What a busy time once again. What a way to start the new year. Amongst getting the caterer in order for the Comedy night this Saturday. I have also managed to book the rest of the field trips for my daughter's playschool groups, a fun filled Spring and Summer are ahead, and there won't be any issues with being over or even near the allotted budget for the remainder of the year. Madison had a trip to the Sea Life Caverns at WEM to experience the Passport to Adventure. It was very behind the scenes and one on one with the class. I have heard nothing but very rave reviews from the parents who were able to volunteer their time. I will be making sure that this is made available to the classes next year too. I think I will try to remain as Field Trip Coordinator for next year, it would be so simple. Sounds like a good time was had by all. Petting penguins and sting rays, and seeing the sea lions would have been fun. Unfortunately the schedule almost nearly doesn't allow me to participate as a volunteer at the events :o(
I just wrapped up another 4-week course yesterday in Flowers and Cake Design. I will hopefully be teaching the Final course in February if I get enough signed up. This past month was very hard to get motivated to teach. Only two of my three students showed up for the 4-weeks. Not a very well paying class. At the same time my students were great and I think did very well. I will be posting pics of their final projects on my other blog soon so stay tuned for pictures. They both signed up for February's class too, so let's hope we get some more.
I've been very busy trying to get the rest of the kids things out the door that are no longer needed. It sure is a hassle when you get commitment from people that never follow through. I managed to give away the last of the Molly babies - all sixteen of them. Had the last of the first batch and three of the new batch go a couple weeks ago. Now our Molly is at a loss for friends :o( Poor thing. Kisses itself in its reflection on the tank - ah pooh. We'll be getting the rest of our fish now that the swarm is gone. Note no mate this time. Heh heh heh. I also sold the old 5 gallon fish tank on the weekend. The last of the tricycles went today and I hope to have all the Fisher Price stuff and the toddler bed gone by the end of the week. YEY!
Dave has been busy with work, when he hasn't been at home sick. This week I think it was a touch of the flu or something. Please don't let the rest of us get it, we just got over the sinus/cold thing that hung on for weeks.
Stirling and Madison are finally out of the stir-crazy zone they were in the last couple weeks with the awful cold weather and huge dump of snow we had. Snow plows are just cleaning it away now. Took me twenty minutes to make a five minute drive to Stirling's school today to get him for lunch :o( Garbage truck, followed by accident, followed by snow plows - in every possible direction imaginable! The snow started melting a little but refreezes every night and has caused some awful road situations.
Last week I baked more banana bread and have almost gotten my frozen banana situation under control in my freezer. I still have enough for a double batch. I finished making the last batch of chocolate chip cookies from Stirling's fundraiser as well and only have one batch of the oatmeal left in the freezer that I am sure will get baked this week. Today I made bread and have pizza dough on as we speak. I love my bread maker. I think I need new yeast though, the bread is a little dense and not very high. Still be delicious I'm sure - waiting for it to cool so I can cut it up with my meat/bread slicer. Note to you all - everyone should own a meat/bread slicer. Saves so much time with meat, cheese, and bread. My mother in law thought I could cut my cheese and meat perfectly until she saw me prepare it this past holiday, lol. I haven't cut that stuff without it in almost nine years, unless it's just a quick snack and not for a dinner party or something. My secret is out! Madison has already put in a request for chocolate cake. That is on my list of to-do's. I have many.
I have almost most of my spring cleaning done, yey. I replaced the bulbs in my fridge and over the stove microwave - hood fan. I feel kind of spoiled, lol. I've got almost my entire space downstairs back to usable. I have managed to get all the Christmas stuff put away in one less container even. I have convinced myself I need to find cupboard space for the things we are keeping or we need to buy another house.
Well time to run, the boy is out from school soon and I had better get going if I am going to make it there in twenty minutes again.

