Sleep... and White Rabbits

Since being pregnant I have been very lucky and haven't felt sick at all, and actually feel pretty much normal. I have really only noticed one big difference. What is it you ask.... SLEEP, I NEED IT!! This is nothing really that new if you know me, and I've always been one that can stay up really late and sleep in, and no sleeping until 10:30 on a weekend is NOT sleeping in to me, it is completely normal!!

But it's its the early nights that I'm not use of. If I'm not heading to bed at 9 and sleeping by 9:30, good luck me feeling at all normal. It's a fight for me not to hit snooze a half dozen times to get some extra sleep.

So it's now 10:00 and officially past my new bedtime and you ask why am I still awake. Well I had to save the neighbours rabbits who were running around the streets. Yes my neighbours have 2 white rabbits, a white cat and a white dog, none of which are allowed out without being on leash (yes I said leash, and no these neighbours are not children).

Anyways it's now WAY PAST MY BEDTIME, and I'm going to go sleep.

Good Night!

Movie Review - Imagine That

Tonight Richard and I watched a new movie being released on DVD this week; Imagine That (that is the title, not being sarcastic here). There is nothing really new with this as it's a normal occurrence in our house to be watching movies, except this one had my full attention from start to finish. Normally me watching a movie consists of my laptop and some work, then maybe some newspapers or flyers to keep me entertained after that.

Imagine That is a very funny movie, about a Father and Daughter connecting via her imaginary world. Eddie Murphy being such a funny man, really makes his role in this movie as a Stock Broker / Father hilarious once he realizes this imaginary world is the key to his success at the office.

This movie had me laughing and smiling from beginning to end. A definite must see if you ask me!

I'm a GLEE-eek

So 2 posts in 2 days, and both about TV, Oh My!

I just watched another episode of my favorite new show glee! If you haven't seen it you are missing out on a 1 hour Musical Comedy, which is WONDERFUL!! I am now a self proclaimed GLEE-eek, and can't help it.



I find myself smiling and thinking maybe I can sing that good, haha who am I kidding!! It reminds me of my days singing in Choir, see I knew one day it would be "cool" to sing!

Next week tune in and watch my favorite new show, and maybe you too will consider yourself a GLEE-eek like ME!

Fall TV

I find that in the summer TV is not at the top of my list of priorities of things to do. But come Fall that all changes with the start of the new primetime TV Series premiers and also the regular returning shows. Yes it is true, I have a schedule & timeline of all the new shows I want to watch (sad I know), and normally these shows are of no interest to Rich (like Gilmore Girls, why was it cancelled, I LOVED IT) so it's just Chloe & I snuggled on the couch watching TV!

Here is my list of what my "must watch" Series Premiers this Fall:

Accidentally on Purpose ~ yet to watch

Cougar Town ~ i'll keep watching

Eastwick ~ really want to watch it again Tomorrow

Glee ~ new geeky show of the year, Love it!

The Good Wife ~ good, will continue to watch

Modern Life ~ haven't watch yet

Some of these shows I will continue to watch over the season, others I forget to watch at all, and of course there is the duds that I loose interest in after a couple weeks. But some how I have to fit my new shows in with my existing returning shows:

18 Kids & Counting

90210

Gossip Girl

Grey's Anatomy

John & Kate plus 8

After all what else is there to do when it's dark & rainy outside.

WELCOME FALL!

Where have I been?

The answer to that question is, not far, just busy. Mainly spending ALOT of time with Brooke preparing for Georgia's Baptism. Yesterday was a beautiful day, and I promise to have photos to follow, but once again I was so involved with the activities that I didn't even pull out my Camera. (So a request to everyone that was there, please send me your pic's)



Update on 30 Day's of Blogging Challenge. My 30 days of blogging have come and gone, it was pretty successful; I posted 20 out of my 30 days. Not too bad considering that is about half of my total posts so far this YEAR! I look forward to posting more often than I did prior to my 30 Days of Blogging.


So with that said..... I will be back! With lots of pics from the last week.

Savings!!

