To Move or Not To Move

It has been a freakin' rollercoaster ride these last couple weeks. In my head that is. We have this grand plan to build and flip houses until we are mortgage free. It's also a grand pain in the neck. Most days I'm starting to think that maybe God's trying to get our attention and tell us just sit back and relax and wait a bit longer. Why else is there all this turmoil surrounding the decision?

One day I'm all excited to move to a quieter street where there is only 10 houses instead of 60 and the next I'm enjoying a great day with my awesome neighbors and I'm sad that I'd have to leave them behind. One day I'm thinking how great it would be to have no mortgage, the next I'm thinking how much it will cost to build again (lawyer fees, higher property tax, penalties, etc). One day I'm thinking it would be great to design and decorate a new house, the next I'm wishing we could just settle and landscape, get a deck, put in a flowerbed. One day it's all going smoothly, the next it feels like the world is falling down around our ears. It gives me a headache thinking about all the decisions. It feels like the perfect time for US because I'm not pregnant and our kids are a great age, but maybe it's not the time God wants us to move. The whole Our timing vs. His timing is just so hard to figure out!!!! If it weren't for this and if it weren't for that we could just move and be done with it. Why does it seem so easy for some people to just up and move and not for others?

Charmaign said something to me on Friday that has been sitting in my head like a squatter that won't move..."Plans can be changed". I'm not a big fan of changing plans, but I guess it's another area God is working on in me. I have to learn to be more flexible and more content. I have to remember that it's not all about me, but rather look at the big picture. Sometimes when things don't go my way or my speed, it may not be me that's not ready for the change. It could be someone else that will be impacted by my decision. Only God sees the whole picture. If we learn to trust in His perfect plan and timing, if we don't just leap into the first thing that sounds GRAND, if we wait on Him and listen to that small voice inside us, maybe we wouldn't get so anxious and confused. Maybe we wouldn't get ourselves into messes (Yeah, Erin, using the money in savings set aside for income tax for new carpet and now having to find another way to pay income tax and pay interest on it!!! Talk about jumping the gun!). I hate learning the hard way, trial by fire.

Funny, funny...

So I thought I'd seen some pretty funny things in my short time, but today would have pretty much topped it. I say "would have" because it all became clear as to what was actually happening while I watched.

I was sitting on my steps of my porch and I heard what sounded like a vacuum. Thinking nothing I looked up to where the sound was coming from. It was a house just down the street on the corner, but it faces away from us. Through the gap between their house and garage I saw the owner vacuuming...his driveway!!!! At least that's what it looked like. I watched for a few moments shaking my head in bewilderment because I know there are people who are really picky about the cleanliness of their driveways (neighbor 2 doors down from us), but this went above and beyond picky...this is just plain neurotic!!!! I even called my neighbor Tara to come check it out because I couldn't believe what I was seeing (maybe not one of my most shiny moments).

As we watched for a few moments, the guy suddenly picks up a mat and gives it a shake. Ahhhh!!! It's all much clearer, he was vacuuming the mat which was lying on the driveway.

It's interesting how we can see something from a distance and make a judgment or jump to a conclusion. We talk about it with other people and shake our head at the way people look, act or do things, but if we take a closer look and actually find out what's really going on behind the scenes, we wouldn't be so quick to laugh or judge. If we'd look at them through the eyes that God views us all in, we'd have more patience, more compassion. Not all things are as they appear on the surface. God has called us to "Love one another", "Love our neighbor", "Love our enemies". Do you see a pattern? Yet what comes out of our mouths is usually anything but love. I know I'm guilty of it.

Learning to jog

During my last 2 evening walks I've added in some jogging. I've never jogged. Ever. At least not very far anyway. It hurt my knees too much. But then I was informed that this is because I don't have very much arch on my foot and my new shoes with arch support would help. So I'm going to test this theory. I found a "learn to jog" plan and I'm going to give it a shot. By the end of 8 weeks I should supposedly be able to jog 2 miles without stopping. So for my first week I'm supposed to do 4-5 intervals of walk 5 minutes, jog 30 seconds. This may sound like jack diddly squat to some of you, but let me tell you how hard 30 seconds is!!!

