Help!

Ok, so I am almost 100% computer illiterate. I know how to use word processor, the internet and thats about it. Its sad, but true. I would really love to be able to touch up my pictures, but have no idea what program to get. Suggestions? Remember, the more user friendly, the better!

And since I've posted too many times without a picture, here's one that cracked me up the other day. This is what happens when TJ dresses himself....

Thankful

I wanted to post sooner, but life happened! Oh well. Yesterday was a really big day around our house. After everything with my Mom happened, things got pretty testy between her side of the family and us. A few weeks ago, my Dad suggested that we invite Grandma and the rest of the family for Thanksgiving. I will admit, I was hesitant. Not because I didn't want to see them, but because I was afraid they would say no. Even when Mom was around, getting together at our house didn't happen. I was super happy when they all said yes! I love any excuse to throw a party and Dad and James were nice enough to let me take over and plan it. So, the last week, I made some of these...

Some fun little jars for the kiddos...

Some little turkey finger puppets to entertain the kids (sorry about the picture, I didn't take one of just the puppets!)...

Drawing on the kids table (fear not, it was covered in paper) so they could use the crayon bundles in the picture above...Making a centerpiece (I actually got the idea from U Create)...Yesterday I did some cooking and a little bit of last minute cleaning. Then it was time to set the tables...

For the adults...

And for the kids...I'm afraid I don't have any pictures with everyone here. I put James in charge of the camera (something I should know by now not to do!) All in all, it was a great day! Hope you all had a great day, too!

Movin' Right Along

Ok, so again, I will have a post with no pictures. Super boring, I know, but my computer is, again giving me attitude. Fortunately, this time I was able to get everything saved onto memory sticks before it started acting up again. Unfortunately, those memory sticks are still over at my house and we are now officially at Dad's house. James got a lot done today. Next week, I've got to pack up the kitchen, but other than that, its pretty much all packed! Then its just a matter of moving things to the storage unit and doing the final clean up. Then I'm done with stupid landlords FOREVER!!! Next time I move, its going to be into my own house!!! Woot Woot!

Thought you'd like to know...

100 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS

Crazy

I have been a horrible blogger latley! I have several excuses, but none that are really good, so I'll just move on. It has been a very LONG and BUSY week!! Craziness ensued and I was swallowed up in it. Almost literally!! Aside from the normal craziness of being prego and having a two year old, here is what was added to my crazy plate recently.

Saturday, September 5

I went to a baby market in Calgary. "But Tisha," you say, "You're already expecting, why go get another baby?" Not that kind of market, folks! This is the kind where retailers go and meet with sales reps and put in orders for new product for their store. I really didn't know how things worked, but I knew I was getting nowhere as far as trying to get ahold of a sales rep, so we drove up for the day. The lady at the reception desk was very friendly when she told me I couldn't talk to a rep because manufacturers weren't allowed at the show. I asked if I could leave a sample of my product and if she would be willing to show it to anyone. She said sure and that was that. I left feeling pretty sure that, even though she was very polite, I had wasted my time. What did I do, you ask? I went to Red Lobster and drowned my sorrows in crab legs and shrimp. If nothing else, this made it so the trip wasn't a complete waste of time! On the way home, just outside of Lethbridge, I called my house to check the messages, since my stupid cell phone has been acting up and not ringing lately. (Wow, that was an incredibly long run on sentence!) The first message was boring, but the second one thrilled me! As I listened to the message, I started freaking out... to the point that James almost drove off the road... oops! There was a rep who'd seen the sample I left and wanted to take on the GoBelts!! SO exciting!!! As fate would have it, her name is Tisha, too, so she's pretty awesome! I tried calling her back that night, but didn't get an answer, so I just buzzed with anticipation all night!

