Wishin' For a Dull Moment....

I know...be careful what you wish for!
Yesterday was anything but dull but my blood pressure is back down to normal today. There was a family get together at church and I was in the basement preparing to wax the floor by the piano and I booted some rowdy youth out of where they weren't supposed to be. They proceded to tell me where to go and how to get there. So...I told their grandma and she was livid! I went home while the floors were drying (I mopped them) and Ray wouldn't let me go back to church to finish the job. I have a very understanding, supportive hubby who knows just when I need a hug. It's hard to sit at home and relax after that kind of morning sooooooo.....I rearranged the living room and took the Christmas tree down and put everything away. I left my decorations up so it still looks festive.

I had such a nice day today though. I didn't get any cleaning done but the family was very thorough about leaving the building clean. Which was really nice. I didn't get much done but did take down some the specifically Advent-ish decorations in the sanctuary. It was a very busy week at church with changing the visuals after the morning service for the candlelight service, to changing them for Christmas day, to cleaning the sanctuary between services, to cleaning up after the family that was there on Christmas Day, and now the family that was there yesterday and trying to squeeze in a floor refinishing while there is no one using the building (no one who is usually meeting during the week.... and the families who are reunioning there only are supposed to be using the upstairs since I don't get paid to clean the downstairs. ($50 spread over 6 hours of cleaning really isn't that attractive!)

The visuals for the candlelight service where so lovely and many people commented on them. There were electric candles in the wreaths in the windows that were turned on. The angels were hung on the rafter posts in the sanctuary and an electric candle was taped to their hands. Sooo cool! And there were white and red pillar candles on the piano, by the organ, and an extra table besides that yet. There were tea lights on all the window sills too. THat looked really pretty, but made my very nervous when this one little nugget kept running in and out of church (from the fourth pew from the front). YIKES....but...every one lived.

I also had my friend over this afternoon because I am going to dogsit for her in January. Blixie got acquainted with Max, a BIG chocolate lab, and a lovely time was had by all. They will get along just grand. Blixie tolerates Max in her space without too much trouble. From her point of view, he is very large and boisterously exhuberant! But by the end of an hour they were both vedging under the table. So...it will be just fine!

I did get a coat of wax on the floor this afternoon. It felt really good to get that done, rather than still have it on the to-do list! When I finished, I heard some rumbling upstairs on the organ and some of the perpetually smiling members of my congregation were there. It is just such a treat to cross paths with someone like that during your day, especially after a day like yesterday. :):)

Never a Dull Moment....

We had an exciting phone call yesterday at supper time. Someone was fetching something from church and they spotted a bat flying around in the foyer. Yes....a BAT. So....they suggested we apprehend it and have it vacate the premises. We finished our meal and responded appropriately with a call to arms. Arm oneself with what? Well....we brought a fishing net, a butterfly net and an assortment of tennis rackets. I brought some towels too, why, I'm not sure. Definitely not to mop the blood and as I observed the bat doing very fast orbits around us...we'd never be able to throw a towel at it.
Who knows what one needs for this kind of stealth operation. Craig spotted it first...it was downstairs beside the elevator door, just kind of hanging off the wall. He quickly proceeded to excuse himself and the chase began. The bat went up to the foyer and dive bombed me for a while and then went up to the fellowship hall. Joe begged for a turn with the butterfly net, and the long handle seemed our best bet. I was not offended to surrender the net as I was not having much luck. My evasive maneuvers were not working. Trying to catch it but preferably not. Joey began to pursue the little fellow and had it in the net in no time at all. That's my JOE, fearless bat-hunter. Crikey! We let the little fellow go outside...hope he found a cosy little nook somewhere....just not in "MY" building.

SO that was out adventure. I think the bat got shook loose in the attic because we are getting a new roof on the church this week.

I've been putting the finishing touches on the plans for visuals over the next couple of services and have most things lined up and a couple of people to come and give me a hand. We'll have some seasonal music on and have a lovely time....some Christmas tea and goodies. Yum....

We are going to watch Elf together now, that's such a funny movie. What is your favourite holiday movie or special??

Whatcha Listenin' To????

I decided that decorating is all about creating atmosphere and at this house music is a big part of 'ambiance'. Try doing the dishes with classical music as opposed to a 'hits' station. Check out the difference in vibes. Personally....I think there is nothing better than a bit of jazz in the background when you're at the sink, or making cards.....mopping? not so much....you need a bit more oomph!

So....on that note. Decorating tip #6. Play some appropriate seasonal music when you are decorating, creating decor, or entertaining family and friends. I thought it would be really neat to poll the readership at this time and see what you are listening to. All you anonymous readers out there, join in the fun!!!

Today at work and in the studio I listened to MercyMe- The Christmas Sessions. WAAAAAY FUn....I also got a sneak peek at Jars Of Clay- Christmas Songs!!! What a fabulous, fabulous album that is. For most of the week I listened to the Oakridge Boys-An Inconvenient Christmas. What a fun album that is...and I love the way they do the Hallelujah Chorus, and just enough oomph and humour to get the mopping and toilets done!

O Christmas Tree....

This is my funky little tree. I just had to share it with you because it truly is one of a kind...kind of Dr. Suess-ian and way fun!!! It's kind of rubbery with the texture of rawhide.
It was soooo suitable for leaving out when I had the daycare kids around the house. I found the forlorn little thing at the second hand store. This place is a treasure trove for amazing seasonal things. And that brings me to todays tip! I think we are on TIP #5 Go to the second hand store!!!! Most second hand stores bring out there seasonal decor sometime Late in November. You can find almost-NEW stuff at these stores. Table top trees, full-size artificial trees, wreaths (I bought five bare wreaths for Advent at church for $11!!), seasonal baskets (I have a basket by my backdoor that I filled with two packs of green moss from Dollarama), ornaments, snowmen, santas, angels....etc.... Of course there WILL be tacky stuff out there but for the diligent seeker, there is treasure just waiting to be found.

Today was a nice day...and I am glad to be home again. We are on the verge of freezing rain and it is messy outside. SO thrilled to get a ride home from Little Lambs because I had my good boots on. I'm so vain!
Visuals are ready for Sunday. Just had to add the "word-of-the-week" at the front display board on the organ side. I'd been asked to do worship visuals on a fulltime basis but have decided not to pursue it at this time. Loooong story...too long for here. I'm much happier having made this decision and no longer having it hang over me. That tends to drain my brain. I feel a card coming on....gotta go!

Happy Monday!!

After a fun morning with the stamping group I am home again. I got to have a bowl of soup before I left and thought I would update this general area for a moment before continuing on. This is what the front of the garage looks like this season. I thought I would share this one last picture with you, and maybe that funky little Christmas tree yet next post....

It was a nice weekend, conluding with a seniors and youth group dinner at church after the afternoon service. We do this monthly and this time it was Casserole Extravaganza Night. I brought Bahmi and peanut sauce....those who recognized it, enjoyed it tremendously. It is always nice to see the seniors enjoying a warm meal and they were very appreciative too. It is put on by the deacons... Once we got home it was nice and early yet and we could wind down before watching the Amazing Race.

We were supposed to get some freezing rain but it doesn't seem to have made its way down here yet. That's okay by me!! Tomorrow we have Little Lambs for the last time before Christmas break and I have a meeting tonight. It is still busy but it will be nice for those things to wind down for a few weeks and be replaced by some seasonal new things. Just like making cards....right now we are busy making Christmas cards but soon it will be regular time again...it is nice to make a thankyou or birthday card and use some of those papers and stamps again. We are ready for some holidays I think. I didn't feel well last night and went to bed early, I didn't even notice Ray turning the light off after reading for a while!! Slept like a log.

Decorating tip of the day! This is one I saw at my friend Nancy's house this morning, and it is something I do here as well! Keep some of your favourite ornaments on a window sill, or ledge, where you can see them all the time. I have some special ones from friends and it is nice to group them together and think nice things while you are doing the dishes there! Eventually your tree becomes so full you can't hang them all anyway!! This is nice for people who don't put a tree up for one reason or another.

Cheap Therapy

Do you ever have something happen to you and you just don't know where to file it in the life experience section? It's one of those days today. Ya just can't figure out what goes on in some people's brains and why they do the things they do...and what if THEY knew that YOU know what they DON'T think YOU know. If you can follow that you must still be on your first glass of wine. Anyway.....I had the chance to have lunch with some girlfriends and you know what they say.....Good friends are cheaper than therapy....and then I went home and finished outdoor decorating.

I have an old weathered storm window frame that I bestowed some decorating upon. I chipped the dirt out of my frozen urn out front with a hammer and screwdriver....hoping the neighbourhood would not take note of my slothful outdoor fall cleanup. But...it's hard to be discreet while you're putting your back into it!


Decorating Tip #3- wait until you are home for Christmas and can go tromping out into the bush as a family to gather things. This would make for a lot of fun bonding time....AND give you access to FREE material at the same time. A bonus tip for today.....I saw a lovely metal wall sconce on my walk to house cleaning yesterday. It was filled with pine boughs and such, plus a big burgundy velvet bow. It looked soooo lovely. It was lined with that burlappy stuff and probably a bit of oasis....although a friend uses sand.

Tonight I get to serve a Christmas dinner at our local seniors complex, catered by our church's mission team. I love serving and love working with the members of that team, we are good friends and that makes it more fun than work.

