Happy Birthday Curt!!!

Yesterday was Curt's birthday.
Mat and Jill came over for dinner...it was a luxurious meal from Zehr's...chicken wings, potato wedges, macaroni and potato salad, and cheese cake for dessert.
I had an appointment in Elmira with Laura so that she could pick out her bridesmaid dress, and get sized, so I think that I got to spend a matter of about 35 minutes with Curt on his special day. It was a dine and dash approach to a birthday dinner.
The big guy got a little spoiled this year. He turned 25 (quarter of a century) and I thought that since he spoiled me with diamonds a couple of weeks ago, it was the least that I could do to get him a good birthday gift. I got him a new pair of Steve Madden leather shoes for work and a new shirt. Lexy got him (although did not hand the cash over when it was time to pay for it) and electric razor. This is something that Curt has always wanted. He is really lazy, and does not like to shave, and usually only does it every 3-4 days. By the 3rd or the 4th day he is pretty shaggy, and some days I can not even believe that he goes to work looking like that. Maybe with the elelectric razor he will shave more often, and not complain that he has to do it.
The guys have gone to Buffalo tonight to the to the Habs/Saber's game. This has become an annual trip for the boys. These two teems always seem to meet up on the weekend after Curt's birthday, so they have made it an annual event to go down there and celebrate Curt's birthday with is beloved Habs!!! Last year everything seemed to go over well, with no arrests or charges (that we knew of) so hopefully it is a repeat of last year!!!!

Happy Birthday Mom......yesterday!

Yesterday was my mom's 4?th birthday and she got to celebrate it by having the day off work.
Since the credit union that she works for merged with another, they had to go to a training course on Remembrance Day (when they used to have it off), but get their birthdays off instead. It kind of sucks because we used to always have Remembrance Day off together and we usually went shopping, and know we will not have that day!!!
Anyways, we met for dinner last night at a restaurant in Listowel. Mom, dad, Cara, Justin, Grandma R, Grandma S, Curt and I had dinner together, and then we all went back to our house to have cake and coffee. We had ice cream cake for dessert, and my Uncle Ron and Aunt Lois come over to join us.
It was very nice for my mom to have everyone be able to get together and celebrate her big day!!!!!
Happy Birthday MOM!!!

SOOOOOO Tired

This weekend Jill, Cara and I went to Birch Run, Michigan to do some shopping. As you can probably tell by the pile of bags we did very well!!!!
We left on Friday afternoon, shopped all day Saturday and part of the day on Sunday, and headed home Sunday afternoon.
When we crossed the border we had to go in and pay taxes on the stuff that we claimed (well, Cara and I did, Jill got shit lucky).
We got home around 8 on Sunday night and as soon as I stepped foot into my house all I could smell was the stench of vomit.
Apparently Curt had 20 of his closest friends in on Saturday night to watch the Habs/Leafs game and one of them got really drunk and threw up all over my couch cover. After he did that, he went up to our spare bed to go to sleep and got sick all over the carpet up there, as well as the mattress and sheets. Curt had attempted to clean it up, but I think that it had probably sat there for about 12 hours before he got to it, and the stench had time to seep into the carpet. I have know scrubbed the carpet with soap and water, used Lysol and scrubbed it, sprayed the shit out of it with Febreez and there is know baking soda sitting on it. I have no idea how to get the smell out of the carpet without going out and renting a carpet cleaner and cleaning the shit out of it!!!!
Here is my plea: if anyone knows how to get the stench of vomit out of carpet, please fill me in on the secret!!!!!
Between my busy weekend, trying to get some stuff booked for the wedding, and attending to a puck stained carpet, I am exhausted. Almost every night I have been in bed and asleep by 10 and yesterday morning I slept in. I have not done that for a long time, and I still feel sleep deprived.
Thank god we have nothing on this weekend so that I can try to get caught up on some well deserved R & R.

Happy Birthday Addy

Since I am going to be away this weekend, I thought that I better post my birthday wishes to my friend Laura's little girl Addy today.
Ava Adeline Leader will be 1 year old on Saturday.
Addy was over on Saturday night to celebrate Curt and my engagement, and this photo was taken then. Addy will be a big sister to twin siblings in only 5 months.
CRAZY PARENTS!!!!!!

I am exhausted....and I didn't even do anything!!

