Scrapbooking is life...the rest is details!

A New Year

2012-01-13T16:15:00.000-08:00

Okay, I have had two weeks to get used to the fact that it is now 2012 - I am still in full denial. My post Christmas ritual is to scrapbook, watch Food network TV and live in my pajamas for a full week. Well, that did not happen this year and I am still pissy. I feel like I got gyped (is that a word, or should it be spelled jyped?) Any how, I am still mad and cranky. There was no scrapbooking, due to the STUPID programming on Food Network TV, there was no episodes worth viewing and I had to work most of the week between the two holidays. IT SUCKED!!! That is my break, my breath of fresh air, the time to recharge my batteries, test some new recipes, beat out a batch of bread and cookies and just chill. HA!
What I did accomplish is satisfying, to be sure, but not relaxing. Can I just rant a few minutes about the evils of having to do inventory during your holidays? I just feel the need to write Revenue Canada and tell them that doing inventory is worse than just about anything I can think of. We did get the workshop cleaned, things organized and a lot of crap cleaned out of the corners. Boxes of supplies were mailed out to the designers, the windows got washed (on the outside) and is that ever a statement about the type of winter we have been having so far! We got to the very back of the green closet - that is quite the feat. But, in the end, the satisfaction of starting the New Year in an organized work space was not worth missing out on a totally relaxing week!
And who in the hell is charge of the holiday programming on Food Network, I want to know! I feel the need to stage a protest in opposition of stupid, stupid marathon episodes of Dinner Party Wars and Restaurant Impossible. Who watches those shows? What I wanted was the inspiration to jump up and grab a mixing bowl and try out a batch of, say for instance, Maggie's Decadent Brownies or blend up a batch of Strawberry Sorbet with ginger cookies. Okay, Cindy, get over it - it isn't all about you! Suck it up, life isn't fair!
I did get to move my supplies into my new scrapbook room and that was so, so fun. I reconnected with quite a bit of stuff that I have not seen in a few years. Many of my personal scrapbooking supplies, up until this fall, were still packed in my basement, mixed up with the stuff from the Bloomin' Inn. I just camped out in my new room, along with cups and cups of coffee and drooled over all of the pretty ribbons and flowers that I have collected over the years. In about three days, all of the virgin cupboards were full and I was as proud as a new mother and a baby! My island is the last piece of the puzzle to arrive and so the room still looks like you can move around in it. When it comes, then the room will be complete and I can get to work. Right now, I can not stop myself from going into the room, turning on the light, looking around, smiling and then leaving. Unfortunately, my parents thought it was more important to go to Hawaii than finish my island, so I wait. Pissy.
I posted three photos of one of the cabinets in our MNC newsletter, just like a new mama shows off photos of the newborn. Next month, I am going to show off the next cabinet in the series - the one that was designed to hold my stamps. I promised not to tell anyone who made them, because my Dad is still "twitching" from the experience! However, I have to mention that my Dad rocks!! When I was so depressed that our hay had not sold and I could not order the cabinets that I wanted, Dad came to the rescue!!! I had just put them on the back burner - you know, a farmer always says "next year" and next year never comes. Well, my dear papa pulled out his tools and talked to my husband (remember that he was the one that was kicking my scrapbook supplies around for the past summer and muttering under his breath about "this stupid crap") and two days before Christmas, they surprised me with the first cabinet, a collaboration between my parents and my husband. I don't think I will ever get a present again for the rest of my life - or care! I have a scrapbook room!

Recipe for Tracy

2011-12-06T12:21:00.000-08:00

"Key Lime" Cloud Squares

Prep 20 min. plus refrigerating
Makes 16 servings

What you need

1 1/3 cups Honey Maid Graham Crumbs, divided /or Oreo Baking crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melter
3/4 cup boiling water
1 pkg. ( 85 g) Jell-O Lime Jelly Powder
1 cup ice cubes
1 pkg. (250 g) Philadelphia Brick Cream Cheese, softened
1 can ( 300ml) sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup lime juice
2 cups thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping, divided

Make It

Reserve 1 Tbsp. graham crumbs. Mix remaining crumbs with butter; press onto bottom of plastic wrap-lined 9-inch square pan. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Add boiling water to jelly powder in small bowl; stir 2 min. until completely dissolved. Add ice; stir 2 min. or until thickened. Remove any unmelted ice. Beat cream cheese in medium bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in milk, then juice. Add jelly; mix well. Whisk in 1 cup Cool Whip. Pour over crust.

Refrigerate 6 hours or until firm. Cover with remaining Cool Whip just before serving; sprinkle with reserved crumbs. Use plastic wrap to remove dessert from pan before cutting into squares.

MAKE AHEAD: This dessert can be refrigerated up to 24 hours before covering with Cool Whip and sprinkling with reserved crumbs.

Im off to Arizona! I'll be back in a week! Enjoy the recipe!

Sweet Little Porcupine

2011-11-24T16:27:00.000-08:00

Can you believe this costume? Megan found it on line and ordered it before she knew if the baby was a girl or a boy - either way, the baby was going to be a porcupine for Halloween. Megan thought that the costume would be large enough in October for the baby to wear a full set of warm clothes under it, along with a sweater. No one knew that Peyton was going to be such a chubby baby! All that would fit under her costume was a diaper!

Halloween night was so dark, that with the chocolate brown costume, we could not get any good shots. Two days later, we carefully "slid" Peyton into the costume again and set her outside among the pumpkins in front of the workshop for her photo shoot.

I think that is an excellent idea for any scrapbooking Mom - a couple of days before Halloween and the sugar high sets in, set up a photo shoot that utilizes natural daylight when you have time to capture the shots that you want, without children complaining that they want to head out trick or treating! With some extra time and natural light, you will get the Halloween shots that you wanted, without the stress and craziness of Halloween night. With a little planning, the photos will turn out much better than they would have with a flash!!! Just look at those bright blue eyes - they would have been dark or red with the use of a flash.

Peyton was too little for candy, she really didn't get the whole idea of the event, but she loved all the attention. How could you resist kissing those fat little cheeks! I highly recommend being a Grandma!

You can win me!!!

2011-11-11T22:14:00.000-08:00

This little goodie is up for grabs...take it home for answering a quick questionnaire! We need to know what you are thinking, so, if you subscibe to Monday Night Classes' newsletter, get the questionaire and be heard!!! We need your input! Two of these beauties are going to new homes, so don't forget to watch for the newsletter in the next couple of days and answer the questions!

Recipe for Antionette

2011-11-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

This is a "warm you from the inside" supper or lunch idea that only needs a simple salad on the side. Enjoy!!

Hamburger Corn Bread Casserole

1 1/3 lean ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1/3 cup salsa
1 can dark brown canned beans (any flavor)
1 can diced tomatoes
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
6 chopped canned jalapeno peppers (optional, but recommended)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F

Fry ground beef and onions til no longer pink. Add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Put in baking dish that has been sprayed with Pam or other baking spray.

Topping:

1 cup flour
1 cup of cornmeal
4 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
2 tbsp oil
bacon to taste

Stir until just moistened. Spoon over filling. Bake for 14-18 minutes.

Cutest Pumpkin In The Patch

2011-11-02T14:15:00.001-07:00

Isn't this the cutest little pumpkin that you ever saw? Megan finally relented and let me post a photo of Peyton on my blog. We had a heck of a time getting Peyton to cooperate with our photo shoot - first she did not like the bright sunlight and then she was much more interested in following the traffic on the highway than looking at the camera. Most of the shots that I got were of the side of her head. She isn't really sitting up by herself, so we had to wedge pumpkins around her so that she would not fall over. Peyton also didn't like the poky straw bale, so we had to camouflage a blanket under her to keep her from lifting her chubby little legs and squealing at the top of her lungs.
Creston was perfect at Thanksgiving time, the leaves were just starting to turn and the weather was gorgeous! It was really too bad that Peyton did not like to be out in the sunshine, so I had to buy 20 pumpkins and bring them home so that we could stage a photo shoot and get her in her Halloween costume instead. Okay, so I didn't have to buy 20 pumpkins, but I wanted to buy them...so I did. The lady at the fruit stand was shocked, I guess no one had ever asked her for a price reduction if they took a truck load! I scattereed them all over the farm, but right after we got back it froze fairly hard, so all of my pretty sunflowers died and the pumpkins are starting to look a little "soft". We have had such a nice Indian Summer. I am going to have to get one of those kits and do it up with all of my fall photos!

Scrapbook Mentors

2011-09-09T17:02:00.000-07:00

After a beautiful summer, with lots of extreme yard, garden and house projects, I find myself looking forward to the cooler and less hectic days of fall. Don't get me wrong, I love the supposed "relaxed" schedule of summer. Unfortunately, I am the sort of person who puts off, for vacation time, all the big projects that you can not seem to get around to when you are working. Summer ends up being more work and less play than you expected. Fall then, becomes your summer. The peas are languishing on the vine (cooked by all of the incessant heat that we have received this month), the grass is growing so slowly that you don't spend as much time on the mower as you used to and a blind eye is turned towards the flower pots that need to be dead headed and trimmed up (as well as watered) - life slows down in a delicious way and you quit stressing about things that need to be done. The gradual slow down is peaceful and calming - one season is coming to a close and another opens up with lots of possibilities.

The kitchen is not the hot house that is has been for months. You could actually turn on the oven, if you wanted to. News stand magazines are vibrant with fall colors - apple pies, fall deserts, roasts - things that you would never contemplate when it is 30 degrees outside. Halloween magazines are rich with decorating ideas, scrapbook magazines are dripping with fall leaves, bats and pumpkins. Everywhere you look, you are surrounded by color. That is the essence of fall!

I am exactly, perfectly, and wonderfully where I want to be in my scrapbooks. Exactly one year behind. The most perfect place to be. My next set of photos was taken precisely one fall ago, a end of the season camping trip to Creston, to buy apples, onions and the very last of the freestone peaches. The fact that I can look out the window and see inspiration, purchase the latest autumn themed papers and feel the cooler air of fall has really made me want to camp out at my scrapbook table and create.

The other thing that has me itching to scrapbook is the fact that when I cleaned my scrapbook room this summer, I came across a long lost book that I treasure. Stacey Julian's "The Big Picture". A book that I think every scrapbooker should be forced to re-read every year. Her warm approach to both the craft and the journaling of her pages is the best inspiration that one could possibly get. It is a must read - from cover to cover. While I do not scrapbook in her style, or in the way that she plans her albums, I take so much away from that book every time that I read it, I continue to re-read and re-read it. Over and over. I don't even know if it is still in print, if it is long gone, I feel so sorry for people who have not had the good fortune to lose themselves in Stacey's wit and wisdom.

The photo above is a picture that I treasure. Not because it is just Stacey, but because a dear friend of mine took the time to think of me. Stacey Julian was at a book signing at Scrapbooker's Paradise in Calgary when my friend, Sandy, realized that I probably did not have her autograph. Knowing how much the book meant to me, she grabbed a piece of patterned paper off the shelf (that matched what Stacey was wearing) and had Stacey write me a note on the paper. While she was writing to me, Sandy took a photo of her, so that I could scrapbook my mentor. What a friend!!! It made my day!!!!!

Every time I see this photo, I smile. I scrapbooked the picture, on the paper with the note and I am SOOOO happy that I found the "Big Picture" book before I started my fall scrapbooking marathon. It will remind me to journal properly - not just about the events themselves, but about the feelings associated with the activity. Scrapbooking, for me, is so much more than the sum of its parts. I want my great, great, great grandchildren to know who I was and what I dreamed about. I want to live on!

Antique Stores, Here I Come!

2011-06-12T14:13:00.000-07:00

This weekend we are going to Creston again, and I can not wait!! Have you ever found somewhere in your life, where you are totally at peace - well, my altar to worship at is Creston, B.C. The climate, our friends at the campground, the antique stores and fruit stands...I have died and gone clear to heaven! The drive is not too long, the anticipation of fresh fruit and vegetables from the fruit stands, the opportunity to poke around at the greenhouse and nursery next door to our favorite campground - the whole experience is just pure relaxation and rejuvenation to me. This trip was supposed to be made with family and friends, but after a series of unfortunate incidences, only Mike and myself and Megan and Murray ( with baby) are venturing out. The intent for the guys is pure golf nirvana - no wind and a beautiful course to play - the intention for the girls is shopping, shopping, shopping!!! I am looking for unusual flower and herb seeds and possibly a garden ornament or two and anything that "speaks" to me in the antique stores. Megan just wants to vegetate and relax. The best part - I get to be the babysitter!!!!
I think what I enjoy best about a trip to Creston is that it does not have the "holiday jet lag" that I experience anywhere else. I have often wondered if that happens to other people, not just me. You know...you go somewhere to relax and it does not feel like a holiday. Inevitably, the night before you go have to go home, then suddenly you hit your vacation groove and you are truly

relaxed - only to have to go home the next morning...why does that happen? To me, every time we go somewhere I experience that feeling - except Creston. The second that I see the town sign, I am transported to heaven. When I die, my family should sprinkle my ashes over Creston Valley and I will be happy forever!

Spiced Carrot Muffins By Request

2011-06-03T15:40:00.000-07:00

Where did April and May go??? I have not had time to sit down at my computer (for fun) in sooooo long...I am surprised that over a month and a half has evaporated into thin air!! Other than one really cool antique hunting trip that Mike and I took, it has been nothing but work, work and more work. Nothing exciting - except for when baby comes to visit!

The cold, chilly spring has left me at my scrapbooking table much longer than normal this spring. Somehow, getting dressed in winter colthes, to go outside and dig in the frozen chilly ground has seemed less than appealing. So I decided to finish my brother-in-law's heritage album that has been a thorn in my side for many, many years. This year, I quit talking about finishing it and I actually did it, working day and night for several weeks, trying to get it done before Allan comes to visit this month. I am about two pages away from the completion of what has turned out to be a two volume set. If I do not see tears when I gift it to Allan, he might be the next chapter in the book "Crazed Scrapbooker Kills Relative With Scissors".

I promised that I would post my breakfast muffin recipe - sorry if you have been waiting!

Spiced Carrot Muffins 400 degree oven

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

3/4 cup brown sugar

Mix these dry ingredients together until well blended and then make a well in the center of the bowl and add:

1 egg

1/2 - 1 cup buttermilk (or more if needed, depending on how juicy your carrots are)

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups carrot

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

Mix well. Your batter should not be dry, or runny either, just a nice, moist, middle of the road batter. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until a toothpick in the center of the muffin comes out clean.

These muffins are more savory than sweet and make the perfect breakfast muffin. I cook them in Texas size muffin pans, but you can use smaller muffin tins, just adjust the time accordingly.

Let me know how your family likes them!!

The Baby is Here! The Baby is Here!

2011-04-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

Finally, after three days of labor, Megan and Murray are proud parents of the most ADORABLE little baby girl that I have even seen. And I am not saying that just because I am the Grandma - she is seriously the cutest little thing I have ever seen. Peyton Elizabeth was born Friday morning at 10:33 am and weighed 7 lbs 2oz. She was seriously the most alert baby I have ever met - checking out the room, checking out the people that were holding her, sticking out her tongue and sucking on her hand - for just about her whole birthday. Since then, all she has done is sleep - she does not want to play anymore!! Except between the hours of midnight and 6:00am. Megan is looking a little frazzled, with the lack of sleep. Everyone is doing fine and my camera chip is filling up at an alarming rate. I would love to post a photo, but Megan would kill me! No baby on the Internet, I have been warned! I guess I have to obey - she might not let me hold her!

Spring Fever

2011-04-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

After all of my good intentions, my personal scrapbook intervention has not been entirely successful. I have had two really, really busy and intense weeks, hence, the stuff that was piled sky high - still is!! However, I did get the stuff to Allison for the scrapbook garage sale and I have set aside some supplies for a fellow scrapbooker (that I have not met) that lost her scrapbook supplies in a house fire. The rest is just sitting there, taunting me. I thought I heard the piles whispering "I'm winning, you can not control me!" After a strong start, I have started to fade in the home stretch. My greatest asset or liability is that I work the best under pressure. So this week the pressure is going to be added - Megan is due to have the baby and my husband's family is coming from Vancouver Island after the baby is born. Lucky for me, I can always come up with some sort of craziness in my life that keeps me stressing out and working hard. I am personally held together by a mixture of over commitment and extreme OCD. It is the very fabric of my life - that and Corona with a slice of lime! We are all jumping every time that we see Megan's phone number come up on our phones - the baby could come any day now. I never did get her freezer tricked out, she finally gave up on me and did it herself. She even delivered baby items to my house that "I" should have for her baby. Talk about over achieving and OCD - Megan had to admit the other day that she is becoming more and more like me. I think every mother is like that. We just are, we have to be. Families depend on us!! So we are on the count down. Unfortunately, Megan is not cooperating - she is still working out at the gym, getting pedicures and scrap booking. No baby in sight!! I'll keep you posted!

Spring Cleaning

2011-03-13T13:18:00.000-07:00

With a new baby on the way in a month (or less) I decided that I needed to get my house in order. No - I am not the mother, I am just the Grandmother, but I am expecting that I will be "needed" for a few weeks. Therefore, I need to be prepared in the event that Megan expects me to trick out her freezer, baby watch while she sleeps etc. etc. So about a week or so ago, spring cleaning fever hit my house.

My plan was to clean at least two cupboards or one big closet out per day. Every day. I started in the master bedroom and I CLEANED HOUSE. I am down to just the clothes that I fit into, not all of the "I might wear this again" clothes. Three large, overstuffed garbage bags left that room. Then it was on to the bathroom, six drawers, one cupboard and a BIG medicine cabinet later, that room was organized and tidy. I discovered that in another life, I must have been deprived of moisturizer! The reason why everything was falling out of the cupboards and cabinets was because I have collected a virtual museum of every type of cream and moisturizer known to modern man. I literally threw away a large garbage bag of half used tubs, squeeze bottles, pumps - I owned them all! I've used them all!!! And the worst part - I still have wrinkles!!

Then I carried on to the kitchen, living room and upper level of the basement. Two full pick up trucks worth of crap have left my house.

It was about the time that I was down to the two spare bedrooms and the lower level of the basement that I had to come to terms with my scrap booking supply addiction. These areas of my house are FULL of wooden stamps, unused paper and card stock and OLD CRAP. I just wanted to sit down and cry. I have never been able to purge scrap booking supplies. I just can't do it. So here I am with Beary Patch cut outs, Creative Memories stickers, 8 1/2 x 11 paper, PAPER DOLLS!! WHO IN THE HELL HAS PAPER DOLLS ANYMORE!! Okay, after I stopped hyperventilating, I forced myself to come up with a plan. Stuff just had to go. There was no way around it. I am self aware - I know I can not throw this stuff out. Hence...THE PLAN.

Part #1 of the Plan - pick out all of the stuff that you can donate to Allison's scrapbook garage sale. Put in unmarked cardboard box, so that no one can trace it back to you and laugh at you for still having paper dolls. Deliver in the dead of night. (It's really that bad!)

Part #2 of the Plan - Throw away all true junk. In my case, any paper that is wrinkled and/or faded, packaging from scrapbook supplies etc.

Part #3 of the Plan - Put EVERYTHING ELSE in the scrap booking room. It is piled SKY HIGH, there is so much stuff. My master plan is to collect all the supplies from EVERY room and cram it into one. This is a scrapbook INTERVENTION. The only way to make myself deal with the problem is to be faced with the problem and as there is no way in hell that everything is going to fit, I am soon going to be faced with it when you walk in the front door. By last night, nothing more would fit in the room and I had to pile some stuff outside the door. In two more days, I should be down the hallway and into the front entry way. I am not even sure if I can get everything that came back from the Bloomin' Inn into my front entry, but I am going to die trying. It is only when I am face to face with the wall of stuff that I am going to be able to come to terms with it and stop avoiding the issue by neatly putting it inside of closets and cupboards.
Part #4 of the Plan - Let it sit there for 24 hours. That should be just enough time to put me over the edge, I should be twitching by then - possibly even a convulsion or two.
Part #5 of the Plan - Go to town and buy beer and cigarettes. Usually I only reserve this practise for income tax season, but in this case, I think I might have to resort to these forms of medication.
Part #6 of the Plan - At this point in time, I should be so upset by the mess in my house that I will have an "outside my body" sort of experience and I will be forced to get rid of some of the stuff.
At least, that is the plan... I'll keep you posted!

My Obsession

2011-02-14T15:44:00.001-08:00

I wish I was ten years younger - I don't want to go back to my teens...I don't even want to go back to my twenties ...or thirties. Give me a good solid forty and I would be happy with that!! Back before I started to ache and complain about my shoulder and neck, back just far enough that I still held out hope for paying off the farm, just back far enough that I seemed to be able to stay up all night, and still be productive during the day, back when I had the most energy, but was uber wise from all of my forty years on the earth. What would I do if I was forty again?

I would be brave, I would be daring, I would be well off enough to know that I could take a big chance and know that I could make it pay off. I would...
BUY A RESTAURANT!!!!

We, as a family, are lamenting the fact that one of our favorite restaurants is closing down next week, due to health issues with the principal owner. Separately, a few weeks ago, every one of my three kids came to me with the proposition of "us" buying the place. "Us" means that they wanted to invest in the project, but I know that "us" does not extend to doing any of the work. What they really meant was that they would chip in some money, but they expected me to be the chief.

I thought about a little. Probably more than a little. Probably more than I should have. I already had the color scheme picked out before a big jolt of reality hit me and knocked me out of my day dreaming ...I mean day scheming. I had already solved every objection that Mike had. I had fixed all of the problems. I had even done some calculations on paper. But, all of a sudden I got a picture in my head of what life would really be like if you were married to a job like that, and even more scary was the thought of having my grown children as partners.

How's this for a thought process: Andrew playing pool all day long in the lounge, buying drinks for all of his friends...Daniel, who can eat his body weight at every meal, ordering three appetisers and two mains, three times a day...Megan busy socializing with everyone, Mike phoning every day asking when I am coming home...

I decided that cute decor and color scheme aside, I was going to have to let this one pass. It is just good that I am ---ty and not forty!

Piles of Junk!

2011-02-05T18:57:00.001-08:00

This is a little glimpse into my life these days.

How can I go from my cleaning frenzy in December - my annual purge of all things unnecessary - to this...in less than 60 days?? Where in the hell did all this stuff come from? Do people drop this crap off when I am not home?

Last night, everywhere I looked, there were piles, virtual piles of overflowing, thorn in my side, crap. It was like I was alright one minute and less than a few seconds later, I was a raving idiot. I guess I just snapped. My living room pushed me over the edge.

Imagine this. West wall. Megan's piano with a few nice decorations on top, appropriate sized painting hanging above... looks pretty good - except: IT IS COVERED WITH 20 OR SO MEDICINE BOTTLES, KLEENEX BOX, TOOTHPICKS (used), TWO SETS OF CRUTCHES, TWO ARTIFICIAL LEGS, ALL THE CLOTHES MIKE HAS WORN IN THE PAST THREE DAYS, COFFEE CUP, THREE DRINKING GLASSES, BOWL FOR CHIPS (empty), TWO STANDS FOR LIMB LINERS, OVERFLOWING GARBAGE CAN, USED KLEENEX ON THE FLOOR, AUTO TRADER MAGAZINE, EMPTY WICKER BASKET WHERE THE MEDICINE BOTTLES SHOULD HAVE BEEN...

North wall. MIKE'S EASY CHAIR, LIFT CHAIR FROM MEDI CHAIR, THAT I HATE. MIKE. NICE SIDE TABLE THAT IS NOW PUSHED OUT OF THE WAY, INTO THE CORNER BECAUSE OF THE LIFT CHAIR THAT I HATE! OVERFLOWING WICKER BASKET OF COOK BOOKS.

East wall. TOTALLY COVERED WITH MY SCRAP BOOKING SUPPLIES. CAN'T EVEN SEE THE FLOOR, BECAUSE I HAVE NOT HAD TIME TO PICK ANYTHING UP SINCE I STARTED MY LATEST PROJECT (scrap booking cruise album). TELEPHONE ON FLOOR, WCB PAPERS ALL OVER THE TOP OF MY SCRAP BOOKING TABLE, FOUR ESTIMATES FOR ROOF PROJECTS THAT ANDREW LEFT BEHIND, PHONE BOOK, AUTO TRADER, PACKAGE OF HALF EATEN CHIPS ON TOP OF THE ESTIMATES, CALCULATOR, UNIDENTIFIED VEST (probably Andrew's), EMPTY POP CAN Note: ANDREW'S FAVORITE BRAND, TWO UNPAID BILLS IDENTIFIED AS ANDREW'S

South Wall: NICE WOODEN CALENDAR ON WALL (still set to January), WELL DECORATED SIDE TABLE THAT IS OVERFLOWING WITH MORE COOK BOOKS, SEARS CATALOGUE, LEATHER SOFA WITH COATS DRAPED ALL OVER IT, COOKBOOKS UNDER IT, OPEN NEWSPAPER, EMPTY POP CAN, DIRTY PLATE WITH A FORK (???)

That was the final straw. I just snapped.

This was just one room. Needless to say, after my melt down and subsequent trip to the bathroom to cry in private, I marched right down there and took the bull by the horns. Mike was already cleaning by the time I finished my outburst. He just knew...

