Goodbye 2010, hello 2011

2010 was, well it was quite a year. It was a year of great happiness and a year of great sorrow for many around me. My boys each celebrated their birthdays in the North, something that has not happened since moving. My sister-in-law had a beautiful little boy, my friend had a beautiful little girl, and another friend met her daughter and said goodbye to her daughter in the same moment. I've become closer to a woman who I've never actually met , to the point I would call her one of my closest confidants. We did a lot of travelling this year all over Saskatchewan and into Alberta. My boys finally visited the West Edmonton Mall and we have all become very settled and comfortable in this community. I am almost finished a 2 year Early Childhood Certificate program, paid for by my employer, and have a photography business that is really taking off. Happy New Years to you, my blogger friends and family. Here's hoping 2011 is all you want it to be, and more.

Hello my name is Tina and......

I am a yarn hoarder. I was talking to my sister on the phone this evening and we were chatting about what she'll be doing when she comes here in February. The topic of knitting came up, as she is trying to teach herself how to knit. I told her crocheting is much easier and more fun to do, at least in my opinion. Which got us to talking about how much yarn I have here. I told her I would take a picture for her. I started collecting yarn last year when I had a crocheting club going in the evenings with a few ladies here in town. I was in a thrift store and found some great deals on yarn (BOXES full for $5.00 sort of deals). I labourously sorted through the boxes, winding up the balls of yarn, and even tying the little ends together to make big balls of multi colored yarn. Rob keeps threatening to throw it all away, because I honestly don't crochet much anymore because I don't have a lot of time. I can throw just about anything else away, but I can't throw ANY of the yarn away, and if I am at a rummage sale or a thrift store and see yarn, I just HAVE to buy it. I have no problem giving it away to people who need some, and I have a friend who will often call me up to see if I have a certain color because she is starting / finishing a project and doesn't have the right color. I can't help it. Here, let me show you what I mean.

The main supply. I put Joey's Tonka truck next to it to give you an idea of how big and full this is. This one is kept in the closet in the playroom, because Rob kept giving me grief about it when he saw it in our closet. This bag is in our closet, and it's full also. This bag has a much of smaller balls of various colors in the bottom, plus a few patterns and some hooks of various sizes. This is the "emergency" bag that I keep inside the door for when we're going on road trips and I don't have time to pack a project to work on in the truck.

Even as I type this, I realize how crazy this looks. Everyone has to have one obsession right?

Christmas in pictures

The night before Christmas via webcam (for some reason this picture won't upload properly)

Remote control 4x4

Tinkerbell DS game

Present from Gramma Jeannine.

Hand made gloves from Kara.

Chocolate in stockings is always a good thing.

Only my husband

Earlier this year Rob and I decided that we would not spend a lot of money on ourselves this year because we are taking a mini "just us" vacation in February and I wanted to save our money to spend there. Of course, with my husband this went in one ear and out the other. I, being true to my word, kept within the budget we "ahem" I set, and of course he blew it right to hell. The only thing I wanted for Christmas is a Kindle, or some version of it. (For those of you who don't know, (MOM), a Kindle is an electronic reader. When we were in Edmonton, Colby let it out of the bag that him and his dad we in an electronics store asking the sales rep about e-readers, so I have been very quiet about knowing what I was getting for Christmas. I even accidently saw an email come in about Kobo, so when I saw that well, I knew for sure. Rob has been super secretive and dropping hints about Christmas, so I didn't want to burst his bubble by telling him that I knew what he bought me. The only thing he said is that he blew the budget out of the water, but it was OK because the gift he bought me we both could use. So Christmas morning he keeps this box for me to open very last and I was preparing to pretend to be surprised when I saw my e-reader. Well, when I opened the box I was confused when I saw the Apple symbol and it took me a second to realize that he didn't buy an e-reader, he bought an I-Pad. And when he turned it over I started to bawl.

Can you see the inscription? No, here I'll give you a closer look. He knew I'd be pissed when I saw it, knowing how much they cost. I wasn't pissed, I was in shock. I really didn't know what to think. I felt horrible because I stayed within our budget (which was 200.00 including stocking) and he .. well, you know how much this cost. But, now that I've had 2 days to get used to it, I love it. And I'm very quickly filling up my e-library with free books, because let's face it, I'm cheap. :)

Happy Christmas Eve!

Making cookies for Santa. Merry Christmas eve everyone!

