Smells like Christmas

Today I started doing a little Christmas baking with Brielle. I've been searching for a good recipe for Peppernuts for over a year now. The ones that I made last year were good but not what I was looking for. I remember them being tiny little cookies (nut size...hence the name) that were full of wonderful spices and were crunchy. I think I finally found that recipe. I found it in an old Mennonite cookbook so the directions are quite vague, but I think I have it figured out. Some of these Mennonite recipes don't list flour in the ingredients, they just say in the directions to add flour until dough is easy to handle. OK! What if you add too much or not enough? One persons description of "easy to handle" may not be the same as anothers. Whatever! Crazy Mennonites. :) Anyways, I thought I'd share the recipe with you. Remember this is a Mennonite recipe....so it makes an insane amount of tiny little cookies....

Peppernuts

2 cups White sugar
2 cups Syrup (I used Rogers golden...I know these are sounding extremely healthy already)
1 cup Butter
3/4 cup Milk
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 Tbsp. Vinegar
1 tsp. Pepper (freshly ground is ALWAYS the best)
1 tsp. Cinnamon (those that know me well, know that I doubled this)
1/2 tsp. Cloves
1 tsp. Nutmeg
2 tsp. Staranise (Impossible to find, I left it out)
8 Cups Flour

Melt Butter. Mix sugar, syrup, butter and milk. Add soda and Vinegar. Sift flour and spices. Add to first mixture. Mix well. It should be a fairly hard dough. Set in a cold place for several hours (I left it in the fridge overnight). Roll in thin rolls (approx. 1/4 inch - 1/2 inch thick) and slice into little squares (again around 1/4 inch - 1/2 inch thick). Bake at 425 F. for 10-12 minutes. (I personally found this to be too long, I think my oven is a little hotter than most. I baked mine for around 8-9 minutes).
Enjoy. They take a little while to make but are not difficult to make what-so-ever!

Merry Christmas everyone!

A little something to make you smile

Brielle recieved a magazine today which I was glancing through and couldn't help but laugh at these little poems...

CHEESE
Cheeses come in many types,
There's Cheddar, Swiss and Bleu.
To name all the varieties
Would take a week or two.

Cheese is often smelly,

On that everyone agrees.

No wonder when a person farts

They say he "cut the cheese".

MUSHROOMS

Mushrooms help to flavor things

Like pizza, meat and soups.

You'll find them growing in the dirt

In filthy little groups.

Mushrooms can be any size

From tiny to humongous.

They taste so good you'd never know

You're munching on a fungus.

CHICKEN

Chicken cooks in many ways

Like fried or grilled or boiled,

Creamed or baked or microwaved

Or barbequed or broiled.

People all around the world

Eat chicken every day.

Why'd the chicken cross the road?

To get the heck away!

FISH

Fish are slick and scaly.

They're bony and they smell.

In some ways it's a miracle

So many of them sell.

If fish are really brain food,

The way we've all been taught,

Then how come all the fish we eat

Could not help getting caught?

MILK

Milk is used in batter

And in cream cheese and in butter.

When someone milks a dairy cow,

The milk squirts out her udder.

But milking can be tricky,

If you tickle her, who knows?

The cow may start to giggle,

Making milk come out her nose.

EGGS

Eggs will make a perfect meal

When scrambled, boiled or fried.

They can be a good main course

Or just served on the side.

Eat them any time of day,

You can't go wrong with eggs,

Unless you crack one open and

You see a pair of legs.

Allow me to introduce you...

Baby Kehler @ approx. 18 weeks.



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Good ol' Calgary Weather

This morning was beautiful out. I got the kids dressed, Brielle in capri's and a t-shirt, Micah in shorts and a t-shirt. Around 11am we headed out of the house to do some shopping at Costco, and a few other errands. The sky was blue with clouds. It was bright enough out that I had to wear my sunglasses on the way into the city. After we ran a few errands we headed into Costco. It was still nice out at this point. We were just about done our shopping when Jon called me (we'd only been in Costco for 45min). He tells me to quickly finish up what I'm doing and get home. I asked him why and he said that a friend of his called him and told him that they were having nasty weather in the north end of the city and it was heading south. Jon said that it was starting to reach them already. So I got myself into the annoyingly massive Costco line-up to pay for my groceries. As I begin to walk out of the Costco building I'm greeted with a freezing cold wind. Once I get outside the cold wind is joined by a freezing down pour. Luckily I managed to snag a parking spot that was only 2 cars from the doors. I ran to my car and just as I reached the car the wind and rain were teamed up with massive balls of hail. I quickly got Brielle out of the cart and she ran to get to her side of the vehicle. Meanwhile Micah's rubbing at his neck saying "ouch, ouch, ouch" and crying. After putting Micah in the car and calming him down while my back is being pelted with ice balls I had yet to get the now soggy groceries into the trunk of my car. What an episode. As much as I love living this close to the mountains, it certainly has it's down side. Oh and in case you're wondering the sun is once again shining and the ground is no longer even wet. All I have to say about this is....."Good ol' Calgary Weather!"

Yay for babies...

My sister Jen had her baby today. She had a little girl.
Sawyer Eleanor
6 lbs 4 oz.
18" long
She was born at 2:27pm
I promise to post a few pictures as soon as I can. I haven't seen her yet. Hopefully tomorrow. :)

So long unworthy computer.......

