Cottage cheese + fruit = a mouthful of weirdness

I like to try new things.

Okay, that's a lie. I stick to what I know I like and rarely venture to new flavours or combinations. I'm the complete opposite of my friend Michelle who had to explain to me what tar tar meant (or tartar, I'm not even sure) and I couldn't believe she actually ate raw meat and liked it. Just seemed so wrong to me.

Anyhoo, I decided to try something new that's healthy. I bought these a week ago and it took this long to psych myself up to actually try it. It wasn't pretty. I was expecting chunks of fresh strawberries as opposed to the strawberry jamlike substance sitting on the bottom.

Not good.

Then I asked my friend Janine if she's tried this gawd-awful combination and uh, yeah she has and uh, yeah she likes it. It's a good source of protein.

Hmm...maybe I need to get over the initial shock of weird flavours and try again.

In the meantime I'll stick to yogurt and fruit.

Twilight review

It was okay. I enjoyed it but it wasn't the new pop-cult thing I thought it would be.

A little bit corny at times and sometimes I just wanted to die of embarrassment for the B-grade acting. I felt embarrassment for the actors, not because I waited in line to see the B acting.

For a great review with similar thoughts as mine check out Lainey's.

I'm FEELIN' WAY TOO DAMN GOOD

I WOKE UP THIS MORNING thinking it was TOO BAD that Aaron has to work this weekend. It would be a great time to Christmas shop, but I LIKE TO LEARN THE HARD WAY and will just try to Christmas shop with my kids.

Jenn is SAVIN ME from a boring night by coming with me to see Twilight.

Two nights ago I had ONE LAST RUN down memory lane while looking for a PHOTOGRAPH of JT to post for his birthday. The day he was born seems just so FAR AWAY.

I'm sure you've figured it out by now that I'll be singing like a ROCKSTAR at the Nickelback concert in April :o)

Happy weekend everyone!

Thing One is SEVEN today!

After a karate party and family party the official day has finally arrived. It feels like we've been celebrating for 2 weeks...

Today JT brought some birthday shortbread cookies to share with his classmates. They've requested no cakes or cupcakes b/c they make a huge mess. I can handle cookies :o) I'm actually much more successful baking those without burning than decorating a cake as you seen yesterday :oP

Thing One's Family Celebration

Tonight we had the Beck Sr's and Jeff, Heather and Jonathan over for dinner and birthday cake to celebrate Joe's 7th birthday. We decided to have a small intimate gathering as well as the karate party to try and include everyone. The plan was to do this on his actual birthday but it coincides with Beavers and Joe wasn't crazy about missing Beavers, so we planned around the Birthday Boy.

I admit it. I have no cake decorating skills. If you want a nice cake talk to my dad...or Janine...or even Tamara...now if you want a nice card - give me a call, lol!Opening gifts in front of the fireplace - it was pretty cozy. We should have made it a pajama party!
Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Joseph/JT/Joe/Joey, Happy Birthday to you!
And here's Jonathan :o) He's still got Auntie's eyebrows. Love that!

Has anyone seen Twilight yet?

I read the book on a whim and was totally and completely hooked on the series. I think I had the whole series done in about 2 weeks. Now I'm waiting to see the movie, I've got something in the works for this weekend with Jenn.

I think I'm still a Jacob Black fan - even at the end of the last book...sorry Edward...

Cocktails anyone?

After a terrible day of shopping and bad bad bad customer service I figured I deserved a cocktail. I ended up making some Double Bergamot Earl Grey when what I really wanted was something with a wee bit of alcohol. I really need to stock up the Christmas drink supplies tout suite!

H0liday Eggnog: Store bought eggnog and good ole Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum

Mmmm....Snuggle Bunnies

Quick and easy: instant hot chocolate topped up with Bailey's and whipped cream

Hot Buttered Rum

1 oz dark or spiced rum

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp butter

1/2 tsp cloves

Add the sugar, butter and cloves to a coffee mug. Pour the rum, and stir well. Fill with boiling water. Stir again, and serve.

Playmobil has overtaken Lego

My boys have shown interest on and off in Playmobil stuff. Mom and Dad bought them each a small set last Christmas and then gifted JT with a big set for his birthday and they have spent hours playing with it.

A big thanks from JT for the awesome gift and an ever bigger thanks from JT's mom for a couple hours of uninterrupted cleaning time.

My punishment for being lazy and shopping online

is paying the hidden costs such as today's surprise.

$36.87 COD charge when I went to the post office to pick up an order of Christmas gifts....sigh....I knew it was too good to be true.

A neighbour sent me a friends and family coupon for a popular kids store and I could save 30% so I jumped at it. After ordering pajamas and a few outfits I saved $47.99 but when I subtract the $36.87 COD charge AND the $11.95 shipping charge I already paid I'm actually paying $0.83 MORE than my "savings". I should have just got off my butt and drove to the store where I may spend $2 in gas but my $47.99 in savings would have actually meant $47.99 in savings.