The cadets are still meeting at church this weekend so I will wait with cleaning the downstairs until they have vacated the premises. Not much point in doing it multiple times.

Preparations for the second sunday of Advent are complete. We got these cooooooool electric candles, battery operated...that we are using for the candlelight service in various ways....soooo funky!

Enjoy whatever downtime you have this weekend....and those with exams....hang in there!!

Lookie, Lookie....

After posting yesterday's decorating tip of the day....I decided that it would be prudent to post a before and after picture. Please note: I decided to skip the illustrated step of "throw in laundry", you'll have to imagine that part. So , the top picture is of the patio door, BEFORE, with a cheapy little garland over the curtain rod. I twist some of the "pine" around the rod. This is all I got done the other day. So....Babysteps....then supper happened and dishes happened....and everyone scattered and I had the kitchen table all to myself. That is an important part of the process. Then I retrieved various nature things from the garage to the tabletop and began the process.... And the lower on is the AFTER shot . Not picture is the lovely glass of Red Currant Merlot I had while "working". There are boughs of cedar, dogwood branches, dried porcupine grass, and that's it. There was no need for rosehips...I'll use them in a swag outside. I think that'll be my next project....cause we wouldn't want to run out of projects!

No time for a tip today...it took all my time and patience to download these.....see ya!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Today Craig had a snow day. Well...his bus was cancelled but I think school was still on. The schools that feed the highschool are in hither and yon, and when there are snow squalls there is easily one or two bunches that can't make it to school! This was very difficult for Craig to accept.....NOT! But more difficult for Joe who DID have school. So we hung out together. It was such a fun day. I finished the laundry, and we brought the Christmas things out of hiding. Craig put the tree up all by himself....we added the lights and the garland and will put the ornaments on together later.

I also decorated the living room area, tops of the kastjes. I don't usually do that but felt moved to do that this season. It is fun to have something new to look at. I am recharging batteries as we speak so there might be some pictures forth coming. I found the cutest funky wacky little Christmas tree last year.

I have been totally uninspired in the card department but feel the creative juices stirring in the decorating department. So instead of cardmaking tips I shall have a couple of decorating tips. I know it's not what you wanted but it's what I wanted. ...tough bananas. Tip #1 was posted in the comments of Amanda's blog. For persons unable, or unwilling to have a Christmas tree.....simple search out or purchase some seasonal foliage and place it in an appropriate vessel (urn, sap bucket, or other tall container ...10gallon pail wrapped in burlap....) and voila...Christmas in a pot.
Tip #2- decorating over a window or patio door. Detach curtain. Throw in laundry. Take an artificial pine garland and wrap it around the curtain rod, or simple fasten in the middle and the corners so it can drape gracefully....or lay upon the shelf over the door. Take various kinds of branches(dogwood, pine, cedar.....) , nature thingies(teasels, rosehips, stalks from grasses...) and insert at random. Garland will keep the various inserts in place....you can also use artificial berries on picks from Dollarama or last years Christmas center piece. I have also used the berries from my firebush. Go crazy... usually very therapeutic.

Must go now and deliver spouse to meeting, then attend parent teacher interviews. TTFN....

Seeing Stars....

Another fun day today. I got a little roadtrip in, not quite as far as Randall and not with that many teenagers in the car. Two friends and I went to Exeter and shopped the little shops there. They have such lovely Christmas things there. I purchased a number of cream coloured stars of various sizes. I hope to put them on the front of the garage. First I have to convince Ray that the garage won't bleed if I put nails in the wood...

Speaking of Ray and the garage.....he has successfully created a rack in the garage for both canoes to rest on AND leaving enough room for the car to be housed indoors for the winter. I suggested a couple of tweaks to the original design, which ended up making the car fit even more easily. I was about to take a picture BUT my batteries are dead. Maybe tomorrow....

I am doing a load of tea towels and they are spinning out for the last time. A family had a gathering at church and we went and tidied there after my company Christmas dinner. The ladies I paint with and the lady I work for , and the guy who does the home inspections and maintenance all had Christmas dinner together with our spouses. It was such a fun evening....

Well the lads are back from hockey, Ray played defense and still managed to score 3 goals!
Have a good first Sunday of Advent! Ik mat noadich op bed!

Friday is Almost Always a Good Day...

I was done at work by 12:30 and had a nice leisurely lunch....I fried myself an egg, some of lastnights mashed potatoes and then plopped the egg on some ham on toast. Yummo! Did the crossword...but it was the friday one and that one is usually really hard. Made some phone calls. Picked Joe up and am home now. I also did a load of laundry because I want to wear my new blouse tomorrow and it had lots of creases in it from coming out of the box at the store.

I totally scored at GARAGE yesterday!!! They were giving us 50% off the already really great sale price! I got a pair of jeans, an oatmeal coloured tanktop, a long sleeved ribbed T in brown, AND an oatmeal zippered hoodie cardigan....for $54!! Tax included!!!! The tanktop was more expensive than the jeans!!! So cool. I also got a grey short sleeved blouse that has a belt at the waist. It is super long and flares out a bit at the bottom....that was at Sirens, and I got a cute halter vest at H & M, I love that store!! Urban Behaviour had some really cool sweaters but a bit pricey yet....lots of time to wait.... It was a fun day! Ray liked the deals AND the outfits.

My stampin' order came in yesterday, making a good day even better. You're so subtle about those tips Amanda! I can't think of any right now..... so many techniques, so little time.....

Have a great weekend.....

I Hope You're Sitting Down....

....yeah...it's finally me!
I just took some time to see what all of you have been up to. Good times!

I've fallen off the face of the earth for a while but have returned. It's been a bit chaotic with work and play, and then trying to synchronize everyone's schedules. Having no computer was a bit of a problem too.

Our new modem seems to be the answer to the slowness and our access to the information highway has been restored....at the proper speed limit. We no longer go to the library to check our email and blogs. But you kind of get out of the habit of heading downstairs for the computer and it might take a while to restore that!

I'll try not to bore you with my past couple of weeks.....so just imagine a list of a 100 things here and we'll call it square. Saves me typing, and saves you reading!

I've been preparing the sanctuary for Advent. I was interim worship visual coordinator....which basically means, I decorated for Christmas. I hung up the banner that was chosen, changed the liturgical colour banners behind the pulpit from green to purple, made a background for the advent words to go on, hung up the stained glass panels(laminated black bristol board and tissue paper), set up the advent candles, filled two urns with dogwood and artificial pine (janitor's dream), and hung wreaths and handmade stars(some from dogwood and some from grape vine....way cool!) in the windows. I should take some pictures!!!! Ooooh neat idea.....one of these days!!


Oh yeah...the furnaces are installed and up and running. Woohoo! It will take a little figuring to get the thermostats set properly....it's been way too hot in the fellowship hall. Time to tinker I guess.


Tomorrow I am going shopping. I finished all my thursday work at church already and cleaned my potties at home today and am on the last load of laundry, tea towels for church. I'm so excited! I haven't felt this caught up in a long time. (Content sigh!)

Ray is in London with Craig at a concert, which Craig needs to attend and review for his music class. It's going to be a really good show....can't wait to hear how it was. Two friends from school went along, since they still needed to find a concert to attend and now have a ride. It's a classical music trio, piano, clarinet and bassoon, at a church in London, where the music director is debuting the new baby grand piano! He has played for Orchestra London, and his trio has played on CBC a number of times. They have a couple of cd's out too...and are giving this concert for free. I wish I was there....but Ray decided to pick Craig up at school after Reach For the Top, eat in London and just kill time at a nearby mall, and then go to the concert at 7:30.

So...Joe and I were home alone. We had left overs shepherd's pie for supper and only had to warm it up in the oven. Yeah! So....I shall go and make some lunches now and then Joe and I will watch a show....I think maybe Smallville is on. Even if it's a rerun....we haven't seen any of them.

Thanks...my sweet and faithful readers. It is special to be missed....you're funny Karen. Love you all so much!!!

I'm SUCH a Techie!!!

You can't unplug things and plug them back in just any old way..you know!! I have conquered the slow internet by installing the new modem that came yesterday, right after we got that phone call... "Yep, yer right...it is really slow..."

I should go and put some food on...Just wanted to say hi!

Sort of Like Monday....

...but not really. There was no cardmaking today and I had a coffee with a friend instead which was really nice. Change is good, but I missed my creative outlet....

Ray is home today too...a perk for civil servants...nice to get some things done around the house. Afterall there are now two canoes AND a car to house in the garage for the winter. We'll have to see how we work that out! It'll be fun to clean up and organize the garage in the meantime. I feel like before and after pictures are in order!!

I am at the library again while we continue to be plagued by monumentally slow internet access. We are in the process of having our system tested by the powers that be at Bell. We shall wait and see what comes out of that....probably a "Yep, you're right...that's really slow!" So...til then we wait.

Yesterday we visited the inlaws for birthdays and that was really nice. I asked someone to open for me for the afternoon service back at home so that I could slip out. People are always more than happy to facilitate this for our family. It was a nice time to be together. The boys always enjoy seeing their cousins and this week there was an extra one, as Ray's sister Cathy and her hubby have become foster parents. A cute little kid! But it makes you sad for what goes on in the world that we are so often insulated from in our circles.

Not much on the schedule this week. I think work will begin on the new furnaces at church...we have been having coffee in the fellowshiphall with our wintercoats on during Thursday mornings and last night at the service it was 16 degrees in there. Lovely! I guess there aren't too many people nodding off at that temperature.... (We had a really great service in Chatham too, the three churches there combine each evening and the place was full, and it was neat to see whole families with kids and teenagers present....) Good to worship together...

