Looking into 2009

Resolution.
Definition: a firm decision to do something.
My friend Kindra uses the word "goals" instead of "resolution". She also puts a process in place rather than just deciding to do or accomplish something. That makes sense to me. For me the term "resolution" means "failure" right from the get-go.
I began contemplating (bad I know, careful of the smoke) and with the current chaos surrounding me I've concluded that something has to change or I will be committed to a mental institution sooner than later. Last night for instance, I was totally and completely out of sorts and did not know what to do with myself. There was no particular reason, just an accumulation of stress I believe, and I was a massive bundle of jitters, it felt like my skin didn't fit me. Nothing satisfied me. Following an unsettled evening I had a weirdly restless night that had me from our bed, to the couch, then back to bed again. I also had psychotic dreams. I blame the tequila laced lime-ade. Today I feel calmer and I decided that creating a few more goals in addition to finishing the house would be good for my sanity and in turn for those around me. Eating, breathing and sleeping 'house' can't be good for a person. (Only 31 days to go according to my schedule!)

Here's what I came up with:
1. Buy an old fashioned journal for writing in and use it for things like jotting down prayers - which I desire to do more of, cute things Sierra does and says that I'll otherwise never remember later, and any other tidbits of my mind that I feel need documenting; a private place for my thoughts and memories.
2. Get back into better health by deliberately exercising 3 times a week and drastically reducing my junk food/sugar intake, and continuing with my increased veggie consumption.
3. Tidy as I go so that my house does not end up looking like a pig-sty and require a massive top-to-bottom clean. (This is a once-we-move goal, it's a nearly impossible feat in our current abode)

That's probably good for now, too many and I'll give up before tomorrow!

Scheduling - the next 34 days.

Cry uncontrollably?
Laugh hysterically?
Throw a fit of anger?
Drink myself silly?
Hibernate in bed?

Those were the options running circles in my mind the other day as I stood in my house, surrounded by construction chaos, and was covered in paint splatters. There appeared to be an insurmountable amount of work left to do with not nearly enough time and this was causing me to have a meltdown.
Yes, I felt a tad overwhelmed.I opted for none of those options, instead I took the bull by the horns and seized control. Being the champion of lists that I am, I made two. I needed to see a plan of action of how we could attain our goal of completing this house in a little more than a month.
My lists: 1. what tasks still needed to be done and
2. when each of these is going to be carried out and how long they are projected to take.
Bottom line: We have a lot of work to do in the next month but if we're diligent and work hard we can be in by the end of January.
The reason we want to be moved in by then - and no, it is not because living with my parents is driving me bonkers, which it is actually starting to, truth be told - it is because my in-laws are coming for a visit February 11-17. We need to be in our house in order for them to have a place to stay and I am NOT moving in last minute the weekend before they arrive - too much.
Needless to say I was stressing over the pressure, hence said lists.
I feel better now.
I have an allusion of control.
If we don't make the goals than I will most likely have a breakdown.
No, I'm prepared for the possibility of failure, but I'm not actually planing for that because Trevor says I'm too pessimistic as it is.

Oh and by the way - Trevor and my Dad are totally disgusted with my lists and don't get them. Trevor was sarcastically bragging to me how he managed to make grilled cheese sandwiches without a list.

And another thing...yesterday while out with some friends Trevor had the nerve to say that if the market picks up we're selling this house and building again.

LIKE HELL!!!!

Sorry for the outburst.


Just in case I don't have time to post before then...

Happy New Year everyone!

Hoho Highlights

Did we have Christmas only a mere two days ago?

Are you sure?
I think I might have missed it.
No, I didn't. It felt very quick this year since we are so house-absorbed.
Brief as if felt, it was still special and filled with laughter and love.

Gifts.
It's always fun to receive things that I otherwise wouldn't get for myself. For example: gift certificate to a spa and black stretchy, comfy, around-home pants (this after I said that I practically never wear lounging clothes!)
Sierra was so cute and giddy with all the activity of stockings and gift opening. She got tons of new toys but a bead necklace was by far her favourite. It only comes off for sleep times.

Food.
Lots. Feeling glutonous. Weight Watchers must start soon. Need I say more?

Games.
A must at Christmas. Dominoes and Cranium amused us this year. You'd be surprised at how crazy we can make a game of Dominoes!

Wine and Bailey's Caramel Irish Cream.
Great stuff!

Family and Friends.
What make the season so fun.

Jesus Christ.
Without His birth there would none of the above to enjoy!

The tree surrounded by presents.

The famous beads.

Digging in deep and feeling something...

Grasping it and pulling it out....


Discovery! An elephant puzzle!

Our little family.

I'm It!

Kraftykash tagged me today and since I'm procrastinating however I can this afternoon this is a great excuse to keep it up!

