feeling swamped.

so much to do...

i'm finding school overwhelming right now and i'm quickly losing my desire to keep up. my classroom is a mess and my teaching is kinda chaotic right now. sept is over now, thank goodness, but that means reports are just around the corner. ack.

so busy. wish i had more time. i've had a few people email me, desperate for help, advice, recipes for South Beach Diet and i just wish i had more time to be a better mentor or support person. i know how hard the diet can be in the first few weeks and i want to help people be successful. i'm trying, i'm really trying.

i've got a big wedding cake this week to do. i had to turn down a birthday cake, which i hate doing, but i don't want to feel more swamped than i do right now. i'm excited about the wedding cake though. there's just something about being a part of someone's special day.

we put an offer in on a house. ack. not sure i am ready for this move. i like a lot of things about this house we're in now. if/when we move, it'll be our 5th house in 5 years. i remember when i got married, i said i wouldn't move often. ha ha.

ate a whole lot of Chinese food tonight with some great friend. I almost needed stretchy pants. so good, but so bad, all at the same time.

not sure what else to say. Chelsea is so much fun right now. i miss her like crazy during the day and then when i pick her up from daycare, she's pretty cranky towards me. not fun.

i'm going to bed early tonight. you should too.

Hey - an owl is an owl, right?

So a while ago, my dear friend H. blogged about these cute little owl salt and pepper shakers that she wanted.

Because her birthday was coming up, and being the nice person that I am, I decided to buy them for her. Great. Good times.

A week later, the parcel arrives and I eagerly open it up - excited to see those cute little guys.

Imagine my dismay when I see these hoots instead.

Hmm... a few things came to mind.
A. They aren't salt and pepper shakers.

B. They aren't tiny and green.

C. Hello - UGLY.

Quickly I double check my invoice. I place the big ugly owls next to the picture of the cute little owls. I'm right. They are wrong.

I send emails to this person, only to be told that they sent my shakers to someone else, but I was welcome to keep these owls in exchange. "An owl is an owl" I was told.

Ew. I was refunded my money and then, to my surprise, a few days later my cute S&P shakers do show up! I was excited.

Of course, I did give H. the ugly owls as a gag gift, and didn't say anything about it being a joke, so all morning H. thought I had picked out these owls as a gift to her. I think she was quite relieved when she opened the real owls and discovered the first ones were a joke.

Happy birthday, friend. I hope you had a great day.

quick quick!

Update on clown nose. It looks way worse today because it's starting to scab over. I'm using a combination of vitamin E oil and shea butter.

Also, have I mentioned my love of pembinavalleyonline lately? On Thursday morning, when Chris went in to get Chelsea, she had one leg over the side of the crib - don't ask me how, but she did. So we decided we needed to buy a bed. A few phone calls later, I had an appointment to go look at a bed. Loved it, bought it, sent Chris to go pick it up. I'll post better pics once we put it together and get some bedding, but look at this awesome bed (and mattress)!

Guess how much I paid??

$50. Yup. LOVE it.

Clown nose

When we picked up C from daycare, we quickly learned that she had a mishap with the stairs and well, the stairs won.

I'm a little nervous about the large rug burn on her nose and I'm praying there's no scar. Her cute little nose will just be more prominent for the next little while.

Pure joy

Chelsea discovered she could spray herself with the water bottle. She was laughing so hard everytime she got sprayed in the face. If you click on the photo to make it bigger, you can really see just how wet she is.

Love her so much!

long week

Chelsea saying, "Hi!"

I haven't posted in a long time, I know. It's been the worst week I've ever had in a long time. Worst. Makes me question going back to work. Chelsea loves her daycare, but I don't like my work. It's a good thing there are a few nice people there who convince me not to quit. I was so close to resigning, it wasn't funny.

On to other things. I've got some cool cakes for this Friday, so stay tuned for that. I'm really excited about making them.

Hmmm... what else? Chelsea is too cute for words. I put her hair in an honest-to-goodness ponytail today, not in a fountain. It was cute, but made her look so grown up I had to take it out. lol. Where has my baby gone??

That's all the time I have for the moment. Maybe I'll post again soon if I have something more positive to report.

$$!!!

I don't usually complain about the price of gas. I can't really shop around and I can't really drive much less than I do. Plus I drive a big vehicle, so really, it's my own fault.

However, I will complain that the price of icing sugar this week jumped from $1.99 to $2.58! Hokey smokey! Aren't there laws governing this type of increase?? I charge so little for my cakes - that is definitely going to hurt!

