~Freezer Challenge~

If you saw my fridge freezer you would probably take it and dump it in the garbage. It's the catch all for little bits and bites of this and that; package of 6 sausages and we only eat 4? Two hit the fridge freezer. Got sick of that ham, turkey, beef, pork roast? Throw the rest of it in the fridge freezer. I always have good intentions of using it, and always make soup from my freezer (hello, half a cup of peas left in the bag, perfect!) but I can barely close the freezer and Randy has threatened to throw it out. So this week I am challenging myself to make our supper meals from the freezer...it will take some creativity but I have lots of time right now to browse for ideas online while I sit and feed Carter. For fun I'm going to blog the challenge, feel free to join in! Maybe next week will be a pantry challenge, it's equally full...

Anyhow, here is the freezer as of today:




So tonight I started with 2 smokies that were long forgotten from last summer. I remembered I had pinned a few new casserole recipes last week so I went to my Casserole board and found this recipe: Peroxide Casserole. It looked good and for bonus points I just happened to have an open bag of perogies in the freezer as well. I subbed a diced fresh tomato that was dying a slow death of neglect in my fridge instead of the can of diced tomatoes and added a bit of milk to the soup to loosen the sauce a bit. I also want to start using my HUGE Selection of Epicure Spices more so I snuck in some French Onion soup mix. I figured it would be like onions on perogies which is a must! We'll have some peas and corn from the freezer with it and probably a salad for me. Randy will get a grilled steak too, he had one leftover in the fridge from the weekend.




Here is the casserole hot from the oven! Mixed reviews from Ethan, he didn't like the French Onion seasoning but cleaned his plate and then went back for seconds! I only had a taste so far (feeding Carter took precedence over me eating) but it was tasty. I cooked it initially with the cover off and the cheese created a nice crust and browned up but when I stuck a fork in the perogies were still cold. So I covered it and cooked it longer, as a result the soup bubbled up to the top and covered the cheese. If I made it again I would cook it initially covered without the cheese and add it towards the end and finish it uncovered to brown it. It looks like a new recipe to add to our family favourites to make again!

Tomorrow I think I will do a seafood pasta of some sort, I saw some scallops and shrimp leftover from Christmas Eve...lets see what I come up with!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

~Pregnancy Week 33~

I can’t believe I’m already at week 33 of this pregnancy.  It felt like it took forever to get over the Week 24 mark and now it’s flying by!  I have one more week of work then my leave begins.  I am beyond ready! 

I have bi-weekly appointments with my Dr now and the latest appointment showed baby happily stowed head down and looking great.  We’ve had so many ultrasounds and tests throughout that I am starting to release some of the worry that something will be wrong with baby.  It’s weighed so heavily on my mind…its like waiting for the other shoe to drop.  I know I will love baby no matter what and we will adjust our life to make anything work but I so just want a healthy baby to bring home like most other people.  Anyhow we will see in a few weeks…

The last few weeks of the pregnancy have been fairly uneventful.  I am pretty uncomfortable right now, my pelvis feels like its splitting into pieces with every step.  I would compare it to feeling like you are getting kicked between the legs with every step.  It doesn’t help that I keep slipping on the ice…I did the splits this week, that was not fun!  It’s hard to get up from a low position now, my stomach muscles are non-existent now.  I’m starting to really show now although I saw my family Dr this week and he couldn’t tell I was pregnant, it was kind of funny and took me back to the first time I met him.  Of course I have the usual aches and pains that come along with pregnancy…my back, my knees…even though I’m already a bigger person the added weight does a number to my body.  I still haven’t gained much, I’m not exactly sure but possibly around 15lbs now.  I’m very happy about it as I really didn’t want to come out of the pregnancy with any added weight, I already have enough to get rid of, LOL! 

Ethan is all about the baby right now, he likes to tell people that there is a baby in Mommy’s tummy and it’s going to ‘pop’ out.  He’s very careful around baby and even came up the other day and planted a kiss on my tummy for the baby.  I’ve let him feel when the baby is kicking but so far I don’t think he gets that part of it.  Also he is very vocal on his choices for names…he does not like the boy name we’ve picked out.  I don’t even know if Randy and I have finalized the boy name yet if it is a boy, I need to talk to him about that one I guess :)  Ethan sways back and forth on his choice for boy or girl, overall he’s pretty excited about it all.  I do think we’re going to have problems with him accepting a change to his home environment though, he’s used to making as much noise as he wants and playing throughout the house.  I’ve started explaining to him that we need to be quiet when baby is sleeping and we’ve watched Calliou shows where he has to be quiet because Rosie is sleeping and have talked about it.

