I'll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween. ~Author Unknown

Couldn't help myself on that quote! LOL! It was too funny! Here is my Goulish crew before heading out for some Halloween fun... Donovan was a pretty tall, scary Vampire, Willy was a clown gone bad, Kirby was the Cat in the Hat, Devin was a devil and Dakota was an angel. Devin opted out of trick or treating, and stayed home with her dad to give out treats. She never was really into the whole trick or treating scene. I took the rest of the kids to town, and we went to Esthers. There, the kids left us and headed out on their own. The very first time Dakota ever went out without me! But she had the three boys with her, so it was okay! When they were done, we headed down to watch the awesome fireworks... what a beautiful way to end an awesome evening! We only had about 25 kids at our door this year... the joys of living on an acreage! The weather cooperated, no snow and the temperature hovered right around freezing... couldn't have asked for much more than that!

Tomorrow is going to be a crazy day... Blaine is back to dayshift, so that means all the driving is up to me. Dylan has a hockey game, Donovan has work, I have my digital portrait class... and then I have to pick up in the reverse order on the way home... sigh! It's going to be a long day tomorrow! So I guess I should hit the hay early! Yeah right!

Hope everyone had a happy and safe halloween where ever you were! I'll leave you with the scene from my front door tonight... Pumpkins Come and Pumpkins Go
But a Jack-O-lantern steals the show!

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. ~Lao Tzu

How about those words to live by? My life seems to be nothing but hurrying and being run off my feet! Thankfully, I have a great support system to help out in a pinch! I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with hockey fundraising at the moment. We were supposed to have a weekend off with ticket selling, which in itself isn't a big deal, but now we've got about 25 cords of firewood to be delivered, and prior commitments be damned... okay, just venting! I'm better now!

Nana and Papa left this morning after being here for the weekend. We haven't had a visit since September, so it was nice to have them! Holly and Heidi (Nana's dogs) love my cat Keni, so they had a good time chasing him around. Keni layed a beating on Holly at one point, and Holly can't seem to tell the difference between Keni who likes the dogs and Koska, who doesn't! So McTuff and Holly had their usual dominance squabbles, and Heidi napped with me on Sunday. We had breakfast at Denny's this morning before they left and before I had to go to work. It was nice to have some time to ourselves! :o)

The girls had Irish dance today. Auntie Kelly graciously picked them up and dropped them off... so nice for me as I didn't have to drive into town again today! It is such a blessing to have her in my life! :o)

Everyone is getting ready for Halloween... our pumpkins are carved, the candy is bought and the kids have their costumes ready to go... I think! I know the girls are covered, and the boys can look after themselves! I think they're too old to go out trick or treating, but hey, I did it at their age, so who am I to be talking?

Willy was pretty tired this morning after his hockey weekend. He's in bed early tonight as he's got 6am practice tomorrow... thankfully, Blaine is home to do it! I am so not into driving in at 5am on Tuesday mornings when I still have to go work! Ugh! Donovan and Devin are up to their armpits in homework, Dakota is watching TV with Kirby and Blaine, and I am waiting for Hero's to come on at 9pm. Then for some strange reason, they've moved Friday Night Lights to Monday from Tuesday... so I gotta watch that too...

I got a Circle Journal in the mail today. Mine should be home in the next day or two! Yipee! It's been gone almost a year and a half and I can't wait to have it back all finished and in my hot little hands! I'll post pictures of it done when it arrives. I know, I know, I'm supposed to post pictures of my CD tin too, but it's not finished yet! I'm hoping this week(end)!

There's been lots of babies being born around us lately! The Longs welcomed a precious little girl, Draya, Mike and Kim welcomed Cole Nicholas, and we're waiting to hear from Denise from my work on her new bundle, who is due anytime now! And then next month, our other friends are expecting baby number 8... and it's a boy! We know that much already! I'll be surrounded by that intoxicating baby smell! LOL! Good thing I'll have lots of babies to sniggle! :o) Congrats to all!

Okay, I'm off to change into my jammies and get ready to veg in front of the boob tube! Nighty night!

Hockey Updates from Kelowna....

