Discovering the Playhouse!

A good friend of mine just opened a play center/coffee shop in town! It is a wonderful addition to our community!

The kids had a great time running off their energy and Auntie Robyn and I had a break!

Jorja and her friend Abby met up for a play!

Even Rhiannon got into the action! They also have this cool iClick game that shines an interactive game on the floor! So much fun!

Here is Shallen playing on the giant iClick piano!

So for a good time call Tammy and Martina at the Discovery Playhouse in Nipawin!!!

Kid fun and Mom sanity approved!!!

My Crazy Life

You may have noticed that I have not blogged in a while... I looked back and realized that my last entry was a week before I went back to work in the fall. That pretty much summarizes my life... When I am teaching full time and being a full time mom (while is really like working two full time jobs) I don't have much time for extras.
When I started this blog, just before I went back to work after Shallen was born, I wanted to have a place where I could relay my life as a full time working mom of four.
Everyone I spoke to told me that I would need to find a way to balance work and "life". I seem to be managing ok (some days) but this blog shows me that when I am working I can't seem to find time to blog... Which is something I enjoy and I hope u enjoy too!
I just got a new iPhone 4s that I just figured out how to blog from!!! So I hope that will help me to keep in touch more.
My New Years resolution is going to be to try to blog at least once per month... Hmmm I should look back on this blog to see what my resolution was last year!!! This sounds pretty familiar! ;)

Now back to the work life balance... I sit here at the Tisdale recplex blogging as I take a break from my marking.... While my girls are in a Dance workshop in the auditorium.... Mark or watch my girls dance.... Oh the dilemma!

My small pile of marking.... I have two more piles this size at home!

I know that this may seem like an easy decision but in reality when one is a teacher this is a decision that is made daily. If I choose not to mark (which I think I do too often, hence my marking piles up)it affects my students and I get momma guilt in I don't watch my kids... Because really in the big picture what is more important??

A "Wicked"ly Good Time... Defying Gravity!

The stage was dark. A hush fell over the crowd as a green light began to glow and grow...
Our trip to the Broadway Play "Wicked" was full of ups and a few downs.
It all started with a shopping trip to find the perfect pair of shoes. After too many shoe stores to count Andrea bought a pair of witchy black shoes perfectly adorned with a silver buckle, an excellent choice for our evening festivities. Robyn chose her shoes by fashion not comfort. They were sexy GaGa-inspired black glittery high heeled beasts! (but man they were cute)
After getting cleaned up from the shopping we headed to the restaurant Chianti's in Saskatoon where Andrea, Robyn and Charles, my cousin Randal and his crazy wife,Amanda, and their two girls and I went out for supper! The food was excellent as was the two bottles of wine Andrea and I finished!

You could not imagine the amount of people we saw from Nipawin at the restaurant and at the show. Andrea got to know one even better when she tripped on a crack in the bathroom and fell into one of their arms! She was not able to defy gravity.... Even with the new witch shoes!
Finally we were off to the play! It was awesome! The costumes were amazing. The singing and dancing were choreographed creatively. And although the storyline was somewhat changed from the book the play still had great ability to capture the imagination of the audience. I wish they would have spent some more time developing Elphaba's background and childhood. Andrea was in tears at the break for intermission! The injustice that the witch had to go through was just too much!

Once the show was done and the shirts were bought we had to get back to the van for the drive to Amanda's house. This was a great adventure. Robyn's GaGa-inspired shoes wanted to see if she could defy gravity and she fell on her face when she tripped on the sidewalk. Guess she couldn't defy gravity either!!! LOL

I sure am glad I didn't buy new shoes today!!!!

Andrea and I have decided it is time to start taking our daughters to the theater! I am sure our husbands will think it is just another reason to shop! (although I think we will skip the shoe section!)

Bumps, bruises, beauty & bikes!

I love alliteration! There is nothing more engaging than a blog title using alliteration! LOL ;)
This week we said farewell to Kelsey (Or Chelsea as we like to call her), James, Cale and Reese Hayes. We had a great time while they were here. Our liver and bellies are still recovering from the daily escapades! We hope they come back to visit us again another summer!

Look at the sad face. The poor girl was stepped on by her little sister which gave her the mark under her eye. Then she fell off her bike and her face had a run in with the ground! I am afraid to take her to town in fear that she is removed from my care!

We are enjoying this time with Auntie Robyn. We are spoiled since she is spending all this time with us this summer since she is on maternity leave!
We had a spa day up at the campsite. She did pedicures, haircuts and dye jobs! We are so lucky!!! Makenna got her hair cut and dyed with black and pink streaks while Rhiannon and Jorja now sport pink streaks. Shallen got a pink streak thanks to a crayola marker! I am totally ok with my kids getting things done to their hair. It can always be redyed, or cut and it always grows back!

Shallen has been watching her big sisters ride their bikes this summer. We have an extra little bike kicking around so Mike put the training wheels on it and Shallen suckered her sisters into pushing her around.

