A pictorial of the weekend

Okay I'll admit it, this will be a quickie pictorial. I went to bed with a migraine and woke up with a migraine so I'm doing this with one eye closed - literally...

We went to the Hat for my cousin Gary's wedding this weekend. It was exactly what a wedding should be for someone taking two kids - short and sweet :o) It was a 4:30 ceremony followed by pics at the church and directly into a BBQ reception. No time to fill in between. We took the boys out for some fresh air (in the plus 36 heatwave) and run around time after the ceremony and then they were content with cards and colouring books until time to eat.

The bride was beautiful and the groom looked fab!


PICS WILL BE POSTED LATER - BLOGGER'S TAKING TOO LONG AND I'LL HAVE DAYHOME KIDS IN A FEW MINUTES

Our informal tailgate party at the church...

Jill the stepsister/bridesmaid played a game with Gary and Karen. She asked questions and they had to hold up the corresponding shoe for the answer i.e. Who made the first move? Who has control over the remote control? It was really funny!

Joey's loving the caterpillar he found. Me, not so much! We went to the cemetery to visit my Nannie and Aaron's cousin and apparently we took a couple caterpillars back in the van with us. Did I freak out? Oh yeah! You bet your ass I did!

Karen and Gary

Aaron and Alex - that's a snuggle NOT a headlock

Here I am with my Papa, he came out for the wedding ceremony and we got lots of pictures :o
My cousins, Kevin, Brian, Gary, Mom, Papa, and Auntie Lynn

Soccer pics

Alex in his bashful, shy half-smile avec rosy cheeks of course from sprinting to the photo shoot

And Joey, looking super white - like florescent white almost. Love the 'soccer pose'!

Tonight was the wind-up soccer BBQ and it was great. Cheese smokies, hot dogs, pop and the soccer pictures. We were in and out in about a half hour and even got to sit with The Kinghorn's so we could visit too. Does it get any better than that? Aaron's signing up to coach next year :o) It's really a great program, provided your coach actually attends the workshops and knows what he's doing. I think it was $45 for 2 months, once a week, and it included the shirts and the photos. The boys each got a team picture in an engraved silver frame, they were both really excited about those pics. Especially Alex b/c one of his playmates was on the same team so they're both in the pic. So cute!

Tomorrow we'll be hosting Nannie and Papa before the whole gaggle of us head down to The Hat for my cousin's wedding. It's been a long time since I've seen these guys so we're really looking forward to it. The boys are coming with us and are really excited about the 2 man jacuzzi tub we got in our hotel room. They could care less about the wedding but we'd better make sure to pack their swim goggles, and trunks.

It's kind of Aaron and I's thing that we generally don't bring kids to weddings. Maybe the ceremony yes but usually not the reception. There's a lot of mixed feelings about this but here's our thoughts. My kids would rather run around the house with Nadine and play hide and seek than sit quietly in a church. They would rather have pizza with Nadine than sit quietly during speeches and wait patiently for our table to win the right to be next in the buffet line. And if my kids are at home having fun it's much easier for Aaron and I to stay and have fun. It's kind of a win-win situation in my books. BUT, on the other hand a lot of people like to bring their kids to weddings because they are a part of the family and really when else do large families like ours get together? Mostly weddings and funerals. So, it's a good chance for everyone to get their fill of my rugrats too.

I think I can see both sides of the fence on this one, what does everyone else think?

Make fun of me if you must BUT

I am becoming obsessed with Jodi Picoult.

Who?

Jodi Picoult.

She's a wonderful author who writes about difficult or taboo subjects. So, her novel The Tenth Circle has been made into a movie. I literally just finished reading this book last night and it was amazing! The film is airing on Lifetime on Saturday. Crap. I'll be out of town. Double crap. I don't even know if we get Lifetime. Crap crap crap.

Stuff like this happens to me.

All. The. Freaking. Time.

So, Jenn, Cindy, Leanne and any other Jodi Picoult fans - hope you watch the movie and think of me.

And did I mention that Kelly Preston is in this movie? Not just some no-names....

