The good and the bad kinda day…

Ya’ll remember how I renewed my expired (for over a year) drivers license yesterday???

Well today I got pulled over for speeding in a school zone in one of those fancy ‘meet the quota’ check stops.  The good part??  I was also not wearing my seatbelt!!  Why is that good you ask??  Because the cop gave me an ‘option’ of which ticket to pay… of course the seat belt ticket is 100$ less than the speeding ticket.  If I had been wearing my seatbelt He would have been forced to give me the speeding ticket!!  The best part of it all??  I renewed my license yesterday which prevented me from being fined an exorbitant amount and having my car towed while I got a taxi ride home from a friendly police officer. 

Sometimes the world works in mysterious ways no??

Oh well… off to enjoy the rest of this sunny day.

Getting the most from Technorati

I have been fooling around in Technorati today and decided to log in and ‘claim my blog’… this blog posting is all part of the process… Go and check it out for yourself!

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Sliding into home

It’s been nearly a week since Ken left for Calgary.  The simple fact that he’s not going to be back for several weeks has me a little depressed, I must admit.  The kids have been great, we’ve been having a lot of special time together in the evenings to distract them from the fact that Daddy’s not here.  Or maybe to distract me…

Poor Ken started his first day of work to a freak blizzard in Calgary, it was -49 Degrees with windchill!!  That is insanity even for seasoned Albertans!! Of course his truck didn’t start and Collin (Jessica’s Boyfriend) was nice enough to drive Ken the HOUR long trip to the plant.  What a champ he is!!  Hopefully he’s got a block heater installed now and a chinook will be over the horizon. 

We’ve had a little dump of snow here too, it started melting yesterday afternoon, just enough to create a nice sheet of ice on everything.  Of course as I stepped out of my truck at the school this morning I fell flat on my back.  It happened so fast I didn’t even have time to try and save myself!  It probably looked a lot worse (and hilarious) than it really was… I slid into the landing, very gentle, and graceful… you know, like a whale.

After I dropped the kids off at their respective schools I headed over to the DMV so I could renew my Drivers license which expired in December 2006!!  How did that one slip by me I’ll never know.  Of course I was completely paranoid that I would get pulled over or have some kind of accident this morning on my way to the DMV.  But I’m a good driver so it’s all good.  75$ later and I’m LEGAL now.

Nolan has rounded third plate and now he’s sliding into home, I’m referring to the potty training.  absolutely no accidents for 3 days and counting!!  He’s been great with letting whomever know that he has to go!  He spent the afternoon with Grandpa yesterday and had a lot of fun and even alerted grandpa when he had to go… PERFECT!  I’m sooooo glad to be done with diapers.  We are still in pull- ups at night but that is completely okay by me.  What a blessing!

Yesterday Paige went to a local salon for Children called Beaners.  She was beside herself with excitement over this- my child has a one track mind and will not rest until she gets what she wants.  Just like her Daddy.  We originally were invited to go with girls from the ‘hood’ but when the date got pushed back a couple weeks Paige freaked!  She nearly hyperventilated when she tried to do the math on the amount of ’sleeps’ she would need to do until that date arrived.  It was getting rediculous so I just took her myself yesterday afternoon.  She was need of a trim anyway.  She got her hair washed and blown out, curls put in, braids with beads and sparkles!  I took many photos which I am currently trying to upload to flickr… but you can see her all ‘beanered’ up in the photo above.  After the hair cut we stopped at ‘Urban Barn’ so I could look around and I had her pose on some of the lovely furniture in there… wow, great setting for photography!!

Anyway, I’m going to try and upload more photos before I have to go pick up the children at school!

Take it easy peeps,

~jen

The problem with big sisters.

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Dressed in their costumes for the play., originally uploaded by island artist.

