Hey Kids,
It's "Favorite New Product Wednesday"

Snack bags on etsy!  

Click here for the link.

She has about a hundred different fabrics.  I tried them out with my peppers and cucumbers the other day and they worked really well.  I looked at a lot of different options online and these seemed to be the best quality for the best price.  I'm going to give them as "gifts".  You know, when there is a baby, but also siblings - thought it might fun. 

Check 'em out! 

Whoever decided driving while talking on a cell phone was illegal clearly has not driven a car with a child under 5 in the backseat.  THAT should be illegal.

(that's me with the martini...)

The carpet is IN!

Of course, there are still a few more jobs to do, but the biggest part is done. We have walls, paint, blinds and carpet. Jason has a shoulder injury (hockey) and so we don't have the other loveseat or the big chair down. Also can't do the tv just yet. But you get the idea. Check out the blue tables - bought those at a second hand store and then painted them "Peacock Tail". I swear that's the colour. LOVE THEM. Marion, do you recognize the lamp?

TV will someday go on the bracket there.

Maddie's playhouse also has carpet and drywall. It's about 4 feet tall (well, I have no idea how tall it is, but she can easily stand up in it). It's the space under our stairs.

I brought her with me when I went to get fabric for the "doorway" (mistake number 1). We settled on this "lovely princess theme" b/c it at least had the colours I was looking for. Not quite what I had in mind, but that's compromise I guess.

I'm sitting down here now on the couch with a beagle on either side of me. This is the life.

Swimming Lessons:

So Keel , the kids and her mom Isy came to Saskatoon for the weekend to see Jeremy (Keely's brother) and his wife who are visiting from China. I crashed the family party and spent the afternoon with them. We started off with Alyssa's birthday party at Jerry's Food Emporiam. Good choice, lots of toys and space for the kids to play and the adults to visit.

Then we went to the hotel to swim. Most of you would know by now that Madge swims like a cat. Well, not anymore thanks to Grandma Isy!! She took the kids swimming and by the end we couldn't convince Maddie to get out of the pool! This was literally the first time Maddie has been in water that isn't "beach style" and not freaked out. I think it likely helped that I wasn't there - but I'm not in the water in swimming lessons either and those are usually a dissaster. Not anymore though. She had lessons this a.m. and rocked it!

Isabel - thank you SO MUCH for spending that time in the water. You were so encouraging and patient - just the right mix of what Maddie needed to feel confident. Thank you. Thank. You. So. Much.

What a great day!

(Steph, if this video doesn't work - can you send me a tutorial?)

Our new Swimming Sensation!

Maddie, her idol Alyssa, and Hayden

I love this one of Hayden - he's all "why am I with these cheeseballs?"

I am behind on a few posts.  It's been busy around here.  At the moment I'm not even sure what we've been busy with but trust me - we're tired.

I'm going to try and go from oldest to most recent.
- The New Babysitter
- our basement
- Swimming!


First, let me tell you about our New Babysitter:  Janna.  We work together, in fact, we are "pod mates" and share an office.  She's hilarious and a great office mate.  She was my student once, but that feels like about a million years ago b/c now it feels like we've been friends forever.  Except for when she says things like "Who's Alf?"  (which, really - doesn't come up in conversation a whole lot). 

So normally we would ask Auntie Lisa to babysit or our Teenager Taylor.  Lisa is already babysitting once a week while we go to French class (oh, yeah - Jason and I are taking French.  It's going great.  I think we are both enjoying ourselves).  And Teenage Taylor "just got back from Hawaii and had a lot of homework" (WHAT?)

Oh jeepers, I'm rambling here.  In the spring or whenever I bought Jason two tickets to Pearl Jam, they were here last Monday.  We needed a sitter (a small detail I forgot about until about a week before) so Janna saved the day.  The following excerpts (quotes?) are from texts Janna sent throughout the night (verbatim, kids).

Sept 19 (while we are "listening to" the opening act - Mudhoney - terrible, btw)
Background info you should know: I asked Janna that under no circumstances should they go into our room.  Really for no other reason than that was NOT the part of the house I tidied up.


8:11  Maddie just offered me 2 choices of where to watch the movie - your bed, or the bike. Such a great hostess.   (we have an exercise bike in our bedroom, romantic I know)

(Me:  you can watch it in the living room on the computer!!)

8:14  Too late!  We have set up camp!  Hahaha

8:15 We're watching HSM (High School Musical) and she asked me "Janna, where are the teenagers? He is just a boy"  re:  Zach Efron


8:23  Quote of the night:  "Janna, why do some boys like some girls?"

8:23 More like quote of my life.  Who IS this kid? If only I knew the answer....

8:41 Maddie is really into "why questions" hey? Frick....hahaha

8:44 Also the intricate details of why her "hand is tingly"  (aka asleep) "why is my blook in my arm and not in my hand?!"

8:44  Less is more janna. Less is more.

8:47 I taught her the basic anatomy & physiology if her hand falling asleep.  She rules.

Pearl Jam came on at 9.  That ended our correspondence. 

Apparently, after dragging out the bedtime routine, Maddie told Janna "I usually start in my own bed, and then when it's the middle of the night and everyone is asleep I go into Mommy and Daddy's bed"  Great.  Doesn't look like we'll be nipping that in the bud anytime soon. 

