I'm asking for it now...

Look at the hottie having a cocktail!
Now, who can tell me why you're nickname was Amy-Chicken?

Looks like your surprise party was a lot of fun! Wish I were there to help you celebrate !

Happy Belated Birthday Cuz!

At the risk of getting my butt kicked this summer....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CUZ!

Norwex party #2 is done...

Well if you've never been to a Norwex party before let me tell you this stuff is amazing...expensive but amazing!
One of my dayhome mom's hosted a party a few weeks ago so I bought a few things to try out and found that I really like the stuff - the company sells micro fibre cleaning cloths and stuff so you can virtually clean your house with water. I think some things I'll always need to clean with a cleaner just to be sure but for the most part water seems to be able to clean almost everything with these cloths. Alex has become obsessed with cleaning the windows now that he can use water and actually make them clean instead of leaving me with a huge streaky mess.
So then my neighbour decided to host a party which gave me an opportunity to buy some more stuff and spread out the spending a little bit. There's a few more things I'd like and one of my other neighbours is also hosting a party in the next 6 weeks so then I can pick up a few more things...unlike my better half I like to spread it out...he's looking at a one time lump sum of just about a thousand for his newest tattoo. That's almost a brand new front loading washer isn't it?
But a new washer isn't much fun and wouldn't last a life time now would it?
Next week is another dayhome mom's party but this is a Spa Party. I'm looking to change moisturizers so I'm looking forward to it and then I think we're good for the home party cults...and to think that I started it all with my 80s night Partylite show. Payback's a bitch, right, although I must admit I like the night out, it gives the boys some one on one time with Daddy.
Both boys have been giving us a hard time lately with attitudes so we've taken away their TV, computers and video games. Today was Day 1 and I don't think they even noticed until around supper time. Although a few times today I thought that I was really punishing myself by punishing them...sometimes they need some down time and a short video or episode of Care Bears was usually a good fix. So instead I ended up putting the radio on more often than usual. It wasn't the same but I didn't give in!

I found a babysitter!

Obviously this is a self taken pic of the Bunco girls!  It was another successful game night, Heather won low score - again - and Jacquie won most Bunco's...I won nothing...

Our babysitter Michelle that had the knee surgery ended up babysitting after all.  She just couldn't carry the kids up to bed or chase them extensively which was okay because they were pretty tired and just as happy to veg on the couch with a movie.

Heather and Joseph had a good trip to the zoo yesterday morning despite the constant drizzle of rain and lucky me - I had no dayhome kids yesterday afternoon so we all went shopping!

Tonight's UFC Pay per View night with Cindy, Dan, Brooklyn and Mackenzie.  The guys will be watching the game so I've got to come up with some great ideas to keep the kids all amused!

Aaaagh! I need a last minute babysitter!

Bunco night is tomorrow and Aaron just found out that he has to work prayers. Why me? Aaron's mom won't be returning from her week trip to the States until sometime tomorrow and then they're probably off to the cottage and Heather is part of our Bunco group and Michelle our babysitter recently had knee surgery and I haven't been able to get a hold of her to see if she's fully recovered yet.
Somedays it sucks to be me!
Aaron went out to get a digital cable box today so he can get the pay per view Ultimate Fighting whatever on Saturday night. Yippee...not! He also checked out some tattoo shops and has booked himself in for next Friday, apparently it's a 6 or 7 hour tattoo...boy is he going to be sore! I'm still debating what and where so it could be a long time before I get my next one. I went from getting a tribal swirly thingy between my shoulders below my neck to getting the same kind of design on my lower back to getting something around my ankle to getting handprints/feetprints to...I have no idea...I do thank my wonderful dad for stopping me from getting the really cute black gecko around my bellybutton - I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have looked so hot after having Joseph and Alex!

Feel better Auntie Kathryn!

Thank you Auntie Kathryn for the water gun. It rocks!

Alex liked his bubble blower too!