Wow, it took me a minute to remember what my password was to get onto blogger. It's been way to long since my last post....sorry about that (if there's even anyone checking my blog anymore).
Well, here's some news for you all. First of all for those of you that don't know yet....Jon and I are expecting baby #3 to be arriving in February. It was a pregnancy planned by God, that we're now very excited about. Although we'll have to be sharing a room with the new addition because we had to back out of the house deal...so no new house for us quite yet :( It'll prove to be very interesting having a family of 5 in a 2 bedroom condo, but we'll make it work. Jon's planning on getting quite involved with the condo board here to make things happen with the stucco assessment that they threw out there a week before we listed. (This is going to end up being a long post....I'm sorry if our news puts you all to sleep...). The condo board here decided to send out a notice of assessment for the exterior stucco on the buildings. They claimed that it could cost anywhere between $5000 and $35,000 per unit. They weren't yet sure if they wanted to just repair the areas that needed repairing or replacing the entire exterior of all the buildings with siding. So they threw a few random numbers out there which obviously scared people off of buying them. The few people that were interested weren't able to get financing from the banks. The banks said that it was too much of a risk, and would not give mortgages to anyone for these particular condos. Needless to say, we were unable to sell therefore unable to proceed in buying the beautiful house that I had hoped to move into. Not exactly impressed with condo living.
Anyways, onto better news. I get to purchase a new computer. One that won't shut off on me at random points of being used. I'm quite excited about this. I've been dealing with my obnoxious computer problem for quite some time now, and am MORE than ready to have it dealt with. I plan on sparing no expense. I want the best of the best (probably won't happen, we're not exactly millionaire's). I do however plan to get a really good warranty so that other people can deal with my computer trauma's. So, I may not update for awhile again...Although, my sister is due to have her baby in 2 weeks and I don't think I'll be able to resist posting pictures of him/her. So check in again in a few more weeks. :)

I'm melting.....melting.....

It is so incredibly hot here. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather it be +35 than -35. But I'd also like to have air conditioning. You can heat your house up in the winter to escape the chill, but I can't cool my house down to escape this melting heat. I feel like hiding in the stinky basement.

Happy Birthday

It's Leanne's 25th birthday today,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Leanne!!!!!!

Mmm...fish eggs :)

When I was younger I used to always be completely disgusted at the thought/sight of tapioca pudding. It reminded me of fish eggs. I remember trying it once...not a pretty sight. We were sitting in Bonanza (I miss this restaurant), I took a helping of tapioca pudding as a dare. As the lumpy fish egg bits hit my tongue, my lunch started to creep up my throat. I jumped up to get ready to run to the bathroom. No worries...I kept it all down. But it turned me off of tapioca pudding for many many years. Very shortly after Jon and I got married, his mom made supper for us. When we were done eating supper, she placed dessert in front of us. We were each given a large helping of....you guessed it...tapioca pudding. As I stared down at my bowl the back of my throat started to quiver, getting itself ready for the second appearance of my supper. I took a deep breath, and not wanting to offend my new mother-in-law I took a SMALL bite. To my utter shock, it was wonderfully delicious. I still don't think I've ever told Jon's mom my original distaste for this particular dessert (She knows now though). However, I'm glad that I was re-introduced to tapioca pudding. As a matter of fact, I'm enjoying some right now. :) Mmm...fish eggs.

Laugh a little

It has been said that while children laugh more than 300 times a day, adults only laugh around 15 times a day. It's time that we started laughing more. Who doesn't like to laugh...
So here it is...I want everyone to write your best joke in the comments, NOTHING remotely risque please or I'll delete it. I'll start us off....

Game Of Intelligence
There was a blonde who found herself sitting next to a Lawyer on an airplane. The lawyer just kept bugging the blonde wanting her to play a game of intelligence. Finally, the lawyer offered her 10 to 1 odds, and said every time the blonde could not answer one of his questions, she owed him $5, but every time he could not answer hers, he'd give her $50.00. The lawyer figured he could not lose, and the blonde reluctantly accepted. The lawyer first asked, "What is the distance between the Earth and the nearest star?" Without saying a word the blonde handed him $5. then the blonde asked, "What goes up a hill with 3 legs and comes back down the hill with 4 legs?" Well, the lawyer looked puzzled. He took several hours, looking up everything he could on his laptop and even placing numerous air-to-ground phone calls trying to find the answer. Finally, angry and frustrated, he gave up and paid the blonde $50.00 The blonde put the $50 into her purse without comment, but the lawyer insisted, "What is the answer to your question?" Without saying a word, the blonde handed him $5.

OK now it's your turn....make me laugh :)

Ahhhh....

Oh man, oh man.... there's a giant moth flying around my window, 5 feet from me. I am home alone (well with the kids)....what do I do??? SICK!!!!!!!!!!!
I think I'll trap it and wait for Jon to come home to kill it. Yuck, yuck, yuck!

Summer days

First of all....Kelly I know you just broke into song as you read my title (I know this because I did). Grease is the best movie.
Anyways, it is once again summer. I love summer weather more than I can ever say. I am going to be one of those old people that move to florida when they retire. I'll come back here for Christmas though, because I just can't imagine having a Christmas with no snow in site.
Ok, I went off topic once again...so the reason for my post, is that I'd love to get some ideas from you out there (Carol, I know you stop by once in awhile and I'm told that asides from your puffed wheat squares you're a mean cook...haha) so I'm looking for summer recipes. Jon works outside ALL day long and understandably is in no mood for hot food when he comes home. What am I going to do? I can't think of anything other than sandwiches for a good summer meal. Please Please Please help me out. I'm in desperate need of suggestions.
Thank-you in advance. :)

click, click

Wow I had no idea how truly loud the click of the computer keys and mouse really is. There are 5 kids in this house right now, and not one of them is making a single noise. It's to early to tell if they're all actually sleeping (I know of 3 that are for sure), but I can say for sure that it is nice to hear the silence. I'm going to look for a good book to read, and stop typing now, for fear that I might wake them up with this deafening clicking sound.

ARG...

IT'S SNOWING....
Enough said!

*SIGH*

Why is it that I can be bored right now, when I can also think of a good handful of things that "need" to be done? I think it's because I am SO sick of cleaning my house. I have to keep it spotless for showings right now. In the beginning I thought "this is nice" it was nice to sit down in the evening with Jon and not feel like I should really be putting those dishes in the dishwasher. Or being up to my eyeballs in laundry. BUT I am so utterly tired of making sure that every single mini car is in the toy box before I leave the house. Even if I am just going to take the kids to the park, I have to make sure that there is NOTHING sitting around. No blanket unfolded, or counter unwiped, mirror with spots, or paper sitting on my desk. On top of all this, I'm still watching my friends 2 boys. Which is ok, they're very good kids. But even good children can make a terrible mess. On Thursdays, I have my niece to add to the mix as well. Having 5 kids in the house while you're trying to keep it spotless is more than just tiring. I need a major vacation once our house sells....I'm talking major.

