Official Milestone

I'll drown my sorrows in a glass of wine as I write. We've passed a very BIG milestone of independence . The "attending a birthday party without your parents" milestone. WAAAAH!!

Yes, Mr K went to a birthday party at a gymnastic club with his classmates ALL BY HIMSELF. I worked today and The Princess wasn't invited (oh, that's another life marker too, when siblings start going to different parties than each other) so Mike had to drop him off and then went out with little sister shopping.

Sniffle. So it begins.

What's New

You can tell when I work a lot, I don't blog and there is a dry spell on here! So obviously, I worked all last week, and then this week has been doing tons of stuff with the kidlets and getting back to normal.

I applied for yet another permanent position at work (didn't get the last one) and should be sealing the deal come next week. It alleviates the stress a lot without having to worry about Mike's job, mine won't be one that's cut, so we have that reassurance knowing that. I will work mainly weekends which frees up my week to spend driving Mr K to school and spending time with them and Mike during the weeks, which are hectic for us and don't need to be made more hectic with me going to work every night.

Speaking of school, I am happier every week with Mr K's school. They have been singing lately, (his teacher is the music/voice teacher as well) and he's even sung in front of his class. I am astonished and ecstatic at the same time that my quiet boy has the confidence to sing in front of his class. Then to come home and sing for us as well. I think my jaw hit the ground when he told me casually that he and another boy sang a harmony together for the whole class the other day. What was REALLY funny is that the beat or the tune, the chorus? (see? I need lessons, I don't know quite the word I want here) that he chose was from Rihanna's Disturbia. If you've heard it, you know, the Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum. So he sang that while the other boy sang the "so-so me" notes they have been working on. Then he taught The Princess on the way home, and I have been listening to that for a few days now. I just laughed at his song choice, he LOVES that song. My top 40 boy.

The Princess and I are also going to spend a day with him in his class next week, we are both more than welcome as long as The Princess isn't running around wild. I haven't spend the day yet seeing that I couldn't find a sitter, not knowing that his teacher doesn't mind at all that we both spend the day. So I am really excited to go, and most likely will be there once a week now since The Princess is more than happy to sit in circles and do crafts with the other kids and listen to the teacher :)

I also almost cried today when I dropped him off. A bigger kid (grade 5) came up to him and said "Hey! K! Gimme a high 5 !" and Mr K did. Then K turned to me and said "mommy, did you know that some of the big kids are my friends?" Some of you know that he had some problems before with being scared of the big kids and not wanting to go to school with them at his other school. So to see this turnaround made me so very happy for him :) They have a lot of kids who visit his class once or twice a week and I like that these are obviously positive mixing of the different ages.

We are in the midst of trying to plan a trip to San Francisco/Los Angeles because Mike has two conferences that he has to attend. Trying to firm up the conference sponsors (this is all through his website business) is stressing me out. We can't plan until they pay up and sign and seal the deal, because we are NOT going to San Francisco on a lark in June for the heck of it. I would go when its colder here! So waiting...and waiting....and seeing these great flight and hotels specials that I just can't book yet because we aren't sure what they are doing. So cross your fingers for me that they hurry the hell up! We are new at this side business stuff...practice makes perfect I guess. But at least we know to book nothing till the money's in the bank LOL.

Umm.what else..we're just so busy sometimes, and I never quite figure out what it is that makes us so busy...besides Mike having three jobs with his fake day job (as we refer to it) and his real job=his website and then writing his book and me running my butt off during the days and then working most nights. Oh, wait, I figured it out ;) Oh well, its all our choice to be this busy, so I won't complain. Much.

I bought this today because my effing treadmill is not working properly, which really started my morning off cranky today. Trainer Bob is going to kick my ass. I know it. I feel the pain already. Can I have my treadmill back please? Sob.



Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Occupant Restraint Month

I see this sign every day on the way to Mr K's school and it never fails to make me shudder or be sad or both at the same time.

So I suppose that just like we should check our fire alarms for battery life, reviewing the seats and boosters in our cars is a good idea as well. On this site its also reminds us that as adults, we should make sure our headrests are adjusted for our height, its not just the kids!

Here's another site with a video . Nothing scarring, (of course, its sad) but it does well to remind myself how you DON'T have to be going fast to smash the hell out of a vehicle, just the average speed here in Edmonton is enough.

Ugh

This movie SUCKED. That's all I have to say about that. What a disappointment it was.

Worth Every Penny

I hate taking self pictures. I think of all those people on Facebook who take profile pictures and try to appear like they aren't actually taking a picture of themselves. "Oh, I am so hawt, you caught me!" meanwhile their arm is half in the picture.

Anyways lol I totally digress. Went to Pink Lime, (god I love it there) but had a 50% discount this time around thanks to a girl I work with, whom I now love deeply. And they gave me a cut and a fantastic color job.