Here's where the friendship began...eeew...I forgot how much I hate chalkboards!

This is where Kathryn and I spent our time working together...

So, tonight was the reunion night.  I seen a lot of old co-workers and quite a few students.  (Mary, Bonnie, Agnes, Kim, Karen, Lois, Harold, Darlene, Barb, Shauna, Jim - in case I forget when I give you the update Kathryn) Most of the students that were there I recognized although they had changed a lot.  Darlene found a grad video and we watched it with the kids.  The best part of the night was seeing Andy who was one of the ESL kids that I worked with. 3 years ago I worked with him in grade 5 and he was a shy, quiet, chubby boy who liked to be in the background somewhat...well...little Andy's grown up and come out of his shell! He's now a tall, well spoken young man with a great sense of style - I think he was dressed way trendier than I was! LOL! I couldn't believe my eyes or ears! Andy you alone definitely made it worth my time to go to the reunion!

 

Alex's first date with Auntie Heather

Today Auntie Heather took Alex to Let's Play ( a super-sized McDonald's playground) and then to McD's for lunch and then topped off a great date with Timbits on the way home.
Alex was very well behaved but for some unknown reason he kept calling Heather 'Auntie Kathryn'. I think by the end of the day he was just trying to tease her.
Today was a nice way to ease back into work after a 4 day weekend, Zeke's away for the entire week so it was definitely a little mellower and we had a nice overcast + 20 day so the kids spent the most of it outside.
Tomorrow we're going on a field trip to Connor's house to celebrate his 3rd birthday. The only dayhome kidlet I have tomorrow afternoon is Ben so we decided to go on a field trip and check out Connor's toy collection.
Hope everyone had a great weekend!

What a musical family we've got!

Papa gave Joseph and Alex musical lessons today on his Fender -eek, what a brave guy!

Please note the oh-so trendy swim goggles on Joseph! We bought the kids each a pair today and couldn't get Joseph out of the tub for next 2 hours. Boy was he pruny!

The guys managed to get in another early morning golf game and we all headed to the Valley Zoo this afternoon.  It was a bit disappointing in comparison to the Calgary Zoo but it gave the kids a different viewpoint. At our zoo the animals are in huge habitats that are pretty accurate replicates of their natural habitats whereas here they were very artificial and all the animals seemed to have baby toys in their kennels/homes. 

Just one more reason why Calgary is better than Edmonton! Ha Ha!

My fitness fanatic husband is in bed...at 7:30 !!!

Aaron has been on a big fitness kick lately which is great, but he's been getting up at 5 o'clock in the morning as part of his new regime. He doesn't even have to set his alarm anymore...so this morning he got up at 5 and went for an hour long run around the neighbourhood and was in the hot tub just after 6 AM. Joseph must have sensed that the tub was ready for him because he got up shortly after and made sure to wake up Alex for an early morning swim. So much for sleeping in this weekend!
Dad and Aaron had a golf game at 8 this morning and then went looking at motorcycles. Aaron's tossing around the idea of picking one up. Mom and I shopped for a formal dress and shoes for the convention Mom and Dad have in Jasper.
So, it's now 7:45...Dad's heading off to bed, Alex has been in bed since 6:30, Aaron's been in head for 15 minutes now and Mom, Joseph and I are wide awake...what are we going to do?...maybe try some 2-stepping lessons. It'll be worth a laugh if nothing else!

Happy Long Weekend To Me!

Three years in the business and tommorrow is only the 3rd day off I've requested, besides booked summer holidays of course. And I am going to try and make the most of it...it's only 7 o'clock Thursday night and I have already got all of my laundry done, the upstairs bathrooms cleaned, the boys bathed and the upstairs vaccuumed.
Aaron's working late so I thought I'd make the most of it and get the boys put to bed early so I can clean the couch and loveseat and maybe even the living room area rugs. I figure if the boys cooperate I may even be able to cut the grass too!
Aaron's schedule has changed once again so he may or may not have Saturday off, he definitely has Sunday and Monday. So I think if he does get Saturday off we'll head North for the weekend and if not then we'll stay here...ugh...more cleaning!