I also realized yesterday that I have this HUGE pride issue. I started one of my jogging intervals just after I'd turned onto a side street and I saw 2 people walking toward me. They were more than 30 seconds from passing me, so rather than stopping when my 30 seconds were up and look like a wimp...you got it, I kept going. I had to go for 1 minute and 11 seconds before they were out of sight. I was very, very tired and breathing like I'd just run a marathon. So maybe I'll just put the pride aside and stick to the plan. Eventually I won't be stopping. Just got to get there first. Slowly.

An Evening at the Park

(click on collage to see larger image - if you want.)

9 Layers...A meme to peel away the layers of you!

LAYER ONE:
– Name: Erin
– Birth date: October 11, 1980
– Birthplace: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
– Current Location: Small town near Winnipeg
– Eye Color: Brown
– Hair Color: Dark Brown
-Height: 5′ 7
– Righty or Lefty: Righty
– Zodiac Sign: Libra, but who really cares!

LAYER TWO:
– Your heritage: I believe my ancestors came from Russia and Holland.
– The shoes you wore today: Barefoot, all day!
– Your weakness: tortilla chips and ice cream/frozen yogurt/gelato
– Your fears: Any harm coming to my family, snakes (which we don't even have here), heights
– Your perfect pizza: Hawaiian
– Goal you’d like to achieve: Learning to run

LAYER THREE:
-Your most overused phrase on AIM: Not on AIM
-Your first waking thoughts: Why is she crying/talking/singing? Can't she just go back to sleep?
-Your most missed memory: certain friendships that have become distant
-Your best physical feature: eyes

LAYER FOUR:
– Pepsi or Coke: Pepsi
– McDonald’s or Burger King: McDonald’s, used to be Burger King until their fries got sucky!
– Adidas or Nike: Neither
– Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Either
-Chocolate or vanilla: Both, mmm...
-Cappuccino or coffee: Neither, don't like the flavor

LAYER FIVE:
– Smoke: No
– Cuss: on occasion (but only mild words)
– Sing: Love to, wish I wasn't afraid of anyone hearing me!
– Take a shower everyday: Mostly every other day
-Do you think you’ve been in love: Yes
– Want to go to college: Done, would like to do some more training in Design work though
– Liked high school: the social part of it : )
– Want to get married: Already married
– Believe in yourself: No, not nearly enough
– Get motion sickness: nope
– Think you’re attractive: sometimes, I was yesterday, LOL!
– Think you’re a health freak: kinda, not the kind who is worried about everything, just have some health issues that need taking care of and I'm trying my best to find the balance in life with that!
– Get along with your parent(s): Dad - yes, Mom - we have our good and bad days.
– Like thunderstorms: Love them (as long as I'm safe inside)
– Play an instrument: not one. Short fingers kept me from all pursuits (flute, guitar, piano...)

LAYER SIX: In the past month…
– Drank alcohol: yes, a long island iced tea
– Smoked: No
– Done a drug: No
– Made Out: No
– Gone on a date: No
– Gone to the mall?: Yes
– Eaten an entire box of Oreos?: No, just one Oreo yesterday
– Eaten sushi: No
– Been on stage: No
– Been dumped: No
– Gone skating: No
– Made homemade cookies: Yes
– Gone skinny dipping: No
– Dyed your hair: Yes
– Stolen Anything: No

LAYER SEVEN: Ever…
– Played a game that required removal of clothing: No
– Been trashed or extremely intoxicated: No
– Been caught “doing something”: um, I don't think so...
– Been called a tease: No
– Gotten beaten up: Not physically, emotionally all the time, same with spiritually
– Shoplifted: No
– Changed who you were to fit in: Not necessarily changed who I was, maybe just hid it a little.

