Cards and kids

These pictures were taken at Taylor's friend Connor's year end party. Saoirse loved the slip and slide. She started off by just walking on her knees but eventually tried using her feet. She came up to me at one point and said "I slipped!" I said "Yes, you are meant to...that's why it's called a SLIP and slide." As soon as she saw William in the evening she asked for one. The other picture is of Sophie and my friend Jen's son Bennett. He usually cries when he sees her as she has been known to torture him but by the end of the party he actually crawled after her and then they sat together.


The 2 cards below were made very quickly and without a whole lot of thought, I stole the idea from Splitcoast. The thank you was for Taylor's teacher and the Happy Birthday for my friend Nancy who turned the big 4-0.



These cards were made at my Stamping Club on Tuesday. I ended up having a great party, originally I had 2 free stamp sets and $70 in hostess credits but one girl who didn't make it bumped me up to 3 free stamp sets and $90. When my stuff comes in I will have 6 new stamp sets, assorted accessories and a scrapbook kit. So excited! See what you missed Joy?



I love this tag book. Most of the tags are stamped with friend quotes. I am giving this to my friend Shelley as a thank you for being such a great friend to me and godmother to Saoirse. And because she keeps pointing out that I haven't made her anything! Oops.



Are you sick of seeing the things I make? I am thinking of making my as yet unused wordpress blog into a craft one. Better get off the computer, there is going to be a huge thunderstorm. Love them!

Ya gotta have friends

From the Grade 6 farewell celebration last Wednesday:

Taylor, Marissa and Ashley. Taylor and Marissa are going to the same junior high next year, but Ashley marches to the beat of her own drummer and decided to go to another school. This may be a good thing as Taylor and Ashley are so similar in personality (stubborn!) that they are constantly fighting. They also look somewhat alike and in the second grade their teacher was forever calling them by the other's name.


Ayo joined them for another picture. She's been in the same class as Taylor every year since the third grade, but she and Taylor only really became friends this year. She is super tall, and was taller than me when she was in the fourth grade!


Ashley, Theo, Connor and Taylor.


Connor, Zack, Taylor and Ashley. Connor's mum has a picture of these 4 from Grade 1 and so wanted one from this year. Connor and Zack had a huge falling out last year, as did their mothers, so I was sort of suprised that she asked for a picture. I have asked Michelle for a copy of the one from Grade 1, the difference in them is amazing. It's quite sad that the two boys are no longer friends, the four of them got along great and were together quite often.

The last day of school. It's hard to get a good picture of girls when they are bawling and/or the sun is in their eyes!

Ashley, Chelsea, Dana, Taylor and Devon.


Ashley, Dana, Chelsea, Taylor, Taylor and Devon. Other than Ashley and Devon these girls will all be at the same junior high. Devon's mum is making her go to the all girls junior high which she doesn't seem to pleased about.

"Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joy, and dividing our grief."- Joseph Addison.

Testing, testing

My computer didn't suddenly turn its self off a single time today. So being the daring child that I am and all I thought I'd try posting a picture. And it didn't shut down. Yahoo.

My friend emailed me this picture of Taylor and her teacher at the Grade 6 farewell last Wednesday. I never realized how short he is. Or she's just really tall. Anyway, it is his last year at St. Ben's, he is off to teach Grade 5 at another school next year in his quest to become an administrator. And since Taylor's last day is tomorrow I feel quite confident that I can say her school is not actually called St. Ben's. That's just short for the name of the current pope, which is what the school is really called. And if you don't know his name, your trivia skills are sorely lacking!

Tomorrow is the farewell celebration at Taylor's school, once again she will not win the Good Shep.herd award, which has her a little sad I think. Every student in the class votes for a deserving child, one who is helpful and kind and all that. She got a couple of votes that she knows of, but she's pretty certain that it will go to one of two boys. We'll see if she is right. She gets out of school at noon and then we will go to a year end party at her friend Connor's, which he has been having every year since Grade 1 or 2, I think. I should try and find comparison pictures of then and now. I'll be taking lots of photos tomorrow, trying to get pictures of a couple of kids who are off to different junior highs. I may be in tears though, the last day is always hard, so the pictures may be a bit shaky.

