mornings = ugh

ok, so I have never been a morning person - even after becoming a mom. I thought I had taught the kids well by staying up a little later at night, and sleeping in longer in the morning. It worked good until Cody started first grade (I lucked out, he was in PM kindy, which was great since that's when Jenna napped - so I could nap too if I wanted to!). Ugh.
Now, I figure we have a pretty good system for weekday mornings:
Cody is up at 7am to shower, Jenna, Xander, sometimes Quinten and I get up 15 minutes later. We have breakfast, getting ready for our day (get dressed, brush teeth, do hair), make lunch, etc. Cody is out the door at 7:50 to catch the school bus, Jenna & Xander are out the door at 8:10 for their school bus. I finish getting ready for work after they leave (straighten my hair, do my makeup, whatever). Then I get Quin to go snuggle with Des for the 30 minutes or so it takes him to fully wake up, and I head out the door at 8:40. Some days it feels like a rush, others, too much time. Normally I don't wanna wake up in the mornings when my alarm goes off, I just wanna snuggle deeper into the bed, snuggled up to Des (aka, the human heater). This past week has been weird though ... I have been waking up before 7am! Not actually getting out of bed, but being physically awake. It has been weird! I haven't been going to bed much sooner, getting more sleep, etc. So why am I waking up so early for no reason??? lol And even more bizarre ... I haven't had the urge to nap this week either! Normally after I come home from work, I eat lunch, and spend about an hour with Des before he goes to work for the day (thank goodness for working opposite shifts - no daycare needed!). And 9 our of 10 times, as soon as he goes out the door for work (1:30ish), I am ready to curl up on the couch and have a snooze!

Anyways ....

Only way to improve my mornings - no kids fighting!!! But that's a whole other story.

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This week's FOBTY post: Will you keep your New Year's resolution?

You Probably Won't Keep Your New Year's Resolution

Something isn't quite right with the resolution you've selected. Maybe it's time for a different one?

Will You Keep Your New Year's Resolution?

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And some new LOs:

Kristin Cronin-Barrow - Giggles
Bree Clarkson - Blog Challenge #3


Christy Lyle & Lauren Grier - Funky Monkey
Penny Springmann - All Worn Out: Photograph and Paper Overlays 2
Julie Billingsley - Social Hangups


Christy Lyle - Always & Forever
Kristin Cronin-Barrow - Ornamental Edges
Penny Springmann - Word Jumble


Dani Mogstad - Pop Rocks
Bree Clarkson - Inspired by Kasia: TOTM Nov 08


Kristin Cronin-Barrow & Meghan Mullens - Love Stinks


Kristin Cronin-Barrow - Shimmer Dust
Kristin CB & Traci Reed - A Month At A Time: January
Traci Reed - Arylic-O-Holic
Penny Springmann - Frame Masks #6
Christy Lyle - Circle Date Stamps #2
Christy Lyle & Lauren Grier - Toxic Rainbow
Lauren Grier - Thank You alpha (from her CT call)

almost weekend time

well, the weekend is almost upon us. Technically, it starts this afternoon for us, the kids have no-school Friday tomorrow. I think Cody might head up to Fernie Alpine Resort to go boarding with some friends. If he can get his butt up there anyways. Jenna has a sleepover birthday party to go to , for her friend Shae, who turned 10 the day before J did. So it looks like it will be a quiet day with the little guys tomorrow, after I get home from work.

Des will be home with us on weekends for the next little bit. With the economy what it is, layoffs have hit the Valley ... thankfully we are both still employed, but you never know. His work has gone from 6-7 days a week, to 5 days only. It's gonna be weird having him home Saturdays and Sundays! Not that we will be doing anything, just chilling at home more than likely.

We got word this weekend that we have to look for a new place to live. We knew this would be happening, we were just hoping that with the economy being not so great, that the owners wouldn't be able to afford to keep a vacation home (which is why we rented this place in the first place - they couldn't afford to keep it vacant). So keep your fingers crossed that we will be able to find a place that works for us before May 1st. Yes, three months notice, but there are not many 4 bedroom places that come up for rent.

OK .....

Here is my FOBTY post ...

Cupcakes. Dang you Andrea! Now I want cupcakes! Me, I am pretty plain in my likes. I would be perfectly content with a vanilla or lemon cuppie-cake, with plain chocolate or white frosting. No cream cheese, no funky ingredients ... simple does it for me.

Speaking of ... guess I better get my butt in gear and make some cuppies for Jenna's birthday party this weekend - I am cheating though, they are coming from a mix outta a box - confetti chip with vanilla frosting.

a toothy birthday celebration

so yesterday was Jenna's 10th birthday -

and Xander decided he needed to celebrate her birthday in style -

by losing his VERY first tooth! Yeah! Celebrations abound in our house this week!

I have been trying to find my scrap mojo, and here's some of my latest efforts ...




and to score some more challenge points at SSD ... my FOBTY quiz results -

You Are a Discount Shopper

You love to get things as cheaply as possible. You live for sales. It's partially because you like to save money, but it's also because you like the thrill of finding a fabulous deal. Of all the types, you tend to shop frequently but rarely by. You keep an eye on prices. Brand names are not that important to you. You know how to have style without collecting designer tags.

What Kind of Shopper Are You?

wow, long time

so yeah, it is apparent I suck at this blog upkeep. It's been MONTHS since I updated!

Let's see ... since my last update ... I now have a 6 year old in the house - Xander celebrated his birthday on October 18th. I also celebrated a birthday, on November 19th. Yup, I am now 32 years young. We ran away for our Christmas holidays, since the mines were on shut down. We went "home" for Christmas, to celebrate with my ILs, my parents, our siblings, and other family & friends. The kids got spoiled, as always.

Unfortunately, while we were away, tragedy struck our small community. 8 local boys died in an avalanche while out snowmobiling. There were 11 of them, 3 survived and managed to be rescued. Sadly, this affected my close circle of friends. The last body recovered from the avalanche scene was my best friend Marcie's sister Theresa's common-law husband. Danny was a quiet man, but he had a heart of gold. He will be missed deeply, as will the rest of the "Valley Boys".
Here's to the boys
Sparwood Victims Memorial Gallery
(if you click on the first photo in the third row down in the thumbnails, you will see me getting off the bus, approaching the line to enter the arena - I am wearing my pink jacket - thanks Kristin for pointing this out to me!)

So we are slowly trying to get things back to normal here. For me, that means a bit of digi-scrapping! Here's my first two LOs of 2009 ...

~*~ YUM ~*~

using Cake & Ice Cream Perfect Pairs by Christy Lyle & Amanda Dykan
new release 01/10 at SSD

~*~ family tree ~*~

using Family Tree by Penny Springmann
new release 01/10 at SSD

And now to the real reason I came to post ... FOBTY challenge at Sweet Shoppe Designs ...

Your Snow Test Says You're Independent

You feel like something good will happen to you eventually, but not soon. You have an amazingly strong work ethic. You are likely to be very successful in life. You are an independent, individualistic person. You thrive when you're doing your own thing. Your biggest worry in your life is your health. You tend to be a bit of a hypochondriac. When it comes time to relax, you have no problem letting go. You are already pretty relaxed as is!

The Snow Test

Color Quizzer

How well do you know your Crayola Crayon colors??

I named all 64 crayons with 21 mistakes.