New home woes

I forgot how hard it was to move. We are still trying to organize our home and it's been a full week....wow!

Kaiya every day says she wants to go home. It's hard to explain to a 2/3 year old that this is where she lives now. There are so many changes and she is a creature of habit that does not like change. Elodie has not been sleeping well. She has converted back to waking 2-3 times a night to feed. WTF?! How do I break this? We have tried everything. Crying it out, decreasing the amount of milk per feeding, just going in to soothe, etc. Nothing seems to be working and we are exhausted.

Nanook is absolutely filthy. I just got him groomed the day after we moved in and by the time we went to bed that night you would never have known. 

Although I am missing 2 cupboard doors, a tray rack above my oven and microwave, I have no glass for my shower, my washer leaks, I have no blinds and I have no mirrors, I'm still in love with this house. I cannot wait to get it organized to post pics. They are coming soon!

Going to the Chapel

One thing I have not blogged about and this is entirely because I have been stupid busy with packing and house stuff and that is my sisters wedding.

Back story: About a year and a half ago my sister and Blair's friend from high school (and the best man at our wedding) decided it would be a good idea to hook up. Blair and I thought hmm..... maybe not such a great idea. What if it didn't work out?! Would we be forced to choose sides? Blair and his friend had a bit of  falling out years ago and it would break his heart to get attached again only for things not to work. Slowly but surely we came around. A year later and things were still going strong, he popped the question, they moved in together and batta-bing batta-boom they got themselves hitched. I don't have mush in the way of photos seemings how I was in the wedding party but this is what Blair was able to capture. Hopefully more to come.

Groom and his parents 

Me and the best man (grooms brother) 

My brother and grooms sister 

My little peanut and cousin Carson 

My beautiful sister and my parents 

My little Elodie in her pretty dress

It was a beautiful wedding. Small and semi-informal. It all took place at Nose Creek Park in our little city and then back to my parent's place for dinner and booze. I was the DD so I made my own fun with the photo booth (pics to come).

Congratulations to my big sister! You looked so beautiful and happy!

Tis the season of Boos and Ghouls

It's the middle of September and I cannot help but get excited about Halloween. It has begun to get cooler at night, the leaves are starting to turn and there is costumes and candy at the supermarket. It's hard not to get the spooky bug. I have both Kaiya and Elodie's Halloween costumes already, I am working on mine and Blair's and have begun planning our annual party. Do you think I'm excited? Since we are moving into a very new area I am thinking that we may not get any Trick or Treaters this year but I will be decorating my house anyways. I don't have much for exterior decor yet, but I have a feeling that come next year I will have remedied that.

We decided to hit up Calaway Park this past weekend. Kaiya had been begging us to take her for weeks. What a pleasant surprise I recieved when I got there. The park has decorated for Halloween. They had face painting, a spooky street set up and the haunted house all decked out. It was great, I was in heaven. If you have little ones, then I highly reccomend checking it out. It's just the right amount of Halloween to get them into the spirit but not too scary. You can also avoid the whole area if you feel that it may be too much for your little goblins.

On a side note: We have 2 days till we move! Yippee! Finished photos to come ;)

Zombie Thought of the Day

As a Zombie, being absent minded and numb to life's challenges is the best approach. 

My head is spinning

The last couple weeks have been chaotic. It started off with a little camping trip to Gull Lake. This is the second year that we have headed there and I am still enjoying it. The campsites aren't as treed as those is K country and the sand at the beach is almost muddy but the water is warm and there are NO BEARS! My little family exclusively tents so to have the peace of mind of no bears coming and snatching away my offspring is a bonus.

My parents and little bro met us out there with their boat for the day and I finally got to wakeboard. It's been about 2 years since I have had a wake boarding opportunity (due to pregnancy). It felt awesome. There is something about water sports and sitting on a motor boat that gets my endorphins flowing. Being at a lake is my happy place.

When coming home we discovered a little glitch in one of our custom jobs at the house and so I spent the next few days in and out of the new house, emailing, researching etc. It was a bit of a mess. I have come to accept that the custom things we are getting are just going to have to be subpar. We are building with a cookie cutter home company after all.

