New Years Resolutions

I thought this would be a good time to review my New Years Resolutions. Do you remember yours?

Honestly, I had to look back at a forum that I frequent to check out what some of my resolutions were, lol.
Here is what they are and how I've done so far... (Marking scale is on even letters, no pluses or minuses for me. Just complicates things.)

1. Work on building skills such as sewing, baking and writing, that I've typically shoved to the end of the line of things to do. Mark: C

I've done some sewing, a bunny for Alexander, curtains for our trailer, cushions for our bench on the porch, an apron for mom and some pillows. Except for the pillows, no patterns were used, and that was really what I was looking to work on in the first place, so while the sewing machine has actually been used (THAT should have been my resolution, lol), I've missed the point of the resolution totally. Ah well...

Baking... what baking. What crazy person says she is going to bake bread to feed her family all year long, when during the summer months she is pregnant and hot already. What crazy person wants to heat her whole entire first floor with an oven for two hours. I started off strong, and as the temps went up, so did the grocery bill because I started buying our bread again. BUT, I buy it direct from the bakery so that saves on money! (maybe THAT should have been my resolution)

Writing... well, we are half and half on this one. I have been writing more, mostly just in a scrap coil paper pad, ideas for stories, beginning of stories, thoughts etc. I've been making up a lot of stories with Alexander while we play, which he loves, but other than that, haven't really worked on this one at all. Fail. Eh, life goes on. I've got this blog and I've been doing well for the past two weeks, lol. Small steps, small steps...

2. Start making ornaments for Christmas that I can sell at the Christmas Bazaar my church holds each year. Mark: F

Alright, not entirely my fault. Really, doing this with a toddler, not the easiest thing in the world, and while, yes he goes to bed at 7:30 now and I could easily do some work then, it is hard to focus when your eyes are cross-eyed because you are so tired yourself. Yes, I'm blaming my inability to follow through on a resolution on my toddler. Add my unborn child to that (you know, for sucking any extra energy that I might have had right out of the equation) and you have the recipe for someone who will not be nominated for mother of the year. That's ok with me, because it isn't one of my resolutions :D

PLUS, making ornaments, no matter how good you are, takes inspiration. I'm just waiting for inspiration to strike...

3. Write an article for Today's Parent and the AECEO. Mark: B

I've got both articles written, in my computer, edited and everything. Virtually perfect. The only thing that keeps this resolution from being an A is my total inability to remember to actually send them off to the editors. It involves so much, an envelope, an address, A STAMP! Usually one of which I don't have and can't find the time to get, or am just to lazy to get it. Maybe I'll get ahead of the game and keep sending it off as my first resolution of the new year :D

4. ( I save the best for last) Follow a healthy diet with the help of weightwatchers and exercise 30 minutes 5 times a week. Mark: C

I thought about my resolutions way back in November so that I would be prepared for the New Year with a positive frame of mind. That was well before the stick turned pink and I was praying to the porcelain gods every day. While I have been sticking to a healthy diet, weightwatchers had to be put on hold because I can't follow it anyway while I'm pregnant and I couldn't exercise for the first three months of the year because I was totally exhausted from all the baby growing stuff and totally busy running to the bathroom to hurl all the healthy food I was eating. Well, hey there, we go, I was running. Exercise complete :D I'm happy to say that once the sickness ended, I did start walking everyday for at least 30 minutes, and am now up to a 30 minute DVD as well as walking 30 minutes, but it is hardly a workout as I can only go as fast as this baby will let me. I'm hoping that these habits will continue after the baby is born...

5. See more of my friends. Mark: D

Hard to do this when your bedtime typically falls before 9pm. (I'm blaming a lot of my inability to fulfull my resolutions on someone who hasn't even graced us with their presence. Not good. ) Also, people work, and I don't so that leaves us working on seperate schedules. Such is life. I do make it a goal to talk to my best friend on gmail chat at least once a week so I don't totally lose touch with her. That is going very well!

6. Read more. Mark: A

If this includes chic lit and Hello Magazine, I'm rockin'!!!! If not, well, I make the resolution so I get to pick the material. Deal with it.

