Pack it up pack it in, let me begin...

Maybe they called themselves "House of Pain" because they were packing up their house which IS a MAJOR pain. Okay, maybe not really. And I'm not actually finding it a pain. I feel good while I'm purging my cupboards and spaces. Making the house feel bigger. "Why didn't I do this months ago, while we were still enjoying the space as our home and not just a big fat profit waiting to happen?" I asked myself.

Well, regardless, I'm starting to pack. I've got a lot of my kitchen cleared out of all the stuff that isn't used regularly...so WHY IS IT IN THERE??? Yes, maybe I won't pack, but host a huge garage sale. That sounds like a marvelous idea! Anyone want stuff? I've got stuff. Lots, and lots and lots of it. I get in these moods where I just want to throw or sell or give everything away because it's just taking up space that I could be using...to put new stuff in, lol. Okay, it's just a cycle for me. Buy new, throw away old. I'm not terribly sentimental sometimes. I think I'm going to wake up one day when I'm like 84 and regret all the crap I threw away. Oh, well, by then who cares right?

If we're going to be moving a few times in the next few years, I don't want to haul all kinds of useless stuff from one house to another. Why even bring it if it's just going to sit in boxes? I mean there is the stuff you have to, like baby stuff (if you're not sure you're done having babies) and that takes up a lot of space. The big crystal vase you got as a wedding present and gets pulled out once a year for that token bunch of flowers your honey buys you to prove he's still got it going on. The engraved wine glasses you had for your wedding supper, but will never use again because you only drink wine with company and let's face it, you're not giving your guest a glass that says "This is my beloved!" The tea kettle that sits in the cavernous cupboard above your fridge just waiting for all those cups of tea you think about having with a friend, but never do but still plan, so you can't throw THAT out. The gazillion candles you have in a special cupboard because you LOVE burning candles, but can't because you have two children who might decide to play with the pretties, but you are definitely going to burn them one day, so pack them up! Can anyone guess what I've packed today? Go on, take a wild guess : )

Now I'm sitting here asking myself what I'm doing sitting here talking to you, my dear bloggy friends instead of packing away all the stuff that I've just finished telling you about that's sitting on my counters. My cabinets are cleaned out, but my counters and floors are a very different story. I'll let you know if I'm having a garage sale.

Behold...

...my business cards. I'd advise everyone to only leave me nice comments because I'm feeling rather vulnerable right now. I picked my name at 2:30 a.m. (yes, during one of my sleepless nights...I think I was eating the chocolate covered grapes at the time) and it's really the only thing I can think of. Maybe not very creative, but oh well. You want creative? Hire me. That's where I'm more creative. And...yay me, yay them...my furniture package has been approved at the furniture store, now it just has to be approved by the person who has to pay for it : ) I've also found someone who is willing to come to take pictures of the house for me when it's all done for my portfolio (Allison, Allison, you should have said you knew of someone...see, I said I'd expose you for reading my blog and not commenting...hee, hee, I know you're out there). I'll explain, you see I was at a wedding today (congratulations Jordan and Heather) and at my table was Allison. I said something and she responded, "I saw that on your blog." I stopped and looked at her and was like, "You read my blog?" It's really funny when you find out WHO reads your blog. Like when random people come up to you in church and say something about what they read and you think to yourself, "I wonder who all reads it?" I know what my stat counter says and there are a WHOLE lot more people reading this than commenting. Very weird. I'd love to know who my audience is. At least then I know who I'm writing to. Anyway, what a strange world we are in...the alter reality of the blogging universe. Okay, it's after midnight again, I'm off to bed.

EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for the over use of exclamation points, but what other word do you use to explain to your bloggy friends how excited (Val and I decided there is no other word to really explain how it is) I am than, well...excited. Okay maybe ecstatic, or thrilled (lacks something, I think), beside one's self, delighted...the list goes on. Why am I EXCITED!!!!!!!? Because I.AM.GOING.TO.VISIT.VAL. Yup. You all read that right. I'm leaving on a jet plane to go visit the dear friend I've never met. I can't even go to sleep because I'm so worked up. She made a comment on my blog today

"...So I get so excited for October. Speaking of . . . if you are free in Oct, we're having a huge Halloween/Housewarming party which you are so welcome to come to!!!!! (You know, because it's so easy for you to!) :)"

So I emailed her and I checked flights and at 11:08 this evening after much hand sweating and back and forth emailing with Val, I did it. I booked a flight. I'm officially going to visit on October 19-23. It's my birthday present to myself. It's how I'm spending the hard earned money that I'm getting for this show home. Jer said I could do whatever I wanted to do with it since it's my first big job and that's how I chose to spend it. I even got a pretty good deal on the flight. Now I need to get a passport. Oh, I'm so excited I think I feel some hand flapping coming on. I did a happy dance...or three : ) Now I really have to go to sleep. Right...sleep. Ha. That's amusing, now not only am I nervous, overwhelmed, and busy, I'm excited on top of all of it. When will I learn.