Here is how it goes:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up six random things about

Random stuff about me:

1. I'm only just under 5' 2" tall and my daughter appears to be doomed to top out at 5'3'' according to the charts. I always say it's easier to hem pants than lengthen them!
2. I rarely use a cell phone in a world where everyone seems to have one. Mine is used once every couple of months.
3. Hair and make done, along with nice clothes are a must nearly every single day. I'm not a sweats-around-the -house kind of person. I even have a cute outfit for working out, at home, alone, where no one sees me!
4. I have no central vision in my right eye. Seven and a half years ago I had unexplained bleeding at the back of the eye which created a scar which blocks my vision. It was a scary time but I've had no issues since - other than adjusting to only one good eye that is!
5. I enjoy mind games like cross words and Sudoku puzzles, sadly there is little time to work on them.
6. I use cloth diapers on Sierra because I prefer to help minimize polluting the environment with thousands of non-biodegradable disposables (the average child is said to go through 2000). I do use disposables at night and for babysitters. Seriously, they have been easy and a huge money saver. Many people are grossed out by the poop aspect, Kushies makes flushable, biodegradable liners than I just put in the toilet and there's next to no clean-up. I use a brand of diaper called BumGenius.

That was kind of fun. So I tag...

Journey of an Artist Mom

Monkey's Momma

Blooming Almond (although she's not had internet for awhile)

Medneophyte

Bunny Dimension

Kickyboots

Canadian Baby

As I mentioned the other day, frigid, bone chilling, curse inducing temperature highs of -25 have been inflicted upon us.
Trevor asks daily why we live here, which is followed by a
"We're moving to Phoenix!"
or
"I'm pretty sure God is on vacation!"
Anyway, due to blowing snow and ice the roads are practically undrivable with anything but a snowplow or Hummer, niether of which we have. Now our SUV did manage to bring Trevor to work this morning (unlike two semis and four cars that ended up in the ditches on an 11km stretch, comforting) but only because of some old lady , snail driving. I was left with a sports car that has bald tires.
Bald tires + ice = I don't think so.
Translation of the situation: Sierra and I are housebound.
This weather completely took care of my plans for finishing my last hour of Christmas shopping and getting a hair cut, couple those necessary tasks with frantically trying to paint a house - heck start painting a house - and only 7 days left until Christmas...
I am seriously running out of time!
Aaack!!!

(Panic attack ensues)
1 minute passes.
I'm okay now.

It's been cold for almost a week so we're experiencing a bit of cabin fever and the caged-animal pacing is beginning. Since it is not quite as skin biting today, (a balmy -10 which is promised to be short-lived) I had the bright idea to subject Sierra to her first, and assuredly not last, experience of a snowsuit and snow. We needed something to do and I often had fun playing in the snow as a kid myself and thought she might too. We dressed up in eskimo clothes and tramped out into the drifts. At first I took Sierra to the back yard and plopped her in a waist high drift.
Dumb idea.
There was much objection.
Then I had her make a snow angel.
Worse idea.
More objection.
We moved to the front yard because the drifts aren't as bad there. Sierra thought this was okay and ran around tolerantly, although she did ask to go in every few minutes. I decided to shovel half the driveway while we were out in order to feel somewhat productive.
It was rather disheartening to see that by the time I was done the wind had already deposited a thin layer back onto the driveway. Not that productive after all.
I told God I didn't like his sense of humour.

The too big snow suit (her hands aren't even in the mitts).

A picture of:
snot running profusely, eyes tearing, a face assaulted by cold wind and snow, while being encased in a puffy, movement restricting suit
- sounds fun eh?

Making Up

Sierra has this incessant need to be everywhere I am at all times, and I mean everywhere. There's no privacy with her let me tell you! Her being always underfoot and hanging on to my pants makes certain activities rather challenging. Cooking, cleaning, doing my hair and putting on make up etc. all require new skills and innovative methods of appeasing Sierra while I attempt to accomplish such tasks. Simply playing with my makeup brushes and emptying the tampon drawer quickly got boring for Sierra so I came up with the idea of having her sit on the counter while I put on my make up. At first watching was sufficient but being the girl and ape that she is that didn't last long. She wanted to put on make up too. I gave her an old brush and let her at my old makeup and she had a ball!

Apparently her mouth is where makeup belongs! Her makeup looks more like a post-chocolate- ice-cream-face. You may notice that she has a lipstick tube in her hand. She loves to take the lid on and off but has yet to figure out how to turn the lipstick tube which makes it a harmless toy so far. I know I'll have to be careful because lipstick messes are nasty!

This is her face when I tell her to smile for the camera.