That was the good part of my Saturday. Unfortunately, there was also a bad part. In a previous post, I mentioned that our landlords have decided to sell our house. On Thursday, the 3rd, our landlady called and asked if it would be ok if they came by on Friday to do some tree trimming, ect. I told her sure, but that our back yard was a disaster b/c I couldn't mow and James had been working tons of extra hours over the past few weeks. I also told her the plan was for James to attack the yard after he was done work Monday afternoon. She said no problem. So, Friday comes and James, TJ, Terry and I went to Cardston for the day. That evening, our landlady comes over. I was feeling really sick, so I was in bed, but she and James were talking in the back yard. She was furious that the yard hadn't been mowed and the weeding hadn't been done. She told James that it had to be done by the next day or there would be consequences. Even though they didn't give us the proper amount of time to fix things, James busted his but and worked way into the night on Friday. We both got up at 5:30 Saturday morning and finished stuff up. There was still a little weed whipping that needed to be done, but James had run out of string the night before around 9. We called them, told them it wasn't 100% finished, but we had to head up to Calgary and that we would finish it Monday. When we got home from Calgary, there was a letter they had left for us. They had done an inspection of the house, even though they had given us no notice or anything. The house was not clean. It had been a crazy few days, there was laundry that needed to be folded, breakfast dishes that needed to be done and toys/books everywhere from TJ entertaining himself while we worked in the yard. Essentially, they told us the house was unlivable and we had 7 days to clean it up or we would be evicted. Let me tell you, our house was nowhere near as dirty as they made it out to be. I won't pretend it was immaculate, but it was lived in. Not filthy by any stretch of the imagination! The stupid letter really put a damper on my good day.

Sunday, September 6

Before church, I called Tisha back. (I know, no business on Sunday. But the call really was just to set up an appointment for Monday.) We then went to church, where I played the organ for sacrament meeting, ran home during Sunday School to check on the food that was cooking, and then made it back just in time to play the piano for Relief Society. After church, choir practice started. I'm the pianist, so my presence is required! After that, I literally ran out the door, down the two blocks to my house, threw the meat that had been cooking in my slow cooker all day in the back of the truck, threw TJ in his seat and James in his and drove to the Lethbridge. Manda was blessing Adi at the church by her house and then we were having a family dinner. Although I felt super rushed when we got there, it turned out to be a great time, inspite of TJ's 35 minute tantrum when it was time to clean up the toys.

Monday, September 7

When I talked to Tisha, she told me to come up anytime between 12 and 2, so around 9 ish, we loaded everything and everyone in the truck and headed to Calgary, again. When we got there, she was with someone, so we ended up waiting a while. Once we got to talk with her, she told us she already had one store place and order and one other (actually, the owner of a chain of stores) coming back to see our other samples later that day! So exciting! After the meeting, we headed home. By the time we got home, I was SO exhausted. It had been quite the weekend!

Tuesday, September 8

I'm teaching piano lessons again this year and this was the beginning of my first full week. I've got 18 piano students and 1 voice student, so I'm teaching from 3:30-7 Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays. I'm also doing a music class for younger kids in the morning on Tuesdays, so it was my first go with that. It was crazy! Fun, but crazy! After class and before my other lessons started, we went into town to pick up some extra cleaning supplies. I then taught lessons in the evening and cleaned for most of the night.

Wednesday, September 9 and Thursday September 10

Pretty much the same thing as Tuesday. Cleaning and piano lessons. And then more cleaning. And I'm not talking picking up toys, sweep the floor cleaning. I'm talking washing walls, shampooing carpets cleaning. We also took a letter to our landlords giving them our notice for the end of the month on Thursday.

Friday, September 11

We had to make a trip into town to pick up some things we'd run out of, some groceries, birthday presents ect. While in Lethbridge, we decided we needed a break, so we went to a movie. Then came home and stayed up till 1:30 am finishing stuff up.

Saturday, September 12

TJ had been invited to a birthday party today, so around 9am I called our landlord to see if he had an idea as to a time they would be out to do the inspection so I could make sure I was home. He told me they decided after they got our letter that they would just wait until we move out. Nice of them to call and tell us! We'd wasted so much time doing deep cleaning that we now have to do again in a few weeks!! I was livid! We went to the birthday party, where TJ had such a good time. The afternoon was spent getting ready for a baby shower I was co-hosting that night. The shower went super well. It was tons of fun and there was SO much food. Although Saturday was super busy, it was a good way to end my crazy busy week!