I Nice!

Well, someone thinks I am. Two someones, in fact! Isn't that sweet. Alexis and Val both gave me the "Nice Matters Award." Wow. They have pretty long lists of people on their blogroll and I'm sure every single one of them are nice so it feels pretty special to be given this award by two sweet women who are extremely nice themselves.

Now I get to give this to the seven people I think are nice. Too bad my blogroll has like 40 NICE people on it. So this award is given because:

"This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you've been awarded please pass it on to 7 others who you feel are deserving of this award."

The seven of you encompass this award for me:

Dedee
Nadine
Tara
Andrea
Louise
Lindsay
Ruth
and all the rest of you, including Val and Alexis who gave me the award.

???

Does eating grapes dipped in chocolate at 2:00 a.m. count as a serving of fruit? Just wondering...

Erin's life...such as it is

Here's a run down of the days of our lives (my life) as my world turns and I deal with all my children trying to make my show home bold and beautiful. And I don't even watch soaps! Ha!

- Cabinets went into the show home yesterday, hope to go take some pics tonight.

- Still know nothing about the furniture...argh!

- Have drawn and thrown out 3 sets of floorplans for our new house (one complete set, a second one that isn't thrown out, just put on the backburner for a later flip and Jer beat me to a good one before I finished the third one). Have finally found one that I think will work and alas, it's a bungalow. Our wonderful Colonial was not deep enough to sit on a walk-out lot. So we'll build that one after this one : )

- The swaying has finally stopped, which is a huge relief. I found out after the fact that it is a wide spread problem after being at the lake. I actually talked to 4 separate people who dealt with the same thing. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, from our last day at the lake until 2 days ago (which was a total of 11 days) I had a complete loss of equilibrium. I felt like I was still on a dock (you know how when you've been on an elevator and you get off sometimes you still feel like you're moving? Like that.) and it was a very BAD feeling. The room always felt like it was moving even if I was lying down. I don't want to even get into all the worrisome things that went through my head!

- I spent a full day yesterday (10-5) cleaning out my house in preparation for selling. I got a big chunk done. All major and some minor closets and storage spaces decluttered and LOTS of stuff thrown out. It feels so good. I managed to take a whole bin worth of books off the shelves of my entertainment unit. Today I'm going to start in on toys...oh is that going to be a big job. My mom had the girls ALL day yesterday and I got to be by myself. It was so fantastic!!! I had Josh in the cd player cranked to the top and I didn't have to worry about feeding little grumpy people, working around naps, keeping them out of stuff, breaking up fights or cleaning up accidents. It was a very triumphant feeling to get so much done in one day. I think it's one of my most productive days in years!

- Jer and I snapped a chalk line in the basement yesterday (all while I was singing the Johnny Cash favorite "I'll Chalk the Line"...ha, ha...booo!!!) so that he can start the suspended ceiling, which he actually did end up starting last night. Go Jer, go Jer!

And now I'm going to go outside for a bit of fresh air to enjoy the nice weather. What a cold sucky August we've had. It feels like fall. Don't get me wrong I love fall, just not in August. August is supposed to be stinkin' hot so that when fall gets here it's refreshing. Jeans are not supposed to come out till later in September. Or jackets. It's been going down to 5 and 6 degrees celsius at night (celsius...what a dumb word, I don't even know if I spelled that right because when you look it up on Google it's also spelled "celcius"). Okay, enough rambling and I'll talk to you all later. And sorry I'm not doing much commenting on all your blogs, haven't had time to do a whole lot of blogging (reading or otherwise) so I'm going to have a HUGE load of blog posts to read when my life settles down. I haven't forgotten about you all...if you care...okay, bye!

Aidan's Happy Birthday Party

Here's some pictures of Aidie-bug's birthday party. It was so nice to enjoy our backyard and all our wonderful friends!

I made Aidie-bug a ladybug birthday cake. It was only fitting. Such a fun cake to make and SO easy!