Yesterday Curt and I had to get up really early and go over to his parents house and tell them the good news. They had been away the night before, so we were not able to tell them then, and thought that we better get it done before they herd it from someone else.
I had plans to go to Jill's cottage to get the grapevine for my urn, so my mom and dad came and picked us up about 10:30. We headed to Belmore to a couple of craft stores, to the Grey Ox for their open house and then to the cottage. We loaded the back of the truck up and headed for home.
I was really tired because I did not sleep very well the night before due to my excitement, so when we got home we decided that we were going to lay our head down and have a little nap. That was soon disrupted with Curt and all of the guys coming over. Curt had invited everyone over to our house to celebrate our engagement!!!!!
Later on in the evening we decided to go to a Buck and Doe in town. We headed there around 10:30, and by 11:15 I was ready for home. Jill and I came home and left the boys to do their celebrating, and as soon as my head hit that pillow, I was out.
This morning I woke up and headed over to my mom and dad's. It was a day of lessons. I was to learn how to make my very first pie....pastry shell's and all!!!! I am to make 2 to take to our church's foul supper this week, and thought that I better do a test run before then.
My grandma Robinson, Jaycee, Cara, Justin, Mom, Dad and Curt were all my test dummies. I am happy to report that everyone loved them, and I have not got any phone calls that anyone was sick from them. I guess I am good to go for Wednesday night. I made the shell's today and they are in the freezer waiting to be filled and cooked on Tuesday. I think that it is going to be Cherry and Dutch Apple for the Atwood folks!!!

SURPRISE.........................

We got engaged!!!!!!
for the details, click on the link
www.theknot.com
and then in you have to type in either of our names (first and last) in the find couple's wedding page area.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas is my most favorite time of the year.
As soon as Halloween is over, all hell breaks loose around our house, and the many, many tote boxes of Christmas decorations get brought up from the basement and begin to get emptied.
On Wednesday night I went down and sorted through all of the decorations downstairs, and made a very large pile of stuff for Curt to take upstairs. I took down off the fall decorations and did the dusting in preparation for the Christmas stuff to be brought out.
Last night the fun began. It was the perfect night to get into the Christmas spirit with all of the snow falling. I got home from work, had dinner, and got to it. It was a big night for my television shows, but I managed to watch/listen to them as I got all my stuff out.
I am happy to report that all totes are emptied, except the one with the lites and the garland in it (those will be emptied this weekend), the tree is up, but not decorated (that will be getting done tonight), and everything is in its place (well, it will be by the Sunday night).
For those of you that are on the countdown........here is something that my mom sent me today, knowing that I would really enjoy it!!!!!
http://home.valornet.com/sabruf2/countchr.html

What a RIP

Last November mom took me up to the Grey Ox, which is this place in Lucknow where you can make your own gapevine trees, twig furniture, ect.
We went one nice Saturday morning and made a grapevine tree for me as part of my Christmas present. She had been up there the week before for their Open House, and while she was up there she enrolled us for the class. There was also this set of urns that caught her eyes, but she did not know what she would do with them. The lady had them filled with greenery for Christmas. From the time that she had been there for the open house, until the next weekend when we went to make the trees, she had also enrolled us in this class with a lady to teach us how to put together Christmas greenery in an arrangement.
She pondered about getting the urns to do our arrangements with, and finally decided on it and ordered them when we were up there doing my grapevine tree.
I was working in Wingham last year, so she sent me up to get them one day on my lunch hour. When I got up there all they were was this metal frame with no grapevine on it what so ever. I knew what my mom had paid for them, and thought that it was pretty expensive for just the metal frame of the urn. I talked to the lady about it, and she said that is all that my mom had paid for, and it would be another $75.00 for her to put this little bit of grapevine on them. WOW....$75.00 to go to the bush, get a little bit of grapevine, and wined it around the urns. I didn't even have to consider the thought of paying for her to complete the urns, I loaded them up, and took them home.
When I dropped my mom's off at her house, I told her that we could go to the bush and get our own grapevine and wined it around the earns for that price.
This is the weekend. Tomorrow morning Jill, mom and I are heading up the the Grey Ox for their open house, and then we are heading up to Jill's cottage because they have a bush across from it that has a whole bunch of grapevine in it.
After we get them done I will have to let you know weather it was worth the $75.00 for her to do it, or weather I made the right, cheap decision.

The Ghosts and Goblin's Where OUT!!!!