There's the "oh, I am so hawt, you caught me on camera!" . Thats me in jammies and 2 glasses of wine-moving-on-to-mojitos pic. Not so hawt.


They give the best haircuts I have ever, EVER got in my life. Regardless of the fact that the first girl cut it crooked. I went back with the kids right before Mr K had to go to school Thursday morning and had them fix it. She was a newbie, I will cut her some slack. But the girl who fixed it, she is one talented cookie. Most of them are. I can't take pics of how awesomely layered and easy it is to do.

I was supposed to go to a girls night out tonight, but was going to go into work. Then I was not going into work.There have been sick calls and someone had a death in the family, but ended up that I didn't need to go in tonight after all, but I do have to come in Sunday. Ah, what can you do. How can you complain when someone has lost a fmily member, I mean really. I can have another girls night out.

So....a bowling party for a girl from Mr K's school tomorrow, work from 7-3 Sunday, then out for Khazanna's buffet and "He's Just Not That Into You" right after. What a good week its been!

Family Day

Hope everyone is having a great family day!

I had a lovely morning BY MYSELF, while Mike took the kids to the museum, then out for lunch. Family, shamily, I wanted to go on the treadmill and listen to tunes, paint my toenails, read my magazine that I have been trying to read for 2 days now, and surf the net. That was my morning :)

My cosmos are sprouted, holy fast little buggers. Good thing I put them in pots! I also have some Black eyed susan vines that have sprouted, I am sooo excited for these, they are absolutely gorgeous in bloom!


My grow op..all four levels are plants now lol.


My anniversary/Valentines present from Mike. We don't really celebrate Valentines since the anniversary of our first date is February 11th, we celebrate both sorta combined lol! He spoiled me and surprised me with the purse I have been sighing over for a few months now :) Sometimes he pays attention and just gets things dead on right and this would be one of them. Oh, and I NEVER get presents like this, so this is definitely the stars were aligned kinda dealy.

So Happy 10th anniversary hon xoxo. Jeepers, a decade since we met!


And we have our new neighbors in, and lets just say I am reserving judgement. After a few swears already about their 2 dogs barking in the backyard today. I am going to have patience and believe that their house is just too messy and full of boxes to deal with two LARGE dogs in the house and that they are not going to make a habit of leaving them out most of the day. To bark and bark and bark. In this cold weather as well. Cause not only am I cranky, but Lord Lamplightin' Jesus, they have NOT YET MET Mr. Anal-Retentive-single-old-dude-lawyer behind us. I wince to think of the conversations that will ensue. Or my other anal retentive neighbor beside me to the north. Or the anal retentive army dude beside lawyer who's dog has never barked in its whole existence I am sure, nor craps on the lawn. It would'nt dare.

Huh, I live on like the uptight block. I fit right in! Anyways, I hate pet owners who leave their dogs outside to annoy the whole neighborhood. There is a reason I don't have one, thanks, don't force yours on me.

Ooooh!

More exciting than reading Playgirl at this time of year ;) , Superstore was clearing them out at $6.98 each, as if I could pass up two gorgeous Canadian Gardening hardcovers at that price.

Reading.....

Not only is the cover eye-candy, but its a REALLY good book! It is great to read about the guys in the Otherworld books to fill in the blanks. Its a prequel about Clay and Jeremy (the werewolves).

Mmmm

Mike and I only had time to go to a movie yesterday (Slumdog Millionaire = FANTASTIC) so we didn't get to go out for the buffet at the New Asian. But of course, we still REALLY wanted some curries, so I made a big supper tonight.

I made the usual Butter chicken, tried the Biryani sauce from Superstore (not bad, you bake it in rice and I put chickpeas and cauliflower in it) and then made from scratch Palak Paneer which is my favorite dish at Khazna's. Its paneer cheese cubes in a spinach sauce, yum! The recipe is here and is pretty good, needed a bit more spices, I would 1.5 times them, but Mr K absolutely loved it, and he's not fond of the one at the buffet, so this one works for us.

And then easy peasy dessert, blueberries,strawberries and raspberries on a whitecake base with Cool Whip. And when I say whip I am pronouncing the H. wHip. Lets see who gets my humor lol.

Grow Op

Only 15 weeks till May Long! Yes, I am counting down, I have it written every Monday on my kitchen calender.

So last year I wanted a 3 tiered indoor greenhouse, but they aren't at Canadian Tire this year. At least, not right now. And people wanted WAY too much money for the few I saw secondhand. So I bought this metal shelf, with shelves that can be placed upside down so that the edge is up (brilliant) and nothing will slide off of it. You only need the plastic cover to germinate the seeds anyways, so I started with my Rudbeckia which take the longest (10-12 weeks before they are ready to plant) and then will work my way down the list of seeds. I am mainly growing them in big peat pots this year, so I am less tempted by the larger plants the greenhouses put out. As if.