A day in Alberta

Today we hung out with friends and family. We went down to a friends land and the guys did some skeet shooting and other target shooting (big surprise) and the girls basically just huddled around the fire and talked and ate (another big surprise...haha). We had the typical "Alberta" weather day today. It started off nice and sunny. Jon & Brielle, Adam and Lara all hopped on their motorbikes and off we went. Half way to our friends place, it starts to rain on us. We get half way down the gravel road, and it turns into hail. Needless to say, the people on bikes promptly parked them and piled into the vehicles. We drove down into the valley, sat in the car for maybe 1 minute and the rain stops. Jon and my dad built a fire for us, as it was still a little bit chilly (the wind is really cold here). Not long after it starts spitting again. This kinda happened all day long. It would stop spitting and the sun would shine for a few minutes (with the cold wind blowing of course). By the time our tolerance for the weather had worn thin, it was actually turning out to be ok. We enjoyed some good ol' camp pies, marshmallows, chips, etc. We had fun, even with the annoying Alberta weather. Sadly our long weekend is coming to an end. How was your long weekend???

What is wrong with people?

I just read a news story in Yahoo about a guy in Australia that made a game about the V-Tech shooting, and has it on the Internet. His comments are very disturbing and make me wonder what in the world is wrong with people. He thinks that it's funny, and said that he has sympathy for the shooter. Unbelievable.
Here's the Link for it. I know that the only reason that I can say I'd NEVER do nor think anything like this guy is because I have Jesus in my life. I shudder just thinking about what this world would be like without God a part of it at all. Yikes!

My Spa Day

Today was the day that I used my gift certificates for the spa. I brought my Mom with me. It was very nice, and relaxing. I started off with a 1 hour massage, then had a pedicure and a manicure. I had the same girl for the pedicure and manicure, during the manicure however...she made me cry. In a VERY good way. I had noticed that she was wearing a diamond ring on her left hand ring finger and asked her if it was an engagement ring. She said it was and as we got talking we ended up on the topic of religion. I told her that I was a pastors daughter, and found out that she attends the First Alliance church in Calgary. She then went on to tell me her testimony. I won't remember it word for word, but here's the gist of it...
She grew up in Iran. Her family was Muslim. Her mom and her sister became Christians first. She said that she was very upset with her mom and cried for days because she feared that her mom and sister were going to hell. The Muslims (as in any religion) believe that being a Muslim is the only way to get into heaven. She was married to a Muslim man (this girl seemed to be no more than 20 years old by the way) and I'm pretty sure she said that they had come to Canada. Then her and her husband returned to Iran and her husband would not let her leave. He stole her documents and hid them on her. He beat her, breaking her ribs. When she tried to leave him telling the court that he'd beaten her and stolen her documents, she was told that unless she was near death there was nothing they could do for her. In the mean time her family is still in Canada, her Dad was trying to figure out a way to get her out. She's still a Muslim at this point. She said that she started having these dreams. Jesus was in her dreams telling her not to be afraid and to trust in him. Back in Canada, her mom went to church one Sunday and prayed saying that she forgave her son-in-law, then asked that her daughter would be returned to her. The VERY next Sunday she was sitting beside her mom in Church in Canada. Isn't that amazing. What an awesome God we serve. She has now been a christian for about 2 years.
A few days ago, I watched the movie "Not Without my Daughter" with Jon's family (which is a movie about an American woman that married a Muslim man and was held against her will in Iran by her husband). Growing up in Canada it's hard to fathom that things like this can actually go on in other parts of the world. To actually meet someone who was saved from a situation like that by the grace of God, is astounding. She's such a wonderful young woman. I'll be keeping her and her family in my prayers. She still has some family in Iran that they're trying to get over to Canada.

It's official (well almost)

As of tomorrow, our house will be listed! Yikes, that means I have to keep my house clean enough for strangers to walk through at any point in time and want to purchase the place...with MY kids around, I hardly think this is going to be possible. I am going to be one VERY warn out woman. I pray that it sells FAST. I'm actually very glad for the warm(er) summer days that are quickly approaching us (or teasing us), they seem to be here one day and quickly gone the next. However, I'm praying for beautiful weather until my house is sold so I can keep my kids out of the house, therefore my house should stay clean (in theory). Please pray that our place sells quickly. It would be great to have it over with.

Happy 4th Birthday Brielle

Brielle is 4 years old today!! Can you believe it??? She's 4. It certainly doesn't seem like it was 4 years ago that she was a tiny 7lb baby. My baby girl has grown up to be a beautiful little girl inside and out. She's kind, gentle and she genuinely cares about people. She hurts when others hurt. She's a wonderful big sister who watches out for her little brother. When she gets something she wants to give some of it to her brother. She loves to share and loves to see other people happy. When she received some birthday money I asked her what she wanted to buy with her money and her reply was "I think I'll buy a princess doll for Hayden so that she has one just like me". What a little sweet heart. Happy 4th birthday my beautiful little girl.

Mother in the works.

Brielle is such a little mother. She loves babies (as most girls do). Here's an adorable picture of her holding our friend Jill's daughter Stella, she's only 5 days old in this picture.

Imaginations...

I love kids imaginations. I remember having a great imagination, things just seemed to come alive when Kelly and I were playing together. We were just playing but it all seemed so real. Why do we lose that?
I was watching B and My little man play together this morning and it brought back so many memories. They're sitting on B's huge stuffed unicorn. My little man's sitting in the front and B's sitting in the back. B's saying "Yee-Haw" and My little man's going "Neigh". Their also playing with little horse figurines making up some pretty crazy stories with them.
Honestly...who needs T.V. when you have little kids?