I guess the boys just weren't on their game last night. We lost to Kelowna 8-0! Yikes! But they turned it around this morning, and won the game against Port Moody 8-2! Willy scored two goals and his line scored four of the goals! Great going guys! They play again tonight at 8pm. Thanks to Uncle Terry for emailing me with updates and for going and watching him play! He sure appreciates having someone on the bench cheering for him, especially when mom's not there! :o)

I'll update again later tonight!

Updated: The boys won 8-5 against South Delta tonight. They play in the semi-finals tomorrow at 8:15am. Will post again tomorrow! Go Cougars Go!

Last update: The boys lost the semi's to Langley 7-2. Dylan got was involved in both goals, with one goal and one assist. Uncle Terry managed to watch all his games, and it was great to know he had someone there cheering for him! Thanks Unc! :o)

Winter is nature's way of saying, "Up yours." ~Robert Byrne

Sooo... we woke up to that darned rain/snow again today. I hate when it gets all slushy on the roads and people still like drive like it's nice and dry outside. We had numerous accidents around the PG area today... the highway was closed west of us, the bridge going out east was shut down because someone rolled over when they lost control in the slush. Luckily, we're home safe and sound and we had no issues! Blaine is switching the tires over tomorrow and putting on my studded tires for the van. I feel so much safer when they're on, especially on icy roads.

We got in a new fish and ten snails for the upstairs tank today... An orange spotted sleeper goby: he sifts the sands through his gills to clean it and get the food, and we also got ten pyramid snails.
We're slowly working our way up to getting some soft corals and anemones in the tank, then we'll add a couple of clown fish and then get into the tangs, a blue regal and yellow tang. They're so showy and fun to watch!

Dylan is down in Kelowna for a hockey tournament. They should be arriving anytime now. Great Uncle Terry and Great Aunt Doris are going to go and watch the game tonight... I just wish I was there to visit with them too! Boo Hoo! Dylan will call after the game tonight, so I'll post results then.

Donovan is working at the Cougars game tonight. They're playing the Saskatoon Blades. I'll have to go in and pick him up later.

The rest of us are just veggin' out at home... FINALLY! Mom and Dad are coming up tomorrow so we can go to the UNBC Craft fair on Sunday. Hopefully the roads are good for them and it's not bad of a drive. I guess we'll do some housework tomorrow afternoon and do some laundry.

I should run and make some dinner. Everyone is hovering, which means, they're hungry! LOL! I'll update later tonight!

I think a photography class should be a requirement in all educational programs because it makes you ~see~ the world rather than just look at it...

Had my first digital portrait photography class tonight. Didn't learn too much yet, but did have a few important things clarified, like really understanding the aperture and shutter speed. A lot of what happens when I photograph things is fluky... it just works. I fumble around guessing, and most times, get a decent proof. I don't want to fumble anymore, I want to be confident in my abilities and know that I ~know~ what I am doing! So, I can't wait for next weeks' class when we actually start playing around and learning! I'm all for that!

It's a very windy night tonight! I think we have gusts up to 70kmph... which, coming from Hinton, really isn't that windy! But after not having lived in the wind for the last four years, I forgot how nerve racking it can be! And I forgot how uncomfortable Willy is with the wind... when he was a little guy, he would come and crawl into bed with us when it got windy (which could be for days on end!) and I miss that! We even had to be conscious of where his room was in the house so it was in the "least" windy spot so he could sleep through the night without fear... gone are those days! But you know, I wouldn't mind a sniggle in our bed on a windy night from my boy... sigh! We had rain/snow falling this morning, but it was all over by about 11am... let's hope it stays away for another month or so!

Blaine came home from work last night with some pretty cool news... One of the guys at his work, has a 1969 Triumph to be restored for sale... it's a two seater and convertible! Can you say "Dream car"??? It runs and has "everything" but needs lots of TLC over the next few years... and what a project for Blaine and the boys to work on! Here's a picture of what we hope it will look like when it's done... candy apple red and all! So we have to arrange for it to be loaded onto a flat deck tow truck this weekend and brought out here to our house! I'm so glad that Blaine has his autobody background, because I think it's going to be such a cool project, and the fact that he can do most of the work himself is going to be awesome! I may even get my hands dirty here and there, and so can the girls! What fun!!!


