I'm Me!

Okay I'm going to make a long story even longer because I'm good at that. Here's the deal - I can't prove who I am to banks and other large organizations because I don't have a driver's licence.

The process to actually being able to prove who I am is insane mostly because I lost my purse on a bus when my almost 18 year old daughter was a baby. For some reason this whole lack of ID that works hasn't been a major issue until now and I'm almost 42, what the hell?

Weirdly I could go back to my maiden name with only my birth certificate(which has no picture) but since everything else I have(health card, insurance through the man's work, my library card, my blood donation card) is under my married name I really don't want to do that. The government knows me as Cass B. so I'd kinda like to not change things now.

So this whole process is going to end up costing my about $100 ... first I have to get a copy of my marriage license to show how Cass G. became Cass B. then I can go and apply for the funky new Ontario ID card so the next time I get "I'll have to see some ID Ma'am." I can say "Sure, here ya go." instead of "What do you mean you won't let me use my Health Card as ID? It's all I have!" Of course I have to pay for everything; $25 to get a commissioner of Oaths to certify that I AM Cass B.(they actually took my health card[picture & name] and my tax return[name & address] as enough ID), $40 for a copy of a marriage license that I would have rather forgotten forever, and another $35 for the new ID card.

Anyway today I got the first steps done now I have to wait for the mail to get to Alberta and for them to process it and mail me back a copy of the license and then I can go on to the next step which is to apply for the ID card which I heard involves a very long line and it looks like they then make you wait while they mail that to you as well.

Wish me luck because until then I can't prove who I am but I can still get all the Health care I need and I better make sure I file my income taxes and I'll still get my Child Tax Benefits every month but nothing official ... because I can't prove anything.

Cass :)

Of trees and cats and cleaning up!

I noticed today that it had been a very very long time since I had posted and my 1 follower actually commented so I thought I would post again. Hi, Jenn :)

Not much news, just the normal headaches of being a property owner. You wouldn't think trees would be a big issue on a city lot but they are. Surprisingly the ones causing me grief and costing me money are the ones I planted! 4 of the 6 poplar trees the man and I planted 13 years ago are dead and need to be cut down by a pro because they're 50 feet tall. This will run us about $1000 and things have been tight for us ever since March when the mister slipped on a small patch of ice at work and dislocated his knee.

We're not talking a simple twisted knee here that he could shake off in a while. We're talking a severe dislocation that had to be put back at the hospital. We're talking he was in the hospital for 2 weeks. We're talking being put on light duties at work for months and months, physiotherapy and possible surgery. We're talking I had to move our bedroom up from the basement because he can't do stairs anymore. It sucks.

So life is a bit of a challenge but I found a way out of it - I cashed in the kids RESPs. We won't get as much back as I'd like(they took about $3000 in 'enrollment fees') but it will be enough to pay down some debt, get the trees cut down and have enough left over to buy myself some new clothes(which I haven't done in a very very long time). Also the added bonus is that since I won't be paying into an RESP anymore I'll have enough to get the cats in November(it was looking like that was gonna be a no go) AND I should have enough after that to cover the $1000 vet bill we get in May when we do check ups and flea meds for 4 animals.

So in September/October I'll be cleaning up the house, getting a black light and finding all the places Mojo peed before he died(to avoid problems with the new cats) and generally tossing out a lot of junk that has accumulated over the last 2 years(my garbage shed is full!). I'm not looking forward to it because I've spent the entire summer reading and generally doing as little as possible. Also I'll be dealing with the cut down trees because to save money I just asked them to cut them down and chop them up - after that it's all my job.

Wish me luck!

Cass :)

Long time gone ...

Yeah it's been a while ... as very very long while, sorry about that. So an update because I still have 1 follower and I feel guilty also I would delete this blog but I kinda like to look at it sometimes.

I fell off my lifestyle change and landed in an extra 30 lbs, I'm back up to 230 lbs but I am trying for some balance again.

The day after the Easter long weekend in 2012 we had to put Cloe(our 3 year old cat) down. As far as we can tell something went wrong in her brain and she gradually lost control of her body and in the end she couldn't even blink. We were all very sad to lose her, she was a wonderful cat.

On New Years Eve day we were forced to make the same call for Mojo(our 14 year old cat). We're pretty sure it was cancer that got him, he quit eating, when he did eat he puked and finally I could no longer watch him slowly starve to death. We're all still really upset about it and we miss him terribly. Mojo was the first pet the man and I ever got together and 14 years is a really long time.