Sore....so Sore!!!

Today we went snowboarding, man was it GREAT!!! The rain that we've been having the last few days here were pure powder up in the mountains. It was wonderful. My cousin Ryan is here from Ontario and we took him to Sunshine mountain today. It wasn't exactly the nicest weather for snowboarding because it was cloudy and snowing, but man oh man....do I love snowboarding in the deep powder. We had a great time. It was Jon, Adam (they took the day off work to come), My Mom and Dad, Ryan and Myself. Lot's of fun. There's good news and bad news about this for us and Ryan....now no other snowboarding hill will be good enough for him (once you snowboard in the mountains, you don't want to do anything else), the good news though...is maybe he'll be making this a yearly trip. Rather than seeing him once every 11 or so years (the last time I saw him was my Aunt Heather and Uncle James' wedding) I might actually see him once a year. I think it's awesome that I can go snowboarding 1 day and 2 days later it can be +22. Sometimes, I love Alberta weather.....sometimes.

Lego...A kids toy? I think not!

When we were shopping yesterday B and her Nana picked something out for Micah. Much to my delight, it was Lego. I always loved Lego as a kid, and now I once again have a good excuse to play with it. So, after supper Jon took B for a bike ride to Leanne's house. Micah and I promptly sat on the living room floor and started building his Lego fire truck. It's great fun. The little thing is actually quite detailed, I was surprised. Lego has changed from when I was a little kid. It's a truck and trailer, both have working tailgates. The trailer has two little storage compartments that actually have stuff to go in them. The one side holds a little oxygen tank for the little fire fighter and the other side holds a block thing that helps the trailer stand level all on it's own. The trailer also has a saw, axe, light (just for looks), a spot to hang the fireman's mask and fire extinguisher and a fire hose on a little roll thing. The little fire truck comes equipped with a two-way radio and a hitch for the trailer. Micah loves it. He hasn't put it down since I finished building it for him, much to my dismay...although he's dropped it a few times so I've gotten to rebuild it for him. I think he needs more Lego :)...his birthday is June 15th everyone. Ha Ha.

Little Brothers

Yesterday I went shopping with Jon's mom, the kids were with us and as we sat in Tim's for lunch Iris grabbed a bun from her plate and wrapped it in a napkin. "This'll be good to have along in case Micah gets hungry while we're shopping" Iris said. Right after that we heard a little voice in the corner say "It's always about the little brothers". I think B might be feeling left out. :) (Don't worry, she got to go shopping with Nana after that...she got a few treats and had completely forgotten about the bun in my purse).

Broken Hearted

This is what B's dainty little heart looks like right now. She had a friend over here playing and another one of her friends rang the doorbell to see if friend #1 would go out and play...only friend #1. Friend #2 was quick to say that B was sometimes crabby when they played, and she only wanted to play with Friend #1 today. Poor B had a good cry...I almost did for her too. However, it was a lesson well learned. She now knows (the hard way), that people don't want to play with you if you're going to be crabby, it's just no fun. As hard as it is on my heart, I'm glad that this happened. I hope that she actually learned something from this tough experience. I also pray that this doesn't happen to her again (although I know how teenage girls can be, and am not looking forward to those years for her...or me!). I'm off to give my little girl some loving. I think some chocolate ice cream after supper may help :). Chocolate helps heart ache in my opinion. I think we need some "girl time".

Yesterday....Secretary's Day

Yesterday evening Jon surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of lilies (my favorite flower) and a bunch of chocolate. He said that it was Secretary's Day and that him and Adam wanted to show me that they appreciated me. I do all the running around for their framing companies (picking up cheques, dropping off invoices, calling around, etc.), he told me that Adam was going to be bringing by my "real" gift. 2 minutes later, Adam's at the door. He hands me a small package which has not one but two gift certificates in it for a Manicure, Pedicure and 1 hour massage. They thought I'd enjoy that but didn't want me to have to go alone. Isn't that wonderful. I'm so excited. I can't believe this. Usually I'm the one reminding them a few times a day about stuff like birthday's and holiday's (not joking, Jon would miss Christmas, Easter, etc. if I didn't tell him often leading up to the day). They surprised me with this one. I had no idea that it was Secretary's Day, nor would I have thought anything about it if I had known. Well, it worked...I feel very loved and appreciated. A simple thank-you would have been enough, but I have to admit, this is so much better. :)

For those of you that are interested...there are a few new recipe's on the Recherche Cuisine site. Enjoy!

Invitation...

I am so NOT a fan of painting. We're getting our place ready to list with the realtor...which is not fun. We have wanted to re-paint for quite sometime now. It's funny how you get your place to how you've always wanted it when you're trying to move out of it. Little projects that I've wanted done for years now, are all getting done this week. Oh well, I don't really care...I'm excited for our new house. It's exactly how I want it. The only project for us on the new place will be the back yard, and it'll get done quickly because we want to have people over for bbq's. Other than that, it's basically brand new so there's no renovating needed.

I should use my mom's little trick...

Here's an invitation for you (idea from my mom...I'll explain in a minute).

You're invited...
Who: Everyone
What: A bbq party
Where: My backyard
When: August 2007

All food will be provided for you. All you need to do is help us renovate our backyard first. :)

My mom keeps saying she's going to send out invites like this for a deck party. However, they need the deck built first.

Pictures

I'm going to try this slideshow thing again...hopefully it works this time.



These are pictures from the last two weekends. The first few are from Ladies Retreat at Southern Alberta Bible Camp (SABC), the rest are from Easter weekend. My Mom, Kelly and I headed to Swift Current for my cousin Scott's wedding. We had a lot of fun.

Birthday

Happy Birthday Miss Kara. I hope it's a good one.

Have a good Easter everyone. I'm heading out of town once again. This time it's for my cousin's wedding. I'll post pictures when I get back (unless my computer crashes...which is likely).

