2008 - A Year of Change

I'm just going to round out the old year with a thought or two of what has happened over this past year. This has definitely been a year of change not only for our family but many others I know. From jobs to families and health to almost every other aspect, 2008 has been a year to remember.

I know within our family the grandkids count has either doubled or tripled... depending on which side of the family you are talking about. My Brother-in-law and his wife were blessed with the birth of their first son Noah on Mother's Day weekend, and within 17 days of his birth he was facing what we hope will be known as the most serious days of the rest of his life, as he had open heart surgery, thankfully he has since recovered fully and is doing wonderfully well.

We were also blessed with the birth of our second son David days before his granddad's birthday in July and he has helped to brighten our days ever since.

I have made many new friends this year because of David and I am grateful for the new friends, and I look forward to the years ahead to learning more from all my friends, both new and not-so-new.

Many of my other friends have also had changes over the past year, some good and others not so good. Changes of jobs and job titles and again additions to the family, or family loss. Thankfully this year it seems there have been more additions than losses, but I have known many more years of loss than additions, so it all somewhat evens out in the end I suppose.

My new Year's wish to each and everyone of you reading this is for a year of peace and well-being and a year of growth in yourself and of those around you. I hope your ups be greater than your downs and gains out number your losses and for 2009 be better than 2008.

Take care my friends and I look forward to talking to you all again in the near future.

Merry Christmas!

Well, the hustle and bustle and wrapping paper flying has settled for now. Alun cleaned house on presents and David didn't do too badly either. Wow, who knew he would have such a plethora of gifts this year. I got the digital keychain photo holder I've been wanting since back in September, and again I didn't get my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, but I guess that is going to be one of those items I'll be wishing for for a few more years. I mean I've only been wanting it now for over 15 years, what's a few more right? Hopefully I'll have it before a full 20 goes by.

Daddy Alan got a compound mitre saw with laser guide, he's been wanting one of those now for a few years. David didn't get a whole lot of things, but he's young enough that he doesn't really need anything right now, he'll 'need' more later and we'll make sure Santa knows.

All in all things went very well for us this year, David is napping and we are trying to keep Alun out of all the wrapping paper and noisy toys while he naps.

With luck the weather will hold up and we will be able to go and visit the rest of the family tomorrow. Currently we are supposed to be getting snow in the morning and it changes to rain later in the day, Saturday going up to +11?!? can that be for real that is insane for this time of year but 25-35mm of rain goes with that... who cares it gets rid of all this snow!

Anyway, Alun wants me to play some games with him and I promised I would, I better get off the computer for a while.

Snow, snow and more snow

Today I didn't dare venture out, we had quite the snow storm today. I'm not sure how much snow we have as I write, but I do know that Alan went out a few times today to see with his tape measure how much we had and the last time I remember him saying we were almost 1 foot of snow in less than 24 hours. Alan used the snow blower yesterday morning while I had the boys at the early years centre for crafts and treats to occupy us so Alun wouldn't be trying to 'help' daddy and end up in the way, and possibly in the snow blower. As much as I would like to see Daddy Alan go to work tomorrow, as it would help on the pay cheque, I won't be able to snow blower with the boys in the house, and I most certainly won't snow blower with both of them outside with me either. I will need to have Alan home so that any snowblowering can be done safely and effectively. Maybe I'll get him to watch the boys while I play outside.

On a happy note, I've been wrapping a few presents every night and adding them to the presents under the tree, at this rate I MIGHT get everything wrapped in time for Christmas Eve Wednesday night. At last count I still had about 14 presents to wrap, but I did 3 tonight, so I SHOULD only have 11 more. Batman (a.k.a. Alun) over by the Christmas tree checking out the gifts.

