Two!

*TWO NAMES YOU GO BY:

1. Amy

2. Slave to the man ;)

*TWO THINGS YOU'RE WEARING RIGHT NOW:

1. denim skirt
2. grey shirt

*TWO THINGS YOU WANT VERY BADLY AT THE MOMENT:

1. a cinnamon roll (thanks Ray)
2. an iphone (we don't even get service here)

*TWO PEOPLE WHO WILL MOST LIKELY SEND THIS BACK:

1. Nicole (but she already sent it to me)

2. Christa

*TWO THINGS YOU DID LAST NIGHT:

1. yoga
2. talked to Nicole

*TWO THINGS YOU ATE TODAY:

1. water

2. oatmeal

*TWO PEOPLE YOU LAST SPOKE TO:

1. Ray

2. Maribel

*TWO THINGS YOU'RE DOING TOMORROW:

1. working
2. getting ready for scrapfest this weekend

*TWO LONGEST CAR RIDES:

1. Sudbury to Lethbridge

2. Holbrook to Rocky Point Mexico? Not really sure.

*TWO FAVORITE BEVERAGES:

1. Ice water with lemon

2. Coke?

So i'll be back (probably tomorrow) with more war on chub stories and stuff i'm doing. For now do the quiz, love the quiz! ;)

War on CHUB!!!

So me and chub....I guess the correct term is Chub and I?
We're tight....we've been through the thick and thin, the up and down, the brownie and the salad.
We've grown close.
We've GROWN together.

But you know what? I'm going to try and break up....we've had our times this past year....there have been losses. Slow and steady.
There have been things that I've had to let go of.
The saying everything in moderation including moderation has come into play.
There has been an increase in physical activity.
Playlists enthusiastically titled "jogtunes" and "tunes that move".
Yoga, lots of yoga.

But you know what? Chub is not intimidated by yoga, moderation or hopeful playlists.
It knows that deep down if i'm not focused enough to keep track of everything I eat we will stay together. It knows that I will keep enjoying the empty calories and luscious caffiene of soda. And that Jeopardy usually trumps a brisk walk around the block. (I do love me some jeopardy. Alec I love you!)

So I start this week....feeling more committed.

I'm making new friends...like The Daily Plate We're getting tight.
New friends like my runners.
Old friends like salad.
Water has been with me all along...trusty old friend. When i'm thirsty and tired....always there.
Awesome friends like the girls over at Angie In Shape they are ROCKIN IT!!

Love this quote they posted:
"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'"
- Mary Anne Radmacher

So I guess this is the start of something. I am thinking that this time i'm coming in stronger, more committed, more angry and more ready to kick chub to the curb. Anyone with me?

Home Improvement

We bought our house two years ago and it was a great deal....as all homeowners know by a great deal I mean it was a great deal of WORK!!!

I can't even count all of the things we have done to improve the house itself and unfortunately did not take pictures of the "before" but as a result we have steadily turned the house into somewhere that we love to be.

Other than several big jobs, new windows, bathroom and kitchen renovations, we are pretty much happy with the inside. We even went so far as to take the screen doors off the front and back and make them more a part of the house. The pretty red front door now opens into a mudroom not into a concrete floored closet.

However much we have done on the house we have done practically NOTHING to the yard....and by yard I mean 3/4 an acre of tumbleweeds. I feel really intimidated by the whole process so I've decided to start posting about it....asking for ideas. Here is the first problem. The house is surrounded by this vinyl white stockade fencing. In the front of the house it is even over the concrete driveway. Seriously.













Do you see it? I took these pictures in the street facing our house and I'm thinking that the taller fence is too much for the front. It makes it feel too closed in.













