Thursday Thirteen

13 Random Thoughts For Today

1. How am I going to do my hair in the mornings? When it was long I just put it up - now I have to do something.
2. The boys are definitely going to bed early tonight.
3. How many points are in a chocolate chip cookie?
4. The fact that a mom left her two children in her car yesterday while she took a sibling into the doctor (for 30 to 40 minutes) when it was -30 is sickening. What's worse is that she wasn't arrested.
5. I need to make birthday cards tonight.
6. At least it's warmed up to minus 9 today - it's pajama day at preschool and Alex refused to wear snow pants although he did wear LJs under his jammies.
7. Why do my kids insist on yelling and screaming for my attention any time the phone rings? Thankfully it's usually just Aaron checking in. Is it because I'm distracted or because they don't like sharing my attention or because they like to annoy me?
8. I have to figure out Dance Dance Revolution by Saturday. When are you supposed to step? As soon as you see the arrow? 1/2 way up the screen? At the top of the screen?
9. I should go through my hair accessories and weed out the stuff I won't be using anymore.
10. I hope they call my name today for the Pay Your Bills Contest today.
11. I really need to buy a laptop.
12. I hope Joe doesn't ask to play Bingo today. Uno would be fine - I've had enough Bingo for this week.
13. If New Kids on the Block are really getting back together for a tour - do I want to go see them in concert?

Toot ta la la

Wowsers, eh?

The longest part they cut off was 14 inches long.

And according to my stylist I have a short forehead so she recommended no bangs. Phew, that was a load off my mind. Bangs are so freaking hard to grow out!

I also bought some restructuring stuff and leave in stuff and the god of all flat irons - a Chi ! I've never really used them much but when I seen the Chi in action I just knew I had to have it.

So now that my hair is short what excuse can I use for my suuuuuper long showers?

Stay tuned for a new blogger profile pic :o)

I'm gonna go for drastic this time - SERIOUSLY

I know I know, the last time I said I was going for a drastic hair change I ended up with chocolate brown lowlites that were a little ...sigh...borrrrrrrrring.

BUT

Tomorrow at 6:15, Chantel from Chatters will be giving me a whole new do.

I can see at least 8 inches coming off.

My big dilemna though is bangs: YES or NO ?!?

What do you think?

Bunco with Besties, Food with Family, Shopping Solo

That sums up my weekend.

I won high score for Bunco and landed myself with a gift card to Winners. I went back to check out the Jessica Simpson sling back platform stilleto's but after trying to walk a few steps, reality checked itself in and I put them back on the shelf. They were sexy little things but the heel was a bit too high for me.

My folks were in town this weekend for a special little something. So we had some chinese food and an impromptu Wii championship. Papa is now on the hunt for a Wii and Cookin Mama so he can practise for our next visit.

Yesterday the boys stayed home and Wii'd while I braved the storms and went shopping solo. After hearing a great review of Dance Dance Revolution from April & Henry I had to get it. It hasn't been opened yet but I'm thinking tonight we'll be indoors so maybe we'll give it a shot.

Way better than a Thursday Thirteen...a video

The kiddies and I made muffins this morning. Giant mess but the kids really enjoyed themselves and their snack. Here's my Dino-Hunter, Alex...I'll apologize right now for the video being sideways. One day I'll remember that my camera doesn't flip video like it does for pics. It's almost time for a new camera...sigh...although we've had this one for about 4 years now and I think we've got our money's worth.

Have you noticed how much Gord and Les look alike Calgary?

If I put more thought into this I'd have a pic of Gord with his Les Nessman glasses on.

Maybe tomorrow.

Tonight I had the pleasure (sarcasm) of taking Thing Two to Home Depot to shop for some new floor vents. It doesn't matter which ones we buy - they break. Plastic ones just snap and the metal ones come detached from the plastic bottom part that opens and closes and gets really bent out of shape. It probably is directly related to the kiddies obsession with heat registers. I keep the house warm but watch out for them noticing the furnace kick in. It's a race to the vent. Not. Pretty.