The next day we talked to Maddie about her night with Janna and she offered the following thoughts:
- Janna is not a teenager, much older.  Likely 10 or 11 years old
- She would like to have Janna babysit instead of Teenage Taylor from now on
- Janna is about the coolest thing since iCarly.com

This weekend I painted.
"What did you paint, Jenn?"
Pretty much anything that would stand still.

The guy came to measure the carpets on Friday and the carpet installers are scheduled to come on Monday. TOMORROW. So, Jason sanded and sanded and sanded. Then I painted the basement again (there were a lot of touch ups), then painted the ledge a glossy white. This sounds easy, but there were many (MANY) steps in this process.

I also painted Maddie's plastic desk. This proved to be a bit trickier than I thought, and I'm about to move to spray can number three and not really sure if it's worth it. Not really sure at all.

I painted two lamps. Well, one was already painted, but I made it glossy (me likey shiny). I added another coat to the other one and also made it glossy (shiny shiny, I'm like a magpie).

But - the best part? I found this chair (right had side of picture below) at the thrift store in Warman for...wait for it... $5! Sweet. Needed some sanding to get the guck off (looks like they started to strip it and then lost steam). So I painted it red like the other two chairs so that they match. Sort of. And this chair is sturdy kids, no small feat in a thrift store chair, let me tell you.

But then this chair was brown. And really, brown all by itself.
And not in a "I'm just the brown accent chair, don't worry about me" kind of way.

So I painted him too!

Ahhh, red AND shiny. What could be better?

Swimming Lessons

Today was Maddie's first day of swimming lessons. We started off by missing the first task on The Amazing Race - I used the wonderful map supplied by the swimming people to take us to the completely wrong pool. Jason put it all together when he started to notice that no one else was at the pool. Oops.

So we double timed it back to the car and took another look at the map. This was when a phrase Mandy used popped into my head "we just love swimming lessons at the education pool" Oh. There are TWO pools here. This is not MSU, kids. Sigh. Anyway, we found the pool, found the change room, and found Maddie's class just as they were heading for the showers.

Maddie is a lot like me: she doesn't like surprises and she doesn't like things that aren't her idea. Showing up just as the kids were going into the shower did not go over well. Maddie doesn't like the shower part at the best of times. But, with some (stern) encouragement from us, she did go into the pool with her class.

The best part? The teachers had the kids all line up on the edge and "jump in if you like Popsicles". Well, apparently Maddie's version of "jump" is actually "slither slowly in", b/c that's what she did five times in a row. Like she was made of jello.

Fast forward to bath time and you will see what can only be described as a re-enactment of her morning swim class:

Don't think for one minute that there isn't an intense conversation happening here. Maddie is all about accents right now. Currently she is rocking a hypo nasal valley girl. Janna is coming to babysit tomorrow (while we live it up at Pearl Jam). Maybe Maddie will learn a new accent...

Thank you Lisa for looking after Maddie tonight and almost every Tuesday from now until Christmas, as per usual - you are a lifesaver and amazing.

Jason and I started French Classes.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am dating my husband.  And it's pretty great.  (insert Jason's eye roll here)

j

an open letter,


Dear Sheri

When I open my trunk I see two giant bags of sheets.  I want to say to you that I only just discovered them, but in truth, I see them each time I open that damn trunk.  But then I shut the trunk and forget about them again.  We agreed, through our multiple kijiji correspondences that I would drop these sheets off to your brother, James and he would take them to you.  For your puppies.  I posted "Free Sheets" and agreed to drop them off, then stuck them in my trunk and promptly forgot about it.

The worst part?  For reasons I do not understand, I created a separate email account for my kijiji sales....and I have no idea what the freaking password is.  This means, all I know is your name is Sheri, your brother is James.  I can't remember where he works, and I can't contact you. 

I know you will never read this, but it makes me feel a little less guilty...

Jenn

Maddie is sleeping in the hall.  Well, not really sleeping, more like protesting.   A "lie in" if you will.

Her cause?  Well, if you haven't heard, her bed is "made of wood".  This makes it Very Uncomfortable.  (Princess and the Pea, anyone?) 

Where should such a sensitive child sleep?  Why, in our bed of course.  The rule is she has to at least START in her bed, and then if she sneaks down in the middle of the night when I'm zonked out (and frankly, not at my best) then so be it. 

So tonight, she has pulled her blankets off her bed, made a little nest in the hall and is settling in for the night.  She originally had only her yellow blankies from Grandma Pollock but I told her she will likely need something warmer....

I think I heard a yawn, but I don't want to jinx it.  She's not quite asleep yet.  Not sure if I'll get a photo for this one...

New TEASERS from elle markosky photography!

Click HERE to see them.

Thanks, Lisa - they are beautiful.  Love them all.  But love the shoe ones the best...

September 4 - our 12th wedding anniversary.

So Maddie went for a sleepover at Auntie Lisa and Uncle Jayson's. Jason and I got "dressed up" and went out for supper. I briefly had skinny jeans and high heels but quickly came to my senses and put on my old faves and birks. We had a really great evening with good food, good service. We paid too much for water - but hey, it was our anniversary...who cares!

But who's the guy?

As we were getting ready to leave, I thought "Wouldn't it be so great to have a photo to capture this special moment?".

Jason was all "No. No it wouldn't be great".

me: "oh, get over here and smile"

Jason: "you are not putting my picture on the blog"

oh. really?

Actually, this look is similiar to our engagement photo in the Roblin Review. Me grinning like a maniac and Jason looking like he just swallowed a whole pickle. But, so far it's worked for 12 years....

Here's to 12 more years with my best friend.