Two hours later, a Corona with a lime to settle my nerves and one very large black garbage bag later, peace is restored.

Tomorrow, watch out spare bedroom!

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

2011-02-01T13:56:00.000-08:00

Canadian winters = ice, snow, frozen fingers, mind numbing cold, cars that won't start, liquid things that explode in your vehicle when you forget to take them out, frozen water pipes. Remind me again, why do we live here???? This past week has been a constant reminder that there has to be somewhere in the world where we could be at this time of the year, rather than down here in the frozen south!

The -35 weather has sorely vexed my soul. I hate winter!! I am perfectly content to watch hockey on the tube, love the wood burning stove (my scrapbook table is set up just about on top of it) and I could care less about going outside. I don't enjoy any winter sport - unless drinking hot mulled wine counts for anything, and I would be content to hibernate until spring, if given half the chance. Winter does not even make it into my scrapbooks, unless someone takes photos for me and shares them! So, thanks, Tracey for these wonderful photos.

My Canadian winter pastime is scrap booking - it does not require the likes of gloves, scarves, snow boots, it can easily be accomplished without shoveling or chipping ice, you do not get frozen fingers or toes. Just inky ones!

Thank You!

2010-12-29T12:08:00.000-08:00

Who ever you are, you made my day!! Imagine getting a anonymous surprise package in the mail that congratulated us on the mortgage burning - filled with confetti!! It made me smile all day long. Thank you!

Where Has December Gone?

2010-12-27T10:55:00.000-08:00

I can not believe that the month has slipped by so quickly - with our family trip to Hawaii and then preparation for Christmas, the over the top holiday rush and inventory lists due to Edna, the month has come and nearly gone!
Our trip to Hawaii was excellent - we did not get lost even once, we got to experience a helicopter ride over the entire island and we went to an authentic Hawaiian luau ( I hope I spelled that right). Getting there was quite an ordeal, as Murray hurt his back severly just a few days before we left and was flat out in bed for about four days - we were not even sure that he was going to make the trip. The only way that he was able to stand the 24 hours of travelling, was to get both Murray and Mike seats in first class, so they had room to stretch out and Mike could take off his leg and give it some rest. So, while the two men enjoyed the luxuries of first class, Megan and I were stuck in coach. Our plane ran into a head wind on the way and it made the trip even longer, so by the time that we drove across the island to one resort, to pick up the keys to our condo, and then travelled to the second resort and fell into bed, we had been awake and traveling for a full 24 hours!! We were exhausted!
WTF!!!! We were awakened at 5:00am by seriously irritating, fricken roosters! The whole island is covered with Banty chickens and about 15 of them were in our back yard crowing up a storm. There was no way that you could sleep, as our outside condo walls were full of open louvers that allowed the breezes to blow into the house (I am assuming that this is to prevent mold and mildew from setting in, due to the high humidity) The noise of all of the roosters, had the four of us up closing windows and louvres - then we tried to go back to bed. Only to be awakened at 8:00am by the front desk, inviting us down to breakfast and a time share presentation. You have got to be kidding!! I am afraid that the lady was pretty shocked by the reaction that she got, and she probably wrote "cranky bitch" in our file, after Megan gave her a piece of her mind and slammed down the receiver. After that, we always let Megan deal with the people that harassed us about buying a time share, as they could not make any head way with her! Not that they didn't try - time share sales people are very persistent!
Two days of rain followed, and I was forced to wear my winter coat on the beaches. Everyone else was fine, but I was too cold, so I got some pretty weird looks from people who were walking by with shorts and a surf board! Then the sun came out for three days and we were able to explore and travel the island.
The day before we were to leave, we checked into the Marriott Resort in Luhui , so that we could be to the airport on time. I finally found my own personal heaven!! I could have stayed there for the rest of my life!!!! Lava Flow drinks, beautiful Hawaiian flowers, room service, spotless sandy beach - OMG, I had died and gone to the promised land!
Then we had to come home - 83 degrees in Hawaii, -13 degrees in Calgary. Why did we come home?

"Don't Do That!"

2010-12-04T15:57:00.001-08:00

Way back in the summer, I was fooling around with my blog and happened to click on a little tab called "Next Blog". It shot me off to a random blog somewhere in the US and with another click, I was reading a funny blog from a 20-something girl in Sweden. Fascinated, I kept clicking just to see where it would lead me next. Then....the most exciting thing happened!! About ten clicks in, I stumbled upon something that has changed my life forever!! The blog was called "Confessions of a Plate Addict" and I was instantly riveted to the screen.

You all know how much I love dishes!! I would go without food and clothes ( and I do go without shoes, handbags, and buying new clothes) in favor of buying dishes. I can walk down a mall and walk right past all of the clothing stores and not even look in the window. Put a set of dishes in that window and you have me at first glance!!! I am a compulsive dish shopper - I have no shame! I actually just bought some pieces last week and gave them to Megan to gift wrap and give back to me at Christmas!! My mom has done that in the past for me as well. I am conniving, calculating and totally addicted!

So you can see why this blog affected me so deeply. I never knew that there were table setting competitions out there, where people from all over the world participated. One blog led to another and my heart nearly stopped when I discovered the blog "Between Naps on the Porch". This lady is talented!!! Her tablescapes ROCK...she has more dishes than you can possibly imagine - and no, she does not rent them or purchase and return after the event. I greedily devoured her blog, where all of the displays are categorized according to theme. I was happily clicking my way to nirvana when the phone rang. My husband - wanting to know if I was ever going to come home and make supper. Holy shit, I had been looking at the tablescapes for over two and a half hours!!

Later, at home, I must have been thinking about my new guilty little pleasure (and smiling) because Mike asked me what I was thinking about and smiling about. I didn't really want to tell him, knowing that he would laugh. He almost laughed, then a look of pure horror crossed his face when he realized that I was not pulling his leg and I was dead serious. "DON"T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!" he threatened. He has had the stress of trying to explain my themed "holiday" tree that used to sit in my dining room. In January it had snowflakes and snowballs and snowmen, in February it was decorated for Valentine's Day, in March, Saint Patrick graced the tree - you get the picture. Just remember that we live on a farm. Other people did not get it (the tree) at all. Mike was used to some neighbor asking "Why is your Christmas tree still up?" and then listening to me go through the explanation that it was NOT a Christmas tree. (At which point he was already rolling his eyes!) The thought of having to explain a table that was set, that no one was going to eat at, no company was going to come ...he just couldn't stand it!

He does not ever "forbid" me to do something. This time, he drew a line in the sand and FORBID me to cross it!! Well, what he does not know does not hurt him in the least!! My girlfriends and I adapted the concept to mean any decorating project and so we choose a spot that needs some attention or a theme for a holiday and we have fun doing it on our own. I also plan on doing the tablescape thing too - but I am going to be smart enough to plan a supper party so that it is not so obvious. As long as it involves food - then Mike will fall for it!!!

The reason that I chose this topic today was the beautiful tablescape that "Between Naps On The Porch" posted for this week. My decorating hero used a Christmas Village for the centerpiece of her Christmas table. The lit buildings are basically the candles on the table. It is beyond BEAUTIFUL and well worth looking at. I am always struggling to find places for my set that keeps growing and growing. I never thought of using it as a table centerpiece!!! Check it out!!! If you can not find it, just email me and I will help you discover it. Don't forget to look at the Beach tablescapes - they are breathtaking!

Where is the Confetti?

2010-12-02T14:32:00.000-08:00

Today, I did something that I have been waiting for - for 21 years. (To be exact) Sometimes I never thought that it would ever happen.

First, about nineteen years ago, Mike broke the ball off the top of his right elbow. It healed. Then he broke it off again. We almost lost our roofing company in the aftermath of his extended healing time and the fact that we were just starting out in his business and we had just bought the farm. That was strike #1.

Then we tried to catch up by renting 150 Simmental cows in a partnership agreement. I was against it from the start. Mike was "all in". One particularly bad calving season, when we lost over 1/3 of our calves to viral scours and both of us were suicidal from all of the little black and white dead bodies, we almost "cashed in" the farm. Cows returned, partnership ended...strike#2
Did I mention that a big Simmental cow can eat a big round bale of hay a day! And if you think that my reference to the cows in comparing them to a poker game is just an accident, you are wrong. Owning cows is the biggest frickin gamble that you can ever take!!

Then the infamous 30 foot on the job site. Most of you know how that turned out. That was strike #3.

Then the slip on the ice and the implosion that spelled the end for Mike's leg. Strike#4.

But today, I walked in the Pincher Creek Credit Union at exactly 10:00 am and made the FINAL F------ payment on the farm. We are done!! Twenty one years. Twenty one years of scraping and making do. Twenty years of wicked blizzards and digging frozen calves out of snow drifts. Two years of bad grasshoppers that ate our crops. Three years when it was so wet that we didn't even get to seed. One year that the crop froze in the field. Nineteen years of raising our kids on the farm. Four life changing crisis situations. (All involve Mike, do you see a pattern here?)

You know what? Somehow I expected that there would be bells that went off, confetti would fly, a grinning bank manager would slap me on the back and say "Way to persevere, lady!" and hand me a glass of champagne. I was envisioning that something should happen like when you are in Vegas and you hit a jackpot. Lights go off, there are sirens, everyone stands around admiring your good fortune...Nothing! A little "blip" on the computer and the line disappeared and the teller asked "Is that all?" I wanted to shout right back at her "What do you mean, is that all, you -----!" I was so let down. It was so anti climatic. Twenty one years and no confetti. What the hell?

Spinach & Chicken Bake

2010-12-01T12:34:00.000-08:00

Here you go girls - the recipe that you requested!

Layered Chicken & Spinach Bake

4 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 bag fresh spinach
6-8 chicken breasts, pounded to a uniform thickness
flour for dredging
salt and pepper
1 finely diced shallot
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms
1/2 cup Chardonnay
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 can of low sodium chicken broth
1 chicken bouillon cube
1/2 pound thinly sliced Fontina, Gorgonzola or Mozzarella - I usually have to use Mozzarella, as the other two, while delicious are hardly ever in the stores in Pincher Creek
Hot cooked egg noodles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large saute pan, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil and over medium heat saute the spinach until just wilted. Remove from pan and spread in the bottom of a large baking dish.

Dredge chicken pieces (that you have pounded the heck out of) with the flour and season with salt and pepper. Using the same frying pan (because I hate doing dishes) heat the 2 tbsp of olive oil and saute the chicken until lightly browned and cooked through. You may have to work in batches so that you don't overcrowd the pan. Put the chicken on top of the spinach in the baking dish.

Add the shallot and the mushrooms to the saute pan (you may have to add just a touch of oil oil) and cook them until the shallot is translucent. De glaze the pan by adding the white wine and the balsamic vinegar, scrape up all of the tasty brown bits into the wine sauce.

Add chicken broth and bouillon cube, stir. If sauce is too thin, thicken it with a little cornstarch slurry. (If you don't know what this is, make a runny paste of cornstarch and water and add it GRADUALLY to the pan until you achieve the desired consistency) You want it to not be thick, and not water like. Somewhere in the middle. How's that for directions?

Bring sauce to a boil and remove from heat. Place cheese slices on top of chicken breasts. Pour sauce over the whole thing. Cover with tinfoil.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes, until cheese is slightly melted and sauce is bubbly.

Serve over hot egg noodles. Yummmmm!!!!!!

Good luck Shawn!

A Peaceful Day Christmas Shopping -NOT!!!

2010-11-30T11:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to Lethbridge with Megan, Christmas shopping. It was "supposed" to be a peaceful girl's day out, with lunch at 360 ( a Tapas Bar that I have always wanted to try out), some shopping and just an all round "get out of our boring town" day. I thought it would be fun to spend the day with Megan. WRONG!!!
We were hardly out of Pincher Creek when the road rage started. Megan is a very impatient driver and she had me so stressed out that I wanted to open the passenger door and jump out into oncoming traffic! I told her that all this "emotion" is not good for her or the baby, but she just seemed to get worse as we approached the city. When we actually entered the city of Lethbridge, then there were even more pedestrians, stop lights and drivers to piss her off. It wasn't starting out to be a very good day. I decided just to sit in my seat and keep my mouth shut, after one warning that she was taking all of the fun out of the experience by being so hostile.
Then we had to run a Christmas errand for Mike at Home Depot. He was looking for a particular drill set that he wanted to give to my father for Christmas. We hardly got through the door before I irritated Megan into a bad mood, by looking through the sales flyer. Apparently, she does not "do" flyers and it was a waste of time to look at the tools section in the flyer, when you could just walk over and see the real thing! Then I made the mistake of asking a clerk for help. Apparently, she does not like asking for help either, because she was in quite a mood by the time that the clerk explained that the advertisement must have been a US ad - they did not have that drill set combo on sale. Megan had already determined that it was not available and me talking to the clerk just slowed up the process. Not to mention that the clerk's mustache (by the way, the clerk was a girl) REALLY irritated Megan. We ended up having words in the tool isle after the clerk left!! I clearly stated that if it was an errand for Megan that we were doing, then she did not have to look in flyers or ask for help - but if it was an errand for me, then she had better back off with the attitude and let me ask for help and look in flyers!!! It got a little heated, but I actually thought I had got through to her because the next store was "non-confrontational".
Then we had to go to Chapters. OMG - what a BUSY, BUSY place!!! Every sales clerk was busy, so I decided to use the computer, myself, to see if what I was looking for was in stock. I determined that they did not have what I wanted, but that it could be ordered at the kiosk, which I was unsure about - did I keep using their computer or ask for help. One look at Megan and I knew that either way, I was screwed. So, I decided to stalk a clerk. I followed one nasty lady for about 10 minutes before I decided that tactic was not working, so I set up camp at the kiosk. Megan was glaring at me from the racks. I just stood there until a clerk pushed me out of the way to use the computer. Literally. Finally, Megan took charge of the situation, and I just pretended that she was not my daughter - I am sure that my books will eventually come in and they will be marked "for the bitchy, pregnant lady". I paid the bill and hastily left the store.
About five stores later it was time for lunch. The tapas restaurant was wonderful, but I wisely did not order a drink with my meal, because I knew that was going to cause a fight. I really needed a beer by then, but because Megan could not have one, it would have been drama if I indulged, so I let that one slide. The meal was excellent - crab cakes and a blue cheese/bacon burger to die for. One highlight of the trip!
The roads home were not the greatest, but at least there was no traffic at that time of day, so I did not have to listen to the rant about crazy assed drivers that should have their licenses taken away. When we got almost home, Megan politely asked if she could wrap my gifts. That is her favorite part of Christmas, the wrapping of the presents. So here is my plan for next year - DO NOT GO SHOPPING WITH MEGAN!! Just give her the gifts to wrap and let her be in charge of that. Note to self: do not go back to Chapters for a while, either!

That Is Going To Hurt!

2010-11-21T17:13:00.000-08:00

I don't know why this ultrasound is so dark, in real life, it is so much better!! Can you see the little boy's face in the photo? To me it totally looks like a boy's head - but Megan says it is a girl and one would not want to argue with her these days!!! Mike is so excited, it is going to be hard for him to wait, actually, I think he is looking forward to this birth more than with his own children. His comment to Megan, when he saw this ultrasound was, "Look at that head!!! That is going to hurt!!" Megan almost burst into tears, so we decided that we had better stop teasing her.

Turning Old and Going to the Pain Center (both unrelated!)

2010-11-16T14:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a milestone in my life - I had a significant birthday. Not telling which one!! It just happened to coincide with Mike's trip to the Calgary Chronic Pain Center - which was actually a very fortuitous accident for me. Here I thought that it was going to be a very boring day and it turned out even better than I could have expected! Here are my 10 unexpected, yet delightful surprises from an otherwise depressing pain center birthday:

The first good thing that happened was that Myra's GPS got us right to the door of our hotel and then right to the Pain center without causing any stress. THANKS MYRA!!!! Having driven in Calgary with Mike and not knowing exactly where to go can cause some tense moments. No such problem!!

The second thing that occurred was that we actually got a doctor with some compassion and understanding - more rare that one might think! He was EXCELLENT, and I would like to mention him by name because he was that good, but I am old now and I have forgotten his name, seeing as I have only met him once. The Doctor sat with us for an hour and a half and actually explained and sympathized with us. Much better than being told that it is all in your head and you are addicted to Percocet (that actually happened to us this year) It forced me, yes, ME - Cindy, non confrontational Cindy, to lodge a complaint against a Doctor. REALLY!!! I did!

The third, highly unusual, thing is that this doctor had some ideas that had not been tried on Mike before and he was willing to try all of them, in order, to be able to find even just one thing that might make a difference in the quality of his life. The most interesting ( to me) is the idea of freezing parts of Mike's leg and killing them. Okay, you can probably see why it appeals to me and not Mike. It is not my body parts that they are going to freeze and kill! It sounds sort of futuristic, but he has evidence to show that it works in certain situations. We would try just about anything at this point!

Most importantly for both of us, the doctor suggested that a lot of the work that needs to be done on Mike (that makes him sound like a project) can be done in Pincher Creek, without him having to stay for five to six weeks in the city. All of the drug tests, therapy etc can be done under the guidance of Doctor No Name and be monitored by his local doctor, thus leaving Mike at home back here with me. I was really worried about what could happen if it snowed like it did two years ago and my staff and I were not able to get into the workshop. Without Mike and John Deere, we could be up the snow drift without a shovel!!! The downside to that, is that I had planned on doing a lot of scrapbooking with friends while he was in the clinic. The good news is that when they freeze him up, he will have to be in Calgary, so I still get to come, just not for as long as I thought! Last night I had a bad dream - or at least a partially disturbing dream. Lots of people, when they meet both Mike and I, think that he is a lot older than I am. I guess falling 30 feet and having your body parts amputated on a regular basis can age you a little! Really, there is only one year between us, but most people think he is much older than me. I guess the whole cryonics thing must have been in my brain when I went to bed, because I dreamt that they totally froze him and kept him frozen, until I was wrinkly and then they thawed him out so that we looked more "even". God! What I don't think of!! Don't tell him about this, he is sensitive to the fact that everyone believes he is older. LOL.

The fifth great thing is that our hotel was only a couple of blocks from the Keg and I got to have supper - truly, the supper was not that great, but the ring that I got WITH supper is pretty damn cool! I got a major blingy diamond and lots of little blingy diamonds in a new wedding set.

Number six and seven are a toss up - on the way out of the city, Mike took me to Chinook Centre to Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma. My mothership!!!!!!!!! No, he would not buy me any dishes, but obviously kitchen gadgets and goodies do not fall in that category, so I got a whole bunch of new shiny things to play with. I did see some dishes that I could easily die for, but I did not want to push my luck - that ring is pretty sparkly!!! I am just hoping that they have them next year!

Then for number eight, we went to the Nanton Candy store. They did not have cotton candy - which would have made my day perfect, but they did have a lot of my favorites! (Cotton candy is one of my worst addictions).

The ninth best thing is that while we were there, I found out about a cake decorating course that is taking place after Christmas and I am going to enroll! Megan is going to come with me, she just does not know it yet. I want her to see how hard it is, so that she will quit bugging me about making her wedding cake (when the time comes). She already expects me to take the photos, do the flowers and cater the event. The cake is just too much!

Finally, we got home and the tenth best thing happened - Megan had cleaned the workshop and totally did all of my work, so that I did not have to. Sweeeet!

2010-11-12T15:37:00.000-08:00

This is not my collage - I am not talented enough to figure out how to do this on my computer- can anyone help me?? I absolutely love the mason jars, I have collected different kinds ever since I was a teenager and I display them all over the house. This was just too cute for words and so I had to copy it, to enjoy it over and over again!
This summer I went out into the gardens and picked a big beautiful bouquet of flowers from as many plants as I could find blooming. Everyone loved it so much, that over the weeks, I kept refilling it as the blooms faded and different seasonal plants started to flower - the "look" of the bouquet changed many times over the summer and this week, I am going to scrapbook those photos! It will remind me of the warmer days, as it has been downright chilly here by the mountains the last few nights. I have pumpkins all over the place, sitting at the gate posts and around the house, I am hoping that they do not turn to mush!!!
I am trying to ignore the clouds and the snow flurry warnings and live in denial just a few more days. However, Megan told me that the pumpkins are "tacky" now that Halloween is over. And can I just say something here- this is the very same girl that a few weeks ago told me that she is not going to be so strict with her children (as I was) and she is going to be WAY MORE permissive and not so bossy ( as I was). Megan does not realize that she can't even stop bossing me (her mom) around, so I want to see how this "permissive" child raising theory is going to work for her!! From now on I am going to pack a notebook around and write down all the stupid stuff that she says, so that 14 or 15 years from now we can see how her "new" theories on raising kids has panned out. HA!!

2010-11-09T15:06:00.000-08:00

I'm back!!!! My last post was October 4th - then I got sick and I believe that I contracted distemper! I have been ill ever since that last post, it started with a runny nose and the sniffles and progressed to the point that I actually thought I would die from a sore throat. The doctor (who shall remain nameless) would not give me any antibiotics and told me it was viral. So, check it out - my symptoms were uncontrollable shaking from being ice cold, my nose was all pussed up, my hair was scruffy, my eyes eventually stuck shut from the puss - now, doesn't that sound like distemper? If I would have been a farm cat, my family would have put me out of my misery with a 22 shell!! Yesterday, I went to a different doctor who told me that if I was not going to stay warm and stay rested, I was never going to get better (and he didn't even know about the Jingle Bell Crop where we worked until we were sick again!) It has been a whole month of hell, but I think that I am getting better, today is the turning point!
For those of you who requested the recipe for the dessert at the Jingle Bell Crop, here it is:

Cindy's Pumpkin Dessert

4 eggs

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 cans PURE pumpkin (14 oz.) not the kind with spices added

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 cups evaporated milk

Mix these ingredients in a bowl until smooth and creamy. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a separate bowl, combine 1 box of golden cake mix (I have also used lemon when it was on sale and it was just as good) and 1/2 cup hard margarine. (not hard as in chilled to hardness, just hard margarine as opposed to those whipped, soft margarine tubs) Get it?

Cut the margarine in until it is crumbly and sprinkle the cake mix evenly over the pumpkin mixture. Bake for 1 1/2 hours.

*** note, keep checking the pan s it cooks and turn the pan end to end in the oven if your oven does not cook evenly. You want to watch the edges, as they may get brown and burn before the timer goes off. Just keep rotating the pan in the oven if you see any such problems.

Serve with whipped cream, that is sprinkled with a little cinnamon. At home, I picked up some very, very small plastic pumpkin decorations and I put one on the top of every slice. Too cute!!!

This recipe makes a large pan, about 18 servings, so invite some friends over!

Enjoy! Cindy

Fall Photos, Gingerbread and Cozy Sweaters

2010-10-04T12:55:00.000-07:00

I love this time of year! Wood smoke curling up from our chimney, the smell of baking in the kitchen, bales strewn all over the fields, just waiting to be picked up by the ranchers that have bought them, dry leaves blowing into the garden, were the last rows of carrots are still residing, cows being trailed home from summer pastures, geese flying overhead. Fall just seems so BOUNTIFUL.
We are almost on our way to Creston for Thanksgiving, I am literally counting the days!!! All of our children and their girlfriends/boyfriend are coming , along with our best friends, Mel and Loretta - in all, five fifth wheel trailers. We will be a regular convoy!!! LOL. Everyone has their camera ready to go, because we plan on taking a lot of fall photos at the fruit stands. We are going to cook our turkey on the BBQ and hopefully the weather will permit us to spend a great deal of the long weekend outside. I have cold Coronas in the fridge and a new camera chip, I have charged my batteries and packed the tripod - I am prepared!!
Now, if I could just get my shoulder to behave long enough to enjoy the trip, I would be forever grateful. I am hesitant to say it, but I have a SCRAPBOOKING INJURY!!! I would rather give birth to more children than go through this pain, so if you know some of the stories of what my children have put me through, then you can appreciate the pain that I am in!! My muscles are so tight, that they have literally pulled my collarbone and ribs out of place. Just from working with my shoulders forward and my head down. Let that be a lesson!! When you are scrap booking for HOURS at a time, make SURE that you get up and stretch and exercise your shoulder muscles!!
For my friends, Amy, Edna ad Debbie, here is a recipe that I know you are going to love!! I baked them for Daniel and Andrew and did not tell anyone what was in them - the rest of my family enjoyed them without even knowing that they were gluten free!

Gluten Free Gingersnap Cookies

350 degree oven

1/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
¼ cup fancy molasses
2 ½ cups gluten free all-purpose baking flour
1 ½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp each ground cloves and cinnamon
Pinch of salt

In a large bowl, beat butter with 1 cup of the sugar, beat in egg and molasses. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cloves, cinnamon and salt.
Stir into butter mixture to form stiff dough.
Roll dough, by one level tablespoon, into balls, roll in remaining sugar.
Place 2inches apart on parchment lined baking sheet. Press to flatten slightly.
Bake in a 350 degree oven until edges are lightly browned. The center may still be a bit soft – approx. 10 minutes.
Transfer to rack and let cool.
Enjoy!!