Liam's last day is Thursday and he has to go all day, poor bugger.

Why I've bailed out on Fun Monday for a second week in a row

First off, I don't like working. It seriously interferes with my blogging time. If it's really slow in the evening and I am working with good (read- don't care what the feck you do) techs than I can read a few blogs but I can't comment. And i dare not actually write a post myself. So I am out there and I try my best to read some, but I have discovered that I am quite bad at remembering addresses off the top of my head.

Another thing interfering with my blogging time is housecleaning. The magic cleaning fairy still has not found our house and I'm not sure why because surely the pile of crap about to bust out my roof should lead her here. But no it hasn't so I am left to clean myself, redoing dishes that were not done properly, and cleaning toilets that the homeless wouldn't even want to sit on.

The third thing interfering with my blogging, and the direct reason that there is no Fun Monday post today is my computer. My computer is seeing the light apparently, and is trying her best to go to computer heaven. I'm not letting her go, as I just don't have the money for a new one, and she has decided to hold on for a while longer as long as I do not open a second window, including the blogger picture uploader one. And the comment ones, which is why I'm no longer commenting. No commenting from home and no commenting from work.

I am sorry not to show you my garage, which surely would win any messy garage contest. Let's just say a car would not fit into it. In fact, the kids are lucky if they can find a space for their bikes. You can not walk from the door to the house to the door to the garage without stepping over things and veering off in new directions. I was also going to show you my bookcases, which are organized into countries. Irish fiction, Irish non fiction, English wartime fiction, Canadian and everything else. Most of the everything else is still in boxes in the garage and/or basement. I really need about 7 or 8 new bookcases to sort them all out.

Anyway, I am off to clean as my stamping party is tomorrow evening and I will be at Taylor's school all day tomorrow for Fun Day. What are the chances it will stay clean between now and then? Slim to none, is my guess.

Oh and a question for you to ponder since I have no idea when I will be on again...how do you know when a friendship has reached its end? And how do you finally put it to rest? Do you tell the person or do you just stop talking to them? I need some help with this one.

Let me tell you...there was no Fun Monday here.

I missed Fun Monday. I'm very sad about that because I was looking forward to posting a photo of the first note Taylor ever wrote to me, when she was 5 (I'm pretty sure) that says Dear-Mummy-Me-and-Liam-love-you, Love-Tay. Her name is almost completely ripped off and last week Saoirse discovered it and drew all over it in red and green marker, but still that note ranks right up there in my "Why I love being a mum moments." So I may still do Fun Monday but not until Wednesday night, when I have more than a few minutes to myself.

I knew I should have done it last night, but I worked until 10.30 and was too tired. I babysat today and due to my working all weekend I really had to clean all day. Apparently there is no magic fairy who cleans when I don't. Worked at 3.30, just got home a few minutes ago and am back to work at 7.30 tomorrow morning. Then tomorrow evening Taylor and Liam have their last (Thank God!) soccer games of the season and when I get home from that I have to move all the furniture from the livingroom into the kitchen as I am having my livingroom carpet steam cleaned on Wednesday morning. I will spend Wednesday afternoon moving the furniture back and then in the evening there is a farewell evening for all the Grade 6 students that we will be going to with Taylor. So maybe Wednesday night. You know, I'm telling you all this as though you care!

Will miss your blogs desperately over the next few days, I did do a bit of browsing last night, but what a pain in the ass to have to go erase the history and enable the cookies and whatever else I was told to do. I just played Solitaire mostly. Yes, any Albertans reading this...that is where your tax dollars are going. For me to play solitaire. Next weekend I'm scrapbooking, at least that's more productive.

Anyway, off to bed. Am dead tired.

Caught out in the rain

Today was my first official day as a part timer at work. My position is definitely being grieved, and in the end she will probably win, so I only have about 3 weeks in this position. And then I'm going to grieve her getting the position. It's a vicious cycle, being in a union job.

Anyway, I was meant to start work at 3.30. I had told William I was going to walk to work as I wanted to stop off at the scrapbooking store behind the mall. Usually I walk right through the mall, so going to this store would mean walking behind the mall and then through the upstairs parking lot and taking the bridge over the road to the hospital. A lovely walk on a beautiful day.