The Dr doesn’t think I’ll make it to full term, we’re hoping to make it into January at least.  My official due date is January 26th so if baby arrives early like Ethan we may have a New Years Eve baby.  Wouldn’t that be crazy!  I was told at work that if I have the first Canadian baby of the year that there are awesome gifts and perks etc that you get…I wouldn’t complain about that!  I just am hoping to clear Christmas so that I can have a separation between the holiday and baby’s birthday.  But time will tell!

Baby’s room is finally coming together.  Just yesterday Randy put the carpet and molding in.  Today I need to touch up paint the walls and around the closet frame.  The door needs to go on then we can set up all the furniture.  It’s all in the garage waiting, I can’t wait to get it unpacked and see how it looks.  Then I need to do some wall art etc and wait to find out if we are bringing home a boy or a girl to finalize the decor.  If it’s a girl there will be a flurry of shopping happening to make it a little girl room!  If it’s a little boy I already have the cutest nursery set.  Needless to say, pictures will come forth!

So follow us on the last leg of this pregnancy as we get ready to add another little one to our family to make it complete.  We’re in the final chapter of this year long journey to have a baby…I can’t wait to hold baby in my arms and get to know this little one bouncing inside of me!

~Empathy and Common Sense are in the Decline~

I was raised on a farm, youngest of 11 with hardworking parents who not only farmed but Dad worked away from home year round in the Oil patch to support our large family.  As a result they were very practical parents who taught you that you need to use common sense to succeed and have empathy and understanding to others who need it.

As I’ve gotten older I’ve fostered my own individual belief and value system, one that respects the diversity of the world we live in and believes that building an inclusive culture will be the best for my children’s future. 

It scares me when I run into blatant displays of a lack of empathy, common sense and understanding however.  I had a couple of personal run ins last year where people did not stand up for what is wrong and put myself out there to correct it.  One involving a customer screaming at a visible minority in a Tim Horton’s and spewing racially charged statements that were totally inappropriate.  The other a woman behind The Home Depot was screaming for help off a balcony and I just happened to be out back of the store and heard her and went to offer help.  There were at least 7 other people in the parking lot including a truck load of men moving someone into the building.  Only a couple of us actually got involved and she had just been attacked in her apartment.  I remember being disgusted by the lack of response from the others in the lot.

The latest one is a story that my Mom shared with me that happened to a family friend.  She was driving along a divided highway outside of Edmonton  and saw a toddler standing, unattended on the side of the busy road.  NO ONE WAS STOPPING.  She turned her vehicle around to find a lost approx 2 yr old boy who didn’t know his name or home…how he managed to not get hit on that highway is staggering.  They finally found his home a ways down the highway…he had gotten out of the house and walked down the highway.  His parents were inconsolable.  WHY DID NO ONE ELSE STOP????  A child. In Alberta.  Land of the Rich and Free.

So now I sit at home reviewing the candidates for election and trying to carefully decide how to cast my vote that will shape the future of our great province.  Health care, budgets, Oilsands revenue, Education…there are a lot of issues that are very important to the success of our province.  I’ve spent time today reviewing the candidates for Grande Prairie-Wapiti-Smoky and their respective leaders.  Not a lot of the individual platforms surprised me, I’m specifically focused on the needs of our community;  a new hospital and funding for our over stressed education system. 

So I moved on to looking at the leaders…I’m shocked.  2 candidates in the Wildrose Party have made comments that are in a direct violation of Human Rights making racially charged statements.  One in Calgary said that people (and I’m paraphrasing) would be more apt to follow a white leader;  that Punjabi’s will follow a Punjabi leader but all people will follow a white leader…while another made some comment that all gay and homosexuals will burn in hell.  Their leader, Danielle Smith’s response?  These are not professional, polished politicians and sometimes they don’t say the right thing but I fully support them.  So she lost my vote.  I believe in holding people accountable for their actions and they should have been fired.  I would not want anyone in power who would support such a detrimental viewpoint on Human Rights in our province.  Plus by her own word, her party is made up of average joe, not polished politicians.  Ummm, so we are being asked to hand over one of the most economically charged, potentially successful provinces in Canada to people with no experience?  That sounds like a mistake to me. 