This week, Megan gifted me with a new fall hoodie - my version of a sweater. I love it!!! I also found an amazing hoodie in Waterton Park when Lorrie, Megan and I went shopping. It is totally fall colored and very warm. I am saving it to wear at the Jingle Bell Crop. Some people get excited over shoes or jewelry - I am all about hoodies! (and new dishes) Which, by the way, I have two new sets waiting for me in Creston. Shhh! Mike only knows about one!! I will keep you posted as to how I snuck them home!

The Pumpkin Painting Is Mine At Last!!!!!!

2010-09-04T07:22:00.000-07:00

Every year for about the last five years, I have gone to the same studio in Creston (where I buy my pottery collection) and I have admired the pumpkin painting titled "Thinking of Pies". The first year, it was priced at $895.00. For the next four years, I longingly admired it - but it was $600.00. Every time, I sighed wistfully and put it back on the display, dreaming of how beautiful it would look in my dining room, but knowing that I shouldn't be spending that kind of money on yet another addition to my fall decor (which now overflows a HUGE AREA of my basement.

Last year, on our fall trip to Creston, the owners of the pottery studio told us that they were putting the business and house up for sale and leaving Creston, to become full time residents of Mexico. I thought that might be the last time that I ever saw my pumpkin print, but I still put it back on the rack and walked away (which is a huge feat, if you know anything about me). Last weekend, I was surprised to see that the studio was still open, although the "For Sale" sign from the realtor impressed on my mind that this might really be the last time that we got to visit with the owners and buy the last installment on my pottery collection.

Sure enough, David told us that they had been successful in selling the business, the house was the last thing to go, and by October 1st, they were on their way to Mexico, not to be artists anymore, at least not for a living. I could not find the pottery pieces that I had wanted to purchase to complete my set, but David offered to custom make them for me and leave them behind, I could pick them up at Thanksgiving, when we come to take photos of all of the fall displays in the fruit stands.

I didn't even want to let my self look in the direction of the pumpkin painting. I was sure that it was gone. But it wasn't!!! Not only was it sitting in its place, when I turned it over to look at the price (one more time) it had been marked down for a quick sale to $150.00. I just about fainted!!! It wasn't getting out of my hands this time!! Mike came over, glanced at the price, smiled at me and took it away from my hot little hands, and added it to my pile - without a word!! He knew!!! He didn't even have to say a word. Not only that, when we got home, he arranged with his sister-in-law to do the framing for me. I had to take a photo of the painting, sitting on my veranda, because I was soooo excited!!!! "Thinking of Pies" is finally mine!

Lessons From My Mother

2010-08-31T18:51:00.000-07:00

I was so inspired by our trip to Creston, B.C. this weekend that I just had to start scrap booking fall layouts! As most of you know, I "resist" making one page layouts and snottily refer to them as "one page wonders". Okay, I admit it, I am a snot!! Please don't take any offense by my put down of single page layouts!!! But to me, most often, these layouts contain one photo and next to no journaling (which is really my pet peeve in the scrap booking world) - sometimes only a quote and a date grace the page. They tend to show off a lot of pretty product, but don't tell too much about the person in the photo, or the person who made the page. But whenever I start a new album, there has to be a front page and a back page, no matter how hard I try to get around it!!! So I decided to use my one lone photograph of my canning jars, filled to the brim with pungent pickled carrots, to make a tribute page to my mom and everything that she has taught me.
I love the way the light is coming through the window and shining through the mason jars - which by the way, are one of my most favorite comfort items in the world. I love mason jars!!! As my moods strike me, I fill them with colorful flowers from the garden or sand, seashells and candles and cupboards full of jars get filled with crisp veggies and sun soaked fruit from our Creston trips. They are warm and homey and totally full of goodness!
Our trip last weekend, while short, was one of the best in recent years! Mike and I spent three days scouring the fruit stands, antique stores, my favorite pottery shop - we had so much fun!!! The truck and trailer were bursting with treasures on the way home. I will take some photos of my "finds" and post them soon!

Scrapbooking History

2010-08-23T12:36:00.001-07:00

So you are probably wondering why I am scrap booking a page on slavery? This layout was one that I started last year, but found a little difficult. It is not like you can walk into any scrapbook store and find embellishments for slavery!!! It took a very long time to find all of the pieces of the puzzle. I googled slavery and downloaded a few images that showed slaves at auction and how they (the people) were advertised and what selling prices would be expected for them. I was also able to procure some drawings of the slaves loaded on ships and estate records that listed the human inventory along with the cattle, sheep, horses and other "belongings" to the estates. Some of the photos were very graphic and made me shudder.

By printing out the images and then collaging them together, I was able to create the backgrounds for the two pages. A clip art bull whip seemed to be the most appropriate embellishment for the page, considering that I did not want to cover up much of the text in the old slavery auction bills. I also used Barracks signature saying "Anything Can Happen" and included the People magazine article about Obama's historic election. But why scrapbook it in the first place?

From the very beginning of my scrapbook hobby, I have included pages in my family albums about significant events that have shaped our world. Because we are creating "history books" for our families, I feel it is necessary to include world events that have changed the way we live, the way we do business, the way we feel about things. Y2K, the terrorist attacks of 9-11, Amish school shootings, the stock market crash/Motor industry bailouts/recession and Barrack Obama's history making election all deserve a place in our scrapbooks. They have changed us in some way. Just try to get through security at an airport,with a liquid, and see what happens!!!

So the next time that a world event occurs that has a significant impact on you - scrap it!

Things I Love About Summer

2010-08-21T17:55:00.000-07:00

If you could summer in a jar, my absolute favorite thing about summer is my soup recipe, with ingredients straight from the garden, it can not be beat! Try it out and see if you don't agree. It might seem a little complicated, because of all of the steps, but it is just a lot of chopping and dicing and nothing is too hard. Don't be freaked out by the title - it is not like the borscht that you have tasted that is just full of beets! This has a beet in it for color, but you fish it out and throw it away about halfway through the recipe. This soup is creamy and rich and chock full of good veggies! I have tried using the food processor to speed up the process (LOL) but it really made the ingredients too fine, almost like a big pot of baby food. Plus, there is something therapeutic about cutting all of the vegetables by hand and putting some "love" in the pot.

Cindy's Summer Borscht

In a large soup pot or stock pot, add the following ingredients and let simmer away :

1 quart canned tomatoes

1 onion, chopped finely

1 cup cream (I use whipping cream)

While that is cooking, peel about four large potatoes, do not cut them up fine, leave in large chunks so that you can fish them out of the soup later on.

Add to the pot:

the four large potatoes cut in big chunks

2 carrots, chopped

1 pint (2 cups) frozen or fresh peas

1 tbsp salt

Cover with boiling water and let it simmer away until the potatoes are cooked. While that is happening, crack a beer (LOL) and chop up the following:

5 stalks of celery, chopped up finely

1/2 head of cauliflower ,cut up finely

1 small head of green cabbage, cut up FINELY - no one likes big shreds of cabbage!

Fish out the big potatoes and mash them with salt and pepper, lots of butter and cream. They should be runny . Set aside. Add to the pot:

1 tbsp dried dill

the celery

the cauliflower

While that is simmering away, have another beer (you deserve it for slaving away over a hot soup pot) and fry 1/2 of the pile of cabbage and one onion, chopped in lots of butter. Watch this carefully, do NOT let the cabbage brown. You just want to sweat it and "almost" take it to the point of carmelization. ALMOST. If you cook it until it browns, it looks like there are "burnt bits" in the creamy soup.

When you are done frying the cabbage, finely chop and add to the pot:

1 green pepper, seeded

salt and dill to taste

Peel and dice four small potatoes and add to the soup:

raw pile of cabbage

fried cabbage/onion mixture

finely diced raw potatoes

Let that come to a boil once more. Turn off heat. Stir in mashed potato mixture. Cover the pot and let it sit, to fully cook the last vegetables. When you are ready to serve, bring the soup up to temperature. Taste for the last time and add salt and/or dill if necessary.

This sounds really complicated, but it isn't. It is just the best summer soup you will ever have! Enjoy!!

Summer Nirvana

2010-08-20T20:11:00.001-07:00

Summer has so many attributes that I love, although it can never top autumn in my mind, it certainly gives it a run for its money. Have you ever had one of those days, were you don't really have any where else to be, you don't really have anything else to do, no one is expecting anything of you and this calm, serene peaceful feeling comes over you. It does not happen much in my life. Usually there are millions of pressing details every day that make those days just ordinary days. Only about one day of the year do I get that special feeling. Everything is good in my world, I have no worries and this state of mind just overtakes me. It is the day that you take the time to stop to smell the new rose that has blossomed, the day that you sit on the veranda with a cold beer and you SAVOUR it, not just drink it, the day that you really hear the different sounds of the birds twittering in the garden, the day that you realize that there is a hummingbird nest just a few feet from the veranda railing and it has been there all along and you just never LOOKED before. The day that you taste a warm from the sun, wild raspberry and you don't think that you have ever tasted anything so perfect and sweet. I imagine that this feeling is like the state that people obtain when they are deep in meditation. It's just too bad that it only happens one time a year.

Why do we push ourselves so hard? Why do I feel the need to fill every waking moment with some sort of productive activity? Why, when my whole yard is weeded and pristine, I decide to build a new brick wall and yet another flower bed? Another obligation that has to be met with regards to weeding and watering and dead heading. Another job, in an already "bursting at the seams" schedule.

Contentment. Why can I not achieve it? Why do I only get to feel calm and rested and wonderful just one day out of 365. IT'S MY MOTHER'S FAULT!!!!!

My mother is the proverbial energizer bunny. She never stops. She never rests. She can accomplish more in one day than most people do in a week. She expects perfection, she is demanding - on her body, on her production, and on her expectations. My need to fill every moment with activity is directly a result from being raised by an over achiever.

I have read that if you have an abusive or alcoholic person in your family, it takes four generations to undo the harm that one person has inflicted on the family. Looking at Mom and myself and Megan (my daughter) I can tell with absolute certainty that we are still a good four generations away from achieving a more peaceful, slothful, relaxed, lazy version of ourselves.

With that in mind, I am going to go and weed the vegetable garden.

Outta Here!!!

2010-07-08T14:19:00.001-07:00

I am gone, loooong gone!!! Tomorrow starts my summer vacation - at least for three days! I am going north, heading out, AWOL... See you on Tuesday, when reality kicks me in the butt and it is shipping time! See you later!

My New BFF

2010-07-06T15:16:00.001-07:00

Okay, this is my shout out for the week – hooray for Tide Stain release!!!! I love cleaning products…what can I say? I am a self professed OCD cleaner. This week, this little orange plastic container came to my rescue in a big way!!
To start off, I should let you know that I have to buy cleaning products when I go grocery shopping – even if I don’t need them at all. I believe that someday, there is going to be a war or a food /cleaning product shortage or a world crisis and I will not be able to get the cleaning products that I need. Your laughing at me right now I can tell! Well, I am sure that if there were a world crisis, cleaning might not be on the forefront of my concerns, but I have the food crisis covered (I am also a food collector) so my issue is that there will not be enough Mister Clean, Tide, Fantastic or Windex around for everyone. So my story starts in the grocery store, where lo and behold, a new cleaning product that I have not tested was on the shelves. So I bought some – Tide Stain Release.
This took place just before our black water woes in May. When the water was clean enough to do laundry (or so I thought) I ran a few loads of dark clothes through before I put a load of light colored sheets and towels in. They started out cream colored and ended up BLACK!!!! I ruined them all. So I went and bought another set of sheets and new ivory towels. I thought that the old towels might make good dog bathing towels and so I didn’t even try to save them. A week later, after the arrival of the Tide Stain Release, I tried it out on my black towels – which instantly became their rightful color. I was so excited!!!
Then more recently, Mike took me on a clothes shopping spree at Macy’s one day sale when we were in Couer d’Alene. In all of the piles of clothes I had on the counter, the sales clerk forgot to remove one of the dye buttons off of a really nice blouse. When I got home and discovered it, I had no way of getting it off without a dye explosion. It’s not like I could take it into a store and ask someone to remove the button – they would think that I had stolen it. So I asked Mike to remove it for me. Not on my veranda. Not while he was wearing anything good. If it wrecked the blouse, then I guess it had to be. Did he listen to me? No.
Mike pried the button off, on the veranda, wearing his best pair of jeans and POOF!!! It exploded. The blouse was ruined. The deck was covered and so was most of what he was wearing. I thought about throwing it away and then I remembered my earlier success with my new best buddy. Tide Stain Release not only removed all of the dye from the shirt, I watered it down and cleaned the dye off of my new Trex veranda. I am in love!!!!
So, here is my testimonial – buy some Tide Stain release and let your husband do whatever he wants – he is going to anyway!!!!

Father's Day Water Fall

2010-07-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

For Father’s Day, both of the boys gave Mike two free days of labor to put our water fall back together. We planned the event for the weekend after Father’s Day, when Mike and I would be back from Coeur d’Alene and we could get all of the tools and equipment organized for the event.
This is the before...
　
　
This is the water fall at this point was almost complete - but very ugly!!! The rain barrel had blown over to the pond during the spring storms, you can clearly see our Christmas tree had blown there too, what a mess!!! It only took two flat deck trucks full of rock, one track hoe, a jumping jack to tamp the ground hard enough to support the weight of the water fall, both our sons, one guy from the roofing crew, a friend of Andrew’s ( who got roped into one day’s hard labor) Mike, to plan everything and two full days of putting a rock down...everyone looking at it...deciding that it was not the right shape, or the right slope, too big, too small ...moving the rock out with the track hoe...putting in another rock...etc. etc.
Finally, on Sunday, they decided that the structure was good enough and they turned on the waterfall. The water did not fall exactly as they wanted, so they made some last minute adjustments and called it quits. Now all I have to do is get in there and naturalize the edges of the pond, to make it look like it has been there for a hundred years, a few more rocks, a few shrubs and some flowers and then we can go and get some fish!!!!
　
If I could figure out how to get another picture in this darn blog, I would show you the totally finished result, with the water running down the falls. It is much bigger than in this last picture, as due to technical difficulties and a slip with the hoe, the large cap rock cracked in half and they had to build higher than originally planned. The darn guys stold some rock off of my dry stack stone fence to keep going and just before the sun went down, the falls were complete. I will have to post another photo to show you after I am done the planting. 　
　

Caught Red Handed!

2010-07-03T16:45:00.000-07:00

For those of you who know me well, you know that I have a sort of obsession with dishes of any sort - I collect meat platters, complete dish sets, random dishes that appeal to me, I can't help myself!!! I am Cindy and ...I am an addict...I have not bought a dish in two days...

When I had to start hiding dishes in boxes, under the beds, in the front closet,

on the top shelf of my bedroom closet, Mike made me promise that it would come to an end. What came to an end was me hiding them where he might find them. I started being more creative. I started taking them over to the workshop and hiding them in closets over there. Edna, my accountant has a locking closet at the workshop where she stores my bookwork for Scrapbook Cupboard and Monday Night Class. I figured that if required unlocking a door, Mike would probably not look in there. I also had to find a "dish mule", someone who was reliable and not tell on me, make sure that the dishes were delivered on a work day when Mike was not around, and be willing to smuggle in my fix when ever I saw a set that I could not live without. Tanya has been my most often used dish mule, as she lived in Lethbridge and had access to Pier 1, Winners etc. She was also very safe, as I signed all of her paychecks ( so she knew that I was the boss) and she worked odd hours when Mike was not "around".

Recently, I saw a very pretty set of dishes in a Pier 1 catalogue and gave Tanya a cheque to cover some rather "extensive" dish purchases. However, my daughter happened to be around to see the deal go down and then very promptly ran to her father and blew the whistle on me. Tanya no longer could be used to smuggle, as Mike then started watching her like a hawk when she came to work. I had to become even more creative.

A week or so ago, Mike and I took a road trip to the States, just a few days off to eat and relax and see some new sights, before shipping started. Luckily for me, not so much for Mike, he can't keep up to me with his crutches. After a period of time in a mall or in a store, he usually goes back to the car to rest, while I finish looking around. I feel like a convict that has escaped!!! Straight to the housewares I go and check out all of the new patterns and colors. Then I have to figure out what I can buy that I can hide dishes in!!! This trip, I came home with a whole set of luggage.

What Mike does not know is that I had the clerk wrap up all of my dishes and put them inside the suitcases (I asked her to do it so they would not break as we were travelling) and I walked out of the store, right to the car, put the suitcases in - RIGHT UNDER MIKE'S NOSE- and he never suspected a thing. Later that night, when he went to take a bath, I transferred just enough clothes and purchases into the suitcases to camouflage the dishes. He never suspected a thing!!!!

Can you blame me? Look at that pretty platter with the crewel flowers on it!!! This is one that Tanya smuggled for me!!! I love this pattern! It is currently residing in the workshop on this shelf that my Dad built for me. You are probably wondering why Mike does not notice the dishes when they are out in plain view?? You have to see my house to understand. Or my workshop! I have been collecting fall decor and dishes for so long now that I can decorate several houses and I had custom cabinetry (in the house) built for my collections, so it would be very hard to notice a small addition here or there. Even I can't keep straight all that I own, so how could he? Long live the addict!!!!

You Weren't Here To Ask...

2010-06-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a rant, a vent, whatever you call it when you want to get something off of your chest! It all started with the Summer Scraptacular and me being gone for a day and a half - almost two days. Not a very long time for things to go horribly wrong at home, but I guess my husband is extremely talented!

Mike is the first one to jump in when he sees something that needs doing, so I guess that I should be thankful that he has the "take the bull by the horns" mentality, but, honestly, sometimes he makes me crazy! This weekend, he decided that he was going to do me a favor by applying Roundup to any weeds that he could find hanging around our farm. Trouble is, weeds grow in between and around flowers, shrubs, trees etc. that should not be sprayed. Add that to the fact that Mike "strongly dislikes" some of my plantings and well, you get the picture...

He was proud as punch that in between rain storms, he was able to apply TANKS FULL of Roundup! I was horrified! To which he replied "Well, you weren't around to ask!". Do I look like a dummy? You bet I was around to ask!! It was planned that way in the first place! When I asked "exactly" what was sprayed, I got the reply "You'll see what I did in a few days". Of course, I will - as plants start to keel over and die.

Is the saying "You weren't around to ask" the female equivalent of "I've had this for ages!"? because I use that one on him a lot!!! I guess they're not as dumb as they look!

Yard Work!

2010-06-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty picture of what I have in my mind to do this summer on our front veranda. I was just scrapbooking the building of the new veranda last night - last spring we did all of the hard work, replacing all of the floor boards to the no maintenance, never need to be painted again composite boards, we put up the new railings and the west wall of Plexiglas and I painted the church pew and the Adirondack chairs that reside on the veranda. Other than put up a hanging basket and putting my herbs outside, that was all that I had time to do - last summer was so busy!! First we hosted my parents 50th wedding anniversary and I was quite involved with the cooking, the very next weekend we had Mike's family reunion and the interment of his sister's ashes. It was stupid, crazy busy. Then haying season hit and before I knew it, it was back to work.
This summer, I want to fine tune all of the details on the veranda and transform it into a cozy outdoor living area. With all of the cold wind and rain that we have had, I really have not even got out there to wash it down. It has been so windy, that if I put the pillows out on the chairs, I would have to drive to Brocket to collect them in the morning!!! I hope that it is going to warm up a little so that we can enjoy the month of June!
I have made good use of the cold weather, to get the herbs started, do some more scrapbooking, clean my laundry room (from top to bottom) and clean out the closets. But, now I am itching to get outside with the rotor tiller and the whipper snipper and some FLOWERS!!! Winter has been bleak and I am longing for a shot of color!
Today, Megan hired a young man to come out to the farm and help her clean up our yard - it was her Father's Day present to her Dad. We are all feeling badly that he has so many spring chores that he can not do on crutches, that she decided to take Adam for the day and tie into some of the odd jobs that are needing to be done. Man!!! Did they ever get a lot accomplished in just one day. The yard looks amazing!!! Our boys are coming this weekend to finish the big koi pond that we started last fall. They are going to place some boulders, backfill around the pond and put the waterfall back in place and then we will be ready to plant, that is, assuming that it warms up a little!! Happy Spring!!!

A Clean Desk Is A New Lease On Life!

2010-05-29T19:38:00.000-07:00

This was the weekend that I HAD to tackle my overflowing, piles on piles of paperwork, miscellaneous receipts that never match the cheques, dozens of notes to self, etc. etc. etc. that was overflowing my desk and the counter tops surrounding my desk. Two foot tall piles to be exact!!! My exploding paperwork clutter was even annoying my staff! Probably because every time that they asked for something, I would direct them to "the pile" and a half an hour later (or longer) they might find the answer to their question. It was paper "OUT OF CONTROL"! Today was D day and that hill had to be conquered. Bring on the beer!
Income tax, serious amounts of paperwork, forms that need to be filled out - all of these tasks require vast amounts of beer. Income tax requires cigarettes too! I have to admit that I usually only get motivated to deal with things such as these, when threatened with jail time, suspension of my bank account, or the arrival of a sheriff to seize our assets. Paperwork is mind numbing. There is no creativity involved, no satisfaction - just mind numbing torture.
My goal was to be able to see the top of my desk (in entirety) by Sunday noon. Thursday night I did the piles of stuff to the left of my desk, had some bottled beverages, praised myself for surviving even just that much and shuddered when I looked at what was left. Friday, I made sense of what was stored to the right of my desk. Today I had to come face to face with the actual desk itself. I was already down a case of beer and the worst part was yet to come.
I know that this probably sounds exaggerated, but what you have to realize is that not only am I the "keeper" of the paperwork for my company, but I also have farm books, WCB related paperwork that pertains to Mike and his injury, receipts that need to be claimed, CAIS forms, Monday Night Class memos by the dozens, client forms for four hundred people and notes pertaining to them, dozens of kit filling lists and designer notes, tens of dozens of memos regarding stock issues pertaining to certain kits, bills that need to be paid, need to be filed, need to be given to Edna, payroll, designers fee book, shipping lists, orders that have been filled, orders that haven't been filled, lists of card numbers that will not go through, and about forty notes for phone calls that need to be made - it just goes on and on and on... It is a wonder that I have not hung myself from the rafters a long time ago. It would be a full time job to keep it all up AND I DON'T WANT THAT JOB!!!!!
I can just about see the top of the desk and it is only Saturday night - I still have one more day! Then I am going to take a picture and rejoice in the fact that the allies have landed and the battle will be won! (Don't tell Edna that I threw half of it away!)

Water Woes (!%#!#*)

2010-05-13T17:37:00.000-07:00

Do you see what this is? Black water, in my bath tub!! Two hours ago there was no water, and I'm not sure which is worse - no water versus black water? This whole saga started three days ago, on Tuesday morning when I came to work. I made a pot of coffee, flushed the toilet a couple of times before noon and after lunch I went to get a bucket of water to wash the chairs and tables down in the workshop and guess what? No water!
I wasn't too worried, I thought it was just an electrical problem. We have lots of trouble with the pilot light going off on the boiler and Mike just comes and starts it every time that I call, so I thought it was no big deal. Until Mike came and could not solve the problem. So we called Reed, our plumber. Reed worked on it for two days before he called in back up - our electrician that lives just down the road.
By now, I'm sweating bullets. Two years ago we trenched in a water line and a power line to connect the workshop to the well - some $30,000.00 later, we had flushing toilets for the staff that came to work. The electrical line is 6 feet down with the water line and our electrician told us that there was a fault in the line somewhere and we were losing power, at the well we did not have enough current left to start the pump. There is 2300 feet of electrical line between the well and the taps. WTF???
Gerry changed some wires around, using a ground wire for the hot wire and changing the faulty wire into the ground wire. Or something like that. Today, Reed came back to hook everything up and after a lot of hissing and spitting, water started to come out. At first, it was sort of yuckky looking, so Reed directed all of the water through a hose into the toilet and cleaned the system, or so we thought. Then Reed left. I went to clean up some of the muddy spots on the floor, turned on the tap and guess what came out? BLACK WATER!!! We shut everything off fast and went and got some garden hoses, turned on the outside tap and it has been running for over two hours now, but this is what is coming out.
It is oily and sticky and leaves streaks on everything. The only cleaning product that I have that will take it off and break it down is Comet. (Believe me, I have lots of cleaning products and I have tried them all in the past couple of hours). It is in every sink and toilet and shower and bath tub!
Have you ever had one of those days (or weeks) when it is two steps ahead and three back? That is this week for me!! I am going home to have a stiff drink. I'm going to let the water run wild all night if I have to. I'll worry about cleaning up the mess tomorrow!

