The zombie apocalypse is coming!!!

I was subjected to a horrifying news story on a real-life zombie. Click Here

It left me thinking ... I knew it would happen sooner or later.

So, here are a few of the things I have learned that you should do to live through a Zombie Apocalypse

1. Be prepared! You should have a kit ready including such things as weapons, extra ammo, rope, maps, radios/walkie-talkies with extra batteries, a general knowledge of making molitofs or aerosol bombs and the supplies for it, food that doesn't go bad!! Water!!
2. Be doubly prepared! Find or make a special place (or a few of them for that matter) where you can store more of this stuff in case yours runs out.
3. Double- Tap... need I say more?
4. Get in shape. You'll need to be able to outrun those nasty creatures
5. NEVER assume you are safe
6. Always know where you will will be sleeping
7. Take a multi-vitamin

I figure there are probably more, but this is just what I came up with.
Let me know if you think of anything else..

Its been a while

So, having not posted something in a while, I'm not quite clear where to start.

Life is a little hectic right now. Our place is currently listed for sale and the constant necessity to have it spotless is insane.
Same routine every morning: Get everyone up to get ready then make them clean up their rooms, I wipe down both bathrooms and the kitchen, turn on the dishwasher with the newly dirtied breakfast dishes in it, take out the garbage and recycling on the way out and sometimes even vacuum.

Each day it is a hope that my Realtor will call me to say that we have a showing and that person will buy our place. I need a place for my dogs to play outside and for my kids to play outside and have a recroom. We all need somewhere to go other than our rooms or the living room.
I can't wait to move.

My G&G's house is sold. They will be moving near the end of July. That crushed me. The only consistent house I have ever had is going to someone else. I think that is super hard on me cause of the amount I have moved in my life.

My goal now is to find that place. I want the house that the family comes to for Christmas and Easter and BBQ's. The place where anyone is welcome when they need a place to stay for the night or a weekend. My grandma has been still doing this for the last few years when that torch should have already passed to the next generation.

My daughter is leaving elementary school for middle school.... I feel old! She is growing up so fast and its freaking me out. She is an amazing kid with a huge heart and I don't want her to grow up yet.

Life seems to be moving at such a breakneck speed in some aspects and so incredible slow in others. I'm kinda feeling like I am being pulled around.... not fun!

Struggling...

I am struggling right now, with a few things...

My grandparents have accepted that they have gotten to the age where they need to sell their house. This is the one place in my life that has been consistant for me. Its sad for the family in general I think. My daughter and I have been going over there trying to help by getting stuff all cleaned up and clear out a bunch of stuff to prepare for listing and selling.

I have been wondering what direction I want to go in life. The same thing always creeps into the back of my head. I really want to start a clothing line. I have been sketching some designs since I was a teenager and just feel its what I should be doing. There is a hiccup.... I can't sew. I have been trying to find somewhere that I could learn how to, but to no avail.

My house... or lack thereof. I am working to get our place fixed up so that we can sell it. I started with tiling of my ensuite. I am quite pleased with the outcome and look forward to doing the main bath, the laundry room and the entry way. That should provide some added value. Hopefully we can work something out to get us into a better place before the busy summer season starts.

Kids, this is something I struggle with all the time. I love my kids dearly but sheesh. I try and try and try and always feel like I fall short in their eyes. I would love to be a stay at home mom, be able to go to all my daughter's volleyball, soccer, basketball etc games and volunteer in my son's class all the time, but its just not a possibility. Maybe this is part of me feeling lost in my direction in life.



Lets not look too far into this though. I love my kids, I have an amazing husband and am lucky enough to have a lot of family, both blood and extended... I just struggle.

All said and done aka- a little update

Well, the last presants were opened, the last large meal was been cooked and the last of the family gatherings were attended for the year 2011.

Another fabulous Christmas season has come and gone. I cooked my first full turkey dinner, and had 3 other great meals in a span of 3 days. I believe that I gained upwards of 12 pounds in December (and I enjoyed every minute of it).

We enjoyed 3 trays of jello shots and a TON of food with the inlaws for New Years.

We are all back to the grind of work and very much out of the holidy season feeling, despite the fact that I have yet to take down all my decorations. The way I figure is if my real tree is still green and pretty, it can stay up. Christmas is so fleeting, I like to enjoy it as long as possible.

After a pretty crazy week of winter it seems like we just have a lot of rain on the horizon. The kids are back into school. Reece is doing amazingly well in Kindergarten reading at a Grade 1 level. Syd is right back into sports and loving it.

Like the title says, just a little update

Winding down for the Holidays

This is my last work day before Christmas and will also be my last blog before then.

I love this time of year. I am happy to take my kids and dogs and help my grandparents prepare the house for the family arriving on the 24th and then spend the rest of the day hard at work preparing my house. It needs a good thorough cleaning before company comes on the 26th.

I love seeing all the family!! Its the best part of the year!!

So here is me, wishing all of you, a very Merry Christmas!