While I was cleaning underneath my living room couch I was interrupted by my children in these ‘get-ups’. Apparently while i was cleaning they were upstairs writing, rehearsing and practicing their own play! Because Paige was the director and producer, Nolan ended up dressed in the fancy gown and heels. Lucky boy. I took a break from my cleaning and watched them do a rough (very rough) run through of the script. It was hilarious and it started to drag on near the end (or where I ended it, an actual ‘ending’ was no where in sight). Seeing my kids play together happily makes me so proud and to see them being not only happy but very creative together makes me want to burst!
On the potty training front- we’ve had a break through! after a particularly messy incident at grandpa’s house, Grandpa and Nolan had a little talk. Whatever they talked about must have triggered something because we came home that afternoon and he did a #2 on the pot all by himself (he didn’t even tell me he had to go!). I also realized that he is a lot more successful when he’s naked on the bottom half so I’ve been leaving him like that for most of the time. Eventually he will learn what the ‘feelings’ mean and we can put some pants on the child. We’ve been taking him out with underpants on and he’s been doing awesome. I think he actually gets a little frustrated with us when we persistently ask him if he has to go and he doesn’t . Poor kid. Even though I’m hesitant to say it, I think we are in the home stretch now. I would like to send my thanks to the Kinder company for making those kinder surprise eggs which have been a very successful potty incentive for Nolan.
We are two days and counting before Ken leaves for Calgary. It’s going to be tough on him being away from us for that long. The thought i keep thinking is: It will only be temporary. And he’ll be driving home on his longer breaks from work which will be nice. Many thank yous to my sister for putting Ken up for the months until we all come out and find a place to live. You don’t know how much it means to us to have you help us- this move would not be possible with out your generous support. Seriously Jess, thank you from all of us. Some day we will be able to repay you and by golly it’s going to be gooooood. Maybe you can come out and help us pack… LOL Just kidding!!!
Well I should be off- I’ve been doing a lot of cleaning lately- toilets, walls, floors, under sofas… but the rooms don’t seem to reflect any of the sweat i’ve been putting out. I don’t get it.

Oh well,
~jen

One sock, two sock & Pee for prizes

This weekend Ken and I took the kids out to fill deficiencies in their wardrobes. Mainly pants that come down to Nolan’s ankles and socks that suit Paige’s wild fashion sense. Value Village was our first stop. I love getting Pants for Nolan there- you can find brand new barely worn (sometimes with tags still on it!) clothing- perfect for Nolan to crawl around in and destroy. When Paige was younger her two older cousins provided more than her share of hand-me-downs. Nolan has no such luck- we don’t even know any other boys his age, well, at least not close enough for any hand-me-downs. So VV is great. Have I mentioned how cool it is to get an arm load worth of clothes for 12 dollars??? Plus it’s recycling and it feels good. Don’t get me wrong, I still like to buy the odd new thing for Nolan but he is so tough on his clothes that i reserve the new stuff for special occasions- like perhaps his birthday (that is coming up soon- mental note).
As for Miss Paige, she’s always had an aversion to socks. We compromised, at some point in her childhood, on ankle socks. She would wear them when she had to (Jumpin’ jimminies, McDonalds Playplace, etc.) but most of the time she goes sockless. That is, until our trip to Wal-mart to buy socks. She spied herself a package of ‘High School Musical’ themed socks and was immediately smitten. They were a little more expensive than the other socks (big shocker) but I figured- the chance of her wearing them would be worth it. Well, if she could wear all 6 pairs at the same time, I’m sure she would. She’s loving them a lot. While we were at wallymart Paige was surprised to see a HSM backpack (overly excited actually) and she told me she had her eye out for a HSM shirt like the ones her cousins got for Christmas… believe it or not there were none to be found. We (mostly me) are keeping our eyes out for one- perhaps to surprise her on her birthday (or easter).

Over the weekend we did some hard core potty training because we (and by ‘we’ I mean ME) are OH SO ready. I want to have Nolan out of diapers by his third birthday so i figured I needed to get cracking on it. We may still be doing pull ups at night but I can totally deal with that. Yesterday we had one accident. Afterward I decided to leave him in the buff. This was very successful and he even went to the bathroom completely on his own! Afterward he came up to tell me, I congratulated him with hugs, high fives and kisses. Then he tells me, “I want Prizes.”, uuuumm okay. This had been discussed prior and he knows he needs to keep his pants dry all day and poo on the potty as well… so it was a nice try but no cigar. He didn’t do a number 2 all day yesterday so I hope he isn’t holding it because he’s afraid of the pot. That kid is pretty darn regular… maybe he’ll make up for lost time today, which I don’t mind as long as it’s not in his pants. I’m sure you’ll be hearing about this work in progress as the the week goes on.

Well it’s time to go pick up the elder child from Kindergarten,
Will catch up again soon,
~jen

putting my heart into it

Okay, it’s been awhile but I’ve decided it’s worth my extra time to actually get back to making home cooked meals instead of opening a can a zoodles for the kids and making myself a can of soup.
some reason I get bored of cooking and just stop doing it. I guess I still make food but it’s just not good. At Christmas time I tried really hard to make tasty things for my guests to eat, we had roast, with veggies, mashed potatos and gravy. Another night we had stuffed turkey breasts with the trimmings- it was all yummy! Since then I’ve been putting a little more thought into dinner times (we still do zoodles for lunch). I’ve made a really good Shepherds’ pie, lazy man cabbage rolls, and tonight I made a slow cooker stew that turned into an oven stew before dinner time. The inspiration behind a couple of those dishes were these sauce packages. What a difference they make in the taste of my cooking! Now, I’m not saying that my cooking is usually bland and tasteless because it’s not but my cooking always tastes the same- these sauce mixes help my food taste new and exciting again! I think I’m impressing myself the most, but that’s okay too. Paige ate three servings of the shepherds pie, and that is unheard of!
So, on my next shopping trip I plan to raid the ‘Club House’ sauces and seasonings sections and I’ll keep you all updated on my creations. It’s been awhile since I did a picture by picture recipe walk through… I plan to do one soon. I’m just hoping my ass doesn’t respond in a bad way to all my great tasting cooking… don’t answer that!!

