Well where should I start? Ok, I really don't have a good excuse for not blogging. The only thing that I can come up with is that I have been busy (but aren't we all) and I've been very tired this week. I usually do my blogging late but it seems that 10 o'clock rolls around and I'm wiped!
Anyway, enough of my whining....what's been going on lately...hmmm...let's see...
scrapped with my girlfriends last Friday night and Saturday, took Emily to her first day of Vet Club at the Humane Society and did some running around. Sunday, Emily had her first day of indoor soccer and then I helped her with her first Grade 2 project (I hope we, I mean she, passes! LOL!). Actually, other than helping her find books at the library and suggesting how she might organize it, she was set on doing it all herself, knowing exactly what she wanted to say and how. Stubborn little thing...no idea where she gets that! Actually, I love that she's so independent already and has her own ideas.

I definitely have to mention the wonderful time I had Monday night. My closest girlfriend from college was in town this week so we were able to get together for dinner. She's been living in Vancouver since last fall so it was a very pleasant surprise to find out she was in town. The last few years we've only kept in touch with the odd e-mail and usually at birthday time. Actually it was always the joke between us that you knew you'd hear from the other at birthday time but you were never quite sure when...maybe on the day, maybe a couple days late or maybe even a week late. It's one of those friendships where our lives have gone in very different directions and we don't call each other all the time but we both know we'll always be friends. Linda is definitely one of the most independent women I know. She recently went to South America with her brother and his family for three weeks and then stayed on by herself for another 4 weeks to travel through Chile and Peru. I find that amazing especially in this day and age. I could never do that. Anyway, we had a fabulous time catching up and before we knew it, we'd had a 5 hour dinner!

I'm very lucky, I have many fabulous women friends in my life right now and at some point I will have to blog about them as well or I'll be in big trouble!! LOL!!



Well, as usual it's very late but I think I'm getting my second wind...maybe I'll stay up and scrap a couple pages before I call it a night. OK, let the laughter begin....anyone that scraps with me knows that's not going to happen. I think I've earned myself the title of SLACKER SCRAPPER, unfortunately, rightfully so. Oh well, I guess I'll just go to bed instead.

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day so off to the pumpkin patch we went. The kids enjoyed the corn maze, it was quite a bit bigger than last year's...embarrassing to admit but we had trouble finding our way out! Every path we took seemed to take us further away from where the exits were. We finally cheated and trudged between some rows of corn to escape!!
It seemed to take forever for the kids to each pick the perfect pumpkin but after rejecting many, many pumpkins...victory was theirs!!!

Pictures from Sunday...Jesse and my niece Aspen




Monday my girlfriend and I took our kids to the Oktoberfest parade
Jake, Jesse, Chloe & Emily

Last Thursday was picture day at school. Jesse of course, managed to get a bruise on his forehead last weekend. Emily knew I wanted him to try to cover it with his hair so being the mother hen that she is, asked me "should I ask my teacher if I can go to Jesse's classroom and brush his hair for him?". It was so sweet, she was so serious when she said it.
Murphy's Law - you can be sure kids WILL bruise themselves just in time for pictures!!

Friday morning was Jesse's first field trip and I volunteered to go along. We went to a local pumpkin patch...it was a beautiful morning but quite cool. It's a great trip for that age. They have a small playground and corn maze, we went on a wagon ride and the kids each got to pick a pumpkin to take home...and of course, the oatmeal cookie and juice snack was a big hit. He had so much fun. I really enjoyed watching him interact with all of his new friends.
His teacher said he's doing well in school, he's no trouble, very quiet (really??). She said it took him about a week though to figure out that he was going to have to put a little more effort into his work, drawing one line and saying he was done and he was tired just wasn't going to cut it. Once he realized he didn't get to go and play until he finished, she said he was fine. She was used to Emily who needed very little direction and certainly no "prodding".


Friday night I went to Mississauga to join my 2 girlfriends (Marianne & Marlene..sisters) for our 2nd annual Giving Thanks dinner. We're just giving thanks for our remarkable friendship...we've known each other since we were about 4 years old....remarkable in itself!! Once I got there (my usual 40 minute trip took well over an hour!), we had a blast...went out for a 3 hour dinner...time really does fly when you're having fun!

