Happy day today! House is clean, even the boys' rooms, after this morning's efforts. Went to see Ice Age Continental Drift with Jane & the girls. Funny how two adult women can laugh like that at a kids' show. We had fun. Home for lunch, then yaay! off to the airport to bring home someone who's been gone way too long! Woohoo!

Dogs are a great source of laughter!

A little funny from our day: We are watching tv, paused the DVR when the phone rang. Valentino all of a sudden jumps up and starts backing up, very deep growl that turns into attack mode. Cannot see what's got him so riled, then we see: the TV has a still image of Gordon Ramsey at the beginning of Hell's Kitchen. He ran under the recliner and snarled at the tv.

Family traditions are really important to me, and I enjoy sharing them with my husband and my kids. One tradition that I inadvertently started is when my husband is away traveling for work... I move furniture around. Not just a little, but an entire room (sometimes two!) Well, he's home in a couple days, and I was slacking off, so today was the day. Started innocently with some dusting and laundry... then I pulled out the vacuum and it was ON! Downstairs living room totally rearranged. Now, except for having to tuck the coaxial cable along the baseboards, it's all done. The kids and I watched some tv before / after dinner there, and we really liked it. For now. Until honey travels again, and I get the urge to move things once more :)

It's been a rainy couple days, off and on showers. We had to get out of the house though, so we took the dog for a walk. Or should I say, the kids took turns running the dog :) He loved it, poor little guy needs to get out more often. That's one thing about summer, it sure has us hibernating!

One thing about the rain - the grass is nice and green, and the retention pond actually has some water in it (and I imagine some snakes too, yuck!) Nicholas loved to run and kick all the mushrooms that were growing in the grass. There were a lot, and some really big ones too, that took a good kick to knock out. Boys :)

Autumn was a bad girl this morning, so she got to spend the day outside as punishment. She hung out in the back yard, then jumped the fence and sat in the front greens, then we let her in the back yard, then she again was at the front when I felt sorry for her and let her in. I hope she's learned her lesson. Bad kitty!

Last thing - had to post this absolutely BEAUTIFUL card that was on Lily of the Valley today. This is using the new summer bears stamp collection (which I have!) How gorgeous is this?!?! I absolutely MUST play with these stamps, they are so stinking cute!

Just had to quickly pop this on - - look at this delicious little goody from Webster's Pages, reveal just done! Think (know!) that I will need some of these for sure! They would go great in my girl stuff smash book!

We have had a lot of dogs in the neighborhood lately, reported as missing, or found, especially since the fireworks on July 4th. Poor little guys were likely scared and tried to find somewhere to hide. That led to a posting for our county, which somehow led me to the Shih Tzu Lhasa Apso Rescue foundation in Texas. Oh. My. I don't need to say anymore, except that the application is in, I've contacted people to be my references and sent them the questionnaire, and the vet is sending over our current records for review. This will say the rest for us: our first choice:Hopper Cartwright

our second choice:Hans Burke

How beautiful are these little babies? I think Valentino would be in heaven to have a playmate! Maybe I shouldn't have shown the kids yet, as they are very excited. Seems when my hubby is away on an extended trip, this kind of thing tends to happen... :)

We were invited to Christy's Hawaiian 'Get Leied' birthday party this past weekend (she is the wife of my husband's colleague.) We enjoy hanging out with them, they throw such fun parties, it's a house full of Canadians from the office, and we hear familiar words and "accents" that make us feel at home. They just moved into a new neighborhood, and they have a huge field beside their house. (As we were leaving, there was a huge COW not 10 feet from their front door! And 29 or so of his closest friends just wandering around near him! Behind a fence, but still, that was bizarre as we don't live in the country!)

I needed a cute little gift bag or something to give Christy her gift, and I'd been procrastinating about what to do, as I wanted a matching card too. I remembered a single page of punch-out mini bags I got from my friend Lisa just this past week, so I pulled that out and it was perfect! It came with a little matching tag, so no card was needed. Dressed it up with a bit of ribbon and some fabric roses, and ta-dah! All done :)

When I heard that we would be going to the party, I found a site on Amazon of a lady that makes and sells wooden earrings (Christy cannot wear anything with a metal post.) LOVED these earrings, 100% wood, and dark, like I've seen her wear before. And the best part, the maker of them lives in Texas, so I received them in just days. Christy really liked them, and said she will enjoy wearing them.

While we were inside, talking and laughing, and nibbling on the tons of food, and of course drinking just a tiny bit (champagne & pineapple juice punch, with strawberries and pineapple chunks added!), the kids were all playing upstairs. And there were a lot of kids, mostly boys. Nicholas & Benjamin were having a great time with Ryder & Dani and all the others. While we were laughing and talking, the kids somehow just managed to sneak into the back yard and get going on the slip and slide. Nicholas did ask me if he could play on it, which I had to say no to, as we didn't bring any change in clothes. Not five minutes later, a parent came in and said, "You know your boys are sliding and are all wet. Didn't you say no?" Yes, yes I did. But really, how could they resist? All the other kids were playing and having fun, and honestly, water isn't going to hurt anyone. The only problem was that once they were done playing, we had to leave right away, as they were truly soaked.

So, we stayed for a good time, not a long time :) We came, got leied, ate, drank, laughed and had fun. Wish Ed had been able to be home so he could come with us too. I know he had been looking forward to it, and some former coworkers that have moved on to another company were there, he would have enjoyed catching up with them. Oh, well, next time.

I love reading before bed. Often, especially if I'm getting close to the end of a good book, I'll keep reading until either I finish it, or my eyes are rolling, I'm reading the same paragraph over and over and not comprehending, or my hands let go as I nod off and the book smacks me. You know that's a good story huh? LOL!!! One thing I have to say that makes me sad is when you have a great story that you are reading, and you can't wait to get to the end, but at the same time, you don't want it to be over. When I find a book like that, it's a must buy, in paperback or hardcover, and it must become part of my library. I love my kindle fire, and I enjoy reading on it, but if it's a keeper, it becomes a tangible part of our home.

This is my latest that I've finished. I stayed up late Friday night to finish it. It didn't end how I wanted, but it was bittersweet, and I love all my Nicholas Sparks books. If heaven forbid, my house were to burn down, we would grab our kids, pets, external drive of photos, our important documents, some scrapbooks, and my favorite novels.

I had to post these, not only because I love them and want to share them, I have to remember that this is on my MUST have list when Archiver's stocks them. This is the new Serenity line by Bo Bunny. Love all things BB, but this one is the first in a while that screams out my name. SO beautiful - I'm thinking I may finally scrapbook my wedding photos! (I've held out, thinking I don't have the skill to do them justice; it's only been 13 years LOL!)

It's been a while since I posted, busy (crazy busy) with our new swim team, but the season is over now, with the exception of a couple of board meetings and our end of year party - yaay! The kids love anything to do with the water, and we've been enjoying our neighborhood pool and our friends' pools often.

We've celebrated Canada Day and July 4th the American way - fireworks and barbecuing. The kids love playing outside with Daddy while he is cooking. It's certainly getting hot out - we have hit 100F more than once already, so we are very near our summer 'hibernation' that we do each year. Other than the pool, we'll likely stow away inside until September LOL!!

So, I think I've made up for being awol for the last little while... One big post to catch up on things. Hopefully I can get a little more scrappy time in, but I've got one last set of pics from my last time out scrapping with Nicole and Zulema -