LAYER EIGHT:
– Age you hope to be married: Wanted to be married by 20, was, and still am to the same wonderful man.
– Numbers and Names of Children: 2 daughters, Ella and Aidan
– Describe your Dream Wedding: At the time ours was my dream, maybe now it would be different, smaller perhaps, more elegant.
– How do you want to die: when I'm old, in my sleep.
– Where you want to go to college: already did
– What do you want to be when you grow up: I don't think I'll ever grow up! If I do, that may be a sad day. Actually that's not totally true, I tried to grow up and be more serious and that got really boring, so I went back to being my old self.
– What country would you most like to visit: I'd like to go back to Italy and England, I've always wanted to go to New Zealand and Australia, France, Spain, Scotland, etc., etc., can't name one!

LAYER NINE:
– Number of drugs taken illegally: None
– Number of people I could trust with my life: There's got to be at least 20
– Number of CDs that I own: too many to count.
– Number of piercings: had 6, but 2 are closed now due to infections.
– Number of tattoos: none
– Number of times my name has appeared in the newspaper?: 4 times, my birth announcement, my wedding announcement and our 2 daughters birth announcements.
– Number of scars on my body: 4 that I can see.
– Number of things in my past that I regret: a couple

I'm not tagging anyone for this one. I found it on Jen's blog and decided to do it because I'm always up for a good meme. If you do decide to do it, let me know so I can come check it out!

Wonderful Weekend Moments

Friday
~ having the afternoon all to myself to do whatever I want!
~ having a spur of the moment manicure/pedicure (I better not hear any snickering about my short fat toes!!)
~ buying myself a design book that has been on my wishlist for months
~ buying a new shirt that makes me feel hot
~ having supper with 9 of my closest friends


Saturday
~ spending the day cardmaking with good friends
~ eating lunch outside
~ cheesecake!
~ finding out that my neighbors take good care of my husband while I'm gone (feeding him...steak on Friday night and lunch on Saturday)

Sunday
~ feeling really great in the outfit I was wearing (I felt better than I've felt in months)
~ getting invited out for lunch after church
~ walking 4 miles (around my parents block - they live in the country and a block is 4 miles)
~ finally getting my wiener roast (I was sick last Sunday when we had planned to have one)
~ reading my new design book (Oh so good!!!!!)

(I just realized after reading over my post that I didn't cook one meal this weekend...that's definitely a highlight)

3 Things Meme

I was tagged a few days by Val to do this meme. So here it goes.

Three Things That Scare Me:
1. heights
2. snakes/worms and anything that resembles them
3. being the center of attention in a big crowd (speaking, singing, being put on the spot, etc.)

Three People Who Make Me Laugh:
1. Louise
2. My Uncle Doug
3. Aidan

Three Things I Love:
Aside from God/friends/family
1. books (reading them, having them, giving them...
2. being outside
3. doing a decorating project

Three Things I Hate:
1. the flu (I second Val on this one)
2. people mocking or belittling me
3. onions

Three Things I Don’t Understand:
1. why my house always feels like a hurricane went through it.
2. friendships that just end abruptly
3. why my birthday isn't a national holiday

Three Things On My Desk:
1. computer
2. printer
3. paper

Three Things I’m Doing Right Now:
1. doing this mem
2. waiting for Janice to call so we can go for a walk
3. listening to the annoying ticking sound coming from my dishwasher as it's drying the dishes.

Three Things I Want To Do Before I Die:
1. travel the world
2. be featured in a decorating magazine
3. see my great grandchildren

Three Things I Can Do:
1. pick things up with my feet and toes (Val and I have lots in common)
2. curl my tongue (I even took a picture to prove it)
3. sing along to just about every song I've ever heard

Three Things I Can’t Do:
1. push ups (not even one!)
2. drive standard (stick shift)
3. sing in front of anyone but Jer

Three Things I Think You Should Listen To:
1. God
2. William Joseph
3. when someone tells you are beautiful

Three Things You Should Never Listen To:
1. country music (sorry to all you country music lovers!)
2. someone else's conversation when you know you shouldn't
3. people who are always negative

Three Things I’d Like To Learn:
1. how to play guitar (but alas my fingers are so small)
2. how to run (planning to start soon)
3. another language (Spanish or Italian perhaps)

Three Favorite Foods:
1. My Grandma's homemade perogies
2. tortillas and pitas with any kind of hot dip
3. manicotti

Three Shows I Watched As A Kid:
1. Sesame Street
2. Mr. Dressup (with Casey and Finnigan)
3. Full House

Three Things I Regret:
1. letting go of friendships too easily
2. getting a credit card!!!!
3. not spending more time with my brothers in the last few years

Okay I'm tagging Louise, and Cherrye and Dedee. Your turn!