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-10T12:17:00.000-07:00

I certainly had a great Mother's Day weekend, even if the skies were cloudy and overcast and it was generally yuckky outside. First, Andrew brought me the coolest cast iron towel rack that I have ever seen. I took one look at it and knew that I wanted to use it to hold scrap booking magazines instead. Then I was surprised by some friends with a bouquet of sunflowers for my dining room table. Then I got a phone call to come home from the workshop and when I got there Daniel gave me a new cell phone!!!!!! The slide kind, with individual keys for texting !!! Then Mike gave me two new charms for my Pandora bracelet - and a card that said that while I was NOT his mother, he decided to treat me anyway. Lastly, I got a phone call from Las Vegas, from my daughter, wishing me a Happy Mother's Day. (Megan is on vacation, with dyed hair and fake ID because she is not 21) At least she was not calling me from jail!!
The whole thing got me thinking about being a Mother and how hard it is to bite your tongue when you see one of your adult (or supposed to be adult) children doing something that you are dead set against. I guess the way that Mike and I ran things in our household was: if you were living at home, under our roof, you followed our rules. When you moved out, you were able to make your own decisions, but we always stated to our children that we raised them to know right from wrong, hoping that our example would keep them from making too many disastrous mistakes. WRONG!!! What were we thinking?? They're a bunch of idiots!!!!
I wonder then, how many times my own parents have lamented the fact that they raised a bunch of idiots too? I'm pretty sure that my own Mom must have bit her tongue until it was bleeding, when I decided, at different stages of my life, to change religions, start homeschooling my three children, scrapbook for a living, buy a car that cost more that our house, etc. etc. And I am just one of her three idiot children!!!
No wonder why people celebrate Mother's Day. It is one day that you can enjoy your children, before another year of bullshit comes along!!

Tribute To Guy!

2010-05-06T21:04:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know what Christy is going to call this - food porn. I am addicted to Food Network TV, particularly to the show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, hosted by my favorite Food Network Chef - none other than Guy Fieri. This is Guy - a little "out there", very witty and really talented! He makes me laugh.

About a year ago, I saw an episode of Triple D, when Guy went to a cafe called Blue Moon Cafe and the owner was a young, 20 something, entrepreneur who was set up in business by her mom. She demonstrated how to make Captain Crunch French Toast. I played around with her recipe and this is what I came up with:

The Captain's French Toast

sliced strawberries (some for filling, some for topping) approx three cups

1/4 brick cream cheese, softened

slices of French Bread, approx 1/2" thick

Captain Crunch cereal that has been "pulsed" in a food processor until crumbly

four eggs

vanilla extract

splash of milk

In a shallow bowl, whip up eggs, milk and vanilla extract.

Pour Captain Crunch crumbs into a pie pan or other shallow container.

Butter insides of two slices of french bread with the soft cream cheese, place strawberries into the cream cheese and put the two slices together with the cream cheese/strawberries together in the middle. Make sure that the sandwich is "stable" and not wanting to slide apart.

Dip both sides in the egg mixture.

Roll the sandwich around in the Captain Crunch, making sure that even the edges get coated with the cereal.

On a grill, or in a fry pan, carefully grill both sides of the French toast, being sure not to burn the cereal. The high sugar content can cause it to burn easily!!

Serve with warmed syrup, sliced strawberries and sweetened whipped cream.

Enjoy!!

Thanks, Guy,for making me want to play around in the kitchen. You are my inspiration!

Spring Is Here!!

2010-04-26T10:56:00.000-07:00

When we went to bed last night a spring squall was going through and it was snowing like crazy!! I was afraid when I woke up this morning, everything was going to be covered and I had plans today to clean up around the outside of the workshop today. I think that about one more dump truck should have it covered! There is just a little rubble left over that I wanted to move before the grass needed to be mowed. This morning, however, the weather was beautiful!

Mike arrived around 11:00 with this pretty bouquet of crocus blooms, just for me! I didn't even know that they were blooming - it has been so cold here next to the mountains and I just had not had the time to go looking around. It was such a thoughtful way for him to get my day off on the right foot!

After I caught up on all the emails, I decided to take a break and go looking around. It is warm out there today!! The meadowlarks were singing in the fields, on Indian Hill the crocus were blooming and there was lots of fresh snow in the mountains. It was just too pretty! I could not go back inside and try to get excited about what kits were going up on the website for May. I just had to take a little photo break!

My children are the fifth generation to be brought up on this land. I once thought that this is the way that it always would be, our family would always live here and raise families that would get to ride ponies all over the place, listen to the meadowlarks, pick spring flowers and enjoy the mountains circling around like pie crust. The past nine years, as Mike has tried to get back some semblance of his old life, I have been keenly aware that I need to take the time to more fully appreciate every day spent here. It may not always be so. We have had lengthy talks lately about what will happen if the doctors can not "fix" his leg in some form that will allow him to walk and be able to do all of the things that need to be done when you live on a farm.

Everywhere that you look on the farm, you can tell that we have not been able to keep up with the repairs and maintenance. The shelter belt needs clean up, the barns need painting and a few new windows, the koi pond was never finished, the fences are all in bad repair, the farm yard needs cleaning up and dejunking. Every view reminds Mike that he is not able to work like he used to. It is getting harder and harder not to agree with him that a smaller place would be a good idea.

But, for now, I am going to think about all things bright and beautiful - the blooming crocus, the singing meadowlark and the snow capped mountains, and pray for a medical miracle. If God can make these mountains, he can mend Mike's leg. I just need faith.

My Never Ending Dish Obsession

2010-04-25T10:32:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make. I only own three pairs of shoes and one pair of moccasins, I only have one purse and I have but one dress, which can be a funeral dress, a party dress or an event dress depending on the need. I am a hoodie and blue jean girl, nothing fancy, definitely not a clothes horse. But, can I walk past a pretty set of dishes in a store? Absolutely not!!!
I have so many sets of dishes that I have to hide them all over the house, under the spare beds, in the front closet, in with the decorations for that season. I must have about 15 complete sets of tableware, about a dozen partial sets for luncheons or teas or for parties. I can not stop.
I also collect antique platters, my collection numbers in the forties. I used to display a great portion of the platters on my dining room wall - until Mike told me to cease and desist, they were bothering him. I took some of them down and now I rotate the display as the seasons change and the platters need dusting. Marcie used to smuggle new dishes in for me when she came up from Lethbridge, but Mike soon caught on to her and put a stop to that.
For the longest time, Tanya was my new "dish mule" because Mike had not figured out that when she comes up to work from Lethbridge, she brings my latest order from Pier 1 along with her. She comes over to the workshop and unloads when he is not around and until recently we had not been caught. Until this week! Megan happened to be helping make kits when Tanya and I were discussing the new set of dishes that I wanted and that little brat squealed on me!!! She told Mike exactly now much money that I gave Tanya, and he decided to "trap" me when Tanya brought the dishes in on the sly. We were caught red handed!!! It was pretty funny. But now, I have to find a new way to smuggle contraband dish deliveries into the house.
This set of pottery was last summer's find. On a camping trip to Creston with Mike, I stopped by my favorite pottery studio and Mike bought me these new pieces to go along with the set that I was collecting. I love the fruit stands, the grain elevators and the bright cheerful colors of the glaze. I am eagerly looking forward to going back this spring and getting another piece or two.
Hi, my name is Cindy, I have a dish addiction, it has been two weeks since I last bought some dishes....

The Best Laugh This Week!!!

2010-04-23T19:16:00.000-07:00

Thanks Colleen for brightening my otherwise frightful day by sending me this photo. I was laughing so hard that I almost fell off my chair - I have not had something tickle my funny bone like this picture did! Look at the whites in the eyes of the terrified Jack Russell! Look at that bird!!! OMG - I am still laughing!!! Thank God for good friends, who send something along to cheer you up, just when you think that you can't take any more crap, a thoughtful person touches your life and turns everything around. They may not have even known that you needed a lift. This just made my day!! I can only imagine what is going through that poor dog's head!

10 Things in Life That There Never Is Enough Of

2010-04-20T15:46:00.000-07:00

This week, it seems like my life is being controlled by things that are out of my control. I am constantly in a state of panic, because I am missing something. Here are 10 random things that there never is enough of:
1) TIME - this big clock stands in my workshop and I am constantly racing against it. Only one more day to complete shipping and check everything for the last time, only one more hour before Debbie has to leave for her doctor's appointment and then there is just Andrea and I for a few more hours, only one more night before Mike comes from his quest for a classic car (which means that I will have to make supper again and I can not stay at the workshop all night, only another week before income tax is overdue, only a week and a half until the new kits go up and this madness starts all over again...
2) cold beer. See list above, not even unlimited cold beer can help me out of this month's mess, but it certainly does help. I can not do income tax without beer and cigarettes - in vast amounts. That is why I have Edna,my accountant. She takes the edge off and tells me that I am not really going to jail if all of this does not get done on time!
3) white out. I never like to be a position that I have less that three unused white out dispensers. Crossing things out makes me anxious. I have to white mistakes out and have everything look neat and tidy. Edna is bringing back up white out tonight!
4) fresh mozzarella cheese - I can not get any right now and it is driving me crazy. There is only one kind that I like and I have depleted all of the sources in Southern Alberta, as apparently it is only available at Christmas time. Who is in charge of something like this? I want to complain. How can you only make a product at one time of the year? Stupid cheese makers!
5) clean white socks. Because I am basically living in my second home, I am never in my own house long enough to remember that I do not have any clean , white socks. I have tons of other colors, but they play second fiddle to my white ones. It just starts the day off on the wrong foot (no pun intended) if I have to wear dark socks. It's sort of like having a bad hair day or having to use the wrong flavor of toothpaste, because you are out of your favorite kind. By the way, whomever thought of cinnamon toothpaste is a genius!
6) printer ink. Between myself and Monday Night Class, we own and operate seven printers that are in my workshop or in my house. Only two of them take the same ink. My ink bill exceeds my food bill for my family every month, even if you throw in a tank of gas or two as well. I NEVER have the right combination of ink when something runs dry, which at shipping time is about once a day. Even the office products in Pincher Creek can not keep enough stock to accommodate me. We alternate going around the room and trying different machines, to see if we can squeeze a few more copies out. Today alone, we ran two printers out!
7) Cheezies. Straight up my favorite snack of all time, which I am out of tonight, after staying up late last night doing books with Edna. I am leaving for town right after I finish this, to get more before tonight's bookwork marathon. If Hawkins ever stops making Cheezies, I will undoubtedly starve to death.
8) episodes of Diners, Drive Ins and Dives, my all time favorite cooking show on Food Network TV. Got both cookbooks, love Guy Ferreri, and before I die, I am going to visit some of the diners that intrigued me the most from the show. Now, thanks to my perm, I also am sporting the same hairdo as Guy!
9) Rubber Maid totes - never met one that I didn't like, couldn't resist buying and then lost! Monday Night Class must own about fifty Rubbermaid totes that are out there floating around in the world some where. Mike always complains that he should have bought shares in the company, because we would be rich. Little does he know! We'd own the company!
10) Ta da!!! My favorite thing in the world that I could never have enough of - Windex!!! I will go to my grave and never have to be embalmed from all of the Windex that has leached into my system. I love how it eats glue on workshop tables, dissolves ink and grime and in general will clean anything you want. I buy it two big bottles at a time at Costco and then still have break through purchasing in between (and I go to Costco a lot!). Maybe that is why I have no fingernails, the Windex has eaten them ???

That is why I am going to live forever. With all of the bleach, beer, Cheezies and Windex in my system, no self respecting germ is going to stand a chance at invading my body. I will be preserved forever!

Bad Hair Day - OMG - Really, Bad Hair Day

2010-04-15T14:20:00.001-07:00

Okay, I wish that I had a picture of this one to show you. I don't know why, other than maybe I just wanted a change, I asked my hair dresser if my hair was in good enough shape to perm. She assured me that my full, beautiful head of hair was in excellent shape and although I specifically said that I wanted a WAVE in my hair, it didn't turn out that way.
About half way through, when the perm solution ran into my eye and caused excruciating pain, I had buyer's remorse, but by then the cold, stinky solution was running down the back of my shirt, all over my arms (as I tried, unsuccessfully) to hold a towel over my eyes to prevent what eventually happened anyway. I was past the point of no return and entering the zone of dead head. My hair couldn't look worse, unless it was stuck to one of those taxidermy animals. A water buffalo might like my hair, or if they need some dead looking fur to make a Sasquatch out of, I have a donation to make.
It looked pretty dam scary when she gave me my glasses back, but I thought that I had better not gasp and break into tears, so I waited to see what she would do with it. By the way, my bangs did not curl at all ( you must be getting the picture by now) and so they were flat, the rest was an afro.
But, not just a curly afro, the perm solution had leached all of the color out of my hair. I knew that it would lighten my hair and that is why we were perming it two weeks before my next scheduled cut & color. But, the bizarre shade of GOLD that was achieved, even frightened the hair stylist! She quickly suggested that we cut some of it off - so I lost a couple of inches right at that time. With it being so curly, it "boinged" up so that it looked considerably short than it was. Then my stylist applied lots of goop to my hair and sent me home. I didn't look in the mirror all the way home and went directly to the bathroom.
This is what I saw: flat bangs and then a "wedge" of curly hair that stuck two feet past my shoulders, two inches of grey roots, topped off with a ridiculous shade of coppery/gold. I knew that I could not wash it for two days and whatever she had put in it had now made it "crunchy". I tried to put it in a ponytail, but had a hard time fitting a regular size elastic hair band around the bushy, crunchy, golden/grey mess. When I finally got it roped in, I put it in a comb and then took another peek in the mirror. The crunchy ends were now sticking straight up about four inches over my head and I looked like I had been electrocuted and that I should see smoke coming out of my hair at any minute. I lived like this for the two required days. Megan just about wet herself when she saw me at the workshop.
Then, finally, I got to wash it!! Bad idea! The parts of my hair that had previously been highlighted turned into something that I told Christy looked like frisee lettuce. You know... the white/yellow/green/ curly lettuce that looks like tree roots. It just went bizarrely frizzy all over, in strips ( where the highlights were). Which is a big deal when the rest of your hair is already frizzy and this is EVEN MORE SO!!~ When I tried to pick through the hair with my wide toothed hair pick, the frisee, lettuce hair was all rubbery and elastic and just peeled off my head. In little tangled, rubbery, lettuce looking globs.
Christy stopped laughing long enough to suggest that I take a photo. What a friend! I am going to have to get it all cut off, because even after slathering it with conditioner and wrapping it in a towel for the night, I woke up this morning to more rubbery hair peeling off. I am so screwed...

Catching Up At Home

2010-04-14T15:32:00.000-07:00

Sooooo, being gone for a week definitely has its ups and downs! What a lot of work I came back to! Dead plants, 159 emails, dust every where, unmade beds (from Megan and her friends house sitting) no dog food (did not find out until we were home and so I had to go back to town) , no food left, but plenty of beer and wine in the fridge (courtesy of Megan) and no scrapbook fairy had come and prepped kits!!

It has taken pretty much all of these past two weeks to feel like I was on top of things again. Debbie, Andrea and I tied into the kits and we are almost ready to ship! The email box is EMPTY!!! I am finally caught up, and I even cooked supper last night instead of having cereal for the third night in a row. I am surprised that Mike just doesn't move out!! He eats in town so much around shipping week that I think we own a table at our favorite restaurant!

I wish that I would have had my camera with me today! Mike called me about 11:00am and told me that Rona had called and the freight guy had dropped off a "huge" pile of stuff and they were wondering if I was coming in today. That should have been my first clue - why would a lumber yard (big, big, lumber yard) be concerned about my scrapbooking freight. But I went in any way, because I don't want to make the staff deal with my mess. Well, I can see why they were alarmed. It was a WHOLE PALLET FULL!!! I am talking, move it with a fork lift type pallet. It seems like both suppliers decided to send the Monday Night Class freight on the same day. Holy shit - I don't even want to look at the invoices. I am pretty sure that we could have bought a truck cheaper.

There is so much, I don't even have any where to put it until we are done shipping next week. We loaded it all in the back of mike's truck and I parked in the garage when I got home. My car is full, Mike's new truck is FULL, and our farm truck with the topper is full. At this rate, MNC is going to have to buy another storage vehicle or a cargo trailer. Can't get the covered cargo trailer - Mike would want to take it to Vegas to the Barrett-Jackson sale!!!! Forget I said that!

I Love Being A Country Girl!

2010-04-10T15:58:00.001-07:00

Okay, I am glad to admit that city life is not all that it is cracked up to be. I thought living in Lethbridge for a week would be fun, but it was EXPENSIVE and I can not believe that I am saying this - I got tired of shopping. ME!!!!! After seven days of shopping, I was through with it for a while. My purchases almost did not fit in the truck. My credit card was groaning after two days, and so I robbed Mike's wallet and went through all of his money too! Luckily, I have a VERY understanding husband!!
Of all my purchases, my favorite thing was the placemats and table runner that I scored at Pier 1. Marked down from $11.95 per placemat to $1.48. Gotta love that!!!! Mike just rolled his eyes when I brought them back, all excited and such. He knows that they probably never will be used, but they will look really pretty sitting on my oak dining room table. I have pillows with pillowcases that he is not allowed to use, bath towels that just hang and look pretty and now these beautiful velvet placemats that will never see a crumb. Guys just don't get it!! I guess that is why every good shirt that I have ever bought him has a barbed wire tear or a grease stain . Would he ever think of changing out of his good clothes to put on something that he could fix the baler with. Guys!! Another thing that they don't get is the concept of summer and winter clothes. They just have clothes. Period. The whole idea of light versus dark clothes are lost on them!
My most favorite meal of the week was at Fire Stone and included the Al Forno Mussels and the mini doughnuts. My least favorite thing was Mike watching the Barret-Jackson auto sale on TV for three solid days because now he wants to go to Vegas in September and buy his hot rod.
I bought so many cool kitchen gadgets and tools that all I want to do is bake for a week now, however, it is prepping week next week and then shipping, so my big expensive baking book (the most I have ever paid for a book, don't tell Mike) is going to have to wait until the end of the month! Something to look forward to!

I Love Being A City Girl!!!

2010-04-01T19:34:00.000-07:00

Today is my third day of being a city dweller, as Mike and I are staying in Lethbridge while he undergoes four treatments at the Haig Medical Clinic. Today, I also underwent tests to see why my vision has changed dramatically in the past month or so.

So far, we have driven out to Green Tree Garden Centre, where I bought some herb plants for my windowsill and for Mojiotos (not sure if I spelt that right), shopped around Pier 1 and Winners, by myself, with all of the time in the world and went out for MANY great meals!!! My favourite find, so far, is the mini doughnuts from Firestone Restaurant. YUMMMM!

I still have lots of things on my list that I want to do - tomorrow I am going to go and buy a coffee in Starbucks and sit and read a book from the Chapters portion of the building. I have always thought that would be so cool. Nothing but time on my hands and a good food magazine - heaven!!! (That is, if my eyes are co-operating!) In the evening, I am planning on going to the movies, the Bounty Hunter is my pick. Then I am going to order the mini doughnuts from room service and read another magazine or two.

Saturday, I am going shopping again -probably will have to buy a new pair of jeans, as I am eating a lot on this trip. I am going to lounge my way through a couple of kitchen stores that I spotted down town and spend the rest of the day enjoying high speed Internet in the motel. God, do I love the Internet!!! I just spent two hours on the Martha Stewart website this afternoon, don't tell my optometrist, I was supposed to rest my eyes this afternoon. Shush! Don't tell!!! You have to realize that is a BIG deal to me, as I do not have, and can not get high speed at my house because of the mountains. Sunday is going to be more shopping and food related activities. Today, I googled "food vacations" and found out that I can take week long cooking classes in Nova Scotia this summer. High speed could get me into a lot of trouble! Monday is Mike's last session before we go home, although we have to come back Thursday again for our respective results. Then I will officially a farm girl again and all of this fun will come to an end. I am seriously thinking that I am going to have to go home and perfect that mini doughnut recipe!!!

Friday Sucked!!!

2010-03-22T15:43:00.000-07:00

Friday was not my best day at all - I was just working away on the shipping, minding my own business and everything went wrong. First, I usually go to Mike's doctor's appointments with him, but this Friday was shipping and so he had to go alone. We had been all encouraged by the new doctor that we had seen the week before, he had many ideas of how we could change things up for Mike to get a little relief from his chronic leg pain. However, the new doctor was not WCB friendly and could not write up orders for Mike, but that was no problem, Mike was going to see his surgeon doctor on Friday anyway and all he needed to do was run the suggestions by Dr. Hurdle and then he could prescribe the treatments and drugs. I wrote up the list and Mike faithfully took it to his appointment.
To make a long story, short, Dr. Hurdle did not approve of the drugs that has been suggested, and after some discussion, Mike found out that he (Dr. Hurdle) had actually concocted that drug and DID NOT want Mike even trying it. I guess he should know, being the creator of the drug. Then he told Mike that there was a year long wait to get into the Calgary Pain Clinic and so that was very discouraging. He could put Mike's name on a list, but there was no getting there any earlier. THEN he said that in his opinion, the best thing to to would be to take the leg off above the knee, something that we had been dreading for a very long time. he had recommended it before, but Mike did not want to lose his knee and so they had compromised with "below the knee" in December, instead of what he really wanted to do. Mike was devastated!!!!
That evening, because I could not be home, I phoned Megan to see if she could swing by and spend some time with her Dad and try to cheer him up - but she was dealing with an enormous problem of her own and was crying when she answered the phone. Not the best person to send out to the farm to cheer up Mike!!!! Scrapped that idea!!
So here we go again, another surgery, another set of staples, another hospital stay and a whole 'nother set of problems to deal with - including a new leg, that requires a prolonged stay in a rehabilitation facility to teach him to walk with and operate a much more complicated leg. Not to mention dealing with all of the emotions, seeing as the last amputation was only December 17th, and it had gone so horribly wrong. Yikkes!!! I think that I need to start drinking!

This Is What Shipping Day Looks Like

2010-03-18T10:52:00.001-07:00

This is the typical last day of shipping - stuff all over the place, piles and piles and piles. Yesterday was a bad, bad shipping day. Actually, I phoned Christy and quit. But she wouldn't let me, so I took a break, calmed down and went back to work. Everything was going wrong, we found last minute mistakes in two kits and had to pull them all out of orders that we had finished (even had to open a few boxes that were destined for Canada Post) and fix the problems. I hope we got it all right!!

On the plus side, having all of the room in the new workshop is a real blessing, as we are not tripping over each other trying to work. In the end, hopefully, it all worked out, even though we are a little behind schedule at this point. We tripled checked everything this morning, after we had a good night's sleep and now it is out of our hands. In a few hours, all of this will be gone and on the way to a lot of scrapbookers. I always wonder if after we send out our baby kits, if the languish in some one's craft room, or if they are attacked as soon as they arrive and get turned into a fabulous scrapbook layout. This could be a new topic for Kimberly's Monday Night Class blog - are you a consumer or a hoarder? I used to be a consumer - I bought a lot of scrapbook products, but in all honesty, I used a lot of product, as I used to complete about 10 albums a year. Now I am a hoarder. I don't have time to pull it out nearly as often as I used to. But summer is coming and it is almost time for Scramping!!!

What Makes Me Mad?

2010-03-15T16:29:00.000-07:00

Have you ever just been sitting there and you are in a foul mood, and then you realize that something is making you tense and making you feel this way? But nothing really bad has happened, so you can't really put your finger on what is upsetting you? Well, that happens to me a lot. I was sitting watching TV with Mike the other night and a gardening show was on HGTV. All of a sudden, I felt tense and crabby and I didn't really know why. So I said to Mike "What was the last thing that you said to me?" To which he replied, "Nothing, I'm just sitting here watching TV. Why?" "Because I am mad at you right now, and I don't know why" I replied. Mike almost fell off his chair laughing. "Oh, great, now I can get in trouble just sitting here!" he laughed.
It took another 10 minutes and a couple of commercials before I figured it out. On the program, they were showing a back yard reno with a new fence - that was it! I hate the fence around our yard and I guess subconsciously when they panned around the yard and showed the new fence, I tensed up because it reminded me how much I hate the fence that we have. When I told Mike that it was the fence in the program that had made me mad, he went into hysterics and remarked that for sure it had to be his fault somehow, because I didn't like our fence.
Today at work, I had another one of those moments. I have a big, long closet called "The Pantry" when I store all of the completed Monday Night Class kits. It is narrow and long and hard to navigate well, seeing as there is a huge fricken tool cart in there that has sat there all through the workshop renos. It has come in pretty handy, as all of the screw drivers and hammers and nails have sat on it and you could just go and grab whatever was needed. No one has taken anything off of it in the last two months, however. Yet every time that I go to get a kit, my pants or belt snags on the cart as I try to squish past it. Today it tore my jeans. I could have beaten it with a sledge hammer, I was so mad. Those were my best jeans! How many times have I manoeuvred around that darn thing, without realizing how mad it was making me? So, at lunch I took it out, put it in the back of the truck and took it home. This afternoon, I had to go and get a kit for shipping, and guess what? I walked right in. There was plenty of room, I easily reached the kit and I was out in a minute. Why had I let that cart irritate me for so long?????
So, in March, I am finally making my New Year's resolution! I didn't have a good one until now. Everything in my life that irritates me is GONE!! (Not Mike, though. I have to keep him for a few more years) but I am going to try and be aware of all of the things in life that make me tense and crabby and inefficient. I am going to fix them, one by one. That is, if I can just remember what is that is pissing me off, in the first place!!!

Another BBQ????

2010-03-12T20:44:00.000-08:00

When Amy submitted this layout, called "The Sweet Taste Of Summer" I could not wait for all of the supplies to come in so that I could make one up of all of the fantastic camping food that we enjoy during the summer, that we never eat the rest of the year. I have some amazing BBQ recipes that we enjoy out at the lake, when we go Scrampin' (scrapbook camping) and on our veranda. I fully intended on photographing the recipes and doing the layout on the food.

