That's a lot of water!

Well, our weekend started out good but ended in a bit of a disaster. We spent the day together with a bonn fire going to clean up some brush. My husband had to cut up a couple of trees that came down during past storms. Mikhail saw the hard hat sitting there afterwards and had to try it on. It was too heavy and big for him and kept sliding all over his head. :) He still thought it was a cool hat.

I took a few fall photos in the yard

It poured all night and all day the next day. Before we knew our sump pump quit our basement was buried 2 feet in water in some places. It was a mess. That was on Sunday. On Monday the weather didn't let up and our city ended up flooding. There were lots of closures because of flooding. My photos are after the floods let up and the roads were reopened, so you'll have to 'picture' it.

moving the trailers...

the water was across the road here...

and here...

this park was deep enough for a boat. although it quite often floods during storms I never saw it as bad as it got that day.

So that was the excitement of the week!

Oh, that and Emma's cast was finally taken off! She has to do exercises to get her wrist back the way it was and now I just have to watch and see if her growth plate will be alright. I hope so.

Here's this week's challenge for Lotus Paperie. The challenge is to use packaging that your supplies came in! Mikhail has his own Fisher Price camera and when he first had it he would always have the camera turned the wrong way, towards himself, and he would proceed to take multiple photos of his little mouth and nose. :)

I used the cardboard backing to frame the photos...

Here is the before...

That's about it this week, thanks for peeking!

xoxo

More renos and things...

How has your week been? We are finally starting to get back to our real life, the chaotic one, the one we love. :) I'm back to my regular exercises at the pool and all the appts. that go with it. Kids are back to dance and school. We are pretty much all better now, I'm just waiting for my energy level to come up, or is that just me?? lol
Anyway, we are planning on putting in a dance studio for the girls downstairs. We already have an empty room that they dance in all the time but we want to add to it to make it more of a dance area for them. We have it all planned where everything is going to be, we just have to do it now.
Also getting more ideas for Mikhail's big boy room. I love this idea for favourite books. That's about as far as I've gotten with it though. :p


Here's the sketch for Lotus Paperie this week...
Mine honestly started that way since I love exactly the way the sketch is but my layout ended up like this...

Which I'm happy with anyway, loved playing with the paint :) I think paint and spray ink is my thing. :) I find myself quite often running out the door to pick kids up, my fingers stained with paint or ink, lol.

Emma's cast comes off next week!! Can't wait, and neither can she. It's been a long 8 weeks with that thing. She will have to get used to it being off though because I noticed as she walks she doesn't pay attention to her casted arm and weather she bangs it against things or not, that's gonna hurt. We'll see how she does.

Thanks for peeking, have a great weekend

XOXO

AWARD!

I received a blog award from Marit the other day and finally answered the questions that go with it! The goal is to answer the questions with one word, I cheated a little as I found it pretty hard to do.





Here's my answers...


1. Where is your cell phone? none
2. Your hair? copper
3. Your mother? confidant

4. Your father? workaholic
5. Your favorite food? Veggies
6. Your dream last night? forgot

7. Your favorite drink? Water
8. Your dream/goal? get better
9. What room are you in? living room
10. Your hobby? Scrap booking/photography
11. Your fear? kids dieing
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? retired?
13. Where were you last night? quarantined
14. Something that you aren’t? dramatic
15. Muffins? yep
16. Wish list item? no bills
17. Where did you grow up? Canada
18. Last thing you did? snuggled Mikhail
19. What are you wearing? Jammies (still quarantined :p)
20. Your tv? hardly watch
21. Your pets? none
22. Friends? close-to-heart
23. Your life? blessed
24. Your mood? melancholy
25. Missing someone? always
26. Vehicle? truck

27. Something you are not wearing? ya don't wanna know
28. Your favorite store? Local scrapbook store
29. Your favorite color? can't pick
30. When was the last time you laughed? This morning
31. Last time you cried? couple weeks ago?
32. Your best friend? hubby
33. One place that I go to over and over? Wal-mart (and I wish I didn't have too :p)
34. Facebook? yep
35. Favorite place to eat? home-sweet-home :)



So you are supposed to forward this award to 5 people but I'm gonna leave this one open to anyone who wants it. Let me know if you decide to answer the questions so I can take a peek! :)



I am also still in a circle journal group and received 3 journals the other day. Here are my entries.



This one is for the gratitude journal...

and this one is about yourself, you have to list 10 things about yourself right now. Number three DOES NOT say I've been with my hubby since I was 9, but rather 19, the ribbon is hiding the # one, lol.

and this one is about what inspires you.

We are still fighting the H1N1 virus at our house. We have been quarantined a total of 6 days, looks like it will be a while yet as Chastity's symptoms just got worse yesterday and Emma is still coughing. We are hanging in there though. I'm sure we'll be fine. Mikhail is pretty much back to himself now! :)

Have a wonderful virus free week :)

Thanks for peeking :)

XOXO

Kids are sick :(

And I wish I could say from too much Halloween junk, but no, it's that nasty swine flu that's going around. It's flying through almost everyone I know right now. I have it too but not like my kids do. I was worried about my middle child because she had a good fever but Mikhail's spiked at 39.3 C, that's about 103 F. He's throwing up good too, all over our nice new couch. sigh, guess it could always be worse, right? As long as I can get him through this I'll be happy.


We had a good Halloween. Took the kids trick-or-treating with a friend. Had fun showing everyone the kids costumes. Chastity was an evil fairy, Emma was a vampire and Mikhail was a monster.

