My Raggedy Ann

It's been awhile since I blogged last. I have done alot in the couple weeks...took Niall and Rhiannon to the Christmas Preview aka Sunny's Craft Show. Lots of very nice things to be seen but WAY too many people. Keman spent that entire weekend over at friends' houses. Last weekend I made a ham and invited Brad over for supper, it allowed him to visit with his daughter, I spent the majority of his visit when I wasn't cooking or eating, setting up my Christmas tree. Last week was pretty boring,most days usually are. This weekend I have been working on some Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls that I am making for Rhiannon. I had one when I was little that Auntie Dona had made for me, I honestly wish I knew what happened to it...LOTS of my things went missing when Marilyn came in on the scene. Anyway, I am happy to be able to sew these for my daughter, and I hope she loves them as much as I loved mine. I found this poem online that describes how I hope she will feel about them in the future.

My Raggedy Ann

We played together Raggedy Ann,

As playmates often do.

I always shared my dreams,

with nobody else but you.

Each night my prayers were whispered,

with you snuggled by my side.

On stormy nights the thunder,

made us cover up and hide.

Now your eyes have both grown weary,

and your arm is slightly torn.

Your cuddly body is tattered,

and your nose is mashed and worn.

We did so much together, Raggedy Ann

the years, oh how they flew.

And I cherish every memory

of growing up with you.

"Author Unknown"

I have been at Becky's all weekend sewing, visiting and today we made 11 trays of meat buns. Wonderful things, great for a quick lunch. Found a good recipe for coconut macaroons that I am going to make up for Christmas. Well time to get off and butter the tops of more buns and then take the kids home to bed. Until next post, Be Thou Blessed.

The Beauty of Nature

Well today the trees are coated in hoar frost, nature's bling for the fashionable tree, ha ha. I have always loved how stunning hoar frost is, especially when the sun is shining and it lights the frosts icy luminescense. Well yesterday was uneventful but productive. Tidied up the house and I think I may have done 10 loads of laundry. I am just about done, have 3 or 4 left, but it's bedding, sometimes a blanket is a load on it's own. Today was more laundry and chatting on the computer, couldn't believe my day disappeared so fast. I guess that happens sometimes. Hoping some more Ebay will come in the mail tomorrow, today was a stat holiday, so no mail :( I know it's kinda sad, but I like getting things OTHER than bills in the mail. Just about time to put Niall to bed..7:30 got here much faster than I had anticipated. Going to have to get my camera going and take pics of the new members of our family : Angus and Isis..cute lil kitties that they are, they joined Leonardo the fish, our family is complete, ha ha.

I find I'm still kind of bummed about my tubal. A friend of mine called me tonight to tell me she's pregnant and I found that I was jealous...the tubal was done more for my family (sorry to be honest guys) than for me. I got sick of hearing how I shouldn't have any more children, I KNOW it's not advisable for me to be having a bunch of babies and raising them alone, I also know that I have 3 beautiful, healthy children, that still doesn't stop me from mourning all the ones that will now never be. I know I would have liked to have one more, right after I had Rhiannon I didn't want ANY more, 36 hours of labour will do that for you, but now, after watching her growing and meeting milestones it makes my heart yearn for another life to coax along. Oh well, I better not dwell on what cannot be changed and enjoy the present and the children who are here and tangible. Yet, I cannot help but feel a minor bit of melancholy for that shadow child. Until next post, Be Thou Blessed.

In Flanders Fields the Poppies Grow

It's Remembrance Day/Veteran's Day, and my thoughts are with those that have given their lives for our freedom as well as those who survived those fights. My prayers are for those families who lost a father, son, uncle, brother, aunt, mother, sister, daughter...bless them and bless those that they lost.

Well I had a house full of company last night. Carmen, Rocky, Alex, Aiden and Adria came down from Bonnyville to do some Christmas shopping and spent the night with us. I love the company, it's so nice to catch up, but it's also nice to have the silence after they go home. Rhiannon had a bad night on Thursday so I was SO tired and then Friday night was no better. I think she is teething, her cheeks are red, chapped and she tries to chew on everything that doesn't run away. Today was a do nothing day, around 8 pm Jeannine and I bundled up the kids and went for a quick walk to the corner store, just to say we got out of the house. I think we are going to do that more often, just a little earlier on in the evening. The fresh air was nice and hopefully it'll knock Miss Rhiannon out! ha ha. I think I'm going to give her a nice warm bath to help, I'd really like to get some sleep tonight. I've given her a dose of Motrin, so if it IS teeth, she'll feel better in about 10 more minutes.

I was dancing on air today, I found the PERFECT gifts for my sisters and one niece on ebay today, and I got them SO cheap. Would love to say what they are, but if they read this then the proverbial cat is out of the bag, suffice to say the deal was INSANELY good. Am watching some Armani stuff for my brother and nephew. Anyhow, it's time to go tuck the youngest of my boys into bed so until next post, Be Thou Blessed.

The Wierd Sister

The wierd sister, that would be me :) quoting a little bit of Shakespeare as he refers to the 3 witches in Macbeth as the Wierd Sisters. I must say it's my favourite of his works.

Another day where I accomplished pretty much nothing at home. I took the boys to school, came home to check my email and Becky called to see where I'd gotten lost, turns out I forgot that I said I'd go over there this AM to watch kidlets again so she could run out and buy "Cars" on DVD as it came out today. Silly me! So..when Rhiannon woke up from her morning nap we toddled over there. I spent the afternoon burning DVD's for her which is no biggie. She fed us supper, I talked REALLY nice and she barbequed me some steak...my fave! Although now I have sore teeth from chewing that beef. Time to go and see a dentist I guess. Came home and put the boys to bed, received a phone call from a new friend of mine, Veronica. She hails from Illinois, INCREDIBLY nice woman. I'm truly glad she and I have met. She runs an ebay store (how I met her), she also has her own non ebay retail site, the link is in my list. I think if anyone is looking for quality infants clothing from Gymboree or Janie & Jack they should deal with her. I also spoke to my sister Sherry on MSN this morning and we are making tentative plans to have all the siblings together for Christmas. I am sure that this has not happened since Mom died, soooo about 21 years. We both agree that this is a long time overdue. I think it's kind of sad that my children will not and have not enjoyed the close relationship with their cousins that I did with mine. In todays hustle and bustle we seem to have forgotten about the import of family. I miss the closeness, although I DO have some of that with Becky, Ron and Jeana. We make each other crazy some times and there are times where I am sure that we ALL feel taken advantage of by each other, but we have the love that all families have and when the going gets tough, we circle the wagons! Things haven't been exactly easy for any of us of late, but we are doing the best we can and supporting each other, so that is a positive. I think I may actually get to get away next weekend. Becky has said she will keep the boys overnight Friday and I am going to be taking off to Edmonton with Colleen, Dorian and Rhiannon for the night. It's Coronet, and SCA event, will be my first non-camping major event so I am very much looking forward to it. I just wish my court dress were done, but it's not going to be, lol. Colleen is working on a dress for herself at the moment all done with ribbon embroidery, it sounds divine. At any rate I should toddle off to bed. Be Thou Blessed.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood

Well today was a pretty basic day. I dropped the boys off at school and went to watch kids for Becky for an hour or so while she took her Suburban in for repairs (needed a new muffler). Burnt some DVD's, went and paid the rent, picked up the kids. Typical day. Got quite a few ebay parcels today though..bought Keman a button up shirt made by Quicksilver for 10 cents!! Shipping was 5 bucks but that's still darn cheap for Quicksilver. Got the cutest little outfit for Rhiannon, Gymbo of course, from "Grown with Love" Striped tights, a denim skirt embroidered with carrots, peas and radishes and a white top that says "I Play with my Food" spelled out in the same veggies. It's too cute for words. I came home and made some supper, did some laundry and cleaned up my living room, it's still a little messy, will finish it after the kids go to bed, kind of like shoveling snow in a blizzard if I do it now.

Keman was telling me about the book he's studying in class called "Hana's Suitcase" it's similar to "The Diary of Anne Frank" as it's a young Jewish girl's account of what befell her during the holocaust. He updates me a little everyday, I learned that Waisenkind means orphan in German. I think I may buy a copy of it as he really likes the story and I'd like to read it. I have one called "We Were in Auchwitz" a VERY disturbing read, almost as disturbing as "Roots". Well it's time to put Niall to bed so until next post, Be Thou Blessed.

The Kids

Here are my creatures, lol. At the top is Niall..his shirt says "I tried to be good, but I got bored" which I thought was hilarious. In the middle is Rhiannon all in Gymboree (My addiction :>) the line is "A Walk in the Woods" and last but not least at the bottom is Keman, I think he looks so nice in red and he is wearing his namessake on his shirt. He was named for a dragon in a novel I read, although we have recently discovered that Keman is also a turkish word for violin. Niall is gaelic for Neil and means Champion, Rhiannon is welsh and means Divine Queen. Rhiannon was named for the Goddess of the same name, Niall for another fictional character, this one out of a romance novel. We'll see, I might just wind up with blogging as a new addiction.

Blah Blah Blog!

Well I am finally jumping on the blog bandwagon. Can't say that things are particularly exciting 'round these parts, but I'll blog it all for you anyhow, lol. Today started out wonderful..Rhiannon fell asleep last night around 9-9:30 and stayed down ALL night! She woke up at 7 this morning for her feeding, I think I almost danced over to the crib. Last weekend she cut her first teeth, bottom front. I can't believe how soon they came in as Keman and Niall never cut teeth until they were almost a year old! I guess Nanner is just in a big rush to do everything. Keman got an award last week at school, he got the Data Management award, he is apparently doing really well in that unit of math. He is doing a play at school in french called "Boucles Violetta et les Trois Ours" or for us non francais savvy folk, "Purple Locks and the 3 Bears" his favourite new french saying is "Je conduit mon soucoupe valent" or en Anglais... "I drive my Flying Saucer" he also adds little laser shooting sound effects at the end which makes me laugh every time! He also auditioned for and got the part of Kevin in the yearly Christmas concert, I was so proud of him. He is a very talented little actor and I am encouraging him to pursue that talent by joining Drama Club in the early spring, I think he will. And what can we say about Niall? He is doing very well in school, I was impressed at PTI with his ability to make patterns, spell small words and to read me a story.. it was called "In My Garden" it was a very cute story, I think he had it memorized, but that is pretty much what reading is..memorizing words. As for me, this morning Jeannine (my neighbour) McKenna (her daughter who is 6 weeks younger than Rhiannon) Rhiannon and I went for a delightful Sunday brunch at the local steak house. To DIE for food there, I think I will be going back next Sunday with all the kids and possibly Becky (Grandma) and Auntie Jeana as well. Those cheese bun things they had are worth another trip, lol. Hope to add some more tomorrow, until then: Be Thou Blessed.