I do not support a private health care system, or giving surplus revenues to the people of AB.  What good does $300 do?  The collective amount that would be given out would garner far more benefit to Albertans if it were allocated to a social program that we all use.  Ie. health care, education.  I support lower energy costs and think that the provincial government needs to step up and make some changes to that.  The price of gas, electricity and natural gas in a province so rich in those natural resources is frustrating.  We sacrifice so much in our province to develop those resources to sell to other province/countries.  Our prices should reflect our ownership and provincial contributions.

I’m fairly certain now how I will cast my vote on Monday.  I certainly didn’t blog today to sway anyone’s vote…I had two goals:

 1.  Assess the candidates against YOUR personal values and beliefs.  Are they going to support the issues that are most important to you?  Are they going to lead our great province to even greater success, security and strength?

2.  To encourage you to VOTE. 

This is an important election.  We are on the precipice of change…let’s make sure that as many of us as can possible vote so that this vote is reflective of what ALBERTANS want.  We need to increase the level of Empathy, Understanding and Common Sense in this world we live in. This election can definitely impact that.

~Family Day Weekend~

We had a fun weekend together this family day weekend.  We didn’t go out on the actual ‘family day’…I always find it too busy for me.  We went out on Sunday with our friends The Smiths’ to the Multiplex and played all afternoon and then followed it up with a yummy roast beef dinner complete with Yorkshire pudding, gravy and roasted veggies at our house.  The kids all had a blast playing together and the adults had fun too.  Again I have to say how grateful I am for the Multiplex facility!

Saturday we worked on the house and did some small renovation projects that I have been getting pushed off.  Randy put up some molding upstairs and in the bathroom in the basement.  He also built a countertop in the bathroom/laundry room.  We sat down this weekend and planned for our upcoming renovations this spring as well.  I’m so excited to get a new kitchen!  We’re also doing carpet in the basement, siding the house and replacing the last two windows upstairs.  Hopefully no unexpected expenses will come up and take away from our plan!  The goal is that by June we will have around 90% of the planned renovations complete, leaving the outside stuff for last.  I’ll be so glad to have all the work done and to be able to enjoy living in our house without a construction zone in areas!  Not to mention the added functionality that we will get once the plans are complete.  The kitchen is one huge thing but we’re also doing built-in cabinets in the basement and back entryway.  A home for toys downstairs and all the coats, shoes, etc that accumulate at the back entry.  That will be so awesome!

Anyhow the rest of our weekend we hung out at home and vegged.  We didn’t even get dressed on Monday…just played all day.  Ethan challenged us to a game of Go Fish…and won! The little bugger!  We played some Buckaroo, Thomas the train and he did lots and lots of puzzles.  Randy played his game and I read a couple books…it was a nice day!

I’m looking forward to planning a week off in April.  I think I’ll head down south to visit for part of it as I’m not coming down this summer for our vacation. This year if you want to see us in June or July you will need to come to the lake cause that’s where I plan on being!  Not that I’ve found a lake lot yet…the place we want to stay at isn’t getting back to us.  So I’m looking around the hopefully find a place I can book next month for the two months.  Our friends The Smiths’ are coming along too so I need to find two spots…crossing my fingers I can find a good one!

Anyhow, same old, same old for us around here.  Just plugging along, getting by!  Hope everyone enjoyed their Family Day!

~Book Reviews~

I just finished “Roses” by Leila Meacham.  It blew my mind.  Rich characters. Great Plot.  Good transitions between chapters and timelines.  It carries you through the spellbinding lives of the 3 reigning families, The Toliver’s, The DuMont’s and the Warwick’s in the Texas cotton growing community of Howbutker.  Through well written twists and turns it takes you through a almost century of their lives and all the drama, love and war that it was.  Rich descriptions, realistic situations and an attention getting storyline kept me hooked on this book for the week it took me to read it.  If you like a well written historical romance/family history style book this one is for you!  It was recommended to me by my friend Chantel and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

The Help by Kathryn Stockett was also very good.  I did a review on GoodReads on it that I think describes it…I would love to read more books by her…need to look into that!