Here's our pumpkins, saw the pumpkin eating a little pumpkin in a book and thought we would put our own twist on it, adding brain matter to the small one. :p

and we set off fireworks again in our yard.

And finally, here's my layout for Lotus Paperie. The challenge this week is to use a coffee filter. I have to say...this wasn't the easiest challenge for me. Firstly, I had to go get coffee filters because we are not coffee drinkers here. Then I had to figure out what to do with it. I ended up turning it into a flower, sewing it to my page and using yellow paint on the edges.

That's life this week, thanks for peeking

xoxo

Lotus Paperie Design Team Call!!!

Our current design team is wrapping up and we want to give you a chance to become a part of our team! Do you love to challenge your creativity and take it to the next level? Then this is for you. All the information to apply is here.

We can't wait to see what you are made of. :)


Here is my layout for this week's challenge based on a sketch. this isn't my usual style but I still like how it turned out. I even used very old supplies that I bought like 10 years ago! Like the rainbow/clouds, the tulip on the top and yellow daisy at the bottom. I'm surprised I still had these hanging around. I also didn't have enough letter stickers for the word face so I used the negatives from my old stickers, used Lil' Davis glitter paint and just layered it on.


Here's the sketch we have to work with this week. Go check out the others gals layouts this week, they are awesome. :)

Well, we are almost ready for Halloween this year. Need make-up ideas for the girls and pumpkins for last minute carving. I'll share photos of their costumes soon. This week has been packed full of appts. and everything in between as always. Keeps me on my toes. :)



oh, do you love lemons or lemon flavour? I have an awesome muffin recipe using lemons. The girls love them, Mikhail, not so much. Here it is...

Lemon Coconut Muffins

All-purpose flour 2 cups/ 500ml

medium unsweetened coconut 1 cup /250ml

baking powder 4 tsp. /20ml

butter (or hard margarine), softened 1/3 cup/ 75ml

granulated sugar 3/4 cup /175ml

large egg 1

finely grated lemon zest 2 tbsp. /30ml

milk 1 cup /250ml

medium unsweetened coconut 3 tbsp. /50ml

GLAZE

granulated sugar 1/2 cup /125ml

lemon juice (I used freshly squeezed) 1/4 cup /60ml

water 3 tbsp. /50ml

finely grated lemon zest 1 tbsp. /15ml

Measure first 3 ingredients into a small bowl. Stir. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add egg and lemon zest. Beat well.

Add flour mixture in three parts, alternating with milk in two parts, stirring after each addition until just combined. Fill 12 greased muffin cups 3/4 full.

Sprinkle with second amount of coconut. Bake in 375 degree F (190 C) oven for 18 to 20 minutes until wooden pick inserted in centre of muffin comes out clean.

GLAZE: Combine all 4 ingredients in a saucepan. Heat on medium until boiling. Reduce heat to medium-low. Heat and stir for 2 minutes until starting to thicken. Carefully spoon over hot muffins. Let stand in pan for 5 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool. Makes about 12 muffins.

That's about it. Enjoy your Halloween weekend. Thanks for peeking :)

xoxo

CT scan on Tues., results in on Wed....

and when it's that quick it's not good. I have been living with three bulging discs (two mild, one severe with nerve impingement) and a spur all on my neck since the accident. The doctors are actually surprised I am walking around the way I am. The only way to fix it is with surgery on my neck. I really don't want surgery on my neck but I haven't been living like I did before so I probably should. Still need to talk more with my doctor.

Started my water exercises this week. They are geared toward older folks with osteoporosis, it works on your core. I'm not joking when I say don't let the little old ladies fool you, it doesn't look like much when you watch but it really is. They are a fun group though, always cracking jokes. Well except for the poor old lady who doesn't like their perverted jokes, but that makes it even funnier. :)


Here's some homemade buttons I made this week. I figure it's not bad for the first time and without using a rolling pin with the clay. :)


Went for a walk with the family and took a few shots of the kids, these are some of my favourites...

This is not posed, it's Mikhail being cheeky and thinking he was going to trick me by getting ready to run the other direction before I could get a shot, but I knew it was coming ;)

These are Mikhail's new favourite shoes, rubber boots. He doesn't fit his Elmo shoes anymore, they won't work in the rain anyway. He is SO happy he can jump in puddles now. :)

Here's my layout for Lotus Paperie this week, use your ribbon scraps.

Here's another quick recipe for ya. This is one of our favourites. If you don't like spicy go light on the red-pepper flakes.

have a great weekend

thanks for peeking

xoxo

Week in the Life

Yep, I'm doing that again. It is one of the best albums I have to date of my family, the stories and photos have so much more meaning. Ali Edwards isn't doing it right now though because she has other things at this time of the year to get done, but she says she'll be doing it in January. I'm just going to show a couple of photos from the week.


Here's Mikhail and his little people. He has this broken little car, it's missing the top. He uses it as a skateboard for his little people :)
Bet you are wondering why there is a shoe on the dash. Mikhail wasn't happy...with what?? not sure. I know he was angry with his sister. He decided to throw his shoe and that is where it ended up...all the way home. Oh well, can't keep them happy all the time. He was later angry that his shoe was on the dash instead of his foot, I think he was just tired. :p

The girls and I were also playing with light in the dark with the camera. We were getting bored waiting at dance so we started taking shots of vehicles driving by. The girls loved the effect and took turns. They even got a few shots where they said it looked like ghosts in the photos. They aren't posted though.

And here's my layout for Lotus Paperie, Mikhail and his spot.

My Thanksgiving was pretty good BTW. Great food, a funny movie, and family. Can't beat it :)

Thanks for peeking, have a great weekend :)

xoxo