Susie and Wikket are doing fine. I can't believe they are 5 & 4 years old now. Susie is super smart and takes most of her walk off leash, her recall is great and I've had no trouble with her since she got bumped by a car in October 2012. Thankfully all she got was some bruising and we don't walk that way anymore, too many rabbits.

The kids are growing like weeds and are now 17, 12 and 9. The time sure passes in a hurry! Right now both M & A have colds and so I'll be keeping them home for a day or two.

That's pretty much it - life goes on even when we have to leave loved ones behind. I miss my cats a lot but we have plans to adopt 2 under 6 month old kittens from our local animal control in November 2013 as a birthday gift to K, M & I. I have all sorts of fun off the wall plans for them like toilet training them to go on the human toilet and building them a fun climber with cardboard boxes. Of course there will also be raw feeding and lots of love. I'm currently saving what I can so I will have the adoption fee($350 for the two) and possibly vet checks as well($150 for the two). It will for sure take me 10 months to save that up.

Cass :)

52 lbs down 48 to go!!

So I've reached my second goal weight of 200 lbs and I'm now down to 198 lbs. Being back in 'ONEderland' is really cool, I haven't weighed 1## lbs since K was a baby. Back then I was 170 lbs but that is the lightest I've been in about 15 years. Everything is still going smoothly.

My next goal weight is 190 lbs, then 180 lbs, then 170 lbs, then 160 lbs and my final goal weight is 150 lbs. I've been posting a lot about my weight loss on Facebook so if you friend me on there you'll get more information(if you want it). I probably won't post an update here until 180 lbs. I'm still thrilled over the whole onederland deal, I LOVE seeing a one hundred something on the scale instead of two hundred something and it all beat the hell out of 250!!!

Shrinking ...

One of the things I was not expecting about this whole weight-loss deal is how weird it is to get smaller. I'm now down 41 pounds and weigh 209 lbs down from the whopping 250 lbs where I started. I've had to buy smaller pants and actually found out the other day I can squeeze into men's size small shorts(my XL shorts were getting skirt-like). I now realize that weight-loss is the only time when we get smaller.

So now that I have dropped a significant amount of weight I'm noticing that I am smaller. I could probably drop from the men's large track pants I wear to a medium, I know I could drop down to a large size t-shirt and the sports bras I bought just a few weeks ago I can do up at the next tightest setting. I finally had someone comment on the fact I have lost a lot of weight and actually had a trainer at the YMCA say "I've seen you working out ... you're pretty hard core.". I also caught myself saying "I hope they deliver the fridge before noon, I'd hate to be late to the gym."

5 months ago I would have been shocked if you had told me I would be so far along my weight-loss road so soon. I wouldn't have believed you if you had said I would be going to the gym 6 days a week and liking it. The whole thing is surreal. I mean, sometimes I just don't believe that it's me doing so well at this. I know it's going to get harder the closer I get to my goal weight but so far it has been EASY. I keep saying that it's because I was ready to do this and that it's because I'm not depriving myself of the things I enjoy eating. I guess that's true but I think part of it is because I'm used to getting what I want and this, at long last, is exactly what I want.

I'm so close to my second goal of 200 lbs I can taste it ... 50 lbs will be a very big deal. I'm almost halfway there!!

Cass :)

Weight Loss

I know it's been forever but I always feel like almost no one reads my Blog and sometimes I just get into my life and just don't think I have anything to say. Today I feel like talking about stuff but all my friends have heard of it all over and over again and I don't want to continue to bore them so I thought I would post a summary here.

Back in May I had to buy new bras. Now, if you know me you know I hate shopping for clothes and I really hate buying anything that I have to try things on to see if it's the right size. Bras are worlds of worse because you have to measure yourself to get the correct size and then you still have to try them on! So there I was needing new bras and I took my measurements...

A long long time ago, when I was 19, I took my measurements. I was Bust-Waist-Hips -- 36, 21, 38. Now I realize that this was 20 years and 3 pregnancies ago but it was depressing as hell to go from 36, 21, 38 to 49, 44, 52. I cried. It was all very sad. I remembered that I lost weight before using a site called Calorie Count it was just a few months before I started this Blog and I had gone from 250 to 227 but I quit logging everything I ate because I figured that I knew what I was supposed to be eating and I was discouraged by how much weight I still had to lose so back in the early fall of 2006 I quit. Of course I ended up gaining it all back and there I was back in May looking at the most depressing measurements ever and knowing I was back up to 250 lbs. I was, in fact, inching into 251 and 252 and I decided that it was time to really get a handle on my weight.

