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

Okay, so I forgot

I know I was supposed to be doing a blog daily, but hey, its the Christmas Season and we all get busy. So here is the breakdown on my fabulous Christmassy weekend.

Friday: after dropping the kids off at school, I ran to my office and helped to bag and count all the Blanket, Coat, etc donations that the Realtors gathered for the annual Blanket drive. When that was all done, I ran home, and got ready for my tattoo appointment.
Thats' right, I am now a branded woman. I am officially a badger.

Well, it got finished just in time to go pick up the kids from school. We grabbed a Booster Juice to keep our energy up and did a little running around.

After a little relaxing time at home, I took the kids to my mom-in-laws for the night as it was the evening of my work Christmas Party. I got home and hubby and I got ready and walked to the restaurant. It was a cold night, but a nice walk.

Dinner was fabulous! Go check out this place. Garrison Bistro.

Saturday: In the morning, hubby and I went out for a nice quiet breakfast alone. We met up with the rest of the in-laws afterwards to head to Stewarts Tree Farm to pick our Christmas Tree. We stomped around up there for the better part of 2 hours and came home with a fabulous tree. After a simple lunch of grilled cheese and veggies with dip we proceeded to decorate the house. It now looks like Christmas threw up all over it. I just love Christmas!!!

Seeing as we didn't have a chance to celebrate Reece's birthday with his Grandma Jo we all met at the Chillibowl and had a blast there before going for dinner at Mr.Mikes. Again, yummy food.

We took the kids home and hubby helped them use Reece's new gift, Dr.Dreadful Zombie Lab. See below:

Soon after this was taken, they also drank Zombie barf. Now, I know what you're thinking. "What does this have anything to do with Christmas?" Nothing at all except maybe the hat Syd is wearing.

We move on to Sunday: I got up and ran to the store to get all the stuff for eggs benny for the family and ended up getting a Turkey as well (free with points! Yay!)  Got home, fed the family, had a yummy Golden French Toast coffee from the Keurig and got ready to go out.

We all went to the Colossus in Langley to catch a showing of "White Christmas". Its definitely in my top 5 Christmas movies, so it was a real treat. Sitting next to my son hearing his running commentary made it even better.

It was a pleasure to have the inlaws join us for stew for dinner and a few Christmas specials on TV.

Once we got the kids into bed and hubby and I were just sitting on the couch, we decided to go out and take advantage of the extended hours that some stores are offering and get our Christmas shopping done. We did. It is so cool to be done already. 2 weeks to go and now anything else we get is just bonus.

Unfortunately, a great weekend has to end with work. So here I am, sitting at my desk, writing a super long blog because of my lack of any extra time to do so this weekend.

My special little guy

Today is my son's 6th Birthday.

He is super excited to finally be 6 and asked me to measure him against the wall. I went to get a measuring tape and he corrected me with "Just with your finger mom".

He stood as tall as he could against the wall and grabbed my hand and put it on his head. I told him to step away and he looked at it, smiled and said "I'm 6 years tall".

I love this kid. He is so funny and can make me laugh every day. Its hard for me to believe that 6 years ago, I had been sent away from the hospital to go get some breakfast while they waited for a room to clear so they could induce me. Who would have known all the things we would go through over the next 6 years with him.

He was born with a cleft palate. Not the lip like most people think when they hear that. He basically just didn't have the roof of his mouth. At 9 months he went through surgery to correct that and put the first set of tubes in his ears. Over the following 4 years we would travel back and forth to BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver for different tests and new tubes when the other ones came out.

About 1.5-2 years ago I was done with that treck and had our GP refer us to an ENT (aer, nose & throat doctor) here in Chilliwack.

Within the last week he just got his eigth set of tubes and is doing wonderfully in school. He is picking up on reading and aside from his IMMENSE love of video games, I couldn't be more proud of him.

He really is my special little guy

My day today

Today started as per usual, after the 3rd alarm I finally crawled my butt outta bed, woke both the kids and let the dogs out of the kennel.

 After the normal routine we left to get the kids to school and then off to work I went. We had a course held at work today so we had 50+ people through the office. The day went basically the same as every other day except for the time after work.

Today I got to visit an old friend in Agassiz to get my hair done. She brought up a good point after I said it takes barely 20 min to get to her house.

"It only takes that time and we see each other MAYBE twice a year".

  Isn't it funny how when we are teenagers, friends are the MOST important thing in our lives? As we get older our priorities change. For some it's school, for others it's work and for others its family. Whatever those things, we become busy and seldom see those people that were the most important part of our lives.

  I think it's a pretty easy way to tell if you have actually grown up or not.

A Blog a Day will Keep the Boredom Away

Here is my challenge to myself. From now till Christmas I will post a blog every day. Considering this is my third today, I will start a series tomorrow.

Taking Suggestions

So, I find that sometimes I am at a lack for things to Blog about.

So I am putting this out there. If anyone has a suggestion of something or just wants to hear my blab about anything specific, let  me know.

Post it in the comments.

Christmas is Coming!!

We are just a few days from December and I am EXCITED to say the least.

