D.J. is still home from work for the week. So our schedule is really different from
normal. I have the girls on a schedule so when things get out of whack, they
get whacked out!!!
(not to mention I feel like the universe is spinning out of control, myself)

They are up and down, and overexcited most of the time so I'm not sure what to do
with them. But I don't blame them, all this excitement is too much for me too.
A couple of nights ago they both slept for 14 hours and then followed that up with a 3 hour nap during the day. It finally caught up with them.

I just feel like hitting the hay right now, the problem is...its only 6pm!!!!

Yesterday, I made a Greek feast for my sister and her friends.
It was lots of fun. I love making Greek food cause then I get to eat it!

I made:

Greek Salad
Souvlaki
Tzitziki (homemade)
Greek Rice
Greek Potatoes
Fasolakia me lathi (greekstyle beans)
Spanakopita
and
Baklava for dessert.

So guess what I'm having for lunch today....this is one time leftovers sounds good!

Most years my boxing day experience is filled with exciting tales of AMAZING deals.
Bargain hunting is a grand tradition passed down from mother to daughter, and my
mom did a great job in this area. I hope to teach my girls as well.

But I digress.

This year I got some great deals but all on ordinary things. Groceries, soap, toiletries, etc. I was thinking about how my life has changed in the past two years. A few years ago, I would have been horribly disappointed if I didn't at least get one clothing item or something pretty for myself. But now I'm like, "WOW! 12 double rolls of Charmin for $4.88! I'm grabbing TWO of those babies!"

And the sad part is, I'm genuinely excited!
But I did get one frivolous item. A box of make-up for $14.97 (50% off).
So that was my thrill perchase.
(If you don't know what a THRILL purchase is...you may not be a shop-a-holic, but there is a 12-step program to help you become one I'm sure! hee hee hee)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
HAVE A GREAT DAY AND LOTS OF FUN WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

This is too cute. D.J. took Rebecca to the dollar store and let her pick out some Christmas gifts for mommy.
(I got it already because she just couldn't wait).

Here is what I got. A basket, an S.O.S. pad (ha ha ha), a heart picture frame, and a backscratcher! She gave me the backscratcher and said, "Here..its a big fork".

Seriously, its the best gift I've ever been given because she picked it for me!

ps. Rebecca ASKED to poop on the potty yesterday, and then she did it!
Okay, THAT is the best Christmas present ever! I was so happy that I almost cried. I can't wait til she's potty trained!

I had my consultation for the oral surgeon today.
Taking out my wisdom teeth is going to cost $903.00!!!!
Yikes!
Maybe I should become an oral surgeon!!!

My babies are growing up too fast!
Rebecca wants to dress herself in the morning, and Isabella wants to copy everything her sister does, she's becoming independent so quickly.
I must deal with it, my babies are becoming pre-schoolers.
Its such a happy/sad realization!

I'm just a little bored this afternoon, we had a great morning at the Y with my friend Cindy and her son. Then we went for lunch and had our naps. Now the kids are watching their 1/2 hour of t.v. and I've already got supper made so what's a girl to do?
Blog...

Let's see...how about something fun to do. I'll name some lines from my favorite movies and you tell me which movies they are from.
Ready?

1. "Don't call me stupid!"
2. "Why does he have a cork on his fork?"
3. "Throw me a friggin' bone here people!"
4. "Are you suggesting that coconuts migrate?"
5. "Whatta you mean he don't eat meat? That's okay...I make lamb!

Can you guess any of them? I know, I know...I have such classy taste in movies. YOU don't have to tell me!

Last night I went to see "Mona Lisa Smile".
Here is my movie review:

I found it kind of shallow. It attempted to deal with many issues like conformity vs. individualism, authority figures (obviously, being set in the 1950s), the role of women in the home and worksforce. It attempted to do alot of things while still throwing in a romantic story, which is where the movie (for me) lost its edge. It attempted to be a "Dead Poet's Society" for girls...but didn't quite make it. Aside from a couple laughs, and finding the clothes interesting...it didn't impress me.
I give it a 2 1/2 out of 5 stars! Definitely a renter!

We're starting to see that Mennonite blood come through in Rebecca.
I'm raising a baking-fiend!
She just loves baking since she saw me start with the Christmas baking.

