My morning buddy

It has been SO nice to be with Shea (and only Shea) from 8:30am to 2pm each day. I've never had just a three year old around as usually there was always another kid taggin along too. He's a fairly easy kid to be with, and seems to enjoy the quiet as much as I do. We've had a lot of fun already this fall.

The home makeover bug...

Lately I've been thinking a lot about doing a makeover on my bedroom. I feel like I didn't go overly crazy with my paint choices in the main floor of my house, as well, things need to blend and match the existing flooring etc.
However, I feel like I could have a little more freedom in my bedroom. These are the latest pictures that I keep coming back to over and over again.

As you can tell...I like the cool colors, lots of white white white and the blue/greens.
This is what it currently looks like...

Blah. It has some wainscotting on the walls already, but with this weird wooden trim. I was thinking I could get away with just painting the wainscotting white and then putting color above it (ditching the wallpaper).
I have two ideas I could go with...
a) keeping it pretty simple and going with a greyish color like the top right color and going quite drastic with the teal bedding
OR
b) going quite crazy with the paint and doing a feature wall in a bright teal color with maybe a wall decal and bedding not as loud but to tie it all together

Currently I have the light beech finish IKEA furniture which will match just fine but I'd love to find some ol' thrift store wood furniture (headboard too) and paint them a nice bright white with glass knobs. That may take awhile to find, so this could be a LONG process.
Since it is my room and I'm the only girl in the house, I intend to make it look a little girly while not gagging the boys with too much in the way of flowers or anything! Heck...maybe one day I'll hang a chandelier in there!
Just thought I'd show you what I'm thinking of, and hoping I get the nerve to start soon! There are many tricky things that I'm not sure I will know how to do and I hate bugging my "handy friends" all the time!
Let me know if you have any ideas!

Yumm!

UPDATED TO ADD:


Ha, ha!!
We got Riley to take a picture of us when it was down to the last canner...here we are utterly exhausted of peeling pears...48 jars later.

(Thanks mom.)

The Harms...

Greg and I went to see Sarah Harmer playing in Kelowna last night. She is so good! We had seen her before in Calgary, but were way in the back and this time in the fourth row. You can tell I had good seats, as I took those pictures on my tiny camera with no flash! Anyway...make sure to go when she comes to town...well worth it!

99 years

This past weekend, I went with my parents and my niece to Vancouver to celebrate my great-grandmothers' 99th birthday!
We kept it small, short and sweet. We had a little tea party right in the common room of her care home. It is the most stylin' old folks home you ever did see. I could have moved right in myself!

Anyway, it was a great weekend to spend with family, yet not be worried about taking care of my own family. Greg had the boys at home and I knew he was capable of pulling it off so I wasn't worried a bit. (Thanks G)
Now I'm home and back into the chaos of school picture day in the morning, canning salsa and cleaning. It's ok. I had my break and need to get back at er' again before I get too lazy!




Thanks to my family for the fun weekend!!

Update on the hair

Ok, so today I went into the hair salon for a regular cut. Yes, I am keeping it short still. I was really tempted to go long again for awhile, but alas, I'm stoked about coloring it now and keeping it short.
So I was a real nerd and brought my laptop in to show my stylist the exact hair/color I am talking about. She thought it was perfect for me, and says when you "damage" your hair by bleaching it, it'll give it much more volume! So yeah! I'm booked for October 1st. She thinks it'll take 2 colors (large foils of an icy blonde and more of a caramel) along with bits of my own color, and voila. I'll look JUST like that photo. (I wish!)
Anyway, I'm excited! I haven't been blonde in a long time (since 98), and that ended badly. My hair was ripping out in chunks. As my stylist explained, it was so chemically damaged, it was like a backcombed cotton ball. Sad but true. I'm lucky I wasn't bald for my wedding.

The fall frenzy...