I LOVE baby sessions

The smartest idea I ever stole from someone else

We went to a house one time and a friend of ours had something like this set up. The mom (super smart savvy woman she is) used a shoe organizer just inside her door for her kids to put their hats and mitts in. I have been using a laundry basket at the top of the closet and it has been a nightmare. When we went out of town the other day Rob found one and I have to say, it works like a charm. You're welcome. :)

Since I'm not allowed to put this on Fac@book

Happy birthday to the other man in my life. You're just crazy enough to be part of this crazy family. I did as you asked (I know, shocked me too) and didn't put anything on face b@@k but you KNOW I couldn't let it go without announcing it somewhere. :)

Colby's christmas concert

Happy birthday for the 16th time

Today my super sexy wonderful hubby is celebrating his birthday. I realized last night that this is the 16th birthday we have celebrated together. I'm so proud to be married to him. Happy birthday honey!

My crazy kid

My kids are addicted to Netflix, and more specifically Myth Busters. Joe has now decided that he is Jamie, and has been dressed like this all night. The "beret" is his touque flattened out, and add Rob's old glasses frames (we popped the lenses out long ago and he loves playing with them) and viola! Jamie it is. Only my kid.

One of the most beautiful weddings I've ever photographed

Christmas portraits are now on!

This is a picture I did of the boys to show people that I am now booking for Christmas sessions. I also did a portrait of the boys, but this is NOT it. :)

The last week or so in pictures.. of course

We went to see a one man travelling magic show here in town. He was great and the kids loved it Brought out the craziness So proud I am, to say these are both mine. :)

Joe and Louie, our preschool turtle.

Joey got stuck in the tree at preschool, so of course I had to take a picture.

This is for you Kara. I took down the vent over my stove to seal it for the winter and this fell out. I still have it on the stove if you'd like me to box it up for you. There were 2 of them but Pebbles ate one. :P

Teaching him to read so early may not be a good thing after all.....

We have recently switched to the local cable provider here in town because they offer digital cable. We have had satellite TV since we moved to the north, carrying our receiver and dish with us with every move. We are advocates of supporting local business, so it was a no brainer for us to switch over. We were watching the local "scroll" channel the other day, which is where we find out what is going on in town, etc and the ad for the digital cable channels came on the screen. Here they are: (it will make sense in a few seconds why this is here)

News Pack $2.95 298 CBC Regina 504 CNBC 501 BBC World News 510 Bloomberg East 503 FOX News 511 MSNBC

Entertainment $5.95 405 Game TV 608 Sundance 512 Bold TV 573 COSMO 521 Showcase East 582 BET 528 Space 583 CMT 548 Comedy West 590 MTV 2 549 Game Show Network

Lifestyle $6.49 572 Travel 568 W West 575 ONE 564 HGTV 507 VIVA 565 DIY (Do It Yourself) 534 BBC Canada 567 W East 561 Food Network 571 Fashion

680 Playboy ($19.95)

685 Hustler ($15.95)

Without missing a beat, Joey looks at the screen and says very excitedly and loudly:

"Look, Playboy!"

I was torn between being proud that my son recognized the two words "play" and "boy" and was able to read them together, and mortified at the thought that my son can read the word "Playboy" and I'm sure will embarrass me publically very soon when we're out somewhere and says "Look mom, Playboy! Like on our TV!"

Colby's birthday

Thursday was Colby's birthday and he turned 9 years old. I'm still in shock that he only has one year left in the single digits and they the tweens and then... well, you see where this is going. When we talked about his birthday, he said that he wanted to invite 20 kids. So, being the good mom that I am, made 20 invitations, because well not everyone you invite comes to a party. Boy was I wrong when there was 20 kids in my livingroom. He had a great time, we had just enough food (3 pizzas, 3 cases of pop and 36 hotdogs) and lots of laughs.

November 2, 2007......