Saturday was a 12 hour adventure with some other fabulous girlfriends from my scrappin' group...Janet, Sheri, Judy B. and Karen. Janet's husband bought her a "chocolate, wine & scrapbook class" at a silent auction they went to. It was hosted by two very nice ladies, Kelly & Kim, at their store called the Paper Pickle in Chatham. We didn't have to be there until the store closed at 3 so we left early and made a little detour into London. We went to a couple scrapbook stores there and had lunch before we headed on to Chatham. Miraculously, with Sheri navigating and me driving, we made it right on time!! lol!!!!
The project was a mini album made out of CD covers...and I actually accomplished something...almost finished it in fact!!! I'll post pictures when it's all done. The snacks were dill-ightful (get it..pickle??) and the drinkers certainly enjoyed the wine!
After we left there we enjoyed a quick dinner at Glitter in Chatham (highly recommend it if you're ever there) and rolled back into Kitchener about 10 o'clock....exhausted!!!
Janet, Sheri and me

I can't believe it's October already! I can't believe I'm a blogger! I can't believe Desperate Housewives sucked again tonight!
Anyway, I now have to get caught up on my little blog journal. This was the reason I started a blog so I apologize for how boring this may be for my loyal readership...but I can't really help it, this is my life...simple but busy! Maybe I'll throw a joke in at the end to try and keep you entertained.

The Labour Day weekend was a blur. My brother and his girlfriend decided on Thursday that they would like to have a birthday party for their daughter (my niece, Aspen) on the Saturday at Chuck E. Cheese's. This was just a couple days after we had talked about it and he said we'd have our usual family gathering (we celebrate everyone's birthday!) at mom's in a week or so. It DEFINITELY wouldn't be the long weekend since he had to compete in his Club Championships (golf) all three days. Needless to say I then had to scramble to get her a gift! Anyway, we had a great time, Aspen (turned 3) and my kids had a great time running from game to game and Mom and Dad especially enjoyed it...particularly the noise level! At least the pizza is good there. I personally like trying to kick my brother's ass at basketball...not that we're competitive or anything...hah!! And it's not like we kicked any little kids off and took right over...we waited our turn!
Everybody came back to our place after where my brother and husband then proceeded to beat my poor dad at pool. He used to be quite the pool shark in his younger days but I don't think his game had much bite that night. ooohh...bad pun!!

Aspen

Sunday my girlfriend Kathy and I took our kids to Kidzone and Boston Pizza. Monday we then decided to take them to the African Lion Safari when the weather looked like it was going to co-operate. We didn't get there until after lunch so we had to pack in a lot of activities in a short amount of time. Our girls even went in the water park for a bit but the boys decided playground equipment was more their speed...the water was too cold for them! Both my kids enjoyed the elephant show the most. Jesse was so excited to see "Baby Logan" and Emily was thrilled when she found out one of the other new baby elephants was named Emily. All the kids were so excited driving through the safari (yes, I took our van), just hoping monkeys would crawl all over the van! We made it out of there with everything intact but then had to contend with some very large and not so pretty ostriches who decided to surround us and peck at the windows. All in all though, a successful outing..a lot of fun!

Chloe & Emily

Jesse & Jake

The next Saturday was a day Jesse had been looking forward to for weeks...Mighty Machines Day!! He was in his glory..firetrucks, garbage trucks, street sweepers, rollers, bulldozers, hydro trucks, and the ever popular..recycle truck! He was even more excited when my husband's sister and brother-in-law showed up with their kids. All of our kids are similar in ages and get along very well. They all climbed onto every machine...so exciting...if you're a 4 year old boy..or a single gal looking for a fireman or a street sweeper!!

