Healing

I got home from the hospital on Thursday afternoon and I am doing well.
Thanks to everyone for the well wishes, cards and gifts and phone calls.
A big thanks to my sister in law Maureen for all the care in the hospital. You made that experience so much better.. sorry about having to sleep on the cot. My Dad and Wendel came down as well. On Monday at the hospital I had my own body guards. Maureen, Wendel, Dad and Jim. It was great to have them all with me and even the OR nurse commented on how lucky I was to have such caring family.
Wendel went home Tuesday and Mo and Dad went this morning. I am going read and rest today. I am home alone for the day while Jim is running around with the kids. I can't go to far, just small walks around the house and then I am resting.. small steps every day.
I am currently sitting in the best thing I could think of to sit in while I was lying in bed so uncomfortable last night, my reclining lawn chair.! I got Jim to bring it in for me this morning before he left. I must say it feels pretty good... I can't do the stairs for a while.. so this is the next best thing to a recliner.

I'll be home for the next couple weeks, please call or come by and visit.

loved it..!!

16 of us went on Friday night to the long awaited "twilight" movie.

I really enjoyed it. Out of our group only two had not read the book and one said that she did fall in love with Edward. We were so thrilled after seeing the movie we were all a bunch of giggly school girls.. Not to say that there wasn't a couple of "cheesy" parts that your imagination from reading the book was way better.. (the glitter)
Over all the group loved it.. and listening to all the love crazed teenagers giggling and screaming seemed to and to our stories at the end of the night. I do feel that I need to watch it again, in a more quite setting to appreciated it in a more personal way..heheh..
over all 8 out of 10..

I go in tomorrow to the PlH hospital in Calgary for my Surgery.. so I will be taking a little blogging break. Have a great week.

In preparation

Not much to report, I have been finishing up my Christmas shopping on line and doing a couple of Christmas project that I can't share because they are Christmas presents. I have yet to start my Christmas/December journal and I am quickly running out of time to put it together. My surgery is next Monday and I feel like I am nesting and wanting to get all my cleaning done and things organized before that day. I have got as much as I am going to do with outside lights around the house and I will do some decorating Thursday to the inside. My dad and brother are coming for the weekend and My sister in law on Sunday. It will be nice to have it all done prior to them arriving. My sister in law (Mo) is staying for the week, and for that I am really thankful. I have no idea what to expect and she is a nurse and will be great to have with me.

Hayze has a hockey tournament in Strathmore this weekend. It will be great to have dad and Wendel here for that. Destiny has a ringette tournament in Lethbridge so Jim is taking her there and Jim is going to a Rodeo in Taber. Another weekend in the life of the Stevens family..

So, no baking, cooking or crafts to show you and the only cute shopping I have done is for gifts.. so again, no sharing at this time.

I will leave you with this picture of my sleeping beauty.

bug

I have been having some weird dreams lately. And this morning I decided to get up and figure out what some of them are suppose to represent.
My last night dream was about an old acquaintance that has been dead for years, he died again.
Weird, I know! I am typical not a big dreamer, so that was freaky.
The Other night I dreamt that I had bugs in my hair. which is weird with being a co-owner of a hair studio, that would be disastrous. I couldn't find really anything about someone dying again, but this is what I found out about the bugs
Bug
To see a bug in your dream, suggests that you are worried about something. It is symbolic of your anxieties and/or fears. What is literally bugging you? Consider also the popular phrase "bitten by the bug" to imply your strong emotional ties or involvement to some activity/interest/hobby. Alternatively, the bug may be representative of your sexual thoughts.
So that made a little bit of sense, I am a bit nervous about my upcoming surgery.. not sure about the sexual thoughts part. Have a great weekend, Hayze and I are off to Cochrane today and Jim and Destiny are off the Cardston for a rodeo today. tomorrow, more of the same.

bags and more bags

The past weekend was a extra long one for our family. With Remembrance day falling on a Tuesday the kids had the Monday off too. We had ringette games, hockey games, birthday parties , a couple sleepovers and a craft market all jammed into the 4 days. I think that everyone had a great time.

Hayze scored his first goal of the season on Tuesday in a game that ended up 2-1 for the other team. Great watching and I think the kids did great.

Got the decals changed on my Truck today, it was to late to take pictures when I got home tonight but they do look very nice and professional. I finally took my mom's detailing off from Heron Drilling, that was a mental game for me. I had help and some good company while I took them off today so that made it a little easier.

Millarville Market was really great. A little chilly for Destiny and some of the other woman but over all it was great. I bought a couple of Christmas gifts and a fabulous purse .

I bought it from a company called Fibres of Life They are a local company that practices "fair trade" These great felted bags are made in Nepal. You should really visit the website for other cute ideas. They do business at the Calgary Farmers Market on the weekends. This actual bag is not on the site but comes in a variety of colors with a great selection of panels for the front. I really can't say enough on how cute it is.. and the amount of compliments I have gotten is amazing. ( no I am not selling them, just love it.)

Stacey and I are however taking orders on these beauties. We are going to import a line of bags from Germany. We thought they would be great gifts and they would retail very well. The response has been amazing. If you are interested in anything that you see on the site let us know and we will be sure to order for you. The initial order will be our likes unless someone special requests, and we want your feed back.

(please click picture to view the website)

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Please plan to attend this amazing event if you live in the Strathmore Area.

december family journal

I am going to do a December family journal inspired by these two posts Ali Edwards December Journal and Amy's Chirtmas Journal.

I hope that you will do something like this, this holiday season to remember this special time of year and to reflect on for years to come. It can be as detailed and as simple as you would like it. Enjoy the process and please share your journal and ideas with me.