What's In a Name?

Okay, you guys, I need a name. Apparently I'm supposed to have business cards for myself to have displayed in the showhome I'm working on and I don't even have a name for my "business". I'm not really too thrilled about using my full name (mennonite last names are so very prestigious sounding after all!). So I'm looking for suggestions. ERINteriors? Hee, hee!! No seriously...I've never had to do this, so it has to sound professional and say what service I'm providing. Let me know if anyone has any brilliant ideas...PLEASE!!!

No Words...

...to put as a title that would do justice to yesterday's concert! I have plenty of words in my head regarding everything.

For starters, when you pay for a ticket, you are paying to see the headliners, the main act, but yesterday's opening act held his own. William Joseph was phenomenal!!!! I was absolutely blown away. You can click on that link and check him out (he's also playing on my blog right now, yay!), but you actually have to see him play to know what I mean. He feels his music and it just pours out of the piano. I mean for goodness sake, he even laid down on his seat and crossed his arms over and played backwards! Hard to picture? Yeah, hard to believe in real, too! You can just see the music consumes him and it's easy to get lost in it. And the combination of a grand piano and a drum kit was unbelievable. I was wishing over and over that Jer was there to witness it. I'll definitely be watching for any tours he does on his own.

That's when I leaned over to Elin and said, "You know Il Divo is amazing when this guy is the opener and they have to follow. He's going to be a hard act to follow!"

But they stayed true to form and belted out their music. Who knew that amount of sound could come out of a person for real! Wow!!! It's one thing to enjoy a great cd when you can tell that they are really that good, but I love watching live music. There is something so powerful about watching someone use their God-given gift to sing and play an instrument and do it superbly. It moves me in a way that almost nothing else does. It's cool to see 4 men from a few different backgrounds all sing together and sound like they were always meant to sing together, but knowing that they could all in fact sing by themselves and still be truly incredible! What a talent.
And just when we despaired of ever seeing their faces because we were quite high up, they turned on the big screen and yes, they are in fact quite good looking.

A highlight of the evening was realizing that the age of majority there was like 55+. I've never seen so many excited white/grey haired people in my life. It was truly amazing. The last song during the encore, Il Divo sat on the edge of the stage and all the women in the front rows crowded around to shake hands with them and get autographs. Yes, you heard me, autographs...while they were singing! Too funny! And when the camera zoomed in on the people surrounding them, they were all older. Oh what fun!

All in all it was well worth Clint's hard earned money! Thank you, Clint for buying Elin tickets for her birthday, and thank you Elin for picking me to come with you! I couldn't have enjoyed myself more! And I got the William Joseph cd so now I can enjoy myself over and over again, I'm so excited it makes me want to flap my hands. (you should have seen my when I first got it, I was clutching it to my chest like a new found treasure...which it is...grinning from ear to ear! I love finding new music!). Sigh...

Vote for Val!!!!

Okay everyone, it's time to rally our support. Val over at Purple Valley also has a blog called Grandma's Diary where she shares pages from her grandmothers actual diary from the 1940's. It's being nominated for a blogging award (Best Blog of All Time none the less!), but she needs our help to vote her up, up, up!!! So go here and register and put your vote in for Grandma and most importantly, go read this great blog. It's so cool! She's already at the top of page 2 of 53 pages of blogs being nominated. Very neat.

Il Divo and Il Flu Bug!

So according to the calendar and my ticker up above TODAY is Il Divo!!!! This is the day I've been looking forward to for 3 months! And the night before last I had to get the flu! What great timing. I'm feeling a ton better this morning, just really weak. I was flat on my back yesterday, trying not to lift a finger so as to get better faster for today.

