Check it out!

Ok, I know it took a few days but I do have my excuses, and hopefully it will be worth the wait. Well, not that it's THAT exciting! ha ha ha...You'll find it below the first one saying that it was coming. I took the kids to Ratatouille today. Cute movie. We of course had popcorn from my work. Actually, it is soon to be not my work anymore. I just got a job with an agent in Remax as a PA. I'm looking forward to that. Higher pay. Flexible. Part time. Yeah. I'll keep you updated. As always with a new job though I'm a little nervous. I mean, its the same company and all but I'm working directly for an agent which makes it a teeny bit different. I'll still keep my Saturday ReMax position too though. Ok, I'll be back again.

Having problems

Ok, I have been trying to post something new and I cant post it without pictures and for some reason the pictures are not being attached so I will have to try later. So stay tuned!

Kids will be kids!

Just a few things here that my two littlest have done lately. They seem to learn at a very young age what may get them what they want! Needless to say this has become a common occurrence since this very first note and it is getting a teeny bit old. But whomever is original enough to come up with something new and different just might get their way! I mean, who can say no to this note?

Then, there's the note that appears when feelings of sorrow occur. Mesa and Candace had just bent the handle on my brand new dust mop before she wrote this one. Of course, Candace was just a bit too stubborn and proud to admit she really played a part...It was ALL Mesa's fault! ha! This was cute though and Mesa was right back in my good books after this one.Then there's the threatening notes...the ones that make you think twice before crossing the line...ooohhhh scary! Thank goodness they make me laugh with stuff like this cuz otherwise I don't know what I'd do!

Wild thing, you make my heart...sing?

I made these lemon poppyseed muffins a few days ago and thought it was hilarious how they turned out! Alot of them just had a mind of their own I tell ya. I think it must have been something to do with the lemon juice and the baking soda or baking powder reacting with one another. I've never seen anything like that before. It was amusing though. Wild thing, I think I love you!On a different note, you probably will have a hard time believing this, but with all the variety of food I cook and bake, none of it being yucky except maybe the jambalaya I made a couple months back and only because I let it cook too long and the rice ended up mushy. It's not like I'm making weiner casserole or spanish rice with huge onion chunks in it or anything. No offense mom, but yah...So I'm making super yum stuff like you've seen in my blog before and my kids have the nerve to complain and say things like, "Mommy, don't put any muffins in my lunch cuz I don't like them" or "Mommy, don't bother putting any juice boxes in my lunch anymore cuz I don't like them" or there's "Mommy, don't put any granola bars in my lunch because I don't like them!" I mean, it's everything from store bought stuff to homemade stuff. So flippin picky! So one day I said, "You guys are on the rice man! You're eatin rice for breakfast lunch and dinner until you can be grateful for all this yummy food you've been blessed with. I will supplement it with apples and milk. You can have all the apples, milk and rice you want until I decide you've changed your attitude sufficiently enough to be able to eat the food I make and buy for you." I mean, what makes them think they have the right to complain? Especially about everything? I'm like, 'you're not the one buyin' the food, you're not the one makin' the food....so you have no right to complain.' Well, I think this taught them a lesson. Mesa was on the rice wagon for 2 days. Blaze was on it for about 2 and a half. For now they are very careful about the comments they make about food. Candace on the other hand may need to go on it for the first time as she was away at camp when the other two went on it and she seems to be quite complainy still.
This was some yummy stir fry that Rick and I dined on while they were still on the rice. We would test them periodically while they were on the rice by saying. "We're having oatmeal for breakfast" or "We're having cow tongue for lunch tomorrow" but my favorite was Ricks "We're having dog poo on toast for breakfast" and their response you ask? "Oh good!" It was actually alot of fun when Rick was around. It was definetly alot cheaper to feed them when they were on the rice though! Cool...now stop thinking I'm a mean mom and hope that your kids are never this picky! or should I say complainy?