I have already fired off an email inquiring as to where it mentions COD charges in my order and how I'd go about returning everything. I'm so annoyed.

That's it. No more online shopping for me this season. I'm going to have to make a game plan and go fight the crowds.

I hate shopping.

Zebra stripes should be the new PLAID :oP

Here are my serving plates that I created at UB The Artist a few weeks ago. Tres fun and tres chic! I have a ton of serving ware already so I made these for our silent auction coming up in the new year.

Section 211 Row 4...not too shabby :o)

The concert was really great! I was actually surprised at how good it was- you never know it could have been cheesy when they did their old choreography but it was more of a walk down memory lane that way.

I went with Cindy who'd been to 2 New Kids on the Block concerts way back when and she knew all the words and moves to all the old songs. Tres fun!

I also knew a lot more songs than I thought I would and have listened to their new CD off and on all day. I'm liking it more now after seeing them performed live then when I first bought it.

I'm a really good hider

I have a habit of hiding stuff. The bad thing is that I keep forgetting where my hiding places are.

For instance, Alex bought a stick with the claw at the end to grab stuff when we were in Banff this summer with Auntie Anne, Monica and Josh. Well that stick was freaking annoying. And not for the grabbiness but for the irritating sound it makes when it grabs.

One day I confiscated it and put it where Alex couldn't find it. Only I couldn't find it either for about 2 months. It turns out I put it in a dresser drawer in the guest room.

Today I was putting a book away in one of my dresser drawers and came across two Star Wars Woofs. What's a woof? Well a light saber of course. The dayhome kids have called them woofs since they started talking b/c of the sound and haven't switched over to light saber yet.

So, anyways there they were. After many weeks of searching my usual hiding places.

Maybe I need to come up with a better plan. Maybe I just need to put them away in plain sight and just not let the boys have them. My theory up to this point has been out of sight out of mind. I'll have to rethink that.

2 down 10 to go

I'm making White Chocolate Cranberry Orange Cake for the Annual Beck Cookie Exchange which has slightly evolved into Lesley's Bunco Group Cookie Exchange - it was mostly the same players so why not?

I only realized tonight that I can only bake 2 at a time or the oven does weird things and nothing cooks properly so it will be a lonnnnnnnng night ahead.

Why the rush?

Well tomorrow I'll be Hangin Tough with New Kids.

Yeah, that's right. I'm a thirty year old woman about to act like I'm 12 again. Or was it 13?

Jealous, Nat?

Lady Gaga and Natasha Bedingfield are opening so it should be a great concert.

Food prices are still on the rise

I knew it was happening but until tonight when I actually paid attention to the prices I didn't realize how high.

So, for snack tomorrow we're having muffins. I considered cheating and taking the easy way out until I seen the price of 8 store made muffins. $4.99

So I thought I'd just take the second easiest way out and buy the muffin mix. $5.19

So, I made the decision that tomorrow we're baking muffins in the morning from scratch. I bought some cranberries tonight for my cookie exchange bake-a-thon tomorrow night so we'll be having some version of cranberry muffins for snack tomorrow.

Calgary Kids Birthday Party - Hidden gem

Random pics from the Karate Par-tay!

Seriously if you live in Calgary and you're trying to plan a party for your kid you should check out Bow Valley Martial Arts. It was freaking amazing! Pizza, pop, chips, birthday cake, pinata, candy, loot bags and 1 hour of instruction. There was even a guest magician that popped in for a few magic tricks.

Aaron and I have spent more on booze alone for our kids parties in the past - for the adults of course - As much as I love to entertain and love having a backyard BBQ for Alex's parties I think we might be sticking with the karate for the next few years.

Anyways, enjoy the pictures!

Here's the birthday boy before we left for the dojo. Can you tell he was really excited?

Here's Alex giving the Gi Pinata a whack with the bamboo sword:

Here are the party-goers: Warm-up exercises before the fun and games were fully underway:

JT doing some stretching:

JT and Sensei Derek with the Samurai sword for cutting the cake:


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Alex having a bath with all the rubber duckies leftover from today's baby shower:

What a PAR-TAY!

JT's Karate Party was phenomenal! Sensei Derek was amazing, it was a one-man show including an hour of instruction, pizza, chips, pop, cake, pinata, games and a spin the bottle game for gift opening.
Pics to follow shortly - didn't want to risk missing my post for NaBloPoMo :o)

The apple didn't fall far

Here is Alex's card he made for his big brother's party tomorrow. Not too bad for a 5 year old!

In 6 days I'll be showing off my version

Of this pattern: On some wavy dinner plates. They actually don't look like these but it's the best I could come up with on a quickie google search:

Is it rude to bring my iPod?

I've signed up for a workshop at Christine's and none of my friends are coming with me. We're making advent calendar's which look really cool and can be re-used each year. Yeah no more waxy chocolate ones from Wallyworld! Although I make fun of the taste I still enjoy the thrill of that little square of imitation chocolate while we countdown to Christmas.