What else... Dylan had hockey practice tonight, and while he was there, Blaine and a bunch of the other hockey dads went out on wood deliveries. This has turned out to be a great fundraiser for our team... and I think a hard day of work now and again doesn't hurt the boys in the least! I'm contacting Dylan's old hockey team in Hinton to see if they're interested to coming to our tournament in January, or if not then, maybe some exhibition games in Valemount, PG or Hinton. I think it would be so much fun! Hopefully we can work something out!

I filled out some forms at school today for Dakota to be seen by a speech therapist. She is still having a heck of a time with her "r's". The word store and star are indistinguishable... So hopefully, she can be assessed and at the very least, they can give us some work to do at home to help her out... It really bothers her when she's speaking and people don't understand what she's saying. Her teacher this year is so awesome! I can't praise her enough!

Devin had volleyball practice after school today. She can't go on Monday's because it interferes with dance, but one has to make choices and dance rules! LOL!

Blaine is taking the kids to Quesnel tomorrow to the dentist. Why are we still going to Quesnel? Because the kids love Dr. Jawanda! He's such a good dentist and treats our family like we matter... we like that! Donovan will be getting the go ahead for his braces... wow! We'll see how everyone did for cavities this check up! The girls are excited about going to their old school at lunch time and seeing their old friends. The boys usually don't go to the high school because it's so hard to find anyone! It's such a zoo at the HS at lunch time... So, Blaine takes the van and I drive his old yucky truck to work tomorrow... If I can find the darned button to push to start the ignition! It's jimmy-rigged to work... grrr! I hate that truck! It had better be nice to me on the drive!!!

Okay, my book is calling me! I'm on book four of the TEXAS series by Fern Michaels. I've finished her KENTUCKY series about another branch of the same family as well... great reading! Nighty night!!!

Busy, busy two days...

Finally a night at home, well... sorta! Donovan is in town at Air Cadets, so we'll have one more trip into PG tonight to bring him home. I can't wait to hunker down and watch Friday Night Lights and The Unit. I'm bummed that Smith is no longer on CBS and they cancelled it after only three episodes! I was getting into that one! Oh well, one less TV show to watch! ;o) Speaking of new TV shows... have you watched HERO'S yet? OMGosh! We are ~loving~ this show! Even the girls can't wait for Mondays! It's kind of an X-Files meets the comic book hero's... totally cool!

Yesterday, the girls had their Irish Dancing class. I forgot how much I totally love the music. It just makes me ~happy~! Dakota is a bit frustrated because she is in the intermediate class and has never been in dance, but it was that or nothing because there wasn't any beginner classes available. So, she's hanging in there and persevering and learning the steps in double time. I think she's doing a great job so far... and I am happy that Devin's former Quesnel dance mates are making the trip up from Quesnel to join us! Auntie Kelly picks up the girls at the highway for me, and it saves one quick turn around trip for me. Then I had to go in and pick them up and drop Donovan off at work. The Bonnie Raitt concert was last night, but I guess the attendance wasn't very good. Only around 1700... Oh well, he got in a few hours of work anyhow.

Dylan had six AM practice today... thankfully, Blaine was on days, so he dropped him off. Our team manager, Andy and his son Marcus, took Willy out for breakfast after practice and met me at the high school this morning. I got his smelly gear to have in the van all day while I'm at work... phew! I need a better air freshener in my van! It sure is nice to have such wonderful friends around to help out when you need them! :o)

Work today was good! First time I think, I was busy for the full four hours. I really like that! Time goes by much faster and I feel like I've accomplished something. I am really liking my job, and the people who work there. We even have an office dog, Spike, and he's half Jack Russell, so I know all his quirks! LOL!

We got a few new additions to the upstairs saltwater tank today. A new lawnmower blenny and a spiny urchin... he's really cool! They both are algae eaters so hopefully they'll have my tank looking much nicer in the next while... Here is a picture of the urchin... and here is the blenny... The blenny has tons of personality and he leaves "kiss prints" on the glass... Remember those Franki and Kathy??? Tee Hee! Blaine sure does! Ahh... the good old days! Hard to believe we've been together for more than 18 years now!