I bought plenty of paper for some projects I am meant to be doing along with a really gorgeous chipboard laced framermajinger. Everything in the store was on sale and there is nothing I love more than a good sale. Not that 15% off is a good sale, but it's okay.

When I went to leave I noticed it was raining. Not badly, but not a light rain either. By the time I got to the crosswalk it was pretty strong. By the time I crossed the street it was pouring. My biggest mistake was not staying under the parkade. I ran up a set of stairs thinking it would be quicker to cross the bridge. By the third step I was absolutely soaked. I couldn't even find the bridge when I got up there, there was that much rain and hail. Back down I went. When I came out of the parkade it was just a light rain. When I got to the crosswalk it started hailing again. I made it into hospital without getting hit by too much hail, but was soaked to the skin. My new Mary Jane crocs (which I love, love, love) were so wet they were squeaking.

It's a lucky thing I didn't wear my scrubs to work, I would have had nothing to change into and would have been forced to wear the green scrubs that the ER nurses wear and that we are not allowed to wear. They complain everytime we do, though we have one guy who is about 6'6" and none of ours fit him so he has to wear those ones. I don't mind being caught out in the rain, but it was a bit of shame today because my hair looked freaking fantastic, which is not something I say often about my hair, but by the time I got there I looked slightly like a mangy mutt. A wet one at that.

So work was pretty good. I meet a lot of interesting characters. I come across some right freaking eejits too. Those are usually staff members. Here's a few examples (since I know you are dying to know):
- last weekend when I worked I was paged to take a patient from ER up to the floor. The patient had isolation precautions posted on her door and the nurse must have noticed me looking at it, because he said "Oh you don't need to glove or gown. Don't worry about it." Yeah. Obviously, if she's in isolation there's a reason. This is a big issue with nurses, they often don't follow protocol, which gets us in shit with, say, the radiology department, because we haven't put their charts in pillowcases or whatever. So I go to take this very lovely lady up to the unit and as I look for her room number I see her diagnosis. Which, really? I shouldn't know, it's none of my business, but the room number is located right next to it. I take her up and she notices they are putting her in a semi private room with a patient that is not under isolation precautions. It's mentioned to the nurse and she says to me "What her diagnosis?" Were I a smart person I would have said "Excuse me? Are you not her nurse? Are you not aware of this before she arrives on your floor?" but all I said was "c-diff." They decided this was fine, she could room with this lady and I left on my merry way.
- today a nurse did my ultimate nurse pet peeve. She put the catheter bag over the side rails of the stretcher. This drives me crazy. Pee travels down, not up. This I think is a part of basic nursing education, it's definitely something I learned in my NA program. So I should think they learn it at some point in their 4 years of schooling.
- a nurse groaned loudly and for a long time when I brought up an obese patient. In front of her! I thought that was so rude. I also hate when nurses say in front of a patient "She is too heavy to lift on my own." and the dreaded "He's too fat for me to do by myself." Honestly, do these people not deserve a little respect?

I should point out that these are the small majority, I do think most of the nurses are fantastic. Really. I don't hate nurses, my best friend is one. And a fantastic one at that. She writes notes to the parents on behalf of the baby. She remembers patients (well, more there parents since babies do tend to change an awful lot over the years) ages later and will ask how those kids are doing. So there are great nurses. And there are some that you question why they are in their chosen profession since they seem to hate sick people.

Crap, this post is long. And I need to go to sleep so I shall save you from anymore Emmarants for today. Until tonight maybe, since I work again.

Tagged and loving it

I was going to steal this meme of off of Suburban Mum, but luckily enough Hannah tagged me for it. There's a little part of me that always has a lot of guilt in regards to stealing things, even memes, which I'm pretty sure are pretty much free for the taking. I mean, really would someone get mad about someone doing a meme they weren't tagged for? Perhaps if you didn't acknowledge where it came from. Maybe then it's okay to be pissed off. Anyway, I'm babbling. I should have just said "Thanks for tagging me Hannah!"