It's all about Thing One tonight

Jane and Joey
Joey waiting patiently - he looks a bit hyper, don't you think ?
Joey and Karen

Tonight was Joey's Kindergarten graduation celebration and it was a tear-jerker. He's been attending the same private school for three years now and tomorrow is his last day there - forever. Next year he'll be at his community school in grade 1 and Alex will be there for Kindergarten. So, on the upside there will be no more long bus rides to and from school everyday but there will also be no more small class numbers or Karen his teacher of two years, Deb his ed.assistant of two years or Jane his speech-path of three years.



Tonight when we arrived at the celebration Joey was looking for Jane and once he did he begged us to let him go see her. I was a little hesitant b/c Jane and I are really good at crying when we're together. Definitely tears of joy and to celebrate Joey's successes but tears nonetheless. So, Joey and I sauntered over and pointed to the camera around my neck and asked for a picture of him and Jane for him to have. I may have to pause for a sec to go get some tissues...aah...much better...I now have a Jane and Joey pic for each of them to have. I know he's going to really miss her, we all are, our family has definitely been impacted by this one special woman!



Anyways, we went through the celebration and then had to leave because I was once again crying with his teachers and then on the way home I read his report. And cried some more. Karen wrote how wonderful our son Joey is and how lucky he is to have such a caring family that love him, how the world is a better place having families like us in it and how it has been an absolute priviledge to have known the Beck family.

I was speechless...I think Aaron may have actually teared up at the end too.

And so tomorrow ends our time at Providence and a new chapter in our boys education will begin.

He loves me - he really truly loves me

You may remember that last year we (Aaron and Phil) re-sodded our backyard and it was absolutely beautiful

Until

The snow melted and all we had was this:

Ouch! It hurts just to look at it.

We haven't really pinpointed if it was bad sod, too many feet pounding the dirt every day or the dirt was too packed for the grass to root really well.

I tried not to let it bother me but it did. A lot.

So, last night Aaron and Phil decided on a spur of the moment that today they'd re-do the backyard. Again.

And now it looks like this :

Love love love them for that! Now I won't have to spray paint the dirt green before we have any parties.

And here's my lovely new decor leading to our family room.

I seen the phrase in a catalogue and it totally stuck in my head. I truly believe that. Families that play together, stay together. Growing up we were pretty big on games and family time and I think that's still reflected in how close we are as adults. I hope I'll be that close to my boys when we're all grown ups :o) If you're ever looking for something unique like this for your family room - or any room - I can hook you up with Dan our custom designer. He also did the boys' names for the outside of their bedroom doors. They're simple but impressive all at once.

And one last thing.

One of my fave keepsakes of my boys are now ready to be hung in the family room:

Mom and Dad bought each of the boys a Harley Davidson leather jacket for their second birthday and once they'd outgrown them I just hung them in the closet. Recently I came up with this brilliant idea to put them in shadowboxes so we could display them. They're really too cute for words!

At the risk of sounding like a complete perv I'll admit it

I spent almost $200 last night at my own party. That's with my discounts for guests booking a party and hostess discount and even my hostess credit.

The party was that good!

I had compiled a disc of Hollywood Heart-throbs as some background stuff - apparently a lot of women prefer to have porn going on in the background for these parties but that was a little much for me - anyways...we rated who we thought was hot and added more to it. It was really quite interesting who thought what. And I was totally disappointed to find out that my fave Vin Diesel is in fact pigeon toed in real life - what's up with that?

Anyways.

Merry started the night off by throwing a hot pink doubled ended dildo on my lap. Uh. Yeah. After that I think I lost all inhibitions. And why did she do this you're wondering? Well, it was a game, anytime she said the word "SEX" someone would grab the dildo and whomever was holding it at the end of the night won a prize. It was actually a non-sexual prize which was a little disappointing but still fun nonetheless.

So, there you have it ladies and gentlemen. I've now hosted or attending almost every home party there is.

:o)

It's all about Thing Two

Thing Two has been a busy boy! He has officially graduated from preschool - tomorrow is his last day and then it's summer holidays for him. I definitely was teary eyed when Joey had his preschool grad but for some reason I wasn't emotional whatsoever for Alex's. Have my feelings been dulled and wrecked these should-be-emotional moments for Alex? Hmm...I'll try and not read more into this than I already have. Please note that this is Thing Two's Teacher - not me.

Anyways.