I dusted off my Calorie Count account and put in my new weight and deleted all my old weights so I could make a fresh start. I started out eating 1900 calories a day and logging all my food. I left my activity pretty much where it was and just paid very close attention to what I was eating. I started eating more fruits and vegetables and set up strict meal and snack times for everyone in the family so we all ate better. My sweet man saw everything I was doing and he also re-joined Calorie Count and we encouraged each other.

I lost weight. I wasn't starving and I wasn't doing anymore than I had always done. I dropped 2 to 3 lbs a week and it was easy! I was shocked. After about a month the kids were off school for the summer and I changed my activities a little and kept losing weight. Each week when I entered a new lower weight my calorie needs dropped so I had to reduce my calories to suit or increase my activity.

Now it is about 3 months later and I've hit my first goal weight of 225 lbs and my measurements are 44, 41, 49. I'm down 5 inches off my bust, and 3 each off my waist and hips. I'm still a long way from those measurements from 20 years ago and I am not able to get that small again but it still feels good. Almost a whole foot of my body is gone! 25 pounds is gone!

I'm now working on my second mini-goal of 200 lbs and have increased my activity quite a bit this last week. I am eating about 1500 calories a day but can burn up to almost 3000 calories with walking and swimming. Once the kids go back to school I plan on talking to a trainer at the YMCA - all members get a half hour a week with a trainer for free and I'm looking forward to talking to someone who can help me set up some strength training so I can build some muscle to help me burn off some more weight.

So that's what I've been up to for the last few months. I'll refrain from talking more about my weight loss here until I meet my next goal. If you're friends with my on Facebook you have access to my weekly weigh ins and calorie numbers.

Soap nuts, a summary.

Okay it's been a few months since my big excitement about soap nuts. Here's where I am now - I use it to wash our clothes. That's it. When I make the soap nuts liquid I just but 20g of nuts in a liter jar and fill it up with boiling water and slap the lid on it. So far our clothes smell clean and I figure it's cheaper than regular laundry detergent.

We're using our dishwasher again and I use traditional detergent there and I have dish soap next to the sink as well(I missed the bubbles).

So best use for soap nuts? Laundry :)

Home Experiments: Soap Nuts Phase Two

Last updated: Nov 11 2010

Phase Two: Home made soap nut liquid. Liquid testing will include; hand dish washing soap, all purpose cleaner, hair and body foam and how long does it keep anyway? This section will also include my adventures in canning to preserve large batches of soap nut liquid.

Step One: Making soap nut liquid/canning.*Done*

Results: Making up the soap nuts liquid was fun. I think I made a small mistake with this 4 liter batch but will do better next time. I have done lots of reading online while waiting for my first soap nut samples to come in and settled on the method of making soap nut liquid that seemed easiest to me:

"OVEN METHOD

* Place 7-10 soap nuts in a clean glass quart(liter) jar with a resealable lid. Fill with boiling water. Place lid on securely. Place in an oven preheated to 250* Watch until the liquid starts to bubble and then time it for half an hour. Turn off oven and let cool a little. Remove from oven.

* The jars should seal and will keep indefinitely until you need to use it.

* I make a canner load each time I make it and keep the jars with my canned goods. When you open the jar you can strain out the soap nuts if you want to, but I just leave them in the jar until the liquid is gone and then throw them in the compost or make them into paste.

* This is my favorite and most economical way to use soap nuts! Works out to about 10 cents to wash a load of laundry! (purchased in the 100g size bag)"

In my case I think the water wasn't quite boiling when I put it in the jars and they didn't bubble very quickly. The jars were in the oven a loonng time ... they did seal though so I feel the resulting liquid will keep just fine. I have 4 liter jars to test. I would like to add something that smells nice to the liquid as it doesn't smell pleasant - thankfully it leaves no scent behind it.*Success*

Step Two: Hand dish washing.*In Progress*

Results: Washing dishes with no bubbles is flat out weird! I've done 2 or 3 hand wash loads of dishes with just the soap nuts liquid - everything is coming out clean and my hands feel nice(although this may be wishful thinking as I can't recall what my hands felt like after hand washing with dish soap). Having no bubbles is more disturbing than I thought it would be - the bubbles hid just how dirty my wash water is. If I had a double sink I would take up rinsing but I don't and have always felt rinsing was a waste of perfectly good water so I won't start now. The dishes appear to be as clean as when I washed with dish soap.

Step Three: All purpose cleaning.

Step Four: Hair and body foam.*In Progress*

Results: I can make the foam from the soap nut liquid with my hand blender. I've been making it up for A & M for their nightly baths and made some up for myself yesterday. I was unimpressed by the job it did on my hair. I think a little extra scent wouldn't be a bad thing. I say "In Progress" because I feel that lengthy testing is required before I can say "Yeah, this is good" or "Nope, this sucks".