On a non food related note- I want to give a shout out to Suz (the neighbor we all know and love) for writing such a touching blog post about our friendship. Rest assured hers is coming… just not for a little while.

I should be off, I need to get some kids to bed and finish up a grocery list for tomorrow…
Hugs to all,
~jen

Once a monthly

I just realized I haven’t sat down and done one of my bi-monthly updates since christmas time! The holidays brought so many new additions to our family that I should share them all along with tidbits about the kids (what would one of my blogs be without kid-tid-bits???)
was wonderful, the kids were visited by the one and only SANTA! Paige was absolutely high with excitement and Nolan was nothing but a vibration when he saw Santa come in the door. It was fabulous. Unfortunately, it got Paige so wired up that she was up until three in the morning complaining about being sick to her stomach and unable to sleep… next year I’m going to provide a dose of benadryl to aid in the sleeping.
You can check out a few of the gifts that were given in photos here
I have quite a few more but they were from a different camera that I haven’t had a chance to sort through yet… soon they’ll be added. The main gifts were a new, real, electric guitar for Paige, and Nolan got a pedal go cart from his grandparents!! My sister and her boyfriend Collin were also out for the holiday and it was really nice and comfy with them here. We ate some good dinners and a lot of snacks and watched movies and generally just hung out. Just what I needed.
Ken got a new guitar from me (that he picked out) it’s an Epiphone Les Paul Special- don’t ask me if I even have that all correct but I’ll be posting new photos of that in flickr shortly. I got a few big dollars towards my new camera lens, and if anyone wants to contribute please feel free (tee hee) and I did a family photo shoot for my neighbor/friend Tracy one boxing day, the proceeds of which will also go toward the new lens… just a little more to go and it’s mine.
For New years eve the hubby and I sat by the TV watching movies with a few wobbly pops which was nice. For New Years day we decided to head out to Mt. Washington to go tubing with the rest of the in laws and cousins who were out visiting. Even though I didn’t feel like hurling myself down the hill, I did bring my camera and took photos which was more my cup of tea and the time (5.5 hours!) flew by for me. A blizzard came in and we just made it to the truck before I collapsed in a heap in the very large parking lot. But it was a memorable day and I enjoyed it a lot. Check out the photos through the link above.

We decided a few weeks ago that Ken would need a new vehicle to take to alberta with him because we didn’t want to risk something happening to the van and leaving him stranded somewhere far from home or help. We purchased another Santa Fe for him (in a fashionable shade of teal) and I think we got a pretty good deal on it because it was so close to christmas. Then we sold the toyota van and with the proceeds, Ken was supposed to purchase himself a laptop to do his school work on while away at work. Instead, He came home with an iMac. At first I was in shock but after sitting down and getting acquainted with it, I don’t think I’ll ever buy another PC again. This machine is amazing. Really. I don’t want to get too attached because Ken will be taking it with him in a couple weeks and I’m going to go into withdrawals.

I have started to adjust to the idea of moving. It doesn’t make me sad all the time now, only when i tell someone about it and they react very surprised and sad- then I get sad. and cry. I’m excited to get out there and see my new town and find a new home- my friends will all be a phone call away and I’m sure this blog will be up in full force again, like it was in the old days. Well enough of that talk…

The kids have been doing great, Paige has moved on from ‘Hairspray’ to ‘High School Musical’s 1 and 2! Aunty Jessie got her the first one for christmas and she’s fully addicted to it and proclaimed that it was her new favorite movie. I downloaded a bunch of the soundtracks on my computer and I’ve been going to sleep with the songs in my head and waking up with them still playing. Lord, help me.

Nolan is sort of potty training now when he feels like it. He always tells me he’ll poo on the potty tomorrow. He tells me this always, after he has filled his drawers. Nice. Oh well it’s a work in progress… still. He has been really enjoying his three mornings a week in preschool. His vocabulary has come leaps and bounds and everything for a while there was ‘Humungous’ and he’s really taken to singing and dancing to music (much like his sister so they get along good). After school I will ask him who he played with and he’ll say “I danced instead.”
So darn cute.

Well it’s late and I must go- blog at ya later gater!
~jen