We got the dress ordered!

What a fun night!
Liz and Kathryn picked me up promptly after work and we headed off to the Bridal Barn which I know isn't really called that but it looks kind of like one to me so that's what I've always called it...anyways our appointment was at 7 o'clock so we arrived an hour early so I could try on bridesmaid dresses. We had a few laughs and finally got it narrowed down to 1 dress and 1 skirt/top. Then we headed on up to the Princess Room to look at dresses for Kathryn. She picked out a winner for sure, something none of us would have picked or would not have given a second glance in a catalogue but it was definitely 'the one'. So, there goes those 2 bridesmaid outfits out the window because now they just wouldn't work so we headed back down to pick through the canary yellow and bubblegum pink little numbers and came across the perfect skirt/top set for Nadine and I.
After we ordered Kathryn's dress we headed over to Milestones for a really late dinner and celebratory bellini. Then we browsed through wedding catalogues galore!
What a great night!

It's the end of an era...

Most people that know me, know that before jumping headfirst into my dayhome I was working for the Calgary Board of Education. I worked at Albert Park Elementary School and was the librarian there for about 5 years. I also held other positions in the school, school assistant, ESL assistant, but most importantly school technician....that was pretty hard considering I'm a PC girl and was thrown into the world of Macintosh. I swear if I decide to buy a dayhome computer it'll be an IMAC. I love those things, not only are they cute but really easy for kids to operate.

Anyways I'm losing my focus here...Albert Park...it was the first place where I had my very own office which at times I shared with various people, most memorably was with Lynn the Visual/Braille assistant. I think my eyes popped out of my head when she casually mentioned that she belonged to the Rifle & Pistol Club. I've grown out since then and it wouldn't phase me now...but then...I was thinking "what have I gotten myself into?". Lynn turned out to be a great roomie and I'm sorry that we never kept in touch when she left our school.

Albert Park is also where I met my best galpal Kathryn. About 3 years into our friendship she mentioned that she should never have told Harold (our principal) that her name was Kathryn, she should have just stuck with Kate which is what she was normally called by her friends...but now she's stuck with Kathryn from the Beck family (well I'm sure Aaron will always call her Katrina)...I could have killed myself laughing when Jeff called her Katie for the first time...they're so cute and in love!

CBE has decided to close 2 old schools and build 1 new school, Albert Park will be one of the old schools to close its doors - after 47 years...

My mother in law heard there will be an Albert Park School Reunion in the near future so I think I'll go and see who's there and maybe there will be a couple success stories from the students.

My favourite email ever!

All methods have tricked me with their promises of easy, painless hair removal - the Epilady, the standard razor, the scissors, the Nair, the EpilStop, and now ... The Wax

My night began as any other normal weekday night. I came home from work, fixed dinner for my son and we played for awhile. I then had the thought that would ring painfully in my mind for the next couple of hours: maybe I should use that wax in my medicine cabinet.

I set up my boy with a video and head to the site of my demise, um, I mean bathroom. It was one of those cold wax kits. No melting a clump of hot wax, you just rub the clear strips in your hand, peel them apart, press it on your leg (or wherever) and ignore the frantically rising crescendo of string instruments in the background.

No muss, no fuss. How hard can this be?

I mean, I'm not the girly-est. of girls but I'm mechanically inclined so maybe I can figure out how this works. You'd think. So I pull one of the thin strips out. It's two strips facing each other, stuck together. I'm supposed to rub it in my hand to warm and soften the wax (I'm guessing).

I go one better: I pull out the hair dryer and heat the SOB to ten thousand degrees.

Cold wax, my ass. (Oh, how that phrase will come back to haunt me.) I lay the strip across my thigh. I hold the skin around it and pull.