Update

These last few weeks have been REALLY busy. I was on a Ladies Retreat Committee. The retreat was just this last weekend. It went really well. There were 145 women there. It was a lot of work. We spent most of last week getting things together and going over the things that we had to make sure that we had enough, etc. It was exhausting. I'll post pictures later (hopefully tonight, but it might have to wait until tomorrow). On top of that I've been pre-packing up my house. Just getting the stuff that we rarely use out of the house to de-clutterize, and "puppy sitting". We have Jon's mom and dad's dog at our house right now. She's been here for a week already, and we have 2 weeks to go. The "puppy sitting" is supposed to be B's job (she's getting paid per day), but I think she's going to owe me a lot of chocolate when these next few weeks are over. I told her that she was going to have to buy me some chocolate with her earnings for "helping" her. I'm getting ripped off. Anyways, I'm in major need of a nap. We have people coming tonight to look at our place. Pray that they want to buy it. It would be so much easier if we could sell it personally and not have to go through a realtor. Well...I need to get back to my cleaning.

Happy Birthday

Today is my Dad's birthday!!! Happy Birthday Dad, we love you VERY much! Enjoy your day.

300

Jon and I went to see the movie 300 last night. I had heard a bit about it from some people and no bad comments were made on it. So we went to see it. Well, now I have something bad to say about it. Shame on me for not walking out of that movie. I am horrified at myself for sitting through the whole thing. There were scenes in that movie that I would very much describe as pornographic. It was also extremely gory. Now I'm not an idiot...I knew it was a war movie and there was going to be major fighting, but the amount of gore in that movie is over kill. I highly suggest that you do NOT go to see that movie. Enough said!

I am SO computer illiterate

OK I've been trying for the last hour to post a slide show of pictures that I did on rockyou.com it obviously hasn't been going great for me. I need your help, if you know how I can do it or what I may be doing wrong...please tell me. I've tried the copy paste thing of the embed code they give you and that has not been working for me. HELP!!!

The Ballet

I'm going to the Ballet tonight with a couple of friends. Jon was more than willing to opt to stay home with the kids (ha,ha). Crazy! I've never gone to anything like this before. It's Cinderella, I'm assured that it's going to be good. I got a new outfit out of it. Ok, it's not only for the ballet tonight, I also have a wedding to go to in 2 weeks so I'll wear my new outfit to that as well. The shirt is compliments of my Mom (Lyn), she brought it back from Ontario for me, and the pants (that go just below the knee) are compliments Jon's Mom (Iris). I think it'll be fun. Anyways, a few more little updates...I've joined facebook.com so if you're on there you should add me to your friends, if not you should join and then add me as your friend. Hmmm, what else? There was something else I was going to say and now I've completely forgotten. Man, there's nothing more annoying than forgetting what you were in the middle of talking about. Oh well, once I remember it'll give me a reason to post again...since I've been lacking in the creative department when it comes to new posts.
Well, I hope you all have a great evening/weekend. As I said before, I'll be at the ballet tonight. Tomorrow is supposed to be +19, let's hope that it actually gets there, I'd love to spend the day in the mountains. Sunday we're heading out to Indian Graves to go do some skeet shooting with some friends. That's my weekend in a nut shell. Have a good one everyone.

What in the world!!!!

I woke up this morning to the sight of snow covering EVERYTHING!!! I'm not talking about a little bit of snow here people...you can't see the grass peeking through. Everything is completely covered in snow. I love Alberta weather. My reasons...
1. When we're having a nasty cold spell in the middle of the winter you can rely on the fact that it'll only last a week tops!!!
2. Unlike Somebody I think the sky is fascinating when a chinook is coming.
3. It's never boring. :)
4. You can count on the old saying "If you don't like the weather...wait 10 minutes."
5. I'm a warm weather lover...So for me, I love being able to have days in the winter when I can go outside without an entire snowsuit. A sweater does me just fine most days.
However, this morning almost made me forget about all of that and vow to never again say that I love Alberta weather. (I said ALMOST). I am so ready for spring, I'm finding it hard to appreciate the beauty of the snow that I woke up to this morning.
Oh, and I'll leave you with this little tidbit of news...Jon and I bought a house last night. I'm so excited...it's beautiful. Once we have possesion of it, you'll all have to come over for a bbq in our backyard...Ahhh...I'm going to have a backyard for the kids to play in. I'm so excited.

A busy week...

Wow, it's been a pretty packed week. It flew by! Last week Jon took me into Calgary and bought me a shot gun (Ha,Ha...I know, it's like me buying him something for the kitchen). Although I have to say, we went out with some friends Sunday afternoon to do some skeet shooting and it was a lot of fun. I actually hit 90% of the skeet's. Fun stuff. For those of you that know a little about shotguns, the one he bought me is a Remington 8-70 Tactical Magnum. The stock is a Knoxx industries, spec ops stock. Which, more easily put, (or for people like me) it's a tough looking shotgun, it's green, you pump it to load it, and the stock on it soaks up 98% of the recoil so when you shoot it, it doesn't feel like someone is punching you in the shoulder like a normal shotgun does. I shot over 100 skeet's, and I could have done hundreds more, you all need to try it, it's fun. Jon also made me shoot slugs...now that hurt (again, for those of you like me...slugs are like bullets...not the slimy thing crawling on the ground.) It was really loud, and it felt like someone punched me in the shoulder as hard as they could. That was using my gun. I can't imagine shooting slugs out of a normal 12-gauge shotgun. Alright, enough about shooting...I'm serious about you all trying it though.
So, my girlie is home today. I haven't seen her yet. They went straight to Jon's parents house to sort through all the stuff and make sure that B comes home with everything she's supposed to. Apparently she's coming home with a TON of stuff. For those of you that didn't know, she was in MB for 10 days with Jon's mom. They stayed at Jon's grandma's house and visited with a lot of people. She had fun. She called us every night, which was nice. I'm glad that she's going to be home now though. I miss her...AND so does my little man. He's been following me around like a lost little puppy dog during the day. I don't think he knows what to do with himself when B's not around to keep him entertained. I did get some stuff done while she was away though. I painted the rest of my kitchen. Jon still needs to do all the cutting in, and then I want to do another coat, but it looks good. I like it. I also started sorting through a bunch of stuff. We're thinking about moving (again), so I want to sort through everything, get rid of a bunch of stuff and stick a bunch in storage. That way if we decide to list our house it'll be easier to keep tidy, and it'll look nicer.
Oh ya, I also went to visit a friend yesterday. She was a room-mate of mine at Bible school. She just had a baby boy in February. It was nice to sit and get a little more caught up with her, and to snuggle that little baby boy. He fell asleep in my arms and I held him for pretty close to 3 hours. It was wonderful. I don't think my little man was too keen on it though. As soon as I handed the baby back to his mom he put his head in my lap and kept hugging and kissing me. Anyways, that's all the update I have for you for now. Have a great weekend everyone. It's supposed to be +15 here on Saturday. I'm certainly looking forward to it.

