Annika's First Day!!

Ok, not really, but she was feeling left out that Madison had a big "first day" (those pics are yet to come!) so we took pictures of her before she left for daycare. I think she looks so grown up, definitely older than 27 months!! But she is tall, that's for sure. She's wearing size 3T and size 9 shoes.

Misc. Pictures from September 06

Madison and Annika washing the car. September 4th '06

Daddy came home from Saskatoon and the car was a mess. Madison and Annika decided to help Dad wash the car.

The Devil Wears Prada

Last night I went to see The Devil Wears Prada. I'd been wanting to see the movie since it first hit the theaters but with Allan being out of town all summer, I never got the chance.

Well, when I noticed it had hit the "cheap theaters" I knew it was time, so I called up a friend and we went last night.

Great movie!! I really enjoyed it. The movie is about dealing with a horrible, demanding boss and how your personal life can suffer. How far do you want to go, to get ahead? Being about a high fashion magazine publisher and her assistant, quite a few names were dropped. It was fun to see how many I knew. LOL!! I also walked out of the theater with a need to hit the Magnificent Mile in Chicago LOL!

If you're in the mood for a funny chick flick, check it out!

Trifle

I received this in email, thought I'd throw it on the blog ..

10 LAYERS OF YOU

LAYER ONE:
ON THE OUTSIDE
Name: Sarah
Birth date: June 27th 1982
Current Location: Winnipeg, MB
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Red
Righty or Lefty: Righty
Zodiac Sign: Cancer

LAYER TWO:
ON THE INSIDE
Your Heritage: Welsh and Polish
Your fears: Violence
Your weakness: Chocolate
Your perfect pizza: Meat lovers
Goal you'd like to achieve: Obtain my driver's licence

LAYER THREE:
YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW:
Your thoughts first waking up: Already??
Your best physical feature: My eyes.
Your bedtime: 10ish if I work days, midnight if I work evenings.
Your most missed memory: Being a hop, skip and a jump away from family.

LAYER FOUR:
YOUR PICK:
Pepsi or Coke: Coke
McDonald's or Burger King: McDonald's
Single or group dates: Like both
Adidas or Nike: Nike
Lipton Tea or Nestea: Neither
Chocolate or vanilla: Chocolate
Cappuccino or coffee: Cappuccino

LAYER FIVE:
DO YOU?
Cuss: Not often, but yes.
Take a shower: Uh - yah. I prefer long soaks in the tub.
Have a crush: Does my husband count?? Or Mark Ruffalo?? ;)
Like(d) school: Usually.
Believe in yourself: Yes
Think you're a health freak: No.

LAYER SIX:
IN THE PAST MONTH
Drank alcohol: Yes. Had a rye and coke on Friday and Candy Apple martinis the Sunday before that.
Gone to the mall: Yes, to exchange some shoes I bought Madison at Gymboree.
Been on stage: No.
Eaten Sushi: Three times!
Gone skating: Not even in the past year!
Dyed your hair: Nope, not since last Christmas.

LAYER SEVEN:
HAVE YOU EVER
Gotten beaten up: Nope
Changed who you were to fit in: Maybe tweaked ;)

LAYER EIGHT:
GETTING OLD
Age your hoping to be married: I was 18.
Age you plan to retire: 40?? ;) Lets aim for 60.
Where do you want to spend the rest of your life? B.C.

LAYER NINE:
WHAT WERE YOU DOING1 MINUTE AGO: This
1 HOUR AGO: Watching Devil Wears Prada with Rebecca at the theater.
1 WEEK AGO: Missing Allan and Madison, and sleeping.
1 YEAR AGO: Visiting with my MIL Joan, Allan was out of town for University.

LAYER TEN:
FINISH THE SENTENCE
I LOVE: My family.
I FEEL: Content.
I HATE: Bugs.
I HIDE: In the closet when I play hide and seek with Madison.
I MISS: my Mom.
I NEED: to lose 40 pounds.

1 down ... 24 to go!!