What I did today

This morning I was awake at 5am, excited about making some birthday invitations for our friends Jayse and Kadin. I wasn't sure what I was going to do and I wanted them to be special..
I finally thought myself back to sleep until 7am, got the kids on the bus and got to it.

This is what I came up with.

After I completed them, I took them to Costco to be printed on 4x6 photo paper. They turned out nice and the boys were thrilled.

FYI, if you need any photo printed right now Costco has a sale on for .10 a picture. The photo lab was busy but what a great savings if you have a lot to do. You can also upload to Costco.ca and pick up at a later date.

Tanya came with me to the city. I was on a mission to buy a new dresser.This is the one I liked and bought. As much as Jim hates putting together Ikea furniture, it was a substantial savings and it does look great.. He got it together in 2 hours.

Tanya and I both bought this bin for recycling. It looks really cool.

That was my day, other than watching Grey's Anatomy and having a family supper, what better day can you ask for.

Hope you like the new format. If there is something that isn't working or something I should change please drop me a note.

A couple more halloween pictures

Happy Halloween

Our Family, just arrived at the Rycrofts for a night of trick or treating

The Rycroft Family

Ethan getting ready for the big night.
Rodeo Clown


Great idea we seen at Brenda's.

This was in a dimly lit room...Califlower as a brain in food coloring..

Scary.......

Copied Challenge

Good Morning everyone. Well I have to do some work this morning but fortunately my accounting program needed an update and I had time to do some blog reading while it is working away on the laptop.. ( I am on our family computer)

Any way, I was looking at this blog that I found after looking at Amy's blog.. (you can click on the side to see hers)I seen a simple challenge that she had been invited to do.. So I thought I would try it.. She was asked to go to her picture files, Click on the 4Th file, opened and click on the 4Th picture I was a little nervous, I have a ton of crappy pictures on my computer that, one day I will take the time to sort out.

But today... I got "cute"

Destiny's Grade two indoor shoes. Such a big reminder of how my kids are growing.

Halloween

We attended Sacred Heart Academy Halloween Dance last night. The kids loved running around and dancing with all there school buddies. It was from 6-8 and we arrived at 7pm .. how perfect was that. Getting ready sometimes is half the fun, and a hour with all that screaming is enough . Stacey and I worked until 6pm last night so Jim brought all of our kids to Bangles after hockey practise and they all got ready there and then we ordered take out and left to the dance from the shop.

Getting Ready

Captain "James Sparrow"

Some Rapper.. dude.!

This is the best type of costume for Hayze. He hates dressing up and is totally uncomfortable with it and with in minutes the costume is off.. Even last year, he was a "Burnco employee" and the hard helmet and coveralls were off with in minutes of arriving at the dance because he wasn't comfortable with how he looked.

Dad and his kids.. He is so proud.

"Bella".. Well my little Vampire anyway..

I had to get the shadow. isn't this a great punk outfit..

Kadin and Jayse were both Cards.

Leaving for school this morning.

we did it all over again..

And we will do it again when they get off the bus tonight, back into town to trick or treat and then to some friends places.

Our girl and her horse.

Was looking at one of my Favorite websites tonight and of course

one thing led to another and I was editing another photo..

thanks to the Pioner woman for her "actions" that I downloaded to use with my Photoshop.

Good Night..

P.S. if you have stopped by, please leave a quick comment so I no you were here.

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.

Bangles Fun

Well I was trying to take pictures of the shop yesterday so that I could ad some to our web page. I am not happy with the quality of the pictures and don't think that I am getting the right "feel" to them. I will have to do some research on lighting for dark spaces.
I did however get some staff photo's that I know they are just dieing for me to share with everyone.

Another great day at work..

A couple of inspirations

Well I have so many pictures that I wanted to edit and post.. I simply have not got around to it yet. It you click on the picture of the bull on the side you will see some unedited/uncut photos of my Thanksgiving weekend.

I bought a new monitor yesterday and I have got that set up. This is very exciting. Once I get it collaborated with my computer my pictures should look a little better. Ya... I get really excited about computer stuff and paper stuff.. so... today was a great day. I made up the new sales tracking book for the shop and Lisa (stylist) has a book binder that she brought in. Wow.. my lucky day. I was so excited when the book was done I could do nothing but gaze at it.. Lame, I know. I have so much stationary and note pads that I now use them as props in my studio/office. I guess there is worse things to be addicted to.. Thanks Lisa for the use of your binder.

Old Monitor and messy desk.

New Monitor and decluttered, dusted and organized desk.

How often do you dust were the cords are? Don't look, but I bet next time you do, you too will find a dead moth or two.

Seeings though I didn't have much to share, I wanted to share some links that some other bloggers have shared that I thought were really neat O..


Tanya Recommends: Quick Snaps
Saxx Performance

Amy Recommends: Gourmet Mom On the Go

I have recently found out that I will require a complete hysterectomy next month. Marlene recommended this site to me hystersister

Well that is all the info for tonight.
Have a look at these sites, there is definitely information from a lot of different topics.

Comment soon.

RANDOM.ORG - Die Roller

RANDOM.ORG - Die Roller

Draw Winner

Well I rolled the dice to get the number of the person that won the book.. I rolled an ten..
congrats to Michelle B.... I thought that being there was less then 12 comments dice would be a fun way to do it. If you would like to try it yourself, try the link above.. Random.org is where I got the dice from.
Michelle I will get the book to you ASAP.. The only request I have is that you make and share some cookies.
Thanks to everyone for the great feedback and comments..

Fall desserts that people liked are: Apple Crisp, any thing mixed with apples and Cinnamon, pumpkin muffins, fresh baked bread, choc. chip cheese cake, and pumpkin cheese cake.

I would love some of these recipes. please share them with me so I can try them too...
send them to this email. twink@myipplus.net
Thanks again to everyone for playing my little game.. I love the comments.