All the math in these rules confuses girls like me who came home with a report card mark of 23% in Math 20 inspiring my mother to yell mucho grando. And for my father to say "All those pimples on that boy's face...I bet he's a drug dealer!" Okay, so it wasn't my math mark that made him say that about my boyfriend, that was pretty much a daily statement. So he would have said it anyway that day. Again with the babbling. Here's the rules:

The rules are simple. There are 9 questions (3², each of which has 3 answers, to give a total of 27, or 3³. The whole point is that the questions are somewhere between eclectic, banal and downright bizarre, so that you can answer completely truthfully without actually giving much away. Just put down the first three answers that come to mind if you can’t work out the “most appropriate” three.

Objects Within One Metre Of You
1. my camera
2. all the CDs by Irish artists (I keep them separate. Sad.)
3. Weiman Natural Lemon Oil (because I polished one end table and the computer desk today and did not bother to put it away)


First Names of People You Sat Next To At School
1. Shauna (in elementary school. She peed her pants in Grade 5. That is my strongest memory of her. That, and the fact that her brother emptied his urostomy bag across the gym floor during lunch. Obviously there were some urine issues in this family.)
2. David in Grade 8 Language Arts
3. Lisa in assorted classes throughout our high school days at Mac. I remember lots of note writing, notes that I still have to this day. She says she reads this blog every day, she occassionally comments, so I wonder what she would think if I posted a picture of her on this blog. I think I only have a couple of pictures of us, from the grad weekend. Hmmm, I think I might. It being 16 years since graduation and all.

Programmes You Won’t Watch (Note I leave in the English spelling. I love English spellings.)
1. Anything with the word "Star" in it....Star Trek, Battlestar, Starship. William loves them, I hate them.
2. America's Top Model/ Canada's Top Model.
3. National Bingo Night. It's about bingo people! BINGO! That's just too crazy. I won't play the game in real life and I definitely won't watch it. Seriously one of the prizes was a $10,000 gift card to K-Mart. K-MART! It's just tacky chasing tacky. Though the host is freaking sexy.

Favourite Trivial Pursuit Categories
1. Geography
2. History
3. Arts and Literature

Superpowers You’d Like To Have
1. Invisibility, so I always know what people are saying about me.
2. To be faster than a speeding bullet, to clean my house quickquick like.
3. Flying, so I can go somewhere good quickly, without the expense of a plane ticket.

Newspapers, Magazines or Periodicals Read Regularly
1. Scrapbooks, Etc.
2. Today's Parent (quite possibly the best parenting magazine going.)
3. People (Jen's got a new man, if you care.)

Songs You Dislike
1. If I Were Going to Cheat by Gretchen Wilson. I hate that song. If you're in love it shouldn't even be a thought in your head.
2. the Doodlebops theme song...does my head in.
3. any rap song. Hate them all.

Blog Posts of Your Own That You’d Recommend
Aw crap. I don't know.
1. If you don't think it's stressful being the youngest than you are soooo wrong. A post from Sophie.
2. Does yelling at your kids make you a bad mother? And if you happen to read that post? The letter from Taylor is part of my upcoming Fun Monday post.
3. Taylor and the Bully. It's not the first time I've threatened a bully. It was the first time I was nice about it. Zero comments on this post people. Broke my poor little heart. I thought it was a good one.


People You’d Like to Tag
1. Alissa. Because she never does memes and you just know something in it will make you laugh.
2. Joy. Because she's a freaking riot.
3. Catwoman. Because she has yet to turn down a meme challenge. And it'll make you laugh too I am sure.

A jar of cards and what I'm reading

Last night I went to a stamp camp where we made a jar of cards. The jars are from Ikea and the paper and stickers are Stampin' Up of course. The jar holds 24 3x3 cards. I only managed to make 19 of them last night. They are pretty simple, which works well for me because I don't do complicated well. I should do ones like these more often, because it is much easier when your colours are already all chosen for you. We had access to 2 word stamp sets and a handful of punches, of which I used the flower one on a few cards. We had a few paper packages to choose from, looking at them last night I really wish I had chosen the Christmas one...would have made a fantastic teacher gift, or even better, a Christmas blogger swap gift.









