I'll admit it..right here...I'm not afraid to say it...

I am not perfect, I am not a super mom, but I'm a damned good mom.
I read a lot of blogs and sometimes it just annoys me. Why can't people
admit they aren't perfect? Why do they always paint these rosy pictures
that their lives and families are absolutely ideal? Let's get real folks, everyone has a bad day, everyone has something that isn't going exactly right, don't they?
I'm not a Dr Phil fan, I find him to be condescending and just plain annoying, but I caught a bit of his show late last night on the dish and wanted to reach out and smack both him and his wife. I've always admired his wife, she seems so together and real (isn't that his catch phrase "get real"), well maybe they should
Phil's wife Robin said that never once in the entire lives of their children did she ever raise her voice to them, NOT EVER!!!!!!!!!! Anyone buying that? I sure as heck am not. There is no way in heck they raised 2 boys to adulthood without at least once in their lives yelling...bah humbug......

Boy, I am really on a tangent today, huh?
Moving on, be back later with something more interesting and relevant to say...just needed to get that off my chest....now I think I'll go yell at my children LOL (just kidding, even me with all my faults don't yell at the kids when they don't deserve it **wink**)

Oh and to prove that my kids love me with all my faults, here's a few pages of the "My Mother" book my 6 year old son Evan made for me. Also in the bottom photo is a gorgeous wooden tulip that my 5 year old daughter Carly made for me. SO THERE DR PHIL AND ROBIN

13 years on the 13th

Today, the 13th of May is my 13th wedding anniversary, do you think that's bad luck? LOL
I think Paul should give me 13 presents just to offset it, don't you agree?
Not much to say today, but I'll share a crappy scan of one of my wedding photos and a few layouts I did awhile ago that seems fitting today somehow.
Have a great day everyone!
There's another layout I wanted to share but can't find it on my computer right now, I'll have to go searching.
Again, to see the pics bigger, you can just click on them

Mother's Day...Gotta Love it

Well that is 2 hours of my life I will never get back LOL

Trying to upload the video of Carly's concert with no luck, I think it might have worked on you tube, but who the heck knows.

Anyway, hopefully you can see this, she is just too darned adorable in her High School Musical T-shirt, isn't she?

CRAZY busy....

Starting to figure out the winners of our Lovebug online crop for NSBD, so too busy to type today.

How about some eye candy? Here are the 4 layouts that I completed out of the 26....not such a hot average, is it? LOL but in my defense, I was a tad busy making sure everyone else got lots done

You can click on the image to enlarge them and hopefully make out the journalling if you are so inclined

Have a great day everyone!

Shout Out to my girl Kirsten!!!!! And Happy NSBD!!!

The internet is an amazing thing!
Through an online scrapping community I met a girl, and this girl is a sister that God forgot to give me(of course not to lessen my love for my real sister...see how I save myself there? *wink*).
She is my soul sister, so much like me it is almost frightening...or atleast it would be if it wasn't so darned awesome
Kirsten, my dear, sweet friend. I miss you to death and can't wait until we find time to get together again. Know that I think of you all the time and you are the BEST baby!!!!!! I was so happy to get your email today, gave me the biggest smile I have had for a long time.

Oh and a reminder tomorrow is National Scrapbooking Day. Come and celebrate with me and the rest of the Lovebugs. Our online crop starts tonight at 7 pm CST and will run until midnight with new challenges each hour. Challenge posting will begin again Saturday morning at 9 am CST and run until midnight again. We've got lots of challenges, make and takes, games, surprises, prizes and fun going on. On and an amazing sale in the STORE too! (Did I mention that with the sale you can earn goodie bags AND get guilt-free shopping in June?)**And if this is your first time shopping at Lovebug, be sure to tell Denise in the comments section of your order that I sent you. Nice to let the boss know you are doing a good job, kwim?

Sorry no updates...sad days

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A dear friend and his family are going through a terrible tragedy that began last week. Too tragic and sad to share here, and really not my story to tell.

In honor of my friend Rob and his family, please hug your loved ones, tell them you love them and count your blessings today, you never know when your life will be forever changed.

Back when I feel a bit more "me".

Blessings to one and all.

My poor kids...I am "you tube" challenged

So little Carly wanted to enter a singing contest to sing onstage with Suzie McNeil at her concert here on Monday night, she learned all the words (sort of), practiced her little heart out, and guess what? You Tube will NOT upload the video no matter what I try.
My poor kids are being punished because their mother is YouTube challenged...
Oh well, it's probably safest for everyone's ear drums that the video isn't made public anyway LOL Maybe I'll try to upload it here for everyone's "pleasure" later, right now I have to do dishes and make it atleast look like I accomplished something today while the kids were at school and Paul was at work.

Done venting...onwards and upwards.

Hey Aubrey...so nice to see you on my blog, miss you girl! (watch your email, I am going to be sending you a little proposal in the next few days I think *wink*)

And on another note...my niece Megan is home from University in 2 days...YEAH!!!! Miss that girl to death when she is gone.

Okay, so I'm a sucky blogger...deal with it

So here we are and it is what 2 weeks since my last entry?
See how exciting my life is? It even bores me for crying out loud.
So, still nothing exciting to report, but 2 of my kids want to enter a singing competition so maybe I'll share their "videos" in the next few days for the awe and amusement of all.
In the mean time, here's a bit of eye candy to appease those who are complaining LOL
I "think" you can click on the images to see them a bit bigger and see the journalling.

Finally some sunshine~

It's a beautiful day here today and of course I am stuck here doing laundry and waiting for it to be time to head to bowling league.
Why did I join bowling league you ask? I haven't a freaking clue, but atleast the girls and I can share a few giggles and get out of the house for a few hours a week I suppose.

