thankful

for lots of things, including my 'mer-can buddies.
happy belated thanksgiving all you u.s. of a-ers!

conversation with a 5 year old

"*gasp* MAMA!"
"yeah babe?"
"i seen...i seen...i seen a big nest outside the daycare window!!!"
"wow...really? what kind of bird lived in the nest do you think?"
"swallows. it was a swallow nest."
pause
"do swallows live in Earf mama?"
"yes."
"swallows have split tails."

sigh.
goodnight sweet pea.

getting better

Disco glow in the dark bowling was super fun. I wish I had known it was glow in the dark...I would have worn white. We had to wait about an hour and a half before we got a lane (who knew that bowling was like night-clubbing for teenagers!?) but that gave us a chance to chill in the pub and *gasp* talk. It was quite funny, actually, two couples with small children trying to figure out what, besides their children, to talk about on a double date. We managed :)

The stupid Saturday incident won't fully escape my brain. I've been dealing with the co-op Board and the lawyer and hopefully (it would be nice if they'd actually call me back) the police. On one hand, I just want it all to be over with and forgotten about, but on the other hand, I'm glad to be proactive in helping myself. I don't want to pour too much energy in, that's for sure. However, the more people I talk to, the more encouragement I hear to follow through and charge him. We'll see... Anyway, it's still ongoing...thank you for leaving comments and words of encouragement. That's what keeps me strong...the people in my life being supportive and encouraging.

Lil Jax is sick with a cold. D thinks he's getting it. JOY.

Our water is not safe to drink, wash food with, or brush our teeth with. Last week we had major rainstorms and the water treatment plants became overwhelmed due to all the sediment churned up by floods. Two mornings in a row, I've brushed my teeth with the water. Just completely forgot. Creature of habit. I hope I don't die.

mean people seriously suck

Seriously.
I have never had to deal with a situation like I dealt with tonight. Yes, people have been mean to me before. Sometimes in the past I probably deserved it. But I'm growing up. I'm learning, changing, and turning into a nicer, calmer, more caring person. Tonight I didn't deserve what I got.

It's a really long story to get into all the details, but I'll give the short version (as short as I can lol). I live in a co-op. A co-op is a building or group of buildings where all the tenants are members, and co-operatively work to run. We have a Board, committees and deal with most of the "landlord" stuff ourselves. I am the chair of the membership committee. Tonight, I showed some new members their new suite. I gave the member who has already vacated the suite the required 24 hour notice to access it. The outgoing member has had, and is currently having, problems with the co-op (board), some legitimate, some not. She wants her boyfriend to act as her representation, but hasn't yet given the co-op the required documentation so that he can be her agent, so to speak. She (the member) is meak, quiet, unassuming, and never really got involved in the co-op community. He, on the other hand, is loud, agressive, outspoken, and has been very involved with the co-op (in a negative way) in the last few months. She legally has posession of the unit until the 30th of November, but has been moved out since the end of October.

Tonight, he showed up to the suite while we were there (the overdue pregnant mother-to-be, her boyfriend, and mother-to-be's mother)...burst in the door all wild-eyed and ready for a fight. Telling me all about how we're breaking the law, unlawfully entering, not following the rules, blah blah blah. He pointed at me and said he would be charging me. Keep in mind that this is someone who is not technically supposed to even be in the property (rolling my eyes, because now that it's over, I can do that). A verbal altercation ensued, but none of the sane ones (all of us minus him) wanted any part of it, so we decided we would just leave. He told us that "those 3" could leave, but I couldn't. He back towards the door, locked it, put his hand on it, and stood in the hallway, barring us from leaving the suite. The dad-to-be got on the phone w/ the police, and I got on the phone w/ one of the board members. He and another member showed up to diffuse and help. So appreciated. The cops took forever, the situation got reasonably diffused, and we decided the new members (if no one else) should leave. I walked them out (after just a mini-meltdown on the phone while calling the police back wondering where the @#$% they were (that was in my head...I was pretty nice outloud)). I went back to the suite where outgoing member's boyfriend gave some lame-ass speech as an apology of sorts...I said "I'm done...I just want to go". As soon as I walked into my house, I burst into tears. The adrenaline was leaving my body and I just crumpled. So I went to another neighbour's and de-briefed. Phew. And now I'm doing the same thing here. And it feels really good to just let it out. It boggles my brain that people can be so irrational and unreasonable. But I guess that's the world we live in.

