Wow I'm so bad at this ....

Well .... hmmmm .... since the last update things have been totally Chaotic. With finishing the details for the Christmas parties at work, to finishing the last of my own shopping for the family, It's been a zoo. I also renewed the lease on my car, and am hosting Christmas dinner for the in-laws. Plus the stress at work .... LOL ... do I sound like I'm complaining ?? I'm really not ....

We did some last minute shopping on Friday (since it was payday) and got the kids some pj's and stuff. I had to buy for Andy since I hadn't yet (!). Stops included Wal-Mart, Staples, Second Cup and Best Buy. We even got Santa his favorite cookies - Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chip. He left us a letter one year saying those were his favorites.

We also had to leave some carrots for the reindeer. Santa always comes in on our balcony and then does the rest of the apartments before going on to the next house. The kids were too excited to sleep, but they got there eventually. I went over to my Mom's for her usual Christmas phone call home. She's from Belfast so its always Christmas morning when she calls. My Uncle answered the phone .. he's been ill but has been feeling better, and it was good to hear his voice sounding so strong. He's going to be 82 in April. My Aunt's birthday is tomorrow - Boxing Day. She'll be 81 I believe. It's also their 58th Wedding Anniversary ! My Uncle always said it was easier to remember one date than two. LOL. I wish we could be there to help them celebrate. One year we will be.

Lisa was actually up before Anthony this morning ! Usually she sleeps in until we hav e to go wake her, but she surprised us this year. She got a ton of makeup under the tree ... and she said it'll last her roughly 2 weeks. Does she wear a lot ?? I'm starting to wonder. LOL. Anthony got army men, and cars. I'll be stepping on those for the next month. Andy got a game cube from his friend, and lots of new clothes since he's lost so much weight. I got Angels from my mom and sister, and from the kids. I love them because just looking at them brings me peace. Sounds corny I know, but it helps me focus on my family more, and the stress in my life less.

I'm just putting my turkey in the oven as I type this, I had a few minutes to kill and thought I sshould update. From our family to yours: A Happy Christmas and All the best for 2006 !!

More to come later !!!

Update .....

YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!! THEY DID IT !!! THEY WON THE GREY CUP !!! OMG what a game !! I have NEVER seen a game like that !! Final score 38-35 Eskimos Over Montreal. WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO !!!

It's been a couple of days since THE BIG GAME and things have calmed down a little. My voice has returned (which is a good thing - makes it easier to talk on the phone) and the victory parades and everything have happened. The pic at the left is my new screen saver ... isn't it great ?? I'm off tomorrow and I heard on the radio today the Esks will be at a radio station here in town with the cup. I might have to go get another picture of it. I took one the last time the Esks won it ... it looks awesome !!!

I have it printed and hanging on my freezer at home. It's sad to see that Jason Maas is probably going to be traded to Hamilton though. He makes his home in Sherwood Park, and on more than one occasion he's popped into the store to pick up a few things. He's a nice guy too.

Ah well ... that's my sports rant for now. Want to hear about my Hockey Pool entry ?? No ? It's pretty bad ... LOL. I'm about 8299 of 8300 right now. But I know its going to turn around ... yeah right. It's all in fun though.

Auntie Carrie said I should put some Christmas jokes on here so here are a couple I've been telling at work:

What does Santa call his Elves? Subordinate Clauses

Why is Santa so Jolly? He knows where all the bad girls live. LOL.

Oh oh ... the girl child is asking if we can do 3-way calling on our phone ..... I'm afraid. She's rehearsing her lines for the Christmas concert and its quite interesting. She's supposed to be playing an 8-year old girl. I told her that should be no problem. She's 12. LOL. Oh look, the evil eye. I haven't seen that for at least half an hour. A new world record.

More to follow .......

Where oh Where Can my blog be .....

It's been an interesting weekend so far. I can't seem to update my halloween pictures on here for some reason. I did promise to post them when I took them, and they are on my system, but I keep getting wierd error messages. They will have to wait I guess. Yesterday we went to the flea market. No big deal, right? Andy was talking to the guy that sells his video games for him. Anthony and I waited in the van for him to come back out, he said he was only going to be a few minutes. When he came back out we figured we would head to Wal Mart.

As we were driving west on 111 Avenue, our tire sensor clicked on. Man I love our van. So we pulled over at 158 Street (by the Fountain tire, which was CLOSED - and you'll see why I say that in a minute ...) and Andy got out to check the tire. Lo and behold, it was FLAT. There was a little piece of metal sticking out of a tread, but it didn't look like anything really bad. Having a flat tire by a tire shop, is a wonderful piece of luck. Of course when that tire shop is CLOSED it turns out to be pretty ironic.

Some guy in an office that was right next to where we stopped probably got a kick out of it. He kept looking at us and shaking his head. So we took down the spare, and called AMA to come and change our tire. This was shortly after 11 am. The dispatcher said they were sending out a truck, and it could be anywhere between 15 minutes and an hour to show up. Just after 12 the truck showed up. We had our tire changed and were off to get a patch for our tire.