Exclamations over the ladybug.

NOT blowing out the candle. For some reason it freaked her out a little when the candle was lit.

Immense enjoyment of ladybug!

Opening of all the great gifts (and Aidan's friend Mackenzie on the left playing with her belly button or something).

Fun with Granny! Captured a very funny pose of my mom. I'm sure it was almost as much fun as it looks : )

Just a cute picture of Aidan playing with the bubble lawnmower that we gave her. This was a rare moment when she was alone. She usually had 4-6 kids following her around as she raced around the lawn pushing it. It seemed to be a big hit.

Barely Alive...Ready to sleep

Do you think 4 1/2 hours of sleep is enough to survive a day...with 4 kids? I guess we'll find out now, won't we? I need to find better times to think and design than bedtime. I was a very good girl and went to bed at 10:45, the earliest night I've had in weeks. And then I laid there for almost 4 HOURS thinking about this show home. I actually got up at 1:30 and went to have a hot bath to try and relax. I got back to bed at 2:00 and I think it took me another 1/2 hour to actually fall asleep. No wonder my head hurts. But so far, so good. The girls are all getting along and the Tylenol seems to have kicked in. Maybe once the 2 littlest ones go down for a nap, I'll put a movie on for the older 2 and go take a nap. Mmm...sleep...

Part of my problem is that I'm a little stressed. I now found out that I may not get ANY furniture whatsoever for this show home because the furniture store that was going to supply it is so busy they don't know if they can do it. Argh! An empty show home is no good. So again, please pray, I'm going there today to see what they can do for me and I'm hoping for a good report!

On a good note, the house is painted and casings are up, railings and mantel are stained and up. It looks great! I went yesterday to meet with the people at the Tile Boutique to design an idea for the entry and backsplash. On Wednesday I had curtains priced out at our local hardware store, but I think I can either buy fabric and sew the curtains or find premade curtains for a LOT cheaper. Hundreds of dollars cheaper. I just about choked on my muffin when she told me how much they would cost. I mean, the fabric is fabulous, but not THAT fabulous.

Another HUGE accomplishment is that I designed our house (from scratch) that we want to build and Jer did the detailing yesterday and he said it's a good plan. We are going to price it out this week and we meet with the bank on Wednesday to see if it will work. We have a back-up bungalow house plan if this one is too much for us to carry. It's a beautiful 2-storey Colonial style house. It's a simple rectangle foundation, but the details would be what make it the "colonial" style (shutters on all the windows in front and pillars on the porch). There is nothing like it around and it would be so cool to build it. Not to mention it's a lot bigger than the house we live in now. It would be nice, but it can always be the next house we build, not this one if need be. Always have a plan B.

Okay, I'm going to go take the kids outside to get some fresh air before lunch. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to share with you soon. If anyone who is within driving distance of me has a great camera that takes professional quality pictures or knows someone who does and doesn't charge terribly much, please let me know because I'd like some good pictures of this house for my portfolio. Greatly appreciated. Have a wonderful day and a fabulous weekend.

Where has that old friend gone...

Pause my player on the side if you want to view this. This is "February Song" and it is one of my favorite (all though that is hard to say because almost every song he played I'm like "Oh, I LOVE this song (more hand flapping)!" But this is one of those tear jerker songs for me and when he sang it yesterday I kept wanting to close my eyes and just let the song wash over me, but then I'd remember where I was and think "no, Erin you can't close your eyes because then you're going to miss SEEING him sing it live...silly girl, you can close your eyes at home when you listen to the cd!"



I kept squeezing Jer's hand throughout the concert because I was not sure that it was real. Now you have to understand something, I'm not putting Josh on a pedestal, he is just one of my absolutely most favorite artists of all time, I own every cd he's ever put out, I know every word (almost) to every song and I love, love, love his music. It's been a dream of mine to see him live since the first time I heard him. So if you can put that into perspective you'll understand how very exciting this was for me. I know he's just a guy, a regular person like you and me and that's what makes him that much better. While he was walking through the screaming throng of people he was singing "I am not a hero, I am not an angel, I am just a man..." and that really hit home. We were his adoring fans, but he's just a guy who's the same age as me and happens to have an AMAZING voice and is blessed to be able to share it with the world. But even so, just a regular guy and all that, I still had goosebumps for the better part of 2 hours. Next time I'll pay even more so that I can sit right up front. What a show. I'm still shaking my head in amazement that we were there. The wonderful thing about going to a concert for me is that now when I listen to the music, it has even more impact. I feel the music even stronger within me. Sigh...