My sister is getting married in about 5 days now. I am one of the bridesmaids so I get to wear a sexy black dress. I'm super excited. Maybe I can pawn my girls off on Nana and Papa for an hour or two and Blair and I can pretend to be on a date. It's been way too long!

The girls are getting so big as well. Elodie is cruising! She is so fast at crawling that I am having a tough time keeping up. She's not the best eater, she is a little picky but she is still just as chunky. She does enjoy Nanook's dog food though (which makes me throw up in my mouth every time she gets one). She is now saying Mama, Dada, Nana and signing. Kaiya is getting to be such a little person. Her speech is so advanced now and her energy level is out of control. She just does not stop moving, ever! I cannot wait to get into the new house and set up the jungle gym in the backyard.

Sexy Whale Pose. I'm such a nerd.

Watch out Carson, the whale is going to eat you!

Carson and Kaiya getting their frisbee lessons

Daddy building sand castles with the kidlets

Elodie's first tube ride.

She fell asleep. I think she liked it.

Row minions, row.

My baby bro catching some air

My version of catching some air

S'more please!

Mermaid Mommy!

Mermaid Kaiya

Like I said, muddy sand.

And.... a sneak peak of our home:

My Pumpkin Plant is Male

In May I bought Kaiya a little gardening kit. It came with gloves, a few tools and some pumpkin seeds. We took those seeds and planted them in the garden and prayed they would grow in our crappy clay soil. Well, our little pumpkin plant took it sweet ass time to get settled but it has now overgrown our garden. I have to "redirect" it off our lawn and onto our patio so that it doesn't get eaten alive by the mower every week. 

About 3 weeks ago it began blooming. Yes it is late but I was super excited that we may just get a pumpkin. Unfortunately the blooms would open and then just fall right off. No pumpkin. I tried manually pollinating them thinking that the bees were not doing their job (damn lazy bees) but it was still a no go. I just could not figure out why we were not getting any fruit. So like any normal gardener I hit up Google. What I love about the internet is that you can find an answer to ANY question. Turns out there are 2 types of flowers that bloom on a pumpkin plant, a male and a female. Obviously you need both in order to make a pumpkin and to my disappointment (and further examination of the blooms) I have nothing but male flowers on my plant. I have lost hope for a pumpkin. 

So how can you tell if your buds are male or female?

The female bud will have a little bulb growing under the flower. The male will not.

Male Bud

Female Bud

And that's a little pumpkin 101 for those who didn't know....... like me!

ps: this applies to all squashes and cucumbers apparently 

 

Our New Granite Counters

We had picked a completely different stone at our original design meeting. When we went to pick out our slab we just did not like the look of the lot. The color was too "rusty" for us so we hummed and hawed over what to do. Finally after poking around the granite place we found this slab that had all the colors that we wanted. It's a different stone and it has a lot less white in it then I expected but I think it is a winner! 

Becoming landlords

Last week was a very epic week for us. Blair and I became Landlords. Well, sort of. We placed our home  up for rent on Monday morning. By Monday afternoon our phone was ringing off the hook. The response was so overwhelming. I could not believe the interest. People were begging to rent our home. We had about 18 bookings to see our place over the next 5 days (4 of which ended up being no shows). We met some VERY interesting people. Yesterday we finally made a decision and signed someone. What a load off of our shoulders. One more check on our to do list.

50 Shades of Disgust

I have jumped on board the 50 shades of Grey band wagon. I bought the first of three in this trilogy just to see what the fuss was all about. I expected bad writing, good sex and a little domination. What I got was bad writing and disappointment. 

First off I am going to put on my mommy pants and say this with the utmost respect: you should be ASHAMED! I got about 1/4 of the way through this book when the sex and the dominating kicked in, actually it was the contract that did it in for me. I just couldn't get past the fact that he demanded that she dress, eat, sleep, smell (the list goes on) the way he wants her to ALL the time. Umm, this to me sounds like abuse and I just could not get past that. It's one thing to dominate in the bedroom, it's just not ok to bring it into every day life. The sex scenes were good but I just could not accept Mr. Grey's attitude towards women. It was the complete opposite of a turn on to me. So I threw the book in the garbage, ok so that may be a tad over dramatic. I may have just placed the book mark right back in and placed it in my night stand.

