First (and last) Scare-me Saturday

AHHH!
I've missed "What's up Wednesdays" and "haven't figured out Thursdays" and "Fandom Fridays" and tomorrow's my day off!!

It's all good, I'll work on it for next week. We've had some drama here because of our littest one.
Whoever said that frostbite can't happen in a few little minutes was full of crap.

We've been 2 days in the hospital because my sweet little Mo pulled off her mittens and her sister tossed her out of the sled into the snow! Her fingertips are still a little raw and red, but at least she's able to hold things and isn't screaming everytime we touch her hands. It was very scary for a while but from now on: Everyone in my family has homemade mittens (down to their elbows) and see if you can pull those off! This scared the pants off me! Everyone at the hospital questioned my abilities as a mom (so did I) and I felt miserable and scared and hated winter (which was very different from my usual relationship with winter.) I was scared she was going to lose her fingers! An old song I used to sing at camp passed into my brain and I sang it.

"I cast all my cares upon you

I lay all of my burdens down at your feet

and anytime, I don't know, 

What to do

I will cast all my cares upon you"

Tears welled up in my eyes and I just started to weep. I gave God my daughter and her health and who am I to try to hold onto her again? So I gave it all to God and immediately felt better.

What I've learned from my drama: I've learned that I'm going to pretty much wrap my child up to the point where she might not be able to breathe if ever the weather drops below -29. Or to stay in and drink Hot chocolate and watch it through the window.

Thankfully she's holding her food and even smacking her mom in the face (which I missed honestly). Her fingers are still a little red, but not as tender. (Praise the Lord!)

It looks like today might be scare-me Saturday, but that wasn't my intention.
I thought I'd give a weekend funny story but that can't happen either.

In other news, Lent is kicking my butt.
I'm off Coca-Cola for 40 days. It's made me introspective but it's also killing me! I really want Coke!
I figure if Jesus went 40 days with no food or water (or coke) then I can do it too.
wish me luck?

See you tomorrow with a strange, interesting, or funny picture :)

Tangled Tuesdays: A day dedicated to Yarn crafts

Sorry I'm getting this so late!

I know people don't care right now, but one day they might :)

After waiting all week, I'm sure you're dying to see what has become of my mystery project

so Here's last week's step completed.

 20 yellow and green Xs
looks amazing doesn't it?

So today I'm working on step 3 which is adding in the other two colours in my repertoire and making each now X into a sort of butterfly.

Because of problems with Youtube, the next step took what felt like a millennium to post and I was forced to work on other yarn crafts today instead of this one.
I was so thrilled to get to work!

Here's a sneak peak:

Without the blue border it reminded me of a certain sidekick.
I really like it!
I'm so happy with the colours I picked and I can't wait to see what happens next!!

Mini-Me Monday

So, I figured out that I want to write about a different thing each day.
I thought Mondays I would write about how I manage to become a smaller (more streamlined) version of myself.

I am trying to get healthy. As of the moment I write this: I am 227.6 lbs. It's not something I'm proud of. I weigh in Monday nights and it's a good chance for me to learn new tricks and techniques. Recipes, stretches, and of course: running!

I love to run, but because I live in the middle of nowhere Saskatchewan, There is very little to do in the winter. I will try my best to acquire what I've come to affectionately call "The rubber road to nowhere" otherwise known as a treadmill. I'd like to get it by next winter so that I can use it when it's too cold or too dark to get out in the evenings.

My hope is to get a medal each month, so I'll likely have a Medal edition of Mondays.  too, to share my favorite races and websites for virtual runs.

So here goes.
number 1,
this is my before picture.

 I know, I look thrilled don't I?
My hope is to get thinner than that.

but I also want to get fit. More important than being skinny is being able to run and play with my 2 little ones and not get winded!

Here are some of the things that are going to (hopefully) help me reach my goal!