The joys of hearing the kids cleaning up the kitchen! LOL! It was pasta Tuesday at our house, minus the alfredo sauce, much to Dakota's dismay! She loves it with Parmesan cheese. It's Willy's day in the kitchen, since he has no practice on Tuesday nights. Everyone has a "day" to help in the kitchen, thanks to Nana's wonderful suggestion. So now I only have two of the seven days where I do it, and usually Blaine does one night, so I'm down to one! Woohoo! Loving it!

Twenty minutes until TV time... I've got the Fort Minor song "Remember The Name" song cranked... gotta love it! "This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill, fifteen percent concentrated power of will, five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain and a hundred percent reason to remember the name!" Can I feel a scrapbook page coming on? It's already in the making! :o)

Sunday dinner and another Birthday!

So, I'm a day late! But better late than never... yesterday went by fast and we didn't get home until almost 9:30pm, so by the time I got the kids into bed and organized, I was too tired to sit and type. Esther and I sat and chatted and scrapbooked a bit to laze away the day.

Blaine and the boys had a FULL day of wood chopping and deliveries all over the country side. They went as far south as Hixon and up to Nukko Lake to finish off the day. Then, on their way to supper at Esthers, they ended up calling 911 because a pick up truck and a semi collided and hit two power poles that cut off power to the BCR site and the kids said the sky lit up like fireworks were going off. So they didn't get to Esthers until almost 7pm! After dinner we sat and watched Amazing Race before heading home...

Esther made a fabulous dinner of roast beef, mashed potatoes, corn, veggies and dip, salad and jell-o and whipped cream for dessert! Blaine enjoyed his birthday dinner! Yummy! Then he got to play on Esther's computer, helping getting the virus protection thing up and running again.

So nothing to exciting... but a good day! :o)

Be bold! Colour outside the lines...

Ahhh... the joys of scrapbook classes! I took a class at the Scrapbook Zone tonight. It is a CD tin with a mini accordian album inside. I chose a family theme, and did pictures of the kids. Once I had my measurements, I was off doing my own thing. At my table were a couple of ladies who weren't very familiar with scrapbooking at all, and so I ended up helping a lot as the teacher had her hands full with the other table, which consisted of a mom and a couple of teenagers who needed a lot of direction. Sigh, not exactly the best "creative" environment, but I got most of it done, and hope to finish it tomorrow afternoon at Esther's house. I always feel awkward at the classes at the stores here because they all know I used to own a store and teach myself. So you get stuck between a rock and a hard place, because I don't want to make the teacher uncomfortable, but I don't want to be "un-helpful" to my fellow classmates. Tonight reminded me of a time when I took both my sisters to scrapbooking event for "retailers" only and got them in as my "employees"... we had such a hoot that day! Lots of laughing and bossing on their parts and lots of extra cutting for me, but I think we made some great memories that day too...

It's so funny to watch people get upset when their creations aren't exactly like the samples... relax! It's perfect just the way you created it as my mentor Donna Downey would say! Mine looks nothing like the sample, even though I liked the sample. But I want it to be ~my~ creation in the end, not a duplicate of something I did in a class... Once I'm finished, I'll upload a picture to share!

Not much else went on today... Devin and I baked cookies while Willy and Blaine were at raffle ticket sales. Kirby and Donovan hung out around the house... Dakota had a play date with her friend Rebecca in town, and had a good time. The girls and I will head to Esther's tomorrow afternoon sometime and all the boys have a full day of firewood chopping!

We got a couple of new fish for the upstairs fish tank and a few new hermit crabs. So far, everyone looks like they're doing alright in their new environment! It was Saltwater Saturday at Total Pet, so it was 30% off fish etc...

Well, I'm going to go and catch the news before having my tubby. I have no clue what's going on the in world... sometimes though, it's better that way! Night!

Are you freaking kidding me???

$90 to go bowling with the family on a Friday night! Can you believe that? I am still choking on my tongue when I think of it! Guess that's why we don't go out to the bowling alley very often! Oh well, everyone had fun, and it was Blaine's first time 10 pin bowling, but gee whiz, it's expensive! And besides, it was what Willy & his buddy wanted to do for his birthday, so bowling we went... then we went to McDonalds for the kids to have a McFlurry after. No birthday cake this year...