And it fits perfectly on top of my buffet, up and out of the way. When everything has sprouted and just needs sun, I am going to set it in the front window, (all that west sun) so all the neighbors can wonder what exactly I am growing ;)


I am so excited about my colored sunflowers, I LOVED the yellow ones last year, and I can't wait to see the red and the brown ones, I can just imagine the bouquets already!

Anyone want a pack of organic zucchini seeds? I bought two by accident, and didn't even pay for the second ones actually, they weren't on the reciept. So freebie seeds anyone? I certainly won't even use up one! They will mail nicely!

I saw the Nasturtium last year on the edible garden tour and can't wait to try them, you can eat the leaves and flowers in a salad AND are gorgeous looking.

Ginger Cookies Done Easy

Yummy and as easy as..


1......


2......

3!
They hit the spot on a cold day inside with a sick little boy, AND the lack of effort was perfect for one sick little boy and his mother, both who had limited attention spans and a lack of time in general :)

My dad bought the Decadent Chocolate chip mix for the kids and THAT one is sinfully delicious!

The Weekend of Sniffles

This is our weekend, relaxing in the house, Mr K has a cold with a wicked cough. Its nice being forced once in a while to just sit and relax and not run around. The Princess and I are going to pop out for blueberries (yes, specifically blueberries lol) and then go pick up a boardgame to play today with their ToysRUs giftcard from Christmas.

Blackbird has already posted about these but for those of you who don't read her blog, these Polo books are the most amazing books ever. Each page looks like the one below, hardly any words, most pages have no words at all, sequential blocks of action drawn well enough that even the Princess will look at them and understand what Polo is doing. Mr K will sit down for an hour and look at the two we have. Which is all he has done again this morning for the last hour lol.

School Video

A video from the fall about Mount Royals' theme this year, those kids doing the talking are so darn cute! The teacher in the news clip is Mr K's teacher, who is also the music teacher there. Click on the link under the CTV video player for "Mount Royal Students Discover Sole." You can see what his teacher and parts of the school look like! Eh, the wonders of technology I tell you!

Video

Just To Make You All Cringe ------->

LOL and what's scarey is that people will use that FOR REALS! ----------------->

Recipe For Jane

Sorry to be such a tease Jane lol. If you click this link, there is a google preview of the book and the recipe is page 75 in that preview. I tried last night but of course they make it so you can't properly copy it and I was admittedly too lazy to type out the recipe!

Mincemeat Squares

Oh and as a sidenote, I didn't puree the mincemeat, we like it with the chunks in it, and they taste great like that, but its a personal preference I would think...

6 Photo tag!

I have been tagged by Cori, so I will post the rules from her blog:

First, the rules are simple. As follows:
6th Picture Meme!
1.Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures.
2.Go to the 6th Folder, then pick the 6th picture in that folder.
3.Post that picture on your blog and the story that goes along with the picture.
4.Tag 6 other peoples that you know or don’t know to do the same thing and leave a comment on their blog or an e-mail letting them know you chose them

I have very few pictures on my laptop, most are stored downstairs, so my 6th and last folder was from Solstice this year, and the 6th picture in is of the kids drying off the chestnuts that we then roasted in the oven. If I had been on my desktop, sheesh, the picture would probably been from 4 years ago lol!



Ok I tag:

Cindy @ Life's Journey
Karami @ Trevor,Karami & Deklen
Jane @ Escaping The City
Kandice @ Two Princess's
Blackbird Pie
Beckie @ This Is Us

Breakin' It In

Cracked open my 150 delicious squares book and baked up some mincemeat squares.

If you love date squares and mincemeat, theses are a super yummy merge!

Shumka!

I am soooo freaking excited! Mr K and I are going to see Shumka's 50th Anniversary at the Jubilee on March 19th, I can't wait! It is going to be absolutely amazing and I love that we get to explore this part of his heritage. He has watched the commercial linked below SO many times and is sooo excited to go! I shouldn't have told him, lol, he's going to drive me batty for the next 2 months. I got excellent seats, center on the first balcony and 3rd row up, perfect for a little boy to see.

Shumka

Auntie Kandice your ticketmaster giftcard that you gave us for Christmas was put to good use!

Nothing Worse Than...

...losing a good neighbor. :( Even tho I knew they were trying to sell their house, it all depended on whether they could find one they liked near downtown. And they did, and dang it, here's hoping we get new ones that don't drive me crazy. It sucks because the kids played with each other and they are going to miss the little girl next door. ARGH.

The Scoop

I've posted quite a bit lately but not really about all the changes our family has gone through in our quite literal New Year.