Step Five: How long does it keep?

Phase Two Summary: I continue to use soap nut liquid on the laundry and it is still getting everything clean - even pee bedding. everything smells fresh out of both the washer and dryer. The liquid smells a bit funky so I am thinking about adding a little essential oil to the liquid to make it smell better in the jar - it leaves no scent on the clothes though so I may not. Why spend money when I don't need to?

Hand washing dishes with the soap nut liquid is odder than I thought it would be but the dishes are coming out clean so I will adjust.

Soap nuts, my overall thoughts so far: I love that this is a natural cleaner but without washing dishes in nothing but hot water and clothes in nothing but cold water I can't be sure that it's really doing anything ... it must be doing something, right? After all if all I was using was water on my clothes wouldn't they stink after a while? So far everything is coming out smelling nice except for the odd thing(like smelly dish towels) that would sometimes come out of the washer/dryer smelling funky when I used traditional detergent. I was unimpressed with it as a hair wash but the kids love washing with the foam and they smell all right.

What I'm trying to say is that I don't see any difference(other than the lack of bubbles when I'm washing dishes) with the soap nuts liquid than with the traditional detergents I was using before. It doesn't clean worse but I don't see that it cleans better or that my clothes are any softer than when I used detergents(I never used fabric softener). Will I keep using it? Yes, because it cheaper and I get to "make" my own soap. I will however keep using traditional shampoo to wash my hair and the kids hair. If at any point I feel it is failing at the job I'll quit using it just like I would any product that doesn't live up to it's claims.

Home Experiments: Soap Nuts Phase One

Last Updated & concluded: Nov 6 2010

Step One: Order sample of soap nuts & stain bar to test. *Done*

I ordered two sample bags of soap nuts from the first Canadian supplier I found online(Greener Living). Called them and asked a few quick questions and she suggested I try out a stain bar that she said would work on the old food grease stains on all our clothes. Worth a try. Click to see pictures Soap Nut Trial Pack & Stain Bar

Step Two: Wait for order to arrive at house. Order is in transit. Should be here this week or the middle of next week at the latest. *Done*

Results: Order received on Friday October 29th 2010. *Success*

Step Three: Test soap nut on the stinkiest thing I own; Susie's harness. Nothing seems to get the doggy smell off her nylon harness. *Done*

Results: According to myself and two of the four children I had smell the harness before and after cleaning(two of the four refused to participate in after sniffing) the harness now smells like nothing. Update: Once dry the harness & leash still smell a little but that may be because of drying it inside laying flat rather than out in the sun or in the dryer. I will call it conditional since it does smell better and even detergents didn't do better. *Conditional Success*

Step Four A: Test soap nuts out on our daily laundry. Daily laundry sometimes includes pee accident bedding.*Done*

Results: After using the bagged soap nuts I found everything was coming out clean. On a lark I did a test wash with nothing in warm wash cold rinse and the clothes came out clean as well ... I have to wonder if we really need a cleaner in with our clothes at all but I will still use one. I will say this is a success but will make and sue liquid so i can switch back to cold wash cold rinse. *Conditional Success*

Step Four B: Also test stain bar on old food grease stains.*Done*

Results: After washing grease stains appear to be gone. I am waiting for item to come out of the dryer to confirm...t-shirt was still stained but failure may have been on my part as I did not completely follow directions. *Conditional Fail*

Will continue testing stain bar on daily laundry.

Results: Tried on another load of laundry. Following directions this time. Stains still there - the search continues for something to get laundered in grease stains out of my clothes. *Utter Failure*

Step Five: If soap nuts pass steps three and four I will order a larger bag for further testing.*Done*

Results: Found closer supplier of soap nuts and picked up 1 KG bag on Nov 3rd. *Success*

Summary of first phase: Susie's harness still a little funky. Stain stick a complete failure. Soap nuts appear to work fine on laundry.

End of first phase of testing ... next home made soap nut liquid. Liquid testing will include; hand dish washing soap, all purpose cleaner, hair and body foam and how long does it keep anyway? This section will also include my adventures in canning to preserve large batches of soap nut liquid.

Look! It's October!

Yup, it only took me until the middle of the month to come back on. The weather has been fantastic but I think the biggest and best change has been for the last month and a half I have been keeping up with the housework!