Last night was kind of scary. I got home from my parent's around 6:45 p.m. and I was shivering with chills. I took off my shoes and jacket and by the time I got upstairs to the bathroom I could hardly turn the water on. Here's my most brilliant moment...I didn't even think about fever...nope. So I ran a nice hot bath. We're talking slow roasted to perfection! Well, I get into my nice hot bath, hoping to stop the shaking and it only gets worse! I'm shaking so bad now I don't think I can even get out. I'm wanting to call Jer, but he's in the basement bathing the girls. So I grit my teeth (careful not to bite my tongue with all the chattering) and haul out of the tub (and we have a large tub, it's like doing hurdles). I run (more like stumble) still wet into my bed and get under the thickest, heaviest blanket I can find and curl up in the fetal position trying to stop the shaking. This whole episode lasted for half an hour. Jer finally comes upstairs and I tell him to go Google the recipe for an electrolyte drink (I'm thinking I'm getting dehydrated). I sip a little of that and then call Healthlinks and the nurses says I sound like I should be okay, but if the fever gets worse or my mouth gets really dry or I'm feeling dizzy I should go to emergency.

So I'm lying in bed taking my temperature like every 20 minutes and it's going up, and up and up. That's when I really started getting worried. My temperature was past the dangerous levels, but my skin wasn't really hot and I wasn't hallucinating or out of it. So Jer sponged me and I laid there and prayed. I took Tylenol and sat in a lukewarm bath. And prayed. Slowly...way too slowly my temperature went back down .1 degree at a time. I think I just got my internal temperature so hot in my bath that it took a really long time for it to go down. It wasn't even a fever. I'm naturally a hotter person to begin with, so that doesn't help. I finally went to bed at 10:15 and I slept really well. This morning I'm feeling a lot better, very weak, but way better than yesterday.

So Mommy's going to come over and make me homemade chicken noodle soup and help me with the girls so that I can rest up for this evening's outing. At least I can walk upright now for short periods of time and I don't feel nauseated anymore. All steps in the right direction!

***UPDATE: I'm feeling way better!!!! We're leaving for Il Divo in an hour and a quarter. Yay!!! Thanks for any prayers you may have sent!

Oh Happy Day!

(sung to the tune of the Christmas song "Do You See What I See")
Do you see what I see?
A roofer, a roofer
Up on my garage
Oh what a happy daaaayyyyyy
Oh what a happy day!

Yes, folks, that is indeed my lovely brother bringing shingles that have been sitting on my driveway for 6 months up onto the roof!!! That is a sight to behold. Praise the Lord!!!

Heavenly...

We interrupt the regular programming to make an announcement...

They have KitKat Blizzards at Dairy Queen...

'nuf said!!!!

Oh My Goodness, Oh My Goodness, Oh My Goodness

Yes that title is indeed me freaking out. Why? Because one of my dreams is coming true!!!! I've always wanted to "do" a showhome. For those of you who haven't already figured it out, I'm an Interior Decorator (hopefully to get into design one day). I've done lots of stuff for friends and family and our own houses of course (all free of charge). But I told Jer one day last year that I would love, love, love to do a showhome one day. So as of today, I'm doing a showhome...picking all the paint, flooring, lighting, cabinet/counters, tile...all by moi! YAY!!!! And then they dropped the big one on me...IT'S GOING TO BE IN THE PARADE OF HOMES NEXT YEAR!!!!!! Talk about breaking out into a sweat. I can do this, I can do this, I can do this....
(this is me being nervous and sweating...a sweating emoticon...hee, hee)

When they called me yesterday to ask if I would be interested in meeting with them, I automatically wanted to tell them I couldn't. They want to pay me to do what I love to do and suddenly I didn't think I was good enough. I'm not good enough to get money for it. I totally undervalue my passion and gift. But I pepped myself up and I'm hoping the confidence will follow closely behind. So, wish me luck and if you have a spare prayer, please send it up for me. Pray that I will create something I can be proud of. I'm going to bust out into the world of decorating...look out HGTV, here I come...okay maybe that's going a little overboard!

Aidan's Spot

Aidan has recently discovered that the wall in the dining room is warm in the morning. The other day I noticed her place her hand on the wall and then put her cheek to it with her thumb in her mouth. This morning I saw her doing it again. Too cute. When the wall cools under her cheek, she moves over to a warmer spot.

