Dental therapy...

I went to the dentist today for an overdue check up. I never used to be nervous about going...in fact, there was a time when I wanted to be a dentist myself. I even had extensive jaw surgery at the age of sixteen. That all changed when a dentist yelled at me once after causing me a great deal of pain at an appointment. Ever since that appointment, I have needed to push myself to keep my appointments and pretty much white knuckle it every time I go. Even for the cleanings! In all fairness, the dentists and hygenists I have had since switching dental offices have been wonderfully kind and friendly. That doesn't really seem to help.

Fast forward to today. My first appointment with a new dentist. I have some outstanding work that needs to be done from my previous dentist (see above and my fear of dentists). The very nice, young dentist and I talk about what needs to be done. I say okay. She then goes on to ask me how I feel at my appointments. I said I was very nervous and that I don't like them. She nodded like she understood...and...I get to use gas at my next appointment! I'm so excited that I might actually be relaxed!! I hope it works....I will keep you updated. My next appointment is next week. If I write something silly next week, you will understand why! ;)

I ordered some new glasses yesterday as well. They should be ready in about a week. Looking forward to a new look. Since we found out that Paul's work contract is not going to be renewed, we have been trying to use all the benefits we can before it runs out at the end of October.

Paul has applied to a bunch of positions but no word yet. I'm starting to get nervous. I'm happy that I work full time and we should be okay for a bit. Worse comes to worse I can pick up some overtime shifts at the hospital. One advantage of being a nurse! Yay me! <-- Did that sound slightly enthusiastic?

In my continued effort to lose weight I'm down another 0.4lbs this week. I was sick all last week and didn't exercise much so it was pretty much what I expected would happen. I'm telling myself that I'm happy whenever the scale moves in a downward direction. I had a good loss last week and hopefully a good one in the week to come.

With that thought I'm off to get myself a peach from the fridge! Maybe then I can get my scrap room/office organized once and for all! I'm almost there....

Time for a new layout...

I commited to participating in the "Lift the Pea Above you" thread over at Two Peas. I have never participated in one of these and it was fun! I really enjoy challenges like this. It's fun to see other people's takes on one design.

Here is my layout lifted from the super talented Judith Mara's "Motherhood" layout over at Two Peas.



I have previously scrapped this photo with the same title at an earlier date and it was published in Layout Blueprints 2. The only problem is that I don't have my layout or my copy of the publication despite numerous phone calls and emails. I have given up hope that they will be returning to me so I decided to scrap this photo again since I loved the photo so much. I apologize for the poor photo quality but my camera battery died after only three photos and clearly they were not of the best quality. If I get around to taking a better photo I will post a replacement shot. Don't hold your breath though! :)

I used Basic Grey rub ons for the flowers on white cardstock and coloured them in with my watercolour pencils. I really like how they turned out. The butterflies are rub ons as well. I cut them out and tried to make them appear like real butterflies.

Lazy Weekends...

Love them. Although I did have to work a bit so far. My sister and I had three tables at a mom to mom sale this weekend. SO not worth the work! We have SO many clothes from our kids and we tried to sell some of them. We managed to make $280 total. I'm done with trying to sell my used clothes when there are so many in need. Lucky for us, Sarah knew a couple of people who just had babies and the remainder of the clothes (6 huge rubbermaid totes) were dropped off at each of their houses! I'm so happy to be done with them all. I'm sure Sarah is as well since they were stored at her house all of this time.


Not much else planned for this weekend. Maybe some scrapping - I have a couple of layouts I need to get done. I think a short visit to Grandma and Grandpa's is in order tomorrow afternoon.


The new Scrapbook and Cards Fall issue has been released. You can download the whole issue for free by following the link. I was honoured to be asked to try for the cover layout. Mine didn't get picked for the cover but it was shown on one of the inside pages. I used the new Gel-a-tins stamp set called "Sheltering Tree" for the cute little tree by the title (It's the same set I used for my blog header). This is my favourite new stamp set from Wendy's releases. I would also like to point out that the wall behind the layout is not bright orange in real life! I'm not sure why it is SO vibrant!

Hitting the books!

I did it! I got into the program I applied for at George Brown College in Toronto. It's a one year full time post-graduate certificate program in Health Informatics. I will be going to school one weeknight as well as Friday and Saturday. The program runs for 3 terms and is supposed to be quite intensive. I looked at the book list for one of the term 3 classes and it had 5 required text books! Yikes! I will still be able to work almost full time while attending classes.

I'm hoping that this program will combine my nursing with my other current interest and part time studies in Web Design. I'm also hoping that completing this program will enable me to land a regular M-F 9-5 job. I'm missing being with the kids in the evenings and before school. I hate that I miss out on weekend functions because of my shifts. Mostly I miss not making the special holiday events like Christmas, Easter, and Halloween because of work.

It was a big decision to go back to school...and I'm sure it's going to be stressful for all of us. I feel in my heart that it's the right decision though. So...wish me luck! I think I'm going to need it!

Some Summer pics

So I thought I would share some of the photos from our trips this summer. In the middle of July, we went to Rochester for an overnight trip. The first day was spent at the Strong Museum of Play. The kids loved it! I would highly recommend this outing for young kids. Here are a couple of photos of the kids having a blast at the Play museum. Grace delivering the mail at the Clifford exhibit. I swear she could have stayed there all day playing the mail game!

Here are Simon and Grace in one of the funny mirrors. They love these things!

Simon tracing a picture on one of the light boxes.

Simon trying to prove how strong he is and pure of spirit. :)

We spent the night in the hotel and the next day we were off to the Seabreeze Amusement Park. It is the fourth oldest amusement park in the United States. Great little park. For those of you that remember Crystal Beach, it was much like that. The rain held out all day for us and there were hardly any line ups for rides! They also have a water park with water slides, I don't have any pictures of that because I was enjoying them too! :) Paul fell out of his tube on the lazy river though...which had me in tears for weeks! I wish I had a photo of that.

This is the oldest part of the park - the carousel. I loved the architecture of it all and had to get a photo. They had a pipe organ that played the music. Fascinating to me...the kids couldn't care one bit. They just wanted to ride it!

This last picture was at the end of the day. Grace was on the roller coaster and Simon was tuckered out. He wanted me to take a photo of him with this straw in his mouth. You can tell how tired he is.

The following week we were on to Manitoulin island to spend a few days with Paul's Aunt Vi and Uncle Collin. We all had a great time and it was so nice to get away and spend long days on the beach!

Here are Grace and Simon on the Chi-Cheemaun Fairy on the way over to the island.

Grace and Simon having fun on the beach and in the waves - they loved riding the waves...once they got the hang of it!

Random shots around Manitoulin with Paul and the kids:

Manitoulin has a couple of wind turbines on it and you can drive right up to the base of them and read about wind energy. I had read that one of the criticisms of wind turbines is that there is a lot of noise emitted from them. Other than a slight sound of the turning blades they were pretty much silent. It was actually quite calming and I love the gentle look of them as they turn.

From Manitoulin it was on to Sudbury for a visit to Science North. We wanted to take the kids there because it has special meaning to the Backler family. Paul's Grandfather was one of the architects for Science North. How cool is that? Love this photo I was able to get of the architecture inside the building. The bones are from a whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling.

And finally, what's a visit to Sudbury without a visit to the giant Nickel? It was two seconds away from a complete downpour so I managed to snap this shot before the rain came pouring down. Love the look on Simon's face as he tries to hold up the Nickel. I would have liked to get a better composed shot but there wasn't enough time.

What a great summer! I had a ton of fun and I think the kids did too!

Let's try this again...

So I thought I would give it one more try...this blogging thing. I enjoy reading all of my friends blogs and keeping up to date with their lives, so I thought, "what the hey!" maybe they want to know about my life! I even updated my blog header as well! Thanks to Jen for the size instructions and inspiration! I used Gel-a-tins Stamps for the header. These are one of my favourite sets! I mixed the ink on the stamp to make it appear like leaves changing.

My life. Lately....stress is the word that describes it. Thanks to my family and friends though we will get through it all. I feel better knowing what we are dealing with and having some tools to help us on this journey. Sure there have been days with tears and filled with worry, but there are many great days in between as well.

We had a great summer this year. Outings included a trip to Manitoulin Island/Sudbury, Rochester to visit the Strong Museum and Seabreeze Amusement park and a trip to the African Lion Safari. The kids had a great time. They spent two weeks at Reptile Camp...what was I thinking comes to mind. Now they are always asking for a pet snake or lizard! Do you know what you have to feed those things?? Grace came home one day from camp to inform me that they tried to feed a baby pig to one of the giant snakes at camp named "Popcorn"! ::insert startled eyes here:: I guess I should have asked if cute baby animals would be fed to the reptiles in front of the kids before camp started. The thought didn't even cross my mind! They absolutely loved it all though and are already asking to go again next year.

Grace started gymnastics again. This year she is in Competitive Workshop so it will be more of a challenge for her. I like the discipline provided to her at gymnastics. We tried to sign Simon up for Karate...he said he wanted to go...but after the first free class he said, "it was too much work"! This from the kid who jumps up and down the whole time (and I mean the whole time) he plays video games!

I will sign off with a few new creations I made for The Scrapping Nook.

This last one is for a new colour challenge I'm hosting over at the Scrapping Nook. I have seen these challenges on other sites in the past and loved the idea. Here is the first layout I made with colour challenge #1. Click here to go to the challenge thread at the Nook! There is always something great posted there and Patti and Elia are just the greatest!