8 of them are for 'the boys' so they are little more bulky, but the rest are quite small and should take no time at all. I just hope I can find enough time between now and Boxing day to get my mom's present completed, it's taking more yarn than I had originally planned on, I'm working on ball of yarn #2 right now and by the looks of it, it will take at least another 1/2 ball of yarn to complete. I was able to get almost 1 full ball of yarn crochetted while travelling last weekend, so with luck I can get to the point where I am ready to attach ball #3 and work on it while travelling for dinner with the rest of the family later this week.... if the weather co operates and we are actually able to drive. The weather network is calling for snow, rain, then snow again, then rain/snow mix then more rain over the up coming week. We are supposed to be playing peek-a-boo with the freezing point all week, some days we are above freezing for a few hours, and others are almost there but not quite. Rather annoying as we don't know if it will be safe enough for us with everyone else on the roads for us to venture out. I guess only time will really tell.
Time to get the coffee maker ready for tomorrow and to make sure that Alan's work clothes in the dryer are actually nice and dry for him tomorrow morning (if he goes to work)I would hate for his pants or sweater to still be slightly damp.

Santa Calus Parade

Well, tonight was the Santa Calus parade for our town, it was quite nice and the snow falling was a nice added bonus. Much better than the cold wind we had last year.
Alun fell asleep on the couch at 5:00 and David was sleeping by 6:30, so I left daddy in charge of watching the boys and I went out to see the parade myself.
I know Alun would have wanted to have seen the cement mixer 'dressed up' like rudolph. I snapped a picture on the cell phone and I'll see if I can transfer it over. It was neat.
Earlier today I had an Epicure party, and for 5 or 6 attendees I think it went over quite well. I have to collect 2 more orders before I find out if I had enough sales to qualify as a 'party' I hope I did, but I had fun having it over here regardless. Perhaps next time I can have it on a weekend that does seem to work for everyone.
Anyway, I have to get to bed while I can, Alun has been waking me through the night again lately, and then he wakes me super early in the morning.

Busy Week

It is thankfully coming to the end of what has been a very busy week. Everyday except Thursday the boys and I have had a parenting group to go to, Thursday we had Micha come to play while her mommy was having driving lessons (to drive a school bus). Then after parenting group today the boys and I drove to Collingwood to go see my girlfriend Sara, who also happens to be my former employer while I was working at the paint your own ceramics studio in Toronto about 5 years ago.
I painted 3 mugs and put David's foot prints on them, they are going to be Christmas presents for Daddy, Granddad (my father-in-law) and Ukki (my dad). Then while I was painting up the mugs Alun painted himself a mug too. This will be his hot chocolate mug once we get it after it has been glazed and fired. We had fun painting while we were there, just next time we'll have to make sure there isn't a snow squall in place over the area. I got to Sara's house shortly after 1pm and we left around 5pm; in those 4 hours the truck ended up getting covered in close to a foot of snow. The roads were terrible for about 20 km, then when I turned onto the county road towards Hanover about 5 minutes down the road the skies were clear and the roads were almost bare.
I had wanted to go to Owen Sound so that I could pick up the pictures I've been waiting for for quite some time from Sears, but with the weather the way it was, I wasn't about to risk our lives to get there. The snow was heavy enough that in places the visiblity was good if it was a few hundred meters.
Anyway, the boys are in bed after a long day of playing and driving, and I wanted to try and relax in a nice hot bath before the party light candle party tomorrow night. I have a kitchen and dinette to tidy and a guestroom to change the sheets and tidy up the room after Alun has been playing in there for the past month or 2 since I last tidied up.
I'll post pics of the finished glazed and fired cups when I get them, I forgot to bring our camera with us to take pictures during the painting process.

A Snowy day

This is part of the view that I awoke to this morning. This just happens to be the close-up of the lilacs along the driveway. If I would have realized that the snow was going to come the way it did, I would have maybe tidied up the backyard a little better. There are still several bags of leaves that need to be moved, I just hope they aren't frozen to the ground until spring.

Under that blanket of snow there is a truck... honest it was there yesterday.

I may have to find the manual for the snowblower sooner than I think, we have to change the auger before we are able to start using it, the auger is bent all to heck.