I remember doing this before ... I even Blogged it but I don't mention FLYlady. The FLY in FLYlady stand for Finally Loving Yourself and is the basis of a Housework organization system that is free and comes with a good support system of other women that are having the same trouble with keeping on top of things. Last time I was working on this I got the menu planning down and have been on top of that for 4 years and it works great. We average $200/week for food for 2 adults, 3 children, 2 cats and 2 dogs. However that was the only this that stuck.

Flash forward 4 years to a few months ago. I was miserable, feeling martyred and just generally unhappy. While Mom was living with us she took care of the main floor of the house so I had gotten a bit spoiled. Then *poof* my cleaning fairy was gone and I had to do it myself again. Okay not again because I wasn't really doing the housework before she came - I did a lot of not doing my housework and a whole lot of feeling worthless because doing the housework was my JOB and it was the only job I had ever really wanted. Yet there I was not doing it and when I did it I was angry and resentful about having to do it - how crazy is that?

So a month and a half ago I Googled FLYlady again and started over. Step one: Shine your sink. I committed myself to keeping the sink shiny. In my mind that meant committing myself to keeping the dishes done. I said "Even if all I do this week is keep the sink shiny and the dishes done up it will be more than I'm doing now." This time when I did that it stuck - I felt so good about keeping the kitchen tidy(because you know that clean sink turned into a clean counter and so on ...) that I went to work on the rest of the baby step on the FLYlady site. I pulled out my old control journal and wrote out a Morning and Before Bed routine. Another few days went by and I hit a week of keeping the laundry under control ... unheard of! Every morning I can say by 7:30am "My laundry is done!".

Somehow over the last month and a half I have found the mental switch in my head that made me miserable while I was doing housework and switched it OFF. Now when I finish each chore I feel accomplished and happy. Housework may not be fun but I am doing it out of love now rather than out of anger and how everything looks almost all the time is all the payback I need for the work I am doing.

I have a rather long Morning routine but I have time in that routine to sit and relax. My Morning routine goes from 6am to 9:30am and pretty much gets everything done that needs to be done all right at the beginning of the day. I can then relax until I need to make lunch for the kids. Each weekday I focus on one area or task and on weekends all I have to do is my daily routines and no other extras. This set up has left me with lots of down time and keeps the house looking great all the time - it's almost effortless!

The one exception to keeping on top of things has been the litter boxes - the cats each have one. For the last couple of years I have been using a litter called Feline Pine - it's made of compressed pine pellets and absorbs the cat pee and turns into sawdust, any solid waste can be scooped and flushed and when all the pellets have expanded you can compost it. I love environmentally friendly litters but I hate dumping and refilling the litter boxes and I never kept after the solid waste no matter how may time I said I would this time every time I changed the boxes. So I've switched litters and moved my scooping chore to in the mornings when I am close to each litter box. The new litter is made out of corn, clumps and is flushable. I'll get both solid and liquid waste and I should get to it everyday now.

Once this last task is incorporated into my daily routine all I have to do then is maintain this level for another month and a half. Why that long exactly? Well my reason is that at no time in the past have I kept after the housework for longer than 2 months - after about a month and a half I tend to fizzle out and end up doing a whole lot of nothing again. Then after a while of that I get upset and angry all over again - You see the problem?

So I'll check in in a month and a half and let you know how it's going.

Cass :)

Long overdue update ...

I see it's been entirely too long since I typed anything at all on here so I guess I should try to update you. You all must know very well by now that the reason I don't write is because everything is pretty much the same so I'll try to focus on the stuff that is different.

Mom moved out from my place back in July to go help her parents out and she gave us her little Shi Tzu,Wikket, as she doesn't have the time/energy to walk him from the apartment she is now living in with her parents. Wikket, of course, has been part of our family for over a year now and we would have all missed him if he had gone with her so we're happy he's staying.

Another furry member of our family for just over a year is Cloe who is looking pretty darn wonderful now and is finally, after a year, asking to be petted from time to time.

The kids are all doing well in school and enjoying summer vacation. And J & I are fine. I got new glasses recently so I'm happy - I wonder if I looked back in my Blog I could find when I got my last new glasses? It does go back quite a way and I had a major rant about how our then eye doctor's office handed a mix up that was their fault. We've since switched practices. You don't get the Momma bear mad, she'll take her whole family and profit someone else ... Nope I just looked it's not there - so pre 2007 anyway.

Let's see ... anything new? Not really:

We got a new to us sectional last fall and this past Sat I got rid of half of it so I could open my front door again.

This summer has been too hot/humid and I am looking forward to October.

The kids are all getting too old for me to comprehend and I keep telling them to stop. ~I~ am getting too old for me to comprehend and I can't seem to stop - 39 this year.