OK, so it wasn't the best feeling in the world, but it wasn't bad. I can do this! Hair removal no longer eludes me! I am Sheera, fighter of all wayward body hair and smooth skin extraordinaire.

With my next wax strip, I move north. After checking on the boy and verifying that he was, in fact, becoming one with Bear and learning all about smells, I sneak into the bathroom for the Ultimate Hair Fighting Championship.

I drop my panties and place one foot on the toilet. Using the same procedure, I then apply the wax strip across the right side of my bikini line, covering the right half of my vagina and stretching up into the inside of the right ass cheek. Yeah, it was a long strip. I inhale deeply. I brace myself.

RRRIIIIIPPP!!!!!!

I'm Blind! Blind from the pain! Vision returning.

Oh crap. I've >managed to pull off half an inch of the strip. Another deep breath. And RRRIIIPPP!

Everything is swirly and tie-dyed? Do I hear crashing drums? OK, coming back to normal again. I want to see my trophy - my wax covered pelt that caused me so much agony. I want to revel in the glory that is my triumph over body hair. I hold the wax strip like an Olympic gold medallist.

But why is there no hair on it? Why is the wax mostly gone? Where could the wax go, if not on the strip?

Slowly, I eased my head down, my foot still perched on the toilet. I see hair - the hair that should be on the strip. I touch. I feel. I am touching wax. I look to the ceiling and silently shout "NOOOOOOOO!!" And realize I have just begun living my own personal version of "The Tar Baby." I peel my fingers off >the strip, now covered in cold wax and matted hair, and make the next big mistake - up until this point, you'll remember, I've had my foot on the toilet. I know I need to move, to do something. So I put my foot down on the floor. And then I hear the slamming of the cell door.

Vagina?

Sealed shut.

Ass?

Sealed shut.

A little voice in my head says "I hope you don't have to shit anytime soon. Your head just might pop off"

I penguin walk around the bathroom trying desperately to figure out what I should do next. Hot water! Hot water melts wax! I'll run the hottest water I can stand and get in the tub - the wax should melt and I can gently wipe it away, right? Wrong. I get in the tub - the water is slightly hotter than is used to torture prisoners of war or sterilize surgical equipment.

And I sit.

Now the only thing worse than having your goodies glued together is having them glued together and then glued to the bottom of a tub. In scalding hot water. Which, by the way, does not melt the cold wax. So now I'm stuck to the tub. I call my friend, C, because she once dropped out of beauty school so surely she has some secret knowledge or trick to get wax off skin.

It's never good to start a conversation with "So my ass and my bits are stuck to the tub." She doesn't have a trick. She does her best to suppress laughter. She wants to know exactly where the wax is on the ass - "Are we talking cheek or hole, here?" she asks. She isn't even trying to hide the giggles now. I give her the run-down of the entire night. She tells me to call the number on the side of the box, but to have a good cover story for where the wax actually is.

"You know that if we were working the help line at XX Wax Co. and somebody called with their entire crack sealed shut we'd just put them on hold then record the conversation for everyone we know. You're going to end up on a radio show or the internet if you tell them the truth."

While we go through various solutions, I have resorted to scraping the wax off with a razor. Boy, nothing feels better to the girly goodies than covering them in wax, sticking them to a tub in super hot water and THEN dry shaving the wax off!

In the middle of the conversation (which has inexplicably turned to other subjects!) I find the little, beautiful saving grace that is the lotion provided with wax to remove the excess. I rub some in and start screaming "It's working! It's working!"

I get hearty congratulations from C and we hang up. I successfully remove all the wax and notice, to my dismay, that the hair is still there

. So I shaved the damned stuff off. Hell, I was numb by that point anyway. And then I put the box of wax back in my medicine cabinet.

Never know when a moustache might start to come in.

Tonight, I attempt hair dying!

(and you guys wonder why women can be moody sometimes...LOL)

Our weekend at the Beck Cottage

Aaron took the boys quadding many many times

This is Alex running for the quad when he heard Aaron start it

Aaron and Joseph (thank god they waited for Alex!)