Now I am afraid that I am going to have to have a different plan, because guess what? My husband came home with yet another BBQ this week!!!!! That makes a grand total of four BBQ's. The one that we bought last summer has hardly been used, except for the family reunion and the designer's BBQ at the workshop. The stainless steel one that we bought the summer before that, is GLISTENING clean after only about three uses. Then there is the other stainless steel one, with big burners for boiling water in pots for corn and such. The previous summer's model that obviously failed some sort of guy test.

So, now we have a smoker/BBQ that is gynormous and has a big black smoke stack and burns wooden pellets. We also have about three different bags of flavored pellets that came along with it. I have to ask, how many BBQ's does a man need? The jury is out on that one...

Top Ten Things That Made Me Smile This Week

2010-03-05T13:07:00.000-08:00

1) I never thought that I would hear Megan say "I can't afford it right now". Was I hearing things???? Am I getting senile??? I am pretty sure that I heard those exact words come out of her lips this week - and where is she now? Off to Spokane for a shopping trip! Maybe I was hallucinating...

2) After giving my poor Dad a break for the past few weeks, I innocently asked him to built me something - a shelf for above my computer - and he didn't tell me (for a change) that I "have too many ideas". He must be feeling rested again, so now I can hit him up for all of the other things that this workshop needs to make shipping run smoothly! Like bins for the orders that have been pulled, another "coffin" for under the table to store paper in, a pick up box for local ladies etc. etc. etc. (I do have a lot of ideas!) Sorry Dad, back to work!

3) The mud is drying up!!!!!!!!! The front of the workshop looked like a mud bog competition was held here lately. On Monday, five loads of gravel arrived and the sun came out. Yahoo!!!!!

4) Christy fixed my email woes when she was here to pick up kits for all of the events that we are appearing at in the next few weeks. I HAVE FILES TO PUT DESIGN NOTES IN!!! No more deleted emails, girls! I now have a SYSTEM!!!!!

5) I got to meet the manager of the Lethbridge Scrapbooker's Paradise when I went in to drop off their very first selection of Monday Night Class kits and she is very nice. Several days later, I got an email saying that the kits were selling really well and the customers were glad that they were finally there. That really made me smile!

6) I got to take time off and go for a massage this week. Thanks to Simone, I do not hear a "broken glass" sound when I turn my head. I do however, have bruises to prove that my massages are anything but relaxing. I totally had a "no head ache" week and that is something to smile about!

7) My best,best girlfriend is coming to spend the weekend with me and we are going to SCRAPBOOK!! Can't wait for Loretta to get here!!!! I have not got out pictures in ...well, forever!! She is even going to sleep over, so we can scrapbook all night if we want to. Heaven!!!

8) If the weather stays this nice, I am going to wash all of my exterior windows this week. Being able to see through them will make me not only smile, but laugh out loud. Okay, if you saw how dirty they are right now, you would be happy for me too!

9) Mike came over to the workshop with his Rhino and picked up all of the garbage that has been driving me up the wall - bits of hardwood floor and tile, cardboard boxes, underlay and carpet - all of the junk from the reno. Gotta love that guy - one leg and all! He is still stronger, standing on one foot than I am on two good feet. Reed fixed the hot water issues with the floor heating and now we will not be cold any longer. Debbie and Andrea are probably going to be happy next week when we get to ship kits in comfort!

10) I have to say that this is the nicest weather that I can ever remember during calving time. Every farmer in Southern Alberta should be smiling along with me right now!

Time off!!!

2010-03-04T12:38:00.000-08:00

Thanks to our wonderful family, Mike and I played tourist and went to Banff for a holiday. I was slightly nervous about us two hayseeds being on the gold floor of the Banff Springs Hotel, I just didn't think that we would fit in! When we unwrapped the gift certificate at Christmas, I could not believe that the kids would have done something like that! Book us into a place where you have to phone in your pillow preference??? Us??? Really???
I had visions of us rolling up to the main doors, duct taped luggage and all, Mike on crutches...to a place where some of the restaurant's have a dress code of "no denim". Really??? I actually was thinking that I would have enjoyed a few nights at the Ramada in Lethbridge more than this trip. I am a denim girl!!! I have one funeral dress that reluctantly gets pulled out every time that I need an outfit a little dressier than my jeans and hoodie. I don't like dressing up, I don't like unfamiliar places and I certainly don't like swanky places. But Megan wasn't letting us get out of this one!!!
What a surprise, it wasn't anything like I imagined. The whole gold floor was inhabited by English families that were staying at the Banff Springs, because one of their couples were getting married there on the weekend. There were little kids in pajamas running everywhere, even some of the adults were dressed in pj's at breakfast, and the rest were dressed to go snowmobiling and dog sledding as soon as they were finished eating. There were squabbles over finishing their breakfasts and kids with bed head and we fit right in!!!!! They totally put us at ease. Yes, we were still instructed to put our shoes outside the door at night to be polished (we had a good laugh over that one, as Mike has only one shoe and I was in runners) and we had amazing room service and champagne, but all in all, it was not the dreaded experience that I expected!
I may have actually had the best meal that I will ever have in my life! And quite possibly the largest, because I just about ate everything on the menu. My appetite has been off since before I left the Inn, I think stress has played a big part in killing my desire to eat. I just don't look at food the way I used to. Well, for what ever reason, my appetite reappeared that evening - in the most expensive place you could imagine. I think that Mike must have been slightly alarmed at me ordering so much food, but the atmosphere was perfect, the candlelight was beautiful, the window seat in the restaurant was awe inspiring and the food was to die for!!! So I ate my body weight! Even had two desserts!!
The ultimate best part of the trip was the fact that the holiday included a professional photo of the two of us - something that we have not had done since Megan was just learning to walk. The entire experience was so relaxing (I slept for three days straight, before I woke up and decided that I wanted to look around) and so enjoyable that I can only say "thank you, thank you, thank you" to everyone who made it possible!!

Surprise!

2010-02-13T16:56:00.000-08:00

For the very first time ever, I think that Mike was truly surprised by his gift for Valentine's Day. while he was at a doctor's appointment, Andrew and I sneaked a very large sheet of steel

and a bunch of metal into the farm shop. After much welding and painting, it transformed into a big black shop bench for Mike's new farm shop. Andrew did an amazing job of the welding and after a few coats of black paint and the attachment of the vise that Mike had bought years ago, we were able to take pictures of the table. Mike couldn't come out to see it in person, so I went and took photos and then printed off the pictures. We actually surprised him - which is a very hard feat! It also was a good idea to take the photos while the fumes were still thick in the air, as just minutes after we left the shop, our three pesky cats crawled all over the table and left little foot prints in the wet paint! I don't know who was more pleased with the gift - Andrew or Mike.

The new farm shop has been on Mike's wish list for a very long time, but it was not until December, just before his surgery, that he needed a "make work" project to keep himself busy and his mind off of the upcoming surgery. We started by pouring the cement floor and then a company came and sprayed insulation on the walls and ceilings. A few thousand dollars later, the electricians got it wired for Mike's welder and now all it is waiting for are lights and plug ins. I have been told that it is going to be much nicer to fix broken down balers and farm implements in and that Mike is going to build all kinds of stuff there. Now, if it came with a "helper" (not me) I could get excited about it!

I Told You So

2010-02-08T11:44:00.000-08:00

This is what I was looking at when a scrapbook store got dropped in my workshop, just two weeks before shipping!!! It was crazy! The cupboards that you can sort of see in the background house all of the supplies for Monday Night Class, so you can tell just how difficult it was to access anything!

Can you even see the tables that are under all of this crap? No wonder it took so many people to reorganize and sort all of this stuff. Where did it all go? Out in fifth wheel trailers, of course. Andrew was very cautious when he borrowed his to me. When he asked how long I would need it and I answered "For a while", he promptly asked how long a while was. I think that he has visions of going camping this summer with boxes of cardstock still being stored in his trailer. he might not be far from wrong!

I'm BacK!!!!

2010-02-05T13:48:00.000-08:00

Can it be two months since I had the time to sit down for a few minutes and collect my thoughts? Whew!!! When you are right in the thick of it, you just keep on going, no matter how tired you are or how bad you hurt. Then when it is over, you can not imagine that you survived the whole thing!
My month from hell started with the last weekend that I worked at the Bloomin' Inn. It was stressful and sad and happy and a whole big ball of mixed emotions. Moving the store came the very next day. May I take this time to thank God for my daughter and a bunch of die hard, best friends who met at the Inn in minus 35 degree weather to pack up my store. I know it was exactly minus 35 degrees, because Caren took a picture of the thermometer in her SUV just to prove it to me!! The plan was to pack the store and leave it overnight sitting in boxes, the boys were going to go the next day with a host of fifth wheels and stock trailers and bring it all home for me. The plan changed in the morning, when Megan got a bee in her bonnet and started sending things home. Before I knew what was happening, my previously clean and organized workshop was piled to the roof with boxes, paper racks, computers, display units, cases of paper - nine years of accumulated junk!!!! I mean...good scrapbooking supplies! My plan to unpack the store over a period of about a month, in a very orderly fashion, went right out the window. Again, thank God for Megan!!! What a trouper.
Before we really had time to deal with the mess and disorganization, it was time for Mike's surgery. I kept him working right up until midnight the night before surgery. I figured he needed to have something to keep his mind off of the upcoming amputation. So we worked and worked and worked. Somehow we managed to clear a spot, about the size of a couch, in the workshop. That gave me hope for the future. I needed to get this all under control before shipping started again after the holidays and I had no idea how long Mike was going to be out of commission.
The surgery was awful, the hospital was noisy and crowded and so as soon as they would release Mike, we left the hospital to heal at home. Things didn't exactly go as planned. With only two days post surgery, Mike was still on a heck of a lot of pain killers when we came home. He did pretty good for the first couple of days and then all hell broke loose. I should have just called the ambulance and had him returned to sender, but he was adamant that he did not want to be in the hospital for Christmas, so I listened to him instead of my head. Had I known that he would not remember four whole days in a row I would have called , so we cancelled our traditional Christmas Eve seafood feast, but the turkey was already thawed and so some of us ate turkey dinner on Christmas day and then everyone went home. Mike does not remember anything about this time. He was right out of it!!! Around New Year's he started to come around and I expected him to live. Honestly, he scared the crap out of me - he had lost over 25 pounds and was gaunt and haggard looking - even more than usual after an amputation.
Then the company arrived - Mike's niece and husband and their family, my brother in law and sisiter in law and their son and his girlfriend. They came to HELP!!!! What an amazing gift to receive, although I don't think that Mathew and his girlfriend knew that they were going to be put to work, they were a real blessing!!!!!!! We turned that workshop on its ear - paper racks got dusted, paper got put out, cardboard boxes got broken down, stock got put out. What a lot of crap got thrown away!!!! We worked night and day until everything was in its rightful place. After New Years, everyone had to go home, but all was right in my world. I never could have done it with out Mike's family and my Mom and Dad. We were ready for shipping, even made it on time, but not without a lot of hard work.
This week, I really feel like I have won the battle. My house is in order, the workshop is clean, the kits are just waiting for instruction sheets, Mike has gained back a few pounds. All is well in my world - and I'm back!!!!!!!!

My Very Last Weekend

2009-12-05T11:43:00.000-08:00

I would love to be able to put in words the emotions that I am feeling this weekend, as I prepare to say good bye to the Bloomin Inn and get ready for leaving for the surgery, moving the store and all of the last minute details that fall before Christmas holidays. Who am I kidding? We will probably be in the hospital right up to Christmas Eve and just how am I going to be able to get all of the shopping done? I know that the kids will be understanding, but it is still Christmas and they will want presents, a tree up and some sort of a meal.
This was not exactly how I imagined my last weekend would go - a blizzard that prevented over half of the ladies from getting here, and some ladies who drove 5 hours through hell to avoid being charged for their weekend. I can't comment on the "new rules" other than to say that it was unfortunate that message was conveyed to them. (Not by me!) My big 1/2 price sale was dead in its tracks. Now I have to pack all of this up and move it to the MNC workshop. Yuck!!!
I am so far behind, it is not even funny. I still have not had a minute to get the recipes up on the website - but they are coming!!!! I promise!!!

Oh, Please God, Do not let me get sick!!!!

2009-11-01T09:55:00.000-08:00

I am starting to freak out a little bit. First Dad came back from a sheep hunt in the NWT with a wicked head cold and flu symptoms, then he passed it on to Mom. Sorry, I normally would be a good daughter and take over some food or stop and see if they needed anything - but HELL NO!!!! I am not going within a mile of that farm!
Then Andrew missed a week of work with the flu, but luckliy for me, he was flat out in bed and had Vanessa to care for him and see that he did not die. I talked to him on the phone a couple of times, but unlike a caring Mom, I let him fend for himself.
Then Megan and I spent two days painting trim at the workshop and I decided that I needed a baker's rack for one wall. While we were Googling to find the baker's rack, I noticed that her nose was lightly running. I warned her not to go out on Halloween night in her SKIMPY costume ( of course, every 19 year old girl has to wear about six square inches of fabric) and get hammered and then come down with something horrible. Well, little did I know, it was too late already for my old lady advise.
Halloween morning, Megan was already in the hospital, half dead and needed fluids and stuff to calm her stomach down. She missed the big Halloween party at Twin Butte and she had to phone me to tell me that it was all my fault (????) The workshop was too cold, apparently. Marcie had to go and look after her because she was so sick. I just spent two whole days with her. Shit!!!
I just talked to her and she was crying because she feels so bad and she has to clean a commercial building tonight and then read meters for Alta Gas tomorrow. I guess that I will go and clean the property for her, but I am not going anywhere near her!!!!!!!!
I have desserts to bake this week, kits to prep for shipping and a whole lot of painting to do in the workshop and house. Then pick up Edna and Debbie and head to the crop. I CAN NOT BE SICK!!! Of course, my imagination is running away with me and my eyes feel scratchy and my nose was running yesterday. Am I paranoid, or what???
To top it all off, there have been a lot of women at the Inn that have been sick during the weekend. I have been avoiding everybody that even looks tired! I just hope that Megan is feeling well enough to cover for me when I leave for the Jingle Bell Crop!

Painted Ponies

2009-10-17T18:47:00.000-07:00

All through the summer and fall, Megan and Marcie have been keeping Flash and Flint in shape for us. With Mike's leg keeping him from riding, our horses have been getting a little "robust". The girls like to get off work, grab something to eat and catch the horses for an evening ride. Quite often, after dark, I will hear the "clop, clop" of Flash's shoes on the hard road and the laughter of the girls as they ride home in total darkness.

I can't imagine life any other way, we are so privileged to live in the country and enjoy the perks of being on a farm. I don't miss the cows!! Mike made me sign a piece of paper, stating that he could buy his precious cows back as soon as he was up and walking. That was the morning that the cattle liner was coming down the road to pick up all of the honory old b-------s. I hope that day never comes when we have to go back to using the horses for work and not for pleasure!

I don't really get why Mike is so adamant that he needs to have them back. You like freezing your butt off, carrying a frozen calf to the barn while his retarded mother tries to eat you alive? You love trying to cut the pairs out of the herd and push them into the big field when the frozen air from the Arctic is blowing down your back and chilling you to the bone? Or trying to pull frozen baler twine off big round bales that are solidly frozen to the ground? Or getting pooped on by a scouring calf that stinks to high heaven? Or sitting at a fall calf sale, thinking that you are going to puke and wondering if you are going to have to plead bankruptcy? I like my cattle, triple A, flash frozen, in a neat little package and I don't mind paying some other poor dumb farmer to raise it for me! Cows? I say, bullshit!

Too Concerned About Clean?

2009-10-17T15:40:00.000-07:00

My girl friend, Loretta swears that the reason why my children were so sickly as youngsters is that I kept my house too clean and the kids did not have an immunity to germs that were out in the "real" world, just outside the door to the sterile environment that I had created.
I had to chuckle this week when I finally got around to reading some of the magazines that I buy for a "rainy day" but never get around to looking at them. An article caught my eye in Mother Earth News about a renegade farmer, hauled off and procescuted for selling raw milk off of his farm. I had to agree with the writer, today's mentality about dirt, germs and protecting kids from everything will be the cause of extinction of humans at some point.
I don't think that my cleaning fettish has anything to do with being a germaphobe, I just like things neat and orderly and clean. My kids dug their own carrots out of the garden and wolfed them down with grubby little hands, they drank raw milk all of the time, I made angel food cakes with cracked eggs (God forbid!), they played in the milk barn while we were milking and only got kicked a time or two and I know that Andrew used to drink out of the dog dish before he could reach the hydrant and turn it on by himself. They had Beaver Fever from playing in pond water, they got wormed on a regular basis (like any farm kid should, whose favorite place to play with the John Deere tractors is the manure pile!) and I am sure that the boys had a bug eating contest once or twice. It didn't kill them. But I am not so sure that the lethal amounts of hand sanitizer that is flowing around here, would have made them healthier.
This past week, all toys, magazines and newspapers have been removed from all of the offices in Pincher Creek. Hair salons, dentist's offices, coffee shops - no one escaped the purge. Computer keyboards have to be cleaned between users at the library etc. etc.
If Loretta's theory is correct and we have an H1N1 outbreak in town, then we are all going down. We will be so immune suppressed from the cleaning products and removal of all germs in our environment, we won't stand a chance. One thing is for sure, the farm kids will survive - they are virtual pig pens of germs and they are very happy about it! Just ask any kid playing in a shit pile!

A Little Bit of Heaven

2009-10-03T20:24:00.000-07:00

This is heaven for me!!! Just look at that color and texture. We were just a little too early for all of the scarecrow and pumpkin displays that the fruit stands put up for Halloween, but they were starting to harvest the pumpkin fields and bins were starting to appear in front of the stands. Piles of hay bales were sitting to the sides and so I am sure that when we go back next week, the displays will be complete.

I had so much fun wandering around with my camera, I think that the fruit stands know me by name by now!
When I retire, I am so moving to Creston !!! Unfortunately, they do not have a scrapbook store or even a scrapbook department within one of their stores, but they do have a few very good restaurants and amazing veggies and fruit. We cook all of our meals out of the produce that we buy at the stands. Only five more sleeps!!!!

Hey, I'm Back!!

2009-10-03T17:46:00.000-07:00

It seems like it has been years since I had the time to sit down and blog! As much as I love this time of year, I also get a little stressed by the work load that falls on me when it gets cold and dreary.

Here is my to do list around the farm and yard:

Pickled carrots are all in their jars, looking so fresh with the orange carrots, green dill and the garlic...but the beets are still in the garden. Two rows... and it is cold out there now, and I don't want to go out and get them. If it does not warm up, I might just pretend that they do not exist and let them winter in the garden. No one will notice until spring, when it is time to rotortill and then I will just act surprised!
All of the flowers have been killed in the last frost, and most of them are of the type that will produce 2 million seedlings in the spring, if I just leave them there. All of the heads must be cut down and disposed of, before the November winds blow the seeds everywhere. Trouble is, I have acres of flower beds!
I still have a tree and a couple of perennials that are not in the ground. They must be planted!
All of the hoses must be drained and hung on the fences, so that they survive the cold.
Our old farm dog must make the last and final trip to the vet. She is not going to make it through the winter, and must be put down before it gets cold. I am not looking forward to that duty. I am the only one that will take her. Rex has been with us for 17 years. She really has been around as all of the kids grew up and has been on some pretty wild adventures with them. We lost Daniel in a grain field when he was two and if it was not for Rex, it might have had a very bad outcome! We owe her...
My house needs to be decorated for fall. That should take a couple of days!!
The fifth wheel trailer needs to be winterized after our trip to Creston for Thanksgiving. I hate that job! Bringing in everything that will freeze is a pain in the ass. Then you forget to put it back in the spring. There should be people for this.
My car has to be cleaned for the last time. I do not clean it in the winter. I don't even drive it much either, as I opt for one of the trucks when the roads are bad.
All of the apples have to be picked up off the ground in the yard. It is very bad to leave them there, under the apple trees, to rot - causes all types of mould and blight problems for the trees next season as the spores splash back up onto the tree when it rains in the spring. Millions of apples to pick up!!
I need to wash all of the windows after the flies are gone and at least be able to see out of them. I hate flies!!! This has been a very bad fly season down here this fall. Washing windows in the cold is one of my least favorite jobs, so the thought of cold water running down your sleeves to your armpits is just too much and I have procrastinated for weeks. Maybe I should just wait for the snow to scour the windows clean!

Just thinking about this list makes me tired. I am going to tackle it tomorrow, right now I am going to ignore all of the work and go scrapbook!

30 Years Ago Today

2009-09-17T22:31:00.001-07:00

This morning started with the coolest message left on my answering machine. While I was over at the workshop, stuffing Jingle Bell Crop flyers into all of the kits ( which would have been a really good idea YESTERDAY before all of the packages were sealed ) someone left me a message. When I got home this is something like what I heard:

"Hey Cindy! This is Gloria. Imagine my surprise when I was standing in line at the grocery store, and I start thumbing through a scrapbook magazine and there you are staring out at me.
Do you know that 30 years ago today, we met and became room mates at college and lived together for about a year and a half ? From the photo in the magazine, I think that you are aging really well and look amazing for being "so much older". You also owe me $12.00, you bitch. I had to buy the magazine to read the article to see what has been going on in your life.
Phone me. Gloria"

I laughed so hard! It just made my day!

The First Sign Of Fall

2009-09-03T10:44:00.001-07:00

I can tell that it is September! My mail box is overflowing with emails from ladies that are trying to organize their fall retreats at the Inn - exactly 134 emails today to be exact! It seems like the minute that the children walk out the door to go to school, everyone starts thinking about scrapbooking and getting away for some "one on one time" with their summer photos! I can tell that it is fall, those emails just keep coming!
I have to admit that this summer was a photography dry spell for me! I can't even find a photo that would sum up this summer's activities... because the exciting events of haying and working on the workshop just were too boring to photograph!
The one highlight of the past few weeks was having some of our Monday Night Class designers join me at the workshop for a planning session/BBQ and I don't think that anyone took any pictures! Shame on us! What a difference it makes to have everyone under one roof - to bounce ideas around, make a few decisions, plan for upcoming months and hand out materials. We really are a close knit team, it was great to spend time together and laugh at each other! Mike cooked us a mean steak, we had lots of "beverages" and we actually got some work done! The best part was that the electricians finished the wiring just the night before everyone arrived and so we had power, ceiling fans and lights in the building. We got to test out the new lighting system and see if you could really see true colors at 2:00am in the morning. Guess what? It was so bright that I am surprised that there were not planes circling the building, thinking that it was a landing strip! The bad part about that was that every moth in Southern Alberta was attracted to the bright windows and it looked like something out of a horror movie!
This month, we are going to be able to use the workshop for the whole shipping event. I am so looking forward to all that space! Now the next big hurdle will be getting the heating all hooked up before the weather turns cold. Then we can start moving all of the supplies from the "house" part to the workshop part.
Next weekend, Mike and I are heading out to Creston to enjoy a few days of vacation. Hit some fruit stands, do some shopping and just relax. Then I'll get to take some photos!!!! I am so excited!!!!

10 Random Things I Love About Summer

2009-08-21T17:39:00.000-07:00

I Love...

- my veranda - it looks so funny to see this photo, taken in June, with the vines and plants barely covering the ground. It is a RIOT of color all summer long, you can hardly see the house by August as the vines have totally taken over. The perfect place for cats to nap, me to read and as of the other night's incident, bats to hide out in the hanging basket. Yikes!! What a shock, when the cat lept from the plant stand into the hanging plant and grabbed a full grown bat in its mouth, came crashing down and ran away with the squealing bat. I am going to check out the plant much more closely from now on when I go to water it!!!

- to see the girls riding down the road in the evening. At least twice a week, Megan and Marcie come out to the farm after supper to go for an evening ride. I love to hear the sound of the horses shoes on the hard packed road, and see their swishing tails as they try to keep away the mosquitoes.

- to hear the whine of the silage machines working in the fields to the east of us. From our vantage point on the hill, we can see about 30 miles or more to the east. Beautiful fields of grain and the high pitched whine of the choppers make me so happy to live in the countryside!

- the smell of the gardens. At night, the air is thick with the fragrance of blossoms that have baked in the sun during the day and are now cooling off and taking a break from the heat. Everything has grown so well this summer with all the rain. The weeds are giving me a real run for my money, though. Thank God for Wendy, my gardener, who comes out about once a week to help me from disappearing into a jungle!

- to go for an evening walk. With the ridiculous haying season this year, we are still baling and cutting in the evenings, as long as the dew permits. After Mike goes back to the field and I clean up the supper dishes (oh, what the hell, I might as well admit that we have been eating off of paper plates since the family reunion ) I walk down to the hay field to ride around for the last few rows. The smell of ripening hay is one of my favorite smells, even though it makes me sneeze. I have been trying to get in an extra 500 steps every day and so even just that walk helps out the total for the week.

- baby beet greens and Swiss chard - Mike and I could eat them every night for supper. However, I hate washing them, so we plant the rows, weed the rows and then plow the majority of them under in the fall, after they are all tough and stringy. But, the few meals that we do enjoy - we really ENJOY!!!