Another crazy busy day around here. I got off work and headed up to the rink where Willy was practicing with the Duchess Park Secondary Junior Hockey team. After practice, Willy & I first headed over the scrapbook store for me to pick out my papers for the class I'm taking there tomorrow night. Then, we headed over the mall to pick up some cold meds from the drugstore and go to the bank. Next we headed over to Superstore to get some groceries to make homemade pizza's for supper. In the meantime, Blaine was busy driving the fold up table and chairs to the hockey team where they were selling our raffle tickets. And then he had to drop Donovan off at work. Then we got home, made pizza, ate and headed back to town for the expensive bowling and waiting for Donovan to get off work.

Now the boys are downstairs playing NHL 2007 on the XBox and the girls are finally in bed. I've had my tubby and will be heading to la la land soon myself... ahh, bliss! I get to sleep in until WHENEVER tomorrow! Yippe skippee!The kids got most of their chores done today, so the rest of the weekend should be fairly low key. Willy has raffle ticket sales tomorrow, and a full day of wood chopping on Sunday. Blaine and the other two boys will be joining the rest of the team as well. Then, Devin, Dakota and I are going to go and scrapbook the afternoon away at Esther's house, and she's invited us all to stay for dinner in exchange for Blaine helping her with her computer... silly girl, we'd have come and helped without the dinner, but Esther cooks great dinners', so we're looking forward to it!

Finished my Neo Citron... ahh! Just like the old days! Reminds me of being a kid for some reason... silly I know! Anyhow, my bed is calling my name... I think I pulled the muscles in my back and neck throwing those damned heavy bowling balls! Go figure! Paying through the nose isn't enough of a pain, gotta add a pain in the neck to it as well! LOL!

Happy Birthday dear Dylan...

Hockey boy has turned into hockey man... hard to believe my baby boy is a big FOURTEEN today... ~sniff, sniff~ Where does the time go? Isn't he handsome with his new haircut??? We had a bit of time between school and practice today to squeeze it in! He had to take his helmet in since it was loose when he tried it on without all that hair! I got a laugh out of that! He's got practice for his high school hockey team tomorrow, then he and a couple of buddies are going to go bowling to celebrate his birthday. The team manager & coach brought Dilly Bars to the rink for his birthday and I supplied Costco brownies since I have no such thing as "time" to bake on a weekday!

The girls had their halloween dance tonight as well. Good old strobe lights and pounding bass music brought back memories! Dakota had a headache when I picked her up, but Devin had a good time. Speaking of the little devil, here she is...


And to keep her balanced, we had Dakota...

So all was well in my world... except I missed the first 20 minutes of Grey's Anatomy driving home from the school dance! Ahh, the things we do for love!

I think I'm starting to get a chest cold... better pop some Cold FX and go to bed! Have a funky Friday all!

Hockey players have fire in their hearts and ice in their veins...

I just LOVE coming home from the rink all fired up! It's such a rush! I took almost 150 pictures at the game tonight... Thank GOODNESS for digital cameras! I can shoot away to my hearts content and then edit and play later... deleting the bad ones as I go! When I look back over my years of taking sports pictures, I cringe at some of those early ones I ~thought~ were sooo good! Amazing what a nice camera and the knowledge to use it does! This was the first face off of the night... we played the Midget B boys. They're 15-17 year olds. We're 14 & 15 year olds... we won 6-5 in an intense and extremely good game. We don't have much for competition up here from around PG, so we play the older rep teams to give the boys some practice. We're off to tournament in Kelowna at the end of the month, and I'm hoping that my Great Aunt Doris and Great Uncle Terry will be able to come out and catch a game. They usually do. As well, we LOVE it when Uncle Bill and Auntie Brenda pop up from Greenwood, sometimes with Great Grandma Ashe in tow, if she's feeling up to the drive. Here's another shot of Willy heading up the ice past the competitions bench... I was shooting through the glass here and it's a bit fuzzy, but you get to see an action shot!
Today really was a nightmare in terms of driving back and forth! First off, Willy forgot to pack his skates in the van to get sharpened after school... so I discovered this after work on my way to pick up the girls from school. It's 1:30pm, and Devin's parent/teacher interview is at 2:45pm... okay, as much as I hate to, I have time to buzz home and get his skates and take them to the sharpening place. Fine, the girls and I drive home, hot speed as usual, have a pee and snack, and I send Dakota to get Willy's skates. We head back into town... it's 2:30pm, pull up to Player's Bench. I know the line up for sharpening is going to be long... I grab Willy's skates, think to myself, something isn't right. Head on in... yep, one and a half hours until his skates would be ready... start to put his name on the hockey tape and realize with DREAD, Dakota grabbed the wrong skates! OMG! No time to go back home and get them... Too bad so sad buddy! You'll be skating on dull blades tonight. Rush to school for Devin's PTI... Get there just in the nick of time... Excellent report as usual! Another proud mommy moment! Head down to the high school to get the boys... it's now 3:20pm... drive like mad home AGAIN! By now, I've put over 250kms on my van in less than 24hrs... no wonder I go through gas like crazy! Get home, make some KD for the kids to shovel in, pack up Willy and his gear, and his unsharpened skates, make it to the rink, late for his pre-game warm up... sigh! I hate days like these... being late annoys me more than anything else in the world! So now we're home, happy but tired and I still haven't had more than a bowl of KD since breakfast... and I wonder why I can't lose weight! Another big ~sigh~

