Alrighty my laptop died a week ago, and I can't get my favorites off the hard drive that I saved from it. Yes I know, my other half should be able to do this, but something went awry and there are only a few blogs saved.
SO all you Janes, Brandy's Amanda's, Cori's and more, please email me the link to your blogs karlynn@telus.net.
Please and thanks!
Me
Yah, I am bad. But when I was shopping for others I bought myself a gift! I am going to re-read them, the only one I own is Breaking Dawn, and I have only read them once when borrowed from Amanda, I would like to re-read them all.
Well B asked on her blog what we are all thankful for, so here goes.
Top of my list at this exact moment are Caramel Correttos ;)
I am always grateful for my parents and siblings. My brother who babysat the kids on his day off this week without hesitating a single moment when I needed emergency babysitting NOW so I could go to work, my sister who even before she had children would visit all the time and take trips with us, and now comes with her son Deklen, my children love them and talk about them constantly, and my parents who love my kids almost as much as I do. And sneak them Kinder Eggs when I am not looking (what, you thought they wouldn't tell ? LOL!) And grateful that my parents did such a good job (accident? luck?) with all us kids that we are close and can depend on each other like no one else can. And knowing that my own children will learn by our example and know that no matter what, not just their own parents are their shelter and rock in life, but they have an entire "village" that loves them :) , makes my heart glad daily.
Oh, and the fact that my parents are watching the kids in January so Mike and I can get away for a weekend makes me kinda like them.
And every, single Friday evening, there is always this moment when I sit back and think of how grateful I am that I got through the week. That I fufilled my responsibilities at work, The Princess and I spent our Thursday at Mr K's school and I got my volunteer hours in, that we managed to have clean clothes and groceries in the house, and lately, its been one fieldtrip/playdate a week as well which means that they are getting out for some super fun. Notice I don't mention that my house is clean, cause, yah, that would mean I go without sleep and clean at night, because there are only so many daytime hours in a day!
On that note I am grateful my position at work is almost done and I can go back to casual until the position I want is up.
I am grateful that I live in a city where my schooling or unschooling choices are AMAZING!
I am grateful that my new year is going to be such a NEW year literally for us, with changes made for the better of our family.
And these are literally what I think of daily, things are incredibly busy, I honestly can't remember ever having so much going on in my life. I think the word non-stop applies to our life right now. So I am always thinking of the grateful side of things because if I don't, it would be waaay to easy to start complaining and then never stop!
Oooh and I am soo thankful for my new jeans that I bought with the giftcard I won at the Telus party!
So tag, your turn, what are you grateful for?
I officially have ONE triop left. I think I opened my big blogging mouth too soon, because I fed them yesterday before leaving for school with K, then came home to 5 dead triops.
THEN last night, I think the bigger one ate the smaller one because I don't even have a corpse!
EEeew LOL. Science rocks.
Thanks to Amanda who has me blogging at 7 in the morning. LOL. Since of course things drive me absolutely crazy until I remember them, I had to remember what I bought last year by Melissa and Doug and where the heck it was made LOL! I guess I didn't post then because they were presents...
So if you are looking for safe(r) gifts for babies, and are still boycotting made in China, these are Made in Vietnam, and I also remember that all over the front of the package there was information about the safe wood used and the non toxic dyes used as well, since these are for 12 months and up. There were all sorts of other ones too, pandas and frogs and fish, that were made in Vietnam, you just have to look. I remember last Christmas consisting of standing in aisles reading boxes and packages in the store.
Also, this stacker made me very happy to be able to buy those same girls as well, ( a few months later when shopping with Kandice) a safe(r) wooden version of those classic plastic rings (that I wouldn't trust at all anymore, shudder) also made in Vietnam.
I definitely don't have the time to be as prolific at posting as I was last year, and this year has been made easy by mainly buying Playmobil and Lego (made in Malta/Germany/not China and as safe as you can expect)
This website, Healthy Toys , is a wealth of information. I probably posted it last year as well, but they have tested even more toys throughout the year.
I was glad to see the puzzles I bought (Melissa and Doug) for a couple toddler who might chew them ;) were safe. Most of Melissa and Doug toys that I looked at (there are quite a few) are safe, which makes me happy to trust the brand a bit more.
Have a look, I always find it interesting.
They are getting MUCH bigger now, but we have 7 !! of them that are almost an inch long already...and I think they were supposed to start eating each other before that point! Seriously, only 1-2 are supposed to make it to adulthood, so we are waiting to see what happens. Oh, and we also have 2 waterbug creatures in there as well, and they aren't being eaten either.