The Game is on...

There's this email going around amongst my friends called "The Game is on". Basically, you are supposed to forward the email to all your friends and they are supposed to email you ONE word that describes you...if there is any one word that would encompass how they view you. So I thought this was a fun one and I'm posting the results on the side of my blog.

I was excited as each one came into my inbox, and they're all sweet (I guess no one is going to email you nasty traits that you have, LOL). A lot of them are naturally how my Sanguine personality operates (creative, cheerful, like to have fun, etc.), but one of them is the biggest compliment I've ever gotten. In fact it got me all choked up. My next door neighbor Tara labelled me "Friend". Big deal, right, we all have friends. Yes, but all the other personality traits can be somewhat natural to a person, while this one means something on a deeper level. I don't try to be Effervescent (that's great that someone thinks I am, though!). You have a decision every day to be a friend or not. Everything you do and say to other people is important. If there's any one thing that I want to be known and remembered as, it's FRIEND.

I'm not writing this to bask in the glory of people telling me nice things about myself, rather I want to remember each day what's really important. It's so easy to get caught up in our own lives and how important they seem to ourselves, but unless we're reaching out and touching other people's lives, it's all for nothing. It was WAY out of my comfort zone to introduce myself to my new neighbors, I don't do that, but it got me one of the best friends I could have. Her and her husband Chris are two of the most generous, friendly people we know. There's no greater gift in life than good friends. So to all you, my lovely friends, thank you for taking the time to invest in my life and put up with all my effervescence and craziness, I love you all so much. May God bless you each as richly as you bless me!

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

Since I don't actually drink coffee, I thought I'd see what they have to say about that. Apparently it shows.

You Are a Frappacino

At your best, you are: fun loving, sweet, and modern At your worst, you are: childish and over indulgent You drink coffee when: you're craving something sweet Your caffeine addiction level: low

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

I'm not a snob...really!

Twice today I felt like such a snob. Not intentionally! I went for a walk today...and I must interject here, that walking is when I'm the biggest snob ever. I don't make eye contact at the best of times, but when I'm walking I feel so vulnerable, so out there, and I don't look at the people in cars driving by. It's a defense mechanism. I always have people saying "I saw you walking the other day and you didn't even wave". That's because I didn't see them. I'm in my own little world. I have my music blasting and so even if you honk, I likely won't notice. Back to today...I'm walking back onto the street that leads to our bay and there are 3 people walking with a dog. I see one of the people and I don't recognize her so I just look the other way and keep going. So I'm home shortly after my walk, sitting on my deck, when the aforementioned 3 people and dog walk around the corner down the street from our house. That's when I realize it's neighbors from down the street. Oops. They must think I'm a jerk! Yikes.

Second incident, I'm driving to my parents to pick Ella up and I see a woman and a girl on bikes just before my parents driveway. I don't really pay attention even though the woman makes eye contact with me and I drive by. Then I do a double take and realize I think I know who that is. Double whammy! Twice in one afternoon. I'm going to start making a point of looking at people who drive or walk past me. So if I've given you an unintentional brush off, sorry! I'm going to try better.

What the Ham?

Okay I have a beef...ham...whatever. Why does EVERYONE serve ham at Easter around here? Why? All 3 family gatherings this year (and every year) are serving ham! We don't even like ham!!! It's so annoying! I'm not even supposed to eat pork with this cleanse and so I'm going to be bringing my own food to all 3 gatherings! That's ridiculous. Okay, I feel better now that I got that off my chest. Maybe we'll just have to start our own traditions...bunny anyone? : )

Yummy Pancakes...

So as I'm always on the search to make my recipes healthier so I can eat them, I Googled "Whole Wheat Pancakes" this morning and I found THE ONE!!! Oh was it good. My family ate a lot. The great thing is, there's no white flour, no sugar. Yay!!!