I need to go and warm up in the tubby, have a Christmas orange for a snack and hit the hay. I can't wait for Friday morning... the kids have a non-instructionaly day, so I get to sleep in until 9am before getting up for work. Man I miss the days of sleeping in until 10am! LOL! Oh well, Saturday will be soon enough!

Tomorrow is another big day around here. Willy has hockey again, and Devin and Dakota are going to the school's Halloween Dance. It's Dakota's first school dance... she's an intermediate now you know, and she's been on pins and needles waiting for the boy she likes to ask her to the dance. I guess a couple of the other grade four boys asked some of the grade four girls to the dance, and I think she's worried no one will ask her. I've told her, she's too young for a "date" anyhow, and maybe he's just shy. She knows he likes her, so be happy with that and dance with him at the dance... It's going to be so much fun! I can't wait to go and chaperone! They grow up so fast don't they???

There are only two ways to live your life...

One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.
-- Albert Einstein

Words to live our lives by... what an amazing quote! And by Blaine's favourite person in the whole wide world.

Last night's hockey meeting went a little too long for me, and I wasn't feeling the greatest... so by the time I got home with Willy at 10pm, all I wanted to do was get into the tub and go to bed. So I did!

Today was the first day at work without our gal who went off on Maternity Leave. We did pretty good I think. I switched my hours for this week so I am going in from 9:15am to 1:15pm because the girls have early dismissal for parent teacher interviews. I had Dakota's interview today, and she is doing great! Other than her french reading issues, which don't seem to be as prevalent this year, her teacher is very pleased with Dakota's effort and enthusiasm in class. We stopped off and talked to her English teacher as well, and she echoed Mme Nancy's comments. Always a great thing to come away from interviews feeling very proud of your kid! Devin's turn is tomorrow... and I'm expecting great things then too!

Hockey season is in full swing. We've got a game tomorrow and Friday here against the Midget B team. Should be a good match up for the boys... except the Midgets will be a little bigger than our guys! We've got fundraising raffle ticket sales already this weekend.

I signed up for a scrapbook class on Saturday night. It's a CD tin/accordian album class and I'm going to do my theme on "FAMILY" for my desk at work. I thought it would be a nice way to decorate it up. I'll post a picture of it when it's done.

I'm looking forward to my Digital Portrait Photography class starting next Wednesday at the University of Northern BC. Here is a picture I took on Thanksgiving of my best friend and her family...

I love how it turned out, and can't wait to learn more tricks of the trade, so to speak, from my class. My instructor's name is Philomena Hughes and her website is beautiful. Her website is at www.phughesphotography.ca Check it out if you have time and you'd like to browse around her website.

We'll, I'm off to watch Friday Night Lights. I still think this show should be on Friday night TV, not Tuesday, but hey, that's only me... Willy and I don't miss this one! Even though it's about football, I love the "team" aspect of the show and the lessons learned spill over to his hockey too. I think it's the only show he will say he actually likes and can't wait to watch.

Have a good night all... sweet dreams!

Just home from a hockey meeting...

and I am too ~tired~ to post tonight... Will make up for it tomorrow! Promise!

Ahhhh.... Sunday!