Meeting tonight, and then tomorrow is little lamb time and then there is some cleaning to do here and there and then it will be thursday and friday before you know it. I like the routine, and when it slows down i get some more things done around the house or at least keep up with things at a less demanding pace. So that's it for today.....hope you are all well....love ya!

Not Quite Home

Today I'm writing from terminal number five at the library. It's not quite the same as writing at home, most likely because there is no laundry running in the background. Yeah, that must be it. The whole family is sitting in a row beside me, so that's unusual too! My family is using half the terminals. There are even more computers here than at Randall's!!

Today I learned that my sisterinlaw's mom has passed away and I haven't gotten a hold of them to send my condolences yet. I shall try when I get home. ALso there is some carrot trouble on the wind...well actually it is on the ground...but it is never fun to hear "less-than-great-news". So we're all thinking of you guys and girls.

Thanks for your nice comments about my studio space.... It is a fun place to spend time in but I'm not in there ALL time. I do cook for my family and make lunches, and of course...do laundry! We don't run out of clean undies often, but socks...now that's another story and I think we must make a run to Walmart one of these days. (We got new undies when school started, I realize that borders on too much information for some of you people.)

Craig went to work with Ray today, as did many Grade nine students across the province, or is that nation? He decided that since he comes with me every Sunday, that he would go with Ray today, and he had the time of his life. Such fun....at the office of tax audit! He had to take an oath of secrecy, so i can just imagine what his report will look like. "Um...I'm not allowed to share that information." and still get an A+. Sweet.... Ray's boss had him look up some capital tax stuff that had to do with filling out the tax return for a Jedi knight. Craig had to look up the classifications of a Jedi's assets and how they would be taxed...that was kind of fun, and had Craig go through the process of what Ray does on a grand scale all day long. Paging through the tax act....all 2500 pages of it! I guess that wouldn't blow away on a windy day!

So there's not much going on except that we can't do much on the computer at home. We had it checked out and it is still slower than cold molasses, and you can't send emails, check facebook and you can hardly leave comments on anyone's blog....it's devastating. I've been doing some real reading though....amazing how much time you can spend here...But tonight only one little halfhour. (i'm reading a book by Charles Martin....wow, can that guy write!)

So if you feel like you are getting the silent treatment....it's not personal, it's technological.
Love you much, Tetcy

Just Call Me Marge....

So this is a long awaited picture of my studio space. We'll get to the Marge part in a minute. This is just where the pictures decided to upload. Some of you know that I share my space with Ray and it is actually part of the shop which is just off the laundry room. It is not terribly romantic but it is mine. I love the pegboard all around me because I have everything I need right at my finger tips. It also doesn't seem to be a place given to inspiration but most of that happens while I am working elsewhere I love it when an idea hits you or the Spirit nudges you in a certain direction and off you go. One year at Christmas time I had a table set up in the tv room and I spent a lot of time with my family that year!!! We would watch hockey "together" and everything.... Anyway...this is where I create. Sometimes I encroach on Ray's space, and when needed he overflows into mine....it works really well. I'll just describe it a bit. On the very near left here is my funky pink bag and it is what I use to bring my stamps to our cardmaking group on Mondays....it all just fits in there(look for it in the next picture). Next to that is a container with Ziploc bags containing my scraps of patterned paper. The bag with green scraps in on the front....one for each colour family: greens, blues, pinks, browns, and white and vanilla paper. The tall ladder looking thing is for my stamp pads. I found it at a yard sale and it was a stable for collectible ponies.... Then we have my wooden storage thingies from IKEA....for my fibres, punches, hammer, some sewing things, heavy charms, erc.... The little wooden shelf thingy on the table has bottles of flowers, hardware like hinges, and bottles of glitter, and ink refills, and one of my favourite things is a weekly pill organizer that I keep my brads in, one day for each colour. My adhesives hang beside there and under them are little packages of brads in miriads of colours. That lime green thing is sooooooo handy. It is lined with pockets both outside and inside and I keep my tools in there and my acrylic blocks, piercing pad, and mini- cutting mat. The big mat for my rotary cutter hangs on the wall, along with my 6"x12" quilting ruler which I use for everything!!! In front of me you see a shelf that has all my stamps on top of it. Underneath is a blue and red container that houses all my acrylic stamps, each set comes in a square plastic envelope. These have a self stick backing and you stick them to the clear acrylic blocks to use. There is a collection of relatively new scrapbook magazines laying flat....for inspiration. Beside this shelf is my blue binder full of alphabets....I don't think you can see it but it's there. I also store almost all my paper here in those 12 x 12 organizer sleeves. Way cool!! I got a set at that yardsale in the scrapbooking store for $8! SCOOP!!! Laying at my work square is some blue cardstock and off to the right side is a shop towel (Klaas would be proud!) that is soooo fabulous for cleaning stamps. I lay it on a margarine lid and pour some water from the bottle to wet it and clean the stamps.

And that's about it. This picture shows the shelf beside me and I keep my scrapbooks on this shelf. On the top shelf I keep a box of premade cards that I use when I don't have time to make a nice card...or want to copy an exsisting one. I have started scanning my finished ones and keeping them in a section in my alphabet binder. There's a container of envelopes and unboxed stamps beside there and some binders and catalogues laying horizontally.
Below that, the funky pink bag again....
And in front of the tall unit.....you can see the most recent addition...a half IKEA shelving unit...originally purchased for the laundry room and I got stuck with only two corner posts which I cut in half so that I had four and made this half unit out of it. Perfect for my paper cutter, and some storage boxes. I also use a number of fabrics in my cardmaking and scrapbooking and I keep those down there. With one sample hanging out from under the lid to differentiate between solid and sheer fabrics.... On the bottom shelf, below the pink bag are some quilt tops that I have made and need to finish....those wooden box looking things are antique drawers that I bought at a yardsale ones and need a few more steps to being refinished. The hardware on them was just exquisite. I still have it all...just needs to be finished. I'm sure I'm not the only one with a project like that. My favourite ugly yellow velour sweater is hanging over my stool and it keeps me warm and toasty. I decided that I didn't need to show Ray's side....so this is where I sit and now you know too. Ray laughed when I staightened it out before I took the picture.....funny thing is....he'd need to do the same if I was going to photograph his side. :):)

Now for the Marge part.....

When I read a blog, I always hear your voice reading it out loud in my mind....kind of like narrating. So if you do the same, just imagine me sounding like Marge Simpson. I know I signed off as Arnie in my last post. I am running the risk of being labelled as "high maintenance".

I have a head cold with much swelling and run off in the sinus area. Yes, Karen, I feel your pain! And I have laringitis....It's hard to sing while I am working these days and so I have taken to whistling. SO have a good laugh....I had a good snooze this afternoon after I got home from work. I put on my jammy pants, warmed up my hot bags, and curled up in bed with my book. After a half hour of that, I took of my glasses, tossed the book, and had a nice nap until Joey came home. You know one of those great naps...where you sleep about a half hour and feel like you slept the day away...so restful. Not one of those sleep for three hours and feel like you got run over by a truck. Because not all naps are were created equal.

I've been away for a spell. So much goes on around here. I just came off a three day painting job. We painted a 3 bedroom apartment from top to bottom. The tenants had done some painting of their own and to clean that up is not always easy. We had to switch the trim colour from navy to white... I'm particularly thankful for tinted primer. It saved us a lot of work!!! I painted with my friend Helina, and we had a ball. Our friend Carol, who we are working for ended up staffing the realtor's office and was kept away. So we played lots of tunes. I especially loved her roadtrip CD, made my her daughters out West for their trip out East. Of all the artists on that CD, Andrea Bocelli and Nana Moskourri??! were the best. Yes...Nana Moskourri!! How random is that! I remember that my folks had a record of hers!!!! Its just that she sings in spanish and the sound is so much like latin jazz...soooo....I'm really not weird...it's just cool music.

The wild and woolly weekend was way fun. I'm so glad I had that day off the other day!! We picked up our new canoe in Acton on Saturday afternoon after hockey and the bazaar. The weather was fine on the way there and the colours were still quite lovely eventhough many trees are bare already. No snow yet though! On the way home it became very windy, or maybe it had been windy all day and you just notice it more when there is a canoe bucking on top of your car! Just on the other side of Guelph it blew off the car and it is only because we have a centre strap that it actually stayed on the car. The fitted foam blocks are probably still blowing somewhere down the median. I know that everything seems more extreme at night....but cars and transports zooming by you 110kms per hour on the side of the 401 is soooooo much faster than when you are in the car going with the flow. Fortunately we had spare blocks in the trunk, just in case the one size fit the new canoe's gunwhales better than our regular ones. Good thing! So we managed to secure the boat back on the car and continued on our way. We stopped at the next service stop to check everything again and were able to make it all the way home. Yippee another adventure!! A family had rented the church for a supper so I went and cleaned there when I got home and Ray picked me up when he was done at hockey.

Which brings us to today. This post kind of covers two days...but since you end up only commenting on one I decided to just publish them as one continuous thought....

Work today was good. I was home at 11! I started at 7:45 since I was ready to rumble and got to walk Joe to the bus stop. I got to meet a mom whose kids also get on there. She starts work at 8:00 and lives out of town. Her little sweeties would have to get on the bus at 7:00!!!! So since she works just down the street she uses this stop...