Heaven is for Real – A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of his trip to heaven and back by:  Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent.  It was heart wrenching and carried a powerful message…one I’m still not ready to receive.  Heaven is real.  I did a lot of crying reading this book…what that family went through…wow.  This book is not for everyone that is for sure but it was a quick read and opens a conversation…

Right now I’m reading some non-fiction business books to help me work on some issues I’m facing at work…self-help kind of stuff…let’s see if I can learn anything from them, LOL!  After that I’m putting the brakes on reading for pleasure for awhile and getting into my textbook for school.  I’ve already read most of it but now I need to apply what I’ve read and complete the assignments.  My official start date was on Feb 1st so I’ve got 6 months to complete it.  I’m confident that if I get working on it I should be done within 3 months.  I’ve read ahead to the assignments and they are all things I’m dealing with everyday anyhow.  I’m looking forward to getting on with it…just need to nip the procrastination in the bud and get on with it!

So even though I’m taking a break I still LOVE book recommendations!  Send me what’s on your bookshelf, Kobo, Kindle, Ibooks….I’d love to hear about it!

~The Multiplex!~

 

We are so lucky to have such a wonderful facility in our city!  We finally checked it out last weekend when Ethan’s swimming lessons started and we were hooked!  This facility will be a big part of our family’s memories over the years!  We had thought about buying a membership when they first started selling them but weren’t sure we would use it well it enough to get our money out of it…well after one visit we were convinced that we would!  So today I bought a membership for us for the year!  Ethan and I spent the afternoon together at the pool floating down the rafting river, playing in the splash pool and hanging out in the family hot tub.  We capped the day off with a hot chocolate for Ethan and a Skinny Cappuccino for me! 

The Multiplex Grande Prairie from Velocity Video Productions on Vimeo.

I’m sure we’ll get a lot of use from the pool area and I’m hoping to take advantage of the fitness classes and the track. It is such an all encompassing facility that there is even an ice rink, gymnastics center and field house for all kinds of ball sports attached.  I’m so excited about it, it’s kind of funny!  Come to visit us, we’ll take you, guaranteed there is something for everyone!

~Christmas with us!~

Well Christmas Day was a fun filled day for us…we got up and did our stockings and presents and made a little boy’s day.  Then we had breakfast and hung out.  We were invited to a friend’s house for Christmas dinner so we accepted…it saved me cooking!  It was nice to spend the afternoon with other people but we came home after only a couple of hours and just hung out together.

~Christmas with us!~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Buzz VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Ethan has wanted a Buzz Lightyear of his own for so long…so this year Mommy and Daddy got him one for Christmas.  He lugged it around all day between playing with Thomas and doing puzzles.  In the end he was a bit spoiled, but he doesn’t really get a lot of toys throughout the year.  I got a new novel and the Oprah Winfrey 20th Anniversary DVD collection.  Randy got socks and a new web design book he’d been waiting on.  Ethan gave us a really nice candle holder that he got at The Festival of Trees and a recipe book that they made at daycare.  Mom sent along a beautiful handmade apron for me and some socks for Randy.  Ethan scored a puzzle, coloring book and socks from Grandma.

It rushed by too fast for me, it seems like just a couple of days ago we set up the decorations for Christmas and started the plan for the party and now it’s all over.  It was so fun watching Ethan start to ‘get’ it…he’s still asking when Santa is coming again! 

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and got to spend time with those that you love. I know we did!

~Ethan Playing in the Water~

Well I’m scared of my water bill this month…I’ve been letting Ethan play in the sink with water while I cook supper for the last couple weeks.  He just loves the running water and dumping water from container to container.  I even throw a little soap and a cloth in and he ‘washes’ the dishes for me! 

~Ethan Playing in the Water~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

~Holiday Crafts with Ethan and Mommy!!!~

We didn’t let the rain and wet and cold get us down…we dug out some fun crafting goodies on Saturday and got right down into it!

We did a little finger painting:

Finger Painting VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Then we moved onto what Ethan calls ‘craps’…sticking foam stickers to paper.  This time I pulled out a huge poster paper for him to decorate and just dumped a pile of foamies on it for him to go to town.  He had a blast and it is so good for his fine motor skills!

~Holiday Crafts with Ethan and Mommy!!!~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We had fun! Before we went on holidays we had done some bigger crafts.  We did a couple of the Home Depot kids workshop kits!  Ethan got to use a hammer and help glue them together and then got to paint the one.  He had a lot of fun!