What a good day! I slept in until almost ten, got up, showered and drove Donovan into work. Stopped and got some groceries on my way home. Came home, made a huge batch of pancakes for the kids, cleaned up and started on the baking. Made some muffins and cookies. Did laundry, washed my sheets and put my electric blanket back on the bed... Now I can't wait to get into bed tonight! I just LOVE fresh smelling sheets! Then, I started to get dinner ready. We had roast beef, gravy, mashed potatoes, carrots and broccoli! Mmm Mmm! I was going to make an apple crisp for dessert but I ran out of steam... Go figure! Oh well, my hips will thank me!

Now, I am going to have my bath before my second best night of TV starts. Amazing Race, Cold Case (I have to change back and forth between CC and Desperate Housewives) and then Without a Trace. Love these shows! It's my night to veg on the couch...

Dakota got a phone call from the drama director... She was auditioning for one of two parts for girls her age, and there were 35 girls trying out. She didn't get the part, but the director wanted her to know that she was in the top five and he had a really hard time deciding... and he wants her to come back and tryout again! She was a tad bit disappointed, but kept her chin up and is very positive about the whole thing... She makes me proud!

Devin has been prancing around in her Devil costume... This girlie is growing up too darned fast! She's gone from my little girl to a beautiful young woman in the blink of an eye...

Donovan got a bonus at work today, for all his hard work for the rodeo over the weekend. He had the second highest dollar totals in concession sales over the three performances. He sure likes what he's doing, and that's always a bonus in the work world.

Dylan and his buddies played street hockey, Xbox hockey and ate all day! Kirby and his buddy biked and ate all day... Never changes! LOL!

Blaine is supposed to be doing the dishes but he's on the phone helping a buddy with some computer stuff... I should just go and get in the tub... I am too tired to clean the kitchen again. ~Go get in the tub~ LOL!

And I had to LOL at this post I saw today on a scrapbooking message board...

FELT YOUR BREASTS LATELY???

Have you?

I dare you to....DOUBLE DARE you!!

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I suggest we all do a self breast exam.

Go to it ladies!

So there you go, a humorous reminder of an important and often overlooked monthly duty... and since I care about my friends, I'll post it here to for you to read!

I'll leave you with a picture of our pretty city in the fall. It's been so beautiful around here lately, but so dry! We finally had some rain overnight and today, but it looks like it's back to sunshine tomorrow. May your Monday be filled with sunshine, wherever you are!

Oh the good old hockey game...

Hockey belongs to the Cartoon Network, where a person can be pancaked by an ACME anvil, then expanded - accordion-style - back to full stature, without any lasting side effect. ~Steve Rushin

See, my own kid doesn't even have to be on the ice, and I'm at the rink cheering on his buddies! After a full day of wood chopping and wood deliveries, I took Willy and Marcus in to watch the PG Bantam B team play 100 Mile House. The boys won their game, 5-3. It's the best way to "be" Canadian - watching a hockey game or two on a Saturday night! And I got to have a visit with a couple of the hockey moms I don't get to see too often... Now, Willy, Kirby and Marcus are outside playing street hockey in the dark, in a total role reversal. Willy is in net and Marcus is the sniper tonight!

The girls had a busy day. Dakota had an audition for the upcoming Christmas play "A Christmas Adventure". She'll know tomorrow or the next day if she got a part in the play. She loves drama, so keep your fingers crossed. After that, we headed to Value Village for some halloween shopping. And while we were there, I had the girls fingerprinted and photographed with Child Find. It was a free service and hopefully not one I'll ever have to use, but it's on file just in case. Devin then went to a birthday party at the swimming pool. Dakota went along to go swimming while the boys and I were at the game.

Kirby went biking and spent most of the day with his buddy Glenn. He got his Ipod working today, so I didn't have to take it back. Donovan is busy working at the rodeo. He came home last night with a bunch of free goodies from Dodge and was quite happy with his night. Tomorrow are the finals, should be exciting! I'd like to take the whole family, but tickets to get in are like $18 each! That's a pricey Sunday afternoon for us!

I just had a nice, hot bubble bath... sitting in the cold rink chills me to the bone an the only way to warm up is in the tub. Blaine has a fire going, so it's getting nice and toasty... makes me want to curl up on the couch with a blanket and my book. But then again, maybe I should go down and do some scrapbooking??? I don't know... I can think of a million excuses sometimes. I had to laugh out loud at this quote I came across today, because, ah... I've done it a time or two!