Anywho...

I was at the self checkout scanning some paint when Mr. Alexander decides to climb on top of the checkout area with the bags therefore the scan didn't work b/c the weight was off by about 44 pounds. So, the lady reset the till for me from her booth and as I scan the next item Alex decides to lean on top of the checkout area. Thus resulting in a mis-matched weight. So, she reset the till again. Well when he was about to do this for a THIRD time I held him back and dropped the heat register resulting in a big ole dent on one side. And she looks at me and says "it's damaged - you have to pay for it." At this point I just want to pay and get the heck out. So I shove it in the bag and then realize that the first paint did not scan so I re-scanned it and it came up with an error and she hollered at me that "the paint is scanned could I puh-lease just check out and be on my way with my son who's obviously had enough shopping b/c he doesn't want to listen".

I had two choices here. #1 Go along with her and say oh my mistake and walk out with some free paint OR #2 Tell her that if she got off her stool and waddled over here she'd see for herself that I HAVE TWO PAINTS.

Can you guess what I did?

#2 and boy it felt good.

Fun night!

This is what Aaron won at the Silent Auction. Autographed, too!
Here's Aaron givin up the haggis after parading it around the hall. It was quite cute to watch!

The Robbie Burns fundraiser seemed to be a great success. I'm sure I'll get more deets from Christine this week but it appeared to go off without a hitch. The dinner was delish, dessert was a bit dry but whatevs. The company at our table more than made up for that minor detail.

BUT, we did not dance a single dance. The music was meh, and the lights were on. All. Of. Them. I didn't feel like making a spectacle of me and my Elaine-dancing skills while the lights were glaring down on us. Aaron thanked me for that later, haha.

And the silent auction seems way, way easier than a chinese auction so I'm officially changing our venue a wee bit. Our Totally 80's dance will be hosting a silent auction for all donations. I thought it would be easier the other way around but it won't. This way if someone's gung-ho on the Bath & Body Works they can just keep upping their bid until the end whereas with a chinese auction they could buy lots of tickets and still end up with nothing. That being said, I must go update the Team Crockett website.

And although we haven't sold many tickets I'm hearing a lot of yes'es for attendance. Some people have been starting to come up with their outfits...someone I know may be sporting a mullet for the occasion :o)

You almost got to see my new shades

and then I took a second look at the pic and decided that my hair was just too uggers to post. Maybe next week I'll have a do-over.

In the meantime a funny email from Tina:

9 Things I Hate About Everyone

1. People who point at their wrist while asking for the time.... I know where my watch is pal, where the hell is yours? Do I point at my crotch when I ask where the toilet is?

2 People who are willing to get off their ass to search the entire room for the T.V.. remote because they refuse to walk to the T.V. and change the channel manually.

3 When people say 'Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too'. Damn right! What good is cake if you can't eat it?

4 When people say 'it's always the last place you look'. Of course it is. Why the hell would you

keep looking after you've found it? Do people do this? Who and where are they? Gonna Kick their asses!

5 When people say while watching a film 'did you see that?'. No Loser, I paid $12 to come to the cinema and stare at the damn floor.

6 People who ask 'Can I ask you a question?'.... Didn't really give me a choice there, did ya sunshine?

7. When something is 'new and improved!'. Which is it? If it's new, then there has never been anything before it. If it's an improvement, then there must have been something before it, couldn't be new.

8 When people say 'life is short'. What the hell?? Life is the longest damn thing anyone ever does!! What can you do that's longer?

9 When you are waiting for the bus and someone asks 'Has the bus come yet?'. If the bus came would I be standing here, dumbass?

What era is this?

This has stumped me a few times already - what do we call the timeline between the 2000-2009?
I usually default and just say the 2000s - but it sucks. Not as cool as The Eighties or The Nineties.
In the Calgary Herald today there was an article about this exact topic. What do we call these years?
Some suggestions were the oh-oh's or the aughts and apparently the English have adopted the term "the Noughties".
I'm on the fence on this one.