1. A Fitness Binder.
If you don't have a fitness binder: get one! Mine keeps me motivated and has basically become my third child! I love it so much and it's designed for me! If you make it you can make it just for you!

Some ideas for themes:
Harry Potter
Walking dead
Game of thrones
Superheroes
Supernatural
 (Whatever you want!)

 Here's mine!
(as you can see, I'm all about superheroes!) I have other pages and a new cover page with a beautiful drawing of supergirl) Within the pages is my plan for eating, my plan for working out and special tips and tricks to get me there.
It also has special pages to keep track of how many miles I've run. I really need to get on that!  (see what I mean about motivating me?

Number 2: A favorite water bottle!

In this picture you can see 3 different water bottles. One of them is my costco 24oz water bottle. It's a great go to and I can carry it with and loop it on my bag if I have one. The one in the middle is 16 oz and is great for those delicious fruit infusions that are kicking around. I love it when I'm going out for supper and I know they'll only have pop :) the third bottle (green and blue) is 32 oz. I've marked it with duct tape so I know how many glasses of water I've had. It's from Tupperware :)

These are my tips for this week. See you lighter next Monday :)

Play, Mysteries and birthday parties! Whoa!!

Bonjour my readers (all like 2 of you).
I'm going to try to be more open, seeing as this blog is not just about me getting pregnant, or it is it about having babies, but now all along it is about raising a family and being a mom. (and not killing myself or my husband in the process). So HOPEFULLY I will be posting more often.

Things are progressing nicely! My oldest: Ally, is going to be 3 in May and we have a messy & colorful party planned for it. My youngest (Mo) is going to be 2 in November and I have a monster party in the works. (So there's that to plan for).

Life is good for me. I decided I needed MORE to do and am currently in a play! (I know right?) but I'm having a lot of fun and the cast and crew are very enthusiastic so we'll have to see how things go.

I'm hoping to sell more at a craft sale and I'm having fun figuring out what to make and (of course) making them. :)

At the moment I'm doing a "Crochet along Challenge" and It's a complete mystery as to what it's going to look like.

I am always curious as to where people get the colors. A lot of colors were picked and so people picked those Pre-chosen choices. Some people just picked what they had in their stash and some people posted that they liked random colors and that's what they took.

For me it was Simon. Yep. the 80s game that was fine for the first 4 levels then pretty much broke into a dance beat and expected you to keep up. There was a post the day I picked my colors that talked about 80s toys we won't ever see again. and when I saw Simon I thought: Those would be a pretty something.... and then I realized I had to get yarn for my challenge and bells went off.

Why not?

So step one was fairly simple.
Granny squares. Here we go. Something I could do in my sleep. Something I almost made too many of because I forgot to count.... easiest thing for any crocheter to do.

20 granny squares.

Step 1: DONE!

Week 2 comes around and all these Xs start popping up all over the place.  All over the challenge page and my other crocheting facebook groups. so I start thinking... I have to make an X or 2. nope: 20. On top of the green squares, I need to create a contrasting X. So off I go to make an X. And they turn out okay.

Fantastic looking right? Yellow and Green. Awesome. (altho I think I'm getting into a rut with my colors. This is the second Yellow and green project I have going).

The only problem with this is that it reminds me of a superhero... someone...
oh yeah:

That's it.... So I have finished my 20 Xs and I will continue on Tuesday with the next step in my Blanket. :)

Making Cents Makes Sense!

okay, so it's been a while since I wrote.
a long time.

I'm now a mother of 2. 2 perfect little princesses hold the keys to my heart and they will for the rest of their lives. I call them Ally and Mojo (Probably for the rest of their lives).

and we're done. for now. God has blessed us with two amazing little girls and hubby is worried that if we have another one, we'll be in hock up to our eyeballs so it's best we quit while we're behind. 7k behind actually.