A true scrapbook addict is one who stages photographs to match paper she likes. ~Author Unknown

Come on, admit it, so have you!

Tomorrow should be a quieter day around here. Have to get Donovan into work for 11am. Then come home and do laundry, some baking and some cleaning. Marcus' dad is going to come and pick him up, so that's one less trip to town for me. Bonus!

Oh yeah, I promised Dakota I would put this picture on my blog as a dedication to the class hamster, Po-Qwe (weird name, I know... try figuring out to spell it! LOL!) He died in class last week and the kids had a funeral and burial for him... she was devestated. I felt so bad for her... Now they're trying to raise money through bake sales to buy a new one. Shouldn't take too long, as hamsters are about $8 I think! Anyhow... RIP little friend...

"It's my life...

... it's now or never, I ain't gonna live forever..." Why, oh why these Bon Jovi lyrics are going through my head tonight, I don't know... just thought I'd share that random tid bit of info! LOL!

Don't I have a have a handsome crew of kidlets? I took this one last week... they cooperate so nicely!

Anyhow, I've been sitting here swearing at the computer trying to figure out an EASY way to work on and edit my blog, but I seem to do everything the hard way. I ~think~ I have it figured out now! Go ME!

I'm waiting for Donovan to call me to go and pick him up from work. He's gotten himself a job at CN Centre working with the food contractor. He had to go and get his Food Safe certificate, and he even gets high school credits for it, which is good. I for one, can not wait until he get's his "N" and can drive his own car back and forth to work, instead of adding another round trip on the poor van.

Willy (this is Dylan's hockey nickname)and his buddy Nate just came in from playing street hockey. Willy has a full day of wood cutting with his hockey team tomorrow. We're expecting a delivery of two full cords of wood from the team sometime tomorrow... we're almost ready for winter, even though you'd never know it from the weather we've been having! It's been a beautiful fall around the Cariboo!

Kirby had been busy playing with his new IPod Nano, but I think he fried it somehow at his buddy's house. I guess we're heading back to the store tomorrow to get a new one. It won't even turn on now... sheesh, electronics these days!

All I can hear are the sounds of girls giggling and the boys laughing at what ever game they're all playing down in the TV room... I sure love that sound! Nothing like having six kids in the house to keep it fun! :o)

Has the phone rang yet???

Let's see...what else is going on this weekend? Dakota has auditions for a christmas play that her drama coach is putting on. Devin has a birthday party to go that is supposed to be a sleepover, but the parents smoke and she's not comfortable staying there, so I am going to get her from the swimming pool instead. Tomorrow night, Willy's other buddy, Marcus, is spending the night and we're going to go and watch Nate's hockey team play 100 Mile House. It should be a good game. Blaine is working days, so I get to do all the driving and running around myself. Donovan works from 4:45 to 11pm tomorrow and all day on Sunday. The Western Canadian Rodeo finals are being held here in PG this weekend, so it's kinda cool to see all that dirt and cattle inside the arena where the PG Cougars are usually skating around on ice at this time of the year!

And hopefully, somewhere in the weekend, I'll have some time to sit down at my scrapbook table and LOOK at all the goodies I have lying around and maybe feel creative and DO SOMETHING! Send some positive SBing vibes would ya?

Hmmm... still no phone call. I thought he was supposed to be done around 9... I want to put on my jammies and read a book. Maybe I'll send Blaine instead! ~evil grin~ Sounds like an idea to me!

I guess I've resisted long enough...

It's time to get with the program so to speak and make myself my own little spot on the world wide web... It seems like everyone has their own blog these days, and even though I've known about them for quite a while, finding the time, or rather, MAKING the time to do one, hasn't really been a priority.

So for those of you finding your way to my spot, Welcome to my World. And boy, it's a busy one! I've got five kids, one darling husband, one dog, two cats and two salt water aquariums at home. I work part time during the week at a medical supply outlet doing billing, and full time "taxi-driver" for the kids many, many activities.

I can't think of anything too outrageously creative to talk about at the moment, or any big news to share, so I should just publish my first comment and be done with it!

So here goes...