Here is a view from the dinette window of Alun's backyard play area complete with chairs for mommy to sit and watch while he plays. I forgot to put those away, I just hope they aren't frozen to the ground there. If they are, I don't think we'll be able to make Alun his ice rink, as it's sitting right in the middle of where it would be.

Well, time to go and tackle the driveway and front sidewalk, the postal worker has already delivered the mail, so I should at least make it look like I tried to move the snow in case it stays for tomorrow.

What a mess

Well, If hubby was trying to find a good excuse to have me clean-up my half of the 'junk' in the basement he has found it. This morning I was feeding David and next thing I know all I hear from the basement was "KATHIE !! GET DOWN HERE NOW!!"
When I am called like that it means 1 of 2 things, we need to get to the hospital STAT (I love using that term.) or it's going to cost us time and/or money.
Well it didn't mean a trip to the hospital, but it did mean that I had to find a spot to put David, clear the way to the main valve for the water to the house and turn off the water to the house. That was at around noon, it is now almost 10pm and the water is still turned off.
Alan had decided he wanted to get rid of some redundant piping, as it was making a mess of the new ducting work we had done for the cold air return last weekend. He cut 1 pipe and got rid of it, great! He did it to another pipe, but the valve was stuck open and with all the calcium and lime in the water over time had 'gummed' it up so it didn't close all the way. He was cutting the pipe and next thing he knows he is getting his second shower for the day.
After 2 trips to the hardware store, turns out we are going to have to try and get the piping so that we can get to some threads (as it's galvanized steel piping) and then add a cap to it. We have all the necessary parts, now we just have to get the joints to decide to loosen for us so we can cap them off.
I think we are going to try and do that tomorrow morning, because we need to have this fixed before Monday, or Alan won't be able to have a shower after work without there being a leak in the basement.
Anyway, with luck we will get it fixed up, and not leaking before the end of the weekend, then I can think about getting other projects done. I'm going to go downstairs for a few minutes to move some boxes so we can work on it tomorrow, then I'm going to bed.
If the snow keeps up Alun will be in heaven tomorrow and I'll have to find some snowpants... supposedly we are going to be making 2 giant snowmen and we'll be needing big carrots for the noses.

Baby show goodies

Wow what a haul from the baby show in Toronto. I went down to visit my mom in Toronto with the boys, the baby show 'just happened to be on' at the same time and we all went to it.

By the time we were done at the baby show we had a stroller full of stuff. We had to take everything out of the stroller and repack it all before we were able to leave the convention centre. We got formula by the case, boxes of baby cereal, samples by the bag full, it was great! I have an inventory of everything I got I plan to go out to the store and find out how much everything is worth and seeing how much I actually got, I'm guessing between $150-$250 in retail value.

Also over the weekend we went to Ikea, I have a few ideas now for what I would like to do for Xmas gifts, now it's just a matter of implementing them, thankfully I already have most of the needed items for the ideas.

The only other thing that happened over the weekend was that we went to Fabricland, I have about 6 or 7 meters of fabric that I plan to make into potholders for the Xmas bazaar coming up at the end of the month. I just have to get the pattern out, replace the needle in my serger and cut my materials. I should be able to get a whole bunch done in little time if I can get myself about an hour of time to myself. Maybe I'll get my things out in a few minutes and get started.

Watch out here comes the 'Baby Mafia' walking group

If you are out and about in the early afternoon in Hanover... watch out, you may be surrounded by 'The Baby Mafia' if you aren't careful. Some of  the moms that attend some of the parenting groups at the Hanover Early Years Center have decided we need to get out and about, and maybe even shed a few pounds that are hanging on from pregnancy.  At least with this mafia you only have to worry about some spit-up, maybe a wet or dirty diaper and the occasional cry and lots of sleeping.

Here is out 'Gang' of little rebels... as you can see they are quite an active bunch.