Just wanted to pass on the links to a couple websites that will save you money. Thanks to our upcoming HST as I previously posted about every dollar in our pocket is much wanted and needed.

http://www.flyerland.ca/ is a Website that will not only give you access to your LOCAL flyer's, but also printable Coupons. There are coupons big and small, from $250 off a Used Car at Toyota to a Free Loaf a bread at Cobs. And if you shop at Michaels you will want to bookmark this site as they regularly have 40% & 50% OFF coupons!!!

http://www.save.ca/ is where you can print off coupons for National Brands for tons of things like Toothpaste, Allergy Medication, & Cereal. This site you will want to check back often cause they are always changing it up, and adding new coupons.

http://www.visaperks.ca/ This site gives you two options printable or promotional codes for all of your Online Purchases. The only glitch is you have to make the purchases with your Visa (but if you just pay it off anyways, there is really no difference, right??) I like to think of this site as a bit of a hidden secret, cause everyone I have mentioned it to has never heard of it. It has tonnes of different coupons for many stores that we all shop at... Old Navy, Gap, Suzy Shier

I personally love the idea of looking online for coupons or Promotional Codes when I want to make purchases. I am more than willing to sign up for Mailing List if it means I'm saving money.

Actually the excitement of a Shopping high that you get when you save money runs in our family. Brooke and my Mom all appreciate a great SALE!!

Long Weekend

We have been having a great Long Weekend filled with Friends & Family. Unfortunately I've taken no pictures!!! I know it's shocking because I have my camera in my purse 24/7. So I don't really have an excuse other than I haven't thought of it. Oh well...

I will be back later with the full details of our Long Weekend Recap.

Email; Abbey & Meredith - Letter to God

I received an email the other day and wanted to pass it on. If you ever lost a pet as a child or if you are an animal lover than I'm sure you can relate to this story about Abbey and Meredith;

Our 14-year-old dog, Abbey, died last month. The day after she died, my 4-year-old daughter, Meredith, was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to Heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so she dictated these words:

Dear God,
Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in Heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick.I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her, you will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.
Love, Meredith

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to 'God/Heaven'. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to Heaven.

That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed to Meredith in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, 'When a Pet Dies' Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:

Dear Meredith,
Abbey arrived safely in Heaven. Having the picture was a big help. I recognized Abbey right away. Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don't need our bodies in Heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by.

Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and send it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you.

I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much. By the way, I'm easy to find, I am wherever there is love.
Love, God

Intruder Alert!

Tonight there was quite the uproar in our Neighbourhood. A family came home this evening, and the 9 year old daughter which went upstairs came running back down saying that some guy was upstairs.

Within minutes there was 4 police cars and a K-9 Unit here searching the house and neighbourhood, but they couldn't find anyone in/around the house.

I'm telling you this because we don't live in a bad area, I don't normally hear of any crime, but it could happen anywhere. With everyone keeping the windows and even sometimes the doors (crazy people) open, it could happen anywhere.

Be sure to lock all accessable window and of course all your doors when you are not home. or even when your around the yard. Better to be safe than sorry (as my Mom always says).

Relief from the Heat!

Each summer we contemplate getting Central Air, but our weather is never that Hot, for that Long, that is seemed like something that was really necessary. Well right now with this record breaking Heat Wave we decided that we have had enough of toughing it out, and Chloe (being a short nose Breed) is having such a tough time of it, panting, and not eating!! So today we decided that we do not want to wait for one to get installed so a Portable A/C Unit will due for now.
Well as it turns out we are not the only people looking for an A/C Unit and I ended up spending a good part of an hour calling all over the Lower Mainland. Costco, Home Depot, Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, Rona, Sears everyone was Sold Out.

So we moved to Plan B; buy more fans, circulating air is better than stagnant air, right!! So off we all go for an escape from the heat into cooled A/C the car. Chloe loved the A/C and fell asleep right away!! Poor girl was exhausted from being so hot for so long!!

Our first stop was going to be Future Shop but instead we went to Sears, Richard walked in and right away heard a store announcement that they had one last Portable A/C Unit, and as he was telling them we wanted it 3 more customers came up to buy it too! And to think we almost missed the last unit, we are so greatfull for the relief from the heat!!


Now tomorrow I won't have to worry about Chloe overheating in the house, and instead I'm sure that she will be spending most of the day catching up on her beauty sleep!