Most of you know that Mr K started in a new kindergarten at back to school time two weeks ago, with the school's focus being the Arts Core program here, which is arts-orientated programming that emphasizes the visual and performing arts: music, art, drama and dance. I am incredibly pleased. Just a simple way to put it. Its worth the considerable drive every day to take him there to see how happy he is in that class. I am laughing to myself as I think about it, but he has been so darn brave and funny and just my Mr K the last two weeks. Every day after lunch the school plays a classical piece by some composer after telling some history about them, and the kindergartens use scarves and dance around to the music. Well my boy had NO interest in it. None. In fact, he announced that it was "girl dancing" and he wasn't doing it. This might have something to do with the fact that there are 10 girls with fluffy pink scarves floating about his classroom, and one single other boy ;)

I tried talking his ear off about it. I tried bribery.Nothing worked. I gave up.I just gave up and let his teacher deal with it. And she did. By just letting him watch the other kids and not making a big deal out of it at all and then Thursday, out of the blue, he picked up a scarf (I wonder what color haha) and hasn't looked back. In fact, we went to Goodwill and now have scarf dancing in the living room, much to his sisters amusement. But it made me feel GOOD. It made me be able to rest easy about his new school knowing that his teacher handled it so well, and had the patience to wait 2 weeks and not force him into doing anything "because the rest of the class is". And it gave him such a boost of confidence. All I hear now is Mom! I tried it and I liked it!! (which makes me want to reply " I TOLD YOU SO!") But I am just happy that he learned a life lesson in such a positive way. I can spout (and I do) all I want to him about trying new things and being brave and getting joy out of them, but he learned this one allll on his own with us adults just waiting on the sidelines silently cheering him on. And I realized that that is one life lesson that no matter who tells you what, you just have to be brave and decide tackle it yourself to get that feeling of triumph and self worth. Because HE was the one who called the shots, he learned something huge...

I digress. To sum up, I love it, Mr K (now that he has the scarf dancing down pat) tells me he loves everything about his new school, the teacher talks to me and sends home little notes daily and always has lovely things to say to Mr K, I am more comfortable knowing how she handles issues like the one that came up, he's learning new songs and starting to learn about instruments and loves library time every Friday, I love that at Friday dismissals they play Celebration by Kool and the Gang over the intercom system and when I peek in his classroom he's dancing with his class, parents are grooving and its just so positive :) Everyone just kinda dances their way out.

And now on to The Princess. She had been on the waiting list for Fun Factory at the YMCA, and they gave us a call last week and had a spot for her. So she has started going every Mon/Wed/Fri afternoon. Day 1 I had to stay, then left for about 45 minutes, she was great when I picked her up. Day 2, I left when she went to do crafts, and I guess she had a REALLY hard time. Like hard time as in when she saw me at pick up time, she burst into tears and threw herself at me. She DID have a rough sleep the night before so I think that contributed a lot. She was a very sad little girl, but I was glad that one Y girl there let her hold her hand the whole time and The Princess stuck to her like glue I guess. Day 3 was today and she did great. I stayed for circle time, then left her again at craft time and she told me she wasn't going to be sad. Just in case, I came back an hour early and sat outside reading my book (finished the other boleyn girl, thats a gooood book!) but I watched her through the glass on occasion and she was happy and playing. She came out and told me how proud she was because she listened at story time and circle time and her comet craft was for Mr K. "I'm proud of me mommy!" And I was proud of her too. Mr K always has such few transition issues, but I know that she is cut from a different cloth and definitely needs me more. I think I will be reading outside her classroom for a couple weeks yet!

But then..dum...dum...dum...my evil plan is to go and workout when she is in class. Kill two birds with one stone. My mornings consist of getting up, bunny-proofing the kitchen and gating said bunny in there, feeding ourselves, all of us crafting at the table while Scooby hops around, maybe getting dressed at 11 ish....then leaving at 12. I am SO enjoying our relaxing, stress-free mornings before school.I did the treadmill a couple times but it left no time for anything else relaxing and fun with the kids before 12. So once The Princess is settled I am going to start using the facilities there while she's in class.

I am still only casual at work, hoping that will change sometime in February, there's a position I want coming up. My house isn't any cleaner than it was when I was working my permanent position LOL but I give up. Its just never going to be clutter free. Ever. I am already concocting plans and seeds and plants and looking forward to spring, I am glad that our new year is off to such a good start for us all. Oh, and I didn't make a single resolution by the way. Not one.

I think too the kids are going to start swimming lessons right away once we get our family Y pass (discount on The Princess's class and we get lessons free with membership, its a win/win) and then that is just about busy enough for us. I have no interest in cluttering up our week anymore than it is, we seem to have reached a really lovely routine with lots of family time left over.

I have plans to redo Mr K's room in a month or so, finally get him his bunk beds and set his room up how he wants, throw out that infernal queen sized bed, this will keep the spring fever at bay for a while at least.

Annnd that's about all I can think of for now!