Tomorrow night is a Robbie Burns fundraiser at our community hall. Christine is on the committee and it sounds like it will be a lot of fun. I'm also hoping to score a few ideas for how our fundraising will all unfold. Aaron, Jason and Jon will all be sporting kilts so hopefully I'll have some pics to post on Sunday.

Thursday Thirteen

80's TV Stars That I Wanted to Be Like

1. Alyssa Milano
2. Candace Cameron
3. Christina Applegate
4. Molly Ringwald
5. Drew Barrymore
6. Jodie Sweetin
7. Justine Bateman
8. Kellie Martin
9. Lisa Bonet
10. Sarah Gilbert
11. Robin Givens
12. Soleil Moon Frye
13. Stacy Keanan

Wow! What the heck was I thinking?

As our Totally 80's Gala draws nearer I keep going through this mental list of who I can dress up as. I was hoping to do Baby in the tankdress from Dirty Dancing but I've had no luck finding a dress or skirt/top that resemble that in any way. So - back to square one.

All caught up on my beauty sleep

The casino was a lot of fun. Not too much down time. I think we counted about $140 grand. Wowwee! The things I could do with that much cash...

Dad and I were home at 2:30 and then got a few hours sleep before Dad headed up north and I got ready to start my workday with the kiddies. Considering I had 3.5 hours sleep I functioned normally - well except dinnertime when I was a bit of a byatch to Aaron. Sorry Aaron. He took Joey skating and I bathed Alex and tucked him in at 7 o'clock and we both fell asleep. I woke up at 8:30 when Joey and Aaron came in and then went right back to sleep. But at 4 o'clock this morning I was wide awake with Joey listened to the wind howl. It was super windy last night - we were supposed to have 2 cm of snow but that didn't happen much to Alex's dismay.

Tonight is the dayhome providers meeting. I think we'll be talking about the new legislation coming in the spring to regulate dayhomes. It will definitely be a hot topic. More deets to come about that later...

Here's pics of Thing One and Thing Two

Here's Alex being his typical goofy self.
Aaron and both the boys
Alex hugging the lamp-post...not sure why...
Papa and Alex Joey as he went speeding by me

We caved and bought the red and black skating trainers that everyone told us not to because it's a crutch that would be hard to ease out of but omg, what a difference it's made. We've done 2 sets of skating lessons with each boy and it's been awful. They hated it almost as much as we dreaded taking them. Joey's been on the ice 4 times with the trainer and he is just about ready to give it up. Un-freaking-believable!

Alex isn't quite as coordinated as Joey but he is 2 years younger - which sometimes I forget seeing as they both weigh 44.8 pounds right now- but he doesn't cry when we say "let's go skating" anymore.

Tonight Dad and I are volunteering at the casino and I'm hoping to squeeze in an hour nap this afternoon. I've never been an afternoon napper but maybe I'll get lucky and doze off...

Ive taken the plunge

into the world of Stampin Up.

After doing this for 4 years I finally decided to sign up and host my own stamp class like Christine. Although Christine has a million stamp classes and I'm only hosting one. So that's why there was no blogging yesterday. I was too busy deciding on the who, what, and when. I actually own 84 Stampin Up stamp sets but a lot of them have been retired so I need to update my collection a bit. All in good time, all in good time.

