It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas...

My beautiful tree...is ready for gifts!

The tree all lit up and almost all of the gifts are wrapped and ready to go!

Ike and I made some cookies I call Pon...The first time I ever tasted one of these I was at my mother-in-laws and I fell in love with them. After much begging and asking around I finally found someone who would give me the recipe...of course it came written in german...so Ike got his cleaning lady at work to translate it. They turned out great except for the fact that I listened to my husband and cut them out a bit big, did I also mention that they rise yet as it's basically a sweet bun with special icing?!...my next batch will definitely be made with a smaller cut. They are officially my new favorite fattening cookie!

I miss my Baby

Yesterday I sat with my baby for a couple of hours before getting her ready for the vet. I was glad to have the extra week with her...To spoil her, snuggle with her, and hear her purr one last time... We were half way to the vet to have her put down when she died...the transport was too much for her and caused her to suffocate to death...It was horrible cause that's not what I wanted for her. I made Ike pull over to see if she had indeed passed. He just hugged me and then continued to the vet so that they could cremate her. He let me choose a nice urn and made the arrangements. So very sad this morning to wake up without her following me around the house.

My Baby

Some of you may understand this entry in my blog and some of you may shake your heads and say it's just a cat. Either way, Esther has been my cat for almost eight years...I got her when she was about six weeks old and she has become my baby! I don't spoil her much...she rarely gets wet cat food and never any table scraps except for the occasional sip of coffee (her favorite of course is Timmy's). Last week tuesday was the first time I've ever taken an animal to the vet...having grown up on the farm I don't believe in spending thousands on fixing up a pet...but my baby was in obvious distress as her breathing had become difficult for her and I didn't want her to suffer. They did an x-ray to see what was wrong and it showed that she had so much fluid around her heart and lungs that you couldn't even see them on the x-ray. The vet dr. then drained half a cup of fluid from around her lungs and took another x-ray to see what was causing the fluid to build up. She discovered a mass in her chest to be the culprit. There's nothing we can do for her as surgery to remove it is of course thousands of dollars and I can't justify that. So they gave her a shot of steroids to POSSIBLY shrink the mass and we brought her home and spoiled her all week knowing that she is dying. Today it is obvious that the fluid has returned as she has stopped eating and can't seem to get comfortable as breathing is laboured. I had to get my husband to call the vet to make the appointment as I can't bear to think about putting her down...Tomorrow I will say goodbye to her for forever.

Ike's 30th

It was Ike's 30th birthday on friday and so we celebrated in style! After work we raced to the city so we could enjoy a leisurely walk at Boo at the Zoo. We had never been before and I thought it would be a good family outting. :) It was a really nice evening....we wandered around the zoo and laughed at the screaming teenagers...made our way through a mini haunted "house" carrying out other peoples kids with us (they were too afraid to go through by themselves), and stopped every once in a while for couple of candid shots! After the zoo we made our way to Bangkok Thai where we warmed ourselves with some tea and a wonderful dinner followed by a fried banana dessert with coconut ice cream! Such a great evening!

A month in review...

Wow...I'm sorry guys...I haven't updated my blog in a month...yipes. We have been busy though...I have excuses lol....

This last month we had Dave and Char's wedding...Mucho fun! I don't have any pics though due to the fact that both Ike and I were a part of the wedding party....although I do have some of us girls getting ready...

Then we celebrated mine and my mother's birthdays at Pastry Castle....Very GOOD freshly made desserts!!!! In fact we ordered one piece of each of the 8 or 9 cakes that he had in the display case...lol....and they were ALL good!

Then we celebrated Canadian thanksgiving with a small family dinner and some gametime! (jr. trivial pursuit...we were actually able to answer the questions...lol).

And Then (can you hear that chinese lady from "Dude Where's My Car?" And then, and then, and then...lol) Ike and I celebrated our anniversary this last weekend. He took me to a beautiful bed and breakfast in Winnipeg (sorry I forgot my camera)...it was in one of those massive houses along the river just east of the Maryland Bridge. Beautiful character home complete with creaky hardwood and expensive crown moulding everywhere! We had dinner at Fude on Osborne (Delish), followed by a cheap theatre movie (All About Steve...hilarious), then we played some pool and pinball machine back at the bed and breakfast. The next morning the owner made us fresh fruit cups, banana pancakes, and sausages. Very nice and relaxing! The next day we went shopping and I am nearly done my Christmas shopping (gasp...yep I said it....and I'm almost done!).