Budget Buster!!

I don't normally use my Blog to complain, but recent news from our Government has me heated!

As I'm sure you all know by now, July 1st of next year that we are joining the other half of the Provinces in our Country with the new HST (Harmonized Sales Tax).

Harmonizing our current PST and GST, is is suppose to boost investments, increase our economic growth, and create jobs, but I just don't see it. On a consumer level all I can see is less money in our pocket for the same purchases we make now that are normally PST exempt.

At 12% they say we are going to have the lowest HST across Canada, and some purchases will still qualify for a lower tax, such as Kids Items & Clothes and Gasoline but that doesn't really make it any better for other items that we will see an increase too such as;

Groceries

Movies

Restaurant Meals

Used Vehicles

Hair Salons

School Supplies

Bikes

Safety Equipment

Gym Memberships

New Homes (over $400,000)

Some of the items are not everyday purchases, but we are all going to see our expenses increase, and tighter budgets for everyone!

At the end of the day I don't think that this is going to stop us from making our normal purchases, but it frustrates me that we will just have to spend more to do it.

Ok I feel a bit better just ranting about that for a bit, I'm off to bed!

30 Days of Blogging... Day 10... Chloe & her Mama

Today is Day 10 of my 30 Days of Blogging, and I'm only 1/3 of the way though and already running out of brilliant things to blog about. So I went through Picasa to see if any ideas would come to mind and thought you might want to see some more of our little Chloe-bears!

To make this a bit more fun I tracked down only the pic's of Chloe & her Mama...

Considering that Chloe is almost 4 years old, and that these are almost all of the pictures of the 2 of us, it looks like I should be turning the camera more on myself.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing me and my baby over the years.

Blogathon 2009

When reading my Local Newspaper I came across this story for the 2009 Blogathon "Blogging for a good cause" and wanted to pass it on for all of you brave brave souls out there.

The Challenge: Blog every 30 minutes for 24 Hours

When: Friday July 25th @ 6:00am

The Purpose: Raise $$ for Charity

Blogathon has been going on since 2001 all across North America, and needless to say alot of people participate including Duane Storey who chose to raised $$ last year for Union Gospel Mission, and this years proceeds are going to the BC Childrens Hospital.

So if you want to have a reason to stay up late and blog blog blog for a good cause then here you go, I will be thinking about you while I sleep, haha. The 30 DAYS OF BLOGING challenge that I'm doing now is enough of a challenge for this Novice Blogger.

July 22.09 - Post edited to correct Charity Name

Golden Ears Bridge

I have had a few opportunities to drive over the new Golden Ears Bridge since it opened on June 17th, thanks to having a investment property on the "other side", and it saves me about 40 min. travel time and for that I'm so thankful!! The time savings almost makes the 3 years wait for construction worth it.

For those of you that don't live locally or haven't had a chance to take the drive here are some pictures that I have taken of the bridge and the new roadways. Exciting, haha I know but it really is a nice bridge.

If you have not been on the new bridge I would do it quickly cause after this Friday you will charged a Toll to pay off the $1Billion Construction Bill.

30 Days of Blogging.... Day 1

Oops...

Looks like I wasn't paying attention when doing some late night laundry tonight, and I put the liquid soap in the fabric softener spot. The soap is suppose to go in the container on the lid, and the Softener goes in the spot on the bottom right. Don't ask, I don't know what I was thinking!

I don't know if you have ever done this, but if you have then you know then you know your next step is to figure a way to get the wet goopy stuff out. So out came a roll of paper towel to try to sop up my mess, a Garbage Can to dispose of the mess, and a toothbrush to get said mess out of all the tight spots.

And 45 minutes later I have a clean Washer! I know 45 minutes is a bit much but I have a tendency to go over board when cleaning, and just can't stop. But now my Washer is sparkling clean, and I love it. So as a Public Advisory Warning... Don't do your laundry at when you are tired at night!! It just delays the process and then you end up being the one waiting for you load to finish at 11pm on a Thursday night.

Were tossing around the idea of going camping this weekend, so hopefully I can get some sleep soon. I have a hard enough time waking up as it is, and my plan is to head into my office early so I can leave before Rush Hour. It's the first weekend of Summer Vacation for the kids so I know the Highways are going to be packed!!!

Hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend. Good Night all!!

New Purchase

So why exactly am I up at 1:30am, well to let everyone know about my newest purchase of an Eliptical!! So exciting, right?, hummm...

Well I ordered it a few weeks ago and it finally came in last week, but thanks to Camping, and other fun stuff (I will let you in later on the other fun stuff) it's been in the box since then. So late tonight, I decided I wanted to assemble it, but I was alone with that brillant idea. So guess which stubborn one of our household won for the evening, ME!!, what was I thinking. The manual says 2 people, and 1 & 1/2 hrs. are needed for assembly. They should put in a Warning, if your too stuborn to wait for your Husbands help (the next day) then it will take you 3 HOURS!!!

A couple hours into my build Rich told me to "just leave it I will finish it tomorrow". Oh no you won't, I have now decided that this is my mission for to complete this task all ALONE! That and there was no way I was leaving my half constructed Eliptical in the middle of our Hall (don't ask why I decided to do it there, but I did).

So here it is in prior to and after assembly... Oh and when Chloe wasn't sleeping during the construction she was giving me THAT LOOK (bottom left pic.)

I'm very excited about using the iFit feature. Hopefully the Jillian Michaels (the Trainer from the Biggest Loser TV show) program will keep me on track.

Ok well I'm off to bed, I have another really jamed packed weekend ahead of me. I will be back with picutres of the events this weekend, oh and of course from Camping last weekend.

Good night!

Twitter

So my question today is about Twitter. Are you on Twitter? Do you understand all they hype?

I don't! From what I understand it's kinda like a Facebook Status, that you update, but it then send messages or "Tweets" out to your "Followers", humm... don't get it. Maybe because I'm not one that regularly updates my FB Status so I don't see the point. Or maybe I just don't think I have that much interesting stuff to ANNOUNCE TO THE WORLD! Don't get me wrong, I joined the band-wagon, and I'm willing to give it a shot, but as of yet I haven't "Tweet'ed"

I'm sure that it's going to be the next big thing like Facebook was years ago, but for now I'm on the fence.

What's your thoughts?

Shoe Sale!!

Ladies, did I get your attention with the Title of this Blog....

Humm, maybe not, maybe like me you have a 'love/hate relationship' with Shoes. Ok, who am I kidding, it's more like a 'hate/hate even more relationship' with Shoes. But for the rest of you that love shoes especially the high heels you are probably all aware that today was the start of the Annual 5-Day Army & Navy Shoe Sale!!

Oh how I wish I was half a foot shorter to take advantage of the millions of pairs of soooo cute heels!

Being that I'm not a crowd person, I popped in today with Laura, Brooke & Georgia after leaving my office to see if the crowds had died down to take a shot at finding some shoes. End result, these cute sandals....
I was despratly in need of some cute sandals, and now I have two (1 in very Dark Brown & 1 in White). When you love something buy multiples, right??

So if you have forgot about the sale don't worry I hear they bring out more stock everyday. Some of the shoes are regular $700 and all shoes are under $69!!!! So get your butts down there to get yourself some shoes. I will keep my eyes open and Blog Stock to see what you Ladies find.

*** P.S. - Rich if you are reading this, it was a needed break from the dreaded Tax Prep!!! I'm getting right back at it... only 7 days left until the DEADLINE, oh my!

Earth Hour

Tonight is Lights Out Night for Earth Hour, it is happening at 8:30 p.m. This has become a annual event where millions of people in cities around the world will use the simple act of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming.

My house tonight will be in the dark for an hour. Well that is not entirely true... nobody is going to be home tonight so when I left I made sure to leave all of my lights off, even my exterior lighting. So really for my house it will be a Lights Out Day. At home we are pretty consciences to make sure that we don't leave lights on when we don't need them. Not for the reason of Global Warming (that thought really doesn't cross my mind), but just for the sake of not wasting money. Why leave the lights, TV's, Computers on if you are not using them?

So I just wanted give everyone the reminder in case they forgot, because I know last year I forgot. Lets see how much energy we can save!