never like that until the finally. so I will wait for the finally.

ok, my flight is boarding in about 5 min. better pack up.
have a great weekend!!!!

Upcoming excitement!!!

do you have any plans for the weekend???? if not, grab some friends, your laptops and scrapbook supplies and try the online Happy Go Lucky Crop at Just Cre8. You can participate in some really cool games.I will be away teaching at a crop in Alberta but if there is internet I will jump in and have some fun too! If I don't have any internet, then you still will have some fun with my projects. At the Happy Go Lucky Crop I will be full of inspiration, showing eye candy to stimulate project ideas, inspirational thoughts to start a page and someone famous jumped aboard to offer her sketches for the event. but you will have to stop by to find out...
here's a little something from my challenge...

here's another...
 just say yes...

how about a hint from Jessi Lute (now that girl has it going on...)

or maybe you are into games, or altered objects, layouts or sketches. There is so much going on I guarantee you will have a great time!!!!!

well, pop on by if you get a chance.

Oh, as an added teaser, I have  a bit of a secret...that I should be able to share the first week of June. It is really off the charts, and it is something I will share with you! I am almost hitting the 100 000 hit mark and I am going to coincide the release with that. I am sooo pumped...

what a weekend!

but it went by so fast!!!!  WE STARTED OUT BY DESTROYING THE BACKYARD. well, clearing everything to build a "treehouse" (it's actually a 2 story playhouse, but the boys want a treehouse, so that is the lingo we use) while digging holes and removing our old sandbox, they found worms, and lot's of them. In fact it became a poetic tragedy when one of their cousins Carter, ran off with a mitfull, to which everyone thought he was eating (2yr old) hope not! but the boys were so proud of their finds....

sorry for the bad lighting. yikes!
 
stage 1, building the frame. Luckily Jim's cousin Justin came over to help him for a few hours. He had the height, man power and was a million times more help than me. but I had fun with 5 kids!!!!

I love how Jim lets the boys try the tools. By the end, Jager was working the drill pretty good too!sadly I never captured him on photos. next time!


this is what I was good at...sorting the screws and organizing the wood! ok, I am a mean machine with the drill too, but actual assembly...needs to be left to the men.

halfway there, yard still looking messy, boards everywhere, mixed in with toys of course...


almost done, only a few more steps!

I have turned this normal 3 times now, it keeps going this way! yikes.

Who wants to bet that she will be able to crawl up this thing by the end of summer?I am in trouble!

this is JAger showing me he has new freckles this year! last year he only had 9, now they tripled!!!


well it is now built, the fun has begun. come on over for some fun! The boys have big plans, as they want to have a summer party, to which we said yes, BUT I have made a stipulation...only when we have sun sun sun!!!! no snow parties!

well, what kind of momma am I?

i don't follow the "proper" rules.
why?
* i let my 10 month old eat corn. If you follow my blog than you already know that baby girl doesn't like anything mushy, she prefers to bite everything even if it takes her half an hour. so tonight she kept reaching for our corn, I thought let's see what she does with her own, I mean really, she was grabbing bbq chicken pieces off of Jager's plate yesterday so obviously she likes real food. the following documents things you probably aren't supposed to give a baby till they are older.

how do kids not care when their faces are covered in food? this would drive me batty!

I LOVE this one as she stops to take a break before attempting to continue.

now, this little girl worked on this cob all of supper and she did finish it. she started to eat the middle and then she also figured out how to take the handles out. see I'm not the worst mom, I did protect her from stabbing herself (or realistically me ) but she did not like it!!!!

So then after I cleaned up supper dishes, I thought I'd get a few of my scrapbook assigments done... (since Jim could watch the kids...)yep you guessed it. baby girl thinks SHE is the scrapbooker. (maybe one day I hope!) this is taken while she is sitting on my lap and I am scrapbooking. she has to also touch everything I pick up. I let her get good and dirty too. She became a little advertisement for Colorbox Ink!LOL. but Jim...bathed her!hahhaha

if I was thinking, I should have had him take a pic of us scrapbooking together.