Last night it was Halloween, and we were ready.
Monday night Destiny and I made up popcorn balls and special candy bags with some of the good candy for all of my trick-r-treater's that I know, and I pulled all the reject candy (the stuff that we don't like) from the boxes, and threw it into a bowl for all the other kids.
We did not take a count of the kids that we had around, but I can pretty much guess it to be in the high 20's. Last year we had 45-50, so our numbers were way down. Everyone else that I have talked to about it said that they did not have near as many kids as in years past either. I thought that will a P.A. Day for the kids today, and the night being so nice that we would have more then last year, but I guess my anticipation was wrong.
Lexy and I both dressed the part...her in her pumpkin costume, and me and my pumpkin pj's.
We only had a few kids that came around that we knew:
Cloe:

Hayleigh & Emily:

Paige & Destiny (sorry...no pics)

The best Goblin that showed up on our door step was this short bald guy that was all by himself with a garbage bag over his head. He came to the door, and Curt answered it. We kind of felt sorry for this kid, as he was out all by himself, in a pretty pathetic costum, so we filled his bag with candy and sent him on his way............I hope that you didn't get a tummy ach from all of the candy Harrison!!!!!!!!!!!

All that is left is to put the candy away in the cupboard because to me...out of sit, out of mind, and by the time I remember it is up there, Curt will have it all ate.

Tonight on the agenda: Halloween decorations away, Christmas decorations out!!!!!!!

Dixie Chicks

Last night was the Dixie Chicks concert in Toronto that I went to with Jill, Beckie and Nicole. It was a fun day!!!
We left Listowel around 11, and headed to HomeSense and Ikea in Etobicoke before we went down town. We were done shopping early, so we headed down about 3, found parking, and then walked to the Keg for dinner.
We were there in enough time to be able to sit down and have a nice relaxing meal. We first got a couple of salads and appitizers and split them between the 4 of us, and then we took our time and ate our meal, then it was dessert time. We had all decided that we would walk back towards the ACC, and stop in at a William or Second Cup, and for those of us who though they wanted dessert.....they could order that, and for those of us who wanted coffee/tea.....we could have it. When it came time to paying I had myself a heart attach when I could not find my change purse which had all my money, my debit card, and my VISA in it. I had to stiff Jill with the bill, and we high tailed it back to the car to try to find it. I knew that I had it in there, because I used it when we piled into the parking garage to pay. When we got to the car it was laying on the back seat, right under a bag.....THANK GOD!!!! We then went to get coffee, and then headed to the ACC for the concert.
It was a good concert, but all I could remember was the amazing performance that they gave the last time that I seen them at the ACC, and I was disappointed with this one. I guess it is never as good the second time around.
It was a late night, and I am defiantly feeling the effects of it today. By the time I crawled into bed, it was 1:45a.m. leaving me with only a mere 5 hours to sleep. That is certainly not enough time for this girl to have her head on the pillow. I need at least my minimum of 8 hours to be able to function the next day. I know that today I felt tired, but I know that I always feel worse on the second day, so tomorrow will be a write off.
Here are a few pics from the concert................I'm off to bed!!!!!!!

A Day of Fall Creations

Today was full of adventures and activities all about fall.
We first got bundled up and mom, Curt and I headed out to the bush to look for pine cones. I am sad to report that we did not find the type of cone that I was looking for. We found lots of the long skinny cones, that you usually find on most pine trees, but not the small, round, fat ones. I am not sure what I am going to do for this project of mine that I need them for, but if worse comes to worse, then I have found somewhere that I can order them from over the internet. I have one last hope though. I have a amish lady that is looking in Millbank for me, and she said that she would bring some in to the bank, and if they are the right shape and size, then I can go and pick them. Keep your fingers crossed for me!!!!
When we got back from our hike in the bush, we carved our pumpkins. I was going to do it last night, when Curt went to the hockey game, but he informed me that he would like to do it too, so it would be nice of me to wait until he was around to do it. So last night, while he was out enjoying himself, I did the best part of it....scrapping out the grinds.
When I was a little kid, and we carved pumpkins, I always remembered my mom taking the pulp and sorting out the seeds, and roasting them for us as a treat, so that is what I did. I always remember the great aroma that the roasting pumpkin seeds left in the kitchen, and I got a little taste of my childhood memories this afternoon when I roasted ours.
So we had two pumpkins to carve, one for Curt, and one for me, and here is our end results.............Bet you can't you guess which one is mine, and which is Curtis's???????????????????

