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This picture was taken by my 12 year old son...our puppy has been spending a lot of time in Jays room in the window! It's hard to believe that Breigh is already 8 months old!

SNOW DAY!

The kids are home today enjoying a snow day from school. We got a fair amount a snow but the freezing rain and winds is what caused the school closures this morning. Right now it's not to bad outside, I think it's -6 with the windchill. Matt and the kids are outside playing and shoveling the driveway but by the sounds of things they are getting ready to come in....Just in time I made a big pot of turkey soup and it is almost ready!

I'm not sure what we are going to do today but Matt has the day off and I only go to work at 6pm! Since the roads are clear I might just go get some color added to my new hair cut!

Hope you all have a great day!

Hooking up a friend

It's been a while since I was in the dating game and a lot of things have changed with the Internet there have been many sites developed for people to meet each other and get to know each other online before they go out on a date. My husband has a single friend that has trouble meeting women but he is a nice guy, possible a little eccentric and he can sometimes be dramatic but they were talking about getting him into the online dating game to find him a match and get him back out there after many years of not dating. To help him with his search he turned to a Dating Directory Online to find the sites that would best match up to his lifestyle. This is great because it allowed him to narrow down his search to a number of sites quickly instead of hunting all over the net for specific sites that matched up to what he was looking for. It ranks the sites that match your search in order of relevance. The best part for him because he is a bit of a tight wad is that the service is all free. We are hopeful that he will be successful in his search and find that one part of his life he feels is missing.

Snow Day

Well the snow and freezing rain arrived overnight and surprise the kids have a snow day and are home from school. I was lucky because hubby had the day off work too so I got to sleep in. They are heading out to shovel the driveway in a few minutes and it looks thick and heavy as it turned over to freezing rain after the snow fell. There is nothing coming down now and it is at least above freezing so they should be able to get things cleaned up pretty good and keep the driveway wide enough for my new truck!

Finding new Music

Now that I have my own vehical to drive to work and things and find myself not driving the family mobile with DVD all the time I realized that I'm out of touch with the current state of music today. Really the last few years if it wasn't Barney or Mini Pops I didn't hear it. Now being out of touch I decided to search the internet to find some information on what is the coolest music around. I was able to find sites that were designed specifically for people just like me to go and give music reviews of all the latest songs and give their opinions on what was hot or not. This was a great tool for me to get some ideas of what songs were out there for me to take a listen to for my Truck CD. Discovering catchy songs from Alesha Dixon and David Archuleta was fun and to see what others thought of the songs was great information for me. Checking out the Pop Music Reviews I also found some fun songs for my Daughter who is getting into the grown up music stage. She loves to go on and find song titles and than go to listen to the song or watch the video on youtube. This particular review site is also about building community where you can find new friends with similar like in music to you and build your personal profile to help you find these people. There are all kinds of community sites out there and many of them are completely free to use, so click on and start voicing your opinion.

I think its a new Doo

I have been debating my hair the last little while but after spending last night at work going through pictures with the girls(on break of course). I have decided to go back to my short short hair cut. Hubby is off this morning so once the kiddies get off to school we will head off(no pun intended) to the hair dresser and get the cut and style. I am hoping this will help me get through the winter blahs a bit, with some snow/rain coming tonight it should be warming up a little bit at least by tommorrow.

My newest Renovation

When we moved into our home about 2 years ago we envisioned many projects that we wanted to get into to make our home more modern looking. We have been completing a lot of projects around the house and are basically down to 1 major interior project, the new kitchen. I have been eagerly waiting for this project but we wanted to get the smaller projects out of the way first. We have begun searching for design ideas to figure out what Luxury Kitchen Design would best suit our tastes. We have reviewed traditional kitchens online and have found some beautiful kitchens at the link above. The EWkitchens website will guide you through all kinds of kitchen design ideas. With this information you will surely find a design that will match your space and taste. The kitchen is the most important room in your home when it comes to re-sale and just day to day life we spend so much time in our kitchen that it has to have good functionability.

THE WINTER BLUES....

This is the time of year that I dread :0( It is too cold to get to do anything, I have no desire to go shopping or even just walking around the mall. Work is keeping me busy but I am getting tired out and all I want to do is sleep. Now that won't be a problem in September when Blake starts school but now it is hard but thankfully he loves his morning movies! Anyway I'm sure this is just a faze and once the weather starts getting nicer I will get out and walk everyday and start getting back on the treadmill. I just have to get over this hump.