On Monday I received postcards from CPA Mom, two for Taylor and one for me, a second arrived for me yesterday. Taylor collects postcards so I really appreciate her sending them my way. I also received a Jodi Picoult novel from M, My Sister's Keeper. M was very smart to send a package of kleenex along, as I have done nothing but cry since I started this book and I'm only on page 71! I'm a little worried about what the rest has in store for me.

And because they are 2 of the 5 people I love most in the world here is a photo of Saoirse and Sophie. I love the look on Saoirse's face. And. yeah, I still have the flowery yellow loveseat. I did replace the couch though. But that loveseat is the most comfortable piece of furniture I have ever owned. And if they actually made decent slipcovers I would buy one.

Like a dog chasing its tail

The other night Liam was amusing Saoirse with a little pen light thing that flashed a red light. He was making it run over the walls, which had her laughing hysterically. And then he shined it on her. And she went crazy. She had a pencil in her hand and was trying to hit away this red light. "Go away, light, go away!" She was still laughing though so we didn't tell him to stop. Seriously, I would have if she had been getting upset. Probably. Maybe. She then dropped the pen and started pinching herself, which is when I grabbed the camera and started taking pictures. Shame the red light doesn't show up. And shame that I didn't post this the night it happened and it was fresh in my mind and the post potentially could have been very funny. Shame that. But still, she's bloody adorable isn't she?

Fun Monday - My Kitchen

Joy's challenge for this week's Fun Momday was to show our kitchens. I am NOT a fan of my kitchen. It is way too small for a family of 6. But, hey, at least I have my own kitchen. And in this city, where there's plenty of working people who are homeless, that's a good thing.

This is my kitchen table, which is normally full of stuff, since it is where I do everything from crafts to paying bills to writing letters. Sometime in the next year we need to upgrade to a table for 6. IKEA has a fantastic one that goes from 2- 6, which means when we are not all around I can fold down. And actually have some room to move. I took this picture standing at the edge of the livingroom. If you look closely at the bottom of the picture, you can see the tray of Sophie's high chair. There is no other place to put it, the patio doors are immediately to the left of the table, so if the highchair were any nearer to the table it would be blocking the entrance. We do move her closer when we eat, I'm not that terrible a mother. Underneath the microwave there are picture frames, I've lived here 10 months and still not put up all my photos.

The fridge and oven. I love magnets and pictures, can you tell? They drive my mother crazy, she thinks they make a mess. My favourite on there is a Family Circus strip that says "All the best artists in heaven get to paint sunsets and butterflies." Underneath the stove is a cabinet with the door taken off, as we are constantly regluing it. Freaking cheap 1970s cabinets. I didn't include it in the picture because it is just too white trash-y. This picture was taken with my back to the restof the kitchen.

Turn around and you get these two pictures. The first is the left side of the kitchen and is the stove top. And most importantly, my tea kettle. I love me a cup of a tea, numerous times a day. I have to say that this space is so small, the moment someone else comes in I get all claustraphobic.


The right side is a mish mash of junk, the toaster, undercounter CD player, all of Saoirse's Little People CDs and the Curious George soundtrack (which I love), the chore jars that my children never look at, a bubblegum machine cookie jar (filled with Easter chocolate currently), and Taylor's Spongebob water dispenser. Saoirse often sits on the counter while I do dishes and we listen to CDs. She laughs at my silly dancing. It's one of the best part of my days. Note the white stain on one of the cabinets. Too much boiling of water, that's where the tea kettle use to sit. And note also the 3 doors that are not completely shut. They really do shut, but are too full of crap to do so. Thank God Joy didn't ask to see inside our cabinets.

Here is my calendar, which I would die without. It is a more time moms calendar, put out by Chatelaine and I love it. I love the huge boxes, where I have plenty of room to write. The first 3 months of the year we were all colour coded, but eventually the pens made there way somewhere else and now it is just blue.


My corkboard, which is usually full of junk but I had just moved it so cleaned it off. The dead roses are from when Sophie was born. See that swatch of yellow? That's the colour I am going to pain the kitchen. I love a yellow kitchen, it just makes it seem so homey. This particular shade of yellow is called Crazy Daisy. I picked it because of the name, it just makes me smile everytime I say it. It comes from Debbie Travis' cheerful line. And a kitchen should always be cheerful.