I love the traditions that we have every year:

Decorating the house on Dec 1st
Christmas shopping
The Santa Claus Parade
Reece's Birthday
Doing Christmas baking
Christmas shopping
Christmas cocktails
Packing up the kids and heading up to Stewarts Tree Farm to choose and cut down our own tree
Decorating the tree
Christmas shopping
Christmas cocktails
Making a gingerbread house
Cleaning the house for guests
Christmas shopping
Wrapping presents
Christmas cocktails
Driving around looking at Christmas lights
Christmas cocktails
Christmas cocktails
Hehehe
Getting together with family for some awesome times :)

This year we are doing a few new things which I am excited about:

• I will be cooking a Christmas dinner for my dad and his wife and my 2 step-bro's, we usually go to their house
• There is a movie night at the kids school on Reece's birthday showing classic Christmas movies
• White Christmas is playing on the big screen, so we will check that out
• Celebrating the marriage of one of my oldest friends to an amazing lady!

    There is so much this time of year to be thankful for. We are so privileged to be able to enjoy our families (most of them at least) and have so many to celebrate with. I know a lot of us have our differences but we seem to be able to work through them better this time of year. I am always most thankful for a warm house to sleep in (even if it is a disturbed sleep often), food to eat, friends to love and family who care. Not everyone has those things.

    I love Christmas Eve with my family. Reading the Christmas story from the Bible and the story of the first Candy Cane. All the amazing food Grandma makes and the family together to enjoy each other.

But my most favorite part of Christmas is watching the kids on Christmas morning when they open their presents. How they smile and their eyes light up, the shrieks of joy and then they disappear, lol.

Hubby and I get a little time to ourselves and then we are all getting ready to head to  Christmas breakfast (this year it will be at Grandma Jo's, my mom-in-law). A great time is had there with Mimosa's and the amazing spread she puts out. We chill there for a while before heading home.

Next comes Christmas dinner at another location (this year at Uncle David and Aunt Liz's house). The kids get to play with their cousins and we get to spend more time with family. I am bringing dessert :)

Boxing day usually includes my dad and his family, and this year I get to cook for them as the boys have never been to our house. I am super excited for this part. I have never cooked Christmas dinner before, so its something else I get to look forward to.

I just really love this time of year!!

Click on the link to hear Bing Crosby "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas"

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Kids these days.... and how it's our fault

     So, as many of you may know on a weekly basis we deal with teenagers causing property damage in our complex. Every time it happens the immediate thoughts through my head are: how have kids become this way? Don't the parents know where their kids are? I wonder when the last time that kid got a good swift spanking is? How much is this going to cost us?

     This weekend when it happened I heard yelling along with the sound of breaking wood and I recognized the voice. My husband was out there yelling at these punks. This freaks me out a little because of the retaliation that our balcony will most likely face seeing as how the last time he called someone out for doing something wrong, our balcony was egged.

I told him to be quiet and he angrily raised a very good point.
"The reason why stuff like this keeps happening us because no one holds them accountable for their actions."

 Hmmm...

     So now I am thinking about that. What makes kids this way and why are they never held accountable???

     Then something happened. Have you encountered a passive parent? You know the ones. Either you have seen them in a store somewhere or are one yourself. I witnessed something like this just the other day in Save-On. I was waiting in line at a check-out when the mom and 2 kids in front of me start having an obvious battle for power. The kids wanted some sort of a treat and the mom said no. The eldest daughter then proceeded to turn directly toward her Mother, hand on hip and say, "I said buy it for me now".

   Now, if this would have been me 1 of 2 things would have happened:
1: my daughter would have gotten a verbal, and louder no with the "look".
or 2: I would have snatched her hand right off her hip and told her never to speak like that to me again.

     But... it wasn't me, it was a very passive parent. She responded with "I have one at work I will bring you home tomorrow". Well, that wasn't good enough either. The daughter, and now her younger sister standing the same way, demanded that she go to her work "right now!" to get it for them.

(To put this into perspective, I just explained this situation to my daughter and her eyes widened and she said "I think you would just smack me right there".)

At this point the cashier and I were exchanging glances.

     This situation could be easily avoidable if the parents of these 2 little "angels" made it known that they were the ones in control and acted more as parents instead of friends.

    I do believe that these kinds of actions are quite deep rooted. When I was a kid, I knew there were repercussions for my back talking. Sometimes I decided it was worth it, but knew I would pay. Whether I was grounded to my room, had a spoon broken on my ass, or had to eat soap. I also knew then that I would never do those things to my kids. I felt then that I had been wronged as a person and wasn't loved. My parents, like most, would respond with "You'll understand when you have kids of your own".

Now I do.

     I have kids that sometimes need a 1-2-3 count, or a smack on the bum, or a lesson on attitude and what is acceptable and what is not, or the correct way to speak to an adult. Not to discount my kids though. They have great manners and are smart, wonderful kids... the majority of the time.

     But, for fear of having their kids feel the same way they did as kids, parents nowadays want to be friends with their kids instead of parents. We as parents need to remember that we are here to raise our kids to respect their elders, treat others as you want to be treated, learn from their mistakes and that there are repercussions for their actions.

If we haven't done this, we have failed as parents


PS- apparently, my husband making it known to that punk that he will not stand for any more damage worked. There has been nothing since.