I love this photo of my fingers all inked and her little delicate ones inked too! made with love!!!!

you know I am so blessed that I have both sexes of children. I thoroughly enjoy my boys, love em love em love them! they are never stopping energy of things that make me giggle. but to have baby girl, wow, she is so tiny, careful, and interested. she will sit forever on my lap as I scrapbook. or do stuff on the laptop. such differences at this stage. I'm a lucky momma! I wouldn't want it any other way!!!!

more pics from our adventures...

need I say more? too funny. I think I will blow this picture up big. I have to say it again, because I laugh every time I hear it. saucy once said to me that the only time she will run is if someone is chasing her with the ugly stick. Is that ot the perfect caption for this photo?

blurry pic, but still funny. 

I love watching her pick things up. she always tries to do it with her pointer fingers first. adorable.

off to do some work. ouch, got a bit to do today! and had big plans for after school but it seems a little windy? hope that dies down.

have a great day!

nice weather finally!

sorry been a little MIA, we have been outside everyday all day pretty much! just trying to clean the yard, need to do some replanting, getting ready to build the treehouse,and trying out all the different parks out there. Saskatoon has some great ones!!!! seriously. today we logged in hours down at the riverfront watching the canoers (sp?) race, the kids LOVED it! even baby girl squealed with delight. So I have been by myself with the kids since Friday, and it feels like Jim is back on the road again not just at the lake helping his parents. And once again I go through the phases of the kids mad dad is gone, then really mad because he promised them that this weekend he would take them to the movies, then Riley was protesting and missed his school bus this morning so I had to drive him but the light is at the end of the tunnel had arrived, because now they are used to him gone and they start behaving good. It is a whole cycle. so tonight our time at the river, then our bbq picnic then playing outside really rocked! My sweethearts are back. It is so funny, that they get their little noses out of joint. So once we got in the swing of things, I've actually started accomplishing quite a bit tonight. all kids sleeping, floors washed, one more load of laundry then finished. Then i am going to scrapbook. sweet! got some new stuff tonight that I cannot wait to play with. yummo!

I did take some photos this week of our adventures. The boys really didn't want their pics taken so I mostly have baby girl. But some gave me quite a laugh.

I have some more funny ones, but I'll have to show you tomorrow, for some reason they wont stop changing to sideways. ei yi yi!!!!! why???

but baby girl has learned to run, and I think I almost peed my pants seeing her reaction as she runs away from runners. hilarious! and who knows why this is underlined right now. I think I am hitting too many buttons! must abandon computer. 

(don't tell anyone but slowly going nuts!!!)

wow, we are getting snow right now!

snow, May 8th, we are getting snow! are you kidding me??? I have already packed all the winter clothes away and they are clean, not going to happen. do i think it will last? of course not, but since I woke up it has been snowing and now as I type it still is snowing. arrgh!

well, going MIA for 4 1/2 days welcomed me home with lot's of laundry & cleaning, but the kids were so happy ear to ear. they had so much fun at the lake. awesome! except baby girl is covered in what we think is spider bites, ouch. she has like 14 of them. any way to make them go away faster??? she sure doesn't like them.

anyways, this is hwo the kids greeted me at the airport...

yes, I was greeted by superman!

how cute!!!!

well, off to make snowmen...not!

Back from Heaven...

I truly have never been to a place as gorgeous, with amazing food and people that were the best ever ever in my life. There is no scrapbooking event that compares to this last weekend! I was invited to share this 4 day weekend with a few of the Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine Team members and their family. We headed in convoys to deep in the mountains near Fernie. A guest ranch that is situated in the heart of heaven. seriously. We lodged in cabins like this... (I stole some pics from Cathie Allan, because I had so many camera problems this week, of course I decided against taking my SLR, big mistake! Connie is going to send me some too!I'll post when I receive them) My roomies were Cathie & Connie. Each Cabin had rooms, kitchens, living areas with fireplaces and bunk beds. perfect for families.

All over the property are different sizes of cabins, some close together, some far apart for privacy. some dorm style to fit a lot of people, others for honeymooners. They have 2 hot tubs and saunas too!

This was ours.

and the inside looked like this:

we ate food like this for EVERY meal! The meals were made by an amazing chef. EVERY meal & EVERY snack. I ate things I thought for sure I hated, which I apparently do not. Everything was made by hand. All I have to say is OMG! Of course I asked to be added to her recipe mailing list. She takes the healthiest of foods and makes them look naughty so you think you are indulging while you still are a little conscious, and then on the other hand, you do get to eat some really mind blowing stuff. 

and where we ate our meals... lot's of windows to look at wildlife and mountains. very rustic.

this is what it looked like where we scrapbooked, huge area with an on site store. lot's of room, although when we packed everything AND the kitchen sink,(or in Cathie's case, the iron, LOL!) it does make it a little difficult.

