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

So I guess some people are reading this LOL

In the last week, I have received several emails from people reminding me to update (thanks girls, you know I need a push now and again LOL)

So, I promise that later today (after bowling for Logan) I will try to do a nice little post for you all.

And to make things fun, post a comment for me in this thread and I will do a draw at the end of the week for a big old Kat-style rak!

Back later, everyone, have a fabulous day!!!!!!!

A New Year and still not blogging LOL

Okay so here it is the 10th of January and this is my first post, how shameful huh?

Not much to report, finally went to see the doctor and am biting the bullet and finally seeing a specialist to deal with these "female problems". Should see him in February and then maybe I will get my life back...YEAH!!!!!!

Also going to try to quit smoking again, the date for this is January 23rd, choosing Logan's birthday so it will be a reminder for me and a day that changed my life once before. Wish me luck!

I'll leave you with this photo from Christmas Eve. Of course I told the kids I wanted a nice shot of the three of them. Logan and Carly amazingly enough complied, but my comedian Evan had to blow it all. He decided that since he wasn't sure that Santa would bring him a Nintendo Wii, that he would appeal to a higher source and chose to pray for one (note...this didn't work either, he didn't get one LOL), naturally he chose to do it on camera for me..that boy...it's a darned good thing he is cute, huh? **take note of yet another injury on the boy too, the scratches on his face the result of a failed landing while sliding at school just before the holidays began...sighhhhhhhhhhh



Have a great day!

A Message from Above - Just What I Needed!!!

Well yesterday was one of "Those" days. My kids didn't have school, the buses had been cancelled. Good behavior was not on the menu for them. They have been doing more than their fair share of fighting, yelling etc and I was having a "I don't want to be a Mom" today days. I'm sure we've all had them.
On top of that, the local paper mill where my husband is employed did their annual "Christmas Cheer" thing and announced the shutting down of a machine and the loss of 125 jobs. Merry freaking Christmas, huh? Thankfully my husband and brother-in-law are not losing their jobs (yet) so we can breathe a little bit, atleast until they make the next announcement.
Well, once again during a dark time for me, my Mom was my savior.
My Dad had called and wanted me to scan a few family layouts for him to send out so I was digging in the linen closet where all the albums are. Onto my head falls my Grade 12 High School yearbook. So, to avoid being hurt again and because I felt a need to look at it, I opened it up.
Staring me directly in the face on the inside front cover were all the inscriptions from friends and classmates, but one jumped out at me immediately.
I had forgotten that I had Mom sign my yearbook and seeing her handwriting and reading her oh so true words were exactly what I needed yesterday to shake away those blues. If you click on the photo you can see a larger view and read the words that changed the whole course of my day. Love you Mom, even though you have been gone for over 15 years now, you are still there for me everyday!


Oh, and to clarify for some who may be confused...many of my friends call me Kat, and in my younger days "Kitty Kat", so my mom was referred to by me and my friends as "Momma Kitty", how cute is that, huh?

Love those Lovebugs

Well, what a bad bad blogger I am.

But I have to show you all the lovely 40th birthday gift I received from my fellow team mates at Lovebug.

Each item was so totally me, I was so touched by the effort and time they put into putting these goodies together. Don't look too closely though, the macadamia shortbread cookie box is empty (I ate them all)!

Thanks Team, I love you all!

And here's a closeup. Aren't these awesome? Anyone who knows me, knows my love for coffee and those mints are the funniest thing I have seen in a long time, I see them coming in very handy to me LOL

Happy Birthday Mom, I Love You

Today would have been Mom's 75th birthday, hard to imagine. This is a photo taken of her about 5 months before she passed away. She hated having her photo taken but Christmas of 1991 she had me take this picture of her "all dolled up" and she gave it to us all in a frame for Christmas that year. A strange coincidence? I don't know, I'm just saying.

Although she has been gone 15 years now, I still feel her here with me almost daily. And how truly blessed I feel that I do. I did a layout about the many times that I have heard her speak to me and felt her with me, I will try to scan it and share it with you all.

Mom passed away of course long before any of my children were born, but you wouldn't know it to talk to them. All 3 of my kids can tell you stories about Grandma Ellen and you would swear they had been there listening to her tell them. I love that. It's one of the things I am proud of, that I have given my kids a sense of who their grandmother was even though they didn't get to meet her (yet).

In the meantime, this morning Carly just cracked me up. She was snuggled up on the couch beside me as always and I told her that it was Grandma Ellen's birthday. So she looked up in the sky and began to sing Happy Birthday to her. It was so funny and so cute. She did it all day though, so by about noon it wasn't quite so funny anymore LOL

Not much else to babble about right now, be back tomorrow (atleast I will try)

Have a great evening everyone, blessings to you.