And finally, my never used portable dishwasher. It sits in the diningroom area, and it never gets used. I am waiting for William to change my taps. And then maybe I will use it. But not unless I clean off the top. Right now it is a catchall for paperwork, pictures that still need to be hung and any other junky thing that makes its way into my house. Ideally, all that is supposed to sit on there is place mats and salt and paper shakers. I thought I had better show you this one, because it is typical Emma.


I am going to pop over to Molly's to see what the challenge for the next Fun Monday is. Pray God she does not ask to see my bathroom.

Two Things

I'm stealing this off of both CPA Mom and Amy.

Two names you go by:
-Emma
-Mummy, Mum, Mommy, Mummmmummma

Two things you are wearing right now:
-pajama pants
-St. Patricks Day 2003 tshirt. There's nothing like holding on to clothes for years.

Two things you would want (or have) in a relationship:
-friendship
-great sex (just not enough of it sadly)

Two of your favourite things to do:
-read (books and blogs)
-shop

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
-air conditioning (we have a "summer" furnance, but I'm too cheap to use it, feck knows I pay enough for heat in the winter, I'm not paying for cool air in the summer)
-free money (any ideas?)

Two pets you have had:
-dogs (a mutt called Toby and a West Highland Terrior called Brittany.)
-cats (Sid, Mackenzie, Sputnik, Fergus, Brianna, Ronan, and numerous kittens due to the sluttish ways of Brianna who took advantage of her son Ronan (or was it Rory?) and got knocked up)
I totally cheated on that one, I know.

Two people I would like to do this:
-Frannie
-Terri
Will they? I don't know. I hate tagging people. I would like you all to do it really.

Two things you did last night:
-worked until 7
-read in bed

Two things you ate today:
-french toast (William makes it every Sunday)
-roast pork with mint sauce. I love mint sauce.

Two people you last talked to:
-On the phone: my mum and my friend Shelley
-In person: William and Sophie.

Two things you are doing tomorrow:
-babysitting Bennett
-attending a board meeting
Oh, and posting for Fun Monday, hosted by Joy

Two longest car rides:
-Edmonton to Vancouver
-London to Amsterdam (it was a bus ride, does that count?) (On the bus ride back two girls got pulled off for carrying drugs. The police were nicer to them than the garda were to the black girl doing absolutely nothing wrong on the way to Dublin. In fact they were really nice. The others...complete and total assholes. I bring that incident up a lot, sorry. It still bothers me immensely. I should have filed a complaint. Anyhoo, I digress. Back to my two things.)

Two favourite holidays:
-Christmas
-Sophie's first birthday (exactly 2 months from today! I picked hers because she is my first summer baby, the first one we can have an outdoor barbeque for -read cheap)

Two favourite beverages:
- Tea (the hot stuff, I like ice tea but not made with tea bags like you Americans do it. Give me some crystals anyday!)
- Water, with 5 calories of strawberry kiwi goodness. Because that damn flylady tells me I have to drink my water for the month of June.


*If you watch Oprah tomorrow (today, by the time you read this) there's a couple from Edmonton discussing their nightly sex life. Which is great for them, but if I were him and had to listen to her voice I'd have a heard time getting it up, ya know? Oh, and she says she was surprised at how much more conservative Americans are about sex as compared to Canadians. Apparently she has never read bee-bop's blog!

My secret swap gift received!

My very cute post man came to the door today asking if I was me, because there was a package with the wrong address and he just wanted to make sure that Emma lived at this house. Yes, I say, that's me. I said that after I had recited my proper address of course, one always has to make sure one knows where they live. Joy, who sent me the most amazing package of goodies, had put 98 instead of 91. Now I used to live on 98th avenue, and with almost the exact same street number and house number so the 2 addresses are very closely related and it took me a moment to confirm that I was indeed me. Joy has a very funny post from yesterday about how she was wondering why her secret swap person had not yet mentioned that they had received their package and as she was cleaning up she discovered why. It was sitting under a pile of papers. Ah, Joy, that is such a classic Emma move. (I recently discovered 3 CDs that I thought I had mailed out twice from a swap last November. I had better get those in the mail.) Anyway, you should go read that post. It was very amusing. Generally, Joy makes me laugh everyday.