4 Days to GO!!!!

On Sunday Beckie, Nicole, Jill and I are heading to Toronto to see the Dixie Chicks.
I CAN NOT WAIT!!!!!!
This will be the third time that I get to see them in concert, once at Lilith Fair, one other time at the ACC, and then on Sunday night.
We are making a whole girls day out of the event including shopping, dinner, and the concert, nothing that the guys would ever want to do with us. It would be like pulling teeth to get them to go and see the Dixie Chicks and that is why it is a GIRLS DAY OUT, and is going to be SOOO MUCH FUN!!!!
I will have picture of the outing to post on Monday.
(p.s. I hope that you girls have got your vocal cords ready, because I have been listening to their c.d.'s for the past couple of weeks in preparation for Sunday. Hopefully I get rid of this nasty cough)

The Hunt for Pine Cones

I am working on a little project, so this weekend we are going to go hunt for some pine cones.
The picture to the left is the type of cone that I am looking for, and I need about 200 of them, so if anyone out there knows of somewhere in the area that I would be able to find these, could they please let me know. It will make Curt and my job a whole lot easier if we know where to start to look.

The Change of Season's

With every change in season it seems that is the time that people seem to catch bugs [flu bugs, or colds....not insects:)]
The bug hit Davidson Ave. a couple of weeks ago, but it hit across the street first. Harrison was down and out with a cold and flu about three weeks ago, Jill had it two weeks ago, Curt seemed to catch it last week, and this week was my turn. Mine start last weekend, when I had 1001 things to do, and I felt like crap. I was off work on Tuesday, not being able to lift my head of the pillow, and all week I have had this terrible cough.
BEWARE ALL....STAY AWAY FROM DAVIDSON AVE., OR YOU TO MAY CATCH IT!!!!

Just call me Betty Crocker!!!

In the past 2.5 years that Curt and I have lived together, I can not recall one occasion that I have baked.
I am not a real baker, I am more of cook. Well....that all changed yesterday.
Last week I decided that I was going to bake some cookies muffins to have around the house. I do not usually buy cookies, and Curt really likes them, so I decided that I would bake some. While I was at it, I thought that I would make a batch of muffins so that I could freeze them and take them for my breakfast in the mornings.
We woke up yesterday morning and went and got all of the supplies that we needed for the day of baking.
When I got home I pretty much found everything else to do before I had to start with the baking. I had to clean out the fridge after we had brought home all of our groceries. Then I had to organize my cupboards...because I had been meaning to do that for months. I did some laundry, and then decided that it was time. I got the flour, sugar, and eggs out, and went to town.
I am happy to report that we did not burn anything, nothing stuck to the pan, and we know have a fresh batch of raspberry muffins (Curt really did not like them, but they are a Weight Watcher's recipe...so really, hardly any sugar ='s Curt disapproval), and about 2 dozen peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. I brought some cookies to work today, and the girls really liked them, and they are still kickn' this afternoon, so I think that I did o.k.

A Weekend of Weddings

This weekend was a very busy one with 2 weddings to attend on Saturday. One being in Listowel, and the other in Waterloo, it made for it to be a very long and exhausting day.
Curt's cousin Carrie was the first one that we attended.

I did the hair for the 4 of the 5 bridesmaids, so I was up at 6:45 starting to do my hair, and getting everything packed up to go out to her parents place to do the hair. Everything went very smoothly (there was only one girl that I had not done before, so I know what the other three wanted). I was home by 12, which gave me time to sit down and relax for about 1.5 hours before I had to start to get myself ready for the wedding.

The weather was not very nice on Saturday, but it managed to clear up in the afternoon for them to get their pictures done outside, and so that no one got wet when they were transporting from the ceremony to the reception. As I was doing the girls hair in the morning, it was raining, hailing, and snowing. It did not look very promising, but turned out pretty good. Cold, but no rain.

After the dinner at Carrie and Marco's wedding, we headed down to the Waterloo Inn for Pacey & Ashley's wedding. We had missed the ceremony, meal and speeches. We had just got there when the speeches were ending, about 10:30.

We missed most of the day, but we had a chance to talk to Pacey and Ashley, and wish them our best.

Dress Shopping

Last night our search finally ended for our bridesmaid dresses for Cara's wedding.
We headed to Kitchener after work to go to Ballett's, and we found the dress.
This was our second time we had all got together and went looking. The first time we found a dress and it was one of the very first dresses that we tried on. Every other dress that we tried on that night did not even compare to it, and Cara was sure that was the dress that she wanted us to wear....until last night. We tried on some newer dresses, that we had never seen before, and we had it narrowed down to two made by Alfred Sung. It was a split vote between the bridesmaid's, and Cara finally made the decision of the one that we got. It is kind of hard to explain, but I can tell you that it is chocolate brown, and it seems that it will suit every type of height, bust line, and waist line of the different shapes of bridesmaids.
Good choice Cara.....check one more thing off of your list of things to do.