Alex helping Grandpa stack wood

The boys planting their very own spruce trees

Joseph and his wee tree

What a great weekend! It was pretty relaxing, although we were hoping the fresh air and exercise would help the kids go to bed early..yeah right, it had the opposite effect and they were up until 10 o'clock both nights. When we came home yesterday they both crashed at 7 so that was nice.

Mom and Dad came up Saturday afternoon and stayed for a BBQ and some one-on-one Dingleballs challenges (you'd have to see the game to believe how much fun it could be throwing two golf balls on a string, ha ha). And then we headed to the Red Lodge Guest Ranch for Sunday brunch with Aaron's parents and Jason.

We came back to town hoping to kick back and relax but the yard work was calling our names, so we got most of the front yard work done, now it's just the back which is kind of on hold until the big playcenter/swing set is built. We decided to put pea gravel down on that side of the yard to cushion the falls...hopefully there aren't too many!

Oh what a day!

I'm not so sure that the 3rd one is the rascal of the bunch...Alex is definitely 'bad to the bone' lately! As I'm getting dinner ready tonight he informed he that he just pee'd in Joey's room on the floor. I said 'you didn't' and he said ' yes Mommy, I pulled down my pants and unnerwear and pee'd then pulled up my unnerwear and pants'. Quite matter-of-factly, I must add. So off I went on the Hunt for the Alex Pee Pee Trail, and sure enough he let loose on Joseph's carpet. I'd say that's pretty good birth control right there!
I phoned to check on the whereabouts of our new swing set and lo and behold it's still in Toronto in the warehouse. So, I think we're either going to cancel our order for that one and try a different store altogether or just wait out the 2 weeks or whatever it is for this one to arrive. The kick in the pants for this one is that we had Mom and Dad coming down to help build this contraption. We may have just free'd up their weekend for them. Although we'd like the company anyways, it's probably more considerate of us to postpone until the building weekend....as selfish as I am, it's the nice thing to do.

Alex's Bedroom Makeover

before pic

before pic

after pic

Joseph's bedroom transformation

After pic

After pic

Before pic

Before pic

Is it possible to die from embarrassment?

I had the pleasure of taking Joseph to his SeaTurtle swim class today and he was doing awesome! We were floating in the rings, practising blowing bubbles in the water...and then it happened...Joseph took a big gulp of water and started coughing and gagging and in his whole spaz out he managed to pull my bathing suit top down. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH! I didn't even notice right away because I was trying to calm him down and then I glanced down and Oh My Gawd! There was my boob just hanging out. Good thing only 3 other child/parent teams showed up today...too bad 2 of them were Dad's.

It's been 3 days since I blogged, what's up with that?