Just as an aside, if you do read Joy's post note that it was from yesterday. As in Wednesday. Today is Thursday and it arrived in less than 24 hours. You people with good postal service (aka Royal Mail) would not know that it takes a package mailed from within Edmonton like 3 days to arrive. Canada Post must sit on their asses and do I don't know what, but this was sent express post and seriously I could have waited an extra few days to save Joy a few bucks. Anywhere else it would have arrived the next day just by regular mail but not here. Though, I shouldn't complain too much because the package I sent to my SSS person arrived in 2 weeks instead of the 4-6 they told me.

This is what I received:

A chipboard book with dividers. I think I will make an address book out of it. A tin, which I will decorate perhaps make a photo album with. A package of envelopes. 2 packs of craft flowers. 2 packs of gum. Alphabet stickers. Chipboard letters. Decorative paper clips. Ribbon. 2 pens. A bunch of Rocket necklaces (stolen by my kids.) Burt's bees lip balm, cuticle cream and banana hand cream (which smells delicious and tastes like crap.) (Of course I tried it, I'm a 6 year old girl in an overweight 33 year old body.) (Don't tell me you wouldn't have tried something that smelled that delicious.) (Liars.)

So Joy, here's to you:


And thanks so much frannie, I had such fun with this. Now when's the next swap?

It just seems so wrong

At the risk of offending my American readers, especially those of you from any state that can wear shorts in December, I just have to say that a team named after a Disney movie, a team that, until last year, had a picture of a duck in a hockey mask that was more Jason from Friday the 13th than goalie, winning the Stanley Cup is just plain wrong.

Whew, that was a long run on sentence.

Unlike last year, when I wrote this "letter"* to the Carolina Hurricanes or this post predicting (wrongly!) that the Oilers would win the Cup I have not followed the playoffs too much this year. Until my last post I had made no mention of the playoffs at all. Why? Because the freaking Oilers sucked this year and didn't even make it to the playoffs. And why did they go from the finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs last year to nada this year? It may have had something to do with the defection of Chris Pronger, a man rumoured to have had an affair with a local sportscaster (a female one, in case you wondered) that so pissed off his wife she demanded he leave the team a year into his 5 year contract. Foolish, foolish man. I'm of the opinion that the majority of professional athletes sleep around but I assume that they are smart enough to do it on the road, not at home with someone in the news. Eejit. Anyhoo, I digress. The Oilers traded Chris Pronger to where? The Anaheim Ducks, formerly the Mighty Ducks. So of all teams to make it to the cup finals? I so did not want it to be the Ducks. I am sure there were other factors in the Oilers breakdown this year, but he was a pretty big part of it. Trading Ryan Smyth at the deadline- maybe not so smart either but I understand it from a financial point of view.

Have I lost you all yet? I know there's a few of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, and a bigger group who could care less. Stay with me, it's only one post.

So yeah. There was no hockey posting, or watching, for me. Until game 3 of this fianl series in the playoffs. One Canadian team vs. one American team. Our nation's capital vs. the home of Disneyland. The Ducks won the first 2 games. Crappy. The Senators won Game 3. I was a little excited. There were letters in the paper saying that a true Oilers fan would not be supporting the Senators to win. I don't believe that at all. That would then be saying that a true Oilers fan, or a true fan of any of the other 28 teams, would not be watching this final because there team is not in it. I supported Ottawa because I wanted to see the Stanley Cup back in Canada. I don't deny that at all. There are 6 Canadian teams and 24 American teams. So much of the game has been taken away to entice American viewers. I think it is great that many of those American teams sell out their arenas, but the reality is that hockey is a Canadian game, I don't think anyone would deny that. Americans have football and basketball and baseball. We have hockey. We have a Stanley Cup that has not been won by a Canadian team in 14 years. Americans will never tune into NBC in droves to watch a regular Saturday night hockey game. Not even if they aired them.

So I did want Ottawa to win. And it didn't happen. Which is sad. I know the Cup will make it's way through Canada this year. I believe something like 19 of the Ducks are Canadian and they all will get a chance to bring the cup home. It's not the same as belonging to a Canadian team for the year though. Ah well, there is always next year. When Edmonton will hopefully win it. And if not, I will cheer for Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal.