MUCH cooler than sea monkeys! We watched one molt today as well, and there is a pile of exoskeletons at the bottom of the container, like a cool creepy graveyard almost. Tons of entertainment!
This had to be the biggest pain in the ass to make, but of course, mom had to make what Mr K chose. I really REALLY wanted to make WallE, I tried SO hard to convince him, but he was stuck on Spiderman for his birthday. No idea why, he has no Spidey toys and has never watched it on TV. Maybe from the games at school? Who knows.
I can't believe I actually made it!
And the cupcakes for the kids who's parents don't want them having red dye..
These look like so much fun!! Auntie Angela bought them for Mr K for his birthday and I think I get more excited than the kids do. They can grow up to 2 inches long, MUCH more interesting than Sea Monkeys! We are going to get them started today....
It sucks that:
Mr K is still sick, or got sick again, today with a cold and a fever out of nowhere.
I've had sick kids for 11 straight days.
I got a speeding ticket.
My dryer broke this weekend right after The Princess started her projectile vomiting.
I am tired of this GI virus and not being able to eat anything but goddamn applesauce and Lipton soup.
We lost Luna, its pretty much official, she hasn't been seen for weeks, and she hasn't been turned into the pound or the Humane Society. We've combed the neighborhood too, no Luna. :(
But on the other hand...
At least I have two beautiful, wonderful children.
Mike is a great help with the kids..
I coulda had a bigger fine with my ticket....
We have the funds to fix the dryer, not everyone is so lucky.And its fixed. And the 12 loads of laundry are done and my house smells less like puke.
Uh..well the GI virus will go away eventually. And I had toast just now! yippee!
But I really don't have much to say positive about Luna, I had her before I had Mike, she'd been around our whole time together as a couple, pretty sad about that.
And I am so wiped out (prob why I can't kick this damn virus) after taking care of two sick kids, still working all my evening shifts but one, and now taking care of Mike since he got fixed at the vet's (lol I like saying that, cheers me up!) but at least my mother in law is here to help entertain the kids, and at least we can get all this sick shit over with before K's birthday and Christmas!
What??? It can't be all sunshine and speeding ticket posts!
Well its been FOREVER since I have one of these! And obviously well deserved, from the speed I was doing! Well ok, I will argue the speed. I am not quite sure how I was going almost 70 going up Grierson hill right after turning the corner off the bridge. Seriously, how I managed to get the van going that fast up the hill to the Shaw center I'll never know.
So yes, Mike had the BIG SNIP TRIP this morning, then we went straight to the airport to get his mom. Poor man. This however, immeasureably cheered him up, which I proceeded to tell the nice officer as he ticketed me. Now after my beaking for years about his getting tickets, I have one, and I can't beak as much at him about his. Because I also didn't have current insurance on me, just the expired one. WTF Karlynn, you KNOW better!
Yah, its a good thing that I am darn good looking and had nice cleavage today. And luckily Mike had his crackberry so I called AMA and they told Mister Nice Policeman that I did indeedily do have coverage, but I was just obviously dumb as a stick, and to take it easy on me.
I really did have a great laugh tho, when he came back and handed me just the $113 speeding ticket and said "Well, the ticket for failing to produce insurance is $172, so really, when you think about, I just SAVED you 60 dollars today!"
Well, its that time of year again, when I get greatly annoyed with the Salvation Army in Edmonton and have to try and find out if they are doing this program here again. Yah, that's not quite in the spirit of things, I know. But it irritates me that they have this huge,amazingly organized Adopt-A-Family event in Calgary (where we first started doing it before we were even married) and here? Phhht, you have to chase someone down, who is a different person every year so I have to call around and dig it out of people. AND Red Deer has it listed too for pity's sake! ARGH!
I'm going to (when I finally track the person down) ask them why its basically unknown and invisible here in Edmonton. Its a huge event in Calgary, (gee, and Red Deer too) and works like a beautiful machine there, it is something to behold I tell you.
So HERE , for those of you in Calgary who might be interested, is the link to the event, there are the pdf forms and everything you need to know.
Yes, I sound grinchy, especially after my last Christmasy post. I just got all excited because the Salvation Army's site is all new and updated and has those forms online this year, and there's NOTHING for Edmonton.
That sums up the weekend so far! The Princess decided last night to start throwing up with the flu (thus the serious stench in the house and the sick) and I HATE how that flu smell just permeates through the whole damn house. I have to wash everything to get my house back to normal.
The Santa's and their company were our one cheery spot this weekend, I bought them off Kijiji for $20, I seriously ADORE the plastic Christmas decorations...getting closer and closer to that plastic sleigh and reindeer...one year.... I don't like the tin things that are in the stores, they look cheap, not in a plastic cheap, but a fall apart kinda cheap...
