according.to.kim

Highlights of the week

• going out to the mall for a coffee break with Susan, my coworker who retired in October, and my coworkers Beryl and Erin.
• receiving welcome messages from many members the work group I'll be joining in January, and lots of congrat's from people in person, and via email, blog, and Twitter. Thanks everyone!
• using my free time at Sophia's guitar lesson to assemble some Christmas cards. (I did this again tonight.) I just can't seem to find time to do this at home.
• receiving a bunch of great advice about the DSs. Thanks Robyn, Sally, Tracy, and Kim! We bought headphones for all three girls (and we can set the maximum volume on them; I like that) and some extras styluses. Neil has started figuring out some of the games. I'm really glad this is happening ahead of departure
• filling our Advent calendar with Holiday Mint M&Ms and hanging it up for the girls.
• making and eating peanut butter cookies. It's been a very very long time since I last ate a peanut butter cookie. They're pretty rare these days, aren't they? They are in my world, anyway. They went over well with the kids and my cookie club on Thursday.
• going to my office Christmas party on Friday evening. It was a pretty casual affair at The Shark Tank above Habanos, with a Ukranian meal (perogies, cabbage rolls, sausages, buns) catered by Peg's kitchen. Neil and I enjoyed visiting with my coworkers and their spouses, and it was nice to hear that about $8,000 (in cash & merchandise) had been raised by the Marketing department for this year's charity challenge.
• wearing my long down-filled coat on cold days. It's so cozy and I'm lucky to have it. After a very mild November, it looks like winter has definitely arrived. Temperatures were dipping into the minus 20s last week (and today the wind chill was around -30).
• creating my master to-do list for the next two weeks. Although the list is very long and a bit overwhelming, just getting everything written down in one spot alleviates some of my stress. It is SO hard to get ready for Christmas and a long road trip at the same time, while working. I need a week off NOW, before we leave! Our poor neglected house looks awful, and I have just one day (this Friday) to try to clean it all. Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it!
• almost finishing my Christmas shopping on the weekend (being totally done would have been better, but I'll take it). I did the vast majority of my shopping on Saturday and Sunday on the east side and south end of Regina. It was pretty busy out there, but not quite as bad as I thought it might be. I think expecting the worst can really help make the experience more tolerable.
• seeing the girls in the church Christmas celebration on Sunday afternoon. Sophia was the "head angel," Gabriel; Madeline was the "head wise man" (she got to point at the star); and Georgia was an angel -- and she was quite angelic! She kept her hands in prayer position in front of her chin and lips almost the whole time she was in front of the audience. So cute!

Highlights of the week

• seeing Sophia and Madeline's report cards and talking to their teachers on Friday. I'm so proud of my girls! They are both doing well in school and their teachers speak highly of their effort and attitude with respect to their school work, and their good nature with friends. So nice to hear! (And we weren't surprised to hear these concerns: Sophia doesn't take good care of her personal belongings and her desk is very messy (hmmm, I'm sure she didn't get that from me!), and Madeline does not like being wrong; she's a bit thin-skinned when corrected (I may be a bit familiar with that feeling.)
• applying for two temporary in-charge manager jobs on Wednesday and then being offered one of them on Friday! For one year beginning January 2010, my title will be Market Manager - Strategy. I am so excited about this job! I really needed a change in my work and this is a fantastic opportunity for me to gain valuable experience. Also, from what I've seen and heard, the team I'm joining is great to work with.
• being very supported and encouraged by my manager in my bid for those positions. She's been awesome -- especially since my leaving will certainly create challenges for her as she has to fill my spot for a year. I really hope it's not too difficult.
• eating the butter that Georgia made in her preschool class. She brought home quite a bit, and it was really good on my toasted bagel. Very sweet and fresh tasting.
• hearing about Neil's presentations in three preschool classes. Georgia's preschool is working on a farming unit right now and Neil volunteered to talk about non-traditional livestock: bison, elk, deer, and wild boar. He takes several props to make it more interesting: a bison skull (always the favourite among children!), bison hair, a bison hoof print casting, deer antlers, elk antlers, a boar-bristle brush, and photos of the four types of animals.
• getting some of our messy basement cleaned up (though not nearly as much as I would have liked). At least it's a start. I always wonder why we leave it so long.
• upgrading my Photoshop Elements program from version 4 to 8. Merry Christmas to me! I use this program a lot (and I love it), so it was nice to finally get the latest. I decided to nab it this weekend because it was $20 off, plus another $20 mail-in rebate.
• seeing Darren, Ali, Gabriel, and Rhonda at a Grey Cup party at D & A's house. It's crazy how long it had been since we last saw them. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun playing together while the adults watched the game. There were seven kids in total with Gabe, Bronwyn, ours, and two more little boys whose parents were watching the game with us.
• starting to prepare for Christmas, finally. Christmas was off my radar until I realized last week that I'd better get crackin'. I have to be ready a week ahead of Christmas and some things sooner than that. We're not putting up a tree this year, but I really should get out some decorations for the kids, shouldn't I? (It wouldn't bother me to leave it all in storage for one year.)
• sewing on a scrapbook layout. I've been wanting to do this for a long time, but avoided it because I knew it would take some courage the first time, and I don't like my sewing machine (mostly because I can't seem to get the bobbin tension right, even though I've followed the manual to the letter). Anyway, I decided to do it this weekend (inspired by the class I'm taking), so I dusted off my machine, re-learned how to thread everything, and gave it a shot. I love how it turned out!
• seeing the kids play with Perler beads for several hours this weekend. The beads had been out of sight, out of mind for many months (perhaps a year), but they rediscovered them last week when Neil and I cleaned up the toy room. It's good that they had a nice long break from this craft. Now, all three girls are much more focused and capable of sitting there long enough to complete a design. It's amazing how well Georgia does with stuff like this. (I'm not so thrilled about all the beads on the floor. Oh well.)

Investing in our sanity

This year, both Sophia and Madeline asked Santa for a Nintendo DSi for Christmas. I didn't mind the DS idea in general (certainly better than Baby Alive three years ago!), as I know the girls will use them, especially Sophia (she loves video games), but I wasn't crazy about the idea of asking Santa for them -- partly because our trip to Texas is going to be costly so I think it's fair to have less expensive gifts this year, and partly because I don't think Santa gifts need to be that "big" (but of course my kids have no idea how much they cost and they think the elves can just make 'em). I couldn't figure out a way to dissuade them from asking Santa, so on their Santa wish lists they went.

Originally I thought, okay, they'll get something else from Santa (one of the other two items on their list) and then we can suggest they use any Christmas and birthday money toward a DS. But that would have to happen after Christmas; after they didn't get one from Santa. The more I thought about it, I realized it would be much better to have the DSs earlier -- so they can use them ON THE WAY to Weslaco. This is a very very long drive for anyone, let alone children! I have no delusions of them enjoying the scenery for more than 10 seconds at a time. We're talking Saskatchewan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas -- in December. Lovely places, all of them, but let's face it, not terribly scenic in the winter time. And we're talking 3300 km. Each. Way.

So, I came up with this plan: If we used money from the girls' savings accounts (they have plenty; over the years, I put away a lot of their gift money, especially when they were younger, and we have used some of it in the past for the trampoline and a good bike for Sophia), then they could buy them now and have them for our road trip -- but they would have to wait until our trip to actually use them. (Good to have some delayed gratification once in awhile, right.) Everyone agreed, so that's what we did.

Last Friday, we went to Toys R Us and bought two DSis (pink for Sophia and ice blue for Madeline) and three games (Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story; Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games; and Littlest Pet Shop Country Friends). We went to Toys R Us because they had a deal that started that day: $30 off a DSi with purchase of a game worth $30+. Plus I had ordered a Leapster 2 for Georgia with Airmiles, so we bought her a Dora game to go with it.

The girls are SOOOO excited. They can't wait for our trip -- for all the fun we're going to have (we've been looking at photos from our last trip to Texas) and of course for their new "toys" (very sophisticated toys, I might add!). We set them up already and they got to play with the camera for a few minutes, but that's all. (I wanted to make sure they work while we have time to exchange, if necessary.) Oh, they wanted to play with those DSis so badly, they went nuts that first day (and drove me nuts in the process), but now they're fine. They haven't asked to use them for a week.

I think this is going to be awesome. To have another thing -- and a really good time-sucking thing at that -- to keep them occupied while they're stuck in their seats is going to be a sanity saver, for sure. We will have DVDs as well, and a few books and toys for variety, but I'm betting the hand-held games get quite a bit of attention. And that's okay by me! (I'll probably spend a good deal of time reading the manuals for the DSis, too.)

I'm looking forward to this trip even more now!

P.S. To those with children who have a DS, is there anything I should know? I know I need to keep those tiny game cards in a safe place, but that's it.

For the Rider fans

And for posterity, 'cause I like to document stuff.

This paper has been on our fridge for months. This weekend we discovered that it's not held by the magnet frame alone; no, the paper is actually GLUED to the fridge! Nice. Artwork courtesy of Sophia. Glue courtesy of Georgia.

Neil just before the Western Final on Sunday.

It wasn't easy to convince the girls to watch a few minutes of the game, but they were genuinely excited that the Riders were winning.

SK beat Calgary 27-17 and they're off to the Grey Cup!

Highlights of the week

• feeling well. I was amazed by how totally awake and energized I felt on Monday after feeling drained for more than a week. I didn't get sleepy in the afternoon at work, I didn't fall asleep with the girls in the evening (I do 95% of the time), and I didn't even feel like going to bed at bedtime. (And I had not consumed more coffee than usual!)
• receiving my 2007 Blurb books in the mail. I love having my blog posts (text and photos) printed as my "record books" (this is what my grandparents called the journals they kept). I blogged a lot that year so there are 390 pages total (and that's with 9 pt text).
• ordering a Leapster 2 for Georgia through Airmiles (yes, Sally, we do this often, but I didn't have enough points left for a DSi because we just ordered some stuff a few weeks ago!). This will be awesome for our upcoming road trip -- as well as the two DS(i)s we bought Friday. I'll write more on this later.
• taking Friday afternoon off. I really needed to get some stuff done, and I love leaving work at noon.
• making the decision to stop selling Epicure Selections. I love the products and we use them all the time, but it was costing me a bit too much each time I had to top up any orders received from others with our own order -- to achieve the minimum sales to stay "active". Plus, I need to simplify. My to-do list is very long and this felt like an obligation I could do without. I just didn't put enough effort into this business to make it worthwhile. It was a good learning experience though!
• getting our toy storage room in the basement sorted out. It had been a toy dumping ground for too long and we couldn't even walk in there. It took us (Neil and me; the girls weren't much help) several hours to clean it up over two weekends. NOW (well, ASAP): Out with the baby toys! Out with the junky toys! Out with 20 balls! Out with 50 stuffed animals! Out with 100 bracelets! (I'm estimating 50% on the last three).
• making my November 12-of-12 scrapbook page. Eleven out of twelve completed! I'm so glad I did this project in 2009. I absolutely love it!
• seeing the sea of green and all the creative costumes as we drove Neil to the game. I do get a kick out of this every single time. I'm quite sure there's no place like Regina on game day!
• seeing the Riders win the Western Final. I'm excited for everyone who is excited about this. My husband in particular! I convinced the girls to watch (sort of) the last five minutes of football time. They wouldn't hear of it earlier. For the last minute (i.e., ~ 8 minutes in real time), the girls sat outside on the front sidewalk waiting to to hear the crowd from the stadium. (Unfortunately, they couldn't; I guess the conditions weren't right because sometimes we can.)
• seeing Neil walk through the door only one hour after the game. I love it when he walks home rather than going out afterwards. It was nice to see his excitement, too. He was over the moon!
• finishing baking a bunch of cookies on Sunday. I'm not an enthusiastic baker, so the finishing part is my favourite. Well, maybe the eating part. :) I made two different kinds of cookies -- Grandma Louise's oatmeal chocolate chip and ginger snaps, and they were pretty big batches so it took a long time. I needed cookies for a couple of things coming up soon, and some to take on our trip, so they all went in the freezer (except the ones I gave to the girls).
• working on the week 8 layout for Yesterday & Today. It's one of my favourite layouts.

November 12 of 12

November 12 was not what I expected. Instead of being at work all day, I was home with the flu, and as a result I got a whole different set of photos -- which was nice, I must say!

Epicure Selection - last email

Hello,

I hope you are well and enjoying this fine fall weather!

I have decided to retire from selling Epicure Selections and I'll be placing my final order next week. If you'd like to order something, please let me know by Noon, Friday, November 27.

View the complete 2009 catalogue here: http://www.epicureselections.com/Products/Catalogue/ (interactive online version) or here: 2009 Catalogue (pdf) and be sure to check the Fall & Winter 2009 Brochure (pdf) for seasonal products.

The following customer specials are available this month:

Comfort Pack (pdf)
Chicken Bouillon Base and Ylang Ylang Liquid Soap, retail value $23.90 (#4137) only $19.95

Sylvie's Fall Picks (pdf)
Ceramic Paring Knife, regular $19.95 (#8312) only $14.95
Red Pepper Jelly, regular $7.95 (#1505) only $6.25
Teriyaki Seasoning, regular $5.95 (#1321) only $4.75
Vegetable Bouillon Base, regular $8.95 (#1442) only $6.50
12-cup Multi-Purpose Pot, regular $64.95 (#6715) only $50.00

Also, check out the 2009 Gift Collections (pdf) -- with each collection, you receive a gift bag and recipe brochure, plus you save about $3-5 on the set of products.

Thank you for all of your purchases in the past. I really appreciate it!

Kim

Highlights of the week

{I have a lot of highlights despite being sick all last week!}

• seeing how delighted Madeline was to lose her tooth at school. Her sixth loose tooth had been scarcely attached for almost a week, but she was determined to have it come out at school so she could get a teeny tiny treasure box from the school secretary. (She did!)
• hearing about a health inspector coming to Sophia's classroom and showing the kids how dirty their hands were -- and then hearing how much they all scrubbed their hands afterwards. Grade three students were disgusted by their own hands! Sophia has been talking about it ever since. :)
• receiving card-making supplies from the Christmas card party I was planning to attend on Wednesday. I was really bummed about not being able to go, but it's great to receive the materials for the cards I wanted to make, all cut and stamped and ready to be assembled. I'll still enjoy making them; just not as much as making them in the company of friends.
• seeing Madeline's school photo retakes -- much better!
• passing along a bunch more baby clothes to my cousin's daughter -- and seeing the stack of bins in our living room shrink further (only four left of 11!).
• getting bed legs for Georgia's bed (rather than a frame); I like the way they look and her room looks a lot better with the bed off the floor. I think we'll replace our bed frame with legs someday.
• instituting some new rules around TV watching (with the aid of a timer which Sophia hasn't figured out yet). The girls were watching too much, and it was especially difficult to get Sophia away from it. Now the TV won't come on until 7:00 a.m., it's off for part of the afternoon, and it shuts off at 7:00 p.m. on school nights. Plus, we were bad for allowing the TV on during supper time (it's hard when the table and TV are very close to each other), but we decided to put an end to that -- and we heard less complaining than expected.
• getting some different photos as a result of being home on the 12th. Under normal circumstances, I would have gone to work that day and it would have been a little more difficult to find interesting shots throughout the day, so it was nice to have some photo ops I wouldn't have had otherwise.
• seeing the girls find other things to do (such as board games) when the TV was off and they couldn't figure out how to turn it on again (thanks to the timer!).
• watching Sophia and Madeline in the Santa Claus parade and Georgia enjoying the parade on Sunday. Sophia was with the K4J kids on the Knights of Columbus float and Madeline was on the Girl Guides float.
• finding out what the girls want for Christmas (so I can at least start thinking about Christmas; I am not an early preparer!) and getting their Santa email messages done. Now, the problem is Sophia wants a Nintendo DSi or an "iPod with a screen" from Santa, but I'm not sure Santa can swing it (but, yes, we may be able to combine Christmas and birthday money or something like that -- thanks, Shauna, for the suggestion!). At least we were able to convince Sophia to add a third item (books) to her Santa list.
• finally feeling almost normal (except for a lingering cough and sniffles) on Sunday evening, the tenth day after coming down with the flu.
• feeling lucky to have weathered the flu without complications (and without fever and other unpleasant symptoms). It seems to me that serious problems can strike anyone -- there's no rhyme or reason -- so I'm grateful to be among the lucky ones.
• knowing the girls likely had H1N1 in June, so if that's what I had, then they would not get sick again. This really saved my sanity since I knew I couldn't effectively keep my germs from them. And after 10 days, they have not come down with it!
• seeing Sophia get in the tub Sunday evening without a fight. It's a major battle almost every single time. (Exhausting!) And what's even more aggravating is that she actually doesn't seem to mind the bath itself (she stayed in the tub for over an hour last night!); it's the stopping-what-she's-doing-and-getting-in part.
• feeling happy for my brother and his family (especially my sister-in-law) because he was finally on his way home from Australia after being away for six weeks.
• learning that my cousin is expecting a baby in the spring. Great news!
• listening to Madeline play the piano. I know I just said this recently, but I'm so impressed. She knew her Christmas solo after looking at the music only twice (granted, very simple) and now she plays Mary Had a Little Lamb without looking (more difficult than her Christmas solo). Also, I'm not sure where she got this from, but she wants me to clap and say "bravo, bravo!" after she plays a song. Hey, I have no problem doing that! :) Me thinks we have a performer in our midst! Ahhh, but we already knew that --- anyone remember Grandma Louise's 90th?

Strange virus

I started coughing Thursday evening (Nov 5). By morning, I knew I was too ill to go to work. For the first few days I kept thinking 'this is a really bad cold'. I was coughing and sniffling and feeling very tired, but had no fever whatsoever. Basically, I thought cough + fever = flu, so I must not have the flu. But I felt like crap! Much worse than a cold. Even a bad cold doesn't drain my energy like this.

I didn't go to work on Monday. Monday evening I searched "H1N1 no fever" and learned that a third of cases have no fever. What?! News to me. Tuesday morning, I was still too sick to go to work and was starting to think I may actually have the flu. I was feeling so fatigued -- even after sleeping 10 or 11 hours every night for five nights. But still no fever -- and I am VERY happy about that! Fever and shaking chills are the worst. I should add that I haven't had any body aches or GI symptoms either, and I'm thankful for that as well.

Strangely, my chest hurt a little Tuesday morning, like prickly shooting pains, but just for a minute. I thought I won't worry about this unless it happens again, but when I mentioned it to my sister-in-law, a public health nurse, she thought I should get it checked out since I've had pneumonia before. I agreed, so I went to the medi clinic on S. Albert and had a chest x-ray Tuesday evening. My lungs look fine, but I'm glad I went anyway. Better safe than sorry. The doctor said I have flu symptoms anyway.

Today was the sixth day of my flu, or whatever it is, and I feel the same as I did the past five days. So, at this point, I don't think I'll be going to work until Monday. Even if I do feel a little better tomorrow or Friday, I don't want to spread these germs.

I can't help but wonder if it's H1N1. First, there's the no-fever thing. Second, I think my kids had H1N1 in June -- when there was an outbreak at nearby schools and no other flu virus was circulating here in Regina, as far as I know -- so if they don't catch what I have right now, then I think it must be the same thing. And how could they not catch it if they're not immune? It seems impossible to keep my germs away from them 100% in this small house (I can't stay in my bedroom all day!). Plus, things like this happen: I'll cough into the crook of my arm and then two seconds later, with no warning, a child is burying her head into my sleeve right where I coughed.

Anyway, so far, so good. Madeline has a bit of cough and sniffles, but everyone seems quite healthy otherwise. I hope they stay healthy!

Highlights of the week

• seeing Sophia with her nose in a book -- not once, but several times! This is not something we've seen before. First she was reading a Junie B., First Grader (Barbara Park) book that I had read to the girls last year, and then she read a Frankie K. Stein Mad Scientist (Jim Benton) book very quickly. She absolutely loved it. It's so nice to see her reading for fun.
• having Monday off because I worked the previous Friday (I was attending a conference). I took Georgia for her H1N1 vaccination that morning (the first day for her age group) as it was my only opportunity all week. We had to wait a couple hours, but I was glad to get it done first thing and have the rest of the day at home.
• sending a big box of children's shoes (sizes 3 to 9) with Donna and Lou to give away in Mexico. They are also taking a bunch of baby clothes I had given them earlier, and I'm hoping to take more with us when we go to Texas in December.
• seeing my sister-in-law, Shauna, who came from Edmonton to visit for a few days. (Also, it was very nice of her to bring me some scrapbooking supplies so I wouldn't have to order them from the U.S. and pay a huge fee for shipping. Thanks again Shauna!)
• ordering three books from Blurb -- everything posted on my blog in 2007 (Volumes 9, 10, and 11). That was when I was posting photos daily and I wrote a bunch of other stuff. I'm amazed at how much I posted that year.
• having supper at L&B's and hanging out with Laurel and Shauna (and the kids) on Saturday evening while Neil was at the Rider game.
• reading happy status updates on fb after the big Rider W on Saturday. It's great that the Riders are #1 in the west for the first time since 1976. I really hope they win the next TWO games! And then I'll be really happy to see THE END of football obsession for this year. ;-)
• seeing Madeline's eagerness to do her French reading homework (La Roue). For two months, she wouldn't even bring it home from school every day even though she was supposed to, and now she's absolutely determined to work on it every day. And she wants to do it for a long time. Plus she wants to practice piano every day. It's incredible! (Now, if only I could channel some of that homework/practice ethic into Sophia...)