there's a mouse in the house

Those of you that know me,  know that could quite literally be the case out here on the farm.  However, last night was a different case all together.    Destiny's class did an Opera and she played a mouse.  A very good mouse I may add.

That is her there in the middle the "brown field mouse"

That is our friend Kadin in the Middle,  he was the farmer

He had a speaking (singing) part, and did really well.

There is the "field mouse" giving a little mousey attitude to the boy in front of her

The kids after the play,  Hayze was not in this play, it was for grades 1-3 only.

He helped with the doors.

Then, we went to the DQ, like we do after every concert for an ice cream treat.

yummmy

And we met up with some friends that had just finished baseball.

And then played at the park for a few minutes.

What a great night.

Yard work 101

Well if you see me regularly,  you have probably heard me say, " I am loving the age of our kids.

Today was another good example of why.  If you live on a farm, or acreage or even just have a big yard you know the time that goes into it.  Many hands make light work as the saying goes. And today, I trained some new hands.  

Destiny always says she isn't a good driver, so I s

howed her how to run the lawn tractor, of course reiterating the safety features and the option of just standing up to shut it off. 

 This helped with her confidence once she new she could just stand up.

I set her loose in the front paddock and she did amazing.  Her smile proved that she had more confidence in her abilities.  That was great for her.

Now there are times in life where I truly believe that you have to be careful for what you wish for.  I think Hayze found that out today.  He really wanted to whipper snip today, so after some persuading and some safety gear....  off we went.  Hayze got on to it right away and did alot of whipping.  I was really proud of him for all the grass that he cut.  That job is really a ruthless, hand vibrating, body shaking job.  He did good and even by the end he was able to change the cutting string and pull start it.

I think he was happy to be done and be able to play with his sister.

When all the yard was looking better, we cleaned up and went to town for some ice cream and parts to fix up a couple leaks we have in our irrigation/sprinkler system.  Jim got them fixed up to problem and now we can start watering our brown grass.   Funny how fast that happened.  Feels like there was just snow on it last week.

Just 3 more sleeps until my trip to Phoenix.

Holiday Projects

I know! Two posts in one day. That is amazing, but I wanted to show you a couple other projects I have been working on.

Desk Calendars

This is the front and back view of the desk calendar I have been working on for a month or so.

This is a inside view of the month of March and a side view so that you can see how I folded it.This is how pretty it will sit on my family's desk / table.

This project was inspired by Scrapgirls On there website you can purchase templates for 4x6 calendar templates. I then worked with all the current digital paper that I have and added pictures to every month. Personalizing it with the cute little faces of my children. When I got all 12 months completed ( this took me sometime because I worked on it a few minutes here and there) I uploaded the 13 files (cover included) to Costco and requested 12 of each printed on 4x6 photo paper in matte. I was able to pick them all up the next day at the location I chose, this is such a great service. When I got them home the kids and I separated them into a 1 year calender. I then took sheets of 12" x 12" scrapbook paper and and cut it into 4" stripes. I was able to get to easels from each piece of paper, one strip I cut in half to add to the back of the other two once I got them folded so that they would sit in a triangle. If you would like the exact measurements just email me and I can walk you through it. When the stand was complete I then punched holes and attached the ring binding. (thanks to Lisa for the use of your binding machine) WOLA!. The cutes little desk calender this season. My original thought before binding them was to get those cute little picture holders that you just slip the pictures in make of wire. I think that idea would work too and wouldn't be to expensive because I am sure that you can buy then at the dollar store.

Digital Scrapbook Page

[click to see larger]

I just finished this this morning. I was on 2 peas in a bucket web page this morning just browsing around and noticed this weeks digital challenge. " create a background paper using only brushes" So I was inspired to do a layout. This is what I came up with. I got my snow flake brushes for deviantart by a member named MELDIR. This site have proven useful a couple of time for brushes to use in Photoshop. So as you can see,outside of using snowflakes my layout is quite simple. The ripped edges I got from Scrap Girls they add a nice layer to this layout.

well you have it, all my projects.

The rest of the pictures

Better late than never. More of the pictures I promised from the kids in the park this fall.

I thought I would use this post to catch up on sharing some photos and happenings that I was hoping to blog about in the past. As we all know time to quickly gets away from us and we don't get half of what we want done, let alone the "fun" stuff.

Ok.. now my computer is not allowing me to upload any more pictures so I will just answer a couple of questions that have been asked.

1. Why so many cow pictures.? ( click on the bull on the side to see thanksgiving pictures)

a: because that's what we do when we go home. We spend an afternoon out on the Saskatchewan prairie looking at cows and enjoying the scenery. I guess that has become a tradition.

2. What kind of camera do I use?

Keep in mind I am amateur with a lot of try, my equipment is with me were ever I go. ( the word out is that I am a little poparotsey) and I love my hobby of "pictures".. taking, editing, scrapping, displaying, making video's all of it .. I love it.

a: Canon Rebel XTi, Lens: Canon Zoom Lens EF 75-300mm This camera also comes with a lens: Canon EFS 18-55mm. I also have a Kodak Easy share 10x zoom which gives me 38-380 mm (equiv.) I love it too, it is more of the one I can through in my purse..

3. Hysterectomy?

a: I know I just kind of threw that in there on my last post. I am having surgery Nov 24 and will be in the hospital for about 4-5 days. Why? A long list of girl related crap.. I (and my family) are looking forward to this all being behind us. Any info that anyone has would be greatly appreciated and any extra hands to help get my kids to the rink will be helpful during the weeks following. (just thought I would throw that in there)

I guess it is going to let me add more pictures now.

The harvest of fresh tomatoes at my dads

this is just 1/20 of what he had under every bed and under blankets.

I had thought I would learn how to can them, but simply ran out of time,

as I always do when I go home.

I did make some fresh Salsa

I used fresh tomatoes

white onion

one small hot pepper

a green pepper

cilantro
I don't like it hot so that was it..

I made some Brochette too..

I used fresh tomatoes

garlic, and more garlic

the whites of green onion

olive oil

cilantro

feta cheese

I served it on broiled sour dough bread and garnished with the greens of the green onion.

goodness!

Last picture to share with you. This is my cousins daughter Arlee. Isn't she as cute as a bug. I love this picture of her. It was taken at Uncle Norman and Auntie Phyllis 60th anv.

Fall Pictures on a Day off

I had a lot of fun tonight editing and altering photos. Here are just a few of the 312 I took today.

What's a photo shoot without some fun pictures. I can always seem to get another 10 minutes out of them if I let them take some goofy pictures.

didn't realize how "pink" Hayze's shirt looks.. I really need a new monitor and printer.

Enjoy the photos and I would love your feedback on your favorites.