Its nice that I can spend quality time with her and still get things done!
She really likes to stir things, its the highlight of baking (for her).
That and licking the beaters.
For me, the highlight is the smell. Mmmmmmmm....

I'm done, done, done!
All my shopping, wrapping, baking and Christmas card sending.
I'm done! Phew!
Christmas is a lot of work but now I'm done!
Now all that remains is the house clean-up resulting from 2 weeks of doing
limited housecleaning because I was trying to get everything done. Yikes!
Thank goodness there is nothing to do in January! Recovery time!

If there is one thing I've learned this holiday season, its that -kid love crap!-
We've gone shopping several times to find gifts for girls and they always pick
these cheap, loud toys or trinkets. We've showed them some expensive stuff
but they like the little things for their little hands.
Rebecca got a plastic bangel and a rubber ball with her meal at Boston Pizza and
carried it around with her for TWO days.
So, this is going down as the least expensive Christmas for us ever!!!
I'm giving the kids what they want....I'll fill a stocking with cheap stuff from
B.J. Supertoy Sales and they'll be happy as can be.
I love that store...I can afford pretty much everything there! What a treat!

Just an update about D.J.'s mom.
She went into emergency on Saturday morning and required a major blood transfusion.
She was moved into intensive care on Monday and last night was upgraded to stable condition. So she is finally showing some signs of improvement.
I'm going to see her today so I'll know more this afternoon.

"What I just wrote a few minutes ago was really boring!"
I thought to myself as I was writing it. So, I wondered about my other
blogs...I went back and read a few. I was really clever in my early blogs.
The quality really has been going down lately, I'm going to work on that.

When I start boring myself, that's not good. Boring other people is one thing,
(and because we're Canadian we'll never tell each other when that's happening) but boring yourself is a whole new realm of boring. It must stop immediately!!!

The cold virus that my kids have is so annoying. It like a housefly, its not a lot of damage or hurting anyone, but its constant buzzing is driving me crazy. They've had runny noses and sneezing for over a week now but haven't gotten sick. (Which I'm happy about, I just wish they'd be completely healed from it....I'm sick of snot!)

I had an uneventful weekend, on Friday and Saturday nights I did paper work but I finished the grant proposal that needed doing so I'm happy, if not well-rested.

Now that that is over, I'm going to work on Spanish again. I haven't done any studying since the summertime and I think I'm losing everything I learned. So I got a book from the library. Its conversational spanish in 20 lessons, now all that remains to be seen is how self-disciplined I am. :(

Alright, my pictures are gone now because angelfire cancelled my free account for
some reason. I have to find out why. I'm so disappointed.

Now that I can post images, its very exciting because I can share some of my favorite things. For instance, Monet is my favorite painter. I love impressionism because it leaves room for mystery and romance, things are not always as they seem. I dislike abstract painting because it leaves TOO much room for interpretation (to my taste) but impressionism has just enough structure and freedom. It seems like balance (to me -I'm not a control freak, and I'm not too granola!)
So, here are a couple of Monet's paintings. (Don't worry about copyright he's quite dead).



This is the painting I have hanging in my room, not the original..ha ha ha

You know why I put this picture here?
Because I can! Yee-hah!
Yvonne is a genius, a genius I tells ya!
She told me how to put pictures on my site and then I DID IT!!!!
BY MYSELF!!!! D.J. didn't even help!!!!
Wow! Yvonne, you're instructions were beautiful!!!!!

I DID IT! I DID IT!! I DID IT!!!

Rebecca's New Snow Suit

Happy Thursday everyone!
Its such a festive season so everything should be happy, even Thursday!

And I'm not just happy because tomorrow is payday and I have no bread in the house. But that doesn't hurt. Besides, we have no bread but we still have some cookies that I baked the other day, and my kids don't seem to be complaining about the substitution.
They had yogurt, fruit and a sugar cookie for breakfast instead of toast.
No complaints.
No arguments.

Today, Isabella did such a cute thing. She put on a fireman's hat, walked up to me and said, "I cute", and you know what?...she was.

I went to Breathe today, that's the first time this year! Yeah for me!
It was really nice to spend time with some other moms and have a chat
with an adult. No one demanded milk or juice from me the whole time!
What a treat!