So there you have it. The good old nutshell. Laundry is totally caught up. I know you were wondering....

Love ya!! It's good to be back!

A Dead Battery and So Much Excitement

Who knew?

It was a nice and relaxing day at work...it was time for coffee. And all of a sudden our church's neighbour walks in through the front doors and asked which of us two pulled the fire alarm. Renata and I look at each other and said, "Neither of us!" We are grown women working hard, with no time for shannanigans like that. Time for coffee, of course but that's a matter of necessity!! He said that there had been two calls to 911 in the last 20 minutes and had sent someone to check it out. He asked to go on a walk through with me and we had a tour of the facilities. Upon a proper viewing of the brand new, installed only last week, fire alarm system, fully loaded with automatic dial-up...it was discovered that there was a problem with the battery being low or nearly dead...and for some reason that was a three alarm situation.... I was about to phone my trusty chair of BOT and as I had trouble getting through....the alarm was dialing 911 again....he walked right through the door accompanied by the Fire Chief and the Fire Prevention Officer....lotsa brass. They eventually decided not to press charges since the machine was acting on its own, and no one was making prank calls. BUT...we will get reported in the newspaper units dispatched....so exciting to be in the paper.

That was the fun we had today, and now the rest of the day is kind of anticlimatic. Cleaning the bathroom wasn't nearly as enthralling as it usually is! I went home and tidied up, in case a friend stopped in, but she must be otherwise occupied. Kiddies are both away and I thought it was hightime that I update here and share the excitement.

Yesterday was truly a wonderful day off. I enjoyed it so much, and the fact that it felt strange to not be at work, just reinforced the feeling of a vacation day. It was high time for one of those I guess! I scrapbooked two pages yesterday!!! Not bad for a first day.... I seem to have to get on a roll and right now this stone is gathering moss. I should go and make a card, maybe that will kick start things. It has really been neat to slice up those old magazines because I got so many great ideas. I'm going to go through the "layout" pile in a minute for my next idea. I have really great paper right now too, and some really old stuff that I never wanted to cut up because it is too beautiful. That's just like having a really nice sweater that you don't want to wear because you're saving it for a special time....

The weekend might get wild and woolly and I may be absent from here for a while....I'll be back (say that in your Arnold Shwarzenegger "terminator" voice...)

Love ya!

More Digi Fun...

I figured that most of you haven't seen our pup, Blixie, before so I wanted to share a picture of here. A great dog with a sweet disposition.


Today is a nice day, a bit chilly at the outset but that was easily remedied by a quick shot of the furnace. I already got a couple of loads of laundry done, the place is swept and clean and the lads are heading out for a while. That means...I'm home alone....shhhh!

I hope all of you out there having birthdays had a lovely time of it yesterday, celebrating with your loved ones!

We got everthing set up nicely in the craft room at the bazaar last night. It took very little time at all with four people helping.... Another thing that can be crossed of the to do list.

It feels very strange to be home and not at church working ....but kind of cool too. I made lots of phone of calls to get some things arranged and I find that it is better to get those made right away, rather than leave them on the backburner where they are prone to fall into procrastination. Then it starts to become a burden and this just gets it done right away.

So a lazy day...so far very uneventful....this is the life. Hope your day is of the same variety! Love ya...

I Do Windows.....

My impatiens and geraniums are really happy today!! I took a picture for posterity and for sharing.... :) Temperatures are predicted to plummet later this week and I imagine these blooms will look quite a bit different after that!

You can see my blue deck spindles and my little red bench is just peeking out from under the pot. The bench is full of pots of annuals and I really should have experimented more with my digital camera while everything was in full splendour....oh well, something for next year!

Hope you are all having a great day today. I had much fun while cleaning at Pastor Koole's this afternoon. We cleaned all the sunny windows and BY all the windows and the shelves there as he is getting ready to bring all his plants indoors for the winter. We've been working on that for a while but this week push comes to shove. Git 'er done. And so we did! We had yummy koek with our coffee this afternoon with real butter. It was delish. I always get two pieces because I get spoiled there, but then you already knew that! We had lots of laughs which is regular too. And all things are sparkly clean and shiny! Always a nice way to leave things. I finished washing all the doekies already too so things are tidies and put away.

I had some extra things to do at church this morning which made the whole day kind of late but I had the car so I could just zoom onto the next job, and I didn't have to juggle all my pails like I do when I ride my bike. It is such a treat to have the car today. Good thing I had work to do or I might have had to go to a store or something. But...now I can take tomorrow off. The kids have the next couple of days off school for the teacher's convention at Redeemer. Joe is going to a friend's house and Craig's friend is already here. I really ought to go and cook some supper. Ray is busy with the books, and I will figure out what to do when everyone else is busy. No sense planning a papercrafting day when you are needed to play boardgames, making pizza from scratch, or plan an art project. It's just easier to slip away when everyone is occupied and it feels nicer than having my plans cancelled. Some people call it being flexible....

I was just thinking the other day about the little things we look forward to and how we sometimes forget to enjoy them when they occur. In the spring I always look forward to doing summer laundry because there seems to be less of it. 5 summer outfits, of shorts and tshirts...don't take up as much space in the machine as 5 fall and winter outfits, of jeans, tshirts AND sweatshirts.... So summer came and went and I forgot to appreciate that the laundry piles were smaller. Now we are right back into cooler weather, only very recently, and I already miss it...eventhough I forgot to appreciate it. Little things that come to mind eh!

I must go and reheat leftovers and bake a pizza. Yummo! Easy...just man the oven....

Have a great day, and love ya!!!

So Much Accomplished

Yesterday really was a day of sabbath rest. But it feels a little bit more like sloth since I didn't get anything accomplished. I did fart around on the computer for a while so I was taking it nice and easy.

Today I cleaned the bathrooms after I had lunch. Got home nicely on time from Little Lambs and had sooo much fun there. We are doing the creation unit again and we got to look inside apples and look for the star and for the seeds. It was so neat...well, then you have to eat the teaching aid right!!? So we had snack before snack!!! It could hardly get better. I have a neat teaching partner too and we have deep discussions about life before the kids come, while we have our coffee. A little adult time! It is interesting how you get different insights from different people. She is one of the retired pastors wives from our congregation and has a lot of life experience.

At our house...we are trying to figure out when we will bring the baby home and where we will put her. We had been contemplating the purchase of a new canoe for quite a while and it was just a matter of when. Many manufacturers are clearing out their 2007 models since they will step up production during the winter to fill the orders for 2008. Sounds like a car lot doesn't it? It will be a fun cartrip out to Acton. We have a busy weekend coming up though and weren't counting on the canoe coming early! We're hardly prepared.

This weekend is Bazaar weekend at the school, one of the fall fundraisers. There are tons of fun things to do there. They premake cabbage rolls, croquettes and pies to purchase. You can buy smoked fish. Go to the produce room for veggies and plants, sometimes even perennials.....hey I should pot up some of my millions of daisies that have reseeded themselves. I shall go and find some pots! There's a games room, a craft room (where I'll be working) and then there is food galore in the gym and kitchen. Outside there are burgers, fries, oliebollen, etc....and inside you can get soup and sandwiches and pie. You could spend the whole day there and eat and play and buy stuff and eat some more and then have coffee. Every classroom has something it in and so does the library. It is such fun....

Tomorrow Craig's friend Ian is coming for a sleepover. That should be fun. We haven't met Ian before. He is a new friend from highschool and both he and Craig are very excited. I talked to his mom a few weeks ago to arrange everything and she is excited too. Neat how your world gets bigger and you meet new people.

Yesterday was the maiden voyage of the HMS Ductape....I am afraid the vessel capsized early on in the race. There were two survivors...both glad they wore bathing suits. Craig said it was a lot of fun to make the boat and he and the team have grand visions and a new design in mind for next year's race. They figure that by Grade 12 they will have gained enough design experience to win this event(trial and error works that way).

Cross country is done for the year too...only two runners from the school went on to OFSAA which is a provincial meet. Craig is already talking about how to prepare for next season. We'll see how the offseason goes. Hockey will keep him in shape in the meantime....it has been very busy with all these activities and clubs and he deserves a rest.

A new adventure he has embarked on is joining the concert band. Practises used to be afterschool but then they switched to noon hour, but for some reason there is an afterschool one again today. But since XCountry is done it won't interfere anymore. He has already figured out that there will be NO slacking off here because there are only two trumpets in the band and if you miss your notes (or go flat) then there is no where to hide. His practise schedule has really picked up. I took a hymnbook home a week ago to write down some lyrics for scrapbooking and he is playing songs out of that now....Joe was even humming along the other day while he was cleaning out the dishwasher. I'm not sure if he realized he was doing that or not... it was cute....

I should skedaddle. I have a stack of scrapbook magazines that someone donated since they were tossing them out. I am going through them slicing out the pages that are truly inspiring and disposing of the remains. I am getting a huge stack!! Lots of layout ideas, card ideas and just neat new elements to make and try. There are also lots of mini album ideas, like accordian and tag albums to whip up. Sooooooo much fun and I'm so ready to try some of these really funky ideas. Some layouts use papers that are just ideally suited to that line of papers, so sometimes when you run stuck you can just peek through that pile for some instant inspiration.