We went to Costco, because they are pretty reasonable about fixing flats. The little piece of metal in our tire turned out to be a blade from an exacto knife, roughly 3" long, that sliced through the tread and cut into the sidewall of the tire. "Looks like you'll have to buy a new tire Ma'am." God I hate it when people call me ma'am.

All right, so it's a new tire. No big deal. Oh but wait, you can't buy just one ..... Something about how the tire wears, and it can affect the brakes, you need 2 new tires. On the second day of Christmas, my hubby bought for me .... Of course the tires I picked out were deemed "not very good for ice/snow conditions", if you get these ones you'll get more out of them. "These" ones came to $250.63. How long until we're on our way again? "Roughly 2 hours ma'am. It's pretty busy today."

So we had a look around Costco, and then called my sister to come and get us. It's getting to be late afternoon by this time think 3pm. At 4:30 we went back to Costco and picked up our van. They were supposed to give us back the other tire (which will be our new spare), but they didn't. Looks like we have to go back. Great.

In the evening we decided to take the kids to go see the new Harry Potter movie. It was pretty good. Unless you've read the book, the stuff at the beginning doesn't make much sense. I won't tell you about it, just that you have to go see it for yourself.

Sunday (so far) has started out pretty good. Its Grey Cup day ... wooooo hooooo ! The pot of chili is cooking on the stove, and the beer is cooling nicely in the fridge. I'm all set. Andy's heading out, I'm not sure he'll be back before the game starts or not. He's the sports widow at my house. More to come after the game -- GO ESKIES !!!

Finally ... An Update ...

Wow, I really keep this up don't I ??? I owe Auntie Carrie Halloween Pics (which I will post tomorrow, since its sooooo late ... ), and I have to tell you that procrastination is not always a good thing. I procrastinated so long with halloween for example, that we missed out on getting a pumpkin! I was going to take the kids to the Kids Workshop at the store (where they were carving ... you guessed it ... PUMPKINS!), but we didn't make it there either. Lisa was a vampiress and Anthony was a Policeman. They looked great ... and got lots of treats. (That I have since stashed in my house, because they are sweet enough already).

So here it is, just before the full moon (moo-ooo-ooo-n), and things are interesting to say the least. Man you just have to wonder what rocks people crawl out from under. And the stories people tell you ! Everyday is a new adventure. I think I want to sleep until the full moon (moo-ooo-ooo-n) is over. (Anthony's watching me type ... "Mom are you doing that blog thing again ?") Yes Anthony, I am doing the blog thing again. I was just on a cool website, and they said it's 43 days until Christmas. I can't believe this year is gone. Time really does go faster when you get older.

So ... what else is new. Hmmmmm. The lease on my car is almost up. Yay! Then I will own my car! Oh, and I've decided that I'm going to win the lottery. I didn't win anything on my Dream Home ticket, or my bingo cards, so the lottery is my next big thing. (Don't I wish.)

Tomorrows an early day at work, so I won't stay on much longer, but will definitely update this when I get home. (Yes ... and post some pictures ... !!)

A Lazy Sunday at home ...

So here it is ... the second blog in as many days. The tunes are on, Nascar's on TV and the kids are looking for something for breakfast. I've even had a phone call from work already! Go Figure. I don't have any plans for today .. do some surfing, do some baking - Oh hey that reminds me ... we're having a bake sale at work next weekend ... I should get some stuff ready for that. I said I was going to make some pies, maybe apple, maybe lemon meringue ... We'll see what we end up with.

Anthony's here at my elbow .. "Mom what's blog ?" .. I told him it's like a running commentary on what you do in a day. "Why would anyone else want to know that Mom ?" Good question Anthony ... maybe I'll be able to figure out an answer one day. LOL. (At least he's not asking why the sky is blue ...).

We have pumpkins to carve today too. We're doing a skull and crossbones one. It should turn out good. We just have to make the pattern big enough to fit.
It's going to look (hopefully) like that picture right there. It looks simple enough to do ... no wierd little cuts or anything. More to follow later ... :-)

We Are Blog ! Finally .....

..... A blog name that wasn't chosen by someone else! When they said get creative they weren't kidding. So welcome to our blog. We now have one of these because I wanted to reply to Carrie and Bryan's (kind of like a package deal - :-) .. ). I think this will be kind of fun actually. Getting someone to actually read it will be the challenging part. And the fact that it's testing my typing should prove to be interesting as well. You should see some of the stuff I put on the computer at work .. !

It's a little late in the evening, and I have to turn the clock back an hour before I go to bed. Hey does that mean I can stay on the computer for an extra hour ?? Like a deja-vu thing ? No ? LOL. I spend enough time on computers in a day .. what am I thinking ??

Friday afternoon was a riot at work. Silly putty and the word "dick" do NOT belong at the workplace. Use your imagination ... yeah that's pretty much what it was like. LOL. Sometimes you just have to be a little crazy. Then again, somewhere in this world a full moon was smiling down on us. Yeah .. that's my story. I'll finish turning all my clocks back, and update this tomorrow. Oh yeah, I have to reply to Carrie's blog ....