Dining out

   2 moms
+ 7 kids(age 6 and younger)
+ 1 restaurant
-----------------------
1 rockin' good time.
Normally that equation would not be correct. But tonight it was. Nothing like having a great friend to hang out with when you are both with out a husband for the evening. Suddenly a boring night with out daddy becomes a fun time out on the town! Lets do it again...but with out the kids.

Please, Spring, come so I can play in the dirt!

But until then, I guess I will have to settle with doing things to get ready for those warm days in May(assuming they really will come). Last year we had troubles with little creatures in the dirt eating my cucumber seeds. As a result, my already late cucumbers were really late because I had to replant them once or twice. This year I have decided to start them indoors, and though I have a west facing window that gets a fair amount of sun, I don't really have a great place to put seed pots. So one night while I was laying in bed, not sleeping because my brain hadn't yet decided to follow the rest of my body and shut down, I came up with this idea. I have this aquarium(with everything I need to set it up) that my brother gave me when me moved. I have yet to set it up. I love fish, I think they are very relaxing to watch and I get a kick out of our cats trying to get at them. But I haven't yet put "buying fish" on the top of my things to spend money on, and when it gets close to the top, often other necessities come up and gets bumped back down. SO, I thought that it would be smart to use that aquarium as a little green house, I could set it on the little side table that we would set the fish on if we had them, and place it right in the middle of our large west facing bay window. That way they get to enjoy the warm sun and will be protected from my 20 month old who would love to just play in the dirt. I bought those little expanding peat pots the other day, and I have a tonne of little planting pots to put them in. So now I just need to put the little seeds in and off we go, on our way to wonderful cucumbers!!
 I also came across this blog that showed me how to make my own seed tapes. That might just be our next Family Home Evening project. Simple and easy and will make planting with the girls so much easier when warm weather decides to come our way and stay.

Today, I stepped out of my comfort zone.

Earlier this week I was busy sewing(no surprise there) when there was a knock at my back door. I went up the stairs and found a man of about my age wearing a orange jump suit with reflective strips, carrying a small tool box and a electronic thingy. He was driving a town truck. I had seen him come out of one house and go to the neighbouring house earlier. He said to me "I need to do some work on your water meter." I must have given him somewhat of a blank look because he then said "it's down stairs." I responded with "if you say so". As I let him in and he walks down the stairs I think to myself how this is so classic "Criminal Minds". Some guy dressed up in official clothes(not that an orange jump suit is "official" but it does say "City employee") and driving a truck or van that backs up his clothes, comes to your door claiming to need to do some official business, but really he is just there to kill you. Anyways...I also head down stairs because I figure I am supposed to show him where the water meter is(which I wasn't exactly sure, I know I have lived in this house for a year. But seriously, I have never had need to look at my water meter). After we figured that out he said to me "so are you new to town?" What do you think was his first clue? "Yeah, we moved here about a year ago from Lethbridge." I get back to work sewing. Tansley comes downstairs and wants to know who this guy is and what he is doing. She goes into the laundry room, where I discovered the water meter is located, and watches him. He starts asking her questions, How old are you, what is your name, etc. I can tell by the way he is talking to her and answering all of her questions that he has kids of his own. So we all get to chatting about family and stuff. We discovered that we knew some of the same people, that he plays hockey and noticed that we had a hockey net out back and he had seen our rink when it was at it's prime, so he inquired if my husband played and if so he could get him into playing with his group of guys out in Warner. It also turns out he has a little boy that is Tansley's age, having a birthday party on Saturday(today). He tells Tansley that if it is OK with her mom that we could all come down to the Civic Center for the party.
 Now for all of you living in a real City, I am sure you are thinking how very bizzarre this all is. You likely would never even think about going to the birthday party of the son of the man who is doing some work on your water meter(that is if he even had a son...again the whole "Criminal Minds" thing comes into play here). But you must remember that I live in a town with the population of(one moment I need to go look this up) according to wikipedia, about 816(that's less than I would have thought). I have made a goal this year that I wanted to get to know more people in the community. I am at quite a disadvantage. I often meet people at the grocery store, the hardware store, the fabric store or just on the street that know who I am because of the family that I belong to(or married into). For those of you that don't know, Daniels mom grew up here in Milk River and most of her family is still in and around the area and have been since about the time her parents emigrated from Germany. I've got used to it now, I am no longer surprised when someone says, "oh yes, you bought Scott so and so's old house." or "Oh, you are Kaye's daughter in law", or "you must be Mandy", "yes, you belong to the Reese clan". After all there are only 816 people in town, how hard is it to miss someone new in town?
OK, so back to what I was talking about. Jeremy(the water meter guy) tells me that our common friends will also be at the party and that I really should come, since our kids will be going to school together. As he is leaving I thank him for the invite because I really would like to get to know more people in the community. As the week as gone on, I wasn't sure if I really wanted to go. I am a complete chicken when it comes to meeting new people in an enviroment that I don't have any control over, or where I may not know anybody at all. I didn't tell Kathryn about the party, and thankfully Tansley had forgotten all about it. I didn't bring it up this morning, because I wasn't ready to commit. So, I could have been in the clear. But it nagged at me all morning today. The party started at 2pm, I had lots of time to find a reason not to go. I went about my day doing this and that. I told myself that I wouldn't beable to go because Kymberly would be napping. But I sewed up a doodle bag(a little bag that carries a colouring book and crayons), just in case. I had a shower and did my hair and make up, just incase I changed my mind. Kymberly woke up from her nap right at 2 and since I was already, I told the girls to get some decent clothes on because we were going to go to a birthday party. Off we went and I just hoped that the people that I knew were really going to be there. This is so not like me.
Well the people I knew were there, and I met some new people and the girls had a blast. It was nice to get out of the house and to let the girls run around wild for 2 hours. I was glad I went.
I don't recommend anyone doing such a thing if you live in a City of any variety, but when you live in a town the size of Milk River, it doesn't seem so strange. Infact I did not think about how others living in other places would react to this situation until I started thinking about blogging about it.