All my pets are great and I am happy except for when I'm angry but since I have come to the conclusion that I like being angry that's okay as well.

Yeah, pretty much same old same old. I Sim, I read, I neglect the housework(tomorrow I have to do laundry all day), I love on my family(both furry and not) and I keep on keeping on. I like my life most of the time.

Happy Summer!

Cass :)

Mini Reno at my house!

Crazy to blog twice in one day but I know there is at least one person waiting for this one so here goes. Thanks to my Mom coming into some money we did a mini reno on my house; New kitchen & bathroom flooring, new toilet, new stove, and a new vanity. Following are the pictures before, during and after with my commentary(of course).

Kitchen(before). I didn't realize how messy it was until I looked at the pictures but you try doing a reno like this with 6 people, 2 cats and 2 dogs in a house that is under 1000 square feet and I'd like to see what your pictures look like!
Bathroom(before). As you all know from my Jan 2008 house tour this is my only bathroom.
To save money I then had to do the following:
Move all appliances from the kitchen(that's 2 fridges & a stove)
Move pantry cabinet from the kitchen(it's a stand alone)
Remove toilet from bathroom
Get J to remove vanity from bathroom
Remove peel and stick tiles in bathroom

Now in almost any other house there may be a spare room somewhere nearby, maybe even a dining room that could be used as a storage room. Not in my house. I had hoped everything would fit in the girls' room but the larger fridge would not fit and had to go into the mudroom. I moved K's bed on top of M's bed and put the girls out in the living room for the night.

Kitchen(in progress):
Bathroom(in progress) those are towels on the floor. I peeled up the peel and stick tiles and the left over adhesive was very very sticky and the bathroom still had to be used overnight and the next morning.
Girls' room & mudroom stuffed with stuff:
Living room/girls' room for the night. You'll notice a few changes in the living room since my 2008 tour, it has been 2 years. We have a sectional now and yes it totally blocks the front door. The front windows can be used for an emergency exit.
Kitchen floor going in. Yes I asked permission to post this poor man's back end on the interwebs. Nice guy, worked fast.
Bathroom(in progress). No toilet and leveler on the floor drying. My bathroom is almost a sane size with nothing in it but the tub ... /sigh/
Kitchen(final reveal). Nice and tidy after a day of use. Yes that's homemade bread on the stove top, J made it. I love my fancy new oven.
Bathroom(almost done). J has to put the new vanity and sink in, this involves piping and he has to buy the stuff to do it and all that.
Living room all tidy and stuff - this room looks very nice other than the walls need a fresh coat of paint.
And that was my mini reno. It was a lot of work for 2 days but it's(almost) all done now. Hopefully J won't be too long putting the new vanity/sink in. He's working this weekend so maybe next weekend or some evening this week ...

Xmas Summary, because no one wants to see all that red-eye!

Okay, I'm going to make this short because only a Mommy & Daddy can enjoy looking at pictures of people opening gifts(and then only if those people are loved ones). To everyone else it is boring. I tried to hit on the high points with the pictures I've chosen but the 12 I am posting are not all of the pictures I have of the big day. I am, however, using them as reference so I can get the general gift list right.

I have to start with Xmas Eve as we gave the children our traditional gift then as well as a second gift that I figured would be better set up before the business of Xmas day itself. Our traditional gift is pajamas and sometimes a little extra gift(this way everyone looks nice in Xmas morning pictures). This year we did jammies and a book. A also got a little bag of plastic soldiers and M's book came with a necklace. The children's other gift was individual computer desks - I had been telling them for over a week that I had bought them cages. When J and I went down into the basement to set them up I sent the empty boxes upstiars to the kids with this label taped to them:
I went on with a back story that caging kids was a new parenting method and that I bought the cages from the people that ran the website that was talking about this new parenting trend. I told them as soon as Daddy and I were done setting them up we would let them try them out. A figured it out but the girls(especially M) were almost fooled.

Their reactions were wonderful, I think there is relief in those smiles:

Of course everyone was happy with their new jammies as well and were happy to show them off to the camera for me:

Here is a shot of our tree with all the goodies:

Me on Xmas morning, I insisted on this shot because my dog has her head on my ankles and I thought that was sweet:
Yes it's still dark outside but is around 7am. I'm not going to list everything everyone got because that's silly. I think my best gift was the new camera J got me, J got 6 new t-shirts from me but he thinks his best gift was the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book set I got him, K's fave gift was probably the cash she got, A's is either the DS or the Lego Star Wars PC game we got him, M has gotten the most use out of her Littlest Pet Shop play set and I think Mom liked the pictures of the kids we gave her.