He has also had a bedroom makeover. Silver-blue paint just like he asked for. It was originally going to be orange but he had a change of heart a couple days ago and started asking for silver-blue. Maybe the Spiderman bathroom will get painted orange - although that would kind of clash with the Spiderman theme, Batman yes, Spiderman no.

And then there's the whole teeth thing. I'm not as pissed off as I was on Monday. I'm actually getting used to them, they just looked so big in comparison to his own teeth. And although I'd love to sue that dentist -I'm not. Lately I've gotten this whole new outlook and I'm kind of evaluating dumb-ass things like this and more often than not I find myself thinking : life's too short, it's not worth it, what's done is done.

Phew!

Next on the list is about me. Not Thing Two.

Aaron gifted me with a Blackberry Pearl. Isn't it gorg? I'm still trying to get the hang of it. It's different than the Razer, more functional but a little more complex right now. I just need an hour of peace and quiet and an instruction book and all will be good.

Must run. It's party night at The Beck's tomorrow night. Oh? You didn't know? I forgot to mention it over the next few weeks. I am hosting a Bringin' Sexyback Into Your Bedroom party tomorrow night for my lady friends. Should be a fun night :o)

Where's the consideration?

Today Alex had an appointment for a filling at the dentist. No big deal. He came out of the dentist room smiling ear to ear showing off his new CAPPED FRONT TEETH to his daddy.

Who was not impressed. At all.

At Alex's last cleaning we were told that he would need a filling done on the back of one front tooth. The dentist office sent away the pre-approval forms to our health insurance company on our behalf - and lucky we were approved because Aaron ONLY had to pay $300 out of his own pocket today.

I know we may sound like bad parents for complaining about this and in all fairness to ourselves I'm sure if the dentist said that Alex needed his front teeth capped we'd say okay let's do it BUT it would have been nice to have that choice.

I'll have to post a pic tomorrow, I'm busy cleaning out Alex's bedroom right now so Aaron can patch when he gets home from hockey. What colour you're wondering? Well, so am I. So far, it's been between orange and silver-blue according to Alex. Maybe he'll change his mind again completely before Aaron and him make it to Home Depot...

Happy Birthday to you Dad!

Today we celebrated Dad's birthday with a family BBQ and later on that night an interesting round of Cranium. I've never played the game before and honestly I'm still not sure how the guys won?!? Seriously, Dad was the sculptor for the team, the clue was character. Dad made a shell turned it over on his finger knuckle and Phil said "Hat" Dad nodded yes keep going and within 2 seconds they got "Cat in the Hat". WTF??? it didn't even look like a freaking hat! Guess that's what makes it so funny and unbelievable - because it happened 3 or 4 times....

I also took the boys to the Military Museum today to look and play on the army tanks. The boys were in heaven! There were no other kids there for the first 45 minutes so it was nice to be able to really explore them without anyone else around.

Today is Father's Day and Aaron's working so the boys and I are cleaning the house like crazy and are going to prep for a BBQ when Daddy's home and then maybe we'll head to the park for some soccer.

And another blogger joins the bunch. Jump on over to A Bit of Nothing for a fresh new blog :o) We've stamped together, bunco'd together and now we'll be blogging together - okay not "together" per say but you know what I mean...

Happy Father's Day to all the daddies out there!

PS - Does anyone know what the male equivalent to MILF is?

Heather's Purple Party

We debated an afternoon luncheon with games, stagette, bar, strippper, bunco and came up with....Jubilations :o)

We booked a table for 10 on the floor in the centre so we wouldn't miss a thing and it was fab! Heather got up and danced with Frazier, there some Porn Star shooters, purple panties and a whole lot of laughs. (not so good for those of us with tonsilitis - not strep) But we still laughed our butts off anyways.

Here's MOTB and FOTB:

Here's MOTB and MOH (that's me):
Here's the BTB, MOTB and our stripper/server:

Porn stars for the BTB:The partygoers: Heather, Mom, Cindy, Pochahontas (that's me), Kathryn, Michelle, Andrea, Leanne, Lucie and Lee Anne:Why oh why can't I just smile nicely when someone asks me to?Two classic pics:

Lesley drinking out of a pitcher
and Leanne's tongue!
We did a purple theme and everyone was to wear purple, Leanne bought a ring with a 2 inch square purple stone for herself to wear. (you can see it in the "tongue" picture)

Our stripper/server started taking his own pictures at this point.