*Just in case you happened to be the one person who clicks on links and read that letter to the Carolina Hurricanes while Liam didn't actually get beat up for his support of that team, he did get pushed to the ground by 2 boys. Kids are mean little feckers.

Dazed and confused and Don Cherry

Dazed... Yesterday I was making a salad and instead of using my regular old plastic tupperware I decided to go for the fancy glass bowl, which is in a box and has probably been used maybe 5 times since 1994. It's on the top shelf of my cupboard and as I am short I had a hard time reaching it. I finally managed to inch it along far enough when KABOOM a marble cheese plate (which has never been used, the fecking thing) landed on the top of my head. I have a huge bump, which hurts to touch and I have been nursing a headache for approximately 29 hours.

Confused... For the last few months Taylor has been mentioning that she is not that keen on meat. First it was hotdogs and hamburgers, tonight chicken joined her list. Here's where my confusion comes in- the child doesn't like vegetables. Unless they are carrots and raw only, thanks very much. So what do I do? What do I serve her? William is really worried about her, he says she doesn't eat enough. He believes she is on the verge of an eating disorder. She never has breakfast and packs god knows what for lunch. I have said I would have no problem making her vegetarian meals, if she would actually eat the veggies. My brother has been a vegetarian for about 10 or so years, every time he comes he makes these amazing dishes that she won't even try. So what to do?

Don Cherry... Oh God, Don Cherry. How does a nice Canadian girl explain to Americans that you are, for some unknown reason, a Canadian icon? You are loud and brash and anti European, which bothers me due to the fact that I was actually born on that continent. You dress like a 1920s mobster. And yet, you are so well loved. it's strange to me. Usually I disagree with what you have to say. Tonight though I was in full agreement with what you said while sitting with the NBC sportscasters about the NHL and NBC dumbing down the game and being wrong about getting rid of fighting. I know American TV dollars are huge, but true American hockey fans are not stupid. Fighting is a part of the game, it always has been. And shock of all shocks, that Brett Hull and I agreed on this matter too. But it doesn't mean that I'm suddenly going to like him.

Fun Monday- My semi finished project

Today's Fun Monday is being hosted by Karmyn, go over to her blog for the full list of participants. Today, we were to show something we have made. I've been showing a few of my things on here, and since scrapbooking and card making is all that I can do I have to stick with that theme.

This is, as I mentioned in my last post, the project we made at May's stamp club. I didn't make it there until the end, just enough time to place my order and pick out what remained of the paper. And slim pickings it was. I do like this paper, but when I picked it out I had no idea what I was going to do with the art journal.




And I had no idea until I had already mod poged the paper on to the covers what I would do with it. I decided to turn it into a memory book for Taylor, to remember her elementary school days. Had I known this would turn into a book for my oldest I would have used purple and a lot of it. Anyway, the chipboard piece with the ribbon is stamped with the word cherish. As in cherish these days, because the seventh grade and junior high are coming up quickly and it really is a whole new world. One that I hope brings her many new friends, as well as maintaining the old and a better belief in (and respect for) her abilities.


There are quite a few pages in this journal and I will have three dividers. The first one will be for friends. I have sent out an email to the mum's whose addresses I know requesting pictures of their kids. If I can find the time without taylor finding out what I am doing I am hoping to get over to the school and have those kids write something about her, or at least sign their name next to the picture. If not, I will just write something about them...how long they have been friends or whatever. The second section, and you see the divider here, is for her teachers. Her kindergarten teacher is long gone, but all the others are still at the school. Her second grade teacher has been on mat leave for this year but I am pretty sure I can still get her picture. I emailed the principal tonight looking for help in getting the teachers' pictures. Taylor really loved her Grade 4 teacher, so I think I will probably ask her to write soemthing about Taylor. I am sure she will, this is the same lady who called me up one night in February to get our new address so she could send Taylor a Valentines card.



The last section will be memories of elementary school and I will include pictures of school dances, first days, hot lunches and whatnot. I think Taylor will really get a kick out of this. At least I hope so. And I hope that it will be finished prior to the end of June.

I can't believe there's less than a month of school left. But that's a whole other post. One which may include a rant.