Josh is Loved!!!

Okay...yeah...ummm...I have nothing eloquent to say except that I have stars in my eyes. That picture is Josh Groban like 2 rows behind us walking down the aisle. If I wasn't such a scaredy cat wuss I would have gotten up and gone closer. Never step out of the comfort zone. You know, I was guilt ridden for even pulling out my camera to snap this shot because there were signs posted all over the arena "No recording devices or cameras allowed!" Even though there are a thousand flashes going off every 2 seconds, Erin's scared to take a picture of the most amazing concert and live performer on the face of the Earth!!! See, Val, I told you I was a goodey two shoes!

Frickin' Awesome pretty much sums up how awesome this concert was. It was SOOOO good I didn't want to leave. He's funny! So very funny. What an entertainer. Not only is he amazing vocally speaking (not too bad looking either, might I add, but we all knew that), but he has such amazing stage presence and he really engages the audience. And now every time I wear my new shoes, I'm going to think about it. They have officially been dubbed my "Josh shoes" : ) We went to the concert with my cousins, Clint and Elin, and Elin says "If I was 14 I would totally get one of those t-shirts with his face on it!" and I'm like "Hello, I'm not 14 and I'd STILL wear Josh Groban on a t-shirt!" Hee, hee. I'm a total starstruck fan. I LOVE concerts. I love the experience of "Oh my goodness, I'm in the same building as JOSH GROBAN (insert hand flapping)!!!" feeling. Yeah, I'm a bit of a cheeseball. What can I say. And just like I thought I would, I cried. I know, I know, I'm a dork. I get so moved by music. Especially real raw talent. When he sang "So She Dances" I welled up. I got a lump in my throat. I felt a little flushed. And I enjoyed every second of that song. THAT is what I paid good money for. I felt very satisfied with the whole experience. He hit all the important notes, played all the best songs and gosh darn it, was just plain cute! I'm just so blinkin' tired right now, I'll probably have more amazingly wonderful deep things to say about it tomorrow when it's not midnight. I'm hoping to get some good sleep tonight. Maybe all the excitement and adrenaline of the evening will have exhausted me enough to tire me out. I'm just a little bit melancholic under all the excitement, though. I hate when concerts are over. But was it ever worth every penny. Every one of the 11,100 pennies I paid for it! I will definitely be seeing him in concert again. Until then, farewell to thee my sweet singing angel...oh am I tired...Good night...

Early morning ramblings

This is what 5:33 a.m. looks like at my house. I can't sleep. I've been tossing and turning and thinking since 4:00. I finally got up because I was keeping Jer up. I think I'm just very overwhelmed. There is SO much floating around in my head. I figured if I got up and just thought about it, made some lists, then maybe I could go sleep for a few hours. What's so important that I can't sleep? Well, here, I'll purge to you, my wonderful bloggy friends and then you can think about it and I will go sleep...

- Of course, the showhome! It is 4 weeks from NEEDING to be done and there is lots and lots to do yet (draperies, accessories, furniture, details, details, details).

- I've been asked by the same people to do another home (not a showhome, just a basic house in another small town, spec home).

- we are weeks away from putting our house up for sale (hopefully in the next 3 weeks sometime) and there is lots to be done to get it to the point where it's ready to sell.

- all the details for our new house...the floorplan, the meeting with the bank, organizing trades, picking selections, moving!

- going to see Josh Groban in 14 hours and I'm so excited that it's just one more thing I'm thinking about.

- Aidan's birthday party on Saturday...making cake, buying food, get a present.

The one and only think I'm not having to think or worry about...what I'm wearing to the concert tonight. (Well, I have to decide which of the two shirts to wear that I purchased, but that's just a minor detail). Yes, dear friends, I bought myself something hot! Well, it makes me feel good, so that's enough for me. I even got new shoes. I NEVER buy new shoes. Sorry for the poor picture, I was guessing where they were when I took the picture because it's the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT and I couldn't see them!! Yeah, I'm taking pictures of shoes in the wee morning hours. I was in the city this morning (oh, I guess that would be yesterday morning) and I decided to go to Payless Shoes. I wasn't actually planning on buying anything. Then I saw these. And suddenly I needed an outfit to go with them. Kind of spontaneous, not terribly justifiable, but oh, so sweet! Besides, isn't Josh worth it? I think so... : ) (and who needs to justify 4 1/2 inch heels? Not I)

Okay, well I'm off to the land of nod. Wish me luck and sleep.

