WOW…where do I begin. We had a wonderful, fabulous, terrific time. The girls, the laughs, the food, the music, the movies, the scrapping. I felt like a teenager all over again. The wine….perfect. The girls and I believe we found a new tradition. Sitting in the hot tub as we looked out at the incredible view of Chilliwack was such an inspiration. I will be counting down the days to the next retreat…here are a few of my fav pictures from the weekend…..

As you might know I caught the winter cold that I have so been fighting for weeks now. Over the last two weeks I feel asleep sitting up after dinner and took loads of vitamin C. Despite my desperate attempt to stay healthy and try to have 1 year with perfect attendance I had to take some Benylin days. I slept through the most gorgeous day yesterday(and most of the weekend) and today I am sitting up and reading with the help of some cough syrup. It really sucks as the cold hits the chest and my asthma flares up so that every breath hurts. This is when I take a few days off. Too hard to breath and work at the same time. I am bored out of my tree. I usually have life so jammed pack that sitting around drives me crazy. Yes, I know I am a little crazy, but I just can not stand doing nothing. So at least today I will try to do some laundry in between coughing, reading, and resting. Thank-you to all my friends and family who have faithfully sent get well wishes. I am so blessed to have you all in my life.

On Andie’s note. I am happy to say he is having much better days. We are playing with his medication dose to see if we can get him through a week without a migraine. We are also thankful that some days the headaches he is waking with are going away on there own. Theis has given Andie, and me and the kids, a lot of relief. He will stay off work until he can get through at least one week with no migraines. His employer does not like sick days and would prefer he be back when he is 100%. I know not everyone understands this or believes in that but it is best for our family and his job so that is what we will do. He is still going to follow up with his nose specialist and make sure we haven’t missed anything but we will be thankful for what we have.

The weekend that awaits me…well it is my annual scrapbooking girls weekend in a few days. It is always a great weekend and very restful for me. I am hoping I have completely gotten rid of this cold so I can indulge in a piece of chocolate or two and a glass of wine. Several of us were going to cancel the weekend because of funds. The prices at the camps are all getting higher and higher so we some research and with some help we ended up with a weekend at The Falls Golf Course and I am very excited about it. We are pot lucking the food to save money but we are all in agreement it is worth it. This weekend will be a little cramped as the large Villa was booked and we are fitting into a smaller one. I am still excited and so are my friends as we are all long over due for a weekend away with the girls. If this works out I have booked the large Villa for our annual 2 weekends in 2010. Got to plan ahead sometimes….but it is so worth it.

That is it for now….have a geat day!

Dance like nobody’s watching.

Love like you’ve never been hurt.

Sing like nobody’s listening.

Love like it’s heaven on earth.

-Mark Twain

Valentines day was a planned home day with the family. It definitely is now that mommy has a full blown head cold. However, I can not think of a better way to spend the day then with my loved ones. I can listen to the kids laughter and I can snuggle with a cup of tea and a movie or book.

Home filled with love: Perfection

I love you, not only for what you are, But for what I am when I am with you.”
–Roy Croft

It has been a busy time for me. I have been busy working, preparing for school fundraisers, and helping with our house stuff. Life has kept me busy. I find I am falling asleep sitting up at night. I even find my brain feels tired….if that is possible-LOL. The good news is I have an amazing family. While I have been busy with this stuff our kids have been pitching in and just being super and when Andie has good days with his health he has been pitching in at home too. As for his health, Andie has been doing everything he can to help with his migraines. He has been very frustrated with the new limitations but that did not stop him from trying to get better. The doctors believe that he has grown into these migraines and they have been working hard to find a medication to help him live again and get back to work. Andie and I have seen improvement this last week and thank the Lord for this good news. We hope as he finishes weening off the one meds and continuing on the other we will continue to see improvement. He wants to go back to work on a gradual return as soon as he can-I am hoping that he just continues to get better. He is an amazing dad. When he was at his worst he did his best to be there for the kids and to put on a brave face. I love him so much.