It is fast approaching the kids dance competitions. I will have to book some time off from work mid April for Trinity's week long competition. This will be exciting and I think she is looking forward to our girl time since the boys will be staying home this year.

Now that dance exams are over they are getting focused on their choreography... I don't know if I mentioned this or not but Trinity got commended on her junior 3 jazz exam and Kohl (his first dance exam) for his junior 1 jazz got commended plus!

Well I guess I should go make some lunch, hubby just got home and I will have to go pick the kids up at school soon!

In a pinch

Times are tough and we are all feeling the pinch when it comes to budgeting our money. I know we are and it is getting a little better now that I am back to work, finding a job to work around my husbands hours took a while but it was necessary to not pay child care. In the period that I wasn't working there were times when we had some financial issues and had to look for a payday loan to pay for unexpected house repairs. Payday loans are a bit scary as they come with catches and for us it was important to get the bill paid up quickly to avoid extensive interest charges. They tend to be a bit expensive but they certainly provide a necessary service for many people that find themselves strapped for cash between paydays. When you find yourself in a tough situation turn to experts like Yellow Leaf Financial, they aren't here to judge they are here to quickly process your application and help your regardless of your credit situation.

Enjoying Freedom

It was so nice today, the first weekday with my new wheels, I was able to sleep in this morning as hubby got the kids up and dropped them off at school on his way to work. It was even nicer because it was freezing cold today so I didn't have to freeze my buns off. I really needed the break so I could get some rest and help out my sore back and knee.

Hoping for Spring

As it is so cold here today with temperatures in an arctic deep freeze I have decided it is time for me to take a look at things to get me in a Spring Mood. I am so looking forward to nice weather again, days I can go walk on the beach with the kids. We generally go to the beach here a couple of times a week, which is the good thing about living beside the ocean. These sandles from dani black shoe look so comfortable and I love the tangerine color, the metallic hardware will certainly keep them together, there's nothing I hate more than shoes that fall apart. The best feature of these is the platform, a girl can use every extra inch she can get if you know what I mean. With working afternoons/nights now I find it more difficult to get out and shop around so being able to sit at the computer and shop online for things certainly helps me make discissions easier. The Dani Black Website I found these shoes on even told me what stores in my area I could go to for the shoes. I thought this was great because I can just go and try these on without having to search shoe stores all over the mall, or guess what size to order online. This certainly helped me get out of my frozen funk and I am looking forward to some warmer days.

I'm going into hibernation!

What a change a few hours makes, yesterday was a beautiful day, it had warmed up enough that the snow and ice started to melt and got to a high of 5. This was very convient because it allowed me to send hubby out to widen the driveway so we can fit my new Torrent in the driveway easier. Anyway it started cooling off after supper and this morning I wake up to -21 and with the wind chill -30. I am frozen and spending the day in bed (which is very nice) hubby surprised me by going out and picking up the new Comforter set we were looking at while I was at work to finish up our new Bedroom. A nice benefit of having 2 vehicles as he was able to take the kids out and get groceries and the bedding and I was still able to have a vehicle at work to come home when I was done. Jay and Hubby are supposed to be going to a movie after lunch (Mall Cop) to celebrate their special day (Anniversary of day Hubby adopted Jay). They have been talking about the movie all week so I'm sure they will have a good time. The other kids are feeling a little bit left out but we had our family celebration last week so today is just for the them.

Finishing up !

I am so excited because tonight while I am at work my husband will be finishing up the last of our renovations on our new bedroom. This has been a project of love and has taken us almost a year to get to this point. This bedroom started out as a garage which we didn't need under our youngest sons bedroom. We had to start from scratch and insulate, gyproc the walls, build a closet. Adding a window into one wall which had originally bin the garage door to let some light in. We painted the walls and put down some carpet. The finishing up is some molding work and I think there was rumor of some surprises tonight when I get home, hmmm wonder what is in store. The next renovation project in our old house will be moving onto the kitchen which certainly shows it age. We will be starting with new doors for our cupboards and also sand down the existing cupboards and changing the color to save money. We will also be changing out the counter top and adding in a new double stainless steel sinks to replace our ancient single one. I am very excited to get to the spring time so we can start this project, I think it will really improve the feel of our home.

That's the ticket

What excitement in our area tonight, there is a large lotto, one of the biggest in memory being drawn tonight. The lotto 649 is 43 million I can't imagine what having that much money would be like but wow, someone's life will change forever. It would be kind of neat to see 43 different winners so the wealth could be spread around to different people. What would you do as a millionaire?