She doesn't pedal yet but I am sure she will catch on soon. You might remember that Jorja just took those training wheels off this summer... Doesn't take those little sisters long to follow behind their older siblings!
Today I am off to Saskatoon with Andrea and Robyn to see the play "Wicked". It will be my 3rd night away from the trailer this summer! I am sure the twisted sisters will haves great time in the big city! (but that is a whole new blog!)

F is for Family...

We were raised with the belief that family is important and that the more people you share your time with makes it even a better time.

We were lucky to be raised with this philosophy. Holidays were always filled with family and friends. We never knew who would be around for Christmas dinner since mom and dad would invite whomever they heard were alone for Christmas.

This welcoming feeling did not end with the Christmas season however. During the summer there was always a steady stream of aunts, uncles and cousins heading to the cabin or camping in the driveway. This has not changed much, although a couple of the aunts and uncles now own cabins here too!

Mom and dad are in their glory when the cabin is at full capacity. It has taken a while since they added on to the cabin and moved to the lake but they have now reassembled the decks and are back entertaining at full tilt.

The Hayes' invasion is in full swing with Kerry and her two kids (Dayen and Jaden), James and Kelsey and their two kids (Cale and Reese) hanging out in the campground. It is fun for the kids to have built in friends to hang out with all day. Jim and Sandra have also been here with their trailer and boat. We just wish that wind would go away so we could get out in the lake more. Wendy is also here which is nice since she helps out with all the kids.

Our campsite is always full of kids. Sometimes we don't even know who they belong to!
Of course we have lots of toys and good snacks so we seems to attract them!

We are all very thankful for Cory who bought Andrea a Margarita maker for her birthday. Our kids are now used to doing ice runs to the store.

And auntie Robyn is here so we are being pampered! We love when she comes to town!

We love all our family, in laws and out laws! Later this week my cousin Eden is coming here from New York. We don't get to see her very often so it is a treat when she comes to visit.

So for all the above reasons I know I am lucky to have such a wonderful family. As weird and dysfunctional we all are we love each other and THAT is what is important!

BootCamp OMG!!!

I forgot to tell you about BootCamp! It also took place during my busiest week!! On Wednesday I went to a free BootCamp at the regional park. I think it was the word "free" that caught my attention.
Anyway, it was quite the experience. I only felt like puking twice and i thought that was progress. I think I will try it again but I am still stiff 3 days later.
I encourage all FatSo people out there to give it try!!

The busiest week of the summer... Thank goodness it is over!

All summer long I knew this was going to be our busiest week. I am so glad it was in the middle of the summer. This allowed me to relax and rejuvenate before it arrived and now I have the rest of the summer just to relax!

This was our last week of swimming lessons. We would get up at 7:45am, have breakfast, get ready and burn rubber to town from the lake in time for lessons at 9 am. We choose this time so that we could get back to the lake in good time.
The kids did well in lessons. Jorja passed level one, Rhiannon passed level four and Makenna has one more thing to do in level nine.

We were driving right by their house anyway so we decided to invite Zoe and Olivia over for a sleep over at the camper. Once you have a gaggle of kids what is a couple more... LOL!
The weather was not that great but they seemed to find things to with themselves.
The big girls went fishing off the rocks by the marina then they ended up at Grandma's cabin to make some fancy cards.

The other girls went for bike rides in the drizzle and also ended up at Grandma's for a hot tub! Thank goodness for grandma!!

Their is nothing better than the taste of a fresh rain off the awning!

Along with swimming lessons on Wednesday through Friday the big girls had dance camp from 10 am - 3 pm! Those were long days for the girls but they enjoyed it!! (and that's all that matters)

While the big girls were at dance camp we took the little girls to a free concert at Central Park School. It was Lee and Sandi Pasey. Mom took us to their concert when we were small kids!
Mom was all disappointed that they didn't play our favorite song "6 inch boots in a 9 inch puddle". I told mom that they can't sing it because they would have to change it to centimeters! :)

We spent some time playing dice and having drinks on Thursday night with the Hayes' and Carrie Korecki. This made hard alc. Friday a no go!!
The highlight of the evening was when Lily told her dad to go "piss in the trees"! Yep we are hillbillies!!
Now we are preparing for the Hayes' invasion!!! Cory's Siblings and their families as well as his dad and Sandra and his mom are all camping out here!!! It should be an interesting week! Thank God for booze!!! ;)

And in the most important news, our cousin Eryn, arrived today from Alberta. She is our importer! She brought Andrea and I 60 bottles of Woody's saparilla coolers! We can no longer get them in Saskatchewan! $110.00 later we are totally ready for the weekend!
I guess I have to go now... Cory's "green cooler" has arrived at our campsite which means it is going to be another crazy day at the lake!

Fishing, hot tubbin' and man I am old!!!

I just noticed that today is about half way through holidays :( however, I am not that sad. Since holidays started I have only stayed at home overnight one night!!! I love that we camp so close to home.
The big girls: Makenna, Rhiannon and Tansley, went fishing yesterday afternoon off the rocks by the marina. Andrea and I never imagined that they would actually catch something!
Rhiannon, who seems to be a natural fisher person, caught a little jackfish. (at least I think that is what it was) Auntie Andrea filleted it and Rhiannon ate it for supper!

She was not too keen on actually touching it for the photo but she was pretty excited that she caught it!

Mom and dad finally got their new hot tub all hooked up! It seems like forever since we had a working hot tub at the lake. It has all the bells and whistles including a hook up for an iPod but we have yet to figure that out! The grandkids and their moms loved the dip last night.

There is lots of room in it! Perfect for a hot tub party... once grandpa gets the deck done around it. Auntie Andrea was playing with the buttons on the on seat that has its own pump for its jets and "broke" it!!! The jets would no longer work!!! She felt so bad but luckily she just over used the "pulsing" feature and the pump went into cool down mode. We will have to watch what she is doing in the seat next time!!
This last weekend I had my 20 year class reunion! It was so good to get to see some of my classmates that I don't get to see very often. However, it also reminded me how glad I am that I am not in high school anymore. It is very ironic that I work in the same school that I graduated from but I wouldn't go back to that time in my life.
It didn't take long for all the same insecurities to come back to me. One good thing is that I am older and wiser and I realized that those insecurities were silly and I had a great time!

Things I learned at my class reunion:
1. We are older but not necessarily wiser!
2. It takes longer now to recover from a party...
3. I like rye... I decided to drink what I drank in high school. It has been years since I drank rye... It makes me ryetarded!!!!
4. I have great friends. Even if we don't see each other often when we get together it is so much fun!

5. I won the prize for the most kids... Who knew I was the horniest of the bunch ;)
6. I can't wait for our 30 year reunion!

Big Tummy Mommies!

WARNING: SOME OF THE PHOTOS AND CONTENT OF THIS BLOG MAYBE DISTURBING FOR SOME VIEWERS (and if so, deal with it! ;)

I have been doing lots of reading this summer. I think I have read 8 books so far. I am not sure if I will make my record of 23 books that I read last summer but I am giving it a try.

Since I have porked out to my largest size ever I decided to spend some time reading some "Fat People" books in hopes that I could help my self esteem. (You see, I have tried the losing weight this past year and all I accomplished was to ruin myself concept and gain another 20lbs)

Anyway, I started by reading "Fat? So!... You don't have to appologize about your size" It was a very motivational book about our culture's fear of fat and how to love yourself, no matter what your size. I really recommend this book to all people Fat and thin. It gives a different outlook on body size and health. Actually I think if all people read this book it would make our society more tolerant of Fat people of all sizes. Check out www.fatso.com (I think that is the website.)

I just finished reading "A Pretty Fat" by Jen Landcaster (I think that was her name) Anyway, it was a memoire about her battle to lose weight. It was very funny, especially at the beginning with all her failed attempts. I was somewhat jealous by the end when she lost some weight but it was still very motivational and funny since eventhough she was big she still had great self esteem.

So now that I have given you a couple book reviews I need to tell you about my day yesterday. It was Hard Alc. Friday and it was too windy to boat or beach so Andrea (who also has read Fat! So?) and I decided to hang out at the campsite in our awesome reclining chairs (we bought for a steal at JYSK), read, drink and sun ourselves. Of course with our new Fat-Esteem we decided to turn our Tankinis into Bikinis. Now you must realize that my bodacious belly has not seen the light of day since I was 13 and I decided I was too fat to wear bikinis. *roll eyes here* Anyway we rolled up our tops and scootched down our bottoms to give the full fatty effect. (Of course I had already applied suncreen to every part of my body except my belly, heck, it never sees the sun so why bother!) We read, we drank, we burned!

Holy crap my belly aches... The reflection of the redness radiates heat and no amount of aloe gel can quench the flames! OUCH.

It makes me reconsider the hot pick thong bikini bottoms that I was thinking of buying from the Fat!So? website for our trip to Mexico this winter. I could not imagine burning my ass this bad!

Anyway, today I put suncreen everywhere including my belly... Not that the red beach ball is going to see the sun today! LOL

Next time you see a person you consider Fat in a bikini don't look away and snicker... Smile and give her a high five... Imagine the self esteem that fatty must have to be able walk proudly in public letting it all hang out! You go Fat Girl!!!

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Books, booze and big fires!

Today is a dayfire kind of day, overcast,and humid with a light sprinkle of rain on occasion.

Once we finally got the fire burning we spent a good portion of the morning with coffee and Bailey's (of course) and our books. I have already read 6 books this summer. I have about 20 more in the camper waiting to be read!
The kids were banished from the park and grounded to our campsite of fighting at the park. Man, that is more of a punishment for the adults than the kids, however, I guess the kids must learn to get along!! They now enjoy their time at the park more since they must have an adult with them and we don't go as often as they would like. (again punishment for the adults)
I am thinking that tomorrow they will be ready to try to go to the park alone again!
Jorja no longer has training wheels inherent bike and since they have had to be around the campsite she has been practicing a lot on her bike. She now just needs to gain more confidence! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEC1qqWQASE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I can't believe two weeks of holidays is already over! I love all this relaxation time. At this time of year, especially, I love my job!

Puppy pictures!

I just realized it was rude of me to post a blog about a cute puppy without pictures.
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