The kids lined up for the first gift of the day:I had just said, "You're lined up like three little soldiers." what hams I have!

A has, by far, the biggest reactions to everything, he was shocked to get a DS of his very own:
But nothing beats getting something you really wanted but didn't think Mommy & Daddy could find:He went right downstairs to install it and play for a while!

Even Mom's Shi Tzu was into the Xmas spirit:

That's it. Using our 'one gift each and then take a break' method we managed to keep the gift giving going until noon. This is really good since the kids only had 4 gifts each to open. It was a great day and well worth telling you all about!

Cass :)

Christmas update - just in time for Christmas!!

Sorry for the long delayed up-date. I bought Zuma's Revenge for myself at Walmart for my birthday and other than reading that game has been eating a lot of my computer time. I am currently stuck at level 56 - 60 and have been for a week or so now.I have been having fun though, as have we all.

The kids all liked Halloween(yes I even have a couple pictures). K decided that at almost 14 she wouldn't bother going out this year. We only got about 10 trick or treaters and only went to about a dozen houses ourselves.

A went as a dead viking warrior.

M went as a Butterfly Queen :)

K's big adventure for November was getting to go to work with J on her 14th birthday which was also "Take your Kid to Work Day"! She got up really early and I am glad she took part. This is a shot of her getting into a lab coat.
The animals are all also fine. Our newest member finally realized home is good on Halloween day. C(our stray picked up in June) got out of the house that morning and wouldn't let anyone catch her - she didn't go far from the house but wouldn't come to any of us, we tried for hours to get her in but there was just no way. Finally we had to leave for a dentist appointment for the kids(I know I am an evil Mom making the kids go to the dentist on Halloween day!). When we got back C was sitting on the front step and let me pick her up and bring her into the house, she hasn't tried to get out since! She is looking wonderful now an is as sleek and healthy looking as M-cat. Here's a shot of the two of them, they are sleeping in/on out soft cat carrier and C-cat's section is open so she can get out whenever she wants.

Here also is a shot of S-dog and S-dog and M-cat.

The kids are all doing well in school. K is happy in High School, A is doing his best in grade 4 and M is now such a big girl in grade 1. Of course everyone is thrilled to be off of school for 2 whole weeks. For the grandparents we are giving some updated pictures of the kids. Following are some examples of the shots I took just a few days ago.


We're all ready for Christmas now, the gifts are all wrapped and on display for the kids to drool over. They are each getting 6 gifts in total; 2 on Xmas Eve and 4 on Xmas Day. I got J three gifts and J says he is still kinda shopping for me. I will update after Xmas day with picture shots :)

Cass :)

A real update is coming soon ...

I promise! With pictures, even :) I've been busy as expected with school back in and all that fun stuff. It's past time for me to have some kind of schedule in place but I often feel I'm still flying by the seat of my pants. Sadly my computer time has been what has suffered between walking the kids back and forth and back and forth and back and forth from school(remember I walk them to school in the am, home for lunch, back to school after lunch and home after school) and cooking and doing homework with the kids. Most of the free time that I do have(and really I make sure I get plenty) has been taken up with reading, friends and TV.

I was going regularly to the YMCA in the afternoons but then I got a cold and then there was all the hoo haw about H1N1 so I decided to stay home for a bit and then I got bronchitis(Just in time for a very rare-years apart-visit from my Father).

If my Step-Mother gets a chance to come on and read this: I'm feeling much better and not coughing at all anymore. The inhalant the doctor gave me worked wonders! Sorry that I sounded like I was going to drop dead any second for most of your visit!

I also want to thank Dad for the super great last-20-birthdays gift he got me. I have been using it every single day! I totally love it!

Will update more(and properly) soon - well okay as soon as I can anyway ;)

Cass :)

School is back in - a long delayed update.

Of course I am assuming that ~someone~ reads this at least from time to time. I have been bad about updating, I'd say I was sorry but I'm not. Life is life and you know how it sucks you in. I've hardly been on the computer lately.

Our new kitty has settled in well and I now think if she gets out she would come back same as old M cat does but we still go out and catch her(and she's not easy to catch!). Everyone is healthy and the kids just finished their first week back at school.

K is in High School now and seems to be adjusting to the extra responsibility of homework and making her lunch everyday fairly well. M is enjoying grade 1 and A seems to be happy in grade 4 but it's early days yet so time will tell.

