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.