Craft Show online

I love handmade gifts there is just something so intriguing about having something that was hand crafted, knowing someone has put themselves into their craft. Shopping and selling all sorts of handmade goods is getting easier through new websites like Artfire.com which is set up to help independant artisans offer their products. Bringing people together is at the heart of this project and to prove it the basic level programs allow sellers to offer 10 items for sale at a time with no fee for listing their products. Another exciting feature of their service is their connection with Trees For The Future which allows 1 tree to be planted for every new member to Artfire.

MY NEW WHEELS!

PONTIAC TORRENT

Well I did! The decision was made today over lunch while Blake played again at MacDonald's. We drove back to the dealership and got the paper work started and I thought the shopping part was stressful, try sitting back waiting to see if the application get approved. Anyway we finally got word just before 4pm, I picked hubby up at work and we went in to sign all the papers! What a great feeling! We are now looking forward to a little less running around and hopefully Matt will be able to get to bed before midnight instead of picking me up at work every night at 1am.

I still can't believe I have my OWN vehicle!

Shoes for the whole family

With signs of spring showing up, slowly that may be I am beginning to thing about getting into spring clean out and shopping to fill the closets. I have been shopping online a lot recently and have found some absolutely fantastic deals on Kids Shoes, having 4 children it is important for me to get good quality shoes at affordable prices. There are many great styles from brands like Addidas and Sketchers which are a hit with the kids. Now with the great savings I was able to find it allowed me to have enough room in the budget to shop for a few pairs of shoes for myself. I like comfortable Women's Shoes and it's important to me to have stylish shoes that are affordable. Finally my husband was searching for some comfortable Men's Shoes for work and shopping online was great for him as he hates going shopping at the mall.

HEEEELLLLPPPPP.....I CAN'T DECIDE....

Ok so making a decision on buying a second vehicle isn't turning out as easy as I had thought. This time we aren't going to rush into buying anything so we are shopping our options. At first I had my mind set on getting a smaller car that would be easier on gas which had me looking into the Dodge Caliber. This car is a great looking car with lots of features that I liked and with the larger tires it "kinda" had the feel of a small SUV!

DODGE CALIBER (CHOICE #1)

After thinking things through I then thought that the car would be ok BUT if I got a Pontiac Torrent then I would have a bit more space for the dance road trips coming up.... I kept struggling with the decision so we kept looking.....

PONTIAC TORRENT (CHOICE #2)

Just last Friday while we were out looking around at vehicles we had come across a white Trailblazer...... :0) Well did I ever fall in love with the truck OMG this is it...and there was enough room for the whole family...it had my name written all over it. I took a couple of days to think it over and came to the decision that this particular truck wasn't the right one....first of all it was a 2004 but I didn't like the noise in the front end, it was a 4 wheel drive and would cost us a lot more on gas.

TRAILBLAZER (CHOICE #3)

While thinking this option over we then turned our focus back to the Pontiac Montana SV6... this is an identical van as the one we have now but without all the bells and whistles that we are used to having, we call our van...."fully spoiled" instead of "fully loaded.... This new van is a 2008, burgundy in color but when we took it for a drive there was just no excitement about buying a vehicle. The fun was gone, the excitement on my face was gone and we were losing interest in purchasing another vehicle, so we ended up leaving the dealership and taking Blake out for lunch so that we could talk things over....Matt had commented that while taking the other van out for a test drive with me was like driving to a funeral. There was just no excitement there. Now don't get me wrong, this van had LOTS of features but would always be compared to the van we have now and just wouldn't be happy.

MONTANA SV6 (CHOICE #4)

So here we are again trying to figure out what to do. Then we discussed the fact that with already having a van that will fit everyone for travelling and what not, why are we so focused on getting another van????? We decided that since I really want to get an SUV then why not turn our focus back to the Pontiac Torrent. The vehicle that I have always had my eye on! There is a used Torrent in silver at the dealership....it's an '06, 4 Wheel drive and 20,000km on it. I didn't have time to look into it further so Friday morning we will go back and take it for a drive. Well after making the decision to look into this vehicle, it got me all excited again to shop for a car and the smile and excitement has come back....I think this is going to be what I get in the end....it just might still be another 2 weeks before it happens!

TORRENT (CHOICE #5)

COULD THIS BE THE ONE?????