My crazy table mates the whole time. How can we not have fun???

this i what the surroundings looked like... just before you pull into the ranch, there is a major waterfall. we stopped and enjoyed it for a long time and took crazy amount of pics, of the scenery of each other. it brought tears to my eyes cause you could feel the all Power of nature in this spot. so gorgeous.

this is what the lodge that we scrapped & ate in looked like. 

This is a view from the patio. (actually MY view while I scrapbooked. Lucky me!)

This was between where we scrapbooked and ate. So we would sit here to laugh, get to know each other, maybe even read. fabulous!!!!relaxing.

then to meet new friends and have fun with old ones! This is Katharina and her mom Doris. I had a blast this weekend listening to them speak German to each other, I left with a handful of things to say! Of course I learned to swear in German, you know you were wondering.LOL! Actually, since Jim is the biggest fan of German, they kept texting him things and he would reply funny things. It was a riot!

Connie

just doing a little glimmer misting...

 

sometimes, we would play practical jokes on each other. today we found our chairs outside on the patio. Now I have to admit, what goes around comes around, and I did start this hiding of the chairs, so it was only fitting that mine was stolen too! Never ending practical jokes. so funny that we could never stop laughing.

here is where Cathie's was put...

Katharina rescuing it! LOL! 

All over the ranch is really neat animals and birds, the deer walked through ALL the time. wow!

the they had lot's of "mini" farm animals. the kids would have loved it!!!!

So did I get scrapbooking done? Of COURSE ABSOLUTELY! 27 pages. I am really happy with myself. However, once I handed them to Jackie for the magazine and books, I still have a wack due, but somehow, things started to slip. I think it was when Jackie, her mom & sister left. Then I was left in the hands of crazy women who wanted to do nothing but have FUN! oops! We missed those girls soooo much when they left. Next time I think we should hide their vehicle! LOL!

I can't show you any scrapbook pics as they all were assignments, but I will show you a sneakie peakie.

so in general, this weekend consisted  of laughs, hugs, tears and more laughs. bonding and craziness, true lifelong relationships developing into more. we helped each other, we strengthened our team, we were real. we scrapbooked, and had socials (ok, maybe a jello shooter or two) we all hottubbed even though none of us had swim suits (now that is a wild story, we marinated as my husband would put it) we walked on adventures around this fabulous God's country. I want this weekend every year of my life. I want it because there were no worries, no responsibilities that we all have at home. It was nice to be pampered. (they have massage therapists and reflexologists on site!) it was heaven... all in Canada. 

And i know you guys are wondering about the bears, we didn't see any. But in response to my sexy husband's advice:

* I slept closest to the door, cause I loved my roomies and figured that there is plenty of me to go around and they might have a chance at escape, should a bear have entered! LOL!

* I didn't shake tic tacs or marbles in a can, cause let's face it. We would scare away any animal with how much we laughed, giggled on the walk back to our cabins and heck is any scrapbooker quiet????

* I did marinate in the tub, but again refer to the last note. We were LOUD with the giggles. 

* as for climbing trees, well the only thing we climbed were the fences to sit on for pics, or the bunk bed ladders.

*marking your territory? well, didn't happen.No need to elaborate why.

You know, when you get a chance to have a weekend like this, you realize why it is so important to have strong female relationships. You do need each other in times of troubles and in times of happiness to share with. One of my favourite moments was when we went to our cabin to create our drinks and we sat around on the grass in the heat enjoying everything we were in the midst of. to reflect on how great life was.

Another neat thing was Jackie had brought her mom and super cool sister, and Katharina had brought her mom. To see how these amazing women loved their family was absolutely a treasure. It's neat to realize why they put their heart and soul into their magazine, it is an extension of something built with love. Both their entire families play huge parts in its success.  So when thinking about this, let's look to our own lives and remember how important our families are, they help create our success in our lives. I know the whole time I was there I wished my mom was beside me scrapbooking, but mom isn't quite obsessed like me! LOL! She would be outside fishing or doing something with the animals.

However, this kind of weekend is one I'd love to do once with my crazy Saskatoon scrapbook girls as well...

well, off I go to finish supper, when I get more pics, I will share, and I have some funny ones also for tomorrow. see you later!