I'm not sure who suggested it but Lucie donned her purple scarf 60's style:I can't remember why but we were supposed to wave our napkins around...poor Kathryn didn't have one so I gave her the breadbasket napkin - crumbs and all - A little bit of naughtiness from Andrea. They're love coupons. We did set some boundaries for gifts and nothing could be battery operated - we were in a public place after all :PI think this was the part where the server was stripping. Andrea's saying WTF? and Leanne's just encouraging the poor guy....Why wasn't I taking pics of the stripper/server?Heather and Frazier dancing on stage.

So there you have it folks, see you at the wedding!

Note to all married women

Here's some advice for you, the next time your husband goes to visit your son's preschool, please be sure that he is wearing his wedding ring.

Last night Aaron and Alex went to preschool for a Father's Day celebration and Aaron was hit on. (by the teacher) He thinks she was being friendly. I think she was on the prowl. The conversation was something like this.

Coug: Hey Alex, who's this?
Alex: This is my Daddy.
Aaron: Hi, I'm Aaron.
Coug: Well hello there, I've never seen you here before. Are you married?
Aaron: Uh, yeah, to Alex's Mom.
Coug: Oh, I see, well I didn't see a wedding ring...

You can guess how totally impressed I was.

NOT!

Honor? yeh or neh?

So what do you think of the name Jessica Alba has picked for her daughter? I'm on the fence. I really like the middle name Marie but not too sure about Honor. I remember a student at the elementary I used to work at and her name was Mission. One teacher commented about how that's such a hard name to carry and I never really thought too much of it until now.

Anyways...

Soccer was fab last night. Mother Nature decided to give us a quick 1 hour break, long enough for pics and most of a game before we got sprinkled on. Alex's team lost but he couldn't really give a hoot either way. He ran around like crazy and got some fresh air - that's what mattered to me :o)

I'm all prepped for stamp class tomorrow night. It's going to be a doozy! One card is quick, easy and fun while the other 2 are a bit more complicated. Don't believe me? Check them out on my stamping site. They're fun but a little difficult to assemble for a first timer. Hopefully the ladies are feeling up to a challenge!

Mother Nature must hate me....

Alright I'm not going to sugar coat this and I'm just going to blurt it right out:

I did not run the race.

There. I said it.

It was a HUGE disappointment BUT it rained all freaking day. I'm not embellishing that - it literally rained all day.

So, here's how it all went down.

4:30 we arrived at check-in

5:30 we were finally checked in and soaked to the bone and told to move our vehicles further away

6:30 we were cold, wet and cranky and still had a 1/2 hour wait - in the rain no less -

7:00 we were having Starbucks on our way home

I'm sure everyone is as disappointed as myself BUT in my defense I've been fighting a cold for about 4 days now and I'd already been demoted from a 10K runner to a 5K walker and honestly I think I would have ended up with pneumonia.

So, there you have it folks. Crockett did not walk it.

BUT, the 2008 Calgary Uncover the Cure - Underwear Affair still raised over $936,000. That's right, just about a cool million will go to researching and caring for people with cancers below the waist.

Thanks again to all of our supporters!

Now, I'm off to get some much needed rest. My anti-inflammatory pills for my throat wore off around 3:30 this morning and I couldn't get back to sleep for about an hour. Note to readers: Cool As Ice featuring Vanilla Ice is not recommended - but at that hour really there's not much to choose from.

Kathryn & Jeff have exciting news...

Feb 9th due date - so freaking exciting :o)

Sit, Walk, Run But Don't Wobble

I had a Body Shop T-shirt that said that...what the heck does it mean anyways? Be fit but not fat and fit at the same time? Not too sure about that one BUT it was from The Body Shop and that was tres cool at the time. I wonder if they still make t-shirts?

I am in much better spirits today

- insert beaming happy face smile - MUST IGNORE THE NO MAKEUP/LACK OF HAIRSTYLE-

than yesterday which just confirms that I've made a step in the right direction. Thanks for the many emails and phone calls - you guys rock!

Joey's out playing soccer as we speak while Alex and I are hanging at home. He's having a steamy bath to get him relaxed and sleepy and hopefully ready for bed.