Yesterday baby Charlie was born....8lbs 11oz and 19" long (with chubby cheeks according to my mom)....We haven't had a chance to go visit yet.

In between all of this we had to have our windshield replaced due to a boulder being thrown from a semi's tail wind....The thud was sooo loud we both jumped and thought it would come right through the window....The claim was FAST and easy though and the repair shop had it replaced within a couple of days...Good thing cause with the temperature changing those cracks get bigger pretty quickly. What great service....came and picked up and dropped off the van for us too!

Ooooh...I also recently discovered that we have a famous cousin! So I was watching CTV a few nights ago and a commercial came on for St. Boniface Hospital. I noticed a scene where there was a baby in one of those incubator things....and as they panned out you could see a nurse sitting there with her hands in the incubator....Erin?! Sure enough, Lynda confirmed what I saw...Erin is in a commercial for the hospital...crazy eh.

WARNING--GRAPHIC PICTURES NOT INTENDED FOR CHILDREN...OR PRUDES

On Saturday I (with Laura's help) threw a bachelorette party for Charlene...It was nothing extravagant, as a pregnant woman wouldn't really enjoy bar hopping or ugly male strippers, but I made sure that it was fun! Much like my own party none of Char's friends showed up...and for some reason some of the girls from the bridal party didn't show up either. Ah well it ended up being Laura & I, Char's mom and her sister Tanis, oh and her niece Chantel (who was thoroughly embarrassed by talk of penises and making whoopie). We made pizzas and nachos for supper...and I had a special dessert for the girls (pictured below are the cookies). I also planned some hilarious games which worked out all right despite the lack of guests. One of the games involved drawing a piece of paper from the scenario pile and reading it aloud (ex: When Dave & Char made whoopie in the coat closet at a party...Char's comment was...), then they draw a piece of paper from the slogan pile and read it aloud (ex: Nothin' says lovin' like somethin' from the oven), then their team must guess where the slogan is from (Pillsbury)....Makes some famous slogans really dirty! We all had a good laugh! After the games we got comfy on the couches and watched "Bride Wars"(I love that movie). Of course while we were doing all of this the Boys were out for Dave's party...The original plan was for them to go paintballing but the old men (Dad, Char's Dad, and Uncle Brian) figured that they couldn't handle that...so they went go-karting instead...Afterwards they headed to where else but Hooters! Dave came home with a pair of boobs and a shirt signed by the Hooters Girls (how special is that!?LOL). They were home by 10pm and the drunken men scarffed down the rest of the snacks and harrassed us until we all gave in to our sleepiness.

Newly Acquired Stuff

So it seems that I've been on a shopping spree lately...Here are some of my goods...

We bought these last month and I love love love my front load...It's kind of ridiculous how excited I was to do laundry for the first time...we sat in front of the dumb thing for an hour watching the laundry go round and round and round. At least for now I somewhat enjoy doing laundry and I no longer need to run up and down the stairs to re-start the cycle on the machine because it stalled.

This beauty I ordered on e-bay or should I say I won the bid! It's an "antique" Italian cappuccino machine! Mine went capootskies...spews hot water out of places that shouldn't have water coming out of. So I searched everywhere for months, to find an affordable replacement...I finally checked out e-bay and found this marvelous machine which is still in great working order. It works like an old fashioned coffee perk but also has the milk steamer...and is made of chrome! I was soooo happy to receive it that I promptly made myself a cup of cappuccino...mmmm, mmmm...oh and it cost me waaaaaay less than any other machine out there. :)

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail asking me to do a survey (from a recent hotel stay)...they promised me a $15 amazon gift card...so I did the survey...I do love free stuff...I was however a little leary about the gift card as most of the time it ends up being a "ok thanks for doing the survey, now subscribe to one of our sponsors for your free gift" gimick. A couple hours later I received the code for my gift card...it worked with no gimick....but really what can you buy for $15 on Amazon when shipping is a minimum $12....A week later they sent me another survey promising another $10 gift card...sweeeet....so with my $25 I purchased "The best of Sherah"...don't laugh...I LOVED that cartoon when I was little....She was my hero... :)....I am still however awaiting it's arrival.

Garden

My tomatoes are MASSIVE! LOL....I've picked many and there are still a ton on the plants waiting for ripening. My hot pepper plants are also doing marvelous...we like to roast the Anaheim peppers (large meaty medium heat) and put them on our burgers. I think that my onions got in a bit late as they are still quite small but I needed some of them for my salsa which worked just fine! Green peppers (Jacks' favorite ;) are also a bit slow but showing great potential...also used a few of the smaller ones for my salsa.