I will not complain about the course our life has taken these past few months. When you see friends of mine losing jobs and others saying good bye to loved ones we must be greatful for what we do have.
Life may not be exactly what we thought but we have money in the bank, food on the table, warmth to sleep in and so much love around us. I shall not want. I am thankful.

And yes…I am a wee bit sappy today….night all:)

I have been reading up on renovations and home decor. Styles have sure changed over the years. We have been in our home for 12 years now and we have slowly been updating it. However, we never seem to get fully finished one job before we need to do another. This years projects will be our deck and bathroom. Along with the new projects we need to finish the baseboards and the little jobs. I have also been checking out home decor ideas. I want to change some of my accents in the house. I want to use photos I have taken as decorations and put to rest the artificial flower stage while I am at it. I would love to have some pieces that have favorite quotes and poems on them. Of course, this all takes time…and money. So we will pace our selves. I love the idea of reduing our kitchen but hesitate as I have a very large open design with real wood cabinets. I am thinking of replacing the doors with the cape cod style and hidden hinges.

I may not ever live at the ocean but I can make a home that makes me feel like I do in a cottage.

Today was a great day. We took Buddy, the dog we were sitting, back to the Shiptons(one of my bosses and his terrific family) then headed to Kara’s 4th birthday at Chuck E Cheese in Langley. She is such a sweety and we had a very nice time. Andie is having a very good day today. He just took some Tylenol for the headache and considering he was sitting at Chuck E Cheese for 2 hours I think that was fantastic. The kids had a ball and I got to run into Michael’s and check out the latest stuff. I picked up a cool piece of paper and 2 embellishments for my Disneyland album. So much fun!!

Jessica has gone off to a Bruins game with her Papa and Derek is playing Wii all by himself. I have just enjoyed a Timmies with my feet up for a few minutes before I dive into the pile of laundry. While relaxing I thought I would catch up on the blogs I visit. Check out Becky Higgins as she has some fantastic ideas this week about home decor. I really love her style.

Becky Higgins

I will add some photos later.

I had so  much fun….and yet the night started out just like the same old friday type night. We had a quick bite before taking the kids to their traditional Freak Out Friday at the local pool then off to look at some houses Andie spotted on his walk the other day….pulled into my brothers place(so neat to be able to do that now) he made me a coffee and we listened to some music(Mathew Good). At 8pm we grabbed the kiddies and headed to my Niki’s and we hopped in the old time machine of movies. The time was the 80′s were outfits were crazy and hair was poofy. The theme song that played through out the wild scenes was of course from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off….After finishing The Secret of My Success and a few Peanut Butter Cookies we headed home to bed. Many laughs were had tonight and as I head off to bed you can really only say…..Good Night!!!!

Well I am enjoying a coffee and some oatmeal this morning preparing for my work day. Yesterday ended up being exhausting and we still have not found Andie’s keys. Hopefully today is better and we do not have to change all the locks etc.

This weekend we get to celebrate my nieces 4th birthday at Chuck E Cheese…going to be fun hanging with all the kids. And can you believe next weekend marks the half way mark of February??? Where is the time going? It is going to be a busy week but I am going to still keep up with my challenges and I will scrapbook this week!! Tonight I will finish off a one of my last pages and post pictures and next week I will do a page and a card-I promise myself! The weekend of the 20th we are starting a new tradition and plan to scrapbook up at The Falls Golf Course with the girls. This ended up being more reasonable then any camp we go to plus we can laugh loudly, listen to music, have a glass of wine and hot tub often. Look forward to posting pictures of the girls weekend crop!
The Falls

This was fun. I started out with no plan. I then pulled out some papers and started piecing them together. I pulled out my favorite ink-CTMH Chocolate and inked the edges of all the cream paper. The paper is from CTMH ‘It’s a guy thing’. I used anchors and brads from CTMH. When I went to put down the title it just did not look right and all of a sudden I could see a hanging picture frame. I remembered this very cool fibers that Jude had bought me one Christmas and there it was. Exactly what I wanted. Now that was fun.