T is for Thankfulness

I am thankful that I get Thanksgiving off so we can go to Winnipeg and spend the weekend with family.  I am thankful that we will be there for Zachary`s dedication, too!

I am thankful for companies with lifetime guarantees that happily send you replacements...

A week or so ago, I was prepping some fabric for magic bags, using my rotary cutter and big olfa mat, and my cutter started to stick.  It was starting to go before, and I went to get my other one, but the same thing was happening with that one - we pulled them apart, but the blade was wearing right into the metal post, so not fixable.  I`ve had them both for a long time, and now in one night, they both died.  I tossed them in the garbage and went out the next morning to Fabricland to get a new one.  Looking at the packaging, I saw a `Lifetime Guarantee`notice... so when I got home I went out to the garage to dig through the bag of kitchen garbage to find the cutters in case they needed proof - I don`t know what what was in there that was so gross, but ick!  This morning I finally got around to calling their office, and within 5 minutes was giving a cheerful lady my address so she could send me two new ones.  Just like that.  Thank you, Olfa!

S is for Sean's Birthday. And Scrapbooking.

Who knew that the S post would fall on Sean's big day?  They had cake at work today for him, and we're celebrating at the Keg tonight as a family.  For the record, he's all caught up to me, now, for another 5 1/2 months.

Scrapbooking:  Haven't done too much lately - a handful got started at our craft social, so there may be some to show soon.  Instead of finishing those, though, I may spend any free time in the next couple of weeks picking and printing pictures and planning layouts, because we're off to a scrapbooking retreat at the end of October.  The same one Carla and Elizabeth and I went to last year, except this year it's us 3 plus four more!  I was downstairs in my 'studio' last night making a list of pages I could do, and started to get excited about it.

In other scrapbooking news, I joined up with a bunch of ladies across Canada to be a part of the Canadian Paper Trail.  It's a blog where each month there's a different topic and each day in the month there is a different Canadian artist featured with their project.  You can follow that link to the current content, or check this one for My August Project.  The girl who started it and is running it has come up against some tough times, so I'm not sure if one month is all this is going to get...  It is a good idea, and if it ever gets off the ground again, I'll be sure to link you up to see my stuff and the other projects.

R is for Running.

Today I went for my last Running Room motivated run.  Our clinic ended this week, and I`ve succeeded in running the full three times a week.  Yay, me!  Now I have to figure out a new way to keep motivated.  I really liked that part - knowing that we were going to meet Monday night and it would be harder than last week, so I need to stay on top of it. 

If I come up with a good plan of where to go from here, I`ll let you know. 

I`d love to hear your suggestions of what you do.

Q is for Quilt & Quality After School Snacks

This is one I made in the fall of 2003.  I actually made two the same - this is Madeline's, and the other was for my nephew Josh, who was born December 24th that year.

 

And this masterpiece was what I came up with the other day when M asked her daily 4:30 Query - "What's for snack?"   This is a banana, halved, spread with peanut butter, studded with alternating almonds and peanuts, and chocolate chips in between those, and topped with a sprinkling of coconut.

P is for Photos of our Summer

Swimming in Sean's coworker's pool.

Wouldn't be summer without racing.

Wouldn't be summer without camping.

Geocaching!

 

So I went to see if I had any posts saved for later in the alphabet, and found this.  So two P is for Photos posts.  Hope you enjoyed!!

P is for Photos from this week

The geocache M and I didn't find the first time we looked (and blamed it on not having a GPS), and that Jess and I did find in the dark and in the rain.  Now officially found and logged.

Playing double solitare with the invisible cards.  She's wearing a housecoat I made for her years ago.

Last Sunday Sean's parents were over, and M and I took Grandma geocaching in between going for ice cream (yay Dessart!) and pizza for supper.  Notice all the water...  This was a soggy find!

Tuesday night's craft social.  I got four pages half done... We had 5 people scrapbooking, 2 painting, 1 quilting, 1 cross-stitching, 1 doing homework (and sorting her photos on her laptop when the homework got old), 1 crocheting, and 1 just there to visit.

M and Katherine at Friday's YOUTH KICKOFF.  Some of the youth stuff starts in grade six, so now M is officially in youth group.  Wierd!  These two have known each other since they were the little rugrats dancing in the corner of the youth events.

M spent the afternoon at Kathrine's while we played in the church golf tournament.  Sean and Jeremy play together lots and are both really good, Byron was out for the first time all year and was hitting some great shots.  I was glad most of my shots didn't count...  We didn't win, but Sean did get the prize for the longest drive.

And that's what we've been up to.  Non-stop.  Maybe tomorrow I'll get a nap.  Or maybe I'll go fabric shopping for magic bag material...

O is for my Office

Thought I'd take you on a little tour today...

This is looking in from the door.  Man, that wall looks bare.

The view from the couch - all my planning at my fingertips.  Those boxes are gone now - that was a temporary holding spot for our new photo directories.  Usually during the day my window blind is up and there's some nice greenery out there, and sometime a rabbit.

And the view from my chair out the door.  Art by Krista, afghan by Fran.

Hope you enjoyed our little tour; when you think of me in the afternoons now, you'll be able to picture where I am.  :)

N is for Nicole Flats

Can you say 'Packed'?

We went camping this weekend at Buffalo Pound - the original plan was to come home today, but with the forecast of rain last night, overnight and all day today, we packed up late afternoon and were home before the thunderstorm hit.

I didn't realize until we were halfway out there that the reason we seemed fuller than usual was that this was the first time we'd gone camping with the Escape.  We've always had the van before, with 4 more feet for all our stuff.  Glad we still fit!  Thinking next year we'll put the Thule roof box on top.  Haven't needed that since we got the van - guess we'll be needing it again!

She will always brave the water - happy we got this in on
the Saturday afternoon, the warmest part of the weekend.

I checked for geocaches in the area before we left and downloaded the seven close by into my GPS.  They were all down at the end of the lake in the Nicole Flats nature area, which has miles of hiking trails, great scenery and an old homestead.  On Saturday we drove out to one end and found 4 before the sun started going down, and then yesterday we started from the other end to try for the last 3, but only got two before we had to turn back.  Two good days of hiking!  I think that will make up for not running 3 times this week... Well, I'm hoping it will.

Saturday Sunset

With the four caches we had found before, this brings us up to 10; I told M we had to find 10 before we could make our own, so now we're in planning mode for how we'll make ours, what will go in it and where we'll put it.  We'll give you a sneak peak when we get it done.

What did you do this long weekend?

M is for Madeline Goes Back to School

The annual first day of school shot.  Things to notice in this one:

• The stripy 'purse' lunch bag - a birthday present from Granny.  Much liked (and forgotten at school today, on day 3.)

• The FLUTE.  She didn't actually need it there on the first day, but couldn't resist taking it anyway.  It used to be mine, and we got it back from my sister for grade six band.

• The faces in the window.  :)  The Friesens were here for a fun two day visit on their way to a wedding in Calgary.

M is also for Magellan... our new GPS (free from airmiles!) that arrived on Monday!  Jess and I took it out after the kids were in bed one night, in the dark and rain - one cache was behind a locked gate, but we scored with the second one which M and I couldn't find before.  She knew exactly where it was, too, when I told her later that we found it - "Was it in that little part of that one tire?"  Yeah, I think we were probably too chicken to stick our hands down there far enough last time.  I'm going to add a rubber glove to our geocaching kit...