Oh happy day!

Oh joy, oh joy, oh joy! I am besides myself with happiness right now. Finally after eight years of complaining I am finally getting my wish. New flooring! Yippee yippee! This ugly, old thing that has to be close to 20 years old now will soon be gone forever! We bought a maple laminate floor. Big thanks to my sister Julie for giving us a few boxes of the same flooring that she had left over from her floor that I loved. Saved us a bunch of money. Oh the joys of no stains, quicker cleanups, less allergies. (it will really be better now for when we do get finally get that dog too, no pet carpet stains :) )

My brother in law also offered to come over to help us install it. How great is that. So got to make sure we have some beer, pizza and wings from Molino's for them. It is a local pizzeria that they love and miss since moving over an hour away from here. It is the very least that we can do for all that they have done and are doing for us.

Other news over here; Ed is done with chemo! Yeah! He still is going to go for radiation therapy to be on the safe side. His doctor's say that the chances of the lymphoma coming back are very slim. So another big yeah there. It still seems surreal to me at times these past few months and all that we've been through. I wouldn't wish it on anyone though its been a rough ride. I am just so lad that things health wise are getting back on track, now only if his job situation would.

Little Miss Sally

Today at dance she had her Halloween party look at my little Sally.







She makes me so proud by choosing to be nothing cutesy for Halloween. Last year she went as a dead pop star. She is really a girl after my own heart.

All set costume wise for Halloween

Lillian finally decided on what she wanted to be for Halloween.

Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas!
Madeline is going as Sally from the same movie. My mother in law made her the costume. (Those girls did me proud choosing something on the darker side. I am so into Halloween, but really not into the cutesy stuff, give me zombies, vampires, werevolves and the likes of those).

I was out and about today and decided to go to the mall to pick up her costume.
Lo and behold it was on sale! YIPPEE!! 50% OFF (I did a lil dance in the Disney Store).



I also picked up a costume for myself since it too was 50% off, in fact all the Nightmare Before Christmas stuff was 50% off. I need to go back and get some more

So just like Mads I too am going to be Sally


I also picked up these for myself, gonna use them as pj's




I got all of this stuff believe it for the full price of the adult costume.

I love it when I can get deals like this.

sort of bummed

I talked to a lady from the greyhound rescue group and was told that there are not a lot of dogs available at the moment and that there are people on the list ahead of me. It is racing season now and the dogs are on the tracks but those that don't do so well might be released before the end of the season but come spring there will be a whole new crop that will need homes.

I <3 this time of year.

mmm....fall

I love this time of year, pretty colors, cool days, perfect nights for sleeping. Today smelled so crisp and clean. I had my windows open to air out the house a bit. There is something about this time of year that makes me crave beef stew as well. Tonight for dinner I cooked us up a pot. It was good today but tomorrow it will be even better. It is always better the next day. It really warmed out tummies. Another thing that I love about this time of year is something I hate as well. The fact that it gets dark earlier, the only reason I love it is a very selfish one. My kids see that it is dark outside and they will tell me that it is bedtime. :) So here it is 7:45 and they went to bed on their own. I just hope that they stay there but so far for the long run. So far its been quiet they went into their room around 7:30. (cross your fingers for me). It is nice sitting here alone in the quiet, Ed is at the Sabres hockey game tonight maybe I will break out a drink sit back put my feet up on the couch, turn on the tv and knit some. Or I just may stay here on the computer too. ;)

Wheels have been set in motion...

I just sent our information to a local greyhound rescue group. So hopefully soon we will be adding a member to our family here. After researching a few breeds we have agreed that this is the perfect dog for us.

Also its a boy! Yes Julie found out that her baby has a penis so I will be having a nephew come March. I started to knit him a hooded receiving blanket. It feels so warm already. Madeline wants me to knit her doll Vanessa one. Vanessa is a Lee Middleton vinyl life sized new born doll. Lillian has one too, a boy she calls Benjamin. Funny thing is about these dolls is that they are as long as mine were at birth and they weigh more then mine did. Hard to believe that a doll weighs more then my babies did. Madeline was 5lb 13oz and Lillian was 6lb 14oz. The dolls are 7lbs.

In a way I am a tad disappointed it is a boy. I have a ton of baby girl stuff here I have been saving. But at least all those noisy infant toys that Auntie Julie bought my girls can be returned to her now. (evil laughter) Would it be bad to get an unborn baby a drum set for this Christmas?

Tick tock tick tock

Well it happens to us all I guess. I am blaming the colder weather. I over slept this morning, not by too much but by enough to have to leave the house with wet hair. Since Madeline was moved into the next level for her dance classes, her class switched days and times. I mean I knew that it would happen and I am so proud of her for being one of the three kids from her class last year to advance to the next level. But they are held on Saturday mornings. One of the days I could actually sleep in. Add to the fact that I will have at least a 10-15 minute wait it seems at the Tim Horton's window to get my morning dose of caffeine ( I can not function without my morning tea), meaning that I have to leave our house a tad earlier to get it.