Sad Day and Happy Memories

Received the sad news last night that my uncle Jim Carter passed away. I am trying hard to focus on the positive in that he is not suffering anymore, but it's hard to hold onto that.


My Uncle Jim was a real card. He and I had an odd way of communicating, I called him "crotchety, cranky old man" and he called me "cheeky bossy little girl". We teased each other unmercilessly but always in fun and we both knew that we loved each other.

Uncle Jim always made me laugh, and many of my best childhood memories took place at his camp near Thunder Bay at One Island Lake. He and Aunt Bev always made sure a good time was had by all and everyone was welcome.

One of the funniest things was when he had us walk the trails by camp and told us that he had seen Snow White and the Seven Dwarves up there earlier. As I walked the path with Megan and Tim (then I think only 3 and 5), he snuck up behind us and starting whistling the "Whistle While You Work" song. Meg and Tim were so excited, they ran all the way back to camp to tell Uncle Jim. Meanwhile poor Uncle Jim had to hustle back to his lawn chair and look non-chalant so they wouldn't catch on. It was so funny and the kids didn't even notice how red in the face and out of breath he was LOL

When I grew up and had my kids, they still loved going to camp or to Uncle Jim's house. They knew that all those cool old toys, ice cream and yummy persians would be brought out. They also knew that Uncle Jim and I would natter at each. Me telling him to quit giving my kids so much junk food, and him telling me not to be so mean to my kids.

He was an amazing man and he will not be forgotten by me.


I love you Uncle Jim, rest in peace you crotchety, cranky old man. ((HUGS))

We can learn alot from Crayons

I saw this quote on Stacy Julian's blog this morning and I just have to share it here. I don't want to forget this one! How true is this!

"We could learn a lot from crayons; some are sharp, some are pretty,some are dull, while others bright, some have weird names, but they all have learned to live together in the same box."
Robert Fulghum (b. 1937)author, pastor

My nephew Tim...my angel!

I have to share with you all about my amazing nephew Tim. Tim will be 18 in December and he is just the best kid around. So sweet and thoughtful and I love him to pieces.
Yesterday he came over to bring me some birthday gifts he had brought for me. I am not a cryer by nature, but he bought me to tears, happy tears.
He brought me an adorable charm for my Italian charm bracelet, it is a slice of pizza. Tim works at Pizza Hut and has for a few years, he has worked his way up from busboy to shift supervisor and I am so proud of him.
But he also brought me something else, an angel. Now you who know me, know that I collect angels and am a fanatic for them. This one is even more special, it plays the song "Wind Beneath My Wings" when you open the box. If you have never heard the song, you can see and hear it here.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTXRzolPzFo
Now I have always loved this song, but it has special meaning to our family now. When we lost our sister Judy on June 29,2003, she had chosen this song to be played at her memorial and she dedicated it to her oldest son Scott. The fact that Tim bought me this beautiful angel and it plays this beautiful song just touched me beyond words.
I love you Tim, don't ever change, don't ever stop being the sensitive caring man that you are. ((HUGS))
Here is my Tim snuggled up with my daughter Carly at her birthday party and also a not too great shot of this most amazing gift.

Happy Birthday to....

ME!!!!!!!!!

A few of my "friends" dared me to post on my blog and announce to you all (the 5 or 6 who actually read this LOL) that today is my 40th birthday!

I'm not sure why that fact doesn't bother me, guess it's just a number after all.

Off to take the kids to school and Logan to the eye doctor and I will come back later with some utter nonsense to tell you all I am sure.

Catch ya on the flipside everyone

Harry Potter fans are you ready?

I know I promised it yesterday, but you know how it goes, life gets in they way LOL

Anyway, here is what would happen if Hagrid and Hermione had children.

Be back later with some more ramblings I am sure.

Have a fantabulous day everyone!

Good morning everyone! Just a quick post to let you all know I am addicted to something for the next 9 days and you might not see me.
If I knew how to add a link I would, but you know how it goes.
Scrap-a-Faire has begun, an online trade show for scrapbooking basically and I can't stay away from it. Classes, shopping, chat, demos, prizes, what more could a girl want, right? Try this link, hopefully it works LOL http://presentations.inxpo.com/Shows/Scrapbooks/Website/home.htm

I am taking a few classes there and of course you know that I am taking both of Leah Fung's, love that girl, she is just as sweet in person as she appears online so you should rush to take her classes and be sure to check out her blog too! http://www.leahfung.typepad.com/

Friday November 9th - Saturday November 10th, we will be having an online crop at Lovebug, so please pop in and play with us, you know you want to! You can find the link to the forum on the right hand side of my blog.

Will come back later and post some funny pics from Hallowe'en again. Want a teaser? Harry Potter fans, have you ever wondered what would happen if Hagrid and Hermione had kids? Check back later and you will find out LOL

Have a wonderful day everyone!