-27

That's the current temperature outside and it's the middle of the afternoon. Yes, we've finally been hit with winter. No, it couldn't gradually arrive with slowly cooling air and a bit of snow here and there. It slammed into us with a vengeance on Friday at about four o'clock complete with wind, 25cm of snow and cold. It has stopped snowing and the sun is out but 'warm' would be the least likely word used to describe the state of the outdoors.
I really don't mind incredibly much. I'm in a warm house with warm clothes and warm drinks - it's cozy and I love cozy. I don't have to be anywhere either which helps. It also makes things feel more Christmas-y.

In other news:
We were all set to start painting our house yesterday. Finally, the finishing could begin, so we started sweeping up the incredibly messy drywall dust and chunks to prep the place.
But -
of course there's a 'but' -
but, we noticed that the walls weren't completely sanded yet when we were told they would be!
And -
yes there's an 'and' too -
they did a really poor job on the majority of the ceiling and it will have to be redone!

%$^#&(&*#*&!!!!!!

I'm not really that upset.
At least they are fixing the ceiling rather than being stuck with a bad job.
Definitely a little upset though. I am so ready to be in my own house! We're so close and yet so far.
My new projected date is the end of February/early March. My husband says the end of January.
We'll find out who's right, in this case I"ll be thrilled if it's Trevor!

Review

Nearly two weeks ago on a balmy ( relatively speaking of course, it was just below zero as opposed to frigid -20 degrees Celsius which is not out of the ordinary for us at this time of year) Friday evening, our town held this really neat event - a Christmas light parade. We decided to bundle up and partake in the festivities.
Main street was blocked off.
Fire pits surrounded by hay bales were placed along the street as warm-up spots.
All the businesses stayed open and many handed out free cups of hot chocolate.
The parade lasted about half and hour and there were participants from all over the southern part of Alberta. Having never been to this event we were impressed and had a really fun time.

Sierra loves being out and thrived on the activity around her.

Post parade we made hot chocolate of our own and baked and iced sugar cookies while a fire crackled merrily.

Two days later my Uncle Walter had a sudden, massive heart attack and passed away. Thus followed one of the longest, craziest weeks I believe I've ever had.
Thoughts about the week:
The way our families came together in support was wonderful.
The strength and power of the Lord was very apparent and amazing.
I cannot imagine loosing a loved one without the assurance of eternal life and seeing them again in heaven.
Going to sleep at 1 A.M. or later and waking up before 8 A.M. several days in a row is not good.
I learned that I could sit at the kitchen table at 9:30 A.M and eat constantly until 1:30 P.M. without thinking about it.
Coffee is good. I drank gallons and I'm sure my stomach is rotting as a result.
Wine is also good - in moderation of course! (I already knew this though)

Post funeral week weekend Trevor and I participated in five, hour and a half long Christmas performances in our church. Tired or exhausted is not adequate to describe how I felt when it was all over. As we drove home from our church Sunday night in a snow storm we asked ourselves if it was really only a week since that phone call pierced our lives.

Monday I did absolutely nothing.

Yesterday I felt a hundred times better and was ready to resume regular activities.

As for our house - I've decided that we're not moving in until March. Early January can only happen by a miracle and early February - maybe if we work our tails off and have no life. So March it is. The only foreseeable way to bump that date up is to hire out much of it, which we might yet depending on cost.
We're planning on doing the finishing stuff ourselves and that always seems to take longer than one thinks. I refuse to stress about the schedule and get mad when we don't meet it. Inevitably there are factors that slow this or that down. For example: yesterday there was a planned power outage for the area so the ceiling could not be sprayed, and the original fireplace we chose doesn't work so we have to reselect. I want the house done as soon as possible, sure, but I'm not willing to have no life or live it in an eternally exhausted, frantic state. Maybe I'm over estimating how long it will take but my mind will find it easier this way.
There you have it, my last two weeks as brief and informative as I can be.

Oh, one other thing. I have not bought one Christmas gift yet and don't have a clue when I will!

Choosing 2

(I'm distracting my mind from the reason of my previous post and thinking about what makes me happy - my house)

Trevor and I absolutely need to make a decision about the counter-top. We were not able to agree on any of the previous options one hundred percent. The darker one came the closest but it only comes in a high gloss finish which is not recommended because apparently every little scratch shows on that type of finish. So we went back into the only cabinet store in the city that has a sample of our cabinet choice and sorted through more samples. The actually had larger versions which was most helpful.

And the two finalists are:

drum roll please...

Please note: the scan does make them a little darker and duller than in reality.

Ironically enough the left option is pretty much exactly the same as we had in our previous house and we know we like it. That is Trevor's first choice and likely what we'll go with in the kitchen. I kind of like the lighter one for something different, maybe in the bathrooms.
What do you think?