Chocolate

Hello, My name is Abbey, and I am a Chocoholic.
I can't help it. I have chocolate EVERY single day. Today, I haven't had any yet...and I'm about to raid the chocolate chip bag. My mouth waters for it. I can't think about anything else until I have some melting in my mouth. Is it possible to be addicted to chocolate??? Because I totally am.

Happy Birthday

Today is my Brother-in-law Darren's Birthday.

Spring is in the Air

I love the warm weather we are having. I can't help but be happy when I have warm sun beating through the windows, I get to use the air conditioning in my car, I can go out with the kids without having to take 5 min. to bundle them up and I wake up in the morning to the sound of birds chirping outside my window (No joke, I actually had birds chirping outside my window this morning...what a wonderful way to wake up in the morning).
I am such a warm weather kinda girl. There are a few things about winter that I like, for example...I love how everything looks outside after a huge snowfall, I love playing in the snow with my kids (making snowmen, snow angels, playing games, etc.), ice skating, snowboarding, etc. But man am I glad the the warm days are just around the corner. Being a "warm weather kinda girl" I can only handle so many months of wintery coldness...and my patience is starting to run thin.

MY MOM

Today is my mom's birthday.
Happy Birthday Mom. I hope you have a great time with your sisters. Don't forget to give everyone out there hugs from me. :)

"I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it....."

OK so hopefully this link works for you guys. Today, everything became final...and this is MY CAR Yes, that's right I said MY CAR. I'm so excited. I've never had a new car. Ok, so it's not exactly "new". It's a used car...but it's new to me. It's a 2005 Mazda 3 GT. Completely loaded. I'm so excited. I get to drive it off the lot tomorrow. I've never really had a car all my own before. I had a little firefly for a while. It was a great little car. It only cost us $300.00 so I think it's safe to say that this car is my first "new" car. :)

It's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood...

Today is an absolutely beautiful day. Actually the last few days have been beautiful. This morning Jen called me and asked if I wanted to find someone to watch Micah and take B ice skating with her and Hayden. So I found a sorta willing participant to take Micah for an hour and we headed to the beach house to go skating. It was fun. Darren made some walker looking things for people to use to learn to skate and donated them to the beach house. The girls loved them. They worked beautifully. I'll have to post pictures another time. I forgot my camera (of course), but Jen took pictures so once I get them off her camera I'll be sure to post them. Their favorite "game" was to run over the gloves that Jen would toss out onto the ice. It was brilliant...it made them figure out a way to get themselves moving on the ice.
After ice skating we picked Micah up, stopped by Starbucks and got a few drinks (one of my new favorites is a grande cinnamon dulce latte...mmm...), ran Jen's truck through the car wash (which terrifies Micah for some reason) and now I'm sitting at home eating fresh homemade bread, homemade pickles (only the WORLD'S BEST made by Rosie) and homemade banana bread for dessert (also the WORLD'S BEST recipe from Dianne). Yes, it's an excellent day

An Eventful Morning I Could Do Without!!

This morning started out wonderful. I woke up to the smell of fresh bread. Made in my new breadmaker that was bought entirely with Canadian tire money. I'm quite excited about it. It has 9 different bread/dough settings and a preservative setting, it also has a delay setting (which is what I used last night) so you can fill it up before you go to bed and have fresh bread the next morning. Also it makes 2lb-3lb horizontal loaves of bread. Excellent.
Anyways, as I was sitting downstairs finishing up my breakfast and doing my devotions, Brielle yells down the stairs..."Mommy, Micah unrolled the roll of toilet paper into the toilet". And so my morning begins. As I'm in the bathroom talking to Micah about what just happened the phone rings. It's Jonathan...he needs me to look up a few phone numbers for him. So I head downstairs to the computer desk. As I'm giving Jon the phone numbers that he needs I hear the toilet flush and Brielle comes running down stairs with this terrified look on her face. "What happened" I ask her as I run past her up the stairs, not finding the big mess I was expecting...but an empty bottle of Infants Motrin sitting on the counter. My heart stops beating for a second as I ask Brielle to come upstairs. "What is this?" I asked her showing her the empty bottle. She just stared at me with her eye's wide like a deer in headlights. "Brielle, it's really important that you tell me what you did. I need to know if you drank all of this" I asked her starting to feel a little bit panicked at her silence. "Well I just didn't want to tell you" she responded. "I did drink it" she finally fessed up. My heart starts to pound outside of my chest at this point. "Don't Move!" I say to her as I run downstairs to get the phone and call my sister (who's an RN). "Jen, what do I do Brielle just drank at least half a bottle of infants motrin?" After telling her all the details (how much approx., etc.) my sister proceeds to tell me that it should be o.k. but just in case I should call Poison Control. I phone Poison Control and they tell me that according to Brielle's age and weight and the amount that she most likely drank, she'll be fine. She's under the poison amount. *PHEW* They tell me that she'll probably just have a stomach ache and that I should get her drink milk for it. Other than that, she's fine.
What an episode. I had a little chat with Brielle after that, and I think it's pretty safe to say that she won't be doing that again.