A week at Minaki...(or Vanaki in Ella's words).

It's really good to be home, but I honestly could have stayed at the lake for another week! We had SOOOO much fun. It was relaxing, fun, restful, busy and great all at the same time. We sat on the dock for the better part of 7 days (trust me, I still feel like I'm rocking with the motion of the water...it's a really odd, disorienting feeling and it made it REALLY hard to drive home today), went swimming, fishing, ate and ate and ate until we couldn't eat one more thing and then somehow still ate more! Visited with some of the most important and wonderful people in my life, played dice (a game called Ten Thousand, or Nuscht which is translated into "nothing" in low-German), did I mention all the food we consumed? I'm not sure what it is about the lake that makes us want to fill ourselves with everything and anything bad for you. At one point Jer was going up to the cabin and I said to him, "Jer, can you bring my ketchup chips down? And maybe some chocolate and the sunflower seeds...and OH, is there still raspberry cheesecake left?" Yeah, not a bright shiny moment for me (I'm telling you, stomachs look MUCH better tanned, so all the junk doesn't look like it did as much damage as it probably did). Okay, so here's a few of my favorite pictures (of the 99 that I took in the last 3 days of our holidays because the first 4 days I was too busy doing nothing to bother taking pictures. I wasn't sure where to stop, so there are 20 pictures below and then is Aidan's birthday post if you missed it.)

These are my silly girls NOT SLEEPING!! This was the first time they have ever had to sleep in the same room together by themselves. It didn't work very well and it only lasted one night. There was a lot of commotion in the room and when I went to check, I found them standing on the bed looking out the window to see what was going on out there.

A view from outside of Aidan not sleeping.

Ella's bum must have been very hungry this week. She had a perpetual wedgie and I know she's going to hate me one day for showing this totally inappropriate picture, but she has the cutest little behind I've ever seen. Sorry Ella!
Three cute little girls on the dock.Jer being VERY lazy and sitting whilst drying dishes. Yes, sitting! Drying the dishes that he was too lazy to wash.
Aidan having a great time with Daddy in the water.Ella pretending to put Aidan to bed and saying prayers with her. Made my heart melt.
The girls having a blast on one of their many boat rides.
Just another one of Aidan's cute moments.
The fishermen going out yet again.
Rub a dub dub how many girls fit in the tub?
Me doing what I did best, NOTHING!! Relaxing by the lake working on my tan was my specialty.
I was elated to find out that my girls loved to be in the water (last year we couldn't get them near the lake). For someone who loves to swim as much as I do, it would be devastating to have kids who don't like water!
My two sweeties looking all cute in their pink "baby suits" as Aidan likes to call them.
Our view from the dock. Couldn't be better!
Okay, maybe it could. This was our sunset on Thursday night. Spectacular.
And even more beautiful!
Ella posing for Mommy on a rock outside our cabin. Reminds me of a picture of me that my mom took when I was Ella's age at Minaki.
More sweetness!
Our convoy of vehicles winding our way around the curving road.

So there it is. My holiday. Sorry about all the pictures. I tried to get Flickr to work for me, but I'm just too tired to care. So maybe next time I won't have these long posts with all the pictures on my blog. Happy weekend everyone. I'm sure I'll have more to say soon. Always do : )

The journey to Aidie-bug (Aidan)

Today is Aidan's second birthday. I thought I would honor her and show everyone some of my favorite pictures of our journey to meet her and to who she has become. She is a sweet, mischievous little girl. She can be the naughtiest little thing and the most cuddly agreeable girl. She makes up for any badness by being so darn cute. She is called Aidie-baby, Aidie-bug, Papa's peanut, Sweetpea and Peach. Aidan means "Fiery little one." Strangely enough she came out with red hair screaming her little lungs out and has been a little fireball ever since. I think her name was God-given. When I was pregnant I chose the name Aidan simply because I loved it. Then I decided to look up the meaning because meanings are very important to me. When I found out that it meant fiery little one I changed my mind. I didn't want to label my child with something that sounded so negative. I picked a new name and we settled on that. About 3 weeks before I was due I went to see Ballet in the Park. The ballerina's name was Aidan. I sat there thinking, "It's such a beautiful name and it feels so right for this baby!" So we decided to keep both names as an options and see when the time came (we didn't know we were having a girl, we had a boy's name picked as well). When she was born there was no doubt in our minds what her name would be. But we now realize that instead of negative connotation, it can be good...she's got passion, she's stubborn, she will one day stand up for what she believes is right and good. We pray that she will have the fire of God in her and live passionately for him.