Yep, thanks to our new van (Watson died and couldn't be resuscitated so we now have Cheyenne. She's awesome.) and some minor repairs around the house, we are now behind the eight-ball $7,000.

the truth is I haven't really taken money seriously. Not since I got married nearly 10 years ago. But this new battery has put us even further in debt and I've decided I need to start taking it seriously.

First things first, I've fallen in love with a money saving website called Stacy Makes Cents.

Stacy is one of the most amazingly frugal moms I've ever had the pleasure of reading and even tho a great deal of her tips are American or for those who don't live in a town of 600 people, it has still lit a fire under me to be more aware of my spending.

So for all those Canadians out there who want to save, let me tell you what I'm doing and if it's working. Then you can tell me what you've done and if it's working for you!

First and foremost, if you don't have a PC mastercard or a PC account; get one. (PC stands for President's Choice which is ironic since in Canada we don't have a President) Getting 20,000 PC is easy and knocks $20 off your grocery bill, so really: worth it!

secondly, let me introduce you to free.ca. This website is great to find printable coupons! (every little bit helps and is amazing)

thirdly: if you have any brand loyalty now, lose it. or at least lost most of it. (There are some things that just can't be duplicated. If you've ever had store brand Kraft Dinner: you know.) Store brands are cheaper and similar in most ways to whatever you want to get in the other brands.

That being said, I'm going to try to focus on how much things cost and how much I spend. I'm determined to get out of debt and start saving for a trip to Disneyland in 2021 (when my girls are 7-8)

Wish me luck!

So Sleep Deprived I can't even complete a senten

Well, It's been nearly a year since I've written. I have a baby now, it takes a lot out of you and of course, your free time is pretty much non-existent. She will soon be 1 year old. It makes me sad that she's getting so big but at the same time I can't wait for her to get bigger so I can take her to things like Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls or Wis Dells in Wisconsin. The reason I'm writing now is because I'm currently 12-13 weeks pregnant again! After all that time wondering if I would even get one, I'm now going to have 2 under 2 years within 2 years! My little peanut is going to be a big sister! The nausea came on stronger and earlier with this pregnancy than it did with my first pregnancy. So here's hoping there's also an early end to the morning sickness as well. We've started sleep training our first born. So if you ever see something like this: "Day 1 May 1-2 Woke up to A screaming @ 3:29am went to train. Fought with P 18-20 attempts (had to pee at 16-18) 4:36am back to sleep P kept going Success at 5:18" it's notes from me desperately trying to get my peanut to fall asleep in her own crib after a long year of having her crash with her father or I or both of us. I'm determined that she should sleep on her own and I don't want her to feel like I'm abandoning her so this works but it certainly takes time and patience... My stomach is doing weird things to me, like preventing me from eating foods I like and making me sick to my stomach at smells and textures and a lot of different other things. I can't wait to be able to eat normally again. The odd thing is that my body has been craving fruit! like A LOT of fruit! plums, grapes, different fruit juices... weird. I think that's it. Here's hoping I can get my little one to sleep before I write too many of these weird notes...

No more excuses

So, 3 weeks and 6 days ago I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Ally. Immediately after going back to TOPS I found that I Weighed less than I did when I first conceived my little peanut. Yay! Since than I've lost another pound ! My only worry is that at this point is that I'm going to sit on my bum holding my daughter and not get the exercise I need and blame her. I really don't want to do that. So I am resolved to eat less and attempt to exercise more and not make any more excuses. In fact, I look forward to taking my little peanut for walks and eventually runs or bike rides. I meant what I said, I want to one day be able to run so fast that my kids can't catch me.  That being said I'm training for a bike-a-thon in September and a golf fundraiser next summer.  I'm determined to weigh around 225 by the time i go home to visit my family in December. Giving me around 16 pounds to lose in 28 weeks.  Which isn't bad to be honest... Wish me luck. 225 is what I like to refer to as my "wall". I've not been under that number since I joined TOPS In January 2008. I get close then I balloon so I would very much like to blast through that wall. Wish me luck!