WE'RE HOME!!

well hello everyone!

courtney and i have returned home from Victoria, B.C late last night ( arrived in wpg at 12:45am...yawn! ) and we took today to catch up on our sleep - until 10am- SWEET!

thank you to all our friends and family who have been commenting and emailing and phoning to welcome us home and see how courtney made out at her 1st Scotdance Canada Championships competition!

it was a very long 6 days of competing and sightseeing, and emotionally exhausting! i knew this competition is kinda like an "olympic" version for highland dancing and it was going to be very tough to even place at all in it. there were 942 dancers registered for this whole competition!! WOW! and they came from all accross canada, the US, Scotland, New Zealand and it was just amazing at how huge this event really was!!

courtney's dance group for her competitions had 26 kids in it for two of the days and 12-16 in the other two days. the smaller group of kids were all mostly ones who have won trophies in their classes before, making it tougher to place.

courtney did really well and tried really hard. we are very happy with her dancing and all her efforts. it has prepared us in a huge way for possible future competitions of this calibre!

on courtney's final day of competition, she finally worked her hardest and placed in two of her four dances and won a 5th in her sword dance, and also a 4th in her Seann Truibhas ( pronounced like shawn truce ).

anyway, i know that you have all been waiting to hear how she did so here's a couple pic's to tie you over until i can post more of our trip tomorrow....and TRUST ME...it will be very difficult to choose which pictures will make it to the blog out of 249 photos!!! LOL!

gotta go catch some ZZZzzzz's!!!

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR GOOD LUCK WISHES AND E-HUGS EVERYONE!!!

:O)

school's out for summer!!

what can i say? school is out and the kids are full of summer energy!

yesterday we set up the new 'slip 'n slide' for them in the front yard and let 'em go!!

i had to 'dabble' around the toy myself to cool off once in a while....they had a blast!

..the night before, when i was making meatballs, tyler asked to help cook dinner!

i love it when the kids want to help out in the kitchen, they feel good about getting to cook and contribute to the family and i just like the help! ( giggle...here's also another peek in the new kitchen too!!! )

...getting ready for the last day of school is always a mad dash around here...

i always want to make sure that the teacher's gifts are something personal and special as they have had such a huge impact on my children for a whole school year. this year i made tyler's kindergarten teacher a 5 x 7 ( 7 Gypsies raw chipboard album ) mini album as her gift! i used photos that i had taken right from the first day of school to the second last day of school! i loved making this little album for her! i had tyler do some journaling throughout the album to add his special touch to it as well!

here are a few photos i took of it before we gave it to her on the last day...she loved it!!

...and for courtney's grade four teacher, we made him an altered wooden clipboard and painted and mod podged it!! i also made up a little photo album with all the photos i had taken from the first day of school, specail events and field trips i came along on....he loved his gift too!!

that last day came and went too fast...we look forward to the last day as we now have so much time to spend together and do lots of family things...including going to our cabin at the lake...and of course our big trip to Scotland in august....but it is also sad for me too because i get attached to their teachers for so many different reasons and it's hard to say goodbye, even though we will see them again in the fall. teachers play such an important role in our kids' lives and expose them to so much value and knowledge. i don't think that they often get the credit they deserve from parents and i can only hope that they feel as grateful as i do for all their dedication and love they put into their everyday school lives with our children.

thank you mrs. thomson and mr. dyck for such an amazing and passion filled year!!

tyler, the kindergarten graduate!!

way to go little man....

and here's miss courtney with her special school patrol award...very cool kiddo!

....sigh...

the last day of school at last!

...well, i am off to bed now. gonna have a very busy day tomorrow with last day preparations for mine and courtney's trip out to Victoria, B.C for her Interprovincial Championships!!

our plane leaves at 6:30am wednesday morning so it's gonna have to be an early night tuesday night...so i don't know if i will get another chance to blog until we get back next week, so if i don't, i hope you all have a fantastic first week off school and do something fun!!!

see ya soon!

:O)

long enough?

SO...my first announcement before i get caught up here is...

i have FINALLY quit my serving job at Montana's!!!!

officially since may 26, i am no longer going to be bringing you iced tea or baby back ribs or mile high mud pies!!!

i am sooooo relieved to be able to focus ALL my energy and attention now on my family and my business! YAY!

starting in september, The Scrappin Studio will be the vendor for Lora Leigh's hall crops once a month at Rossmere Golf and Country Club, as well as keeping my own monthly hall crops too. I will be picking up the monthly kits again in september as june was the last kit for the summer ( there are still 3 left if anyone still wants one!! )

so i am very excited for lots of new starts this coming fall for The Scrappin Studio!!

now, catch up news...

i took this photo today of tyler and his kindergarten teacher, mrs. thomson.

she is so special to us and has been just a wonderful person to tyler and given him the best learning experience and springboard into his grade school education!

tyler loves her lots and we are wondering what we are going to do without her in grade 1??

yesterday was Field Day at school. i hung out for the afternoon with the kids ( after bringing along a fun picnic lunch on the playground with them ) and enjoyed all the activity going on!
thank goodness for all the 'water station' activities!! it was a hot day..

courntey had her last 'class' lesson last night ( of course there will be lots of extra private lessons and scotland workshops through the summer yet...) but after the lessons last night, the Wog's invited us over for a dip in their new pool!!

the girls all had a great time and it was a nice treat to cool off after dancing!

thank you susan and travis!!!

:O)
( courtney and kelsey )

...the dancers...

...the reno's are pretty much complete with the exception of little details...

so i don't want to post 'almost done' photos until it's really ALL done...

BUT...

here's a peek at my new kitchen walls though!!

i LOVE IT!!

see....i told you i was adding some color to our home!!

no more all white kitchen!!

we had mom, airiel, and grandma and grandpa come for our first official 'sit down' dinner in our new kitchen a couple weeks ago and courtney wanted to make something out of her kids cookbook...so she made us our dessert!! yummy!!!

...hmmm...oh yes...

tyler passed his last swimming lesson session! he will now be starting off in swim kids 3 in september!

courtney finally received her brand new full kilt and new dance hose made in scotland!! she will be wearing it for the first time next week when we go to Victoria, B.C for the Canadian Interprovincial Championships!!! I can't wait to see her dance in it!!

( do you see any resemblance to the kitchen walls...hmmmm.....)

the tartan is called Dress Turquoise Buchanan.

...and finally, these are a couple photos from her June 7 competition at the Forks.

she did really well and all the Manitboa Rep's going to Victoria were also called on stage and presented with a MHDA ( Manitoba Highland Dancers Association ) CHEQUE to help out with the trip expenses!!

so, this is courntey's very first dance money presentation!!!

...thank you again to my mom, who came out both days to be supportive and cheer courtney on!

she's so lucky to be so blessed by such a loving and 'always there for us' grandma!!!

i couldn't get through some of these competitions without your positive attitude mom!!

HUGS!

whew...

that's all for now!

gotta go make some meatballs for supper!

:O)

Thank you!

"I'LL BE BACK"

felt good to take a wee break.

lots of my dear friends and family have commented or emailed to keep up the blog.

didn't know i had so many loyal readers!

family in scotland even emailed to keep it up for all the same reasons as you...

i enjoy writing in my blog journal, it keeps me organized too.

i love to share our family events and happenings with everyone.

and it's a great way of sharing my scrapbooking world and business with you too.

LONG LIVE THE BLOG!!!

hahahahahaa.....

busy day today with my hall crop tonight so i must be off to pack up,

but i will be posting and catching up soon!

THANK YOU to everyone who encouraged me to continue with this and for all your nice emails too! they all meant a lot to me and i didn't realize so many of you did stop and visit!!

thank you!

hugs...

:O)

more reno shots to share

ok, so a little more progress this weekend!

this is kinda the only 'before' photo i have of this side of the kitchen but the cupboards were already taken off ( ahem, kinda fell off is more like it....hence the decision to renovate! )

anyway, mike took all the kitchen cupboards down, with some help from dave and my little bro curty, and this wall was just a mess to be fixed up now!

so, this is the BEFORE....

so...now the wall has been all ripped out, new drywall, new wiring, tiles ripped off and re-drywalled, countertop pulled out and new one put in, sink ripped out and new stainless one put in and also a new stainless faucet...

so here's the DURING...

( still have to paint and put up the new cupboards on this side of the kitchen! )

...our new HUGE bathtub of a sink! I love it!...

...and new countertops...the other side of the kitchen has it too!

...i picked out paint for the kitchen today and had them mix it. DANG are you guys ( who know me well enough ) gonna be knocked OFF YER ROCKER when you see the color i chose!!

COLOR??? KIM knows COLOR other than beige for her house????

hahahaha...just you wait!!!

( i'm still in shock too as i've been thinking real hard if i wanted to do this or not...)

...and here's a little treat i bought for the new kitchen ( well okay, for me! ) today too!

these totally cool Dolce cooking knives complete with MAGNETIC block!

how FUN is that?

i love how cool they look with no 'handles' separating the steel from the blade...it's all one piece!

...AND...

guess what?

the wood you see them placed on for the photos...

YEP...THAT'S OUR NEW FLOORING!!

TADAAAAAA!!!

...and i must share this with you too...

friday night courtney and i went to see our geese at kilcona park for the first time this spring, and to our disappointment found no families around. only a small handful of couples ( i guess the retired ones from having any more young!!! ) hahahaa....

anyway, they were always on the golf course park of the park, near the lake of course, but the staff have hired themselves a four legged barking noise maker to scare and chase them away, accompanied by the four legged barking mutt is his trusty companion riding at high speeds in his golf cart making his own ruccus.

trying to be understanding that the golfers and the owners don't want the mess of the geese left behind to falter their proud greens, but i was annoyed that these birds who have been imprinted this to be their return home has now been disrupted to them and their young ones and have been forced to find 'family life' alongside busy roads with ditches as their water sources.

i hope that some of the older new parents this spring have found better realty resources to raise their babes.....

anyway, back to my point...( hahahaha you know me.... )

court and i went to see the little guys you saw in one of my last posts again ( every couple days we go ) and they are just the sweetest little things! we have been seeing them now for 2 weeks and they are getting so used to us! and on friday night, the momma was eating right out of my hand! sometimes even just coming right up to me and grabbing the food on her own! so funny! all the little ones were practically on our laps eating!

i couldn't resist their sweetest little peeps and welcomed them into our comfort zone and reached out and pet a few of them!! the Momma was quite fine with this decision and even allowed me to touch her a few times too!

and as if THAT wasn't enough....

i got even more daring to even pick one up and have a little cuddle while feeding it and it was allowed by Momma and i couldn't have been more on cloud nine!!

courtney looked and with cartoon eyes bugging out of her head whispered "mom...so cool"...

she, no doubt, had a turn to hold a gosling too!

the sweetest family.

we visited with them and entertained them with food for just over an hour and decided to let them be for the night...they tried following us right up to our van!!

silly geese!

so, this is me in one on my happy places!

...i got this beautiful lone gander at kilcona park, where they got an unwelcome return home this spring....( as mentioned above )

i hope he leaves them a pile as tall as this hill of his returned thanks!!

hahahahahahaha!!!!

....for scrapbookers...

june kits will be posted by tuesday and the newsletter will be sent out by then too!

i hope you all had a great weekend!!

a little catch up!

so my back's feeling better again...not 100% but Robaxacet is helping take the edge off. i managed to avoid more pyhsio on my back this time around from resting and taking it somewhat easy ( ya right! )

anyway...this morning the kid' school had a beautiful parent Volunteer Tea to say "thanks" to all our supportive moms and dads who help out in the school. I was invited for the presentation performance and also for the snack afterwards ( nice to know that my help is appreciated! )

so Courtney's Orff club in the school preformed the last song of the day with three brave singers in the auditorium and DANG, did they do a fantastic job!

the song they played was to the theme of " The Lion Sleeps Tonight" but the words were of course all changed to express their thanks....so cool....so talented all these young kids!

...yesterday, the little man had his day of "Shine Time" in his kindergarten classroom...

he was to bring along 5 special things from home to talk about and share with his classmates...and i also had to fill out an "interview" questionaire about him for the teacher as well! I stayed for his presentatio and got a few cute pic's of him sharing with his little friends!

so cute....he's quite the little public speaker too!

( this is tyler with his favorite Webkinz - for now - Eggbert the chicken! )

---thank you Mrs. Thomson for giving all the children a special time to shine and share themselves in your classroom!! you are sooo thoughtful and special!

...the other day we decided that tyler's "saving for Scotland" piggy bank was indeed full to the brim with his savings for the last 8 months and it was time to dump it all out and roll up the coins and count it all!! we can now go to the bank and order some Brittish Pounds for his own spending money...a little here, and a little there all adds up! now he's determined to fill it one more time before we go on our trip!! good luck buddy! ( he saved $233 this time around! )

...and now onto the renovations.....
you've all been asking to see pictures, but there are so many things that mike is 'multi tasking' right now that NOTHING is 100% complete yet!
yes, the living room is painted, BUT all the new white corner, ceiling and baseboard moldings are not on yet...
yes, the carpet has been torn out of the living room and the new flooring has been put down in there, and now also down the hallway too...but again, the moldings are not on yet...
yes, the bottom half of the new kitchen cabinets are now installed, and so is the new sink, faucet and countertop, BUT the handles are not on yet or the top cabinets....
it's driving me crazy to have this house is such a disorganzied mess with everything all over the place and homeless in other rooms....
we are also preparing for a HUGE garage / yard sale at our house June 21 & 22...so there's stuff all over for that too that needs to be taken out to the garage in boxes for now....

STUFF LIKE THAT
is just getting to me! I know mike is only one guy and is still working 10 hours a day between all the work he's doing at home too....but it's just chaotic living with every room in our small home in such a mess! our friend dave will be coming over again tonight to help some more with the kitchen cabinets....( he came here last friday and saturday as well to help...what a great guy and we are sooooo grateful for his help and experience in these projects already! )
so, anyway....
here's a few of what I can show you for now...

the hallway walls are the color that the living room USED to be! they will be painted soon too, i think a creamier / whiter color to blend with the natural tones in the living room now...
what do you think?



...this is our grey carpet being rolled up and pulled out of the LR...
bye bye carpet...

...and here's the BARE BOTTOM floor before the new flooring went in...

and of course the colors in the LR now! the dark chocolate wall is a solid feature wall, the other 3 walls are the lighter color.

I LOVE the new flooring that's in now...so much brighter and open feeling in there now! we just have half the kitchen in the LR right now so i don't want to photograph it all until it's all done...including the moldings!!!

what do you think so far??

yes i'm still alive!

been crazy busy around here.

renovations are taking longer than planned.

( don't they always? )

i've been down with my stupid back out since saturday afternoon.

not fun.

tired of eating off styrofoam plates.

can't find anything i need for the kitchen because it's all in the

LIVING ROOM

or

in our

BEDROOM!

( nothing like sleeping with a 4L crock pot beside your butt and waking up to a fruit bowl beside the alarm clock, ya know? )

i spent

ALL DAY

today stressing out from anxiety over all that needs to be done and trying my

gimpy butt hardest to do a few things.

accomplished a home cooked meal tonight for supper.

spaghetti and garlic toast.

a griffin favorite.

must get some rest now...

be back soon, i promise!