Happy Valentines Day

I hope you all have a GREAT Valentines Day. Know that you ARE loved!!!

Crazy!!!

Today I was sitting upstairs playing with the kids when the phone rang. I picked it up and checked the caller id, it said that it was M&M meat shops. I immediately thought that they were calling to try to sell me something so I started to put the phone down to ignore it but decided to answer it anyways. Here's how the conversation went...
"Hello"
"Hi is Abbey there?"
"This is Abbey"
"Hi Abbey this is _______ from M&M meats. I'm calling about the promotion that we were having...
(My immediate thought is.."if you were having it why are you calling me now?")
Every time an m&m max card was swiped in the store the persons name was entered into a draw for a kitchen set. You are our winner."
"What??? Are you serious!?"
*some laughter came over the phone at this point
"Yes I am. The kitchen set includes an indoor grill, a toaster, a blender and a food processor. When ever you get the chance if you'd pop in to get them they'll be here for you."
"This is crazy! I never win anything. You know what, I have a minute right now. So I'll be by shortly."
"O.k. we'll see you in a few minutes."
"Bye"

What in the world! I never win anything. BUT sure enough, my name gets entered into a draw that I had no idea was even happening and I win. Crazy. The stuff that I won is REALLY nice. It's all black and stainless steel...it fits in with all my other kitchen appliances perfectly.
Well, that was the major excitement for today. I'm still in shock!!!

My new Glasses

I bought some new glasses. The last pair of glasses that I bought was a good 6-7 years ago...so needless to say the prescription was quite off (I live in my contacts). I thought it was about time I give my eyes a break and get some glasses that I could wear. I love them. They're pink. The front part is dark pink color but the arms are light pink. It's hard to get used to glasses again. I was having some major flashbacks from Grade 6 when I got my first pair of glasses ever. Everything seems so different. My depth perception is WAY off. Everything seems slightly farther away than it really is. Strange. Also I'm not used to not being able to see off to the side without having to turn your head. With the glasses if I look off to the side without turning my head it's all a blur...with my contacts I can see everywhere. Jon and I are both a little messed up right now because we just picked up a pair of contacts for him. So we're both having opposite reactions. He put the contacts in and said that everything looks bigger, and he's very excited about the fact that he can look to the sides without moving his whole head. Anyways, I am loving the glasses, it's definitely going to take a little while to get used to them though. Here's a picture of them. You'll have to excuse the picture. Brielle wanted to take it for me. I think she did a pretty good job though.

Brielle

I just realized that it's been quite awhile since I posted a picture of my beautiful little Brielley girl...so here's an updated one.

Stupid Test

Our little Lovebug...

He finally let me catch him on my camera...enjoy.


Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Newspaper Article

Here's something that I read in the paper this afternoon. I thought it was pretty good, and all I have to say...is BOY do I agree!!!

I Thank My Mom For The Drugs!!
The other day, someone at a store in our city read that a methamphetamine lab had been found in an old farmhouse in the adjoining county and he asked me a rhetorical question, "Why didn't we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up?"
I replied: I had a drug problem when I was young: I was drug to church on Sunday morning. I was drug to church for weddings and funerals. I was drug to family reunions and community socials no matter the weather. I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults. I was drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher, or if I didn't put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me.
I was drug to the kitchen sink to have my mouth washed out with soap if I uttered a profane four-letter word. I was drug out to pull weeds in mom's garden and flower beds and cockleburs out of dad's fields. I was drug to the homes of family, friends, neighbours to help out some poor soul who had no one to mow the yard, repair the clothesline, or chop some firewood; and, if mother had ever known that I took a single dime as a tip for this kindness, she would have drug me back to the woodshed.
Those drugs are still in my veins; and they affect my behaviour in everything I do, say, and think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack, or heroin; and, if today's children had this kind of drug problem, Canada would be a better place.
Author unknown

Teachers...

I now have a new respect for all teachers. Yesterday Leanne and I went to Trinity Christian School to help Kelly with some stuff around her classroom. It wasn't hard work...but it was a lot of work. When I was in school I never realised how much work teachers actually do. No wonder it's said that teachers don't make enough money. It makes me feel like writing or calling all my teachers and letting them know just how much they are appreciated.
You're doing an amazing job Kelly. Your kids are lucky to have you as their teacher.

Hilarious Milk commercial

I saw this commercial years ago and have laughed about it since. I told many people about it and they had never seen it, so they thought I was crazy. Well...I found it on the internet and just had to share it with all of you. Enjoy!
Talk about incentive to drink milk...

Crazy Funny

Oh my goodness...this just makes me laugh everytime I watch it.
Enjoy everyone.

My Love Bug

Today I taught my little love bug how to say "I love you". He does actions with it and everything. It's oh so very cute. He points to his eye and says "I", then hugs himself and says "love"(athough it sounds more like ub) and points at me and says "you". Talk about melting my heart. He doesn't say much...but what he does say is pretty special.

People Suck!!!

OK. I know that not ALL people suck, but some people REALLY suck!!!
I got a phone call from Jon this morning at 7:30am. He wanted me to look up a phone number for him. Which isn't unusual, I'm often his human phone book. However, the number that he wanted was for his insurance guy. They arrived at work this morning to find the locks on their trailer cut open, the door wide open and a trail of some tools and such spilling out of the trailer. Needless to say, I have a page of tools that were stolen typed up (for the insurance company). To replace all these tools it's going to cost approx. $6000.00. People SUCK!!!
It wasn't that long ago that our truck was broken into as well. They couldn't get at the stereo because Jon installed it himself and he bolted it in from the back...haha. But they sure made a mess of our dash while trying. They also stole all our cd's (I hope they're listening to them...they're all christian ones), tools, bungee cords, canadian tire money :( (we had almost $100.00 of it), and some other random things. I say again...People Suck!!
Thank the Lord we had insurance. It's not going to completely cover everything, but it's certainly better than having none at all. Well, I've got some stuff to get done. I hope you all have a GREAT weekend.