So overall, not the greatest of achievements, but not the worst either. At least I'm still working on some of them (albeit, half of them I couldn't remember), and am leaving lots of room for improvement. After all, it is best not to be perfect in everything, or else you will have nothing to strive towards. I'm aiming low so that I don't have to reach too high :D I should have made one of them to get pregnant. That one I would have aced, lol.

So.... How'd you do with your resolutions?

Wednesday Rewind

I was recently going through my computer, cleaning stuff out that I didn't need anymore and backing up those oh so precious pictures of Alexander when I came across a "lost" file of pictures. I must have stuck it in the wrong category and didn't notice as I don't remember ever seeing these pictures of Alexander before. It seems like so long ago that he was this small!

The first two are from mid February, so he would have been about 6 weeks old:
Sleeping on Daddy while he watches TV. I totally forgot they used to sit like this, lol.


Pulling a Travolta pose from Saturday Night Live, while sleeping. Such a talented boy at such a young age, LOL.


These are from early April.




Looks like a face plant, but he must have been tired because he is rubbing the blanket under his nose, something he still does when he is tired.


I haven't looked at his baby pictures in such a long time! It makes me super excited about the new baby coming, just to see what it looks like and its personality. We were so blessed to have had Alexander, who was a super laid back and happy baby. Let's hope we can be blessed twice :D

Thanks for looking!

Busy Busy Weekend

While Canada Day landed on a Wednesday this year, we still got our long weekend in with Peter taking Friday off. He worked late all week so that we could have a long weekend together. Gotta love him for it :)
So anywho, we spent the weekend up at the park on our little piece of dilapidated paradise. Peter set up our trailer so we'd have somewhere to stay, and started tearing out the insides of the bunkie. We were so happy to see that the wood the bunkie is made of is in perfect condition. And when I mean perfect, I mean it looks like it just came off the shelf of home depot. We were very excited because we thought we'd have to replace most of the wood frame just to make it livable. Other than the floor, which is in good condition as well but the boards have shrunk so you can see the ground below, we won't need to replace any wood. And even the floor we are just going to slap some plywood down and stick some cheap flooring over top.

We are super excited about getting some electricity as well. The inspector was there on Friday morning and we should be getting the report in the mail some time this week or early next week. Still no washroom (or water for that matter), but my parents property has two, so for now I'll just waddle my huge pregnant body down the road to use theirs. It's good exercise... although a bit annoying.

Friday night was great. Alexander was pooped from running around like a bad man all day and dropped off to sleep at 7pm. Peter and I just chilled and talked about our plans for the property, and then settled in and watched Mama Mia and some HGTV until around 12am. A very late night for me, lol.

Saturday Peter helped my Dad build a deck, which took pretty much all day, and they still aren't finished. The day was great for working outside as it was cool with a mix of sun and cloud. I thought Alexander would get underfoot the whole time but they set him up with some wood and various tools and he happily played off to the side. It helped that he wasn't too crazy about the sound of the saw, kept him a safe distance from all the main work. We had a great meal with my parents and then headed home. It was such a great weekend :)

Well, here are some pictures of our property and our weekend. I hope you enjoy!

CHEEEZZZ!


Our dog Abbey. Not the nature lover at all, spent most of the time sitting in the van, lol.


Playing in our trailer, which he calls his club house :)


The property


The bunkie. It is about 12 by 10 feet.


The shed/outhouse. Yes, the people before us created a multipurpose 4X6 room, combining shovels with sh*t. Totally grosses me out. I've not been in it, nor will I ever go in it. The nice thing is they hadn't used the property for about 8 years so the poop hole will be easy to clean and fill. It's just gross. Needless to say, its going.\


Alexander running around like a mad man:



A few years ago this would have been the PERFECT Christmas tree. It is way too big now, but it gave me the idea to plant and harvest our own trees. We are going to plant a bunch of them and then in a few years use them as Christmas trees. We just get small ones anyway so it shouldn't take too long before we can use them.


The view from the back of our property. It backs on to a farm and sometimes, if we are really lucky, the cows are in the field grazing. Alexander is totally fixated on the cows, and so am I.


Our wild strawberries. The property is covered in them. They are the sweetest and smallest strawberries I have ever had, and they are sooooooo yummy :) (We made sure they weren't poisonous before we ate them).


Just some random cuteness:


Thanks for looking!