- the sunflowers in my yard are one of the highlights of the summer for me. How can you be in a funk if there are sunflowers around!! I planted all different colors and varieties, in the back of every flower bed in the yard. Then I painted the front and side door of my house yellow. It caused quite a stir in the neighborhood, as no one "got" the yellow doors. "It will all make sense when the sunflowers are blooming" I told them. Trouble was, I forgot to tell Wendy (my gardener) that I had planted them and she weeded them all out when they came up. The only ones that are left are the four rows of sunflowers in the garden that I planted in rows to cut for vases in the summer. Next year, everyone will understand about the yellow doors, as Wendy and I will be on the same page!!!

- Payne Lake tops my list of summer favorites. We are going there on Monday for a few days of camping - just Mike and me and my scrapbooking supplies. Loons on the lake, calling to each other in the dusk is the most hauntingly eerie sound. I just love it!!! I am counting the minutes until Monday morning. If that damn hay is not baled - I really don't care, I am going to the lake. With or without my husband, that trailer is leaving!

- flip flops and sandals - every color of the rainbow. I have so many that I have to store them in suitcases after the summer season. If I had a buck for every time that Mike stares at my feet and says that he could not have something stuck between his toes, I'd be rich!

- my cool basement office. This year, I have not hid out there as often as I usually do. My 13 x 19 printer and computer are down there and when it gets too hot outside to weed or water, I retreat to the cool of the basement and print photos, play with Photo shop, or do some journaling for my pages. The tile floor in my office keeps it at the perfect temperature and I can waste a whole day down there (while my family is slaving away on some scorching hot roof). I don't feel guilty in the least...I am technically working, aren't I?

I LOVE My Workshop

2009-08-20T16:52:00.000-07:00

So this was the first shipping session that we have been able to complete all of the orders in our new space. I started on Wednesday, because Dana had to work at another job, and we finished all of the orders before 2:00pm on Thursday. That has to be a new MNC record!!!! The reason that we were able to kick butt was the amazing space that we now have in the workshop! It was so easy to alphabetize and sort, when you have unlimited counter space. (I love my Dad!) It was also easy to walk down the isles and check the delivery instructions. It was just sweet! The only drawn back was that the lighting and the plug ins are not hooked up and I did not realize just how early it is getting dark these days. We also had to run some electrical cords for the calculator and the visa machine, but it was only a minor problem. I can tell that we are going to be able to do our work in half of the time and with so much more accuracy than before. I just love our new digs!

Free Loaders

2009-08-16T22:54:00.000-07:00

These are photos of my two, free loaders that actually have been enjoying the summer on the farm! When I come back (in another life) I want to come back as one of the cats in my family...imagine getting to lay on a plant stand, on a shaded veranda all summer long, the smells of mint, oregano and thyme perfuming the air, hummingbirds flitting overhead to the feeder and nothing at all to do but sleep and laze around. Someone feeds you breakfast, a little morning nap, watch a few hummingbirds for entertainment (don't bother to even try and chase them, as you know that lunch will be served later on), an afternoon nap, groom yourself a little, stretch to get the kinks out and then have a late afternoon nap. What a life!

Sylvester and Marmalade came to live with us because they knew that life was easy around here. Sylvester was actually Marcie's, but she could not take him to college, he was not a street wise city cat, so he came to live with us last September when Marcie enrolled in accounting at LCC. Marmalade was a little kitten that Megan and Katrina found on a roadside when they were reading meters for Alta Gas. They took pity on him, as he was pretty small and saved him by bringing him home.

I don't know why people feel the need to bring all stray animals to our farm, but they keep coming! Res (my dog) was brought home by Daniel, after he was found wandering in a field on the Brocket Indian reservation (get it? Res is short for reservation!). Daniel just never came back and got him and he became very attached to me. We finally paid to get him neutered, then paid about $400.00 to get all of the porcupine quills removed from his mouth and throat when he attacked a porcupine. (Stupid ____ dog!) One day I had enough, and tied into Daniel when he showed up, demanding that at least he could buy some dog food if he expected us to look after his dog. The next day Daniel showed up with a GIANT bag of dog food and dumped it on the porch floor with a scowl. "Is that good enough?" he growled. Imagine my surprise when at the end of the month, I got our bill from the Co-op and he had charged the dog food to us!!! Seriously! From that point on, I considered Res to be "our" dog, knowing full well that Daniel was never going to accept responsibility for him.

Our last free loader is Rex, our old farm dog - really, really old farm dog. As a pup, she had a bad habit of chasing and killing cats. We tried everything to break her from her killing cats. Nothing worked. Until someone told us that maybe she could be trained in the same manner that farm dogs were trained when they were chicken killers. "Tie the dead cat to her collar" my Uncle Vic instructed me. Let the cat stay there until she can't stand the smell. (At this point I was desperate and so I thought it was worth a try - as disgusting as that sounds). So, the next time that Rex killed two of our black kittens (not little ones, but lanky adolescent cats) Daniel and I got some rope and tied the two cats to her collar. We only made one miscalculation. We left the rope a little too long and there was some "lead" in the rope. When Rex moved around, the cats would sort of "flop". We did it in the evening, thinking that by the next evening, we could release the cats and bury them. What we didn't plan on was the Swanns ice cream man to make his monthly appearance.

So imagine this scene... Rex really likes the Swanns man, because he always gave her treats. She is jumping around his van, anxiously awaiting her reward and the two, black, stone cold, dead cats are flipping and flopping around with every jump that Rex makes. Just enough slack in the rope to make them flop really good with every jump. I realize what is happening, rush to the door to try and call the dog off...the Swanns man takes one look at Rex, with two dead cats flopping all over, puts his van in reverse, speeds out of the driveway and NEVER COMES BACK!!! I am sure that he thought that were the hill billiest, red necked, cat haters that he had ever met. Luckily for me, no police or SPCA agents ever came to haul us off for cat abuse.

The end of the story, Rex is now 18 human years old and those two, black kittens were the last cats that she ever killed and we never got ice cream delivered to our door again! We are probably written up in some "incident" report and black listed from home deliveries for eternity!

Happy 50th, Mike!

2009-08-15T23:46:00.001-07:00

I guess that a good thing to do before you take a significant birthday photo is to ask the subject to remove the toothpick from their mouth!!! What was I thinking? While at the family reunion, Mike turned 50 years old - we did not plan it that way, but what a perfect time to celebrate with his family! Every sibling was there, and Mike was spoiled rotten with gifts. This is the rag quilt that his sister, Joy, made for him. Megan and Murray gave him chrome rims for his Rhino - can you believe that he has a pimped out ATV with fancy rims and a stereo??

I got to thinking about the fact that out of Mike's 50 years, I have been around for 31 of them. Actually more, when you figure that we went to the same school, until he moved to Tofino for the last two years of high school. But officially, either as a girl friend or as a wife, we have celebrated 31 birthdays together. (God, am I ever old!!! )

There has been a lot of milestones during that time...

- Mike bought his roofing company and then later the eavestrough company

- he lost both of his parents, when they were both still very "young" and I have both of mine

- we bought a farm (again, what were we thinking?)

- we sold the roofing company, six years later we started back up again as the person who bought it from us moved away and shut down the company.

- Mike lost two sisters and one brother

- I sold my flower shop after 17 years and became a SAHM for five

- we homeschooled all three of our children from kindergarten through high school (21 years)

- we sold our roofing company to our middle son when he turned 20

- we became empty nesters right after that, as Andrew finally moved out, and to my relief took with him all of the trucks, trailers, dump trucks, ladders and all of the shit that has been blocking my driveway and yard for 20 years. I no longer have to reserve parking to be able to get my groceries into the house!!

- I opened a scrapbook store at the Bloomin Inn and became a stay away wife for three to four days per week for the last NINE years!

- we paid off our home quarter

- Mike had a bad accident that totally changed our lives.

- we sold all of our livestock, except for the horses ( hard on Mike)

- Mike has had two amputations, due to the work accident and is scheduled for one more this fall, but maintains his optomistic attitude and his work ethic. I love that man, even though I make fun of him all of the time.

- I bought a house and had it moved to the farm, to house the headquarters of Monday Night Class and we then put an addition on it, making it the most beautiful scrapbooking space that anyone could imagine. Even though Mike had his doubts about setting up a completely different house, road and yard, ($$$$$$), he loves me enough to support me (even though he thinks that I smoke crack on a regular basis!)

It is hard to believe all that has happened to us and that we survived it all. Happy 50 years, Mike!

The Family Reunion

2009-08-15T19:40:00.000-07:00

It has been a very long time between posts - it has just been more that a little crazy around here for the last two weeks. We started our "summer vacation" officially, with the arrival of Pat and Lorrie and their seven dogs. (only my sister in law would go camping with seven dogs!) They arrived on the Tuesday before the long weekend. We decided to camp at Cottonwood for a few days, before moving to the location where the family reunion/possible battlefield would be taking place. Those few days were quite peaceful. Then on Thursday, we moved to Hiawatha Campground (sounds like a good place for a battle, eh?) which is in the mountains, west of Burmis, Alberta. We had booked all eleven sites at the front of the campground, so that we were all together and could play games and visit.

I sometimes wonder what we spend so much time in planning everything, as it was quite obvious that no one can stick to a plan. Even though the sites were not supposed to be used until Friday, people started arriving early on the Thursday and we were almost half way full, a day ahead of reservations. The poor man running the campground was gracious and didn't seem to mind, even though we started moving fire pits and tables to suit ourselves. Then it rained and rained and rained.

Luckily for us, the worst thundershowers and rain happened late at night and not during the day, when we needed to be out and about and not trapped in RV's. The most "sparks" happened during the day, as people (who obviously second guessed the person put in charge of planning) changed those plans constantly, with regards to events and food. The day that we really needed it to be nice, mother nature did not disappoint us and we were able to meet at the grave site for the interment of Mike's sister, Mary's, ashes. Then it rained and rained

While at the service, I was able to snap a photo of Mike and his six remaining siblings. As you can see, Vivian was our one casualty at the reunion. She took a header out of a 5th wheel trailer and broke both bones in her wrist, and severely compacted all the bones in her hand. A night in the hospital, setting of the wrist early in the AM and without any pain meds, she made it the rest of the weekend (although she self medicated, liberally, with alcohol) and on to the interment. All done without any pain medication. She wouldn't even fill the prescription that the doctor gave her until she got back home to Red Deer. Man, she is one tough cookie! Then it rained and rained and rained.

We got home after the long weekend, just in time to start the push to get ready for the big 4 couple, 170 guest, 50th anniversary party for my parents and three of my Dad's first cousins (who were also married in the same year) Rather than hold four anniversary parties, we combined them for one giant party at my parent's farm. What an extreme amount of work!! These are the signs that led the guests down the road:

The signs said:

Did you remember...

Your supper meds...

your teeth...

your spouse?

There were also signs that directed the "old cronnies" were to park and then signs for the "really old cronnies" and then a sign for the "fat,lazy asses" to park, where they would have to walk quite a bit further. It was hilarious, as was the game of "Goldy Weds" that we had the four couples play, to see which couple had been listening to each other during the 50 years that they had spent together, and which couples had turned their ears off years ago. I had to watch every episode of the Newlywed game for months to come up with enough questions that would stump the four couples. It was a riot!!! Some feuds almost broke out between couples who thought that their spouse should know the answer to a particular question. It was pretty funny when my mom told the crowd that the first New Years Eve that my parents spent together as a couple was one year after I was born!!!! It was a calculating error that caused the answer, not a revelation to the family that I was illegitimate!! The best answer happened when my Dad had to run to the bathroom. His best man jumped up and declared that he would fill in for Dad because he "knew everything" about my Dad. The question was "How many natural teeth does your spouse have?" to which Eldon replied "1 -1/2 teeth" - my Mom could have killed him!!

This is a photo that I took of my Mom and Dad, in their yard on the farm - just as much in love as they were when they were wed 50 years ago. My Mom has never had a driver's license, my Dad patiently waits for her wherever they go. They are joined at the hip and always have been. I have never witnessed a fight between the two in all of the years that I have been alive. They bicker about how things should be done, but they NEVER fight. Both of them know the meaning of compromise and they are truly "soul mates".

They answered almost all of their Goldy Wed questions perfectly, but were beat out by Auntie Karen and Uncle Allan, due to the illegal question about the false teeth - way to go, Mom and Dad!!!!

So this was how my last two weeks of summer vacation played out -

- seven days of camping with my husband's family

- seven days of camping with 12 dogs

- cooking for between 25-45 people for all meals ( did I mention 7 days????)

- hosting Mike's 50th birthday supper

- guests from the reunion that did not go home and stayed for another week (at our house)

- clean up house for arrival of anniversary relatives

- set up for 50th anniversary party - two days

- prepare food for 50th party - 170 guests - cook everything but the beef, which was catered

- have house guests during the party

- be the MC of the party, don't eat anything because of nerves, have a few too many drinks. You guessed the rest!

- clean up after party, return borrowed chairs, tables, cooking stuff - one day ( while suffering from a hang over)

collapse.

End of summer vacation - THANK GOD!!!!!!!!!!

Indian Hill

2009-07-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

Look at my baby!! Ain't she pretty? This is my workshop, freshly clad in "Country Lane Red" Hardie siding, nine great big windows in the workroom area - three per side. All of it is mine, all mine - 2650 square feet of prime scrapbooking space! (Filled with Monday Night Class supplies).Unfortunately, this photo was taken from the wrong angle, so you can not see Indian Hill, for which she is named, or the beautiful valley that lies to the west. Come and look inside...

Don't laugh, but this is how I have picked the colors for the walls. I choose all of the Bazzil colors of card stock that I like, antique them a little with paint, make my selection and then take the card stock in to the paint shop and have them duplicate the color on their amazing machinery. In this bedroom, I am trying to achieve the look of the sunflowers. So, I started with Cajun on the top of the wall and now I am choosing a color to paint the wainscoting that will be applied to the bottom of the wall. I lined up all of the card stock and looked at it for about a week, in the different lights of the day before I picked the card stock, on the right, closest to the calendar. I have "Chiffon" walls in the workshop with "Lily Pad" accents. Gotta love Bazzil for their wonderful colors.

Here are my Chiffon walls and my amazing red floor (that damn near killed me) just look at that shine! Notice all of the plug ins and all of the pot lights on the ceiling. It looks pretty bare, right now, but this morning all of the pine cabinets were brought over and set into place. They are not attached to the walls or have their counter tops on yet, but that will happen now that it rained again and the guys can not hay.

This is my Mom getting my green door into position for the card stock room. Dad is behind her putting on the hinges. Now I am on the hunt for an antique glass hardware for the green door. I have been surfing the net looking for one, but I have not found the "perfect" door knob yet. But, believe me, I will! I can't wait to see what is going to happen in the next few days when the moldings, baseboard and the cabinets are finished. Want to come and scrapbook with me???

Mad Cow

2009-07-26T13:24:00.000-07:00

I seriously just witnessed the funniest thing!!! On my way home from the Inn to get some kits for some of the ladies, I have to travel highway 6 for most of the trip. About a mile from our turn off is a farm that is literally almost on top of the highway. It is an old, old farmstead, as they would never allow anyone to build that close to a major highway anymore. As I was approaching the farm, I noticed some dark animal-type thing go running across the road ahead, run up over the highway and down into the opposite ditch, with a person in hot pursuit. I thought it looked like a young colt, but as I slowed down and rolled to a stop, I saw that it was the skinniest, sickest looking yearling that I have ever seen. It was obvious that this poor animal had been sick for a while and the farmer (Jamie) and his teenage daughter (Emma) were doing their best to head the escaped yearling back into the farmyard corral for treatment. I could tell by the way that the animal was running, it couldn't see out of one or possibly both eyes.
Sunday afternoon, highway full of 5th wheel trailers, SUV's and motorbikes, slowing down and piling up on both sides of the unfolding scene. It was causing quite the traffic jam! I was the first car in line, heading south and behind me is a big jacked up 4x4 with a spastic white dog in the back, barking his head off. The yearling keeps running back and forth over the pavement, from one side of the highway to another and no progress is being made. I start pulling on my coat(its drizzling) and getting ready to exit the car to help when I see the motorbikes pull out of the line up and start passing cars. Idiots!! I have chased enough cattle to summer pasture along this highway to know that tourists can be the most impatient, ignorant people on the face of the earth. So for a few split seconds, I cursed the bikers, until I saw that they were coming to help.
So imagine this scene: two Ninja type bikes come forward to assist. They are wearing those aerodynamic helmets that make them look like big, menacing grasshoppers. The yearling "sees" (or senses) the grasshoppers coming at him and FREAKS!!!! He runs and staggers into the east ditch, at which point the big 4X4 behind me crosses the opposite lane and veers down into the ditch, at top speed. At which point the stupid dog figures that they are crashing and leaps out of the back of the truck, starts running around and barking. At which point, the yearling runs out of the ditch and right into the front end of my car. My new Buick Enclave - Tiger Woods chocolate brown version, just like in the commercial. At which point, I am pissed off!!
Jamie is trying to apologize at the top of his lungs by yelling "He's Blind!!", "He's Blind!!" to anyone who can hear above the whine of the Ninja bikes, the barking of the dog and the squealing of the engine of the truck that I believe was now firmly stuck in the ditch. I resisted the urge to shout back "No shit, Maynard!" (But that might not be neighbourly) What did he think? We'all thought the steer was deaf?
The Ninja bikers are driving around like buzzing bees, people are getting out of cars, more bikers start pulling out of line and then the staggering yearling takes off due north - behind my car and the chase proceeds behind me. At which point, I decide that I had better take a look at my car and I drive away. (Not very neighbourly of me, eh?) In my rear view mirror, I can see that the Ninjas are winning and they have the yearling turned around and headed back south. Which is never going to work, because while they were gone, the line up of cars advanced forward and are now blocking the entrance to the farm lane. Go figure! Dumb tourists!! As I go over the hill, I just had to chuckle, I wonder what that yearling thought he was seeing when those grasshopper helmets came at him.
All the way home, I kept thinking about how I was going to explain this one. But, luckily my car is fine and a hour later when I came down the hill, headed back to the Inn, the highway was clear, the truck was out of the ditch and I could see Jamie and Emma over at the corrals and in the corral was one skinny, red brockle faced steer. Mission accomplished!

My Third Week of "Vacation"

2009-07-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, I may be a bit spoiled and sometimes I do whine and snivel, but I really am getting a bit crabby due to the fact that my holidays are all but gone and not even one day has felt like a vacation! This summer sucks!!! Big time!!!!

Monday - Get up early and drive down to the Inn to see if all of the boxes and totes that are destined for Calgary will fit into Colleen MacDonald's car. Parked beside each other, the two cars do not look anything alike, as far as cargo capacity goes. Colleen assures me that she can fit everything in, but I think that she is going to have to leave both girls behind to do it! Holy, Moly, can she ever pack a car. Half an hour later, I convinced that she has a magic wand, everything fits and both girls can go home with their mom. Call Christy and leave message with daughter, for Christy to call me BEFORE she leaves the city to meet me (Christy is at the Doctor's office, so I don't call her directly). Need to head her off, so that she does not start driving to Nanton to meet me to pick up the kits. Get busy visiting with Colleen and do not realize that Christy has never called back. At noon, Christy phones to assure me that she is "almost" in Nanton. SHIT!! I guess her daughter forgot to tell her that I phoned. Christy turns around and heads home (saying a few bad words about me, I'm sure) Colleen leaves with the back end of her car almost dragging on the ground. Feel really bad for Christy, driving all the way to Nanton for nothing. Go home and clean out car, just pile the junk in the porch, will deal with that later. Take our 14 year old dog to the vet - not much fun (I think that she remembers the time that she killed a porcupine and had to be put to sleep to have the 450 quills removed from her throat) Help Mike in the field until 9:00pm, when the hay gets too tough to bale. Hay fever starting to kick in. My lips look swollen, sort of like an Angelina Jolie look (not too bad, I think to myself). Just to be sure, I put on some lipstick to see how it would look if I had plump lips. Maybe I should consider Restilin shots. When I mention that to Mike, he hoots with laughter and tells me that my swollen lips look stupid. What does he know, anyway? He doesn't even feel sorry that I am having an allergy attack! Make supper, help Mike go and pick up our new hay rake. Think about the fact that if I could scrapbook a page about the purchase of the hay rake, it would be more fun than actually doing the paperwork on it.

Tuesday - Edna is coming for a full day of income tax, we hope to have the entire four sets of books ready to take to the chartered accountants by suppertime. Everyone decides that Tuesday should be the day to come to the workshop and construct something. It is like a three ring circus, with Edna in the middle, trying to concentrate on figures. She gives it a valiant effort, but at 5:00pm (when she has to leave) she is still bogged down in capital gains calculations due to the sale of the assets of Easy Eaves - thank the good God that there are people who enjoy doing crap like that!!! I would hang myself from a rafter in the barn if I had to do bookwork for a living! I leave Edna to her boring bookwork and go to the field . Spend most of the day helping fix broken hay machines - baler, hay rake, tractor etc. BAD HAY FEVER DAY!!!!! Katrina comes out to clean the 5th wheel trailer for the reunion and pack it for the first trip of the year. I take her home at noon. Finally, when I go home in the afternoon to make supper, I decide to have a bath first and then start supper. Seriously...as I am in the bathtub I hear the phone ring. Not answering, I need to soak this pollen off. The phone stops ringing and then starts again right away. Okay, this must be important. It is Mike, he is plugged up again and needs some tools from the shop. I am not even dry, and again he needs me to get in the itchy, sticky damn hay. I am really cranky when I arrive in the field!!! He does not even notice. We finish fixing the baler and I am headed home to make supper. At this time, he tells me that he will take me out to supper - if I will come with him to the Parker place and help Mike Mayer and his son put on the copper roof above the bay window - only a couple of hours and then we can go for supper. LIAR!!!!!! We go to the job site, we fiddle around with the copper sheets (lots of bending required on the metal brake) we get the roof done - one hour AFTER all of the restaurant's close!!! I am freezing to death, because I forgot to bring a sweater and I am wearing shorts, I am hungry and I am all itchy and swollen up. Delightful...

Wednesday - Mike and I meet Megan in town for coffee and toast before we all go to work. Back to the hayfield...make a round, break down...make a round, plug up, make a round etc.... By lunch time I am ready to slit my wrists to end the misery. Luckily for me, I have an excuse to get out of town for the afternoon, Megan picks me up at 2:00pm and we go to Lethbridge to buy all of the groceries for Mom and Dad's 50th wedding party and Mike's family reunion and Mary's Memorial. We buy a whole truck load of groceries on the hottest day of the week and then have to load them and then unload them - in three different places, as they are for three separate events. Just about died of heat exhaustion. Then we get a phone call that Robin, Gord and Cooper are going to stop out for a drink on their way back from vacationing in the states. Yahoo!! That means that Mike can visit, he will enjoy the company and I can de-swell and stop itching for a period of time. The Bell's stayed over night, which meant that I had a diversion in the morning. It was a beautiful evening, cold beer, a gorgeous view from the veranda and ruined only a couple of hundred, angry, blood thirsty mosquitoes! This ONE night is the most like what I imagined my summer vacation to be like - even if it only lasted about three hours!

Thursday - Mike gets up and goes to the hayfield at 6:30am, but I don't have to help until after Robin leaves. Maybe I should have bribed them to stay longer???? Everyone gets up around 9:00am and after coffee, we check out the progress on the workshop. I think Robin was impressed by the amount of work that had been done since March when they came skiing! Into town for breakfast (Thanks Robin and Gord!!!) Back to the hayfield. New scenario. Now Mike's leg is too sore to push in the clutch, the stump is swollen and red and so I run the clutch. I have to sit on the little dinky quarter size seat (with no back support), bounce around the hayfield and push in the clutch, twice, for every bale. NOTHING ELSE TO DO TO PASS THE TIME!!! (Except hate moles) The radio is all static, there is no wildlife to see, the seat is poking up my butt, I can't feel my right butt cheek at all. Because I came on the spur of the moment (with tools), during a break down, I neglected to bring any cold drinks. I get thirstier and thirstier. Which is when I dream up my next greatest job for myself. I think that there should be a girl on a beer cart (just like at a gold course) that goes field to field and sells cold beer, sandwiches and snacks to all the farmers!!! When I mention that to Mike, he sarcastically replies that was what "I" (or any good farm wife) was supposed to do. I guess he has a point there.... So I bite my tongue and we continue to bounce around until Daniel phones us and tells us that a thunder storm with hail is coming our way. We kick the tractor up a notch, to beat the rain and I undergo a more severe form of torture with the stupid postage size seat. Then a baler belt breaks!! For those of you who don't know what that means, lucky you!!! For any farm wives who have experienced this, (and then the experienced the process of fixing a broken belt) I bet you feel sorry for me. Two hours later, no supper, no drinks, covered in sticky hay that is pasted to EVERY crevice of your body, I am just about suicidal. I'm bleeding up and down my arms from hitting the pick up rake with my forearms as I was pulling hay, I have sharp, little hay slivers in my fingers, I am all greasy (black variety) and there is DUST between my toes and under my feet, with some stuck hay bits between my flip flops and my feet. Not to mention the hay fever issues! As we BOUNCE around at top speed, the photo of Kim and Avery on the boat (that she posted on her blog - on her vacation) comes to my mind. I am so envious that I can hardly stop from thinking bad thoughts. I resist the urge to do bodily harm to Mike and bale him up in the baler. No one would ever find him, as long as I left that one hay bale in the stack yard every year and did not sell it. Would wild animals start sniffing around it if they smelt a decomposing body? Okay, so maybe I had a few bad thoughts. By 10:00pm, all of the hay that was ready to bale is sitting neatly in rows, all baled up and protected from the rain. Which is good, because it is really starting to rain. We get home and I let Mike have the first bath. I wait until the water is hot again and then soak off all of the blood (seriously), sweat, grease, aphids and alfalfa leaves. I am glad that I am past my child bearing years, because I think I am seriously ruined from that damn tractor seat!!! I sleep through the worst thunderstorm of the season and do not wake up....