This is a picture of all the moms and babes taken by my Alun, he quite the photographer for a 3 1/2 year old isn't he? From Left to Right... Ang and Carter, Sara and Connor, Kathie (me) and David, Jess and Kane, Iyanna and Erin.

We had a nice walk and then decided to go to the park and take some pictures... Here are some of the pictures we were able to capture.

I'm not sure how walking with strollers will go for the winter, but we will certainly be trying to get out and about twice a week from now on until conditions don't allow it.

Happy Halloween for all

Wow what a Halloween we had. David had his baby group halloween party on Wednesday, and we had another halloween party on Friday, I'm not sure if Friday was more for the mom's or the kids. I was having so much fun at the Friday party I forgot to take pictures, so I only ended up taking 1 of David at the end for the whole time. (I finally figured out how to add pictures, so this posting might end up with quite a few of them)

Then Friday night we went around the neighborhood and did the trick or treating thing. I bundled up David and put him in the snuggly, he slept most of the night, and Alun and I walked about 7 blocks worth of walking and brought home a large grocery bag full of candy and chips. 

Alun was trying to sneak a chocolate ball during this picture. As soon as I snapped this picture I quickly sorted through his candy and only found 3 candies that the wrapper had torn a little, probably just from being jostled about while in the bag, or during the sorting process. I threw them out anyway, just in case.

Of course, no halloween would be complete without a drive to visit some friends, so we went to Peggy's house and of course we were invited in and next thing I know we ended up visiting for about a hour and a half. It was nice, Alun got to play with Caitlynn and Megan then David and I visited with Peggy and Dennis.

We finally got home just before 10:00 last night, Alun was able to stay up almost 3 hours past his bedtime. Other than a 3am wake-up he slept in until almost 8:30. Quite a feat for this house.

Well off to make some breakfast so then a candy or 2 can be eaten afterwards.

Room change around

Yesterday hubby had the day off, he worked all weekend, and then was only at the job site for a few hours as it was bucketing rain... we got over 30mm in 24 hours (that's almost 1 1/4 inches).

Anyway, since he had the day off we were trying to figure out how we could encourage Alun to pick-up his toys, so instead of that we thought if we move the toy room, it wouldn't matter so much. Therefore the toy room and computer area got switched around.

Now if I'm at the computer and both boys are sleeping... (I can wish can't I?) I can hear if one wakes up and needs mommy, or wakes up and is on his way to 'go work' in the drywall upstairs just outside his bedroom. Whereas where the computer area was, I'd be lucky to hear anything other than the thud of Alun jumping off his bed.

Now I also don't have to worry about stumbling over toys on the way to the dining room with dinner in my hands.

I wish we would have thought of this idea before!

Well I have to go and work on Alun's trick or treat bag so with luck I can have it done in time for Friday... if I'm really good I might get it done in time for tomorrow when we go to baby group, with the halloween party there.

A trying week

Well, this week has been trying in more ways than one.... but thankfully it is nearly over.

Wednesday morning Alun had an appointment at Guelph General Hospital to have his nose cauterized. I ended up waking up at 4am, woke and fed David and then woke Alun to get all of us on our way by minutes before 5:00. I had my girlfriend Rachel come with us so that she could help me with watching the boys, and that was such a great help.

We arrived at the hospital at 6:24, got through admissions and to the pediatric day surgery unit with plenty of time to spare. After playing with the toys for a little while we were escorted to the pediatric pre-op waiting room where Alun again was able to play with some more toys. After a brief consult with the day surgery nurse and anesthesiologist and a little more waiting Alun rode off on a tricycle to the operating room with the nurse right behind him.

Rachel, David and I went out the the day surgery waiting area to await word that Alun was in the recovery room, which really didn't take that long. Once the Dr came out to say everything was done it only took about 5 minutes until I was going in to see Alun in recovery as he was waking... screaming and crying as I was afraid would happen.

Alun was a grumpy little bear, but after having something like that done, I'm sure if I was his age I might have done something similar.