Well I usually get up between 7 and 8 on Saturday mornings, today I woke up at 9:15. So I woke Madeline up, gave her her tights and leotard to put on and jumped in the shower. Got out quickly dried off threw on some clothes. Told Mads that she needed some clothes to put on over her dance stuff since it is now cold out here. And we were off. Did I forget to mention that while all of that was going on Lillian was throwing a fit because she wanted to go too, and good ol daddy staying in bed. Lovely right. At least we made it there on time.

Picture day & attack of the squirrels

Boy has a lot changed since I was in elementary school so many years ago. I just got back from visiting Madeline at school for lunch time. The people taking the school pictures were also set up in the cafeatorium (combo of the school's auditorium and cafeteria) . I was shocked at how many of the kids were in jeans and a tee shirt. I can see my mother having a hissy fit over this. While I am not one to overly dress my daughter for school I do try to make sure that her school wardrobe consists of more than ratty jeans and tee shirts. Yes she will wear jeans now and again even some days jeans and a nice tee shirt. But I was like come on now people its picture day, surely you have a nice outfit that you can send junior off to school in. Another thing that shocked me was the lack of mothers helping the photographers out. I mean back in the day when I was small there were always moms there helping out making sure the kids hair looked good. That shirts were buttoned correctly that stains on shirts were somewhat cleaned up. And we always got that comb, it just wasn't picture day without that free cheap plastic comb. Seems now they will just shoot the picture no matter how the kid looks. I was pissed last year when in Mads spring picture no one bothered to fix her pig tails. So the photo came back with her hair all lopsided. I've dabbled in photography, even had a few paying shoots and I would never never ever take a pic where I felt that the subject didn't look presentable.

Now on to part two, what is with all the squirrels around lately? I have never seen so many before. Backyard, front yard, next door, across the street, every where I look I see at least one bushy tail. It drives me nuts, (no pun intended) when people will say "oh look how cute they are", um hello...they are just rats with a bushy tails, much like seagulls are just rats with wings. These "rats" are getting so bold here too coming right up on my front porch, maybe within a couple feet of us when we are outside. I have never seen then act this brazen here before. I just cannot wait for winter in a way, (did I just say that? Must be getting sick), at least then I won't have to see them any more. Well at least not until spring right?

Grocery store dramas

This afternoon I took the girls to Tops to do some grocery shopping. They wanted to sit in the cart with the two plastic seats. I strapped Lillian in and was helping Madeline adjust her straps when I heard a blood curdling scream. A bee had stung Lilly on the palm of her hand. She is freaking out as the bee is trying to free itself. Maddie is freaking out because she sees a bee. This was my first dealing with a bee sting as a mom. I managed to pull out the stinger and I start walking to customer service to see if they had anything I could put on it. But of course there was a line a mile long. People are now stopping and turning towards the lady with the two screaming kids, and tongues are wagging. I mention to them that my little one was just stung by a bee in the foyer. I walked up to the cashier at the check yourself out station thinking she might have something in her little desk there.

I am tapped on the shoulder by a lady and she told me that she was just at the front desk and asked for a manager to assist me. She is trying to help me get the girls calmed down. She even went as far as giving them both a dollar. She was a real sweet lady. The dollar worked for a few minutes too. The front end manager came up to me and asked what happened. Lilly showed her her hand and told her that a bad bee stung her between her sobs. She looked at her hand and told me that she thought that I had gotten the stinger out. (I had already known that since I pulled it out). She went to the aisle with all the medicines and came back with some anti-bacterial, medical spray and a band aid. Funny how band aids make everything better. She also gave each girl a candy bar. I thought that was very nice of her.

I ended up seeing that manager again while I was checking out. Seems that the chicken I had purchased rang up at a whopping $807.49 when it was scanned. It was marked $7.49. So when the cashier put her light on for assistance and it was her that came to my rescue once again. She made some joke about this just not being my day. Adjusted the price for me and called the meat department about their little error while the cashier finished checking me out.

Wedding Bells

On Saturday my cousin Mary finally got married to her long time beau Cory. I have never seen her look more beautiful. She is such a laid back person, no make up, hair pulled back, most always in a sweat shirt and jeans kind of gal seeing her all dressed up even took my breath away. I took this event to spruce up my wardrobe as well. I bought two new dresses for it. One for the church and one for the reception. New shoes, I even went to get my hair done. Which is quite a feat for me since I feel guilty buying myself anything. It is that whole mom martyr thing that I have going on. Always sacrificing things that I'd like, need in favor of getting the kids more stuff that they don't need. I must admit I did feel pretty all dressed up and the compliments about my appearance flowed. I usually have that tired house wife look going on. I wish I had the time to do my hair like I had it everyday. But with two kids, a hubby, a house, and soon a dog I doubt that it will be happening anytime in the near future. Maybe when my youngest starts school. (How many days is that now?).