Plus the sand gets blown out from underneath it. And it leave us one big square of yard with the house right in the middle and a concrete driveway/carport that we can not use. See? In that picture E is backing out of the gravel driveway next to the concrete driveway. And the sand....don't even get me started on the sand. You can also if you look see just how well the lifetime guarentee fencing (bought by the previous homeowners) has stood up to the wind. It's open range behind us and they have cattle that graze there. My idea...and this is open to comment.....is to move the fence back halfway, about midway on the side of the house and put the small gate that is onver the walkway right now on the left side of the house, the larger drive through gate that is over the gravel driveway on the right side of the house. This would effectivley give us front and back yards and in my eyes make landscaping easier. Then I am thinking a shorter cinderblock fence with stucco over it in the front. No gates just a short fence that would help contain the yard.












Any advice? Opinions? Offers of help? ;-)

Kicking tail and taking names!

Miss Kimmy and I switched some pictures last month(because I was super super inspired by her Wicked page and wanted her to scrap our wicked pictures fro when we were in LA last November). By the way, so did not even realize that my new specs were WICKED looking until Miss Lou pointed it out.....I am obsessed even in my subconscious! Anyways we switched and Kimmy did a super job on my pics her wicked page for me. I however had been slacker/super busy and so have just now finished!!!










I have been super busy all weekend getting stuff done (can anyone believe I actually made bread?) and have also completed these two lanyard ID holder thingies. At my work you have to wear an ID badge...they are coded to open doors and all sorts of other things so I whipped these two up. I have made a few as presents and now people are wanting to buy them. FUN!!

I made bread....for real!

So I made bread! I can hardly believe it myself but E and I both agree it was really yummy! I use the recipe below and it produced a round loaf of bread that had a good crust with a great texture inside, slightly chewy but very tender. That's one more thing crossed off my bucket list!!!
Bread Recipe

U.F.O.'s

Wow. Life has kind of exploded for us the last few weeks.

Work for me has been busy and E has had lots going on with finishing house stuff and getting ready for school to start. Whenever life gets super busy I feel like UFO's pile up around the house.

Of course in this case UFO stands for the dreaded UN-FINISHED OBJECT. I'm going to go ahead and include books in this because I am such a reader (and i've had a biography of Marie Antoinette on my nightstand that I have been reading since we visited Canada for christmas 2006).

SO in the spirit of feeling a little more pulled together and on task (and feeling really awed by E's getting so much done around the house)...this weekend is crunch time to clear some things from the list:

• finish b-day present for a friend (birthday has passed = me being busy and lame)
• order photographs (the downside of going digital is that you have to edit, choose & order)
• make lanyards
• make bread
• going to Kaitee's b-day party
• work on super secret present for mom and dad's 30th (which has also already passed but in my defense this is in addition to the present I already have them)
• finish biography of MA mentioned above
• backup photos
• backp cd's that i have purchased on itunes
• do yoga
• new banner for blog

Many many other things that I can not think of....I was attempting to post this last night and have actually crossed some of these things off the list but I couldn't add pictures. I actually still can't but the lack of posting is quite disturbing so i'm going to go ahead and post and try and add pictures later!

UPDATE!!!!
Pictures not added....these are my new specs!

bucket list

A few weeks ago I made a list of things I want to do before I go. Go where? Who really knows? That is another whole post. But for now this is my list. I've actually got it on the sidebar as well and i'm hoping to get some of these things checked off. All offers to help are graciously accepted. :)

















My list of things….inspired by Mighty Girl:
Safari in Africa
Scuba dive
Pyramids at sunset
Ride a trolley car in San Francisco
Visit South Korea with E
Have a beignets in New Orleans
Take a road trip across the U.S.
Stay in an ice hotel
Go to a rodeo
Compete on Jeopardy
Visit London
Learn to play at least one song really well on the guitar
Visit Paris
Know basic French (ok so yes I can do this a little but I would like to be better)
Set foot in all fifty states
Stand atop the Great Wall of China
Practice sign language to where I am MUCH better
Stand inside the Taj Mahal
Do two push ups
Witness a miracle
Go berry picking and make pies
Have a dog again
Make a peaceful living space for our family
Get in the habit of grand loving gestures
Visit New York City
See the nutcracker ballet
Make a sand castle
Go back to school
Learn to play the piano (again)
Learn how to remember peoples' names
Carve our initials inside a heart somewhere
Take a two-week vacation without computers
See monument valley at sunset
Go to a Josh Groban concert
Sew an apron
Learn how to drive stick
Make Toffee
Explore Washington DC
Go to Machu Picchu
Learn to surf
Make a loaf of yummy bread
Show E a moose in the wild
Read or attempt every book on my must read list
Do something I think I can’t do (marathon, sky dive, hang glide, movie script)
Have a family portrait taken
See a glacier
Live in another country for a year