I have never, will never and cannot even pretend to want to be dominated by a man to the point that I cannot make one decision on my own. This book is so degrading that I feel kinda insulted by all women every where that this is the number one best seller. I'm sure if you gave this book to a women who just left an abuse relationship she would ask if it was a joke. 

But that is just my thoughts on it. Enjoy, for all those who have a difference of opinion. 

Zombie Thought of the Day

Even when your dreams or goals seem impossible (like that impenetrable fortress surrounded by a molt filled with grenades) you have to atleast try. A true Zombie puts her every effort into making that dream /brains a reality. You never know how far you can get unless you try.

Tis the season of the spider

My new "friend" living below our family room window. This sucker is huge. Everyday I come out and check to see if he is still there. I panic if I don't see him right away. What if he some how crawled into my house, up my stairs, into my room, on to my PILLOW! My heart races, then I see him and all's good. I can sleep in peace for one more night. 

Happy Birthday Blair!

My hubby turned 30 over the weekend. We decided to celebrate by throwing a bbq, nothing fancy but a big success in my opinion. We even had a crasher! One of our neighbour kids just wandered in, started eating our food and playing with the toys. Annoyed to shit out of me. His mother could care less, she basically showed up looking for him and stood at my back door and watched as he ate our food. I just keep telling myself "one more month, one more month". 

The next day we took Blair to Calaway Park. It was a great weekend!

Happy 30th Birthday to the most wonderful man I have ever met! Love you!

iRobot Roomba Review

It's been a while since I have bought my used Roomba and I am happy to report that I am in love with it! The thing doesn't hold a charge worth damn (It gets my main floor ok then dies) and it is a little on the loud side but man is it making a difference with the battle of the fur. It does not replace the vacuum cleaner by any means but I can turn it on at night before I go to bed and in the morning my floors are fur free (minus the trail from the couch to the stairs following Nanook's sleeping patterns).

All in all I will be telling everyone I know who has a sheddy dog or kids or both to get one. It's a life saver when you just do not have time to lug out the vacuum!

Zombie Thought of the Day

A Zombie is a lone creature. Although it hunts in a horde it must depend solely on him or herself in order to achieve brains.

 You are in charge of your own carnage, you cannot rely on other Zombies to help you. Push your way through to the front of the horde and you will achieve greatness/brains.

Finally we have a crawler!!

WTF is June Bearing Strawberries?!

I purchased a strawberry plant at the end of May. It was on sale *red flag* and had tuns of strawberries on it. I was super excited for Kaiya to learn about where fruit comes from and be able to check her strawberry plant every morning. I took it home, planted it in a pot and watched it flourish. 

About a month ago I saw the very last flower turn into a strawberry. Kaiya and I check every morning for new flowers but alas there are none. Finally I googled strawberry plants and the answer popped up right away. June Bearing Strawberry bushes. WTF is that?! Apparently there are strawberry plants that DO NOT produce strawberries all season long but only in the month of June.

First off, who would even want these plants?! What is the purpose? Mine has been shooting out like crazy which makes me believe that it would over take any garden, for what? A month of strawberries?There is such a thing as everbearing plants that produce them all season long, I guess the sale should of tipped me off that no one was wanting just a month of strawberries. 

I was planning on transplanting this one into the new garden but now I just want to get rid of it. What a bummer.

Up-cycling some baby blankets

We have a lot of baby blankets! Every time you have a baby, blankets are the most popular gift to give. Now that I am starting to sort through my baby stuff and getting rid of ALL of the little girl things blankets are definitely on the hit list. Some are almost too cute to donate/part with though so I have decided to up-cycle them from blankets into t-shirts for Kaiya. We have been a little low on clothes for the girls lately, especially Kaiya and t-shirts. She has a million long sleeve shirts from the fall and winter, but only 2 or 3 summer shirts. So I am putting m sewing skills to the test, I hope they don't look too much like jammies.

Finished product. Not too shabby if I say so myself. Kaiya really liked it, especially because it was just for her, not Elodie, and she got to help a little. The next step is tank tops.