Usually I can do my blogging while my boys are bathing but our schedules seem to have changed somewhat so I've had to adapt and either do some really early morning computer stuff or after wait until after bedtime.
I'm sure everyone has read about Heather's good fortune in Babyland. Michelle is truly a wonderful, caring gal who is a blast to be around. She's the only girl I know who can say 'dude' and 'man' and it sounds oh so cool and then I try it and sound like an idiot. Seriously! So, she came over with the bassinet and said she had a swing too so we played "Let's Make a Deal" and I know we got an awesome deal. Everything for $40 and then to top it off her husband dropped off 7 boxes of baby boy clothes and the baby bathtub. So, if TicTac is a boy then H has it made, even if she has a girl there's a lot of gender neutral stuff and honestly a girl can wear navy overalls but there' s no way a boy could wear pink ones. Am I right or what? The only downside to this wonderful windfall of baby stuff is that H is only 7 weeks and will have to store it for awhile, but if you weigh out the pros and cons I think it's easier to find a corner to tuck it into then have to do some bargain shopping. So, I think the baby list has shortened up significantly now that they have the bassinet, swing, bouncer seat and I've got the playpen, saucer, jollyjumper. So, it's mostly just nursery furniture, carseat/stroller. And then little outfits, diapers...more diapers...more diaper genie refills...more diapers....diaper pail deodorizers....did I mention more diapers...LOL!...I still remember test driving the strollers at Toys R Us with H and Mom, it was actually a lot of fun. Although what I was looking for was one with a reversible handle but apparently they don't make them anymore because they're designed to hold the carseats which I suppose is a bigger plus. And I wanted one with more positions than sitting up or laying down. Why I'm not sure, but I managed to find one with an in-between slot. You got to love Graco!
Today was a super busy day with the boys! We were at the park by 8:30 this morning and then I managed to steam clean all of the upstairs bedrooms while my two angels ground Doritos into my living room carpet! Then I powerwashed the house (thanks Mom and Dad it works great) and all of the outdoor toys, while Joseph and Alex ground chocolate chip cookies into my living room carpet. Any guesses what I'm doing tomorrow before swimming class? You got it, steam cleaning my main floor carpets!
I started taking apart the car/train/bus room and Nemo room today, the kids were a little confused and then they saw the Spiderman and Batman curtains hanging up and were very excited! So, hopefully I can get that done before swimming classes too!
One of the dayhome Mom's is coming over to work on Mother's Day projects with me at 1 o'clock and I've only got until Aaron comes home at 5:30, otherwise it cuts into our family time and when he works weekends, it's pretty scarce.
Another busy week planned, Monday is my bi-annual teeth cleaning with the hot dentist, well maybe not with Dr. Jeff himself but I'm sure I'll get a chance to say hi to him...maybe I need to go quartlerly? Just kidding! Aaron tells everyone about the hot dentist and gets a kick out of Dr. Jeff's radio ads (young girl says to her friend: what did you do last night? and her friend replies: I got drilled by Dr. Jeff and it was awesome) apparently he wrote them himself.
Tuesday is supposed to be stamping but I'm doing my first aid recertification, Wednesday is Christina's Norwexx party - it's the new home party fad, micro fiber cleaning cloths so you can clean your entire house with water!? I kind of like that lemony fresh smell but I'll see what it's all about, if nothing else I'll for sure get the window cloths because Alex is obsesses with cleaning windows so if I can give him a sprayer of water and let him clean them for me, why not?!
Aaron has a seminar Thursday night so I'll probably be at home finishing up Mother's Day cards for everyone (after all Joseph/Alex have 3 wonderful godmothers to be thankful for).
So that brings us to Friday when our gigantic (fill our little city lot backyard, there goes any plans for a hot tub) wooden swing set/fort/climber thing should be ready for pick up and assembly. We've booked Mom and Dad for the weekend to come help out or at least supervise and take pictures.
Never a quiet moment at the Beck household is it? Dull maybe...but there's always something...
And I got the coolest Bachelorette Party idea from Cindy last night! Are you ready for this...Uncle Henry would be....Strippercise! That's right! Cindy's going to a bachelorette for her friend in Vancouver and was told they'd all be doing a class together before going out to Ladies Night.
Hope you're all having a good weekend!

My babies are growing up...

It used to be real treat for Joseph to play with his VSmile games like CareBears and Bob the Builder but since Aaron bought him a gamecube at Spring Break he's just not interested in the baby stuff anymore. Now he's into Sonic Heroes, Spiderman and MarioKart.  He can kick my butt anyday! Poor Alex wants to play so bad that Aaron bought a 2nd controller for him, so far he hasn't realized that his isn't plugged in!

We thought the whole Joseph versus Joey name thing was a passing thing but it's stuck for quite a few months now so I think I'd better get used to Joseph, he won't even answer if I call him Joey by accident.

PS. Joseph picked his own outfit.  They did a craft at school involving shaving cream and green food colouring, needless to say his jeans are in the washer as we speak soaking in some spray n wash! With food colouring though I don't think there's too much hope.