Giveaway winner!!

So the grand prize winner, as chosen by random number generator was number 4 or Gene!! He was the winner of the fun prize package below.














Gene, Nicole and Caleb are actually staying with us this weekend and we were all very amused when he won the Canadian treats! In other news I got these adorable shades in the mail as part of the "Shades of Summer" fun on this adorable girls blog. Elizabeth Kartchner













So cute!!!













Then it was on to the annual 4th of July Fireman's BBQ and fireworks. We are having a total blast with the C's. So fun to have company for the 4th!

Signs you might be a Canadian

Signs You Might Be Canadian

1. You stand in "line-ups" at the movie, not lines.
2. You know Toronto is not a province.
3. You understand the phrase, "Could you please pass me a serviette, I just spilled my poutine"
4. You eat chocolate bars instead of candy bars.
5. You drink pop, not soda.
6. You know what it means to be on pogey.
7. You know that a mickey and 2-4's mean "Party at the camp, eh!!"
8. You never miss "Coaches Corner".
9. You talk about the weather with strangers and friends alike.
10. You don't know or care about the fuss with Cuba, it's just a cheap place to travel with good cigars and no Americans.
11. When there is a social problem, you turn to your government to fix it instead of telling them to stay out of it.
12. You know what a tuque is.
13. You get milk in bags as well as cartons and plastic jugs.
14. Pike is a type of fish, not some part of a highway.
15. You drive on a highway, not a freeway.
16. You sit on a chesterfield not a couch - that's some small town in Quebec!
17. You know what a Robertson screwdriver is.
18. You have Canadian Tire money in your kitchen drawers.
19. You know that Thrills are something to chew and "taste like soap".
20. You know that Mounties "don't always look like that"
21. Back Bacon and Kraft Dinner are two of your favorite food groups.
22. You admit Rich Little is Canadian and you're glad Jerry Lewis is not.
23. You know that Casey and Finnegan are not a Celtic musical group.
24. You participated in "Participaction".
25. You have an Inuit carving by your bedside with the rationale: "What's good enough protection for the Prime Minister is good enough for me".
26. You wonder why there isn't a 5 dollar coin yet.
27. Unlike any international assassin/terrorist/spy in the world, you don't possess a Canadian passport.
28. You use a red pen on your non-Canadian textbooks and fill in the missing 'u's from labor, honor, and color.
29. You know the French equivalents of "free", "prize" and "no sugar added", thanks to your extensive education in bilingual cereal packaging.
30. You are excited whenever an American television show mentions Canada.
31. You make a mental note to talk about it at work the next day.
32. You can do all the hand actions to Sharon, Lois and Bram's "Skin-a-ma-rinky-dinky-doo" opus.
33. You can eat more than one maple sugar candy without feeling nauseous.
34. You were mad when "The Beachcombers" were taken off the air.
35. You have some momento of Doug and Bob.


NOW ON TO THE GIVEAWAY!!
Post in the comments your favourite Canadian thing or person (yes it can be me ;) )
The winner will be chosen at random and mailed (you have to be ok with giving me your mailing address) a package of random Canadian goodness! If you are Canadian living in Canada or anyone else living in Canada you will get an American assortment instead! So all you lurkers post and maybe you will win!