We were brought back to the pediatric day surgery unit where he was observed until about 10:30 and we were able to leave the hospital just before 11:00.

After we left we all trucked our way to the closest toy store where Alun picked out "Rushhour Jr." as his good boy treat. The ride home was something else... he was obviously under the effects of the anesthetic still as he slept and woke several times during the drive home. When he was awake he was grumpy and crying... it drove me nuts! I wish he would have slept more.

When we finally arrived home I gave him his second dose of tylenol (the nurses gave him the first while still at the hospital) and then had him lay down for a nap.

David and I joined him and at 3:30 Alun woke me with a start, jumping on me, and then afterwards he was his usual busy body self.

Thursday he was his usual busy self, but today he was back to the grumpy bear he had been on the way back from the hospital. Oh my what a day it was with his grumpiness. Perhaps tomorrow he will be back to normal again, I would really like that. I don't think I could handle another grumpy day in such a short time.

Tag - 6 quirks about me

I was just a another website and the owner had this challenge and I thought it would be really cool to take. Therefore here are 6 random things/quirks about myself.

1. I can knit but I can't purl for the life of me. I know purling is reverse knitting and I've had numerous people show me, but as soon as I stop it's gone...yes, all knowledge of purling seises to exists as soon as I stop doing it, it's like short term memory loss only regarding purling.

2. I hate cleaning my kitchen. I will clean the rest of my house from top to bottom if I could but I hate to clean my kitchen. We even got me a dishwasher so that it would help, but somehow for whatever reason I hate to clean my kitchen. I love to cook and bake and can spend hours in there, but not if it deals with cleaning it other than vacuuming or mopping the floor.

3. I love having long hair, but I want to have it up all the time. I seem to like having my hair up, maybe it's the brushing involved with putting it up, as I LOVE to have my hair brushed. Some nights I'll ask hubby to brush my hair, for me it's almost like foreplay to get my hair brushed. I know strange... but this is a list of my 6 quirks right?!?

4. I sneeze when I wake up. I'm sure that's how my parents knew I woke up in the morning or from a nap when I was a child. I joke with hubby and tell him I'm allergic to mornings because of it.

5. I don't like cream or milk in my coffee unless it's flavoured creamer. Maybe it's just the fact that it's flavoured that works for me, but I found out the other day I really really don't like having regular dairy product in my coffee.

6. I don't like egg salad. I like eggs, mmm one of my favorite things for breakfast, and I like mayo, as long as whatever it is isn't slathered with it, but don't even think about putting the 2 together. Yes, I know mayo is made with eggs, that's why I don't understand why I don't like egg salad, but I don't.

If you'd like to take up the challenge and share 6 random things about yourself then consider yourself tagged.

Here are the rules if you want to play by them

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website

what the ???

Well things were going well today, but then tonight after hubby and I were about to get ready for bed and I remember I needed to make some 'dip-dip' for Alun's apple slices for tomorrow. He really enjoys having special mommy treat with his apple in the mornings. Then hubby and I started talking about how he wishes that Alun wouldn't correct him with his pronunciations as some words he says with a British accent, then we started to talk about how we want him to start pronouncing words... either the Canadian or British ways. Well after about 10-15 minutes of debating I'm being told that the Canadian way of pronouncing things is the idiots way of speaking. I can't think of any other way of deciphering this than to think I am being called an idiot but in an indirect way. Well, looks like hubby and I have no had our first fight. It only took 12 years of marriage and 2 kids to get here, if he would have apologized for having made it sound like he was saying "speaking 'Canadian' makes you sound like an idiot" I'm sure I wouldn't be here writing this out and him being out to get a pack of smokes. Some times he is so much like his astrology sign and Chinese horoscope animal it's crazy.... a Taurus born in the year of the Ox.

Time to go and get ready for bed, maybe I'll sleep upstairs tonight.