So that's life in a nutshell, well....not so much a nutshell as it is life in a laundry basket. I am on load number 3 and am going to do one more load of towels and that should be it for a while. I folded and put away last night and now there is room for the new stuff. I had two loads of sheets on the line yesterday it was gorgeous weather! And no clouds in sight. I couldn't take the chance that it would get poured on again!!!

ttfn, Tetcy

A New Canoe

We now own two red canoes. A Nova Craft and a Holy Cow. Interesting position to be in.... Ray is out running right now revelling in the feeling .( He runs every other day...so this is nothing new.) He is so totally excited!!! It has been a very exciting day for him. He also signed up to go waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay up North, further than Thunder Bay to go on a wilderness trip that he heard someone speak about last spring. It is a working trip in Wabakimi to restore long lost canoe routes and portages. Literally the middle of nowhere... You fly in on a bush plane and you fly out again at the end of your week. There aren't any roads. This will occur next year sometime. The organizer is booking 17 weeks back to back. We are also discussing the possibility of a trip to go on as a family this summer. So it may be fall and winter is looming but paddling is still very much on the brain.

We'll see, a lot can happen between now and then....but...we still have two canoes.

I cooked supper for the youth group tonight. No one had signed up and the leaders were discussing their refrigerator inventories amongst themselves...so i said I could do hotdogs and KD. The kids thought it was GREAT!!! There really is no need to show up with a culinary wonder....last year I made chili and KD and a good time was had by all.

I worked on my demo card today. I'm trying to rustle up some attendees for the scrap and stamp night. I sense that some people are intimidated....some people are trying to resist getting sucked in, but I am relentless. You CAN do it.... I'm keeping my design very simple. A chipboard heart and two squares of coordinating paper. Green of course. And the title is "you make me SMILE!" I should take a picture of it and post it. But first....

...it is time to make lunches so I get to bed on time and I will be ready to rumble for my Stampin group tomorrow!! I am ready for that little piece of sabbath rest. It is not always relaxing here on sundays as I have to get up early to go to the church. I love my routine there though. And at night I open and close again too. This afternoon I went for a walk with my friend....I could feel that I hadn't walked in a while. Didn't seem to bother me while I was shopping though! Hmm... It was 25 degrees here this afternoon and in retrospect I probably should've put on some sunscreen before we left. Yeah...I know....it's the end of October. We should be bundled up and out of the harmful rays of the sun.... It's neat though...maybe we'll all get less of the blahs later on this season because we got way more vitamin D because the weather was so nice, so late into the year!!

I am surrounded by topographical maps of canoe trips we've been on. I can see where the conversation is going for the rest of the evening. But tomorrow morning it will be about paper of a different sort. It's so fun to see him so stoked! I suppose it's like working on your hotrod or building a shelf with your furry green pencil beside you. All consuming at times but relaxing and blissfull all the same..... ooooooh just like making cards!!! Maybe I have a one track mind too. But you still love me!!

Love you too!

I Guess I Like Sawdust a Little Bit....

....but not so much at 9pm at night. Joe and I just recently returned from the church after we finished CLEANING UP AFTER THE CADETS. But...in all fairness. I WAS prepared and I WAS able to take off early on two days because I decided NOT to clean up BEFORE those lads did their woodworking project. And we all know very well, that where there is woodworking....there WILL be sawdust. I usually spend an hour cleaning up downstairs at church each week, and this week that hour just happened to be saturday night at 9pm. Not ideal but the tradeoff one must make for an afternoon of shopping and an afternoon of making kro-ketchez. YES... I DO have a lot of fun everywhere I go.

The car rally this afternoon was just a hoot....they aren't allowed to call it an amazing RACE for insurance purposes. We didn't really realize that it was a race....we got a little slip of paper with some clues on and we thought...that isn't going to take us all afternoon, so we leisurely slipped into a couple of stores before heading to our last stop. It was here that we were given our next list of clues to solve and information to gather, and the rubber really hit the road. Eventually we would get a third slip of paper. There we scads of little clues to answer and tasks to complete. My task was riding a bike through a park system, over a couple of walking bridges, under a street, past the pools, in the general direction of the water tower, and look for the guy by the tennis courts. All without getting lost in an unfamiliar town. I found him and had to do a tennis ball toss into one of those frisbee golf baskets. I got 4 out of 5 scoring 400 points for our team. The other task I assisted on was...having to pick three pumpkins put them in a case and when weighed the total weight can't exceed 40 lbs. Ours came in at 53 lbs, so we lost 1300 points. But we figured 50lbs would be waaaaay heavier, which just points outs our physical prowess. We are in FINE shape. The race ended with a delicious chicken and roastbeef dinner, and an award ceremony. We came in second last....and got one of the consolation prizes, although I'm not sure how a compass is supposed to console us. We wanted a GPS!!!

Lots of Teresa's family sent a carload and it was neat to see them all at such a fun fundraising event. On the way home we talked lots about family things and it just made me miss all of you a lot. Most of their families live here in town or on this side of Toronto. Today, PEI feels really far away.

Alrighty, lets not dwell on that! I had a very productive trip to the scrapbook store. It is called Scrapaholics and their motto is "It's a healthy habit!" . Couldn't agree more, although some people at this house would beg to differ. I'm going to wait to chop up the paper into the component pieces incase we don't end up with 60 people in the gym! All the paper is particularly yummy and I can definitely find a home in my stash for it. I have come to realize that I favour colour families....especially the greens....just can't get enough of that. Especially from BasicGrey. I saw some of the new MME Bohemia papers, but I can't say I care for this year's colour schemes....I'm sure it will be all the rage but....didn't do much for me(fussy, fussy, fussy) I guess I like the rustic, earthy and organic colours.... These seem to work better for the card style I have....which would be kind of shabby chic...if I read the magazines right. I've never really been one to have style dictated to me...it's usually a fusion of one thing or another...but, I digress. My demonstration will teach people how to make their own chipboard shapes. Once you learn the process you can addapt it to make just about any shape....I'm so excited. I hope I get time to go to one of the other workshops too....but we'll just have to wait and see.

That's my day in a nutshell. Albeit a big nutshell. Ray and the lads were very busy...books, hockey, dinner (shepherd's pie from the freezer to oven, I'm the best wife ever, I go away and have supper ready anyway!), hayride, Cadets and more hockey. Ray and Craig are Ray's over 40 hockey. Craig and his buddies are the score keepers and peanut gallery. They have a great time hanging out watching their dads! Joe is in bed and I am going to find Ted Dekker in a minute but first I must read all up on all your days. Thanks for your notes....it's cool to talk to you everyday and read your observations about my fragrant anecdotes. Just trying to clarify the mental image that I project. Totally extra sensory eh!

Have a good day today, I hope you have a good time worshipping with your church family!

Slip Slidin' Away

I am so comfy in my lounge pants right now but I can't slouch comfortably in this rolling chair because these pants are too slippery. It's not the wine you know!

And...FYI....I no longer smell musty or spicy. I smell like a mall.
It was such a fun day today. I got to go shopping. I hadn't been shopping in ages . Once in a while you just need to get out and not work. I've had several Sunday mornings where you in front of your closet and just sit.... Reitmans' had a really good sale on and I got two skirts, a pair of jeans and a t shirt and two necklaces for the price of one. Way funky too! I still need a new sweater, but there'll be other outings I'm sure. I also got some funky new boots. I really like my tall boots but they're high heeled and lately, after 10 minutes of wearing them I need Advil....what's up with that??? I found some flat ones at Globo. And I shopped in them all afternoon, so they will do just fine. They look really cute with my new skirts too.

I "dry" cleaned at church this morning. A water main broke on the next street over, where they are laying a sewer line under the road, so we had no water. To install a sewer they remove all the pavement from the street surface, dig down about 8 to 10 feet and install the pipe, feed it into the main artery and that connects to the pumping station down the road. Of course there are many other pipes and things down there.....natural gas, water...etc. So much for having the public utilities company come out and do a locate. You can hardly bury a pet around here without having to "call before you dig". If it's not the phone lines careening across the parking lot it's something else around that place!!

The boys had fun at Cadets, Joe is now horizontal and Craig is on the ice across town. Ray is watching, and reading the newspaper when Craig is on the bench. I hope he doesn't get much time to read. :) I am reading a Ted Dekker book, which I will resume reading when I'm done writing.

Tomorrow I am going to the scrapbook store. I have to get some supplies for my demo at the school Scrap and Stamp night. Only $10 to get in!!!! 7 til midnight! I'm so excited!! You can all come because there's lots of room....November 9. And if you want to sleep over....I have lots of room and if I run out then I can book you a room at my friend Winnie's bed and breakfast! 3 bedrooms!!!! I have a gift certificate at the scrapbooking store too! Hope they got some new stuff since the last time I was in....that was before school started. Maybe some fun Christmas thingies. I am also going with a friend in a car rally. It's a fundraiser for her dad's church so the more the merrier. Then I have to finish cleaning up at church... I hope the Cadets leave it VERY, VERY tidy, they're going to make birdhouses! Yippee!! I love birdhouses. Oops...I hope that wasn't supposed to be a surprise.... Joe's not very good at keeping secrets, so we never tell him anything. Craig knows things that he will take to the grave. He's very good at keeping things in confidence. While we're on the subject, I am tooooo good at guessing secrets , especially guessing presents. I ALWAYS find them or guess them. I HATE finding them or guessing them....because I LOVE surprises so much. I'd rather have NO clue than have to pretend. Ray tries really hard to keep things under wraps and he can't believe, that I can guess from the tiniest fragment of a clue left lying around. One year he hid it in his hockey bag, thinking I'd never go in there...but you know my love for laundry!...I went fishing for his jersey, so I could fill up my load of darks and there was my present! How random is that!!!