I have been thinking of you (my friends), and wondering how you are handling this time of year when we're all getting back into the school routine. Not only is that a huge adjustment (the getting to bed on time, up early, clothes ready, lunches made, homework done, meeting new teaches and learning new schedules etc.) but we add to that all the extra curricular things.
I am the Cubbies Awana secretary again this year. The first three weeks of club are crazy as we are signing up the new kids, getting everyone suited up with their nametags, books, vests, you name it. It is a great position for me, but our Thursdays will soon be a RUSH as we have to be fed and at the church by 5:30pm!! Yikes. Macaroni it is! I am taking the two older boys and their friend this year. It tends to overtake your whole day and part of the week as I work with the boys to learn their memory verses.
I signed Riley up for a Rookie camp with the swim club this year. It is just for this week, an hour a day of swimming. They are already learning to dive off the blocks!! I don't know if Riley is built for competitive swimming, but I thought this would be a great way to find out, and would teach him a lot regardless.
Riley will also be in Minibacks again, a little hockey group that runs one hour a week.
And me...WELL...I have joined a "Core, Cardio and More" class which will be for an hour a week. I had big plans to go walking every day, but that hasn't happened yet with all the craziness of this fall. Today I was picking plums and drying them and am also making apple fruit leather (it smells good in here!). I will make salsa next week and hope to dry apples and make more applesauce. I can't seem to quite keep up with the laundry, groceries, cleaning, cooking (which isn't new)...but I thought I'd have WAY more time on my hands with two in school! Maybe by next month I'll be in the groove?? I have a list of personal things I need to catch up on, that always get put on the back-burner over the summer... doctor, chiro, physio, haircut, exercising etc.
Ok...speaking of hair...this is what I want to do with mine...

Isn't it pretty?! I am assuming it will take hours of foiling to get that kind of look? anybody know anything about hair coloring?
I get to go away this weekend for my Oma's 99th birthday! I am leaving all three kids behind with Greg! I haven't done that before, so let's all wish him luck with that!
Two days after I get home, he'll be taking off to Calgary, so it'll be my turn.
Ya, so that's just a nutshell of all the goings-on in our crazy family. Let me know what's new with you!!

Results are in!

We enjoyed a very BUSY weekend. The fair was in town, and we enjoyed the parade and then hours of rides, and looking at the exhibits. Riley got 2nd place for his lego speedboat thing he created (not one help from anyone!). Liam didn't place, and was quite cheesed about it, but he also only spent about 10 minutes on his project, so we'll try harder next time! I might make him enter something more artsy like a drawing.
I did well too! I had entered six photos in the fair, under New Competitors. I got two first places (Olivia & Baby feet pics), a 2nd (the purple flower) and an honorable mention (Shea sleeping in the toque). So yay! It was fun to have them be part of the fair.

BACK TO SCHOOL

So the chaos of getting up early, making lunches, picking out clothes, packing the backpacks, remembering umpteen schedules and library books has begun. The boys were both ready and excited in their own ways. I am SO glad Liam gets to be there all day and I won't be running back and forth SO many times a day! Here's to getting things DONE!


(there's a nervous smile for ya!)


(Riley was feeling quite confident for the day!)

Last hoorah

So we did our last hoorah of the summer. We decided at last minute to head over to Revelstoke. From there we took a road to Galena Bay to catch the ferry. Then we had a short drive and landed at Halcyon Hot springs. We enjoyed the warm pools (with the boys this time)...what a different trip from the time we had been there for our anniversary! It was SO much busier (we just missed a huge tour bus load of people)! and of course having the boys with you makes it a little less relaxing. Though even they were laying on their backs and floating round and around...we just had to watch them and couldn't do it ourselves!!
We drove back to Revelstoke that evening and slept over at the Swiss Chalet Motel. We highly recommend it, as we liked that we could drive/park right up to the door, the room was clean and came with a cot for our extra child, had a yummy breakfast provided, and a free pass to the aquatic center. So after a good sleep, we went to the train museum, and then the swimming pool. Greg and I were pretty exhausted, but overall it was great to get out one last time before we're all back to the grind of the school schedule!

(I think that was the most links I've ever used in one post! Maybe I should write a separate blog entitled "Things to do with your children in or around the Shuswap", complete with pictures of course!)

Today was a

* making salt crystals and baking soda volcanoes
* baking chocolate zucchini cake
* riding bikes and making jumps
* getting haircuts for the boys
* mowing the lawn and doing chores
* renting and watching a movie
* playing tag
* having a campfire and roasting marshmallows with friends

kind of a day.

Nothing cuter than a little boy singing!!



My favorite letter is the ZED.