Catching up...a bit

Well...I guess my good intentions have gone to who knows where. I really do try and update the blog more often but before I know it a month has gone by.

We are settling into the new house well although Grace still says frequently that she misses the old house and her friends. It breaks my heart to hear her sad like that. She seems to have settled in well at the school and she likes her new teacher.

The middle of October was busy for me. I had the Crop for Kids in London. I had a fantastic time and the event seemed to go amazingly well. Kudos to Sarah and the gang for pulling off an amazing weekend that raised thousands for the Children's Hospital! I'm honoured to have been even a small part of it all. The women I met that weekend were all fantastic and I even managed to meet a couple of people I only knew from online so that was fun. All of my supplies made it to my classroom and the classes seemed to over well which was a relief.

I have the honour of being a part of The Scrapping Nook's DT. Last month I had Dream Street Papers to work with. I decided I would do a canvas with some of my paper. It took a long time to finally finish it as it was a work in progress but I'm happy with the final result. I hope my friend Patti liked it too (she's the owner of the store).

I also decided to enter a Prima contest this month as I already had the paper that was required to enter and I was dying to try it out. I had a lot of fun working with the Paintables. For the blue and pink flowers I painted them using my watercolour pencils. I used texture paste on the red flower and painted it with red acrylic paint. I accented all the flowers with my glitter pen for a bit of shimmer and outlined the black outlines on the red flower with my black Glaze pen. I'm very happy with the outcome of the layout. Loving the Kraft cardstock lately.

Halloween has now come and gone. The kids had a great time. My sister's kids, the twins, came out as well to go Trick or Treating with us. There were many great displays in the neighbourhood so it looks like we have some competition! We love to decorate the house for Halloween and there were a few in the neighbourhood that even had haunted houses in their garages! It was a lot of fun walking around with the kids. Grace was a bit timid at a few of the scarier houses and I heard her say to Simon once, "You go first Simon because you are braver than me". I love my kids!

Tables and chairs and couches oh my!

Paul and I spent the day today at the decor centre in Missauga after a friend of mine, Vicki, told me that she saw some amazing stuff there. In and out of the stores we went. I think we might have found some stuff we actually like and nothing we like more than the living room furniture and dining set we found already so that is good since we are buying the latter this weekend!

This is the recliner that we are buying, the couch is slightly different. The colour is going to be a dark brown, so darker than what is shown in the photo. Also the head rest comes out...I don't like that piece.

I think we found a kitchen table we love and a stand/bench for the front door area. We also saw a chandelier that we both agreed on! That is BIG news. We rarely find lights we agree on.


This is the bench we saw. It also comes in Black so I'm not sure which way I'm leaning on this one...we might not even get it. It would just be great for the kids. Looking at it now, I think I like it better in black! Man this is hard!



We also saw some art work that we would love...now to save the $5400 we would need to buy it! This house is going to cause me hours of overtime I can feel it!

Have I mentioned that my dad's brother is an artist? I would love one of his paintings but I don't think I could ever afford one. My mom has one on layaway at a gallery. She goes in and puts money down on it all the time. One day she will own it!

Here is a link to a gallery that carries some of his work.
Harold Klunder

It's very abstract and I love it...plus he's my uncle! :)

Updates Galore!

Two times in one month! Now I'm getting somewhere! So...what's been happening with me? The short answer is lots!


On July 24th we moved into our new house. We are absolutely in love with it! Almost all the boxes are unpacked and we are getting to the point where we almost feel brave enough to put holes in the wall! It's funny to me because I never had this problem before. I guess this is the right house for us because I just want it to be perfect. Our appliances are finally installed, grass is growing, towel bars are up, and the inevitable search for some new furniture has begun!


I will post photos of the house soon. It's much nicer now that we have grass. I just have to get out there and take the photos!


We have been spending a lot of time at the Binbrook Conservation area the past few weeks. It's just minutes from our house and the kids love it! The beach is perfect and the shallow water is corded off. They also have a great splash pad. We bought a season pass so that we can go whenever we feel the urge for some sun and sand.






Last week we took the kids on their first camping trip. This was our first time camping since Grace was born six years ago! Of course, it had to be the worst two days of the summer. The kids had a blast just the same. We didn't go far so that if something happened and we couldn't get the kids to sleep in the tent we wouldn't have far to come home. They loved sleeping in the tent and roasting marshmallows on the fire. The hammock that Sarah (my sister) demanded we put up, turned out to be a tremendous hit. We also tried "fishing". I put that in quotes because we mostly just threw the line into the water. The kids fishing rods didn't even have hooks on them.





On Wednesday we went to the African Lion Safari. We decided that we would drive our car through the animal reserve so that we could stop where we wanted and move on at our own pace. It was a good idea I think, since the kids were so excited and very loud! It wasn't too hot so the animals were pretty active. I got some great shots of the animals too. My favourites are the monkeys (Baboons) and Giraffes.





I have to say though, that I was very bothered by some of the patrons of the safari that day. This is the problem with parks like this. People just don't think about the animals' well being. Many people were feeding the animals through their window and I even saw a teenager pull on a baby camel's ear! I was hoping that the camel would spit on him but he didn't. I left feeling sad for the animals as I usually do when I take the kids to places like this.


On the creative front, I have completed a couple of layouts for The Scrapping Nook where I am honoured to be a part of the design team. This month we worked with the yummy Cherry Arte paper. I have also been finishing up my projects for the Canadian Scrapbooking Crop for Kids coming up in October. This is a Cross-Canada event for an amazing cause, Children's Hospitals.




Those of you that know me, know that this is a cause close to my heart. Had we not had an amazing Children's Hospital near us when Simon was born, he wouldn't be here with us today. The doctors and nurses that work in these hospitals are amazingly talented at what they do and I as a nurse bow down to them for all that they do every day! I don't know how they do it but I'm so thankful that they do.


Saturday marked our annual Klunder Family Reunion. My dad has 10 brothers and sisters and most of them have large families as well. This yearly event is the one time a year that a lot of us see each other. We have to wear name tags now to keep all the 2nd and 3rd generation straight! Grace and Simon had a good time although we couldn't stay long since I had to work nights at the hospital.


Speaking of hospitals, we had a family outing to our local hospital last night. Simon fell off the swing at daycare yesterday and got a cut on the back of his head. When Bern called us to tell us about it, it didn't sound so bad but when Simon came home and we got a closer look we knew it needed stitches. He wasn't too happy about it but he ended up with 4 staples in his head by the time we left. Other than that he is doing completely fine.


We have two new classes up for registration at ScrapAbility. Please stop by and check out the classes by the lovely Michelle Engel and a new teacher at ScrapAbility, Pamela Mosby. Both have designed amazing projects for you. We also have a new free project available for download in our forum. It was created by Pamela for us and the project will be part of an upcoming class at ScrapAbility. Downloading the project will give you a good idea of how we deliver classes at ScrapAbility. Plus, as an added bonus for registering on the site this week, we are giving away free classes to two lucky new registrants in our forum! Hope to see you there!

Phew! That was a lot! Hopefully I will get better at all of this!

I bet you were wondering...

if I am still alive! I am...but I'm very, very tired! :) I was away at CHA from July 18th to the 23rd. We arrived home at 6pm. We were gone for almost six days but it always goes by so fast! I had so much fun being with my friends that I only get to see a few times a year! I miss you already Kerry! CHA is a lot of work but spending time with friends and hanging out after the show is always a ton of fun. Wendy had a great show (her best yet) and managed to out last many of us at night despite "her condition". Michelle, her usual cheery self, belting out the show tunes and quoting the movies. Natasha was great to have along...so young but I think she held up good with us crazy girls! My prairie girl Kerry is always a laugh to have around. Can you believe she didn't know that we have farms here in Ontario? I was laughing about this again yesterday as I drove by the tractor dealership on my way home from work. It was almost as bad as the "Regina, Calgary" quote of another friend of ours.

For the first time, we had to deal with a significant theft from the Gel-a-tins booth. Kerry made a wonderful altered tin that held her son's hockey medal proudly inside. Sadly, we returned to the booth on Saturday at the end of the show to realize that it had been taken. I just wish they would have left the medal for Kerry. There we were, standing in the booth all of us crying for Kerry. It was a hard day for us but poor Kerry had to go home to her son and tell him that the medal was stolen. So sad.

We moved into our new house on July 24th (the morning after I got back from Chicago) and we are still living in a house with half unpacked boxes everywhere! The good news is that we now have a new stove, fridge and microwave. It's good news because it has been a daily battle with the people we bought the appliances from. Daily phone calls since they just didn't show up on Tuesday. The bad news is our dishwasher was mysteriously cancelled without our knowledge or notice...so we have no dishwasher until next Saturday. I sense there will be quite a few more phone calls and letters written in the near future.

The kids have settled in well. I was worried about Grace because she never wanted to talk about the new house. It made her sad since she was going to be leaving all of her friends. We told her that everyone else in the neighbourhood was looking for a friend too and that she would meet some as soon as we moved there. Sure enough, we met little Jessica the day after we moved in. She is our backyard neighbour. I'm excited because she will be in Simon's class in the fall. So he will at least know someone when he starts school. It should ease the stress for both Simon and Mommy as well.

That's really all I have to say now...I hope I will update more frequently...but you know me, it will be sporadic at best I'm sure! :)

Happy Days

We have had quite a few happy days lately. The stress has decreased significantly around here. We sold our house in only 2 days and finalized all the details of our new house. We got 99% of our asking price and are extremely happy. I still can't believe that we bought our dream house. The house that we will hopefully grow old in (until we can't climb the stairs anymore).

We have been to the new house weekly since we bought it and have spent long periods of time inside and imagining what it is going to be like when we finally move in. The big move date is July 24th which makes me a bit nervous as I won't get home from CHA summer until the 23rd most likely! Eek!! Just thinking about it makes me a bit nervous but I'm so happy that we will be moved in with a month of summer left. The kids will get a chance to make some friends before school starts in September.

Here are some photos of the new house. The outside, two shots of our kitchen, and the great room (minus the carpet). Ignore the mess...I haven't dusted for a while! :P

Simon turned four March 31st which somehow got lost in my blog posts along the way. I can't believe that my baby is 4. What on earth have we been doing that four years has gone by so quickly? After our rough start with Simon, he has grown into quite the young boy and SO happy all the time too. We are incredibly blessed to have two wonderful children.

Just to keep with tradition, Simon made sure to have a nice fall the day before his birthday and had a nice upper lip abrasion to show for all of his photos. I think I should do a layout of my poor battered children on their birthdays. I have a ton of photos that show the evidence. I'm totally going to do that!

Grace started soccer on Monday. She was SO excited! She loves soccer. I think it is her favourite. Unlike Ballet. She is counting down the days until the end of ballet. I guess we won't be signing her up for it next year. I must admit that I was surprised that my tom-girl wanted to sign up for it in the first place. Soccer is much more her style.

Not much else... it has been nice to just relax a bit after the whirlwind house selling. I promise I will try my hardest to keep up my posts in the future! I swear mom! :)