The laundry room/sport locker is fully functional again....except that Ray noted there is now no room for HIS hockey equipment. Whoops...slight miscalculation on my part. I mentioned that perhaps he should create another hockey tree since that takes up less floor space that a hockey bag, which is the size of the trunk of a Focus. Imagine three trunkloads of hockey equipment to wade through everytime you have to do a load of laundry.....welcome to MY world. Now the hockey trees are on one side of the clothes line, out the work triangle of the laundry area. Nothing to step over or elbow out of the way.

Alas that is it for today....I did want to share with you what fun it was to cook with hamburger again today after abstaining for at least a week. We had chicken fries twice in that span, and roast twice...but we had our break. I made spaghetti. I wonder what everyone else ate today?

Have a great weekend.....

Staying Out of Trouble

I smell kind of mouldy right now and have cobwebs in my hair....nothing a shower won't cure. In a minute...Joe needs to play some runescape. He is home today with some gastric troubles....I won't bore you with the details... The Bible test went well yesterday....but that is only half the story. He forgot that he took the test, until I reminded him that he could study some more. "Oh yeah...we already wrote the test!" At that point you're not sure if you should believe your child or not......his teacher was home with a sore throat yesterday.

You would be most impressed with me to hear that I am keeping up with the laundry this week....on my second load of the day already. Mt Everest eat your heart out! There are no competing peaks around here this week!

I am less than fresh this afternoon as I spent the morning sweeping out the basement cupboards in Pastor Koole's cold room. It is such a marvelous space to keep bulbs through the winter!!! And boy are there a lot of bulbs in there! He is a gardening guru. There were also scads and scads or should I say reams of papers to relocate and we did that in quick order. It took no time at all and there was much laughter! We have such fun....

I am pleased to announce that my coats no longer smell like croquettes. (kroketjes, as Joe's friend, Maarten is fond of saying {kro-ketchez as Joe pointed out phonetically). Mr Funnypants....well pajamapants anyway. It is fun to have him look over my shoulder as he waits for the computer....actually he is wiggling all over the desk in front of me so not so much over the shoulder....swaying like a tree.... You all know him as well as I do!

It was a fun day...I am now very keen to reorganize my laundry room. Ray informed me this morning that the space is not functioning well right now. Oh my sweet man...you are talking the talk!!! I got some lovely roses last night for no reason at all....but I am sure it has something to do with cooking a roast on the weekend. The way to a man's heart is through his stomach....and it must have helped that I smelled like roast too! Puts a whole new spin on "yummy mommy" doesn't it??? Right now I smell like cobwebs....hmmmm...definitely not very yummmy! I am keen to get in there and Joe is keen to get on here.

Craig is running in the ThamesValleyRegional Cross country meet in the warm rain this afternoon. I wore his scent free rain jacket to the store for a moment this afternoon.....he is likely wet.

I'm feeling like myself again. Love yooooooooooou!

Save the Drama for your Mamma

There always seems to be some kind of drama unfolding. Lately it has been about Joe not using his agenda. You are supposed to write your assignments and tests in your daytimer and look at it before you pack your bag. Well.....the test is tomorrow because that's what the agenda says on tomorrow's entry, but the books are at school, because...it doesn't say take your books home on today's entry.

Sigh.

Other than that it has been nicely uneventful. I wrote up the minutes for my meeting last night and emailed them to the school secretary via email for distribution. I dry mopped and vacuumed the sanctuary already. I had to open the church for a group at 1 so I just stayed after Little Lambs, brought my sandwich along and got a headstart on cleaning. Now I can leave a bit earlier on one of my regular days since that is all done already. There are still a lot of groups meeting before the weekend including the Cadets, so I shall clean after that is all said and done.

I think I am making a pizza for supper. Yes, that's just what I will do. I have set a course of action and will go and unleash the plan. It's kinda chilly upstairs....I think having the oven will nicely warm things up...I actually think I will break down and turn the furnace on so we can warm down here too.

Ray is proceding nicely with the books. We always go out to celebrate with dinner and a movie with the whole family when he is done!! Yippee!

I did not step foot in my studio space today. Maybe tomorrio! Love ya!

Happy Monday

It was so lovely to start the day with my Monday Stampin' group. There weren't as many as usual but it was still nice to be together. It was quiet and that was okay too. I made a few cards and even got some into envelopes!! Now just stamps and they'll be on their way.

I did two loads of laundry before I left this morning and that felt nice too. It's all hung up and drying....I don't help with that part...

So there is not much going on today to report about.

I have started working on a new project and it is actually much more difficult than I imagined it would be. I have wanted to chronicle my favourite songs and what I love about them, for a long time now. But as I am gathering them and contemplating I am surprised by how personal it is and how vulnerable it feels to get these feelings out of my heart and onto the paper where someone else might see them. What will they think of me if they read this and know that I feel this way sometimes. But on Sunday night the pastor had such a neat illustration about the heart. His object was a box....or at least he described it because he didn't have it with him, it was based on a series he preached in his home congregation. He described a plain, corrugated cardboard box, dinged, ripped, a bit crumpled and scribbled on. And the other one was beautifully wrapped with perfect corners and invisible tape. He described how the plain box is the real us and the wrapped one is the self we like to present to others and sometimes even to God. I don't mind people knowing the plain corrugated side of me....if they know me at all, they'll recognize me....

In Today News.....

Today I complained a lot and I hate complaining. Waaaaaaaaaaah. It does nothing for my day to fill it with negativity...and it's not like you can leave the room when the complaining is going on to get away from it since it is coming out of your own mouth. So....it's out of the system and I'm afraid I left it at church....I don't think it followed me home.

Cleaning at church is done, and now cleaning at home shall commence. Later....of course. First things first...

I had some extra things to do today and those nicely got done, everything is clean, tidy and disinfected. Tonight, the Cadets come for their kickoff evening and I will go and check up tomorrow sometime to see if there is anything to re-clean....they're USUALLY very good about cleaning up after themselves. Joe is very excited about going to Cadets. They're having hotdogs and a fun night, mostly outdoor stuff I was told. They'll have to dress warmly....it's getting to be nice and seasonal in the temperature department. I think I will have to turn the heat on for a half hour on Sunday morning to take the chill out of the air. The sun usually kicks in but if it happens to be cloudy we'll have to crank 'er! We're having a firedrill too. That should be fun! I wonder what the guest pastor will think of that!

Other than that, the boys are very excited that their hockey starts today. Craig plays tonight and Joey plays tomorrow . They play for an hour and a half, with the first 45 minutes filled with drills and skills and the last 45 minutes is a scrimmage. Two teams on the ice at the same time, each using 1/2 for their drills and skills. They have been playing this for about the last 5 or 6 years. It's always on Saturdays. I'm not sure when Ray's hockey starts but it should be soon, maybe even tonight. For guys over 40 only. Before hockey, Craig has his year end soccer banquet. We've never been to one of those, but then this is the first year he played competitive soccer. We'll have to see how that goes, we have to leave early to go the arena for hockey. Joey will be at Cadets. It seems we are scattering this evening.

I hope to get the house in some sort of state of cleanliness before the scattering occurs. Some things really need to get done first...like getting my bum out of this chair.

Yesterday there was a cryptic message on my phone to go and check my front door. Hmmmm. So I did and there was a great big wrapped item sitting there. I love great big wrapped items!!!!! It turned out to be a scrapbook for me to fill with wonderful things....someone was thinking of me and also sent a really sweet card. It was so much fun! And it just made my day!!! Wow...it's really been my week hasn't it!!!!

On that note....my bum and I must go! Love ya!

Yesterday's News.....For My Adoring Public.....

Just kidding....I actually adore it that you want to read my blurbs... I'm glad I made one of you lyao! That made me laugh. You are funny !

My computer wouldn't publish yesterday so here is yesterday's news. Just pretend you are a day behind in reading and it should all make sense! You read, while I finish my sandwich.

It is a sad day too though since my brother Randall's horse, Sapho, died today. That REALLY is the end of an era. I have pictures of Craig on her back when he was about 3 or 4, and Sapho was old then already!!!

My work went really well today! My friend Renata had her birthday yesterday and this morning I snuck into her office and hung up the "slingers" (Dutch tissue streamers) and she was soo surprised! I sneak in there all the time. You can do that when you have the keys to every room you know!! Members of the congregation are invited over for coffee every Thursday morning and we had about 13 or 14 this morning and someone brought a birthday cake and we all sang happy birthday.

Pilates felt soooo good. I had to go to church early to put the last of the table away and also the vacuum the carpet that we were about to get up close and personal with. I ran out of time this afternoon to squeeze all that in....so I was already sweaty when the workout started and we had to work really hard...

I also cleaned at Pastor Koole's today. It was very quiet since he left to lead the nursing home mid week service in town. But he made me a coffee before he left and I had two lekkere spritz koekjes. It was neat to ask him if he had a copy of some obscure recording that I had heard on CBC last weekend. Pastor Koole always listens to CBC, quite loud because he prefers to walk around the house without his hearing aid in, it drives him bananas. So the music is always my kind of decibel level, the kind that you can hear over the vacuum.