What a week!!!!!!!!

I am trying to ease myself into a new weekly routine.
Until know, I would just do hair whenever someone needed it done. All summer I have not had a free night to myself, and my life has been a little crazy. Until know I can not remember a night that I have had that I could just come home from work, have dinner, and lay on the couch.
This week was to be the week that my new routine was to be implemented. The new routine consists of going to the gym at least 3 nights a week......√ (managed to get that one done), restrict myself to doing hair only ONE night a week...... X (did accomplish that one due to my friends Jill and BJ), and having one night to myself, to do whatever I want...... X (this didn't get done due to house work needing to be done).
One for three......I think that I have some improving to do.
As for next week.....Monday, Thanksgiving @ the McLaughlin's, Tuesday....appointment in Kitchener, Wednesday.....hair, Thursday.....dress shopping for Cara's wedding. Looks like it is a write off too.
What is a girl to do???? The way that our lives run, I am not sure that we will ever be able to try to throw any other lives into our equation.

On a more relaxing note...Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Finally Back to Normal

All of our hard work and efforts have finally paid off. The renovations are completed!!!
OUR HOUSE IS FINALLY BACK TO NORMAL.
Saturday I headed to Ikea first thing in the morning to pick up our new bed frame, and I put it together yesterday afternoon all by myself. I got our new sheets, duvet, and pillows on the bed, and put everything in its proper place. Curt commented last night that it was so nice to have a bedroom that actually looked like a master bedroom, instead of mismatched, chipped furniture, that did not have any matching points to them.
After complete three rooms this fall, I think that we are going to hang up our paintbrush for a couple of months!!!!!!

Curt's away.....SO THE GIRLS GET TO PLAY!!!!

This weekend Curt was in Montreal on a stag, so Lexy and I had the house to ourselves.
Friday night was a 'catch up on our shows' night. We got caught up on this weeks Grey's Anatomy, Beverly Hills 90210, and ER. We fell asleep around 9:30, and were out for the night.
On Saturday morning, Jill and I headed to Ikea so that I could pick up our new bed frame, and we could finally say that our bedroom in complete. I dropped Lexy off at my mom and dads for the weekend, so that she would not have to be at home all alone. I also had to get my dads truck so I could bring home the boxes that the bed was in. We stopped at a few places on the way, and then had to rush home because we had a shower for Curt's cousin Carrie (she is marrying the one that Curt went on the stag for), and then we were going out on her staggette.
We were only an hour late for the shower, but that seems to be our style. I don't think that Jill and I have every been on time to something that we have been invited to. We had a little problem with Jill's I.D. being in Harrison's wallet in Montreal, and wondered how the hell she was going to get into the bar. Finally Jill remembered that she had a passport, but it was at her parents, so we had to find a way to get that, and get ready, and try to be at the shower in 15 minutes. Needless to say we didn't make it there in the 15 minutes, but all was good, and she got into the bar.
We took a bus to London to Cowboys, and it was a pretty good time. The dance floor was not very big at all, and by the end of the night, you could hardly even get near it. There was not much seating in the place, unless you wanted to sit in a totally separate room, where non the action was. By the end of the night we discovered this little room with pool tables in it, and it had big comfey leather couches. A few of us crashed on the them, while we waited for the other girls to be ready to go.
We didn't get home from London until 3:30, so by the time we got to bed it was after 4:00.
I slept in today until 12:45. I can not remember the last time I even slept in past 10:00. It was great. I just lounged around all day, but did manage to get my but off the couch around 4:30 tackled the feet of putting my bed together. I went up to my parents after I was done to pick Lexy up, and in hopes that there would be a dinner on the table that I would be invited to stay for. When I walked in all I could smell was candles, no aroma from the kitchen...but she did not disappoint me. They ordered Chinese food, and invited me to stay, so I got a good supper out of the deal!!!!
Curt has just arrived home, and has gone to McDonald's for dinner with Matt and Jill. All he really said to me as he came in and right back out again was that all he has had to eat was a little mcmuffin at 10 this morning, and that he was starving. I guess that I will have to wait until his tummy is fed to get some stories of the weekend although I can pretty much guarantee that he will tell me.....what happens in Montreal, stays in Montreal.