And tonight, in about 25 minutes, in fact, we are going on a double-date to some night laser show bowling (or something or other...it involves 10-pin bowling and beer) thing. And I'm going to have a blast. Yes I am. !%^* mean people.

i'm crazy!

yep. and that's just me.

fontwerks explosion!

Gettin scrappy. Good times. Fontwerks all over the place!
I think it's pretty cool that the MC kit used Fontwerks papers, then I got my hands on some fresh acrylic by same company, and so almost everything I've touched lately turns to Fontwerks love!
Also workin on streamlining the space a little more. What that actually means is that I'm trying to get stuff off the floor and into homes. The stuff is very happy, and so am I. Oh, and so is my dear darling husband. :)

I actually did this one in response to Ali's AEzine challenge to group/layer stamps...use stamps...make mistakes, etc. I say actually, because I'm actually impressed with myself that I remembered the challenge and completed the layout...and it was just for fun!


I've had these mustard face photos hangin out for so long. I used the November kit from Memory Creators for this, as well as that cute lil curly frame stamp (Fontwerks). I'm irritated because the writing is crooked. Oh well...I'm letting it go. For now :)



Sophie and Jaxon. From a long time ago. From one of my favourite series of photos. Look at J's lil baby face huh!? More goodies from the MC November kit, plus some older Fontwerks rubons and some grid paper from my stash.


OK...This page makes me happy for so many reasons, despite the kind off-ish scan.
1. Taila. She melts my freakin heart. I could scrap her endlessly.
2. The Fontwerks label stamp. I am in love with the labels. LOVING the labels.
3. Some of my all-time favourite 7 Gypsies paper.
4. A little corrugated action. Don't know why, but i just love the stuff.
5. Rhinestones. Even though they make for crap scans, they are good stuff.
6. George. Alphabet, that is. All. Time. Favourite.
7. A weird coloured cardstock for the background and actually liking it.

Back to work. Argh. Why is it so hard to go back to work after a long weekend? I suppose that's obvious. Argh.

as promised, g squared

gabby sent me a few pix, so here we go.

how friggin CUTE is she!!????

me & dren. wow...that's a shot that doesn't happen very often (thanks g1!)

THIS is a shot that almost never happens...so precious to me.

us. kissin.

and this. ha! dren grabbed my butt then went for the boobs. it was funny.

she even named the shots "hilarious" "cuteness" "ilovethisshot".
sigh. missin the gabby. lovin the photos.
and it's the weekend!


dare from this week. i don't like the resulting page, but that's what happens sometimes, right? a little birdie told me it may be the big chunk of vertical pp that's throwing it off. she might be right. there are elements i'm satisfied with, so i'll just have to repeat them some other time (the ghost letters, stamped with purple onion stamps, the vertical handwritten title, and journalling on the photo (totally inspired by megs).

ok. time to go make sm'art! :)

hump day comes to a close

11:41pm wednesday night. gabby left yesterday. we had such a whirlwind of a visit. the best whirlwind ever. i seriously love that girl. the fact that she came here to visit, stayed with us, made herself at home, made herself comfortable, slept under jaxon's stars & moon canopy (joyously), showers in 12 seconds, uses funny voices, laughs at the most random funny things ever (with me...ok...sometimes at me), braved the most rain vancouver has seen in a 48 hour period in like forever, and eats good food like a champion (me), shops like me (quick and glancy except when the store is totally deserving of some real serious attention; hello paper-ya...ya?)...sigh.

it rocked.

and aaaaall the photos are on her camera. which, despite a flight cancellation, a lost-then-found bag (which said camera was not in thank god), and a TWENTY HOUR journey home, is safe in her posession....