May it bring you all the blessings of love, family, and magic that Chrstimas has to offer.

I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. ~Charles Dickens

My favorite...

I am wondering what everyone's favorite Christmas foods are? Is it 1 thing that you think of right away, or is it a combination of things?

My favorite depends on who's house I am at.

At my Mom-in-laws house it is these little egg cup things that she makes for breakfast, at my grandma's it is the chicken wings and cabbage rolls, at Aunt Liz's house it is the green bean cassarole, at step-mom-in-law it would be just about everything, and at my Auntie Janette's house it is all the homemade goodies for after dinner.

What's your favorite?

Enjoying Christmas for the important parts...

We had the great pleasure of being able to enjoy a side of our family that we don't often see. Sure, its a mish-mashed group, but we love them.

My hubby's sister was good enough to host everyone at her house and everyone that came pitched in what we could to help out. I was more than happy to do the veggies, stuffing, a few home made goodies and a bunch of drinks.

We were all pretty squished in there, but we listened to Christmas music, chatted, skyped with my in-laws in Ontario, almost spilled all the turkey juice on the floor, spilled orange pop on the carpet, and I got to know 2 of my nieces a lot better. I loved hearing Devry say "auntie Steph, again?" to me over and over after singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

Dinner was fabulous, all the appies were amazing and all went well.

This is one of my favorite parts of Christmas, spending time with loved ones. It just makes me happy :)

Trying something new

So, after seeing all the yummy flavored vodka's while we were in the states for our anniversary I decided to give it a shot making my own seeing as we don't have all those yummy flavors here.

At home right now I have 2 jars of vodka that is infusing with marshmallow and coffee. I am quite excited to see what they turn out like.

Its a pretty basic process. Simply find a air-tight container (not plastic) and pick the flavor you would like. As I mentioned, I am doing one marshmallow and one coffee. Simply put some of whatever flavor you would like into the jar and fill with the vodka, close and give it a vigorous shake for 30 seconds.

Store in a cool place such as a cupboard or fridge. A few times a day, give it another shake. The amount of time you leave the flavoring in depends on how much flavor you would like. Simply open after 24hrs and take a small amount as a sample.

Once it is at the desired infusion, you have to strain the mixture. You can use a tea strainer with cheese cloth or a coffee filter. This may need to be done a few times depending on how much granules are left in the liquid, but the more you strain, the more flavor you run the risk of losing.

Once strained, store in a clean air-tight container such as a mason jar or flask and make sure to label it.

I plan on trying a caramel, and possibly a vanilla one next.

~Have fun trying it yourself!~

Merry Christmas Everyone!

PS- 8 days till Christmas :)

The mad rush....

Tuesday was the primary Christmas production for Vedder Elementary. My son was a very proud Reindeer and made a point of mentioning that we just HAD to see him perform.

The children were supposed to be at GW Graham at 6:10 to get ready for their part and it was supposed to start at 6:30. I dropped the kids off first so Syd could get Reece where he needed to go and grab us some seats and ran home to grab hubby.

When we got to the school there was a line of 30-40 people waiting to get into the tiny auditorium to see the kids. There were about a quarter of the amount of seats needed to fit everyone who was there to see it.

The teachers had to actually ask people who had seen the 1:00 performance if they would mind stepping out so that people who hadn't seen it yet could watch. They had to ask people who had their other children sitting on chairs to sit them on their laps to make room for others.

Here is where I had a problem. For every 1 kid performing, there seemed to be 10 adults, it was ridiculous. There were some parents that didn't get too see their kid because an Aunt, or brother-in-law, or other relative or friend was sitting down. I didn't think that was right.

Luckily after the 4th time that the audience was asked to vacate unnecessarily used seats, some more people did and hubby and I got a seat. Sydney had to wait outside the auditorium because she had already seen the earlier show.

Right after Reece was done performing, hubby and I left to give up our seats to other parents who did not have any and headed home for dinner.

Luckily, even though we were on the opposite side of the stage from Reece, I had brought my zoom lens and got some good photos.

I have amazing kids

I think sometimes we as parents forget about how fabulous our kids really can be.

    Take my daughter for instance. She recieved some money from my mom and her hubby for Christmas and has since been spending it trying to remember everyone that we see for christmas and buy them something, no matter how small. The only thing is that she has spent quite a bit of her money on it now and I just put a stop to it. See, she wants a few really expensive things for Christmas and I had to remind her that she needs to save her money for those things. Her response was "I just don't want to hurt anyones feelings by not getting them anything." Could she BE any sweeter?

   My son yesterday asked me what a demon was. Considering I went to private school I explained it by telling him the difference between Angels and Demons. He then told me that he has to work very hard to make sure no demons get into his brain. I told him that he has too good of a heart to have demons in his brain. He walked up to me, gave me his adorable grin that he does, placed both his hands on my cheeks and said "mom, your my angel" and walked away. Could he BE any sweeter?

I truly am blessed to have such great kids