The attack of the killer magpie

Yesterday while I was at work there was some excitement going on. Rick and the kids had gone to the church to take this backdrop for the roadshow that our youth are taking part in. Blaze had been walking in front of the church when all the sudden a magpie with an attitude swooped down and hit him on the head with it's wing! Well, if that wasn't bad enough, Blaze runs over to this big climbing tree, and he climbs up into the tree and it actually attacked him with his beak! At this point he decided to run for some more cover and ended up hiding in a corner of the building to avoid another vicious attack. Crazy bird eh? Here's his bird attack wound...

Later on in the day we decided that we better take the kids and do something fun with them. I mean, what's the point of working hard if you're not going to do anything fun with some of the money that you earn? So we took the kids bowling. We live like 2 min from a bowling alley and we can walk right through the forest and it's on the other side so we walked in the pitch black and got there. Well, then Rick thought I had the money and I thought he had the money but neither of us had the money so I ran home through the forest which seemed even darker on the way back home than on the way there. Why didn't Rick go you ask? Well, he has a very sore neck and shoulder from a hug injury so...I drove the car back though. I'm like...stuff this running thing man! I was so out of breath. I HATE running! Especially in the pitch black when there's a few puddles from the rain that has dumped here for the last few days. Rick and I had a great time just watching the kids. We didn't even bowl and it was so much fun I can't believe it has taken us this long to go bowling when we are so close! We will definetly go more often.

The second best loser with 71 points!

The best loser with 88 points.

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The winner with 109 points.

All in all it was a great day!

Simply Nuts and oh so smooth!

Hey, is that a catchy title for this post or what? Yeah, that pretty much describes me! ha ha ha...maybe the nuts part anyways! There are several things I eat pretty much every day that I feel I just have to have in order to stay healthy and fill my appetite. Some of those things are V8 juice (one serve), a handful of raw almonds, at least a tablespoon of flax seeds, a serve of yogurt, a glass of juice, a smoothie...get the idea? Well, I just added one more thing to that list. Chely's nutty snack...I would like to take credit for this idea but I'm afraid kudo's go to the Mexi's for this one. I used to buy these in SoCal and they were oh so yummy and felt like I was never going to have them again until I discovered I can make them myself! So here's what goes in them...Libby, you might enjoy these as part of your daily diet. 3/4 c. honey

1 c. sugar (I know...yikes! but...)

2 Tbsp water

Boil to 150 (hard crack stage)

Then add a mixture of 3 cups of nuts and seeds. I put almonds, pepitas, sesame seeds and flax in mine.Pour out onto parchment paper and with a greased spatula, spread out. Cut while still warm so it's easier! Cool completely and then wrap in saran wrap. Place in an airtight container and enjoy!

Ok, the other thing is my smoothies...Today I made a super yum one. I usually put plain yogurt in my smoothies cuz it is better taste wise and plus, no sugar! I always add 2 different fruits, usually one of them frozen and pure fruit juice along with a tbsp or so of flax seeds. But today since I didn't have any yogurt, I used coconut cream instead. Here's what I did...

1 small banana 2 big pieces of pineapple flax 1/3 c. coconutcream (approx) brekky juice (carrot combo is what its called. I don't like the flavour on its own but it was yum in the smoothie.) Ice cubes Vanilla

Anyways, enjoy people, and if you have any yummy healthy ideas including smoothie ideas, please share with me! I better run cuz I'm wasting too much time on this stupid computer this afternoon!

Friends come to town!

I love it when my friends come to visit me! It is so fun to show them our world over here. We just had our second visit from Canadian friends. This time it was my friend Andrei. We have been friends for 13 years and it has been 7 since I've seen him! His visit was short but sweet and it was so comfortable, just like we didn't miss a beat. He is really super funny and we were laughing constantly. We took him to Noosa which was beautiful and where I got a sunburn on my chest...we also skipped out of church! Bad bad...that's something I never do but felt like I could do it this once. We also went to the beach here and watched the waves which were quite high still from the storm. But it was beautiful and sunny the whole time. We also snuck in a movie last night. We saw Next with Nicholas Cage and it was really good. I was sad to see him go this morning but it was fun while it lasted. He is a teacher in Vancouver and is really good with the kids too. We miss you Andrei! Come visit again!