July TUSAL and....life

I was "gently" reminded by text today from a friend (Dani) that my blog was VERY out of date. So, I thought tonight was a good time to do a little update as well as get the TUSAL for this month in, even if it is close to two weeks late - better late than never!

Lots of brown in there from "the baby" and I started a new wedding piece in which I changed the colours, I'm stitching a Dimensions Happily Ever After for a wedding in September and the wedding colours are turquoise and chocolate brown, so I've converted the colours to DMC 801, 898,938 for the brown and 3844, 3845, 3846 for the turquoise - thus all the turquoise on the top of the pile.

Since school got out at the end of June - life has been busy. Working full time and trying to fit as much in a week as we can leads to very busy lives.

We decided to start the kids summer vacation off with a "BANG" - literally. We took the boys to Fort Henry to their opening Sunset Ceremony. We really enjoyed it as did the boys. I snapped a picture if them at the end of the evening with our friend Mark, who happens to be "head guard" of the Fort Henry Guard!

Cameron thought he might like to work there are a "teenager", which wouldn't be a bad job for the summer!

Then we have been spending as much time as we can at my grandparents cottage on Gananoque Lake with everyone catching Large Mouth Bass, including the boys.

All three of them with one of the "big ones"...

Caleb with his very first fish ever, which he reeled in all by himself!

Cameron's first fish of the year (2.2 lbs!)

And just for fun....my two cone heads :-)

I hope everyone is having a great summer thus far and I will try to keep everyone in the loop a little more often.

A little stitching and a little birthday....

I did a little stitching this week (started on Friday the 19th) for Cameron's Grade One teacher as the last day of school is today! I started the stitching not really sure what I was going to do with it...at first I thought a bookmark but then I started adding more and realized it would make a nice pencil holder for her desk! Some dollar store pens/markers/pencils later and badaboom...a pencil cup. I hope she likes it.

Now for the little birthday...

Last night was my stitching evening and Trista arrived at the house before I made it home from work! We had a lovely meal of grilled chicken, ceasar salad and for dessert - angel food cake with mixed berries and cool whip - which ended up being Trista's birthday cake! Her birthday is today so HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRISTA!

Nothing special today...

Today I'm celebrating my 31st birthday. Nothing special planned, our company from England is taking me out for lunch (because Cameron is at school today and it will be a much quieter, easy time with just Caleb) and that is about it. DH is away for work this week, not that he would have planned anything anyways. I'm hoping to spend some quality time with my L*K double flips on black and finish up 'remember' and then complete 'give'...I'll post pictures soon. I'm still waiting for the fabric from Mindy of Sugarmaple so I can stitch it again on a lighter colour. I've almost given up and if I don't see the fabric by the end of next week I will put in an order somewhere else.

*~* Hope everyone has a wonderful stitching day! *~*

Stitching update and the whirlwind of life!

Our wonderful company left us on Friday afternoon and we recieved a call from them on Saturday morning that they were back in Watford England, safe and sound. Since then, like has been a whirlwind around here with no sign of stopping in the near future! But before I blab on about that, here are updates on the two pieces of stitching that I have been working on.

First, the Happily Ever After, it doesn't look like I completed a lot since the last update but I had to frog almost all of the swirl and start again. I had used the wrong colour in one spot and miscounted in another! So working on this one when no little fingers are around.

And one that I don't believe I have posted about yet, Fall Y'All by Lizzie Kate. This one is for me. It is being stitched on Frosted Pumpkin from Silkweaver. I had to find something to work on that has blocks of colour as Caleb has found out a number of times now that throwing Mommy's box of thread across the room gets a great reaction! This is one that I can take a needle full of thread and stitch with him in the room as well. P.S. - it is a scarecrow

And now on to the whirlwind! Frank and Siobhan (pronounced Shivon) left on Friday afternoon and DH and I packed the boys in the truck and made a speedy trip to town for a few groceries and a present for wee Caleb. Saturday we had a birthday party for Caleb at noon hour. Hard to believe that on Thursday (April 19th) he will be one year old! It was a great day, my friend Corie and her DH and two children made the trek from Bowmanville for the event and her little guy Lucas is growing like a REAL bad weed! He makes Caleb look like a little pipsqueek! Here he is being a very happy boy on the kitchen table with my Dad holding him up.

And here is the birthday boy Caleb with his cake that his Nanny made him.

Saturday night we were off again to town for a 60th birthday dinner for my uncle. Sunday was spent returning all the things we borrowed while our company was here to their rightful owners (4-wheeler and trailer).

Monday, Cameron had school. Caleb and I went to play group and then I was invited to the school in the afternoon for Spring Tea, what an idea, go to spring tea in a snowstorm! The roads were not too bad but I'm glad I was only going as far as the school.

Today (Tuesday), we were home most of the day other than a trip to the dentist for myself (cleaning) and Cameron. It was Cameron's first time and he did a wonderful job and the dentist told him that he had AMAZING teeth so he has told everyone that since we got home. So, it is getting late and I'm tired so I'm off to bed....nighty night all.

Cowboy Cookies

COWBOY COOKIES
From: Ontario Seniors Golden Oldie Recipes – May 2000
Recipe submitted by: Eileen Porteos, #902 Torbolton Pineland Seniors of Antrim, ON
1-cup brown sugar
1-cup while sugar
1-cup butter or margarine (I used margarine)
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt (which I omitted)
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups rolled oats
½ cup chocolate chips
Mix well in order given. Drop by teaspoon on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 – 18 minutes. Makes 6 dozen. (I got almost 4 dozen in total). **This lady is 94 years old (in 2000 – so if she is still alive she would be 100 years old!) and still makes all her own bread, cookies, squares, etc.!**

**********************
Cameron has a class party on Wednesday and I volunteered to supply one of the snacks. These sounded good and go along with the Crazy Country Christmas theme from their Christmas Concert. I may also tackle some Snowballs (if I do I will post the recipe, but basically a coconut mixture wrapped around a large marshmallow).
These cookies are good with crispy edges and chewy middles. My guys usually like a really soft cookie but these were good for a change, they reminded me of Snickerdoodle cookies that my Grandmother makes with crispies rice cereal in them.

Cameron's Christmas Concert

On Thursday evening, Cameron had his very first school Christmas concert. What a hoot! It was a Crazy Country Christmas and his junior kindergarten class was doing a number to "Boogie Woogie Choo Choo Train". They were all to wear white shirts, dark pants, a bandana and either an elf hat/santa hat or reindeer antlers. I first bought him an elf hat but he came home from school on Wednesday in a fit because everyone else had antlers. Nanna and Poppa to the rescue, they showed up on Thursday for supper before the concert with a set of antlers...

So we have dinner and head up to the school. The concert starts and all is well and good, everyone did a FANTASTIC job. The juniors stole the show and of course our little man was the center of attention (wonder how that happens) and here is why... A broken antler! We laughed so hard that we scared Caleb! Cameron wasn't overly impressed when we went after the concert to collect him from his classroom, and he felt bad that he had broken the antlers that Nanna and Poppa had gotten him. But he sure provided some comic relief!