So this is me 8 months pregnant with her. (I'll apologize in advance for the bad hair...it was a bad hair year!) I had another wonderful pregnancy the second time around!
Two weeks before I had her.

The crazy thing is that she's sucking her thumb in the womb already and she is an AVID thumb sucker now! Silly little girl : )

Here you can see her little knees bent and her feet are in the upward position and she's busy doing what she did best, kicking my insides into pulp!

We were blessed to have a home birth with Aidan. I called our midwife, Giselle at about 7:00p.m. to tell her that I thought this was the evening I would go into labor. She arrived at about 8:00. The contractions had been steady for days (just like the first time with Ella), but something felt different by that time. They broke my water at 9:30 because for the contractions, strong as they were, didn't break it. An hour and a half and 4 pushes later, Aidan Mackenzie arrived. My mom had decided a few days before to be at the birth. So at 10:15 Jer calls her to tell her to come and she takes her jolly old time, arrives during the third push and exclaims when it's all over, "I almost missed it!" Ha! I thought you knew by now that I did everything quickly! This picture is us about an hour after she was born in our living room.

Proud Daddy!

Content Mommy!

Beautiful Aidan!

Aidan and I at Minaki when she was 3 weeks old. We had to miss most of the annual Minaki vacation, so we went on the September long weekend again.

"I bet you I'm the fattest baby there is! Oh no? Don't think so, check out the next picture..."

"They call me the Michelin baby" She had more rolls than I could count. I think there were 4 from armpit to elbow and 4 from top of thigh to knee. Not to mention the 3 chins and Buddah belly! Oh those cheeks were kissable.

Aidan's first Christmas wearing the dress that Granny made her.

I just love this picture. Her beautiful red hair and sweet little button nose. Still with kissable cheeks, too : )

Happy birthday, sweet Aidan. I love you SOOOO much! May God bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you! Love Mommy.

But before I leave...

I've been given the Rockin' Girl Blogger award by Cherrye over at My Bella Vita. Wow! I'm ALMOST speechless...almost. But not quite. THANK YOU!!! That is such an honor that someone thinks I'm a rockin' girl! Well I think she's a rockin' girl and I'm so blessed to call her a friend. I love this, I have so many new friends I've never met. I'd love it even more if I could meet you guys. Okay, so now I have to give this Rockin' Girl Blogger award to someone...

Lindsay...I've been reintroduced to who you are through your blog. You make me smile, you make me cry, you are a very vivid writer. Even though we don't spend as much face-to-face time as we used to, I'm still learning a great deal about you through your blog and I look forward to reading what you write as though I'm having coffee with you. I feel like I can hear you through your words.

Val...you feel like my sister from another mother, I'm pretty sure. Although we've never met, you are one of the most encouraging, sweet women I've had the pleasure of meeting through blogging. You make me smile and you just plain ROCK!!

And every single other blogger girl that I have listed on my sidebar Rocks. That's why you're on my sidebar! God bless you all this weekend.

See you later : )

Hope you all have a wonderful week and a great long weekend! I'm off to the lake for a week, woohoo! I'll talk to you all when I get back...

Crazy Awesome Contest!!!

Hey, wanna free Insignia 37" flat-panel LCD HDTV? Yeah me too! So go here and enter this amazing contest that 5 Minutes for Mom and Best Buy are putting on for all us Canadian and American residents. You don't even have to have a blog to enter, so GOOOOO!!!!!

The day Ziggy died!

Jer killed our fish! I'm kind of sad. Sort of. At least there are more like him at Walmart. Maybe the girls won't even notice and we can just replace him after our holidays. I think Jer did it on purpose, tomorrow he's taking the kitty away to a new home (a farm where she can run free without infringing on anyone else's territory) and today he kills the fish. Gee whiz, I'm sure there are people who would be kind enough to pet sit.

***Update...yes, Ziggy's still dead, but Jer just wanted me to make sure everyone knows he did not, in fact, kill Ziggy on purpose, it was an accident. Apparently Ziggy didn't like the clean water because he was so acclimatized to his green sludge and Jer forgot to keep some of the sludge in with the new water. He thought he was doing him a favor by giving him a clean home, but alas, this was not so. He died alone 2 hours after the water change. He was a good fish. He will be missed. RIP Ziggy. Sniff...