My hopes for this business venture is just to reach the minimum sales so I remain 'active' and get the discount on my own purchases. Aaron said to set my goals a bit higher but with such a low goal how can I fail? (knock on wood)

Have a great weekend! It's supposed to be plus 8 in Cowtown today so I can foresee some skating or a trip to the zoo :o)

Thursday Thirteen

13 Things I'd Like to Work on in 2008

1. Cut back on Starbucks - so far I've only had 2 visits - versus my daily visit
2. Stop gossiping - okay that is so out the window for this week but I'm giving myself a year
3. Teach my kids to use napkins on a regular basis
4. Read more non-fiction books
5. Post more photos
6. Learn to enjoy skim milk - I'm down to 1% so far
7. Organize my stamping stuff - it's contained in our storage room but all over the place
8. Learn to type with long nails - with short nails I had no prob but now that I'm sporting longer ones I seem to mistype an awful lot
9. Improve my running technique - in one word - Phoebe
10. Blogging daily
11. Volunteer for a charitable organization
12. Check in with spark people daily - I've signed up and haven't looked at it since
13. Learn how to skate - without my kids' skating trainers to lean on

There's a reason for the walk down memory lane

Ali over at Juice is having a contest. It's a worst Bridesmaid dress or story. Unfortunately I don't have a crappy dress from being MOH at Kathryn & Jeff's wedding but I thought I'd show off the gorg dress I had anyways.

Stop drooling over my hottie hubby in the kilt...

Has anyone seen any GOOD movies lately?

I'm looking for some good newly released movies. In two days Aaron and I have watched 3 movies and 2 of them were not so hot.

Resident Evil Extinction - I'm not a zombie fan so that sucked.
Shoot Em Up - Yes, Haley-O's Clive Owen was a superstar but the storyline was lacking a bit. I mean come on, how did the bad guys magically just keep showing up?
The Kingdom - I think that was a very powerful movie. Sad because it could easily be based on true events. I may in fact now have a slight girl-crush on Jennifer Garner.

Back on schedule tomorrow. Boys are back in school, Beavers started up again tonight.

I love holidays and the casualness of doing whatever whenever but I also like routine.

What a fun night!

It was Couples Bunco last night and it was a riot! We had Aaron's cousin Chris and wife Janine sub last minute and they were a good fit. Lots of shooters, drinks, food and laughs! And I managed to get rid of yet another humongous piece of baby equipment :o) There's just no need to hang on to stuff that we probably won't be needing.

Thing One and Thing Two slept over at the g'parents last night. Joey didn't want to come home today but Alex was ready. Joey's 6 now and has had 2 visits at my parents by himself and a couple sleepovers at Auntie Kathryn's with Alex. But Alex is still not ready to be on his own. He likes Mommy or Daddy tucking him in and to be there if he's having bad dreams. I admit I didn't sleep as great as I thought I would being kid-less. I did lots of thinking: Are they sleeping? Did Alex go to bed okay? Did they go pee before bed? Maybe I should have drank a wee bit more so I could have just passed out. But alas, my boys had a fabulous sleepover and it went uneventful as we suspected it would.

Tonight we're taking the boys skating. Eventually I'm going to have to practise and improve my lack of technique. If I can stand without falling - it's all good!

Crockett FYI for everyone: Aaron has scored Flames hockey tickets for a special Silent Auction at our Totally 80s party.

Thursday Thirteen

13 Fave Movies From the 80s

#12 Goonies

#13 Adventures in Babysitting

Happy New Year

Congrats to Leanne and Andrew on their engagement yesterday. It sounded like a sweet proposal. Leanne said they went up the Calgary Tower and were chatting and then when she turned to look at our gorg city she looked back to see...whammo...Andrew down on one knee! Such sweetness!

MY MAIN GOAL for this year is to cut down on frivolous spending. Like buying the exact same boot in black AND brown - although they were an awesome deal. Or buying an entire skin care line after trying it for a couple days. I think I am going to buy a trial sized or travel sized kit before taking the more expensive plunge.
AND to drink more water. I hate water. I don't like the taste or lack of taste so I tend to chug water and then I don't like that super bloated feeling in my tummy.
AND to stop wrecking my hair. It was so glorious until the whole perm incident. Now it sucks, it's breaking and tangling. I'd give anything to go back to my flat super straight boring hair.

By the way, it's Day 2 of the new year and I started my morning off at 5:35 by jumping on my treadmill :o) How you doin'?