My child, the Rock Star

After bath today Kymberly refused to let me get her dressed. I had to pin her down with all I had just to get a diaper on her to prevent unwanted watering of the carpet. I figured it wasn't worth the battle to get her PJ's on...yet. I discovered it was just because I had interrupted her singing. She had her favorite blanket wrapped around her(sans diaper) and was using a timer from a board game as a microphone when I snatched her to put her diaper on her. The whole time I was trying to put her diaper on her she was screaming "NO! MOM! NO!" and as soon as I let her go, she went right back to singing.
Here is my first attempt at getting her on video,

silly Kym singing

Complete silliness! I am pretty sure that comes through her dad. So we tried again, and although the lighting isn't great, we got a glimpse of her Rock Star potential. Have I mentioned that this kid is always singing?

Kymberly the RockStar

It's beautiful, even if it is cold again

It was a gorgeous day on Saturday. We spent most of the day outside playing and doing yard work. Saturday night it started pouring rain. It was supposed to freeze that night. We woke up Sunday morning to the rain frozen on the trees, in small little icicles. I couldn't take a picture because Daniel had the camera with him. This morning I woke up to see that some of that incredible ice was still hanging around.

Once muddy boots, now frozen to the deck

Old Couch, looking kinda neat with an ice glaze

mini icicles hanging from our deck

mini icicles

The Google Translator is terrible

I just came across this fabulous french site that has some really really great kids games and crafts. My favorite so far are the travel games. I can't wait to go on a road trip so that I can put these to use. But what is making me laugh, and at times to the point of nearly peeing my pants is the google translation to English.
Here is one of my favorites. The french sentence is this "Un mobile à réaliser par un adulte, avec des animaux à
colorier et à découper par les enfants". The google traslation to English is this "A mobile to be made by an adult, with animal coloring and cutting children."
How about this one... French "Fleurs à imprimer Une série de fleurs à monter et à piquer dans vos pots de terre ou vos vases pour les décorer. English "Flowers to print a series of flowers up and bite you in pots of soil or your vases to decorate."
Anyways, if you are in need of a new idea, or maybe just a laugh, you should check out this site.

1 down, 4 to go

My best friend, my true love, my one and only, my confident, my lover, left this morning to go to Hinton, AB for Basketball Provincials. He is the assistant coach of the Winston Churchill Bulldog Basketball team, and they are the Zone Champions. He was completely overwhelmed by it all. Something his team was never able to accomplish when he himself played for the Bulldogs 15 years ago. Originally we agreed that he wasn't going to coach this year, but at the beginning of the season I told him that I would be OK with him coaching one more season. He thought I was crazy, but wasn't going to turn down the opportunity. I am SOOOOO glad that he did. But now I sit here, missing him like crazy. It's only been 16 hours since he left. On a normal night during basketball season he would just be walking in the door right now. But I ache for him right now. Is it because I know that he wont be home until late Sunday night? Maybe it is because I am watching American Idol(because there is nothing else and I don't yet feel like going to bed) and Brad Paisley just sang a sappy song called 'Then' and it made me miss him even more than I already did. Whatever it is, I miss him so much I can feel it in my gut. I just want to hold him, smell him, put my cold feet on his increadably warm back. Yeah, I love that man....who will keep my feet warm tonight? I guess that job will be left for the cats...they don't do to shabby of a job, but it's not the same as my man's warm back. He is the best thing in my life, because of him, I have the other best things, our girls. My life would be a complete mess with out him. I continualy wonder how I actually ended up with him. I had a crush on him for a long time, more than a crush. I remember one day in High School, the thought popped into my head that I would marry that boy. I laughed at it, but never forgot it. There were times that I thought it would never happen, like the time he told me that he thought he wanted to marry me, but wasn't ready to date me. I watched him date others, I stood by as the best friend. There was always something different about "US" before we were ever "US". He was always my friend. He was always someone I could go to with everything and anything. Even when he was on his mission, he had a way of writing just the right thing with out knowing. He makes me giddy and silly. He is my everything. Wow, life is so good. I have got to be one of the luckiest girls in the world.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