Oh, and let me tell you all about Kirby the wonder vac. This puppy weighs, like, 50 lbs and comes with all kinds of bells and whistles. It is cumbersome and awkward but combs the carpet like nothing else. It even has a transmission with two gears. Drive and neutral. It won't move if you have it in neutral, and come to think of it...I might have an easier time of vacuuming the stairs if that thing didn't always try to take off...I should try switching to neutral. Good thing I decided to blog tonight....another flash of brilliance just took place...and you were a witness to it.

It always looks so nice when everything is clean again...I just dust around the piles of stuff. I respect his things because he knows just where to find everything. He found those recordings in his vast collection in about 4 minutes! One is a 10 vinyl recording, very old...I hardly dare borrow it but I just love that piece. The other is an opera and I'm not the world's greatest fan of that but....this one sounds so compelling. No screetching sopranos or bellering tenors....well maybe just one, but it was mostly choral and it was so lovely. It is probably about a bunch of people dying from the plague or something and I am giving it etheral and uplifting qualities.... And it may sound all hoity toity and stuff, but if you listen to classical music for a year, you'll start to get favourite composers too!!! If it could happen to me, it could happen to you!

I really hope that this will publish tonight or else I just sat here and typed for nothing for a half hour. So we'll just have to wait and see. I couldn't send any emails either a while ago. I'm not retyping...so this could just end up down the big cyber drain.

Either way, I love you! Whethere you 'hear' it or not

Just Another Day at the Office....

Well folks...it's official... a Liberal majority. Quite predictable but you always hope... right? So...we just need to persevere and keep doing what we've been doing. It's all about the long haul and all that good stuff. I WAS watching the election coverage but it's just no fun.

It was a fun day at church today. I DID set up my assembly station at church and made cards when no one was in need of the elevator. I want to head over there before bedtime yet to make sure everything is locked up properly. I made coffee for the elections staff all day and they just loved it. It really isn't that hard to smile and make people happy. But boy did some people come through our doors just oozing misery....I guess that's easy too. I can't see how it could be an easy exsistence. One lady just kind of barked everything instead of talking. She was on oxygen, carrying her tank in a bag over her shoulder like a purse, and she hollered, while standing in the front door, "What! Stairs!" like someone had planted them there for her torment alone. (and mine, I have to vacuum them everyweek, but it didn't seem like a good time to bring that up.) So...I offered the poor lady an elevator ride, which she accepted, but she was most unhappy about the whole event. I felt bad for her spouse who got cussed at a number of times.

I got to give some hugs too.... On Wednesdays our church hosts a group called Griefshare and when they let out I got to see a couple of the ladies I usually hug on Sundays. There are quite a number of widow ladies in our congregation with no family nearby and they get no hugs or physical contact during the week...so I hand out the hugs with reckless abandon on Sunday mornings. They love it! I don't get to hug my mom anymore but still need hugs like that so I keep telling them how much I appreciate it!!! Don't I just have the best job in the whole world?!

I really like going to work. I really like cleaning for Pastor Koole too. He makes the best coffee in the whole world. He grinds fresh beans every day....and there is just nothing like it. His latte is the highlight of my day!!!! And.... he buys SPRITZ koekjes!!! I get soooo spoiled. I have to go there tomorrow. Are you all jealous!?

My yoga/Pilates class meets tomorrow night for the second time. I missed the first gathering but will be there with my big bouncy ball tomorrow. I have to unlock the door for the choir anyway. During our class we listen to reflective praise music while we do our stretching. It's soooo relaxing and calming. And even at the end of a long day when I am tired or sore....I look even more forward to going because I will feel so good when it's done. The soreness in my back or legs gets worked right out.

I had to be at the church until 9 oclock and it was strange to leave all the night time routine stuff for Ray and the boys to look after on their own...and it all went just fine. i get the computer now because Ray is jogging. He goes every other day, he runs 5km or so everytime. I figure that since I vacuum an acre everyweek I get plenty of exercise....the Pilates just feels really nice. Besides.... table slugging....you should see my pipes....when I first flexed my biceps Joe thought I was taking steroids. Just kidding.... he knows they're real...I didn't need steroids.

There are tables in my tomorrow...but first...I shall go and check those doors and make sandwiches.

love ya, Tetcy

Coming Up For Air.....

...my life really isn't so busy that I need to do that!

I had a lovely leisurely afternoon after Little Lambs this morning. Helina needed to go to a restaurant supply store to pick up some mugs for the kitchen and I got to go along for the ride. I really didn't have any work that I WANTED to do....there's always something that needs to be done...but anyway.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving chicken yesterday and lovely left overs for tonight. It was very odd cooking Thanksgiving dinner with the air conditioning on, as it was over 30 degrees AGAIN. It has been just toasty around here...with the leaves quickly turning brown and blowing away.... Even with that good dousing we got on Saturday. This morning it was a nice and cool at 17 degrees and it feels just delicious having a breeze coming in throught the open windows. I just love laying on the bed by the window, in my room reading a book...

Sunday was Sunday. Also nice and leisurely...One of my favourite things to do when I go to church to open for the evening is playing the piano while I wait for my church family to arrive. The accompanist usually comes earlier in the afternoon when there is no one there so I just warm up the bench for them. Someone in my church family gave me the coolest present yesterday!!! I got a giant tool box!!! One of those over 200 piece JOBMATE kits. I hope I never have as many mishaps as I have tools to repair them!!! At least I am equipped! That was a neat thing to receive with a card of appreciation . So cool....so I just HAD to go and make a thankyoucard!!! I got another card yesterday too which was really cool and so much fun, because it was based on the same card I gave that sweet lady and she made it in different colours but with similar papers. It was so cool, I think I will have to borrow that pallette!! Someone also made a lemon meringue pie for our family!

Tomorrow we have to vote. I will be at church for most of the day, on elevator duty. I have to set up the tables in the morning. Good thing I have some good books...I think I will need them. It's not like I can set up a table to make cards in the foyer! Well.....actually....I spent the whole weekend designing cards and making up the kits with the pieces ready to assemble. I COULD just sit there and assemble. Dontcha think? Woohoo, good thing I decided to update my blog!!!

Well..... I hope you all have a good week as you work away at your turkey leftovers. Or work them off, whichever... I don't anticipate much access to this area of the house as I don't desire to be in the workspace at the same time as Ray....it is not going pleasantly presently. Sooooo.....I just read in my room by the open window.

Time to go and make a plan to warm up the many little dishes all at the same time....I am sensing much foil in my future. Foil is your friend...just don't chew on it. That feels yucky!

Love ya!

That's What It's All About.

Friday was the neatest day...it seemed to last forever... while I was at work... and zoomed right along when I was at home.

I want to tell you about Craig's day on Friday. This past week was spiritual emphasis week at his school. Each day started with a half hour assembly which was followed by a breakout session with a small group, discussing different aspects of their theme of the year, Trees of Righteousness. This last day was 'open mike' day where students were invited to come up to the front of the gym and share things about their faith journey, ways they've experienced God's nearness, and things they were thankful for. Craig said it was the most awesome experience as he sat through 2 1/2 hours of over a hundred kids going up, and sometimes twice, sharing joys, fears, sorrows, and gratefulness. All kids on an equal level, humbled before God and in front of each other, and at times moved to tears (at least I was and I was only listening!). Time just zoomed when Craig was talking about his day!!!

Speaking of school, next week we go to the poles to elect a new provincial government and one of the main issues is funding for faith based schools. Currently there isn't any funding at all....and that's just the way it is. In Ontario, for my out of province readers, we DO have faith based education, there is a fully funded Catholic school system alongside our fully funded public school system. Anyone else....pays out of their own pocket. We pay for elementary school and for secondary school, and pay into the five figures. This makes it out of reach for many, many parents. It's days like yesterday that remind you that it really is priceless.

So how do you tell people who aren't familiar with faith based education about what happens inside our schools. The media is doing what amounts to fear mongering because they are as much in the dark as most of the public. We even have a public school teacher who attends our church speaking out against Christian education in the local paper, I can't say that helps to score any votes for the Conservative party which is promising funding. Sigh.

We'd still send the boys, with funding or without.

Work was long this week. Mostly because there was so much table slugging to do. We store our long tables in a room in the basement when they're not in use, but at least there are enough now that I don't have to dismantle all the classrooms and then reassemble them!! This saves a lot of time. I also had to bring a lot of extra chairs up via the elevator. So....the cleaning got done after everything was back in its place. The downstairs got a lick and a promise. Next week. So, I didn't vacuum up all the paper holes under the table. I hope I don't get fired.

Today I also got to have some fun at work. I was asked to be in charge of the visuals for the month of October and with all the busyness of the last few weeks...I opted to keep things very simple. I placed two urns at the front of the church with beautiful mums in them....no corn stalks, no bales of straw or pumpkins, cabbages, gourds, preserves or quilts.... (besides, the straw is SUCH a pain to vacuum, Princess does her best but it takes 3 or 4 runs at it, and she is a single pass machine!) Simple and elegant. And free, because I borrowed the urns and the mums. It's all about who you know! I know there will be people with opinions (they're not criticisms you know...they're opinions) about the lack of the traditional set up....I shall drop the nugget to them that the Worship committee is ACTIVELY looking for people with creative ideas to take on the Advent season!