can't wait to see the photos (again) babygirl. i love you!!!

today was back to work day. it was hard! i wished it was thursday, not wednesday. but we can't always get what we want, right? oh well. tomorrow is thursday.

tonight i went to mum's for dinner. we made gourmet pizzas with the sisters and a couple friends and helped aley with her photos and frames (she frames flower photos that she takes...amazingly). it was yum. but it was a long day. after a couple other long days.

and now i'm ready for bed.

g'night!

i love

i love amy butler fabric. like i'm hardcore back in love with it. (re)found my stash. all over it. now to bust out the sewing machine again.

i love fridays. not only is it my last day of work, but it's also dare day (duh).
this week, an extra-special super international dare, featuring a page by each of the girls from the aussie dares, the new zealand dares, and the uk dares! and well, of course, us, the north america version too. each group submitted a dare and combined we have this 4 part dare. theme: childhood memories.
cover every inch of your page (mine's covered in muslin...)
title must be on the photo.
throw in some paint.
i thought it would be impossible, but it was totally fun...and what a blast to join forces with women all over the world in our scrapping-dareage madness!
covered a piece of white cardstock in muslin (as per above)
+slipped some AB fabric into a little vinyl pocket made for mini-discs
+plopped some HS chipboard alphas on the photo
+used my favourite white pen for more title action and journalling
+a LSW butterfly stamp
+HS journalling spot
+MM paint
+ a staple
+ a rhinestone
= a page i love
(it's so nice when that happens)

i love being on a cleaning/purging binge. LOVE it. i think d's starting to get a little freaked out though. where did my calm and relaxed wife go? are we really back to this anal-retentive crazy cleaning all the time persona? damn....please don't start nagging me all the time again...
(i'll do my best)
(but i am loving having a cleaner, tidier (sp?) house, so basically, look out boys)

i love gabby.
and i'm sooooo excited to pick her up @ the airport on sunday!
we are totally gonna rip it up vancouver styles.
actually, we'll probably mostly sit around in our PJs drinking tea and watching the rain fall. but that will be just as much fun, if not more.

i love the rain.
right now, it's not bothering me one bit. being inside, cozy, with a warm cup of something...listening to it on the room or window or just watching it fall. totally calms me.
ask me again in 6 months when it's still raining....

i love you for reading my blog!

i love clean & orderly

It could even get scary. Like OCD scary. We did a huge toy purge on Sunday. My mum took Jaxon to Science World and Dren and I busted our asses to weed out all the broken, unused, unloved, pieces of junk, baby, and otherwise toys. We did it. Oh boy. Did we do it. For about three years our living room has been dedicated to toys and boys. I am so happy to report that I have 11 empty wicker baskets (previously housing toys) and 3 empty shelves on our shelving unit in the living room. It feels like heaven. I know having them empty forever won't feel like heaven, so I'm wondering...what did we used to keep there? Wow. Pregnancy and having a child really does steal brain cells. I seriously cannot remember. For now, the empty baskets feel good. I'm thinking...candles, both tea-lights and scented pillars. I'm thinking (gasp!) adult books. I'm thinking plants. A photo or 3. Sigh. The possibilities are endless. And J's room is all ready for Gabby's visit. I wonder if she'll want to sleep under the canopy/tent/tube thing that attaches to his 1/2 bunk? We shall see, my friends, we shall see. I'm definitely leaving it up to soak up her reaction to "this is where Gabby sleeps!"....hee hee. Love me some G1.

Now I want to attack every space and room in our house with the clean and orderly spray.

In other news. Huh. Not much to say apparently. Dren's working. Jaxon's at a friend's playing. Potatoes are roasting in the oven and I've got to get out the steaks to salt for barbequeing. Yeah...so it's 2 degrees. And? ANTM is on tonight, and I've been working on this week's dare, which is going to be totally different and totally fun...so it's bound to be a great night.

And to steal from Nisa, because I know it's "her phrase" but I really can't help it because it's also just so me...

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!