I've never cared about this particular "Holiday". I have never done anything for it. Never encouraged it. For no real reason except that I just don't think it is a very exciting "holiday". My kids didn't know anything about it until Kathryn was in Kindergarten and they had a "green" day. Well this year it was all the buzz in our house. The girls really loved the pink pancakes I made for Valentines day, so they requested green one for St Patrick's day. So I obliged. And last night for Family Home Evening they wanted to make cookies for the occasion. So we made green chocolate chip cookies. Don't they look tasty? They look like they should be mint flavoured, but they are not.

Green St. Patrick's Day Chocolate Chip Cookies

LOST: reward offered

Have you seen the fabric to match this patterned cat?

cuddly cats

It's missing. I can't find it anywhere. I told a lady that I would make a second cat for her so that she would have matching ones for her twin baby girls because I KNEW that I had more. Almost a full yard more(less the amount I cut out for this cat). I know that I have a lot of fabric in a lot of boxes. And I know that it really isn't that organized, but I do keep like fabrics in the same box (quilting cottons in one, flannel in another, corduroy in yet another and so on). I have looked high and low and I can not find it anywhere. Where could it possibly have gone? Did some fabric thief break into my house needing that exact piece of fabric and took only that...or did they? Maybe there is more missing and I just haven't noticed yet. OK, it seems as though I have also lost my mind. So if any of you out there in bloggerland have seen either of these items, would you kindly send them
back this way?

Who are those abnoxious children and why doesn't that mother keep them under control?

Oh that was me tonight. Kathryn's school hosted the Missoula Children's Theatre tonight. The children have been working on it all week. Tonight they presented the play "The Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe". Daniel has basketball zones tonight, so it was just me and the girls. We went early so that we could sit close to the front so that Tansley would be able to see. There is nothing worse than having a kid complain the entire play because they can't see over the people in front of them...check that, there is something worse. Try two squawking, screaming, crying children. A three year old who keeps telling you NO when you ask her to sit still, or just wait a minute. A nineteen month old who likes to hear the sound of her voice when she screams and thinks it's a game when you cover her mouth. Then you have the younger one throw herself on the floor in a tantrum just because she can. The 3 year old can't sit still and nearly tips the chair over backwards. Nothing works to calm them. I try treats, letting them help to take pictures, etc. It's no use. I contine to get looks from all around. I take them to the side and finally out of the gym. Thankfully the school principle came to my aid and took them out in the hall so that I could watch Kathryn when she came on stage. I spent the rest of the play standing at the back door to the gym while my abnoxious children ran the halls.
Yep that's me, the single mom who doesn't know how to keep her out of control children in control.

She is always singing

Kymberly loves to sing. She often sings to herself while she is playing, especially while she is drawing or colouring. It is usually some "la la la" or "de da do"(this is her favorite) tune that she is just making up as she goes. Today I noticed that she started out singing a familiar tune. Likely she picked it up in nursery, she even had some hand motions to go along with it. She was singing "Popcorn Popping". By the time I started filming her she had reverted to her usually "de da do" but she still had the hand actions going.

Kymberly singing

This is what I wanted to hear.

I have received so many e-mails, so many messages/group invitations on facebook, and all of it just causes feelings of disgust and confusion. I'm talking about the controversy over the "Big Love" show. Apparently the show plans to air what "really" happens inside the Temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The thought of it makes me furious inside, that anyone has that much disregard for things that others hold sacred. Weather it is our religion or any other, things that are sacred to that group should be treated with respect, by those of that belief and those who are not of that belief. It is common courtesy. Our mommy's taught us that when we were all young. But almost equally disturbing were all of the negative emails and such that I have received and seen on facebook, all suggesting that we need to take a stand against HBO, threaten to cancel subscriptions and other such things. Yes, we need to stand for truth at righteousness. But to what extent? What is the right way to go about this? This morning on my google reader, I noticed this headline "Church Statement on "Big Love"", on the lds.org website feed. It was exactly what I was looking for. It answered all of my concerns. Now I know what I need to do. It might be different for you, but you'll get your answer if you read the Church's stand on this.

Clever baby solves her own problem.

Thinking she is sooooo clever

This is what happens when:

1. You have a hungry 19 month old.
2. You store your cereal in a cupboard that the hungry 19 month old can get into.
3. You are busy making supper and are not really paying attention to what that hungry 19 month old is doing, you are   just glad she isn't screaming at you.

Just helping herself to some fruity Cheerios

At least she didn't dump them all over the floor...just nearly finished off the box. Can't really blame her, they are very tasty.