Whole Wheat Pancakes

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp honey
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup yogurt (vanilla's good)
2 tbsp oil

Sift together dry ingredients. In separate bowl mix together honey, beaten egg, milk, yogurt and oil. Whisk quickly into dry ingredients. Preheat pan (if needed use small amt of butter). Makes 6-8 pancakes

I ate mine with yogurt on it (Astro Balkan Style yogurt - it has less sugar than most yogurts and was the recommended brand for a candida cleanse). The hubby and kiddos used syrup. It would be great with fresh fruit on it as well. Well Happy Easter Everyone!!

I Can Do It!!!!

I dragged my tired butt out of bed this morning an hour earlier than I usually do...I don't want to hear any snickering or mocking, so I'm not even going to say when. It may not be early for most people, but it's very hard for me. So as I was saying, Louise called me this morning to make sure I was up and then I exercised! Oh yeah, baby, I was hurtin' and sweatin' and well you get the picture. I've been pretty much sedentary for the last 4 months and so this was an accomplishment. So my goal is to do this every morning (Monday - Friday) and starting next week I'm going to add in my daily walk (I'll do it in the evening and spread the love a little over the day), hopefully it'll warm up by then! Maybe my cleanse will actually do something on the outside then, too : )

And the winner is.....

So after much deliberation and 20 suggested titles from 14 different participants, I finally had to ask a lovely assistant to help me. It was such a hard choice that I actually tallied up the whole lot to see what it would cost to buy everyone a book...I wish...maybe just a little more than my budget could handle as books are not cheap...so back to the bowl and my lovely assistant...

Drumroll please.....


And the winner is.....












scroll down.....






Charmaign Derksen who requested "Child of the Mist" by Kathleen Morgan via an email to me.



And I was feeling in a particularly magnanimous, generous mood and didn't want to leave my other lovely assistant out, (she was frantically saying please to stick her grubby little fist in the bowl) so the second drumroll please....



And the second winner is....










scroll down.....







Val who requested a parenting book of my choice that I love. And no, her sucking up had nothing to do with it, although it was nice...thank you to all the sweet suck-up comments I got...but in the end it was completely random.

And to all the rest of the contestants, BAFAB Week happens again the first week of July...you never know, I may just participate again...Maybe you should think of participating, too...

A Fun Meme

I saw this meme at Sognatrice of Bleeding Espresso a couple days ago and wanted to do it then, then today I saw it at Cherrye of My Bella Vita and both of them were not tagging anyone for it so I thought I'd just do it because it was kind of fun...So here it goes.

I'm eating a leftover hamburger (w/ mayo, on wheat bread) and sautéd zucchini as I type this. What did YOU eat last? Well, I haven't yet had breakfast, so that would make the last think I ate my late supper last night. I shared a bacon double cheeseburger pizza from Boston Pizza with Janice and then we shared a chocolate mousse pie crammed with pieces of cheesecake, pecans and toffee all on a chocolate crust. I think it put me in a sugar coma...wasn't supposed to eat that!

I am totally head-over-heels for a very tall man named James, who has a very sexy new haircut (picked out by me, of course! lol) What about YOUR love life? Anyone special? Yes, my lovely husband Jeremy who also has a sexy new haircut! We've been married for almost 6 years (this May) and he's still the man of my dreams!

I live in a little house, with lots of trees, on a dead-end street. What is it like where you live?We live in a cute 2 story house on a street with the cute name of "Cobblestone Court". No trees, almost no grass, but as soon as it stops snowing, warms up and they open the sod farms again, that should change. Looking forward to it!

I love my hair, and my cute wittle nose. What are YOUR favourite features about yourself? Right now there aren't too many physical attributes that I love, except for my hair (thank you Kyle!!!) and my eyes. I'm a pretty optimistic person who loves a good laugh.

Today, I pondered about the need for mentoring in young women's lives. What deep thoughts have YOU been pondering upon?Oh, I wish I could say that my thoughts (like my blog's URL suggests) were very deep, but not so much today. Lately it's been mostly about faith and my seeming incapability of receiving from God and others. Well, I guess that's kind of deep...

I love cheese (cubed colby & monterey jack) and green growing things! List 2 random things you love about life. I love, love books and snuggling up with one on a sunny afternoon, or in a quiet evening wrapped up in blankets. I also love walking, listening to my music with no destination and just walking until I can't walk anymore (or really have to go home).