A retirement alternative

One of the biggest investments we gather in the course of a lifetime is our home, we buy it and spend money making it a home and upgrading it through a lifetime. When you are approaching retirement there are new ways to unlock the value of your home to help assist your retirement income. A reverse mortgage basically will allow you to borrow from the equity in your home as long as you occupy it. This can be a great alternative for elderly people with out enought retirement income or just wanting to live life for all it's worth during the better years. If you are interested in learning about reverse mortgages take the time to get the facts and make sure that you have someone that will take the time to explain all the reverse mortgage facts to you so you know what you are getting into. Reverse mortgages vary from state to state so ensure you have all the information. To determine what you can borrow you will have to have a home assement completed by a profession appraisor to unlock your California reverse mortgage value.

The search for my Wheels

I have been deliberating on what kind of vehical I want to buy for the last few weeks, it has been very hard for me to decide. I was originally thinkgin I would get a little car, easy on gas to get around town. After some thought and looking at prices I have changed my thinking to a Van or SUV as it would make some scence to have a second vehical that we could still all fit in. I was surprise to see the prices on used vans is the same as small little cars like vibes or matrix. I found a couple of nice vans today that are basically the same as what we have now but a couple of years newer with warranty left.

Part of History

In our daily world we sometimes don't realize how people live in other areas of our world. It seems un-real when we see pictures or video of people in other countries that struggle with little or no food and money. Living in what we would consider desolate conditions with little hope of a long and healthy life. There are stories in history that tell about terrible travesties perpetrated on different groups of people. One such piece in history is the holodomor which took place in areas of the Soviet Union in 1932-33. It is estimated that as many as 8 million peasants starved to death as a direct result of actions of the Government lead by Joseph Stalin. The Communist government of the time actually seized the crops of hard working peasants and exported to the West leaving these people with no way to sustain or feed their families. The real truth of loss from this tragedy may never be known as the government worked hard to cover up the truth from the rest of the world. Was it Genocide an attempt to wipe out the Ukraine countryside is debatable due to the spotty records and reliability of the information. There are many very interesting parts of our history you may have never realized if you take the time to look through the history books.

The Video Game Tragedy.

We packed up to go out van shopping this morning and a few minutes into the drive Blake asked for his Leapster (kids portable video game system, parents sanity device) I reached into his bag and ooops.... it wasnt' there, I know it was there the other day. Back home we went to find it and after searching the house and couldn't I began to think of where it could be. The last reported sighting was at the kids dance school Sunday Night, the kids where great until the last 5 minutes they turned crazy and I scooped them up and out so quick it must have been left behind. When Trin went to class at the other dance school tonight they called over and sure enough it was there and is now safe until we go over tommorrow night.

A new E-xperience

I have been searching for something different than the standard ecard to send to my freinds and family. You can only send so many of the standard ecards before it gets old and boring. I recently discovered a new alternative that uses multimedia to give a whole new experience. Using the Cardfish Phone call you can send your friend or family memeber a unique message that uses their picture and when they open the file on their computer Cardfish will actually call your friends phone number to complete the video message adding a bunch of fun to the regular ecard. If you would like to see how much fun you could have check out the free previews of the various cards offered. To even enhance this even more you can use a free sample card to send to friends or families. Right now they have set up a FREE discount code for people to try the service for yourself. Simply enter word FREE as the coupon code when prompted to enjoy your free card. Take the time and try out the service and enjoy the free previews, you can enter a lot of fun or use the service to scare the crap out of your friends but be prepared what you start you have to be ready to take in return.

Deep Freeze!

It is going on 3 days of completely freezing temperatures, there is rumor that there is will be some relief tonight/tommorrow but it is going to come at a price. We are expecting approx 10cm of snow followed by some rain and then turning back into snow, it shoud be a huge mess. I am guessing there will be no school tommorrow, yippee SNOW DAY! It will have to be a cuddling night. LOL.

A miniature Heaven

Every little girl and many grown up girls love to play with dolls, from tea parties on a Sunday Afternoon to collecting for a hobby. It is incredible the great assortment of Doll house Miniatures that are available today. Anything you can find in your own home you can get for your doll house. Furnish your rooms, add accessories like plants, toys, pets, even pictures to hang on your walls. The qualities are incredible and you will be amazed at how realistic pieces can be. I would love to decorate a room box with the great framed Man and lady holding a child artwork. Of course my room wouldn't be complete without the miniature beagle and beautiful Lilly to complete the accessories. How would you decorate your house?