So far our days have been running smoothly including my afternoon trips to the YMCA where I originally planned on swimming laps for a while but so far have found the extra 1/2 hour walk there from the school and the 1/2 hour walk back to the school is about all I can manage. So I'm hoping for swimming to come after I've adjusted to the extra hour of walking and I'm still not sure how long it will take for me to get used to the extra hour of walking ... With my walking the dog and the kids back and forth from school(to school, home for lunch, back to school after lunch and home from school at the end of the day) and the trips to the YMCA I'm walking for about 2 hours a day. I think it's going to take a while. Once I do adjust I will start swimming laps once I get to the Y instead of soaking in the hot tub and reading my book which is what I've been doing this week(after the first day when I realized I couldn't do the laps and the walking yet). I have 1 hour and 45 minutes at the Y ... maybe by this time next year I'll be swimming for 45 minutes of that.

We are still in the process of switching our furnace from oil to gas. So far the gas line has been run from the street to out house and attached to a meter. On Monday the crew will be coming to take our old oil tank and any oil in it out(in the afternoon - so no Y trip for me on Monday) and on Tuesday morning the crew will be coming to rip out the old furnace and put in a shiny new gas furnace. I'm looking into the idea of a gas range to cook on but we've still not decided and can't afford to do anything right now anyway but I have to remember to ask them when they are here how much it would cost to run the gas line for a gas stove. I would love any comments from people who have cooked on gas and on electric and let me know how it is.

That's all for now - tomorrow is Monday again and yesterday was A's 9th birthday. We all had a good time.

Cass :)

Devotion ...

I've noticed over the past few months that S(my dog) is maturing and becoming more and more attached to me. I find the whole situation very flattering.

S is almost always in the same room as I am, all I have to do is look and there she is. At night she either sleeps on the bed with J & I or on the floor on my side of the bed. I take her with me almost everywhere I go because when I'm not home she's not happy. She doesn't cause trouble but she's not happy even when others are home and I really do prefer to have her with me. She makes me feel safe.

Her behavior on walks has improved a great deal and her focus on me is much better. I figure it's maturity setting in since she'll be 2 years old in November. When she was younger she used to run up to people on our walks(if she was off leash) and jump up on them. Now if she is off leash she'll walk by them and only lift her nose up enough to get a good sniff in as she passes. I tell people that look nervous "If you ignore her, she'll ignore you." I've even had her totally snub people that wanted to pet her.

I'd also like to note her reaction to any male coming to the house. The only men that seem acceptable to her are J and her best dog friend's 'daddy'(my good friend's husband). Otherwise she is very suspicions of men. I haven't had any strange women come to the house recently to tell you how she feels about women, she's fine with all my friends. We recently had a couple quotes done about getting a new furnace. In each case I told the men not to try to make nice with S as when some hot water installers tried that a few months ago she got very upset with them(barking and growling and backing off) and I had to put her outside while they were here. I think she made them nervous as she watched them both closely the whole time they were near me and would quietly growl at them from time to time. I didn't tell her she was bad I just stroked her and said it was okay and to shush, that seemed to be enough to keep her calm.

I can't explain the level of attention S gives me but it is a truly amazing thing to me and I just wanted to share. I hope she knows I love her too. She's my dog - but I'm her person too.

Cass :)

Lazy July is lazy - finally an update.

Sorry for the long silence. I have been quite enjoying the whole no kids in school deal and doing only what I have to. No onto the update!

I have a few shots from K's grade 8 graduation ... I can't believe she'll be in high school this fall. First shot is K leaving the house in her grad gown.K got an excellence in math award! She was top in her class in math-we were all surprised and happy. Here is a bad shot of her getting her award.Finally we have a shot of K with her BFF M both of them all dressed up for grad and a better shot of K's award(M got an award as well for overall good marks).M also got an academic award for being top in her senior kindergarten class but that picture is still on my camera, sorry. Here is a picture of her sleeping on my bed with S instead.Speaking of my furry children ... here are more shots of them. M cat snoozin' in J's computer chair.Our new cat C sleeping on the basement window cat shelf. C is going in for spay on Jul 10th, I'm hoping it'll cut back on the meowing she's been doing. She could be in heat again but I hope not - the vet won't operate on her if she's in heat.

Now for more pet pictures! Here is W wanting into the house.W pwning my dog S.This is a comparison shot so you all can see how small C is. You all saw W alone and W with S so here are W and C.

C is settling in well except for the meowing the last two nights, she also got out of the house twice yesterday but was quickly re-caught both times. The vet said(when we went to get her shots updated) that she is probably about a year old. She weighs 5 lbs after being with us for 2 weeks. I think she will always be tiny tiny and hopefully she'll also be quiet! Any tips on shutting a cat up at night would be appreciated.

I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Cass :)