~Holiday Crafts with Ethan and Mommy!!!~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We love to craft Ethan and I!  Here is his little craft area in my office!

Ethan's Craft Area VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I hope he continues to like to play with me…it allows me time to get creative as well and not feel guilty about it!  Let me know if you ever want to come over and craft with us!

~Renovations Part 10,437…~

Well maybe that’s an exaggeration but it sure feels like it’s taking forever!  Anyhow we are on the final stretch now and it’s starting to look like we had planned!  I know I had said I would post this last week but life got in the way!!!

We’ve completely changed the color we are doing the basement in.  I had got some paint from The Home Depot that had been discounted for only $45 for 5 Gallons, enough to do the whole basement.  When I got a couple of rooms painted and got a chance to see it dry and on the wall I didn’t like it.  It felt too institutional.  I was going to try to tint it but at the end of the day I wouldn’t be able to guarantee a consistent color so we didn’t do it.  So I went to the Home Depot again (shocker) and picked out a whole new color scheme.  So the new colors are:

Burnished Clay for the Walls, Elephant Skin for the 2 Accent Walls, Darkest Grape for the inside the bookcases, and Ultra Pure White for the trim and doors.  The pictures here are a little fuzzy but in real life it is looking great!

The flooring is going to now be an Espresso laminate from Costco for the living room area.

:

In the bedroom, hallway and stairs it will be carpet from the Home Depot in a light grey kind of color.  We wanted to do carpet throughout the basement but it was just way out of our budget so laminate it is.  A savings of around $2000…We haven’t ordered the carpet just yet but we are headed to Costco to get the Laminate today.  Randy will install it over the next week, I just need to finish the painting…  It’s coming together though, can’t wait to share the final pics!

~Summer Shelf Decor~

Summer is here and it is time for new decorations for our shelf!  I went with soft and sophisticated for now…the flowers shown here I have drooled over at Micheals many a times but I’m just too cheap to spend $11.99 a stem!  So the other day at Goodwill on one of my Deal shopping trips I found a pot stuffed with a flower arrangement.  It was full of the EXACT flowers I had drooled over at Micheals…even the same colors!  It’s price?  $2.99.  I got 8 of the big stems and lots of little flowers and greenery as well, not to mention the actual pot and the foam inside.  It was a smoking deal!  So I tore it apart the other day and made my own arrangement in my own little vases and it looks great!!!  I’m so happy with how it turned out!

~Summer Shelf Decor~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I also got the Canvas print I had made of Ethan put up on the wall.  It is perfect and looks great!  I wish they weren’t so much or I would get more made!  It is a picture that we will love for many years…

I know I’ve said it before but I sure love having a house and being able to make it our own!  I’m super excited to get started on decorating the basement, I’ve got my ideas planned out and things ready to go, I just need to get the last coat of mud and the painting done so I can order my carpet!  So it’s going to be a couple months yet…argghhh!  I’m hoping that it doesn’t take all summer to get done but at the same time I don’t want to be in the house working all summer either…so it will get done around our fun time outside playing!  Which reminds me, I should take some pictures of the progress to share!  It is looking great down there, Randy is doing a great job!  But that’s it for now, hope everyone is loving the sunshine!

~Bachelorette for the Weekend!~

Well I’m baching it this weekend as Randy and Ethan took off to his Mom’s house for a visit and I had to work.  I’m off on Sunday and plan on spending the day doing projects around the house that just don’t get done when I have a 3 year old hanging around.

I went on a shopping date last night with my friend Leanne after they left.  We hit the mall and got some summer essentials at Zellers and Children’s Place (Don’t get me started on the smoking deals they have going on right now!) and we also went to Dunvegan Greenhouses here in GP.  She wanted to get all her bedding plants and flowers for around her yard and I just wanted to get some planning done for mine.  In the end I bought 4 perennials and a GORGEOUS hanging basket and made some plans for the rest of my yard.  I need to do an overhaul on my flowerbeds as they were not at all successful last year.  I’m buying shade loving plants this year, because that is what I have to work with, and hoping for better results then the dead plants I had two weeks after planting last year.  I have booked my Lawn maintenance company to come over and work up my beds and I know I need to put some good stuff in them to help them along.  I just need to figure out what it needs…

I’m also budgeting to do some stone work up front with paving stones etc.  Based on the prices I’ve seen I won’t be doing it all this year but there is some that I would like to get done.  I’ll take some before and afters to show it off!