I also realized tonight that I've been slack with the pics - well besides the boob shots from Casey and I :o)

So, without further adieu here is Joey's new room. We're thinking of buying cargo netting or something like that for the walls just to give the room some dimension.

And here's Aaron's new truck. It's so cute - almost like a kiddie version of his previous ginormous truck.I think they call this charcoal but I like to refer to it as Gun Metal Grey, ha ha.

The ending is surely the beginning of something new

Have you ever felt like you've somehow drifted back to high school without even realizing it? Do you sometimes wonder why you never looked up so and so EVEN just to get another friend on your Facebook list? Does any of this sound just a teensy bit familiar to you?

Well let me de-code for you:

I have a friend who has said to me on more than one occasion that "people" are talking about her. I put "people" in quotation marks because I'm never told who these "people" are or else I would surely phone them to question them or I'd surely want to kick their butts for implying that I've been talking about this friend. So, after this recent incident I decided to just back away from the whole situation. I've pretty much ended a friendship over this because I'm not good at handling the drama. It turns out that the friend found out that nothing was said in the first place but this isn't the first time it's happened and it probably won't be the last so I can live with my decision. I am a great shoulder to cry on and I will be anyone's cheerleader when they're in a rough spot but I can't take the mind games. I KNOW I'm a good friend and I don't like the implication that I'm not.

So, I've now free'd myself up from my monthly bunco night and our beloved couples night. The couples night was the hardest to give up because we're good friends with the other couples but what could I do?

Have you ever had to end a friendship? Did you ever get over it? Will the awkwardness go away eventually?

On the other hand I've got some great friends that I truly love, honour and appreciate. These girls:

• don't remind me that I'm really 30 when I'm acting like I'm 20
• don't laugh at me because I own the Pussycat Dolls DVD- instead they ask to borrow it
• tease me about my stellar talents as a saleswoman - NOT -
• phone me to see if I want to go to New Kids with them
• offer to do my hair for big events
• phone from JMichaels to see if I've bought my Spanx yet and offer to pick me up a pair
• tell me how great I look in turquoise
• show up for almost any party just because they care
• pick me up a Wii when they see one and know I've been looking and looking

So, as sad as I am to have lost one friend - I'm pretty happy to have the friends I've got.

Mwah!

Obviously the sun has been shining around here

and I've been too busy playing outside to blog. Can you blame me? Didn't think so - although if I had a laptop like some of my gf's do then it wouldn't be a problem...

Anyways,

We've been spending a ton of time outside. We're still walking Joey and Alex to school almost every day. It's totally a good thing because #1 it's good exercise #2 it's a family outing and #3 it increases the odds of Joey not getting lost on the way home.

Friday night was Ladies Bunco and it was a riot - there was some bra snapping going on and I ended up pinching a certain someone's boob - err...maybe you had to be there - but all in all it was a great time :o)

Saturday the boys and I planted more flowers, went to the park and then the boys went bowling for Connor's birthday. Sounds like they had a fabulous time! I snuck off to do some Father's Day shopping and I found the perfect gift. You'll have to wait and see. And Saturday night Leanne and I did some girl bonding and stamped our asses off at Christine's. You'd think after a few years the novelty would wear off but it SO hasn't! I really need to think about getting some shelving units to organize my 100+ stamp sets.

Sunday we went to Calaway Park with the Carriere's. It was fabulous! Not too hot not too cold and we were there at 10:00 when it opened so we didn't have super long lineups in the beginning. The boys are going with their Auntie Kathryn and Uncle Jeff next Saturday and are even more excited now. Note to Kathryn: Joey's not big enough for the big roller coaster, according to the sign yes but according to the stick thingy, no, so don't waste your time like Aaron, Dan and Joey did...

And that brings us to today. Back to the dayhome, back to work for Aaron. Ah, speaking of Aaron and work, on Saturday night at stamp class another stamper said something along the lines of: You'd have to be a freak to be a funeral director. Christine played it cool and said something like actually Leanne IS a funeral director and Lesley is married to one. Huh, awkward silence and then it was reallllllllly funny. This poor woman didn't know what to say. I couldn't help but laugh my ass off and say Yes Leanne's a freak BUT so is my husband. It was so funny!