INFATUATION: Canning...Once a year or once every other year I get the urge to can everything! This last weekend I made delicious salsa using fresh ingredients from my very own garden....Seeing as I had soooo many tomatoes I also decided to make spaghetti sauce.

Char's Shower

On saturday we had a great bridal shower for Char. The turnout was good and she got a lot of cool stuff! Auntie Barb had a game for Char to play and somehow I ended up with 4 pieces of bubble gum in my mouth...lol (Char had 14 in hers--don't really know how she fit them all in there). All in all it was a nice relaxing evening!

Even Laura enjoyed herself :)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Wowee folks, do I have a good one for you!!! Try to follow along, sorry if it gets complicate with the so and so's friend stuff but this is a hilarious story I heard today!
Sometime last week (when I wasn't at work), two ladies came in for lunch. One is a regular and a friend of Cindy's sister (Cindy is my boss/friend) her name is Jackie, and the other lady was Jackie's friend from Plum Coulee. These ladies were having a disagreement of some sort and asked Cindy if she could help them end it. Apparently the disagreement was....that Jackie's friend was convinced that Ike and I owned the restaurant....and a second house in Plum Coulee....and that we're filthy rich...and that Kerry and Cindy work for US. LMAO....Her neighbour in Plum Coulee told her this juicy bit of gossip and claimed that we told her this to her face. Oh my lanta!
First of all, NO I never want to own a restaurant and have stated this to several people several times....Second of all, I don't know anyone in Plum Coulee why would I talk to any of them.....Yes we are fixing up my in-laws rental property so they can put it up for sale but it is not my house....And NO we are by far not rich...comfortable yes...but not rich....LOL Aren't you just so jealous that you don't live in a small community!?!

Dress

I brought home my dress for the wedding a couple of weeks ago and just recently took pictures for you to see....I was able to choose a different dress than the other girls because I'm the maid of honor and I had to order in June and didn't know if I'd be pregnant or not. So I chose this gorgeous dress! Now I need help choosing shoes....Which ones do you think? (if any).

Honey

One day Claudia decided to dress Honey up in some of her build-a-bear clothes....lol....we laughed and the dog cringed.

Revenge of the toy... No matter how well stitched or how solid the ball is, Honey always finds a way to destroy it....This one used to have arms and legs and two eyeballs.

Salsa Garden

My Salsa Garden is flourishing! I'm so excited to try some fresh veggies....The lettuce is amazing--we've already had a few salads from it!

Basil

Leaf Lettuce

Hot Peppers

Tomatoes

Mini Garden also includes green peppers and onions. :)

Mwahahahaha

Charlie?Here's a sign I see all the time just outside of Altona....It used to be better...at one point they had "Rabbits for sale" on one side and "Rabbit Meat for sale" on the other side.

Another :(

Sad sad day....no baby for me....thanks for praying you guys!

Bubbliness

Today was my final insemination...Feeling good about it. :) After the procedure we did a bit of shopping (Polo Park is only a block away) and had lunch in the food court...To my delight I discovered that the Famous Wok sells REAL Bubble Tea! They had delicious green tea flavours and of course the frozen ones (frozen ones are no good)....I was so excited I had to take a picture and share it with you! Ahhhh....The taste of Singapore.

Dressing Children

Ok here's another one....A friend of mine recently told me that one morning her son came upstairs wearing plaid shorts and a striped t-shirt. His clothes matched in color but according to her, plaid and stripes don't mix (which is true under most circumstances)...so she made him go and change. He walked away crying because that's what he really wanted to wear to school and he didn't care what the other kids would think. So, the question is....Do you tell your kids when they have horrible taste in coordinating their clothes OR do you allow them to be creative and learn on their own?



Personally, I allow Claudia to dress as she pleases....unless it's inappropriate or we're going out somewhere nice and I have something specific in mind. Once in a while if it's outrageous I'll laugh and say "What are youuuu wearing?" but I think there are more important things to teach your child at this age.

Observations at the restaurant

Working at the restaurant I get to know who's who and all the gossip associated with them. I hate gossip by the way.....Anyhow....here's a discussion starter....
Would you a married woman have lunch alone with a HOT single guy? Would you share a meal or dessert with him yet?
Weird eh?! Don't think they're having an affair but her husband is away alot (he's a truck driver). She's a hairdresser with LOTS of girlfriends but this is not the first time they've had lunch together like this....what do you think?