The price of icing sugar is going to put a serious dent in my wallet.

For Aunty Jen and Grandma

Her newest thing is, "Up-ee, up-ee!" I repeat, "Up, please." I'm wondering if "up-ee" came from daycare!

Bed-head, eating some breakfast cereal. Mommy gave me bangs!

Running around the yard, chasing Maggie.

Now, you two, come for a visit, already!

Diet gone to h-e- double hockey sticks

Chris brought back some peanut butter from Hell's Kitchen in Minneapolis. I had avoided eating it until now because the third and fourth ingredients are brown sugar and honey. However, I was out of my regular organic peanut butter, so I figured one tablespoon couldn't hurt.

It was amazing. AMAZING. I've eaten a whole jar like this in 3 days. 3 days. I'm only allowed 2T of peanut butter a day and I blew that. Also, not allowed sugar and this jar doesn't have nutritional information listed on it, but I'm willing to bet it is pumped full of sugar and that's why it was sooooo good. Soooo good. I'm seriously going to dream of this peanut butter tonight. Yum.

missing out

I miss being a stay at home mom. Working all day is tiring and my heart just isn't in it. I've got a good (talkative) bunch of kids and I love working with my collegues again, I just miss being home with C. I miss the freedom of hanging out with friends. I miss making supper in a relaxed atmosphere. I miss so much of C's day it hurts.

I really miss just hangin' by the kiddie pool, getting some sun, laughing with the best girls and watching the cutest kids.

That's right boys and girls....

Yup.

We finally did it.

For the first time since oh, I'd say January 2nd or so, we finally did it.

That's right.

I'm pretty proud of myself. The other car will never fit, but at least mine will be kept warm in the winter! :D

Parade of Pictures...

Forgot to post these. We went to Morden's Corn and Apple parade with some good friends. I was craving a good parade (and no - GP's doesn't count). It was cold, so we all snuggled up.

Here's the three kiddies, Ari, Noah and Chelsea in the back. They were very intent watching the parade.

However, if you look closer, it looks like Noah is just ticked right off, but when I saw the picture, I think Chels is more ticked than Noah! Look at that face!

And although we felt a little ripped off sitting at the end of the parade because a lot of people had already thrown out all their goodies, we did manage to grab some candy and a whole whack of post-it notes.

All in all, good times were had. Until C had a meltdown from missing her morning nap and we had to leave before actually going into the C&A fest. Oh well, there's always next year.

Fashion show

This post is courtesy of my mom who took pity on my ill-fitting wardrobe and sent me some back to school money for clothes.

Thanks mom!

Oh and this also shows why I would never try out for ANTM. Same pose, every time!

first day back at school.

good group of kids. should be a good year.
oh, but they are stinky already. stinky stinky grade 6s. had the deodorant talk today and it's only the first day of school. sigh. that might make for a long year. Glade plug ins, here we come.


too tired to think straight.
g'night.

How much is that Doggie in the window?

I love blogging, and check so often during the day to see who has updated and I must say, you guys need to update more!

However, I know the pendulum swings two ways and so I try to update often too. Not much interesting has been going on lately just getting ready to go back to work. Rather than blogging about that not so happy event, I will leave you with an interesting saga that continues in my household.

I was given a ceramic dog statue for my birthday. The thought was sweet, but it really wasn't suited to my house decor. However, my beautiful daughter fell in love with it and would carry it around, kiss it and share her "soo" with it. Despite my efforts (a few times) to share the love and pass the dog onto a more loving family, he returned (even into my bed). Well, the other day, C took Doggie outside and well, silly neglectful me, forgot to bring him back inside. I was absolutely devasted to come outside in the morning and discover that Doggie had a boo-boo.

Upon closer inspection, we determined perhaps it was time to put Doggie down.

I was sad, yes, but deep down I knew that Doggie would be much happier in a field chasing bunnies in imaginary Doggie heaven.

However, my husband would have none of that. He knew Chelsea loved this Doggie so much and couldn't bear to put her through the pain of losing her friend. It truly was Daddy (and ducktape) to the rescue.

He had some help, of course.

And, you know, maybe Daddy was right. This girl had to smile when she saw her Doggie wearing his new jacket.

However, I'm still convinced that perhaps this isn't the best home for Doggie. We're still searching for Doggie's true home, perhaps a home with little boys to play with. Boys and dogs go hand in hand...