Well, believe it or not, that was the condensed version of what happend. This coming week, we're moving back in with Dad and then I'm going to spend the last week or so of the month packing the other stuff at our place and putting it in the storage unit. I don't anticipate having much time to blog in amongst all that, but I will try!!

Fall Already!

I can't believe this summer is already over! To tell the truth, I'm kind of glad. In many ways, this has been the worst summer ever. Fall may or may not be better, but I'm determined to get through it and figure out a way to enjoy it!! Whether good or bad, this fall promises to bring about many changes!

Change #1
I decided I'd start teaching piano and voice lessons again. I was pretty nervous about how many students would actually sign up, but I actually only have 5 spots left, so I'm pretty happy with that!

Change #2
They're opening up a few dimentia wings where James works and hes signed up to work there. It means a change in hours and the type of work, but sadly, not pay. However, he's super excited about it so I'm excited for him!

Change #3
One of our super good friends are moving in the next month or so. TJ absolutely adores their little boy and asks to play with him all the time! I'm pretty worried about how he'll react, but I'm sure he'll be ok. Fortunately, we have lots of other great friends for him to play with!

Change #4
On Saturday, our landlord told us that they're going to be selling the house (and all their other rental properties) to start a dairy farm. They're just going to do one big open house and not a lot of showings, so we'll see how it goes! We may be moving much sooner than we'd like!

Change #5
We're coming up on the season of holidays in our family. Between Thanksgiving, about a billion birthdays and Christmas, we've got lots of firsts without Mom to get through. Should prove to be interesting if nothing else!

We had some exciting news the other day. We're having another boy!! We don't have a name yet. We're actually having a tough time thinking of one. Good thing we have some time still!!

Are you ready for this?

Holy crap, its been forever since I actually blogged! Life here has not really been too exciting lately, although it has been busy! Because its been SO very long... I'm just going to post a TON of pictures and say a few words about them. That way, this post won't be quite as ginormours as it could be!

Happening #1 Adi!

I'm pretty sure I mentioned it earlier, but Manda had her little girl the end of May and I officially became an Auntie! I know I didn't post any pictures, so here are a few!

Happening #2 Road Trip

Shortly after finding out I was prego, two of my closest and craziest friends decided the three of us should go on a road trip to get some maternity clothes. (they're both due a few months before me!) So, we all cleaned out our houses, had a garage sale and took the money shopping! It was super fun! We left fairly early and had all been quite sick that morning! As we drove up to Nanton, one of us said she'd never been to the candy store there. So, I pulled in, because it really is a great store and candy seems to be one of the biggest cravings I've been having (along with watermelon, odly enough!) Sadly, the store wasn't open for another 15 minutes, so we waited!! I'm sure the lady who owns the store thought we were crazy, (and probably rightfully so!) but we had fun!

Happening #3 Fathers Day

For Fathers Day, we took my Dad, James and Tem out to Stafford Lake for the day. TJ loved the lake and we all had tons of fun. It was hot and sunny, but pretty windy, so we took our weenie roast back to Amanda's house!



Happening #4 Ari

Early this month, James brother and his wife had a little boy, who is way too cute! TJ loves both his cousins, although its taking him some practice to distinguish between saying Adi and Ari. He's getting it, though!

Happening #5 Carnival

There was a little carnival thing set up in a parking lot in town earlier this month, so we called a few friends and headed in! TJ loved it! That boy has no fear, which puts a lot of fear into me!

Other than that we've been...

Playing at many different parks...

Mowing the lawn (although if you've driven by our house recently you know it desperately needs it again!)...

Watching the July 1st Parade...

playing in the dirt...

and the sprinkler...

Having dinosaurs over for lunch...

And LOTS of backyard golfing (both in clothes and out!)

Whew! There you go!! Hope your summer is going well!