I am doing a Christmas Weight Loss Challenge with some friends on a message board I visit. The goal is to stay active, eat well and eat less for the 18 weeks leading up to Christmas.

My personal goal is to lose 25 pounds by December 25th. (To gain them back between Dec. 25 and January 1st I'm sure LOL!!)

Week one has come to an end and I am down 1 pound. My goal for the week was to eat less, and I did.

Now, on to week 2. My goal is to continue eating less and to make healthy choices while I am at it.

So, wish me luck and tune in next Sunday to see how I've done ;)

End of week 1 (17 more to go) total weight loss: 1 pound (24 more to go).

Cheers!!

Ahh .. I sit down at the keyboard with a rye and coke and offer a "Cheers" to everyone who has made it through the summer.

For us it has been ...

60 days of waking up at 5:30am, getting the girls up, dressed and fed, walking them to daycare, walking to the bus stop and making it to work for 8:00am.

60 days of working with the day team at work and the unique frustrations and expectations that brings.

60 days of getting on the bus at 4:30 and anxiously checking the time as the bus crawls through the traffic on Pembina where a three lane highway is cut down to one lane during rush hour for construction.

60 days of getting of the bus, walking to the daycare, picking up the girls and walking home.

60 days of making dinner for two girls who don't eat a bite.

60 days of playing outside after dinner.

60 days of helping the girls learn to ride their bikes.

60 days of cuddling in front of Treehouse TV after bathtime.

60 days of reading bedtime stories to two tired girls who want 'just one more'.

60 days of bedtime hugs and kisses.

60 days of not sharing the bed and sprawling out each night.

Ahh .. summer has come to an end. It is September 1st.

What a challenging, yet wonderful summer it has been!!!!

Cheers!

Madison spent Sunday-Wednesday at Granny & Grandpa's cabin at Manitou Beach.

As you can see, it wasn't much of a vacation. :P

Madison's Vacation

A to Z

I was sent this survey to include in my blog .. so here goes :)

Getting To Know Me ... A to Z

A - Age: 24
B - Band listening to right now: I can't recall the name of the band, but it's the "Hey Good Lookin'" song from the Zellers commercial.
C - Career: Customer Service Supervisor
D - Drink or smoke: Drink on occassion.
E - Easiest person/s to talk to: Allan and Anita
F - Favorite song/s at the moment: Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield
G - Gummy Bears or Gummy Worms: Neither
J - Junk foods you like: Anything chocolate
L - Longest car ride ever: Coming home from Regina
M - My favorite Sport/s: Soccer, Baseball, Football
N - Number of relationships you've had: Hard to define, I've had a lot of "relationships" in my life. Friends, co-workers, etc....
O - One wish you have: My family to live long, happy lives.
P - Phobias: Bugs
Q - Favorite Quote: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but the number of moments that take our breath away
R - Reason to smile: My husband, my children.
S- Song: I Hope You'll Dance
T- Time you woke up: 8:00am (which is considered sleeping in in this household!)
U - Unknown fact about you: I want a tattoo
V - Vegetable/fruit you hate: Onions
W - Worst habit: Eating out of boredom/compulsive shopper.
X - X-rays you've had: wrist, knee and MRI
Y- Yummy food/s: Vegetable Tempora, TNT Rolls
Z- Zodiac sign: Cancer

Save The Ta-tas!

I ran across a really cute site the other day. The website is called "Save The Ta-Tas" and is all about promoting celebrating women and helping to find a cure for breast cancer.

My only complaint is that only 5% of the proceeds go towards breast cancer research. Personally I would choose to donate a larger amount, but it's better than nothing, right?

I think these tops would be perfect for CIBC Run For A Cure!!

Weekend!!

I thought this weekend would never come!!

We had a very long week. Performance Reviews were due at work and I have been busting my ass to get them done, on top of numerous other things to do. I love my job, I really do, but man alive, I didn't think I'd have this much work to do. Everyone from other areas emails me the questions, errors, reports, etc. Hello - there are three others that you could share these emails with- why do they all come to me??