Speaking of which, have I ever mentioned I work with a girl who's last name is Griswold? I have told her numerous occasions that I am jealous :) and she honestly wants to keep her last name when she gets married. I would also think her husband should be more than happy to take her name as his!
I think the yard is going to be crazy this year. I have gone crazy. I have too many lights and too many decorations. I still don't have 25,000 lights, but I am working on it :)
And holy shit, I aspire to do this LOL!
Hurray, someone WANTS candy, unlike ungrateful co-workers and stuffed parents (myself included!) 
This was Mike's project to complete while I worked Saturday, my parents and sister were up and he had the help he needed to get it in while someone watched the kids and helped Mike putty the glass into the door.
Voila! This has been on my list FOREVER because the front area needed light sooo badly, but the doors are so damn expensive. My sister got it for free through her workplace, Mike brought it back on his Calgary trip with the kids and now its in!
This really is a craft more than baking, the original recipe calls for you to bake sugar cookies
(with cocoa added to make them brown) but I cheated due to time restraints. I am proud of the fact that I managed to make the damn things, never mind baking the bottoms!
The bottoms I bought chocolate covered digestive cookies, then mini cones for the top. Melt chocolate in the micro carefully ( I say carefully because you can trash it so easily, or at least I sure can) take your handy dandy pasty brush, and paint away. By brushing the chocolate around the bottom of the cone and cookie you seal them together really well. We put mini tattoos rolled up in each one for a surprise, the original recipe uses full sized cones and a chocolate covered cereal treat mix. When I attempt this next, I want to use gummy worms and assorted "eeeew factor" treats inside full sized cones. With the real baked cookie bottoms ;)
Easy, and LOTS of fun to do with kids. Mr K painted with chocolate, and sprinkled the tops and had so much fun. I had told him about the project the night before and the first words out of his mouth in the morning were "when can we make the witches hats mom?"
And this is something on my list to make, a melon brain! Brandy had it at her party today, which funny enough I was looking at online last night, desperately wanting to try out! Its sooo awesome!
I just always get the goodies in the secondhand books I find, this time its a card for the Eidolon Project Canada.. Paranormal Activity,Research and Investigation.
All Mulder jokes aside : COOL!!
Website isn't the best but there are a few interesting things on there.
They're tacky and retro tacky and a whole new level of tackified, but I LOVE these stools! I had one a long time ago that the cat got to, then my mom bought me a red one that I have in our room upstairs and then I found this one for 10 bucks today and couldn't resist. I see them so rarely that I just have to pick them up when I have the chance. ONE DAY, I am going to have a retro rec room with a lovely olive scratchy material rounded couch (ah too bad they threw out my grandma's) and some other retro sheer TACK Lol.
Happy Thanksgiving weekend to everyone! Hope you are as stuffed and happy as we are! We had Wyatt and Christina over for supper on Saturday, so I made more food that I would have for just us, and of course, being the Martha wanna-be I am, loved every minute of the fussing and baking and cooking. I could do without the cleaning, so I think that I REALLY want to be Martha-who-has-a-maid-, plus Martha-who-has-someone-ELSE-to-run-to-the-store-because-you-forgot-effing-gravy.
I made my sweet potato casserole which only Kade and I like. So not sure if I will make it again for Christmas, but man, I think its fantastic! Sweet potatoes baked with milk and eggs and brown sugar to make it a little sweet, then a crunchy pecan topping on top. YUM!
I understand the use of buffet's and sideboards everytime I have people over, its totally another counter in my kitchen, which I always need. This time I made it the dessert buffet, and thanks to Dad's fantastic port that he made (this is next on my list to make) we even had a dessert wine. Oooh so fancy schmancy for just us LOL!
Then today we decided to go thrift shopping and Mr K was the deal finder, he found this mummy under a table, dragged it out and came running over "Mommy! I found a blow-up Mummy!!!" and of course I bought it, $19.99 for what turned out to be a completely intact, brand new Halloween blowup! Love it!
I am far too lazy to type out all my book finds so took a picture, which might have taken more time in the end, but I still *think* it was easier. We also found a huge kids Atlas which Mr K loves, and about 6 Christmas kids books as well that I am going to tuck away for few weeks yet.
I LOVE finding the ghost story books there, at $2.49 they are an entertaining read. Ooh and I picked up a Christmas craft book too, whee!
Ok, and this book made Mike and I laugh in the store, its PERFECT for a gag gift for some guy at his office! If you click on it and read the guarantee on the front its funny too!
So all in all we had a really good weekend, I didn't bother taking tomorrow off since its stat pay for me and Mike is home anyways, so I'll be in at work.