Friday - I am leaving for the Bloomin' Inn. I have never been so happy to go to work in my life!!! No matter how late the ladies stay up tonight - I do not care!!!!!!! My vacation is over for this week and I am back to work for the weekend and I have seriously never been so happy. Because it rained last night, Mike can not get into the field and so he will probably just rest his leg and heal up. There is no hay in my future for a couple of days - just scrapbooking and resting!!! If we didn't need the money from the hay to pay bills for the next year, I might go and start a small prairie fire (after parking all of our farm equipment in the fire's path), but that might look suspicious.

My Second Week Of Summer Vacation

2009-07-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

After great hopes of having a second better week than the first, I am now resigned to the fact that finding a little time for myself - not going to happen! This is how week #2 went:

Sunday Evening - after washing the red floor for the painter, I went home to have a bath. As I was soaking in the tub, I realized that Monday morning was the start of shipping. I jumped out of that tub like it was electrified and ran to the phone, dialed up Nicole and asked her if she had completed the invoices for shipping. (Nicole comes out just before we start shipping every month, makes a list of who has placed an order and generates a computer invoice with all of the shipping information on it, not the facts of the order, because that can change right up to the last minute, but at least we don't have to hand write the top of the order form and it saves a little time). Nicole did not have the invoices done ( it is now 10:00pm) but she promises to stay up late and do just the calendar club invoices. Because I was so worried about having the floor ready for the painter, I have neglected to clean up and organize the area in which we actually do the shipping, so over to the workshop in my pjamas I go. Check to see that all the boxes and bags, blank shipping lists, signs on the totes are all ready. Clean a little. Go home at 12:15 and try to sleep. Can't sleep, too wired - possibly the Diet Coke at midnight had something to do with that????

Monday - get up extra early and be at OK Tire at 7:30am to pick up the invoices from Nicole. She promises that she will be out to the workshop after supper to complete the invoices for the regular club. Pick up freight, forgot to pick up case of beer (necessary during shipping), and some ink for the computer - back to the workshop by 9:00am. Dana is already there, coffee is made and the painter has shown up and is setting up scaffolding. Start shipping calendar club, end at 6:00pm. Clean up all of the shipping area, go home and cook supper, get back to the workshop by 7:30pm as Edna is there to work on year end books. Wait for Nicole, try to call her cell, paint wall in the master bedroom ( AGAIN!!) wait for Nicole, call her mom to try and locate her, give up about 9:30 and start doing the invoices myself. Edna leaves at 11:30, I am done invoices by midnight, shut off computer, go home to fall in bed with clothes on. Nicole still missing in action.

Tuesday - arrive back at the workshop by 7:30am, move all of Edna's books out of the way. Check computer for new orders, make coffee for painter, get out Dana's BIG bottle of Bailey's for coffee for Dana and I, alphabetize all of the orders and collate with invoices, Dana arrives at 9:00am. Painter is beginning to question the color that I have chosen for the workshop, so we look through samples and choose another (lighter) color. She starts to repaint the edging that she did the day before. Start shipping regular club. End at 6:30. Still no word from Nicole. Quickly run home and have a bowl of cereal - back to the workshop at 7:30 for the next round of income tax books. HATE BOOKWORK!!! Pretty grouchy! Edna tells me that the reason why Nicole did not come was the fact that her computer crashed at work and she had to stay and do payroll. Work with Edna until 1:00am

Wednesday - Last day of shipping. Mike has to call me three times to get me out of bed. I am really grouchy!!! Dana and I just start shipping and my Mom and Dad show up to put the oak trim around all of the windows and around the floor in the master bathroom and bedroom. I catch them trying to carry in a table saw and I point out that no more cutting is allowed in the house, due to the fact that we have kits in plastic bags spread out all over the house. They keep carrying the table saw. I get a little more frantic and suggest that I will personally run outside and cut each and every board, myself, if they will just leave that thing outside. My Dad persists and soon I have a table saw whining in the background and sawdust flying everywhere. Shut the door to the room they are working in, take a deep breath, go outside and smoke three cigarettes in rapid succession. Go back in and continue shipping - done by supper time. Cereal again for supper and then drive over to my parents house to plan the 50th wedding anniversary party. Home by 9:30, bath, water the almost dead plants on the veranda, when was the last time I fed the dogs??? Notice that the two farm dogs are all clean and are wearing new collars. Where did they get that? Mike informs me that I forgot to take the dogs to their appointment so the groomer came out to the farm and picked them up. Fall into bed around 11:00. Exhausted!!!

Thursday - Go to work extra early to check out the paint job, as today the painter should just be cleaning up and packing away her supplies. Check over all of the walls and LOVE the job that she did! However, every time that her bright yellow scaffolding fell on the ground, it left big yellow streaks on the cement floor. Going to have to wash those all off before the glaze goes on. Spend the day checking over orders, seeing that everyone has the right kits, the orders have been placed in the right bins and that all of the names are on the correct sheets. Load up all of the boxes for Canada Post and go to the post office. Make seven trips into the building, stand in line for one hour while they scan in all of the postal codes and put the stickers on the boxes. Look at the grouchy faces of the other people waiting in line (because of me) and decide that next time I should come at a different time of day to avoid death threats! $340.00 later and a till tape five feet long, all of the parcels are on their way to the scrapbookers. Yahoo!! Run a few errands, drop off the boxes at the courier, pick up something other than cereal for supper and go back to the workshop. Dana is gone, the painter is gone, clean up the mess from the table saw, notice that the wall beneath the bathroom window will have to be repainted because Dad has marked it up putting in the mouldings. How many times am I going to have to paint this thing????? Go home, make supper and start cleaning up the house. Start with the laundry room, only get as far as the top of the basement stairs and I seriously can not put one foot in front another to do any more. See Edna's car coming up the road. Shit, forgot that she was coming back$^$$$&& Spend until midnight doing books. Fall into bed.

Friday - Get up to the sound of the tractor starting right below the bedroom window. Haying season has begun. I guess Mike was too scared to wake me up. Go downstairs and survey the damage in my house. There are unwashed dishes from last weekend when Phillip and Haida left, the floors are sticky with the puppy pee, garbage is overflowing, decide that I can not meet Christy today to give her the kits because I would be unsafe on the highway. Way too tired to drive to Nanton - have to clean this house!! Spend the day cleaning, thank God for good tunes!!!! Finish up around 7:00pm, take Mike supper in the field, go home, lay down on the sofa for a few minutes. Remember that the floor in the workshop needs to be washed before we can put glaze on it, go over and start mopping. Paint won't come off, so get out a putty knife and start chipping away at it. Wash the whole 1100 square feet on my hands and knees, scraping as I go. Mike comes to pick me up at 10:00pm just as it is ready to glaze. Fall asleep on the sofa.

Saturday - Wake up at 6:30 am, need to get the glaze down before it gets too hot - it looks like it is going to be a cooker today. Go over to the workshop, vacuum the floor and start painting the edges with the sealer while Mike rolls the glaze on the middle of the floor. The fumes start out not too bad, but the further we go, the more toxic the fumes become. Flies start dropping dead from the ceiling. (Maybe we should have worn masks????) Finish the first coat, go over to Mom and Dad's and dewinterrize their 5th wheel trailer, go to town for lunch, come back and put a second coat on the floor. Go back to town and get groceries, invite Colleen MacDonald and her girls over for supper. Cook, eat, enjoy supper out on the veranda, take Colleen back to the Inn and crash into bed.

Sunday - Sleep in until 8:30, bath and do hair properly for the first time in a week (starting to look like a homeless person), wave at my husband as he goes round and round the field. Stop in town and get snacks and go out to the Inn. Poor Mike, some farm wives would probably stay home in haying season to take him drinks and food during the day, but not me. Today, I am going SCRAPBOOKING!!!! Colleen and I are going to sit and enjoy the day, catch up on our visiting and do a little scrapbooking. At least that was the plan. But, by 5:00pm, he is already broke down and needs me to come home and run a part into Pincher Farm Equipment for repairs. Well, so much for my day vacation. Finish up the laundry, pack all of the totes into my car to get ready for tomorrow.

Week #2 is over, only one more to go. This vacation thing is a myth!!

My "Feel Good" Moment For the Week

2009-07-14T19:23:00.001-07:00

I love a good storm!! Seriously, I have never been afraid of thunder, lightning, wind or hail - having owned a roofing company for many years, I know that a good storm brings us a lot of business and everything can be fixed. (Unless, of course, you are dead). I am the kind of person who would make a good storm chaser, the louder the thunder and the bigger the cracks of lightning, the better I like the storm! Even four years ago, when we had hail the size of golf balls and all of my koi were floating dead in the pond, I thought that storm was the best I had ever seen! Two nights ago, we had a killer storm in early morning and I woke up and went outside on the veranda to watch the display. I have to say, it topped all! This one had a down side, however.
The storm only lasted about a half and hour and it was hardly worth going back to bed, so I got dressed, went over to the workshop and started some last minute printing of the title bars for the October calendar club page (which I had forgotten to do after handing in my layout). Everything was working just fine until I went to the Internet to check my emails. I thought that over a nice cup of coffee, before everyone arrived to paint and work, that I would get caught up. No Internet. Computer seemed to be working fine, but I couldn't get on. I called the host and asked if someone could stop by RIGHT AWAY!! You can not be without an Internet connection on shipping week! The dude walked me through all of the normal system checks that he could do over the phone, and he determined that the receiver was not sending out a signal. So today they sent someone by in person to check it out. I was a little frantic by then. Isn't it weird that a day or two without Internet can cause such a surge of anxiety??
Turns out, the receiver was fried by the lightning and the problems only began there. My computer was damaged too - the part that accepts the signal. The guy that came out to fix it is Japanese and was brought right from Japan (didn't speak a word of English when he got here) to do this job with the high speed Internet guys. Taku and I are no strangers. I seem to have a problem keeping my receiver in one location for more than a couple months. He has moved it three times during this renovation alone!! He does even act surprised when I phone to have him come and move it out of the way of some type of construction crew. He is a friendly little fellow, but you have to concentrate hard to understand what he is trying to tell you. (It doesn't help that I am almost computer illiterate, maybe I just don't understand the terms and I am blaming his accent in error). Anyway, after spending most of the afternoon patching up my system so that we could continue shipping, I asked him what I owed him.
Imagine my surprise when he told me that he would like to have a cup of coffee with me - with sugar, please! He went on to tell me that no one "talks" to him. He can be on a job site for hours and hours hooking up a high speed system and no one takes the time to have a conversation with him. He was happy to come out and rehang my receiver every week or so, because I talked to him. He wouldn't take anything for pay, except the cup of coffee, so we sat there and chatted for almost an hour. Turns out that in the four years he has been here, I am only the second person to have a receiver damaged by lightning. And the only person who took the time to stop and talk.
I guess the storm blowing up my receiver was actually a good thing, because after he left, I had this amazing feeling, like I had gotten to know someone - totally by accident. It reminded me of the time that I gave a drywall crew, working on our garage, some cold beer and they left me a drawing and a thank you note on the drywall. It was so cute that I didn't want to paint over it! It was my smiley face for the day!
Thanks Taku! You made my week!!!

My First Week Of Summer Vacation

2009-07-12T20:56:00.001-07:00

Okay, I want to go back to work!! Being on vacation is just too much hard labor and after week one, I can see that I am not going to get any R&R and I might as well just give up!! See why?

Evening #1 - go home from the Inn, dead tired and ready to crash, so that I can sleep in the next morning. Discover that Phillip ( our nephew, who is coming to put the new siding on the workshop) is almost in Pincher Creek and he has driven all day without stopping or eating. Turn off bubble bath and get out frying pan. Finally get to bed around midnight, after visiting and catching up on all his news.
Day #1 - Day starts early, no time to sleep in. The rest of the crew arrives around 8:00am and stops for a quick coffee at the house before going over to the workshop. Make breakfast, clean up , start on lunch, clean up, bake dessert for supper, run to town to get freight (siding company forgot to send touch up paint) pick up Slurpies for crew, rain starts, downpour ensues, all crew come to our house to out wait the storm, doesn't happen, feed everybody supper, go over to workshop and clean drywall dust until 11:00pm
Day #2 - Day starts early again. No rain today - got a full day of work in - didn't know that I was part of the work crew now, picked up garbage and plastic to keep it from blowing away, feed crew twice, paint master bathroom for the LAST time, help put in two windows, plant two flower beds and water grass, answer emails until late at night.
Day #3 - Work at Inn with Shelley's group for the day, work crew has to go to town for lunch. Country Lane red siding is looking pretty good - they are half way around the house by now. BIG MESS!! Start cleaning it up, realize that it is time to start supper, feed crew and then go back and clean up the job site. Drywaller has come and sprayed the ceilings, left the plastic on the floor for the painter. It is looking like a workshop around here, the room has a terrible echo.
Day #4 - Last day for the siding crew. Feed them three square meals, clean the house, get ready for the rest of Phillip's family to arrive, as they are meeting him here to start their summer vacation. The siders work very late into the night, with the aid of floodlights. Take them coffee and dessert around 9:00pm - get stuck cleaning up the mess (again) Painter drops by around 9:30 to do a walk through and look at the job. She does NOT want the plastic on the floor, she wants all of the plastic up, the drywall dust washed off the floor and everything clean when she gets here on Monday. GOOD GRIEF!!
Day # 5 - Siding crew comes EXTRA early to beat the rain and pack up all of the tools, Mike and I visit with Haida and the kids while Phillip puts the finishing touches on the house. Megan drops off her untrained puppy, for us to puppy sit while she goes off to have fun in the Okanagan with her boyfriend. She has two dogs, so that makes a grand total of five dogs for the weekend. Phillip's twins begin to torment dogs. They refuse to leave the little puppy alone. Puppy is peeing and pooping all over my house. %^%^$$^& Lock up dogs, send kids to bed early, get a stiff drink, start washing floors. Visit with Phillip and Haida until wee hours of the AM
Day#6 - Company leaves, as soon as they are down the road, Mike and I take over the HUGE task of washing 1100 square feet of red cement floor. After 15 minutes we realize that we are in over our head. Luckily, Caren comes to the rescue and borrows me a 100 year old floor cleaner with spinning heads. THANK GOD!!!!! We pour water on the floor, run the machine back and forth until it lifts off the drywall mud globs and the dust and then I wash the floor with a mop until I get it clean enough to move on. We wash the floor three times and it still is covered with drywall dust. Back hurts so bad that I think I am going to die!!! Little puppy has made a big mess in my porch and the house is upside down from the company. I am not doing so well, starting to hyperventilate.
Day#7 - Today. Come back to workshop, wash the floor one more time - say "piss on that"...Get tractor and clean up all of the big rubble (old windows and doors) and put them in the dump truck, get stung by a bee, wash drywall dust off the floors in the house, paint the master bathroom (again) because I still don't like the way that it looks, go home and help Mike back fill around the new cement koi pond (only get two sides done and I am so hot and sunburned that I get crabby), Edna arrives to do year end books and so I get a reprieve from more back filling. THANK GOD!!! I am aching all over by now. Notice that puppy is no where to be found, spend half an hour looking for him, find him chewing on a dried up leather-like gopher. Lock the little bastard up. Work on year end books until 10:30. Wash paint brushes and roller. I'm going home!

This is just the first week of my summer vacation. By next week I should be just about dead.

Call 911!

2009-07-02T23:24:00.000-07:00

A tragic thing happened at work a couple of days ago, utterly horrible, unimaginable...my vacuum cleaner broke. Surely you jest? - you're thinking. Nope. I just stood there in shocked horror as the little plug in thingy popped off as the cord retracted into the bowels of the vacuum cleaner and spun crazily around inside for a few seconds. "NOOOOOOO! " was all I could shriek. I have a personal relationship with my vacuum cleaners, I have even scrapbooked a layout on my Beam vacuum in my house. The breakdown of my good, old faithful,workshop vacuum almost pushed me over the renovation edge! I just stood there, making frantic hand signals for a few minutes before I calmed myself down. I picked up the little dismembered body part and tried to breathe deeply... is there 911 for vacuum cleaners?

If you don't know it by now, I am a cleanaholic. My name is Cindy. It has only been one hour since I last cleaned something. Okay, maybe not even that long, because when I sat down to blog, I dusted the screen on my monitor. Okay, less than five minutes. I have tried to get sober several times without success. I am a repeat offender and I drive everyone around me to drink.

Here are my 10 random, craziest things that I have ever done:

1) Mike and I had weekend guests one time. They arrived Friday evening, after supper. By the time I went to bed, I was already "anxious". Saturday, I planned an excursion that would take everyone out of my house. While we were gone, I arranged to have my house cleaner come in and "clean" before we arrived back home. I lied when we got back and said that the spotless house was a result of it being my day to have the cleaners in. The people never came back.

2) When my new Beam vacuum broke down after only ten months of service, I took it in only to find that the motor was gone. Stupid me!! When they asked me how many times I vacuum on average, I told the truth. They meant per week. When I told them that I vacuum three to five times per day, the look on their faces told me instantly that I had made a tactical error. When I went to pick up the vacuum, they had prepared a waiver, saying that I could not get another free motor, because I was using it excessively. I refused to sign, the conversation got pretty heated. I figure that if the warranty states that the motor is covered for seven years then it should be covered for seven years, regardless of how many times it gets turned off and on in a day! I killed it in ten months! This spring, the company closed up shop and the owners retired. I am sure that they did that because I am about due for another motor!

3) My best friend told me that my children became sickly as young adults, because they had left the germ free environment that we live in and they had entered the real world. (She was dead serious)

4) I wash my bathroom floor every night. Except for nights that I am at the Inn. I have tried to recover from this one, as for some reason it is particularly irritating to Mike. Possibly because crutches and a wet tile floor are not a good idea? So now I have to dry my floor after washing it every night so that he does not slip when he goes in to brush his teeth. See, I am good at compromise.

5) I used to clean after my family went to bed. That came to a very sudden stop, late one night. My old, old vacuum broke down and I had borrowed my mother's. (Do you see a pattern here?)How was I to know that it was louder than mine? When it stopped, I turned the switch off and on an couple of times to see if I had accidentally shut it off. Nope. Maybe it unplugged in the hallway? I poked my head out of the office to look down the hallway and see if it was unplugged. Mike was standing at the outlet, the cord in his hand and he didn't have to say a word. I got the message loud and clear, just by the look on his face! I had to alter my plans and only dust and wash after midnight. Later, he told me that he was not surprised that I didn't roll him onto my side of the bed after he had fallen asleep, change the sheets and then roll him back so that I could finish making the bed. I hadn't thought of that one!

6) When Daniel's girlfriend, Vanessa got a Swiffer dust mop on Christmas Eve and she was so excited that she wanted to go right home to their house and try it out, I knew that she was the right girl for my son. While I was sitting there, smiling my approval, the rest of the family was stunned to silence and were contemplating the repurcussions and the expense of sending both of us to EdgeWood Treatment Center in Nanaimo. B.C.

7) Two cleaning companies have left my employment. One just packed up and left and never came back, I had to fire the other. Now Megan cleans for me, partly because I trained her and partly because she knows that she'll make good money off of me. I clean before and after they clean. I just keep relapsing.

8) With regards to the cleaners that I fired...after I complained several times about cutting corners, they started leaving me check lists of what "should" be cleaned in each room and how often it should be done. When they left me a list one day, they had circled in red, in big bold letters "DOES NOT HAVE TO BE DONE EVERY WEEK''. (I am so dead serious! ) That really ticked me off, am I not the paying customer???? They didn't even bill me for the last two times that they cleaned. Do you think that I am on someone's list somewhere with the words "When hell freezes over" written behind my name?

9) My daughter opened her own cleaning company last year and does about four commercial properties and about six or seven houses. There are so many cleaning products on my grocery bill that she steals my grocery receipts and deducts them for income tax. (I am not kidding).

10) I came home from work one day (Mike was recuperating from his first amputation) and he excitedly told me that there was a lady "just like me" on Doctor Phil that day. When I asked what he specifically meant by that, he said that she had a cleaning compulsion as well. Then he earnestly exclaimed "And you can be fixed!" So if I open up a card someday and there is a gift certificate for Edgewood, I guess I should know that I had it coming! Is there a 12 step program for cleaners???

Until the day that my family commits me, I will happily continue to dust, clean and vacuum everything in sight. I am Cindy and I am a cleanaholic.

If Tomorrow Ever Comes...

2009-07-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

I admit I am a serious procrastinator...I have always worked better under pressure and if the pressure is off, well, then I am turned off too. Consequently, I am always running around in a state of panic. Yesterday was a good example:

- Christy drove down from Calgary to get my October calendar page from me, because I had not mailed it to her. I was so busy procrastinating that I was literally finishing it as she was driving into the driveway. I looked all casual when I handed it over, like it had been done for ages, when you could still smell the fumes of Mono Multi wafting off of it. It wasn't even dry! I guess the boss should not be admitting this on a site where all the designers have access, it doesn't look good when "I" miss the deadlines, does it? And, no, Christy will not make house calls to pick up your kits!!!

- The last of the guests left the retreat in the early afternoon, yet at 4:00pm I was just starting cash out, because I really didn't want to look at it - I already knew that I was not going to balance. So I spent the afternoon in the empty workshop, googling a new recipe site that I already knew that I will never cook anything from. But it was fun to kill a couple/three hours in the peace and quiet. Then I realized how late it was and panicked, so I rang off the till, stapled the till tape on the invoices and added a cute little note that said "Sorry Edna, I Can Not Make This Balance" and put it in the box for Edna to deal with. But, I did find a really good sounding recipe for a grilled scrimp and yellow pepper Greek salad! (That I will never make, but I will admire the great photo of the dish)

- As my accountant, Edna, left on Sunday, she made me PROMISE to add up the inventory sheets and balance the insurance account. I did promise (like I had many times before). But how did I know that a lady at the retreat was going to introduce me to the world of digital scrapbooking??? The next three days of the retreat was spent creating a digital 8x8 album for my sister-in-law's memorial service. I was slightly guilty every time that I passed the pile of undone bookwork, but only "slightly". Edna comes again on Sunday to balance everything so I can tell that Saturday night will be an "all- nighter" for me! (At least I know myself)

- In the evening I was too tired to go and weed the garden, which I have been putting off for a couple of weeks now. I had already devised an answer for when one of our farm neighbors asked about the three foot high weeds on the east side of my house. I was going to tell them that it was a test plot for a new type of Round Up and that we had been selected as a test station, but the instructions said that the weeds had to be four feet high. (I thought that would buy me another week!) So I put off weeding the garden, it would be cooler in the morning to do that much weeding, anyway. But this morning I didn't feel like it either, so I slept in a little and then went to town for coffee with Mike. This afternoon, that damn patch of weeds was clearly staring me in the face and it looked like a jungle. Okay, Cindy, you are going to have to deal with it. I did take two, half hearted swipes with the hoe. Then I decided that it would work up much better with softer ground, turned on the sprinkler for a couple hours and then decided that it was too wet. Maybe I should just leave it until tomorrow...

-So here I am, blogging. I could be trying to figure out the cash out problem/problems, so that Edna does not have to try to make sense of it. (Not really interested) I could be adding up the inventory sheets or balance the insurance account. (Boring) I could finish the last few pages of the tribute album and send in the order so that the books will arrive before the memorial service (but I still have a week or so) I could go out in the nice cool calm of the evening and weed that test plot (but I have already had my bath). I should be writing my portion of the MNC newsletter (not inspired) Nope, there is nothing that I want to do tonight.

What would I do tomorrow???

Virtual Living

2009-06-28T18:36:00.000-07:00

In this new age of reality TV and "virtual" anything, I am constantly amazed at how smart human beings can get. You can go to "virtual school" on the Internet without setting a foot in a classroom, get a "virtual haircut and color" to try out different options before the hairdresser takes the scissors to your hair, get a "virtual 3D printout of your house" with optional shingle/siding combinations - just about anything goes. Well, my family has finally entered this new way of doing things!

It started with my obsession to Food Network TV. I am an addict. However, I don't really have the time to cook anything that I see. I watch while folding clothes, scrapbooking, prepping classes - anything that I can do in front of a television, Food Network is on in the background. I scribble notes and then go and buy the ingredients that I don't have, but that is where it stops. Mike has even started watching with me in the evenings. We get a bowl of cereal for supper and munch on it, while we watch Guy Fieri pig out on diner food in his show "Diners, Drive Ins and Dives". It was Mike that observed one night that we were having a "virtual food" experience. We watch, we buy, we go to bed hungry (but inspired). The photo above is actually a pulled pork sandwich, or rather, it would be if it had progressed beyond buying the spices for the rub.