I found CAC (Create a Connection) through Melba, who I found through A Mindful Life, which I stumbled on by doing a random search for Buddhist blogs, for no apparent reason! How did YOU find out about CAC? Don't have a clue what Create a Connection is all about, but I'll check it out as soon as I finish up this meme.

I absolutely *heart* thunderstorms! What do YOU love most about spring? Spring? what isn't to love about spring? I love the way the sun starts to feel warm even if the air isn't...promising days of glorious sunshiny warmth!!!

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Vanessa (who tagged Sognatrice) then continued the meme party by listing 5 things about herself, and like Sognatrice, and Cherrye, I too, like to talk about ME. So, I'll continue the game with the same rules!

Five things about me connected to the 5 senses:

1. Taste - Salty!!! If given the choice between sweet or salty I automatically choose salty. Not that I don't have a horrendous weakness for desserts...hence the cleanse I'm on...but I'd have to say salty!

2. Sight(ish) - I'm a sight person. That's the reason I like decorating, designing, creating, scrapbooking, clothing, presentation on a table or display...I like the way things feel together. Get's me all warm and fuzzy thinking about it!

3. Touch - Used to be more touchy feely, but since I had kids my touch quota is so full. I still love hugging my friends and family and it's a connection I still need. Sometimes I have to think before I hug "is it appropriate to hug them?"

4. Hearing - Music...I NEED music. My life needs music. But that's an inbred thing from my family...all very musical!

5. Smell - There are times when I smell something and I'm transported to another place. For example, being in Mexico there is a distinct smell (a good one) that I remember and sometimes I'll smell it randomly. I can't pinpoint it, but it's very nostalgic for me. Also the smell of nature, at the lake, at my parents (who live on a country property), when I'm walking down the country road behind my house....mmmm, something about it...

Okay so I am going to tag some people...Louise, Dedee and Val...you're it...

Choices...

So, if you noticed my side emoticon there, I'm overwhelmed. Why? Because I'm trying to choose the winner of my BAFAB. I had 13 responses, thank you. All very good. So I will mull them over and hopefully sometime today I will have a winner for you. Stay tuned....

Big News!!!

Okay everyone....here it goes...

I'm Pregnant again!!!! Yikes...
A little unplanned, but oh well, we knew we wanted more....................................................................



more info below.....
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HA ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Just Kidding....


Happy April Fools!!!!!!! oh now no one's going to believe me when I really am pregnant...so much more fun!

7 Songs For Life...

So I've been tagged by Louise and I thought at first this meme would be a no brainer because I love music so much. In actuality, it's really quite difficult because I don't think I'd only want to listen to 7 songs for the rest of my life. But I'll try.

So, if I could only listen to 7 songs for the rest of my life they would be:

1. Truly Madly Deeply by Savage Garden because it's been "our" song since the day it came out and probably always will be! In fact, I dubbed it "our song" before "we" were even a "we" : )

2. Feelin' Good by Michael Buble because it's the one song that will always put me in a great mood. It's the kind of song that makes you want to dance!

3. You Decide by Fireflight because you need a good song that you can jump up and down to and really belt out the song with a wooden spoon.

4. All Around Me by Flyleaf and When You are Near by Jeremy Camp tied for my worship song. They both make me want to close my eyes and just sway. Can they count as one? Well, it's my blog and I say they are both #4!

5. So She Dances by Josh Groban This song represents grace and elegance to me. I'm playing it right now. It makes me want to just be that!

6. Stayin' Alive by The Bee Gees or the dance version because it is so nostalgic for me...oh it brings me back to highschool...I'll always break out dancing if it comes on

7. Home by Michael Buble because it's very melancholic for me. Everyone needs a song that they can listen to when they are in a mood.

So those are my choices of the moment. Ask me again in a year and they'll have changed. Music is evolving for me, as I change my music changes. I have eclectic taste and I appreciate pretty much any music. There are probably other songs that I could list if I could remember them. I listen to so much that it's really hard for me to pinpoint favorites. I'm not tagging anyone, but if you want to do it, please leave me a comment so that I can come check it out.