Apple picking today

Wow, what a day! We had so much fun today visiting Nana and Granddad, and having Uncle Keith, Aunt Aislinn and cousin Noah there too. After a nice lunch we went to the orchard to get some apples. We filled a basket, and had fun doing it too. 

After not finding many red apples we went to where the golden delicious were and we were able to fill our basket in no time at all.

Almost everyone ate at least 1 apple, I know I had 2 for sure, as Alun tasted 1 of the 4 red apples and he didn't like it so mommy ended up eating it, then I had to taste test a golden as well... oh so crisp and juicy, I'm glad we got a lot of those.

Alun was checking out all the pumpkins there as well, but at $5 each, they stayed there, especially when they are $2 each at the grocery store.

Everyone seemed to have fun, and since it's a new family tradition to go apple picking around thanksgiving, it's also a healthy one.... fresh air, walking, and healthy food and a good excuse to get the family together.

Thanksgiving

Well, I have to say, I had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. We all jumped into the truck and drove to Toronto to my mom's and visited with her for little while before we went to my brother in law and sister in law's condo for turkey. Keith was an excellent cook, and prepared a wonderful meal. I was thankful my pants were as tight as they were or I would have eaten too much for sure.

I also received late birthday presents, and wow did I ever get spoiled. My mom had given me yarn, yarn and more yarn... 15 balls to be exact. My brother in law and sister in law got me a beautiful beaded silk box, I think it's for jewelry, regardless, it's so nice, I just have to find a nice place to put it.

I also got a few other things from my mom, but I can't remember what was from her and what was from other family members from Finland when she went to visit, once I get them all figured out I'll list them all here... everything I got yesterday so nice, I would hate to not mention it all.

Well, time to run and check on David again, he sleeps so well it scares me.

Whatever the weather be...

Last night we went out to our local Canadian Tire and bought ourselves a weather station. After several tries of getting it going it did finally after the 4th time of taking out the batteries and putting them back in, it did work. It's neat that we have our own mini weather station in our back yard, I'm still waiting for the wind measuring thingey to start spinning like crazy, but I guess that will happen soon enough when the snow starts to fall horizontally, but I won't be near brave enough to think about going outside to see it spin.

This weather station even tells you the recent history so this morning when I finally got out of bed I was able to find out that it went down to 2.6 degrees C overnight, then today it went up to a high of 27.8 degrees C.

Well that's enough about the weather; I got to work on and finished a small baby blanket today for an exchange partner in one of the crochet forums I'm in. Her grandson was born 2 weeks ago and was in the NICU until recently, so I couldn't help myself and made the little one a small colourful 'blankie'. That will be in the mail to her on Tuesday, after "turkey day" in Toronto at 'baby Noah's' house, otherwise known as my brother in law and sister in law's place.

I'm not sure what crochet project I'll take with me on the way to Toronto, probably the Cozy Corner Crocheters CAL afghan I've been trying to work on, but haven't touched since our last trip to Toronto, and with luck I'll get to work on it next weekend when we go apple picking in Hamilton at hubby's parents' place.

Well, I suppose I should get ready for bed, David went to bed at 7 tonight, and he might want a feeding through the night tonight.

Coffee?!?

Well, here I am blogging again, last night my lovely 3 1/2 year old Alun decided that sleep was going out of style so he kept waking me up. Needless to say, I am a walking disaster today, I'm glad I set-up the coffee maker to make 8 cups for today instead of the usual 6 cups, that way I can get more than just my usual small cup of coffee.

On a happy note, Alun is now potty training and only had 2 accidents all day yesterday, both in the morning while we weren't at home, we were at one of my parenting groups and he had one there and the other was on the way home. Who knows, by the end of next week we could be almost trained. As long as he is daytime trained before we go register him for school next month, I will be happy. He doesn't actually have to be trained until before he goes to school, but I would like him to be. Especially when I keep hearing about how when I was growing up... or when hubby was growing up...