However I do have this slight compulsion and once they've been sent to me, I don't dare forward them to anyone else to do for fear they won't be completed and I'll look like the idiot.

So - my "to do" list is a mile long and I hope to tackle it tomorrow. (Yes- I work AGAIN on a Saturday!!)

The girls and I both had a stomach bug this week. Blech. The only thing worse than being sick, is being sick, the girls being sick and Allan being out of town. *groan*

Alas, it's Friday night. I didn't work today so I hosted a playdate and had a great time. It has been too long!! Once I get back to my evenings at work I will get back to hosting weekly playdates on Thursday mornings. So come one- come all!

I have been cleaning like mad. I don't know why everyone gets worked up with "Spring Cleaning", to me the "Fall Cleaning" is much more important.

a) Soon it will be cold outside, the house will be shut up, no more windows being open, no more fresh air being let in. It's time to get this house spotless before we're all caged in here like animals LOL!

b) We'll spend a lot more time indoors come winter so we need the room to do it. I am clearing out one of the storage rooms to make Madison her own private play area. She really needs some "me space".

c) It's the new school year. Allan starts school (his LAST year I might add!) Madison starts school (her FIRST year!!.) It's a new fiscal year at work (so much to do, so many new things I want to implement). So many clean slates and time to start fresh. I need an organized home to do it in!!!

So - today I cleaned upstairs and started the laundry. When I say laundry I mean all of the towels, bedding, etc. It's ALL getting cleaned. Tomorrow I will finish the laundry and pack Madison's bag for her trip to Granny's cottage. Sunday I will clean and vaccuum the basement and then all next week will be the *drum roll please* cleaning out the playrooms. SO much easier to do when Madison is out of town and won't declare every broken McDonald's toy as being "her absolute favourite-most important-won't ever put it down-I've been looking for this for years- toy in the world"!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Sarah

We're IN!!

All summer I've been worried about Madison and Kindergarten. At the Kindergarten orientation in April we requested afternoon kindergarten, however for some reason she was put in the mornings.

Because I work 2pm-10:30pm this was a huge deal to me. I wanted Madison in school in the afternoons so we'd still have all morning together.

Yesterday Madison's new princepal called me and told me that they would put Madison in afternoon Kindergarten.

WOOHOO!!

She starts September 6th 2006!

August 20th 2006

I cannot believe that it is already August 20th. This summer has gone by so quickly, and unfortunatly it hasn't felt like summer at all.

With Allan working in Saskatoon and me working daytime shifts at Reach, everything has been really hectic.

I wake up at 5:45am, get ready for work, wake the girls, get them ready, and we leave the house at 7:00. We walk to daycare and then I take a cab from daycare to work.

At 4:30 I take a bus to the daycare and then we walk home, we usually get in around 5:30-5:45. Time for dinner, baths, tidying up from the morning and bedtime.

I had visions weekends of trips to the beach and mornings playing at the park. Definitely not what the summer has brought us.

Fortunatly Allan is really enjoying his summer work at Stantec and it seems to be leading to a job in the future, so it should all pay off.

Next week Madison is going to stay at Granny & Grandpa's cabin in Manitou Beach. She'll come home with Daddy on September 2nd and then we can all start to get in a normal schedule, whatever normal is!

Hope everyone is having a great summer :)

Sarah

Let the fun begin!

Wow - I cannot believe that it is the end of July!!

This past week I registered Madison for dance. She will be in a combination Jazz/Tap/Ballet class at Royal Dance South. This is the same company she danced with her first year, but a different studio, that is much closer to us. Madison is very excited to try Tap dancing. Mom is putting off buying the shoes. Every day I can put it off, is one more day of silence in the house LOL!

I also started Back To School shopping! (Ok, start of school shopping for us!) and I cannot believe Madison will be in Kindergarten in less than a month. Wow!

Annika will continue in daycare, though we are considering switching her to a different center that is more flexible on the drop off times.

I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Popular Tree

As the girls and I walk to daycare, we pass many different trees. Madison pointed to one and asked "Mommy, what kind of tree is that?". Now, not being very plant savvy, I had no idea. I told Madison that I didn't know what type of tree it was.