Isabella has a cold and is having trouble staying asleep at naptime.
Its driving me crazy! She is cranky and WAY overtired but when I put
her down, she just wakes up in about an hour. And she NEEDS more
sleep than that! I can't take her whining anymore!!!!!! Ahhhhhh!!!!
I remember this stage (16 months) was rough with Rebecca too.
I feel like yelling, "Just learn how to talk already! Stop whining!!!!!!"
But I won't as it won't help anyway.

...thanks, that's my venting for the day.

Whoever said that involving your kids in the holiday baking was a fun way
to get it done and enjoy the holidays was a big, dumb MONKEY!!!

Its not fun...its slow and stressful. And MESSY!!! My kids had fun, but I definitely did NOT have fun. I might have had a mild coronary however, but that wasn't FUN!

That's all I have to say about that!

Shhhhh! I'm on a secret mission. I can tell you what I'm doing, but then I'd have
to kill you. (just kidding...not kill you, I'd just wipe your memory with my stimulo-neuro-memory-reset device---they come in any standard spy kit.)

I'm just adding some drama to my volunteer activity as a "spy". My sister works for a help-line in the city, I'd tell you which one but then I'd have to kill you...hee hee...

Anyway, the help line has staged calls where I get to call in with a pretend circumstance and rate their performance in helping me...being unbiased, empathy, helping me find my own solutions etc...last time I was a pregnant teenager, and I was sooooo CONFUSED, please don't tell my mom I called etc...

Its fun, I get to pretend to have an alter ego and practise espionage for a good cause. I'd tell you what the cause is but then I'd have to....hee hee....just kidding.
Its Teen Touch. Now forget that you read that, in fact forget that you ever met me or read this blog...now, forget that you wrote a cheque to cash and mailed it to me!
hee hee hee

Whoo-hoo! My Christmas shopping is done and I'm almost finished wrapping
all the gifts as well. I'll be done tonight! Except for one! Why is there always
that one person you have left? One person who is so hard to shop for, and you
just can't find anything?

You know what? From now on, the "people who have everything" should get nothing. Cause what do they need? If they have everything....

I just love where our house is situated. Right out our back gate is a huge park that has the perfect size hill for sliding with pre-schoolers. Big enough to be fun and small enough that they can walk back up so I don't have to carry them.

D.J. was home from work today to finish some university assignments and in the afternoon, we bundled up the girls and had some family time sliding on the hill.

At the bottom of the hill Isabella always yells "a-den, a-den" Its so cute. And we let Rebecca go down once by herself. At the bottom of the hill, she had a big grin on her face and said, "I'm the driver!".

We also bought them each little shovels to "help" daddy with the walk. ($1 each at B.J. Supertoy Sales...that place is the best!) They are so cute, dragging their little "shobels" around.

Its been a happy, snowy day!

I've been asking God to help us out with the money situation.
Newsflash! - Not having enough $ stinks!-

Well, yesterday God gave me some hope, I had a meeting at the Jr. High for a committee I'm on, and the principal asked if I'd be interested in tutoring.
(She was my boss when I was a para at the High School). So she's starting to circulate my name to parents of kids who need help! Awesome!

Its all work in the evening, which is perfect b/c D.J. is home so there's no childcare cost involved. Plus the pay is good, and I liked doing it before. (especially Shakespeare!)

I know that Christmas should not be about commercialism, and there is lots of talk at church about how its become a totally comsumer-driven holiday. And they are right but I find it really hard to break the presents part away from Christmas and have it still be as exciting. What does that say about my brain-washed western ways?

This year we are really broke, and can't really afford to buy our kids gifts, and for sure can't buy for each other. The kids are too young to know the difference, but it still seems WRONG to not buy the kids something. Maybe I'll fill a stocking or something.

OR maybe instead of complaining about having no money, I could embrace this opportunity to teach my kids the TRUE meaning of Christmas!!! Apparently, I have to get it through my own head first!

It's Monday morning again! I just love this day!
After our morning trip to the Y for bouncer time, I have such
domestic goddess plans for the day.
(I've been going so "Menno" lately!)
I'm going to make homemade buns and chicken soup.
I made a roast chicken on Saturday so now I'm boiling up the carcus
to make a broth...old-fashioned style!
Lately, I don't mind being barefoot in the kitchen, JUST AS LONG I'M NOT PREGNANT!
(hee hee hee)