Recipes

Ok. It's here at last. I'm sure there'll be some changes made to it in the near future, but feel free to check out the recipe blog. Recherche Cuisine If you don't know what that means...you'll have to check out the blog to find out :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

My little sister is turning 23 today!!!!!

Happy Birthday Kelly. I hope it's a good one.

Kelly,
When I posted this, Micah was sitting on my lap. He got a big grin on his face when he saw your picture, pointed at it, and said "Auntie" clear as a bell. So there you go...Happy Birthday from Micah too.

As kids see/hear it...

"Dear Lord," the preacher began with arms extended and a rapturous look on his upturned face, "without you we are but dust..." He would have continued, but at that moment one very obedient little girl (who was listening carefully) leaned over to her mother and asked quite audibly in her shrill little girl voice, "Mommy, WHAT is butt dust?"
Church was pretty much over at that point...

I got this in an e-mail and it made me laugh, I thought some of you might enjoy it as well. :)

Recipes....

Well, I have an idea (that's not really my own). Amanda and her friend Jen have a site dedicated to recipes called Amen Let's Eat I have had many people ask me for some of my recipes, so I thought it would be kinda fun to dedicate a blog to my recipes. Stephanie is going to do it with me. She has a lot of really good healthy recipes for all you health nuts...or wanna-be ones like me. Who think about it, and how you could benefit from it, but never actually do it. Unfortunately, all my good recipes are the exact opposite of what you probably should be eating.
Well, here's our dilemma. Neither of us are very creative. We'd like to have the name of the recipe blog be something creative and fun, but can't come up with anything on our own. PLEASE HELP!!! We'd like to know if you think this is a good idea, and if you can think of anything that we should call it. Your help will be GREATLY appreciated....let us know...

Delurk everyone...

Well, as I've been reading everyone's blogs I've come to realize that apparently it's "Delurking week". So, out of plain curiosity I'd like to know who all those out there that read my blog from time to time (even though it's not really all that entertaining) are. Even though the week is pretty much over, here it is...Delurk everyone. Let yourselves be known. :)

Attitude is everything...

I read this on a blog that I ventured onto through a friends blog. I thought it was really good and wanted to share it with all of you.

Attitude

There once was a woman who woke up one morning,
Looked in the mirror,
And noticed she had only three hairs on her head.
Well," she said, "I think I'll braid my hair today."
So she did And She Had A Wonderful Day.

The next day she woke up,
Looked in the mirror
And saw that she had only two hairs on her head.
"H-M-M," she said,
"I think I'll part my hair down the middle today."
So she did And She Had A Grand Day.

The next day she woke up,
Looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her head.
"Well," she said,
"today I'm going to wear my hair in a pony tail."
So she did And She Had A Fun, Fun Day.

The next day she woke up,
Looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn't a single hair on her head.
"YEA!" she exclaimed,
"I don't have to fix my hair today!"

Attitude is everything.

"Take Home Chef"

Tonight I went with my Mom and Kelly to a Women's Ministry event at the First Alliance Church in Calgary. It was pretty good. They did a kinda spoof of the TLC's "Take Home Chef". A chef (I forget his name) prepared a 4 course meal in front of us and then was auctioned off at the end. If your bid won he'd come to your house and prepare a meal for 2. Pretty cool. All the money from the bid is going to the Mustard Seed (A Shelter here in Calgary). I would have loved to have this Chef come to my house and prepare a meal for Jon and I...however the bidding went WAY beyond my budget for a meal. It went for......insert drum roll in your imagination as you read this.......Prepare your heart for this one......$1000.00. Crazy I know. But great as well. What a great donation for the mustard seed. Well, I'm off to bed. I have a rip roaring head ache. I'm a HUGE baby when it comes to getting head aches. I can actually count on one hand the amount of times that I've had a head ache. Which is why I'm such a big baby. I forget how much they hurt and just want to crawl into a comfy dark quiet hole and sleep the pounding, stabbing, acheyness away. I'm off to tend to my wounds...

Canadian Tire Money

Canadian Tire Money rocks! Just from using our Canadian Tire mastercard and buying gas at the Canadian Tire Gas bar we have $318.20 saved up!!! Crazy! We will soon have a big stainless steel barbeque bought all with Canadian Tire money. We've also bought 2 sets of 2 way radio's, a dvd player, rollerblades, Jon's big tool chest, the motormaster eliminator battery pack and tons of random things with Canadian tire money. All you people who throw Canadian tire money out when you get it, and laughed at us for saving it (Jennifer)...whose laughing now!!!

Happy New Year!

Well for all the stuff we've been up to lately. I have absolutely no pictures to post. We had a fun New Years. We went to a friends house and had fondue (oil, cheese, broth and white and dark chocolate to follow). It was really good. There were quite a few people there. Pretty much all we did was eat, visit and play games. Jon and I brought the kids along because we had already ditched them 2 nights in a row to go snowboarding (which I'm still hurting from). I didn't want to leave them with family or a sitter again, so they tagged along. Surprisingly enough, they stayed awake for the whole thing. I was prepared to put them to bed if they started to break down but they were completely content the whole evening/night. We didn't get home until 2am (yikes!), so they crashed as soon as their heads hit their pillows. We all had a great time.
I just got home from my parents house. We had a New Years dinner at their house with my Grandparents because they've been out of town since Dec. 20th or something. We ate a great feast and then again, played games. As you can tell, my family is big into the games. Well, I think I'm going to crash. I still haven't gotten caught up on my sleep from our day of snowboarding. Jon and I went snowboarding on Saturday with his Dad, brother, friend Ryan, My mom and my sister. It was a lot of fun, but all the preperation stuff was sort of last minute. We didn't end up getting to bed until 1:30am (Jon wasn't in bed until 2:30) and then getting up at 5:30am. Talk about being tired. Then to have New Years after that. I have a lot of sleep to catch up on. :) I hope you all had a GREAT Christmas and New Years.