Madison paused for a minute and then said "I know, it's a popular tree!". I thought this was humerous and mentioned the story to our babysitter, Merina. Merina then said "Oh, a Poplar tree! Yes, I pointed that out to her."

I guess Madison knows more about trees than I give her credit for!

*~* CLICK *~*

I went and saw the movie Click last night with some girlfriends. Good movie!! It really makes you think about how you spend your day and where your priorities lie.

I told Allan he needs to see it because in the movie Adam Sandler is an Architect and in his office he has these chairs that Allan just *adores*. It was funny to see them in the movie!

Allan came home for the weekend and the girls were thrilled to see him. (As was I!) We went out to Mongo's Grill for dinner - yummy!

Allan's Mom will be coming tomorrow to stay with us for the week and watch the girls while I'm at work. Thanks again Joan :)

TGIF ... or maybe not!

With Allan's first official week at Stantec under wrap, he started the drive back to Winnipeg late Friday afternoon. Because I had to work Saturday, 9-5:30, Allan had to get back to be with the girls.

Friday night, 12:30pm, the phone rings - the caller id reads "MTS Payphone" and before answering I know this can't be good.

Allan is calling, he is in Russell Manitoba, at a payphone. Five kilomters outside of town the tire blew. Thankfully a police officer picked him up and drove him into town. However, until a tow truck & Auto Repair Shop could be found at 9:00am, Allan was stranded.

So, Allan found a hotel, okay motel .. at best. It's called the Jolly Lodger ;) and I emailed my boss on his blackberry to tell him I was without a babysitter for the girls ...

Saturday morning the girls and I head to my office. Unfortunatly nobody could cover for me and the girls were about to enter the working world. Thankfully 10 minutes after our arrival my good friend Anita was home and offered to watch the girls. My boss graciously offered to drive us to Anita's and all was well.

I admit - I really panicked when Allan couldn't get home in time. I didn't know what to do! However I have realized that even though we don't have any family in Winnipeg, we have a lot of really great and supportive friends. So if you're reading this - I thank you for that.

After dinner, the girls, Allan and I went to BDI for ice cream. MMM, yummy!

Have a great weekend all!

~Sarah

I Won!!!

When we were at the Exhibition 2 weeks ago I bought a ticket for the Kinsmen Car Raffle because I was in love with one of the cars on display. Well, I didn't win the car but I did win the 2nd prize, $2500!! YIPEE!! Lululemon, here I come :)

Allan is in S'toon now. He had his first "official" day of work today and it went well. He learned about some projects that he will be working on, found out the company has a 37 hour work week, and you basically work whenever you want, totally 37 hours, and that there is a lot of opportunity for growth. I am already researching Saskatoon neighbourhoods!

The girls had a blast at daycare today. They have so many summer events planned. Today was swimming pool & sprinkler day. They also had a McDonald's lunch. Lucky girls!! Tomorrow they are going to a pony farm to ride ponies!!

Well I have to be up at 7am so I need to pack it in. I couldn't sleep last night so I watched Oprah's 20th Anniversary episode until 2:00am. Since when are Oprah reruns on at 1:00am?????

Goodnight :)

Sarah

Happy Canada Day

Happy Canada Day everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend :)

Allan, the girls and I went to Assiniboine Park yesterday afternoon. We also went to the Zoo. Every year on Canada Day, admission is free. It was very crowded, but still fun.

We came home and tinkered around the house while Annika had a nap. Then at 8:00 we headed out to The Forks. They just opened a new Skateboard park there and Allan wanted to check it out. So we took a peek at the park, watched some bands and watched the Fireworks show. Annika slept through the fireworks and Madison was scared to death. I'm sure glad we hung out at the park for 3 hours for that ;)

Today we're getting ready for Allan to leave. He drives to Saskatoon Tuesday morning and comes home Friday night. Next week he'll be gone Sunday night to Friday afternoon.

Please post comments so I know how you are doing too :)