This and That

It's been a fun, busy week of fun. Just keeping busy doing this and that and enjoying spending time with special people.

Saturday and then again today, Sharon and I took to the malls and stores and made great headway on our Christmas shopping. We've enjoyed taking a couple of days to Christmas shop together for as many years as I can remember and they're always days filled with much laughter, smiles and many trips to the car to drop off gifts to share with family and friends at Christmas. Thanks for another great day friend! The time we share together is always treasured. Next year there will be 3 of us! :o) Next year we'll be the ones with the highchair at our table and people will be enjoying Hannah's antics just as we smiled at the adorable little boy who sat near us today. *sigh!* More fun times ahead! Looking forward to sharing them with you!

Saturday evening Rebecca, Brook and I went to see 'Madagascar 2'. Cute movie made all the better by spending time with the girls.

Shared a wonderful evening with K1 last night. Love ya friend! It was so good to spend time together.

Home renos are still going well but I have to be honest and will be very glad when they're behind me. It's great to have the work done but oh my....the dust! Ugh! Won't be sorry to see that portion of the renos gone. Once they're all done I'll post some pics.

Not an overyly exciting post but with work being extra busy for the next few weeks, spare time is minimal. Happy to take the time I have away from the office and share that time with family and friends. Dust? Yah, it's still there but it will still be there tomorrow so I choose to spend my time with loved ones. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it. The truth? Just plain tired of dusting over and over so pretending I don't see it. :o)

Buh-Bye Tel*market*rs!

As of today, Canadians have the opportunity to sign up for the 'National Do Not Call List.' Yay! Hopefully this will decrease and possibly even stop all those bothersome calls. Information is available here. I had 4 of these yesterday so I'm looking forward to them decreasing. Lately they seem to call more often and even later into the evening. No more....yay!

Registration takes just minutes and can be done by calling

1-866-580-3625

from the phone number you wish to have added to the list.

What's Your Favourite Sandwich?

This past Monday (can you tell I had a whole day at home?) I decided to whip up my favourite sandwich for lunch. Mmmm! Green apple and cheddar cheese with mayo and sprouts on toasted sour dough bread. Yum yum!

While making this, aside from being crazy enough to take pictures, it got me to thinking. What is your favourite sandwich? Sometimes it's fun to learn what other people find appetizing and give it a try. Others, not so much.

I wonder if I suddenly start craving pickles with ice cream next year if it will mean Hannah's referral is on the way? For that I'd eat pickles and ice cream! Oh, let's be honest! As long as they don't have to be in my mouth at the same time I'd eat em now! About the only food I really can't handle is egg plant. Weird, eh? I think it's a texture thing.

On a completely different note, one of the other projects I accomplished on Monday was to hang this pretty sign above the doorway to Hannah's room. I've yet to begin cleaning it out and haven't decided how to decorate it (other than a few accessories already purchased) because I just don't think I could handle walking by it every single day knowing she's still so far away.

So for now, it's full of her stuff and my stuff and really not acceptable for anyone to view. Someday when I'm brave I'll share a 'before' pic of her room but for now I'll keep collecting stuff and playing with decorating colours and ideas in my head.

Wow...this post sure went all over the place! Thanks for hanging in there! :o)

Update: I can't take any credit for actually making the sign. When Norma and I were at 'Home Sense' a few weeks ago we came upon it. They only had about 8 names and 'Hannah' was the one at the very front! We both saw it and knew it was perfect! I love to be crafty but I'm not that talented when it comes to painting. Thanks for the vote of confidence though! The only thing I'm responsible for is hanging it on the wall (including the 3 extra nail holes hidden behind it! :o)

Thanks Everyone!!

Thanks everyone for your congrats on reaching the 15 month milestone! Saturday night was filled with an adorable 3yo full of hugs and lovins’ as well as some baby holding, feeding, diapering and quick snuggles from her baby sister. Yup…just what the doctor ordered!

As I’ve sat back and thought about why this LIDiversary was a little tougher I realized that June is often an adjustment month for me and I’m doing just that…adjusting. As you know, the grass does not grow below these toes. I’m a go, go kinda gal and love it! June represents things winding down a bit and suddenly I have extra time on my hands. Not a bad thing…just an adjustment. The piano kiddies are gone until September which leaves my evenings free to fill with new activities and overdue projects. Many of my friends have cottages and trailers in the ‘north country’ so they head that direction most weekends. Thankfully Mom and Dad rent a cottage for a few weeks in July so I have a destination to head to too.

So what to do? LOTS!!! The room that will become Hannah’s nursery has quickly been overrun with stuff! You know…scrapbooking stuff, baby stuff, gifts and more. Lots and lots of…stuff! Someday when I’m brave (read: crazy!) I’ll take a picture of the room. You’ll quickly be able to see why I’m a little overwhelmed by the size of the project in front of me. My goal over the summer is to reorganize her room, store what isn’t needed right away and begin to prepare for Hannah’s eventual homecoming. The crib will stay stored away for some time yet as I would just fill it with more ‘stuff’ as I have lots of time to do that later. But, I think I will put her dresser together so that I can begin to organize some of her adorable little clothes. Feeling better already! We have a plan.

Oh yah, also need to finish painting the kitchen and eating area.

What am I complaining about? There’s lots to do! Now…just gotta get my butt in gear! :o)

It's an Odd Kind of Feeling

In the past week I've come to realize there is much in my daily life that I take for granted. One morning last week there was a power outage in the area for 3 hours, from 3:30am to 6:30am. It was the little things like getting the car out of the garage after having to manually release the electric garage door opener and also drying my hair after a candlelight shower (not nearly as romantic as it sounds as hey...I was alone and brrrrr...it was getting cold in the house!) that caused me to realize how much I take electricity for granted. Flip a switch and the room lights up...or not. The 'not' was hard to get used to as was evidenced by the numerous rooms that filled with light when the power came back on as room after room I'd flipped the switch out of habit even though I knew the power was off.

Case #2: A few weeks back there was a refinery fire. I've heard of it happening before but don't remember being directly impacted as we have been this time.

Last Saturday the tv and radio stations were mentioning that there could be some sort of gas shortage coming up due to the refinery fire but they didn't seem to be saying enough to cause panic...or in my case, cause me to fill up my tank. Yes I put in $25.00 which took me to about 3/4 of a tank and figured I'd wait for the prices to come down before completely filling up.

Fast forward 24 hours and this was what I drove by after leaving church. Station after station displaying nothing but zeros in their price field. Yup...they were completely out of gas. Hmmm...weird. It just felt...weird...and a little sureal. Here in Canada I don't ever remember a time that we completely ran out of gas at stations. I remember during the blackout of 2003 we couldn't get gas for a day or so due to most of the province being without power but never stations running out of gas.


As I drove to meet my parent's for lunch that Sunday I decided to err on the side of caution, pay a hugely inflated price for gas of 99.9 cents/litre (when it had been 77 cents just a few days prior) and fill my tank. Just wanted peace of mind. Thankfully my car is amazing on gas and that lone tank has taken me over 450km this past week and I still have over a quarter of a tank left.

About the gas shortage, it's still happening. One day a station has gas (with inflated prices and long lines snaking around the block) and the very next day it's closed because it has run out. It's hard to be loyal to one particular company right now as basically people are just going to whatever station they can find that's open.

They say it's getting better and I hope they're right. Time will tell...as will my pocket book as I'm sure they'll use this excuse to keep gas prices high for a very long time.

I'm not sure how far spread this shortage is. I think it's limited to Canada but might be wrong about that. Have you been affected?