The way that I look at it, virtual food can never be cooked wrong, always looks like it could be on TV (because it is) and never leaves a trail of dirty dishes. It is cheap (notice that I did not buy the pork shoulder) and there are great dining experiences every evening. Tonight we are doing Italian!

To Even The Score

2009-06-27T16:46:00.000-07:00

Today was my 28th wedding anniversary! After ranting about Mike on the really bad, no good, horrible day, I feel sort of bad about announcing that I was plotting to kill him in his sleep. We have had two whole consecutive days of peaceful productivity on the renovation site and so to even the score, it is only fair that I even the score by listing some of the not so nice things about living with me that drives him to plot my demise from time to time. In all fairness, he probably has more just cause to do me in. (I may just be feeling a wee bit sheepish, now that my red oak floor is down and he is taking me out to supper for our anniversary) So here are some of the little details that drive him right up the wall...

1) I have never filed our income tax on time since the first year we bought the roofing company (1983 to be exact). I only do bookwork when threatened with jail time or when the banker calls and asks for a deposit. I hate paperwork! I think that if I was allowed by Revenue Canada to scrapbook our income tax, I probably would get more excited about it. But since they will not allow a picture of the John Deere tractor with a very cute, distressed tag (with an even cuter co-ordinating eyelet and fibre) that states the price we paid for it or a photo of the fertilizer truck going around in our field and excellent heartfelt journaling about the outrageous price we had to pay, I am doomed to a life of filing at least three to four months past the acceptable time.

2) I do not believe that when a gas tank is sitting squarely on "E" that it is empty. In my world "E" stands for "enough". You can almost see the veins pop in Mike's neck when he jumps into a vehicle that I have been driving and he notices that it is running on fumes. Some day this theory is going to get me into trouble, but I have never had to walk yet. See, it works!

3) I really irritate the hell out of him when I innocently ask "What's the plan?" when we are about to start something. To my way of thinking, a quick discussion about an action plan is in order whenever something is going to happen that I am not quite prepared for. A few minutes of getting everybody on the same page would be better that fixing the mess that I can create when I don't know what in the hell I am supposed to be doing. One would think that after 28 years, this simple question would not ellict the response that it is sure to bring. Funny thing is, I can not stop myself from asking! I have stood in the middle of the cutting chute, many a time, and debated in my head if it was worst getting run over by the pissed off mother cow, or asking Mike what the plan was. Actually, the cow laying me flat probably could not have been much worse than having Mike leap off his horse and come at me like a gorilla because I let the wrong cow through the gate. In my defense, most of our cows are black baldies and how was I supposed to know that you meant "that exact" black baldie (you dumb ass).

4) I color my hair - so what? Who would have ever thought that a simple trip to the hair dresser could cause such a ruckus. Yes, I admit it is not cheap, but I do not have fake boobs, plump lips or liposuctioned body parts. I just color my hair. Well, my dear husband has figured it out that at $100.00 per session, every five weeks for the last six years, I have spent $6240.00 on my hair and it was absolutely not necessary. Who in the hell do you think gave me those grey hairs in the first place????? (At least he has not figured out that price does not include all of the fancy shampoos and conditioners that I have bought to keep the color from fading)

5) Not thinking about what I am going to cook for supper until it is 6:00pm also gets me into alot of hot water. Nothing irritates him more than having to remind me what time of the day it is. Hey, who made me the chief cook and bottle washer? Where in the wedding vows did I state that I was willing to do all of the cooking and all of the bill paying? I'm too busy scrapbooking. Why don't you thaw something out if you know that I am not going to do it?

6) Crying in the bathroom is another no no. That is my go to place when I am feeling misunderstood, overwhelmed or mad. At least I go away. Crying in the living room would be so much better??? It reminds me of my most favorite movie "A League Of Their Own" when Tom Hanks bellows "There's no crying in baseball!" Maybe for some husbands, a sobbing wife would ellicit some compassion and an apology. For my husband though, it is like waving a red flag at a bull. Actually, as I have "been in the bathroom" several times during this renovation episode, I have developed another reason for going there. Where else can you get even by dipping a toothbrush in and out of the toilet?

7) Putting away just about anything that is Mike's that is sitting out is sure to cause havoc. I am known as "Mrs. Clean" and I must admit that I do earn that name. I can't stand to see a glass sitting by the water coooler, shoes on the mat in front of the door, a piece of paper on a table. It just bugs me. So I put it away. Again and again and again. I know that it has become a game in my house. Megan will put the pillows upside down on the couches, zipper side up just for the pleasure of seeing me turn them around. As soon as I leave the room she will flip them back. I have a photo frame in the hallway with shutters that close over the photo. She will close them. I will open them. She will close them. I have tried not to react and actually made it about one hour (after noticing that the shutters were closed), but that is as long as I could make it. I once had a rug in front of the front door that had tassels on the ends. Everytime someone would pass through the foyer, they would get out of line. After watching me one evening, straighten the tassels for about the fifth or sixth time, Mike got up from his chair, opened the door and threw the rug outside into the driveway -didn't say a word and went and sat down. From the look on his face, I knew better than to go and rescue my rug. Okay, so maybe I am "slightly" OCD, maybe I do press a few of his buttons occasionally.

I guess that living with me can't be all that bad. We have made it 28 years so far with out any domestic violence charges being laid. Possibly, could it be because I don't own a pick axe?

My 10 Random Rants

2009-06-24T07:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a tough day for me. These constant ever changing piles of mess that I would like to call "renovations" are getting the best of me - I have never been very good at chaotic situations, I get anxious at even a little disruption of my normally orderly life and yesterday was chaotic beyond description. It seems that for every step that we take, ahead, we take two steps back. This is a little snippet of yesterday...
1) Mom and Dad show up unexpectedly, with the big oak mirror for the master bathroom and about 100 feet of baseboard. Of course, they needed to work in the master bathroom, which was also the room that Mike had started work in. Mike vacates the bathroom. (Not happily)
2) One light fixture goes up without incident, one light fixture reminds me of the commercial on TV where the lady rips the candelier off of the ceiling and jumps up and down on it. After at least an hour of screwing around, we finally cut the damn thing off of the ceiling with a recipcocating saw and started over. Many, many bad words!!!!
3) Who knew that the assorted screws laying around in the sawdust and the bits of plastic and trimmed wires were important???? Obviously, from the commotion that happened when it was found out that I cleaned them up with the rest of the mess and threw them away, one would think that the hardware store was out of screws for good. Geeezz - it was just a few screws, I didn't throw a baby away!!!!
4) Then we started on the flooring in the bathroom...maybe husbands and wives should never work together. Here I am, all eager to please, I admit I don't know the first thing about anything, but at least I am a willing body, that is there to learn and to help. How do you spell D.I.V.O.R.C.E. ? Five hours later, I am contemplating putting a pick axe through his head. The best part - when it is all over, he says something like "Well, that wasn't too bad." Who are you kidding, buddy? I already have planned out in my head at least five horrible, gruesome ways that I can kill you in your sleep. Seriously. Very seriously.
5) The drywaller does not show up to tape and mud. Would have been good to know about two days ago, when I stayed up half of the night to clean up and get ready for him. Now everyone else has sawed wood and made a mess out in the addition, you can't even tell that it was cleaned.
Breathe deeply, get the broom, start over. Actually, Ashley came to my rescue and cleaned it up - I think that Dana could tell that I was "on the edge" and she sent her over to help.
6) About supper time, I noticed that a water line was leaking and dripping all over the new flooring that we had just installed - THAT SPECIFICALLY SAID NOT USE IN ROOMS THAT HAD MOISTURE. Of course, it was the third piece of tile that we had laid and now there was water underneath it and to fix the problem, we would have to rip out all of the floor that just took us five hours to lay. I opted to dry the floor, fix the leak and say nothing. If there is a God, please, please don't make us rip the floor out and start over. Just in case, I made sure that I have some travel money and my passport - because I am NEVER going to go through that hell again!
7) So, all I wanted to point out was that the whole length of ceiling beam had to come down before I could fix the ceiling and WHAM!!, my Dad decides that I am being picky, packs up his tools and goes home. I guess that was one observation more than he could stand from me today. I think that I just lost the only worker that was still talking to me. Maybe it was the tone in my voice????
8) We have had no running water since I turned the dripping water line off. Bathroom facilities are pretty primitive around here. Plumber does not show up either. Great. At least no one is going to catch me peeing outside in the bushes, as no one is ------- showing up to work anyway!
9) Ashley and I spent two hours prying carpet staples out of the subfloor where the new hardwook is going down. A stupid guy must have put them in. Who needs 10 staples per square foot??? Where did they think the underlay was going to go once the carpet was down??? I am sure that some dude did it on purpose, knowing full well that in ten years or so when the carpet needed to be replaced, some poor lady was going to have to pull them all out. I'd like to find that guy right about now...
10) I was dusty and dirty and there is no running water, or coffee, or a toilet that flushes. Most of my fingers were bleeding. It seems like we accomplished nothing in the grand scheme of undone and half done projects, my back hurt and I had a head ache from continuously running air compressors. Mike, Mom and Dad are all mad at me. Ashley looked like she was scared as she sped out of the yeard. I was glad to call it quits for the day.

Oh great, I was still expected to make supper. How does hamburgers flavored with srynine taste?

New French Doors!

2009-06-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

Yahoo!! New French doors into the workshop have been installed, and are they ever a time saver. That is the one nice thing that has happened around here lately, everything else SUCKS!!!

I hate electricians (sorry if anyone takes offense to that) but they are the worst set of contractors that we have had on this project, to date. First, they came without warning and because I was not working in the workshop that day, they proceeded to work, without moving, covering or in any way attempting to protect all of the paperwork, kits and supplies that were in their path. A half an inch of sawdust on my worktable, with all of my shipping books and files open, all the kits laying there waiting to be invoiced - a huge, huge mess. Then they punched a hole right in the middle of the newly painted ceiling and didn't say a word, until Mike pointed it out and asked them what had happened. Some lame excuse about tapping on the ceiling with their knuckle . What??? A big hole that looks like a hammer hit it. Really??? How stupid do you think we are? Then they took a perfectly painted wall and tore a rip in the drywall about four inches long - didn't say a word, until we asked about that. The best one though happened when I was cleaning up all of the mess the next day and noticed that a wooden chair was "under" my 8 foot shipping table. Odd. When I went to remove it, I found that the table was being supported by the chair because the legs on the table were broken. Instead of using the ladders, they had tried to stand on my table to put in a light fixture. What a pain in the ass, four steps ahead, three steps back - every day! I hate electricians!

We would never get away with leaving a job site in such a state. We clean up every roofing or eaves trough job perfectly before we leave. We were called back once because there were three rubber bands from the coil nailer left up on the roof. That was a little extreme, but you get my drift. I can not believe the outrageous piles of sawdust, cut off wire and junk that they left behind. In a house!!!!! It took me a full day to clean up after one ceiling fan installation and two light fixtures. Not to mention what it is going to take to repaint that section of ceiling and one wall. I took photos (just like the CSI agents) and I am going to deduct some money off the final bill. I never thought that I would become one of those complaining customers, but here I am. My final button has been pressed.

I had one evil thought...the next day that they come here to finish the job, the breaker might just accidentally get turned back on at an inopportune time. Maybe a jolt of 220 running through their bodies would be good payback. Just thinking....

Dessert Recipes From Cindy

2009-06-16T11:50:00.000-07:00

Here you go girls!! The recipes that you requested... I sure hope that I can explain things properly, as my recipes are pretty scant on instructions as they have been handed down many times and are made more by instinct than recipe. Good luck!

Orange Chiffon Cake

(325 degree oven )

2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup cooking oil
1 cup egg white ( 7-8 eggs needed), reserve 5 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2 tbsp. grated orange peel
juice of two oranges plus water to equal 3/4 cup liquid

angel food or chiffon cake pan required

Measure and sift the following dry ingredients: flour, b. powder, sugar and salt

Whip until stiff: 1 cup egg whites, cream of tartar

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add: oil, egg yolks, grated orange peel, juice mixture. Mix by hand to make a smooth batter.

Gradually pour batter over egg whites, while gently folding.
Bake 70 minutes at 325 degrees.
Invert to cool.

Orange Sauce For Chiffon Cake

*** make only half of this recipe if you don't plan on serving the entire cake at one time. It makes alot of sauce!!!!

2 cups water
3/4 cup orange juice concentrate
1 package instant vanilla pudding
1 cup whipping cream, whipped until stiff

In a mixing bowl, combine everything but the whipping cream. Whisk briskly, until slightly thickened. Add whipping cream and fold together. Serve over cake slices, vanilla ice cream is optional. Store leftovers in fridge.

Fruit Pizza

- this is not for the faint of heart - but we do not count calories at scrapbook events, do we girls???

(350 degree oven for crust)

Crust
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Cream butter and sugar together, add beaten egg.
Sift flour, b. powder and b. soda together.
Add to creamed mixture and mix on low speed until smooth.
Add:

1 tsp vanilla
1 cup coconut
1 1/2 cups rolled oats

Mix together.

***** Only use 3/4 of this batter for the crust - or you will be sorry!!! This is way too much dough for one pizza pan full of fruit pizza!!!!!!!!!! I'm warning you - oven cleaning will be required!

Spread on greased pizza pan or baking sheet. Moisten fingers with water to work the dough into the pizza shape.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-17 minutes, or until cookie is set in the center. Cool.

Cream Cheese Sauce

1/4 cup white sugar
8 oz. cream cheese, softened

Mix together and spread on cooled cookie crust. You want to spread within an inch and a half of the outside edge of the crust, so that some of the crust shows around the edges.

Arrange fruit on top of the pizza. We used: grapes, kiwi, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, canned orange segments. All that matters is that you have a good variety of fruit shapes, sizes and colors. See, you can use scrapbook design techniques to decorate your dessert!!

Glaze
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup orange juice, fresh or frozen concentrate
1/4 cup water1 1/2 tsp corn starch

Heat glaze in the microwave until thick and bubbly. (couple of minutes)
Cool
Drizzle over fruit pizza, trying to cover fruit so that it will not dry out.

Remember to tell everyone that loves this dessert that you got the recipe from the Monday Night Class Summer Scraptacular!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to everyone for coming out and spending the day with our crazy team. We loved seeing you all and look forward to seeing you again at the Jingle Bell Crop in November!!

Happy Baking, Cindy

National Nature Photography Day

2009-06-16T09:25:00.000-07:00

Did you know that there is such a thing as National Nature Day? It is sponsored by the North American Soceity of Photographers to promote people getting out into the countryside and taking photos of all of the beauty around us. Every year, in mid June, you are supposed to hit the trails for a day and capture images of plants, wildlife, scenery etc.

I could not photograph how many sunflowers were blooming on Indian Hill, because it was sloping away from me, but this whole valley is covered in wild sunflowers today. This picture was taken looking south from where my new workshop sits. I have to drive (or walk) over this hill everyday to work. Poor me, eh? As far as you can see it is nothing but sunflowers!

My First Random Encounter

2009-06-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

I love the idea of "10 Random Things"!!! So here is my list of 10 things that I hate:

1) mice - first and foremost, I am totally creeped out by mice. If anyone wanted to torture me, all they would have to do is put me in a sealed room with one mouse. I would be insane in a half an hour. Seriously!! Which reminds me... when Megan was five, she put a dead mouse on the brake pedal of my car, because she was mad that I would not let her have a "third" Popsicle. I have never paid her back for that. Note To Self.

2) drywall dust - it is everywhere in my life right now. Hate, hate, hate it!!!

3) cold weather - I have Reynauld's Disease and cold is my enemy. The only time that I will be too warm is when they cremate me. I have battery operated socks and gloves that warm me up and have ordered a battery operated coat off the shopping channel to keep me cozy this winter. (It definitely is not a fashion statement) My one fear is that someday I will fall into some water and short out! (Maybe I will get the curly hair that I always dreamed about!)

4)mail - actually, this item should be up there with mice on my list of all time hates. Mail is evil, there is never anything exciting....bills, past due statements from bills that have been misplaced from all of the MAIL cluttering up my life, forms that have to be filled out like CAIS or gas rebate forms, WCB forms (prove that you are amputated?!??? Are you kidding me??) Never a nice letter from a friend or a card or a surprise amount of money or a notice that you are going to be published!! Just stupid, evil, mind sucking bills and forms. This is making me mad just writing it down....

5)computers that freeze or refuse to open things that you really need - always happens on shipping week.

6)headaches - I get a lot of those. See item #4

7)magpies - Why do we have them anyway? Why could they not be the next species to become extinct? What are their exact purpose in life? I say that we kill every single one that we can find, then stuff the last damn one and put it in the Smithsonian. Good riddance! My dog food bill would go down by hundreds of dollars every year and I could sleep past 6:00am in the morning.

8)Diet Pepsi. I really get irritated when a waitress tells me that they do not have Diet Coke. They always want to know if Diet Pepsi would be okay. Hell, NO!!! If I wanted a Diet Pepsi I would have ordered one. Do you really think that they are comparable?? Idiot...

9) confrontation - okay, so I ordered the Diet Pepsi (instead of saying what I really thought)

10) clutter - Christy, I am sorry that I delete all of your emails and then ask you the next day to resend them, because I have discovered that I need them after all. Clutter on a computer, in my car, in my house, drives me crazy. I am a minamalist - keep it simple, organized and keep it clean. Drive everyone around you crazy because you have thrown away all of their stuff, put their glass in the dishwasher, deleted their emails. Sorry! But it just ticks me off when my husband says something like "Have you seen that envelope with the ladies phone number in Hillspring that I put on the table two weeks ago"? YOU MUST BE -------KIDDING ME???? That sucker was long gone the same day that you put it there!

There! That is 10 things off my chest and I am ready to enjoy my day!

Just Me and My Friend

2009-06-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

I had to take a photo of this just to prove to everyone that my dog is OCD just like me! Muppy loves to lay on the back of the leather loveseat and look out the window. He DOES NOT like to go outside - definitely a "house" dog. He sits there for hours and hours and watches the birds in the yard, the cats on the deck and all of the trucks that come and go from our yard.

Recently, Megan bought Muppy a chew toy, a little stuffed dog with bright red ears and tail. Muppy has to have the little dog where ever he goes. The first time that I saw him moving the chew toy around on the back of the loveseat, I did not think anything of it. I thought he was just playing around with it. About a week later, as I was scrapbooking ( my work table is in the livingroom) I noticed him fussing around with the toy, but this time it looked to me that he had a purpose in what he was doing. I kept scrapbooking, with one eye on the dog. Muppy was manipulating the toy and turning it this way and that, until the little dog was looking out of the window and then he laid down and rested. I could not believe my eyes!!!!

When I told Mike, he would not believe me and told me that I had been sniffing crack. The next day, Muppy did the same thing - but this time I grabbed my camera! It takes him about five minutes to get the toy facing out the window, then he will lay down and relax and the two dogs sit there and watch the great outdoors. Muppy was looking outside, just before he heard me coming with the camera and stood up or I would have been able to get the perfect shot of the two of them. I am going to keep trying to catch him in the act. What a stupid dog!!

2009-05-31T10:45:00.000-07:00

This is a view from my corner kitchen window - all of my pretty little orchids blooming in the spring sunlight! It has taken me quite a few years to build up my collection after the heater went out in the greenhouse, late one winter night. All of my orchids died from the cold- even the ones that had supplied my wedding bouquet many, many years ago.

I was devastated - particularly so, because a few years after the greenhouse accident, my friend Ken, who had given me the orchids for my wedding, died of cancer. First the special plants were gone, then Ken was gone. It took me a few years to even want to buy a single plant, but now my kitchen is full of them again. This beauty has three branches and fifteen flowers that are open right now, with more buds on the way. Ken would be proud of me!

Life After Amputation

2008-11-30T00:49:00.000-08:00

It has been a LONG time since I got the chance to sit down and enter a few of my thoughts... the big news this month is that Mike has just returned from the hospital after his second amputation. He is now a "BK" which means that he has a below the knee amputation - what a weird turn of events! No one should have to live through one amputation, let alone have to survive a do over and go through it a second time. The news that they wanted to go higher on his leg kicked Mike into high gear, I think that he needed to keep his hands and mind busy and so one of the tasks that we have had on our " to do" list finally rose to the top. We started a master bedroom renovation.
To get an idea of how monumental this undertaking was, let me give you some background. About twelve years ago, I got tired with the peach tones in our bedroom and decided that what I really wanted to do with the room was make it look very, very old fashioned. I bought some extremely expensive heritage wallpaper and invisioned huge, deep crown mouldings, eight inch mop board painted trim and a very lacy window and bed treatment, with carpet to accent the color of the wallpaper. The concept was good. The execution was disastrous! Mike HATED the bird wallpaper - so much so that he refused to complete any of the other stages of the renovation. We never got beyond a fresh coat of buttercream paint and the heritage wallpaper. It sat for the next twelve years, with Mike complaining to anyone that would hear about the ridiculous wallpaper and how he had to wear sunglasses to bed at night. It irritated him so much that it became a standoff. Until they told him that he was going into surgery...the very next day he was ripping and tearing.
For Christmas last year (2007) Mike bought me new hardwood flooring for the bedroom, but that little fall that imploded his fragile foot put him in the hospital for Christmas and out of commission for the rest of the year. The hardwood floor ( Nutmeg Oak) sat in the basement until the weekend after the announcement of the amputation. I came home from the Inn to find that Megan had moved us out of the room and the two of them had about 1/2 of the new flooring down. Then I started to take the wallpaper off and I quickly realized that the removal was going to be more than I bargained for. I started to panic and think that I never would get rid of the "birds". Not only did the paper not want to come off, when it did, it took off paint in some places and in other it took the top off of the drywall. Mike wasn't really helping me at first, and so I suggested that he drywall over the walls because it would be quicker. He told me that it would not give him the satisfaction of watching me struggle to get the paper off - after he had told me not to put it on in the first place!! What a brat!! We ended up having to get a drywaller in to fix and paint the walls because they were so badly damaged.
From this job, he went to help Megan put new hardwood down in her house and we BARELY got finished in time to move the bed back into our room, the night before the surgery. We had one sleep on our new matress set and off to the hospital we went. Surgery took place on November 21 and we came home on November 26. Since then, we have had a steady stream of company - Allan and Brad, Gloria and Joy and all of our kids and their girlfriends/boyfriend. Most meals have been 10 or more people and four extra people staying over. Plus, I was not finished for the season and still had three retreats before I was off on Christmas holidays. What a month!!!

It's Been A Long Time!

2008-07-25T19:02:00.000-07:00

I can not believe that July is almost over and so are my holidays! Quite the holidays - all work and no play. Haying season, Phillip coming from the Island to do a big siding job for us, shipping week and the prep for shipping (with no staff) and sick husband and daughter have conspired against me to prevent even one ounce of fun this month! I had three weeks off from the Inn, which I fully inteneded on spending on myself ... scrapbooking, scrapbooking and more scrapbooking and Poof! they are gone and I didn't get to play at all. Even my friends went scramping this year without me! It was the middle of shipping week and I could not go, I went out for coffee one night and that was all.
The big news this month - Andrew quit his job at Higginbotham's feedlot and is buying our roofing company. He has been on the job for about a week, finishing up a job for us before launching out on his own. Megan has been in the hospital for five days with infections. Mike got a new red wheelchair. I have had to do all of my own gardening, as Marie and Wendy could not work in July...I am finding out what a BIG yard that I have!
I spent yesterday baking, just for old times sake. I miss the life that I had before the Inn and Monday Night Class sometimes. I forgot just how much fun it was to play in the kitchen and bake up some goodies. I sorted through some old recipes and cleaned out some cupboards and felt much better at the end of the day. I have been pretty grouchy - it's not Mike's fault that I have been so busy and he has been struggling to complete haying with only one leg. I have not been very happy, with the thoughts of missing out on scrapbooking for my own pleasure and I think that I have been sort of blaming him. When it is totally me that has made life so hectic.
Another good thing - Phillip helped me plant the rest of the spruce trees and bring home my plant stand from the farm (Dad made it for me). It rained again, so everything is looking green and lush and my house is clean - or rather, it was when I left for the Inn today. Life will get better and someday I will scrap again

First Post

2008-06-07T21:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have to admit that I don't know what I am doing, but I am loving the idea of JOURNALING!!! I am a journaling addict - some of my scrapbook pages have more text that they have images. My assistant, Tinna, is helping me tonight, but we can not figure out a way to get my photos onto the blog. Help!! What I would like to show is the amazing photos of my son, Andrew, and his girlfriend, Marcie at her graduation last week. This was Andrew's first tuxedo event and the complaining almost drove us nuts! But after much negotiation, Andrew wore the entire outfit and actaully looked happy doing it. Because we have homeschooled all of our children through highschool, Andrew opted out of going to the formal graduation excercises in Calgary with all of the other Alberta homeschooled children. So, while this was Marcie's special day, we enjoyed seeing Andrew in the grand march as her escort.