Pembina Valley

We had decided that we would go hiking in the Pembina Valley on saturday. Saturday morning we got up early, picked up my nephew Mark, had a big breakfast at Smitty's, and then off to the Pembina Valley Provincial Park. Ike had printed out a map for us of the different marked trails they have and we had pre-determined to take the Pocupine Ridges trail (2.6Km) north and then back down the same distance...but I decided that it was still early so we continued north on the Hawks Hills trail (0.5km) until we came across the Pembina Rim trail (not sure the distance we only took part of it but it is 6.5km in total...it does the perimeter of the park so I'll guess 1km). We stopped at the Pembina River where there was a gorgeous view of the valley and the river. Here we ate lunch (I had packed sandwiches, carrots, celery, trail mix, and cheese and crackers, oh and lots of water!) and rested! However, before we began eating we had to pick all of the gross wood ticks off of ourselves so we wouldn't feel so creepy crawly...There were tons of them...we periodically would stop to pick them off during the hike and probably had about 20 each . After lunch we headed south to Boulder Creek trail (supposed to be 0.4km) where we went a little off trail...oops. Apparently the marker was pointing us up hill to the trail that followed the creek....not down in the creek. I didn't mind though...hopping from boulder to boulder, over and under fallen trees, slipping and sinking on the shale (very soft rock), we eventually made it to a marker for the Pembina Rim Trail that led us back to the start. It was a really good day for a hike, not too hot and sunny blue skies, although in some parts of the thick bush it got quite hot and humid. I also forgot my camera but Ike did manage to snap these two pictures with his phone....I have discovered that after three hours of hiking my bum really hurts but we survived and I'll have a tight ass to prove it!

Pergola

After 3 years of dreaming about it, I finally convinced Ike to build me a Pergola! We (I) decided that sunday would be a great day for construction. Of course, my parents had decided that, that would be a good day to come for a visit too. My poor dad....every time they come to visit we end up putting him to work! Sure didn't take them long though and it was a beautiful day!

:(

Big Fat NO....Very sad...but I do have one more left...so pray extra hard!

:)

If that doesn't make you happy then what does!?...Just went in for round two today...cross your fingers!

Sad

I think I'm getting my period... :( Maybe we'll have better luck next time around...which will be soon. Still kinda sad....I was really hoping that it could just happen already.

Baby Making Day

I LOVE my nurse! Just like the hospitals, nurses do all the work and mine is amazing! I don't think that anyone else could make me feel more comfortable while my feet are in the stirrups. She is cute...chatty but not overly and always cheerful. Now we wait and hope that I miss my period...the injection went well...I have some spotting but that's normal (after all they are sticking a mini plastic straw thingy up there)....ahhhh now to stop thinking about it and relax...ha ha ha.

Smiling

Ah, so talking about my testing this morning...I got a smiley face...who knew a digital smiley face that I had just pee'd on could make me soooo happy! Tomorrow at 11am I will be making a baby! So excited!!! My friends at work are great too...they are equally excited and totally talking about feeding me till I'm obese when I get pregnant. lol...great more to work off after...

Tests

Started ovulation tests on Sunday! So far no smiley face but there will be one soon! I have to somehow pee on these things with my second pee of the morning (guess I'll drink lots of coffee so I'll have the urge by 10am--kind of an oxymoron considering that it's a diuretic) which ends up being at work....ohhh the stress. I also had a bit of a scare this weekend...Had some strange pains near my belly button...Thought it might be a hernia which would have seriously sucked but the doctor said it's probably nothing but he'll do some blood work to be sure it's not my pancreas or an infection but he doubts it's anything other than stress. I didn't even know I was that stressed...lol. Anyhow I am so relieved that it's nothing major and onward with baby making!

Spa Shower!

I finally have a shower and it is AMAZING!!! I chose a light blue...kind of a spa-like colour for the walls and we had bought a curved shower rod for a more spacious shower....and boy is it ever the best purchase so far! It makes the whole bathroom feel bigger...how strange. Ooooohhhh, my first shower in months was this morning and it was glorious! (oh I bathed!) We now just have the flooring to do (which we are going to look at tile this weekend) and then we can install the sink and some trim.

Shower with new tub surround and fancy double shower heads!

Beautiful new shower

curtain that coordinates perfectly with my sea theme!

Awesome glass starfish that I bought on sale at HomeSense. :)

Fishies from Cuba!

(they have fins but they're very loose and I don't want to lose them down the vent so I'm waiting for Ike to bring home some super glue)