Our lawn is taking off with the work we had done to it.  Lawn 2 Lawn came and did a whole maintenance to it and then Randy and I overseeded it and threw down some Peat moss.  It’s starting to take off and I’m hoping the back yard will come back to grass this year…if not then next year I’m hiring Lawn 2 Lawn to come in a re-do it.  The front lawn is fine, it’s just the back that is crap.

Anyhow this post started off about my weekend alone and ended up being a narration of my gardening efforts….it’s what is on my mind lately!  I can’t say it enough…I love summer!

~SUN!~

We got outside and played in the sun and sand this last weekend.  It was so nice to be out and soak up the rays…

Sun VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Ethan played with his trucks and Randy and I say and read some books….ahhhh love you summer!  Yes there were frosty drinks involved!

~BBQ Season!~

So let’s be honest…we’re Canadian.  So we BBQ year round.  Winter just means that the BBQ is closer to the door and we eat inside!  But when summer comes we BBQ almost every night of the week.  There is nothing better then a good steak on the Barbie.  It’s not something we have every day, about twice a month we’ll have a great steak with all the fixings.  We wouldn’t want to ruin our stylish figure right?

Anyhow, during the winter when we want steak we run to Blackmans Butcher Shop just down the street and grab a yummy Rib Eye steak.  A hot $30 or so dollars later we are home…too expensive for us to do very often!  So when summer comes I head over to Costco and buy a whole Rib-Eye and make my own steaks. 

For $117.65 we got enough steak for Randy and I to have 9 Steak dinners…..$13.07 a meal, a much better improvement on the prices we pay at Blackmans.  Quality wise I think the they are just as good as the ones we get from Blackmans and for 20 minutes worth of using my butcher knife we get to enjoy steak almost all summer!  As you can see from the pictures I cut a generous steak, so if you don’t like your steak as thick you could get many more meals then I did!  I got this huge cost saving trick from my BFF Melissa.  Thanks chicky! 

Steaks! VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

And yes, I do wear an apron when cooking…it’s my fancy Williams Sonoma apron…I feel like a chef in it, LOL!  Someday my pink and white kitchen will be re-done so that my apron matches it, LOL!  For now, I bring the style to it….well enough of that!  Enjoy your BBQ’s this summer, I know we are going to…let us know you’re coming, I’ll pull some steak out!

~Wall Decor~

It took me forever to decide what to put on the wall above the buffet shelf in my upstairs living room.  It is a long wall that is shared with the dining room so I wanted to add something in the living room just to break it up.  I looked all over at pictures and prints and metal art.  I found one I liked on Sears website and ordered it.  It came in today and I connived Randy into installing it for me…

~Wall Decor~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Isn’t it cool?  The colors go perfectly with my living room!  Ethan thinks it’s pretty cool too!  Now I just need to nail down what will be on top of the buffet.  It is kind of a catchall lately for all my leftover decorating items that  I don’t want to put away yet. 

I’m almost done decorating my upstairs walls.  I’m waiting on a canvas print to come in from Costco for yet another bare wall in the living room.  I got a canvas of Ethan made of one of our pictures from our photo shoot, I can’t wait to see it!  I will post pics when it gets put in place!

~In Love…~

With my new stove.  Seriously.  I would have it’s babies.  I went from my Habitat for Humanity $40 stove to the most gorgeous piece of machinery I have ever owned.  Anyhow, I did take some pictures of course to show the before and after:

The Before:

Decent stove when it was new I’m sure.  We bought it at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore for $40 when we bought our house.  Everything worked on it however we determined that it had probably been on fire at one point  because there was burnt insulation falling out of the back of it.  Because of that I never used the self-clean feature.  I was too scared of it lighting on fire.  You had to be a magician to use the oven on this stove, some days 350 was like 450 and other days it was like 250.  It just depended on how it felt I guess…but it was always a crap shoot as to what result you would get.  It also had coil burners and knobs which I hate, hate, hate cleaning!!!  Not at all sad to walk past this in my garage right now…

This is my new beauty:

I bought a LG Self Cleaning, Smoothtop Convection Range.  It has lots of the bells and the whistles!  I could have got the additional oven drawer for another $200 but I knew I would not personally use it.  I use my bottom drawer for storage…We spent a bit of money on it but so worth every cent!  I cook all our meals as well as bake mostly from scratch.  This range cooks and bakes like a dream.  Randy made cookies the first night we had it and they are so soft and tender and flaky, cooked perfectly!  I have coveted a convection oven for awhile and wasn’t going to get it but I got a really nice bonus from my work and thought I would treat myself.  I love the smooth top, I love that there are no knobs (I so hated cleaning around them!) and I love having so much control over my temperatures.  It is taking some getting used to as I find out what each temperature setting is on the smooth top but so far no problems!  I love that it is stainless and black;  it matches my other appliances so well.  We have a stainless fridge, black dishwasher, stainless toaster, black and stainless Kitchenaid Mixer, coffee pot, crock pot and bread machine.  It all works so well!  Of course it is making me want to re-do my kitchen…I really hate the narrow 70’s cabinets and the pink countertops…but that will come in time.  Anyhow, I promise to stop ranting about my stove one of these days, for now I’m just going to love it!!!

~In Love…~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

~Eco Audit/Renos Update~

So our Eco Audit came back already!!!  I can hardly believe that the government did something that quickly!  Anyhow I am happy to say that we took our house from an initial energy rating of 59% to an overall rating of 72%.  If we had done all the improvements that they had told us to we could have moved it to 79%.  We did everything except replace windows, doors, insulate the outside of the house and change the hot water tank.  Those things will be done in the next year.  Anyhow our house ranks in the top 10% of homes for efficiency for a house of it’s age!  I can’t believe that!

We have gotten back our furnace rebate cheque from the province and one rebate cheque from the federal government.  So far we’ve gotten back around $2500.  There is still a provincial rebate cheque to be issued and it should be around $1500.  So most of our money we spent doing the improvements is being returned, can’t go wrong with that!!!

Our gas bill has dropped significantly with all the improvements and the house was warm all winter long, no cold spots anywhere!  It became very apparent however that we need to do our windows.  They all were completely frozen over with condensate because they lose so much air.  So the plan is to do the insulation, siding and windows this fall.  We’re saving all the money from the rebates to do it.  I just need to make some decisions about colors for the siding, trim and doors.  I’m leaning towards painting my garage doors, entrance doors and trim black and using a creamy brown colour siding.  But there is a house on our way to daycare that is  cream colour with a burned red color for the doors and trim and I just LOVE it.  So I’ll have to do some mock ups and see what I like for our house style.  Of course no matter what I do we have to re-paint our fence and deck as well!  They are painted a greyish blue right now to match the house.  It’s going to be a lot of work but what a difference it will make!

We also decided that we would bite the bullet and do our own mudding and taping in the basement rather then hiring someone.  It is an awful lot of work but saves us around $1500.  So it is worth it.  We aren’t great at this but not horrible either and practice makes perfect!  So Randy is onto his second coat today in the hall, bathroom, laundry room and bedroom.  We’re breaking it into sections so that we can just move the furniture from room to room without having to haul it upstairs…thank goodness!  Once he is done this section I’ll paint it and then we’ll switch and do the main living area.  Once this is all done we’ll just have the flooring, trim and doors to finish the basement.  We are in no rush to do them because I can’t decide what I want for flooring. Well we will finish the bathroom down here at the same time so I’ll be picking out the tile for the floor and shower stall and Randy will install that while I paint.  I just can’t decide if we will lay carpet or laminate in the basement.  Carpet is so expensive!!! We’ll see, it is a next year plan!

We’re hoping that before all our company comes at the end of April that the painting etc. will all be done.  Pictures will come along as we go!  I can’t wait to show off all the hard work!

~ Updated Family Picture Wall~

I can’t remember if I shared pictures on here of our family photo wall that I did with the pictures from our family photo shoot but I finally found an oval picture frame and was able to put it up this weekend.

I love how it looks!  I do wish that I was able to find an oval for the big family picture instead but it was hard enough finding the one I did so I will be happy with it!  Now I just need to decide what to put on the other empty walls!

~Bathroom Makeover~

When we bought our house the bathroom was simply done in white. We replaced the toilet but did nothing else in the year and a half that we lived here.  For some strange reason the previous owners chose to put in a almond colored tub and surround.  They are new and in good condition so we aren’t wanting to do too much to them.