Anyways, none of my friends are going and some of our regular classmates from Leanne and I's class are going to be there but we're not friendly. Not for lack of trying on our part but they're obviously a tight 5-some that are not interested in making new friends. Or being polite. But that's a whole other story.

So, is it socially not-acceptable for me to just bring my iPod and do my own thing and be ignored by these other people or do I sit there and just listen in and be ignored by these other people?

Is it okay to combat rudeness with more rudeness?

I joked about it tonight at stamping and some of the girls egged me on that I should just bring my iPod and enjoy my time while others said not to stoop their level of rudeness and be polite.

What to do, what to do.

Generally speaking I'm a crowd-pleaser. I like to entertain and try to make each person in my home welcome. So I can see that I'll just sit there quietly and making mental notes of stories to tell Leanne when she comes home from NS.

Next year could you please consult me before booking holidays...just kidding....kind of :oP

Remembrance Day

Today the boys and I went up to the Military Museum and in the afternoon we read A Poppy is to Remember.

I can't even read the book in my head without tearing up so I knew it was coming when I read it with the boys. This in turn became a natural progression into how a lot of people gave their lives for us to have the quality of life we have today, and how it's sad when people die and that's why I was crying.

And as I'm trying to get a grip JT says I'm proud of Papa for being a soldier too. Bring on the Kleenex!

(Not a great pic but the only one I could find already scanned. Looks like a rainy day)

And just for a laugh and because JT thought this picture was so funny:

Although I'm not sure what's funnier the boob apron or my ugly cupboards from our old house. We actually painted them that colour on purpose too....

I hope everyone took some time today to remember the important things in their lives.

Here's a new version of the Very Busy Spider

~After spending 3 hours trying to upload the video I've given up, maybe tomorrow~

While searching for the correct place to save this video clip we came across some old videos of the boys. My fave is from Nov of 2004 - a zoo trip with the MacBeck's. (MacBecks = Becks and MacAulays, my folks)

Anyways, in it, Alex is about 14-15 months old and in the stroller while Joey who was just about 3 ran around pointing out the animals and making echoes in the caves by the skunks and porcupine habitats.

And then we heard it.

The sound we had totally forgotten about.

NAH NAH!!!

Are you familiar with Pingu?

Well at this time in his life Joey was obsessed with Pingu and that was his most fave sound in the world. It could mean just about anything...especially how to annoy the heck out of parents in just two syllables.

Update on Lyla

Apparently dogs get constipated too. After 3 big poops this morning Lyla seems to be on the mend. She's still not very active but is eating/drinking normally. Thank goodness for that, I've complained about picking up after her but when it comes down to it (poop scooping and all) I cannot imagine our lives without having her.

I was working on baby shower cards this weekend and had it completed when I realized that I stamped it UPSIDE DOWN. So, I cut out the image and matted it on the celery cardstock and now I think the original version looks really BORRRRRING!

Before:

After:

Do dogs need pajama days?

Lyla was up last night around 10:30 and making that whimpering sound that usually indicates she got her back leg caught on her collar while scratching but it wasn't the case.

We haven't exactly pinpointed what the problem is but she's been really quiet today. She hasn't eaten but has been drinking water.

No signs of stomach torsion. She's not bloated and doesn't appear to be tender.

So what could it be?

She's sticking pretty close to me today and has been sleeping on and off throughout the day.

I talked to a vet and they said we could bring her in for an xray to rule out the stomach torsion and do some blood work to determine what's going on. We're going to wait and see what she's like tonight first.

She genuinely just appears to be really tired and she is about 11 or 12 years now which is up there for a german shepard/rottweiler.

Hopefully she just needs a day off from playing with the boys and chasing the birds in the backyard...

And the next theme party is ~ drum roll please~ RUBBER DUCKY

Well technically the next theme party is JT's karate party but it's at the dojo and I have nothing to do with the planning besides sending out the invites.

Next Sunday I'm co-hosting a baby shower for one of Aaron's cousins and I decided on Rubber Ducky's as the theme. Yesterday. So, today I ran around the city looking for a whole bunch of these little guys and now that I have them I have to figure out what the heck I'm going to do with them all.

Rubber Ducky, you're the one,

You make bathtime lots of fun,

Rubber Ducky, I'm awfully fond of you

Admit it, you're singing along to it aren't you?!?

Any good must-try simple/easy appetizers anyone wants to recommend?

JT is resilient to super sour stuff

The boys went trick or treating at the home of the Witches of Prestwick and were given a whole bunch of Warheads. You know, those super sour candies that make you look like this:
So as Joey was helping me sort the candies into candy and chocolate bars (for the freezer) he came across these Warheads and thought he'd give it a try. I grabbed my camera first hoping to get some silly poses but didn't have much luck. Apparently he didn't find it too sour: