April Fool's...

Every year I'm "the fool"...literally.  I always think, this year will be different, this year my family will do something to make me feel special on my birthday....well, I need to learn to not expect anything. I also understand that at times, money is a factor and I completely understand that, my DH did make me dinner but I thought my boys might be at an age where they talked Daddy into helping make cupcakes or something.  But enough of a pity party, I'm a year older and I'm determined to enjoy this year as much as I can, taking time for myself as I see fit and needed.  The first step was booking holidays for a week in May, with nothing planned but time for me!  No work, the kids are in school and my husband is working a few days in the middle of that week as well.

50th Anniversary/Birthday

I'm working late tonight, but for a good reason.  Tonight, we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the day the "Grand Theatre" was saved by the local community as it was scheduled to be turned into a parking garage!

It is a free event, so anyone close if you want to come and check it out - please do!

http://kingstongrand.ca/learning-event/celebrating-50-years

Monday

This is all I have to say about today...

Stitchers are so thoughtful!

A fellow sticher Christine has a son attending university at Queen's, in Kingston Ontario where I work.  We have met a couple of times and she contacted me before Easter to see if I would create a little something for her son as he wasn't coming home for the long weekend and drop it off.  I had a blast buying for "three" boys this year and then I added in some good things like apples and granola bars.  Secret Bunny was a success.
This week, a package landed on my desk at work, and I have to be honest, I didn't even look at where it came from, just added it to the "to do pile" that seems to grow overnight.  As I was cleaning my desk off for the weekend last night around 6pm, I came across the envelope again and threw it in my computer bag to bring home.  I just opened it and look what was inside!

Lots of lovely things!  Thank you Christine - you didn't need to send anything but I appreciate it all the same.

It is Saturday afternoon here - we have done the football game for this week already - I got sunburnt out watching.  The third load of laundry for the day is calling for me to hang it on the clothes line so I must run.  Here are the two projects that I've put some time into - not as much as usual and not as much as I would like but life goes one.

I have two parts of  5 (I think, could be more) that have been issued in the SAL I decided to take part in.  I love the design and look forward to having it all done to hang on my wall.  The designer has much more done, you can see that here.

And here is where I am at with "SUMMER"  in the SAL with my group of travelling sisters :-)

Busy times here - a new roof on the cottage, hubby back working shifts, lots to do at work, the oldest in football and of course spring always brings lawns and gardens again is leaving me less and less time to stitch.  Oh well, nice weather means more travelling with my "sisters", which I look forward to each and every year.

A tiny happy dance

I stitched an ornament for my one fulltime staff.  Tomorrow is her last day until the New Year so I was working under a deadline tonight.

Stitch Santa
2010 The Prairie Schooler
Ivory, 32 ct, lugana with DMC

Texas in January?

After reading Dani's Post Today I decided I need to bite the bullet and let the world know that I am headed to ...

(The Alamo) San Antonio TEXAS in January.

I will be arriving late on the 15th and staying until midday on the 20th. Work is sending me to the INTIX Conference so my days are pretty much taken but evenings are still open. If you are a stitcher or know a stitcher in San Antonio, then please get in touch with me by leaving a comment here or emailing me at rebelinont at gmail dot com. See you in January!

August TUSAL and a small non-stitchy update

I'm on the ball this month! I totally remembered to post this...all on my own, something that hasn't happened the last few months. Here is my ORT jar as of this morning... This is my craziest time of year. I work for the Grand Theatre and we are in the midst of getting everyone their subscription seats for the upcoming season. Crazy I tell ya, CRAZY! Yesterday was the only day I've taken off in July/August and DH and I did that to take the kids to the beach. It was a beautiful day, but alas, my sunscreen wasn't all it was cracked up to be and I'm sporting a lovely burn on my chest, with bonus "new" swimsuit lines. See...isn't it pretty? Oh well, it was a small price to pay to see my kids laughing, swimming and digging in the sand. Here is the only picture I took all day, Cameron is running towards me from the water, and Caleb is the one crouched down, to the right of him....digging in the sand. The bonus was that one of my best friends was able to join us (from the other direction) for the majority of the day with her kids. Not sure what is happening today, we have grass to mow at home but if the weather is nice, the cottage is aways calling....

Boys...

After a whole week of the "battle of wills" between Cameron and I, and having to work late on Friday night. I called in the backup team - Nannie and Poppie to come and get the boys off the bus Friday afternoon and take them for a sleepover so Mom could gain her sanity back...of course, that all ended at 10:15am, just as I was getting to work with a call from the school. Caleb decided to tangle with a toy truck and the pavement at morning recess and the pavement won...he tried to stop himself from falling, with his face...

So, he and I came home, called Daddy at work to tell him what was happening, called Nannie and Poppie and told them and then he and I had a cuddle and a popsicle together on the couch. Nannie and Poppie decide to come anyways - to "see the damages" and give little man a hug. And for everyone's sanity, took Cameron home with them anyways.

So, Caleb and I have been home this weekend nursing his wounds...as of this morning, things are looking much better.

So some housework, laundry, packing (because this is our Family Vacation week coming up at Great Wolf Lodge) some work to get done because I haven't been there since Thursday and then maybe this afternoon I'll relax with some stitching. Next post, I'll include some stitching pictures, even thought there isn't much to report.

October?

So, as always I find myself working behind the eight ball - always behind and never getting ahead. After the loss of Freddie, and our family working our way back from the loss, both boys ended up down and out with Strep throat. We had the opening night at the theatre (Canadian Brass) which was a fantastic show and now we are gearing up for the next show which is Ailey II. I have been stitching... This is a scan of my "done" Kaleidoscope by Ink Circles! I finished up the backstitching on Friday evening. I didn't have the camera close and I brought it to work so I thought I would just scan it and post it. I'm working away on a couple of other projects that I will show at a later time. I'm hosting a weekend at my house for stitching, and eating, and stitching, and sleeping...October 15 - 16 - 17th. If you are interested in coming, for a day or more, let me know! email : rbrown at cityofkingston dot ca

August?

How did that happen? I mean, it was July wasn't it? I can't believe how fast the summer is going by and how much I am really looking forward to the routine that fall will bring. Summer is the craziest time for me at work so I rarely take time off, but I made an exception this week as my friend Tracy (who I went to visit in Feb/Mar) and her family were here in Ontario to attend a wedding, a retirement party and a little vacation thrown in for fun. So I took the day off work on Wednesday, loaded my crew, plus Rhonda the babysitter in the truck and headed out to her parents cottage for the day. It was wonderful...here are a few pictures to prove it! Tracy and Kenton at the water Tracy and her Mom, Chris relaxing after supper Cameron, Rhonda (on the ladder), Colin and Caleb enjoying the lake

Tracy and Kenton

Don (Tracy's Dad) and Cameron out for a paddleboat ride

Cool dude Kenton with Mom's glasses

Colin, Kenton and Caleb, relaxing after supper

And I have been putting stitches in, I have two secret projects on the go which I can't show here but have been putting about 45 minutes a day in each and when I get sick of those then I seem to be turning to ICK....here are some process pictures I took this morning before leaving for work.

So I hope that everyone is having a fabulous summer, getting lots of sun, fun and stitching done!

ICK and Tulips....

Before I left the house this morning (because I'm working the Saturday of a long weekend....yuck) I took pictures of the two WIPs that have seen some face time in the last couple of weeks. Two tulips, I realized that I did not measure correctly and will not have enough fabric to do all four so now I have to figure out of the last two, which one I want to stitch....decisions, decisions. And ICK, I finished up the last of the black last night before bed, so here is where it currently stands.

I hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful weather, not too bad for a 2-4 weekend, normally it is cold and rainy. Oh well, when I'm done work tonight I have two whole days to get out and enjoy some of it.

Just for Judie M (of no blog)

My friend Judie emailed me the other day to ask if everything was alright because it had been a month since I blogged...yes, everything is alright, just a normal week/month in the life of me...work is crazy, the kids are crazy, I'm crazy, DH is crazy!

I've been so occupied with everyday life that I haven't had a chance to tell anyone about anything! DH started a new position with his employer, so he went from a swing shift to straight days. In the 12+ years we have been together we have only ever done straight days for him a week here and there so this is a new ballgame for all of us. Don't get me wrong, having him home each evening and weekend is great - most of the time. I know he finds it a huge change as there were days during the week before when I was at work, our oldest was at school and he and the little one could get lots of things done around the house or out and about in town. Now he has to try to get everything home related done in the evenings and on the weekends...a learning curve for sure (and cuts into his fishing/hunting/golf time).

Cameron (our oldest) is needing the help of a chiropractor and that has meant three trips a week into Kingston (25 minutes each way) for the last three weeks and that creates a logistical nightmare for Mom. On top of that, our regular babysitter had baby # 5 almost a month ago and the little guy has been very sick so I had to find another sitter for Caleb in a hurry (because DH wasn't home at all during the week now) and get someone lined up for Cameron for after school. It all worked out and now we are set until the end of the school year.

We have been thinking about what we were going to do this summer with both DH and I working straight days and knowing that we could not afford to have both boys at a sitter each and every week day all summer long. So we have acquired a "teenager" as the boys call her to come and spend the majority of the summer with us and stay with the kids while we are at work. This will help us financially and relieve some of the shuffling around stress that summer brings as well as she gets some cash to spend for back to school stuff as she heads off to high school next year.

I have been stitching (I need to relieve stress somehow right?) and I even got away on Mother's Day weekend with Bonnie to Dani's for Friday night thru to Sunday morning. We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend and saw some friends I haven't seen in awhile - Lynn J, Beatrice, Kathy A, Christin and a new friend (with no blog) Lori. I got lots of stitching done before Bonnie and I had to head for home. We went to my parents first, Mom feed us lunch and then Bonnie left me in care of my DH and kids. Bonnie continued on her travels and my family packed up and did a quick trip home to drop our stuff before we went to the inlaws for supper and the evening.

Work is busy....last night we launched our 2010-2011 season information, everything is now listed on the website if you want to take a peek at the wonderful season to come. This of course means lots of work for me, renewals for subscribers, setting up the shows for sales in the ticketing system and on and on and on.

So, I'm here, I'm alive and looking forward to some time off this coming weekend, I do have to work on Saturday but with Sunday and Monday off I might get to sneek some stitching time in.

Until next time, and I will try to update a little more often than once every couple of months.

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from this past weekend.

Here are the boys with their Poppa Brown learning how to "whistle with grass" which was too funny and my FIL was cracking up at both of them.

And then two photos of the boys in the front yard - I really do need to start taking more pictures of them...

Unfocused....unproductive...

Have you ever had one of those days? I can't seem to focus on anything! I have a mountain of work to get done before I start holidays next week and it seems so huge that I just don't have the energy or time to tackle it today...alright, enough - I have to get moving....I'll let you know if I actually accomplish anything today. Here is a small to-do list... 1.) Get Kingston WritersFest events in ticketing system 2.) Fill 10 KSA subscriptions Wish me luck!

I LOVE the new lineup

And I know I have some followers who are also theatre-goers....here is the new lineup for the theatre where I work!

The Grand Theatre - Kingston Ontario Canada

And I love the cover photo....

It is going to be one exciting year!

Quick post

So everyone doesn't think I've fallen off the face of the earth, I'm still here. I'm training this week in a new ticketing system for work, which is over and above trying to get my normal heavy workload done!

CAN YOU SAY ...

STRESSED!!!

But I am still trying to keep up with everyone and a blog that I look at daily for inspiration to stay healthy and eat better is Amy....who is hosting one cool contest so I wanted to let you all know about it :-) Check it out here... Amy's Giveaway

Tomorrow is Wednesday...

And I've just realized it is my monthly stitching night! YEA - I love surprises! So, if you are in the Kingston, ON area and would like to join me, please let me know. And I'm still taking a tally of weekends that others are free to do a whole weekend in May or early June...if you would like to come, let me know what weekends work for you and I will pick the one that works for as many as I can.

Most weekends will be open to me starting in May. My DH had his hours changed at work and will now be working shifts Mon-Fri with every weekend off. This means I don't have to find a sitter for the kids if I want to stitch on a weekend, but it also means I have to pay more out for childcare during the week so less stash money...

Hope to see you tomorrow night, with stitching in hand!

Well....

My first shift was actually training, so boring I could have poked my eyes out with a fork! Only one more training session and then I'm "on the floor". I laughed when I walked in, it is me and 12 high school students for the holiday season. I'm "the old lady" or "Mom" as some of the "kids" have nicknamed me already. I was just laughing when everyone was telling about who they are and what they like to do in their spare time...a lot of videogamers work at Chapters! But when I did my run down...married, two kids, full-time job, cross stitcher - the whole room was silent....then one of the trainers said "Oh good, I have this project I started and.....maybe you could finish it for me!". I told her I would help her with some of the stitches she was struggling with (algerian eyes) but I had enough on my plate at the moment! Once the training is over, things will be better. I feel very comfortable in the store (heck, I've spent HOURS there already) and with helping people make wise book choices. I know Velda was wondering what my schedule was and my first "on the floor" shift will be Thursday, November 13th from 10am - 5pm. I'll post some photos soon, I have a happy dance to snap and I have some photos of the kids from Halloween, these will all have to get "done" at work as my dial-up at home just doesn't cut the mustard!

I start another job tomorrow night

So, after all the little things that have been going wrong lately and my Mom having to bail me out. I looked into a seasonal position until after the holidays and they hired me on the spot. Starting tomorrow evening I will be training and working at Chapters as a Customer Experience Representative, two evenings a week and the occasional weekend shift. DH is on board to be home with the boys and I'm looking forward to some time away. Just think for a moment.....no kids, lots of books and getting paid to be there - almost sounds like a vacation to me! Hopefully this will help a little with some of the unexpected things that have been happening lately, and as I said to a friend, it isn't like the mortgage is counting on this, it is to cover some of the little things and if it doesn't work out, I'm not heartbroken. I'll let you know how it goes after my first training tomorrow (Wednesday) night...

The weekend is coming...

and with only one week break, I'll be seeing Dani again! Dani and her beau Todd will be joining my DH and I at the cottage for the day on Saturday, so everyone cross their fingers the weather will hold!

I know this is short and sweet but work is beyond crazy, I promise life will at some point get back to normal.

And if anyone is in the Kingston area on September 27th and they want something really fun to see...check this out -

and if you want even more information check out the MacHomer website - www.machomer.com VERY FUNNY!

Man eating theatre?

Some days it feels like the theatre has swallowed me whole, but alas, I have survived. On May 2nd, after being closed for 3+ years, I was part of reopening the GRAND THEATRE. And life hasn't slowed down one little bit since. I haven't had a chance to keep in touch with my friends as much and my poor boys... at times (I think) feel like Mommy isn't around at all. But I'm here...at least for today and tomorrow :-). (hint in there, if you are willing, I'm home looking for an excuse to relax and stitch...hint, hint, hint) I was supposed to work today as well but the boss told me she didn't want to see my face until Monday and if I brought any work home with me for the weekend she would be very ugly...so that is exactly what I did. I'm home with no work and not setting foot in the theatre until Monday morning. I have some GORGEOUS photos of the theatre (which I didn't take and will give full credit to Tim Forbes for taking) that I HAVE to upload so everyone can see what all the buzz is about. These are all on my work computer and I'm at home on my hubby's work laptop but I did find one on Tim's page so I will leave you with that! How about one of the newly renovated front of the theatre...

(And just for Dani -because I know she will know what it means and be interested... ISO 200 ~ f/7.1 ~ 1/6sec ~ 16mm)

Beautiful isn't it? And the inside is now breathtaking...I can't wait to share it all with you! We also launched our FIRST EVER season of shows with subscriptions so if anyone is interested in receiving a copy of the brochure/season, email the office at grandtheatre2@cityofkingston.ca and I'll be sure to have the staff mail one off!