Long story short I got sick and tired of our shower curtain etc. the other day and when we were in Edmonton at Christmas we stopped in at Ikea and bought a new shower curtain.  It is white with some vine like flowers in grey going up it.  Really nice, but when I put it up the bathroom looked awful!  Too much white!  I decided that it was time to add something to the bathroom.

Just that day when I dropped Ethan off at daycare I noticed that Aimie had repainted her kitchen.  I fell in LOVE with the color and knew it would be perfect for the bathroom!  She gave me the name and off to work I went and picked it up while I had a spare minute (a perk of working at Home Depot!) 

That weekend I painted two walls in the bathroom, changed out the towels on the towel bar and put in some new accents to dress it up.  The result?  I LOVE it!  While the stupid almond tub does not go with the bathroom, I keep the shower curtain closed anyhow so it doesn’t matter very much.  Randy is going to tile the floor and the surround this summer so I will be able to make it meld together better anyhow. 

So without further ado…pictures of the new bathroom!  I still want something to go above the towel bar on the wall.  I’m trying to think of something I can cut out of vinyl that will look good there, if you have any ideas drop me a comment!  The paint color is Elephant Skin by Behr; the pictures don’t show the true color of the grey, it is a bit darker then it appears here.

~Bathroom Makeover~ VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I put some green stems in a simple vase and put a small fountain I bought around Christmas on the counter.  The picture above the toilet is of a fishing village that I took in Black & White when we were in Mexico.  I went with turquoise and grey towels for the towel bar and love the combination!

I love my bathroom so much now that  I want to hang out in it!  It is so peaceful and relaxing!  Best part was that it cost under $75 for everything!

~Loving Life These Days!!!~

I am loving the direction our life has been going the last couple of months, especially this month!  Ethan has had no problems for quite some time now (knock on wood) and I am settled into my new job and we’ve had a great flow of life. 

It has been a slower pace since it has been cold outside but we’ve had lots of fun doing crafts, playing with cars in the basement and just hanging out with each other.

January will be a bit of a crazy month for me…we have a major shift of positions coming up mid month which means I will be working some overnight shifts, early mornings (4am start, Yikes!) and lots of weird evenings and weekends.  Then at the end of the month I head to Medicine Hat for a week…let me just point out that travelling from Grande Prairie to Medicine Hat is not a fun thing…it is like 12 hours of travel!  So we have two travel days on top of it!  They will be long work days too while I’m there; 7am starts till 6pm then supper from 6:30pm and we socialize until the wee hours of the morning…network, network!  You never know when one of these people will make a critical decision about something to do with me!

So since I’ve known that January is going to be so freaking tough on me I took some time on my holidays to downshift and have a break. We had a great time at home at our Mom’s house for Christmas but it was sure nice to come home on Tuesday!  Ethan and I hung out in our PJ’s on Wednesday and watched TV and played with all his new toys.  Yesterday and today I took him to daycare so he could play with his little buddies and I could have some me time.  It’s very rare that I take him to daycare when I’m not working but I know it’s important to have time to myself.  I always plan to come home and veg out but I end up going window (or otherwise, LOL) shopping in a tonne of different stores that I normally don’t make it into.  It’s nice for me to be able to browse without feeling like Ethan is bored stiff and so I don’t have to rush.  I love shopping slowly and looking at things…  I don’t think I could just come home and sit anyhow, the house would be far too quiet without Ethan here, LOL!

I’m looking forward to tomorrow;  we are heading out to our friends the Smiths’ house.  They live on an acreage about 45 minutes out of  Grande Prairie.  We are going to skidoo to the river just down from their house and take all the kids tobogganing on the hills there.  Leanne and Greg have taken their kids there for the last couple of years;  Ethan is just now big enough for it!  We are going to light a bonfire and make some hot chocolate and roast some hot dogs.  Thankfully it is only supposed to be –3 here tomorrow so it should be fairly comfortable to be out in.  It will be nice to get some fresh air too!  I’m really looking forward to it; I love tobogganing!   I hope I get some pictures too, I haven’t taken any for awhile.

That’s what we’re up to…like I said, it’s all good for us right now!  Hoping that it will be even better in about a year and a bit from now too…