At Madison's Christmas Concert

Let's see since September we have all been suffering from colds, sinus things, coughs, you name it they just seems to be piggy backing one another for all of us. I spent alot of that time teaching cake decorating courses in September and October, and just started another on Tuesday! I've been baking up a storm for Christmas Concerts and school crafts and also had all my own to do in there too. November was a busy month for birthday cakes, but was sick for mom's birthday :o( I'm still suffering from the sore throat I got in time for my birthday. I did however get to go to Evelyn Charles to have my hair cut and get my eyebrows done, a birthday gift from my thoughtful hubbie, which I look forward to with anticipation every year. I think I'm looking good for thirty-four if I don't say so myself. maybe I should look into those restalane injections for my forehead though? Any thoughts?

In between the salon and dinner.

I also came home to find my babysitter standing in our livingroom, Dave dressed and ready to take me to the Keg, a day early as New Years Eve is awful for trying to go anywhere. Well, we thought a day early was a good idea - I think everyone else did too. At least fifty people standing around waiting - over an hour to get a seat, we went downtown to the Ruth's Chris Steak House, what a cold event that was. The Keg's food was way better and the waiter wouldn't have sounded like that comedian from nova scotia that still does the odd tv show. He could have been his twin brother! Same voice accent and all. I wish I could remember his name. Anyhow, over priced, everything fried in butter, I mean everything. And I must say USDA grade A beef is not as good as AAA beef. Give me my Alberta beef any day! It has a mooey flavour to it I just couldn't get past. Who gets away with charged $40 and up for just your piece of meat?? They do! Next year we'll book a spot at the Keg and prevent the hassle in the first place. The parking downtown was atrocious - an event at The Shaw Conference had the area as a mad house and trying to find somewhere to park the truck was hard too. Too tall for most parkades, convenient I know. We almost opted to call a cab for the trip back to the car in the parkade we did find that we had to walk outside from in -30 degree weather. I wished I had worn long johns that day. It was a great surprise and I enjoyed every moment of the evening! My family treated me to to presents, supper and cake later in the day; they saved breakfast in bed for Saturday when we were a little less rushed. My mom came for brunch on my birthday as her and Richard were unable to enjoy Christmas dinner with us. Richard's COPD was very aggravated by the smells of Christmas and was unable to stay more than five minutes before they went back to Fort Saskatchewan. I was so depressed, I was really looking forward to sharing a household of family, especially my mom. I still made a 28lb turkey for a dinner of nine people instead of eleven. June came up the beginning of December to stay with us for the holidays. It was so wonderful having her here, and we were so sad to see her go. We wish she would have stayed forever. Ah yes the turkey; turned out beautifully as did the entire meal. It was great to share it with everyone and look forward to next year already.
Santa was very good to us. I finally have a working computer again! Yey! I'm so happy with how much I can achieve when the computer doesn't shut off every ten minutes. So my mom came to have turkey leftovers as a brunch thing and we opened the rest of the Christmas presents and my birthday presents from her. The kids have Playmobil coming out the wazoo! I'm so glad they are both into it.

Madison and Stirling at her Christmas Concert with Santa

They sat with Santa three times this year! Our Pancake breakfast with Santa went really well, and was enjoyed by all that attended. Next year will be bigger and better. I am working out the wrinkles on the final details for our comedy night. I just wish the caterer would email me instead of calling. He's a real chatty Kathy, and calls at the worst time :oP They also sat with him at Madison's concert and we managed to get them healthy long enough to get shots with the regular Santa at Bonniedoon Mall. Rules before seeing him, were no snorting, and no sneezing or coughing on him ,lol. Well I suppose it paid off,n he was very good to us.

Christmas Eve (Grandma took pic - Madison too tired to look :o( )

I'm teaching Flowers and Cake Design this month, class is much smaller than anticipated. Hardly worth it, but can't disappoint my two students of the three that were supposed to attend. I hope the other joins us next week.
Dave put in a skating rink and we bought them skates last week. Stirling's a real natural at it.

Turning into a real hockey player too - who knew he was a lefty?
That's all for now; I've got to run to get Stirling from school soon; I can see him with his class out sledding in the blizzard that is just starting :oP Madison's school pictures came late, so be sure to watch for them in the mail.