Emily, Shawna, Alex & Jesse

Emily

Sunday was the annual Optimist golf tournament a bunch of us always go in. My group has always consisted of my brother, a retired guy I used to work with and a fourth that we seem to find at the last minute. My husband has his own team with co-workers and another guy from work has a team as well. Our three teams have such a blast! The only thing I don't like is the 7:30 a.m. start...I am so not a morning person! My team ended up winning again this year (two in a row!) with a score of 12 under. Yippeeeeee...we like to win, can you tell?

The next couple of weekends consisted of 2 birthday parties Jesse had to go to (one at Kidzone, the other at the Lego place in St. Jacobs), Friday night scrapbooking crops for me, an all day crop (me again!) on a Saturday in Cambridge, dinner for me and girls from work (happy birthday Julie B.!), and my husband lining up at 5 a.m. to sign Emily up for dance. Yes, you read that correctly...5 a.m.! I actually drove by around 1 a.m. on my way home from a crop and there were already people lined up. I would have stayed but I didn't have a coat or a lawn chair with me...how convenient!!

This weekend my girlfriends and I went to London for a scrapbooking show yesterday morning and last night I took Emily to see "Open Season". Sunday my husband left for four days for a conference so I took the kids to mom's for the day and tried to get some stuff done around the house. Yes, my scrapbook room will soon have it's grand re-opening for all my nosy scrappin' friends!!!


OK, HERE'S THE JOKE I PROMISED:

Little Tony was staying with his grandmother for a few days.

He had been playing outside with other kids for a while when he came into
the house and asked : "Grandma, what is that called when 2 people are
sleeping in the same room and one is on top of the other ?"

She was a little taken aback, but decided to tell him the truth.

"It's called sexual intercourse, darling."

Little Tony just said, "Oh, OK" and he went back outside to play with his
friends.

A few minutes later, he comes back in the house and says angrily,
"Grandma, it is not called "sexual intercourse" !!! It's called "bunk
beds" and Jimmy's mom wants to talk to you... NOW !"

YIPPEEE!!! IT WORKED!!!

My girlfriend, Marianne, and I have been talking about going to the Festival for years now and it just never worked out...until now....we fiiiinally went!!! For a celebrity stalker wannabe like myself, let me just say....IT WAS HEAVEN! It was sooo exciting and we had such a good time. It was everything I hoped for and more...the red carpet, the stalkarazzi, the limos, the crazy people behind barricades standing across the street from the theatre screaming the stars' names...AND I ACTUALLY SAW CELEBS...A-LIST ONES EVEN!!
We had tickets to see the movie "Bobby" (when I learn how to set up links I'll link you to it) at Roy Thomson Hall last night at 6:30. When we lined up we were right along the wall of the Hall and there were large windows with wide ledges so of course I stood up there trying to get glimpses of people as they pulled up just ahead of us and got out of the limos. The first person I see get out and "work the crowd" is Christian Slater (I think my screaming out "OMG it's Christian Slater" may have embarrassed Marianne just a little.), then Emilio Estevez a few minutes later. I didn't get pictures of Emilio outside, the line started moving, we had to go in.
Christian Slater

We then found a great vantage point to see them as they came in to the theatre and we didn't move until the last person was in and the movie was ready to start. We weren't right at the front by any means so let me just say how grateful I am for being tall, having long arms and the swivel screen on my camera was a dream! We ended up also seeing Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, William H. Macy, Nick Cannon, Joshua Jackson and Sharon Stone....amazing, so much fun!!!
Emilio was the writer and director of the movie so he introduced everyone and we didn't realize it until after but they all sat and watched the movie. They were seated almost below us. The movie was excellent (should be for 40 bucks eh Mare?).
Demi Moore and Nick Cannon

Sharon Stone, William H. Macy and Christian Slater

After our movie finished a Sandra Bullock one was supposed to start at 9:30 so we tried to hang out to see more people come in for that one but we finally got caught and had to leave. We then became part of the crazy people across the street and saw Sandra Bullock and Sigourney Weaver. What a blast...we certainly learned a lot last night about how the festival works. We are so ready for next year!!!

Sandra Bullock


The back of Sigourney Weaver (best I could do!)

(Please excuse how blurry the pictures are..new camera...celebrities...oh, the pressure!!!)