Yesterday I cleaned to Burlap to Cashmere....it was high time I popped that CD back in, and I needed music with a bit of momentum! I moved a cd player into my studio space because it was Saturday afternoon at the opera on CBC. I wasn't into that today and wanted to get some cardmaking done. I took out my new Christmas papers. I'm not a big fan of seasonal papers, but the Basic Grey Fruitcake papers are just soooooooooooooo fabulous. You must go and check out their website sometime....but be forwarned....you might just feel a shopping trip or an online store search coming on!

Craig had some friends over this afternoon to work on a project for the Physics Club. Boat building.....a big cardboard box and duct tape. They have to build a vessel that can cross a local water body carrying two people, awards for fastest, longest time afloat....etc. As I was leaving to drive them home it started to rain, and by the time I turned around to go back home to take the laundry off the clothesline....it began to pour, reducing visibility to near zero and there was just no point even getting out of the car as we sat on the driveway watching the drying rack buckle under the sheer weight of soaking wet clothes....Ray ran out to bring the boat in, it was under the shade of the tree since it was over 30 degrees again today. But the laundry...got rinsed again...and I'm STILL in the process of hanging it up. What a complete and utter waste of time! THIS is my life...I know you've all had this happen to you and you can totally relate!

I haven't checked other blogs yet....I wasn't sure of my computer access and wanted to make sure I had time to post!! I am assuming you are all busy with Thanksgiving plans. We usually head out to Chatham but Ray's folks are on the road down in the New England states somewhere on a colour tour . We will gather in a few weeks. Which works out well because we have church 3 times in the next two days and it is less hectic to stay home. Ray is busy with the books still too. Ray's sister Cathy stopped in for a minute on her way to her inlaws with her hubby. That was so nice!!! Still see some family on this long weekend! They swapped some skates with us. Joe and Craig have both outgrown theirs and Bronson had outgrown his old ones, and could now take Joe's.

So...enjoy your turkey lurkey....squash and cranberry sauce. We are having some of that good stuff on a small scale tomorrow...Ray picked up a chicken when he did groceries....he went way over the usual amount and was not that pleased with himself. Shoulda sent me!!!

I'm thankful for blogging since it gets stuff out of my brain and I'm thankful that you read it because it makes me feel like we are able to stay in touch more closely. And I'm thankful that I can read yours because then my life seems equally exciting and it reminds me that I'm loved and never alone. Because God is there and you are there, and sometimes your words are the ones God uses to show people He loves them.

I was listening to a song by PFR on the Roaring Lambs CD . One of the lines is "If actions speak louder than words, then let me live loud enough to be heard." I'll leave you with one...

Is It Really Thursday Night at Bedtime Already?

WOW...where did the week go?

Last thing I remember, I was cutting out Little Lamb nametags! It was such a fun morning with the little boys and girls. Amazing...how much last year's little three year olds have matured into orderly humans who know the Little Lambs routine. I took my lunch to church and cleaned in the afternoon. We had a funeral today and worked with my friend Carol yesterday. We were on the road doing landscaping and pruning. We brought 3 quarterton truck loads to the burn pile at the farm.

I got all mixed up with my days this week. I guess THAT'S been going around!!!! I thought all day that the choir was coming to practise on Wednesday night but they don't come til THURSDAY. I usually just wipe the place clean and spot vacuum, (YES that IS a technique!) when they come, because I have to clean all over again when they leave. Plus I put AAAAALL the tables and chairs away only to have to drag them AAAAALL out again this morning. I am just glad my deodorant didn't let me down, and it wasn't even Degree.

And just so you know....Ray did return home on Sunday. I failed to mention that in my previous post. He and our neighbour Rick encountered much moisture on their trip. The new rainsuit stayed nice and dry. Ray said he would really like to have it out of the bottom of the pack next time. There was a series of misadventures, miscues, sleeping navigators, and the like.... They were behind schedule and rushing and on an afterthough Ray kept on his splashpants and poncho which he usually keeps in the car and spent much of the trip out to the lake wearing that. (They took a 2o minute watertaxi up to the North arm of Lake Opeongo, I include the names because I know you all look it up after reading here. ) They had a great time fishing but to this day he has never caught a fish up north. He is quite discouraged in this but vows to head out again to put the drought to an end once and for all. WHich is kind of funny, considering it poured buckets!!

SO we are all together again, the laundry is hummin' again....and I ended up cooking with hamburger AGAIN. It was chili. I cooked the hamburger tuesday night, and tossed everything in the crock pot on wednesday morning before work. What a fun way to come home!!!! And enough for leftovers today, along with some fresh soft kaiser buns left over from the funeral. Yummo!!

Wednesday night Ray and I went to hear Orchestra London perform Kostakovich's Symphony No. 9 and Rimsky-Korskov's Scheherezade. It was sooo cool... Ray liked it too. It was the first time either of us had been to a full orchestra performance. I really liked the first piece but Ray preferred the second one. Lots of hoity toity people around. You can hear all the rookies in the audience because they clap between movements...one person did it. Good thing I was holding Ray's hand or there would've been two! ...nooobs!! (I'd been to a string quartet performance before...and .....you don't clap.....until the intermission and at the very end. And even if you KEEP clapping, they don't do an encore, like they do at rock concerts. So much to learn....)

Tomorrow night we are going to see the London Knights play hockey in London. They are our nearest OHL team and the place is sold out all the time. Again, so much to learn. Season ticket holders....DO NOT do the wave. I mean...isn't that half the reason for going??!!! It's way fun!!!! Fuddy duddies!

So there's lots of work that has to get done but there is lots of fun too. Ray is hard at the books...and he gets frustrated how quickly the time evaporates. I've gotten a few cards made between shifts to clean up the ideas I got on monday and sometimes people cross your path, and the Spirit nudges you. So ....you better answer and make a card and send it.

The boys have been busy too. Craig had a cross country meet in Brampton on Tuesday and placed in the 50's out of 90 something. He was so pleased for shaving a minute off his previous time! Their school got the team award for highest finishes and they were all sooooo pleased for that! Today he had practise... Joey went to basketball for the first time of the season tonight. THAT is really Joe's thing! He loves it!!! He met some really nice fellows this evening. This lasts til December and is just recreational.

My bed is calling me....I woke up before 6:30AM. Might have something to do with the chili....might not. AND the phone rang with the call that there was a two hour bus delay due to fog. I kid you not. There have been a number of fatalies in our rural regions, not bus related, so we wait for that fog to lift. Most of the time the sun burns it off in an hour.....and sometimes it is only foggy out in the sticks and not in town. I took the car in for an oil change this morning and it was still a bit foggy out there.

Lekker koese every one.... I too have missed y'all. So nice to read up on you and thanks for telling me you miss me!! Love you! T

Back in the Saddle Again

Good news!!! I went to my friend Nancy's house for our regular Monday morning Stampin' ladies group and my cardmaking abilities are back to normal! Woohoo!!! I just emerged from my studio space after finishing one of the cards I started there. Ahhh, contentment.

There is always much laughter in the bright, sunny room where we gather. First there are the hugs....so it helps if you are a touchy feely person. The morning always starts with coffee, well... actually it starts with the hugs but then you set up your space and THEN outfit it with coffee. We have show and tell, where we look at each others latest goodies and favourite things, or new card ideas and then we proceed to the cardmaking part. Some ladies like to come with a project precut and ready to be assembled to make the most of these "me" hours and some ladies come with a little of everything ready to be inspired and spring off that creative platform. (Or you go to the box of premade cards and copy one...this is called "scraplifting" or "casing"...still okay!) No matter what, there is laughter. Sometimes there are tears and then there are more hugs. You can come in a down mood but if often evaporates in this time of togetherness. For most of us, there is just no better way to start the week, even if you run off your feet til the next monday.... And of course, praise music playing non-stop. If you are ever at my house on a Monday, you'll have to come along....if you're a girl. The only boy allowed is Max, Nancy's dog, he's very sniffy....but in a good way....he doesn't leave anyone out!

Laundry is hummin' in the laundry room, something should be cookin' in the kitchen but the idea is still trying to formulate itself in the brain. I really don't feel like cooking something with hamburger AGAIN but I had leftover pizza for lunch sooooooo... I was really hoping for a What's Cooking magazine from Kraft for some fabulous mealtime ideas. Time to whip out some old copies....nothing with chips or chocolate right now, please....

Tonight we have a congregational mini-meeting which I have to open the church for. But there is no coffee to make since we want it open and shut and coffee gives people to idea that it's time to be gezellig and hang around. Not tonight!!

A little birdie told me that our thursday night Pilates class might start again. That would be the cooooolest thing ever. Pilates is a form of exercise that uses some yoga but adds a more resistance. We met all of last year in the church basement. We use large purple exercise balls. It looks really funny when we are all outside under the overhang at church waiting for someone to show up with the key....that's usually me, but not always. It would be good for my hips! The right one gives me trouble when I am inactive, and with yoga or pilates, the muscles stay lengthened and don't put the pressure on the bursa that causes bursitis. I wish that eating chips would cure it because then I'd have it made. So if you don't learn anything else today....be kind to your bursae!!

I just finished cutting out my Little Lambs nametags to use tomorrow. We still put them in the basket for a couple of weeks and THEN...we get to store them on the big Bible book, next to the shepherd! That is such a cool part of the curriculum. We started with 3 boys and girls, then grew to 8 and I expect a few more this week. Very exciting!!

That's what's new and exciting around here. I hope you all have a great day and a productive week!
love ya, Tetcy