Been busy, busy, busy lately. Working on all the details for the LOVEBUG National Scrapbooking Day Online Crop May 3, 2008.

Better get off my duff and the computer and get ready to be laughed at by all the old ladies in our league...so humiliating to be out-bowled by 70 year olds...sighhh....LOL

BIG NEWS!!!!!!!!!

GOTCHA! No, I am not pregnant (she says thankfully, I figured out what was causing that and STOPPED) LOL

This your newest edition of "What Evan Says"

I'm sure you have all seen the commercial for home pregnancy tests, right? The one that says "The best piece of technology you'll ever pee on..."

Anyway, Evan too has seen these commercials and has a new annoying habit (okay, granted it was funny the first couple of times, now, not so much).
He heads to the bathroom and avails himself of the facilities (so that is my polite way of saying he pees). When he comes out of the best room, he grins as big as he can and says

"Ahhhhhhhhhh....toilets....the best piece of technology I'll ever pee on!" Bwahahahaha

Bad Blogger...Good Family Connections!

So once again I have neglected my blog...sighhhh...

Well Logan and his team went to the Provincial bowling championships, they didn't win Gold but they won the Bronze and I couldn't be prouder!

It is March break here this week and I am staring in the face of Hannah Montana overload. We broke down and let the kids get themselves a Wii and there is a HM game that has been on almost nonstop for the last 3 days....oh my......

Not much else to report, I am trying to finish a layout finally.

Oh, I forgot! While in Thunder Bay last weekend, my Aunt Bev gave me a bag full of treasures! Family heritage photos that made my heart skip a beat! I found one of my Grandmother as a baby, taken in 1904. The similarities of it along with other baby photos of the family reached out and grabbed me and I had to do a layout immediately. Here it is, blurry and colors out of whack but the layout is there LOL

ONLINE CROP THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!!

Woohoo! It's time for another LOVEBUG SCRAPBOOKING online crop!
Come and play with us starting tonight Friday, February 15th at 5 pm PST (7 pm CST) and running through until 5 pm PST tomorrow. We are going to have some great challenges, lots of fun and PRIZES, who doesn't love prizes??
The theme of this online crop is "Travel the Lovebug World" and you will be coming to virtually visit all of us on the Lovebug Team in our hometowns, and maybe a few detours along the way too.
Hope to see you all there!

Jewelry from recycled skateboards???????

Yep, you read that right.
One of my online friends and a friend of hers have set up the most adorable Etsy shop
with the most fabulous and cute jewelry you could ever hope to see.
Check it out HERE, and they are offering free shipping anywhere until tomorrow too!


Congrats JANN, I wish you much success with your endeavor!!

Provincial Championship, Here We Come! And Happy Birthday Rachel!!!!

My son Logan (11) and his Bantam Boys bowling team won the Northern Ontario Zone Championship this past Sunday. They beat out Kenora, Fort Frances and Atikokan to win the honor or representing the region in the Provincial Championships! WAY TO GO BOYS!!

Thankfully this year, the Provincials are only in Thunder Bay (3 1/2 hours from here) and I will be able to travel up with my sister Terry and her husband Steve since my nephew Tim and his Senior Boys team won too! Woohoo!!!

I would love to show a team picture of the boys, but I don't have permission from the other parents and don't want to plaster their kids all over the internet without it, kwim? LOL

But here is a shot of Logan and his most amazing coach Brenda Hazelwood. They don't come any better than this lady let me tell you. She is such a positive woman, never criticizes the kids, just encourages them and makes sure that they remember that fun is the most important part of the game. Exactly what you want in a coach!



And before I forget, Happy birthday to my dear friend
Rachel. Love ya girl
and I wish I could have been there today to help you celebrate

Ahhhhhhhhh, Peace and Quiet

I love my kids, I really do, but this week they have been...what's the word I am looking for? Oh yeah.....LOUD!!!!!!!!!!!! Today they are all at school and Paul is at work and it is so blissfully quiet here, too bad I have to go out and search this dumb city for a belt for my vacuum, geesh, what's wrong with people? Is it is hard to carry a vacuum belt in stock? Then I need to pick up the kids from school and take them to the bowling alley, Logan has a practice. If all my stars are alighned correctly, then Paul will remember to come to the bowling alley after work and pick up Evan and Carly so they don't drive me insane.... Anyway, I digress...(again)

A few things to report. Logan has won a spot on the House bowling team for the Bantam Boys. This Sunday, the 10th is the Zone playoffs and if they win this they will move on to the Provincials which thankfully are only in Thunder Bay (3 1/2 hours) this year. I am hoping to be able to go if he makes it, but time will tell. He is so proud of himself, now if he can just relax and not stress himself out, he should do quite well.

The trying to quit smoking is going okay I guess. I am using Chantix which is the first aid that hasn't made me deathly ill. I am on day 8 of the pills and am down to less than 1/2 of what I normally smoke. My official "stop date" is Valentine's Day, I picked it cuz of the whole "heart" thing, kwim? Symbolic, don't you think? LOL

Evan as usual cracked us up last night. The kid has decided he doesn't like cheese. So he is filling out his Valentine's for school (Tom & Jerry ones) and one of them says "I like you more than cheese!". This is the conversation that followed:

Evan :"well duhhhhhhh, I like everyone more than cheese, even my arch nemesis"

Mom: "Arch nemesis? What are you a superhero now?"

Evan: "of course I am, I am FART BOY, I can clear a room faster than a fire alarm!"

Mom: sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh