My Grandmother's 73rd Birthday
Today the ladies in the family got together for my grandmother's birthday party.
It is her first since my grandfather passed so it was nice to get ther out and not be alone. We all went to Jungle Jim's...some of you may not know of this place as I believe it is Canadian, LOL. There was probably about 10 of us there, and other than my aunt who drove her, we were all waiting there to suprise her.
We all ate our meal and then ofcourse the staff had to come out and sing her happy birthday and give her a piece of cake with a sparkler in it. Well, it wasn't really happy birthday....it was more of the army version, you know, "I don't know but I've been told...someone here is getting old"!
Most people dread that part, but my grandmother seemed to enjoy it well enough. I was the only one there who remembered the camera (always good intentions, but you always forget it when you really want some pics), so I snapped the pics for the day.

My Scrappin' Sense!!!
I have eluded to the fact that I love scrapbooking but I have only put a few layouts that I have done on my blog...so I thought now that I had some time I would do so.
Most of my pages are of my nieces because I don't have any children of my own yet. The pages that I am uploading are ones that I have finished recently. I was really into digital scrapbooking for a while and kinda put the paper scrappin' to the side, as it turns out I like paper scrappin' a bit better.
Both are good in their own right, but I have gone back to paper...MOSTLY, LOL. I don't know what I would say that my scrappin sense really is....probably more of whatever I feel like when I am going the page.
I will say that for the most part I am pretty simple. I think a page/layout can look just as nice without a bunch of snazzy techniques, but I do also use them sometimes as well. Again, it's how I feel at the time.
I know that I love 2-sided paper and I tend to have 3 colors on every page...habits I guess. I am not a person who is loyal to only one company of paper, when I go to the scrappin' store there is sometimes a line of corridinating paper that I must have, but I get what appeals to me from any line. I do always make sure that I have a well rounded set of cardstock. I tend to be sentimental in what I journal on a page more so than being cute, funny or punny and that is mostly because I am worried no one will get it! I love to look at other people's work and often get inspiration from it, but refuse to carbon copy a layout or card, aside from paper I must change it in a noticable way or I don't feel like it is my page.

The new Living room
Let me start be showing you the very end result of what has been quite the adventure this week before I begin to tell you what happened...
So, this week I was hosting my scrap group at my house. I figured that now would be the perfect time to touch up the living room wall (a painting had fallen and left some scrapes in the wall). I went to Walmart with my paint chip to get just a small can of paint for touch ups. The man made 3 cans of paint before he felt that he got it right..this should have been my red flag. Because he would not put a dab of paint on the paint chip I had nothing really to compare with, so home I came and put the paint on the needed areas.OH NO!!!! It was nowhere near the same color. I tried to fix it by putting some white and yellow in it, but I simply ended up with a huge darker green circle on the main wall in my living room. Did I mention that I lost the paint chip at Walmart..no problem right, just go and get another paint chip. Wrong-the paint chip was 2 years old, and the store I got it from doesn't sell that brand anymore. So, we chose a new color and had to repaint the entire room, which means everything in the room had to change because of our color choice. It was turning out to be an expensive little scraping group LOL!!!! The decorating fanatic inside me didn't really mind so badly. So I will show you the before and after pics of the room....The green is before. I don't have any good before pics of the room

The caramel color is the new room:



The last pic is of a couple of the girls at my house scrappin'

Scrap nite Layout!!!!!

Somethimes at scrapgroup it can get a little hard to get things completed...too much talking, eating and tending to children. Having said that is is always fun!!! The girls laugh at me because unless I have forgotten a material that I needed aI can usually finish. I tell the the trick is to sit down for a while before you go to think about what they are going to do. I find the thinking is sometimes the most work. I actually wanted to burn the edge of the patterned paper that is not against the edge...I think it would have suited but I none of us girls smoked and I wasn't able to do it. It is a very simple layout, but the color of the patterned paper was no nice and bold that I really didn't need to go overboard with embellishments.

The week catch up!!!
It has been a long week. I got most of the home repair stuff done that I had on the list to do. The doors look great, though it is time to get new doorknobs and locks (these ones have some paint on them LOL, and one lock is getting loose. Trent came home early (on . He got a deer. At least I didn't have to help him hang it in the garage this year like I did last year.
Scrap group was fun except that people brought there little babies...it's not seeing them as much as the comments some people say when they don't realise what you have been going through. I was going to get pics but forgot to! I will sometime though. I worked on cards at Trent's mom's house and we went out for supper. I now habe 45 cards made. I am finished I hope because I am tired of making cards.
I worked a couple of days at my favorite school this week so that is always good.Though I had to leave early on Friday for the long awaited Dn'C. Yesterday I spent 8 hours at the hospital to finally have the Dn'C done. I couldn't eat or drink all day which is hard for me...but I survived. I feel pretty good today, nolingering pain.

Alone for a week!!!
Saturday Trent and I took my niece to the movies to see "Santa Clause 3", after taking her out for lunch. We had a good time. Then Trent and I spent the rest of Saturday alone as he is going away for the week. He left on Sunday and will be back on Saturday night sometime. I hate being alone so much...Trent works 12 hr shifts (and alot of extra ones too), and then any time we could have together he ends up doing something else. Though in this case, it is family tradition for the men to get together every year and go hunting.I have a couple work days booked for the and of the week, but I had to come up with some things to keep myself busy. So, I decided that this week would be home improvement week for me. I baught some filler for the wall since our new bed did so much damage to the walls bringing it in, I bought paint so that I could paint the inside of our outside doors (LOL...if that makes sense), I am going to clean the area rug that I took out of the living room when one of the dogs decided that it was the perfect place to eat the compost, and I am going to rerake the lawn if it warms up any. I also have scrap group on Wednesday evening, and I am going to visit with Trent's mom and work on some cards.Hopefully this will keep me planty busy. PS....I know that I haven't been taking many pics lately, but I will get back to doing that very soon!!!!
Today was our first real snow here in the "valley" of Nova Scotia. I took a few pictures because I love fresh snow (when it comes in small managable amounts that is...LOL)

The latest news
The doctors, because they want to be sure of everything need to do all these tests that take time before they will do anything final. So I had to go for another pregnany test which ofcoarse came back positive. I had a doctors appointment yesterday and she sent me to the lab to have a bloodtest done that checks the levels of hormones (which she actually had to get a specialist approval for), and I will have to take another bloodtest on Friday. Apparently it only takes two days to show a drop in hormones, so by tomorrow I may have something final set.In the meantime, my doctor is trying to get another ultrasound done today by the oncall obstetrician. My doctor showed me the report yesterday which indicated that my "empty sac" measured 10 weeks when I thought I was almost 12, but the doctor said that they can be off by about a week, and it is possible that I had actually conceived a little later than thought. So, my sac seems to be growing right on schedule LOL. The other thing she said about the report was that the sac was irregularly shaped. I am not sure how, but she said that she has never had a report come back that said that.I checked online and it can be caused by several things (usually which all lead to miscarraige). The real catch about the whole thing is that, if I get everything settled on Friday, there may be a strike in the hospitals all over Nova Scotia on Novemeber 6th, and I may have to wait for a D&C until that is over!!! I did speak to my doctor today and she said that the test taken yesterday indicated that the levels were at the low end, and my ultrasound is booked for Nov 16th/06.

Bad news
Yesterday I had an ultrasound that did not go as planned. We were supposed to find out if we were having twins or not, and if we were really lucky perhaps the sex of the baby. This is not what happened at all. What we discovered was that there was no baby at all. Every test came back positive, my blood test must have come back with normal hormone levels as my doctor never called me to indicate any problems, my examination was fine, I had morning sickness due to the hormones that my body was creating. I had everything...excpet a baby. The sac grew but nothing ever developed.I have to go for another blood test to confirm that the hormones have decreased as normal when there is no baby, and then I will have to have a DNC. The doctor said that it was rare for this to happen and it was likely that an egg was fertilized, but it just didn't go any further. This is sad news, but Trent and I have decided that there is nothing we can do to change the situation, so while we morn the idea of what we thought we had, we are willing to move on and try for another baby. The good news is that others with the same situation have gone on to have normal pregnancies, and this is what I need to focus on right now. Research and those with personal experience have told us that having a DNC can actually increase your chances of getting pregnant in the future. It is a small bit of positive, but something to hold onto. Next time though, I will not bring myself to say anything about being pregnant until I have had an ultrasound to prove that there is actually a baby growing. It's better that way, where no one gets there hopes up prematurely and there is less disappointment.

GO AWAY COLD....
I have had this cold for over a week now, so I have pretty much stayed in the house. It has been a slow couple of weeks for substituting. It is very inconsistent...when school started I was doing very well and was really busy, not so much though last week and this week. Not that I can really complain at the moment since this cold has gotten the best of me. Finally, I am seeing some improvement in my ability to breath (YAHOO)!!!
Yesterday I decided that in defence of the cold I should get some multivitamins. Now the obvious question is why aren't I already taking some sort of vitamin????? They make me sick...the better the vitamin the worse I feel. However, I can do chewable, and I could breath yesterday a little so out I went. It took three different stores before I could find a chewable adult multi.Yummy, they are strawberry.LOL.
On my way into town there is this house set really far back from the road, and out by the road is a series of big ponds lined with willow trees. I drive by all the time and wanted to get a picture, so my camera went with me. The weather was not the best yesterday, but Corel has features that were able to brighten up the bland color a bit. I will show ya what I took.

I've been tagged!!!!!!!!
RANDOM things related to number 5:
1)It took me 5 years to complete my first degree (psychology)
2)I found out I was pregnant in the fith week
3)There was 5 cameras in my house (though I gave 2 away, and one was an old disposable that I threw out all within the last month)
4)My baby is due in May (the 5th month)
5)There are 5 letters in my first name

5 weird things about me:
1) I can't stand rhytmic noises like clocks ticking, heavy breathing or SNORING (ask my husband lol)
2) Things that fly (especially around my head) scrae me.
3)I sleep with earplugs in (due to number 1.LOL)
4)I cry over sappy movies no matter how many times I have seen them. 50 First Dates still gets me.
5)I fold paper before I put it in the garbage, and I cannot have placemats on my table at all times because I spend way too much time straightening them.

I TAG:I don't know that many people on her yet so I will try to give as many names as I can...didi, Susan, Becky, Cari

Checking out some great blogs!!!!!!!!
I have been so busy setting up my own blog that today is the first day I have had a chance to check out some other blogs. I have to say that there are some very creative and artistic people here!!!!!!! It is nice to be in the company of people that share similar intrests. Not only do I love to scrapbook and to take pictures but I love to look at other people's as well, so I think I could get very addicted to Blogger!!!!
Anyway, I really should get back to todays task....yawn!!!!! I am working on too many years of shredding our papers! It has been piling up and today is the day. IT IS GOING!!!!!!! If ofcoarse I don't go insane first. My shredder is a little hand held one that can only hold 1 piece of paper at a time and it has to be folded into thrirds!!! This is going to be hours of work!! I'll write again when I come up from under the pile of papers.

CARD MAKING DAY!!!!!!!!
Saturday I made 20 Christmas cards. 5 of each different kind. Usually I only do cards for a few family members , but this year I had gone to a card party and made 10 cards that day. So, I figure that I am ahead of the game at the moment so I would make one for everyone this year. I still have more to make, but am almost done!!
This "Happy Holidays" card was very similar to one of the card party cards, with a few adjustments.

This "warmest holiday wishes" card is more classic and traditional with poinsettas.

This is "snowflakes"...and it is a different take on one of the card party cards. I love this one!

This is "snowman"..because of the glossy paper and sparkle it is hard to see him (SORRY!!, he is subtle and ore of a modern card. Again, this is a diffrent take on one of the card party cards. Thanks to Teri-lynn (my sister-in-law) for having the card party...it is a good way to get ideas (which she always has plenty of), and I didn't have to spend sooo much time thinking about what I was going to do for cards after. It was easrier to think "I could change this by....", and that way they feel more like my own cards.

The cutest dog ever!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have four animals, but the one that gets to me is my little Dory. She is so cute and sweet. We have had her since November '05, and she was 5 months old when we got her. I would say that she is going through her toddler stage right now because she can be kind of funny, and can act like a 2 year old at times. She didn't have the best life before we got her, and she is deaf. Beacuse of her questionable life before me, I tend to treat her with special care. She is so full of love, and wants to snuggle most of the day. Once in awhile though she wioll get really playful and chew my shoes. Those are her toddle days!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone seems to spoil her. My mother just baought her a bunch of sweaters and outdoor gear. LOL. I know it sounds silly, but you can actually see her skin through her think hair. I ofcoarse took lots of pictures...which she truely loves!!! She got booties last night as well, and though I can't show you I have to tell you that is was the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. I have video of it, but I don't know how to apply it to my blog. There is a bit of a drizzle her at the moment so she has her raincoat on, but she decided to hide in the flower garden because she doesn't like wet grass. Finally, she left there and did her business so I could get inside. Being pregnant I seem to catch everything that comes my way (even if I don't know it's coming). So now I am on my second cold since I found out I was pregnant. Next Sunday is my 12th week so I will have a pic. Right now I only take 1 at the beging of every preg. month as the changes aren't that great yet. SOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got the idea to post a blog as a way for family and friends to always be able to know what is going on in my life from my sister-in-law. So here we go!!!!!!!!!! I am almost three months pregnant now and am feeling pretty good most of the time. Morning really are the worst. I dread eating breakfast because I don;t feel like eating, can't find anything I want to eat, and then feel bad for about 2 hours after I eat it. Regardless, of my eating less though, my pants are still getting tighter. This out there who have been pregnant before know exactly what I am talking about don't you. It's a lovely time in the pregnancy. Don't get me wrong though, I am loving being pregnant and actually can;t wait until I start to show.My career is teaching at the elementary level. I have worked in an instistution setting before, but I am better suited to teach. I love it a lot!!!!!!!!! Right now I am a substitute teacher. Wher I live, getting a contract position is actually quite difficult. I have only been doing this for 1 full year,so it may even take a couple more before something comes up. Hopefully not, but I may not have the choice. Aside from what I do I absolutely love photography and scrapbooking. I am looking forward to sharing some pics with everyone, once I get it all figured out.