Well, I'm not being let type at all, I keep having to fend off my computer from some certain someone wanting to play the Thomas game, at least he isn't asking for his Lightning McQueen game, I'm sick of that one right now.

Let there be light

Today the 4 of us went to the hardware store, hubby's parents gave us a gift certificate for Rona, a store we don't particularly like to go to unless we have to, and after looking around for quite a while we decided to change the light at the top of the stairs, we got a really nice 3 light halogen fixture and the bulbs too. When we got home hubby installed it and wow! I never realized how bad the lighting in the stairway was before that. A few hours later after I had a nap and little Al had part of a nap, we went to the 'Handy Home Store' (as little Al calls it) and looked at the lights they had there, we prefer going to Home Hardware as the staff there are more competent and don't seem to want to be helping out of the store.

Anyway, we went to the store and found 2 light fixtures for the kitchen, another 3 bulb fixture for the centre of the room and a single bulb fixture for task lighting above the sink. When we got home I took the boys to the grocery store while daddy stayed home and installed the lighting. Wow, now we have light towards the side door, we have wanted to buy a light for over there for a while, now we don't have to, and now is it bright in the kitchen too. I'm going to have to keep my kitchen more tidy because you can actually see in there decently, so you'll be able to see any mess in there now.

I should go tidy up the kitchen, I haven't properly cleaned up since Alun and I made rice krispie squares, there were rice krispies on the floor, unless Amber has helped clean that up for us.

Another posting

I don't have much to say today, but I wanted to post, just because I can.

I have however finished 2 crochet projects since my last posting, so I am happy about that.

I completed David's 'mommy made blanket' and a toilet tissue cover for a CAL (Crochet-A-Long) at cozy corners crocheters.

My mom found out there is going to be a craft sale Nov 28th at the Agricola Finnish Lutheran Church in Toronto. Mom is custodian there and as part of her wages she has a 2 bedroom apartment on the second floor. This year we would be able to have a great table as she would be able to 'reserve' our table either while she is helping to set-up the tables (if she does that) or shortly thereafter. I think I may have to try and get a few things made up for the sale, just to figure out what might sell this year... it seems that whatever I make doesn't go very well, I get no one really appreciates homemade gifts anymore.

My mom suggested since glow-in-the-dark yarn is the newest thing, perhaps making snowflakes out of it might go well, I also have an easy pattern for a star, so I'll make some of those too. I got a nice stash of glow-in-the-dark yarn when Zeller's first got it in, they didn't even have the upc in the system yet, someone in the yarn sept had to give out a different upc to use and gave a price of $1.59 a ball. I had paid $5.00 a ball at the Bernat yarn factory outlet in Listowel a few days before. I bought 12 balls at Zeller's, I should have bought more... oh well.

Wow, looks like I had quite a bit to say after all.

Time to go and crochet while I can, both boys are napping and I've had too much coffee this morning to nap myself... Time to find my snowflake patterns.

Cool idea!

This link was posted at the group "the_gathering_room"

http://mypeoplepc.com/members/lpn1993/Lori/id9.html

What a cool idea and great way to recycle pop bottles and 

use them in crochet!

Happy Birthday to me....

Well, it's my first posting and also my birthday, I know, I know... What am I doing starting a blog on my birthday, but I figure this way this is the gift that keeps on giving... in a way.

Dinner with hubby and my 2 boys that was about the sum total of excitement for my day.

I've gotten a few cards and a wonderful package from the birthday club at CozyCornerCrocheters full of yarn, a photo tote bag and a really fun card.

I know I'm getting older, and I appreciate that but it's almost 9pm and I haven't heard from my dad today and I'm bummed out about that, he usually calls every other night. My mom called me at minutes after 9am and I've had friends call throughout the day, and I've had countless e-mails for which I am thankful for, I just hope I get a call from my dad soon.

On a happy note my youngest who is 10 weeks old smiled at me for the first time today, the best birthday present he could have given me.

Well, time to head off and watch a little tv, Criminal Minds is on, and then turn in for bed.