.... was by far the darkest day in my life. It started the day before when I got a call from my sister saying that my dad was dying in the hospital and we had to get there.. NOW. I'll never forget that call. I was on the phone with her on and off all that morning but that call at lunch time I will never forget. We had been living in Behchoko for 6 months at the time. Through the amazing support of the Northwest Company and a fantastic woman at Royal Bank Visa, we were able to leave pretty much immediately and arrived in Halifax by 7am the next morning. I'm just glad we were all there. It is no surprise to anyone who knows me in real life that I have always been the strong one in my family. Everyone has relied on me for as long as I can remember to be the one who holds it all together. I think that is why my marriage works so well, because with Rob I know I don't always have to be the strong one. Today for the most part has been a day of reflection for me. I'm at the point that the memories I have of my dad are the good ones. Dad and I were always very close, and it's no secret that I miss him like crazy and it super sucks that he's not here. It is not for anyone to understand why, you'll drive yourself crazy trying to answer that. For people who say it gets easier with time, they're liars or they've never lost anyone close to them. It never gets easier, you just learn to continue living without them in your life. I make sure to talk about Dad with the boys all the time, and I have a large family collage in my kitchen that has many pictures of him in it. Joey and I were looking at pictures just last night, and I'm proud to say Joe still knows who he is, even if it is just in pictures. Today sucks, but it's over and tomorrow is another day. Luckily for me the anniversay of Dad's death is overshadowed by the celebration of Colby's birthday, and I'll always make sure that it will stay that way.

My silly husband.... #2

For the last week I have had 2 husbands, albeit I didn't see them a whole lot. They spent the week hunting, and I didn't mind because they both work super hard in their jobs and needed a break. They were gone everyday at 0'stupid-hundred, and seems to have enjoyed themselves. While Adam visits here, he for some reason like to use 1 glass / mug per day. I just don't get it. To me, when I'm doing dishes if there are cups on the counter, I wash them. So Adam got it in his head that he would start hiding his cups. This started a friendly rival between him and I when I found one of his mugs in Rob's tool closet. I took the cup and left this note: I should have known Adam wouldn't have left it there. He left Sunday morning at 6Am and when I got up I found this in front of my coffee maker: I must admit, pre-coffee I'm not all that swift. I didn't really get it at first, until I opened up my cupboard and found this: Do you notice what's missing? That's right.. ALL MY COFFEE MUGS! He hid one here:

and here:

and here: and here:

and here:

I laughed for the entire day. Only Adam. And I guess he had it planned for days. I truly love you Adam, even if you still haven't shaved. :)

My letter to the president of Saskt*l

I have been prompted to email you because of a situation that I have been dealing with. I have been a Sasktel customer for almost 2 years and have never been late on my account. I feel customer loyalty is something that should be valued by any company, and I do not feel that has been in my situation. I have a Blackberry Pearl Flip that up until the last 2 weeks I have been very happy with. Within the last 2 weeks I have had many problems with the phone and called Customer Care to find out what I could do. Initially I spoke with a representative who escalated the call by saying "there is nothing *I* can do for you" when I explained my situation (my phone was not working and very unreliable, as I live in a northern community and rely on this when I am travelling on the highway, so I wanted to replace the device). Of course, when she said that it prompts any customer to say " I would like to speak to someone who can help me". I spoke with a supervisor named Chris who advised me to speak with the technical department to see if there was any programming within the phone that could be fixed, and if not to call him on his direct number to discuss replacing the phone. I called him today because although I did go through the troubleshooting steps with the technical department the phone is still freezing up, displaying error messages and not receiving calls. I left him a message today but did not hear back from him, which prompted me to call back tonight to customer care to start this all over. I was advised that Chris had left for the day and would not be back until Monday (I'm sorry, that is horrible customer service not to return phone messages before leaving). The representative tonight, although she was very nice told me the only option would be to either buy out the Blackberry Contract (210.00) and switch to a basic phone (Samsung 79.00) or to play 320.00 which is the difference between the 3 year and the 2 year contract price of the Blackberry Pearl I currently own, then I would be eligible to buy another phone and extend my contract. As I am sure you can appreciate, neither of these options appeal to me. Here is why I am so upset. I am told that I am not eligible to upgrade my phone until July 2011, which is 8 months from now. I pay on average 70.00 per month on my cellular service, and I am a very light user. So, what you customer service and manager on duty tonight are saying is that if I pay to the company $560.00 in service, (70.00 a month for the next 8 months), I will be eligible to upgrade my phone at that time without it costing hundreds of dollars, unless I want to buy the exact same phone for $125.00. Phones are being practically given away to new customers. I am aware that the price of the phone is recovered by the monthly service paid by the new customers, but it really feels like unless you are a new customer, your business doesn't matter. That is the impression I am getting from customer care. I calculated that it would cost me $610.00 to cancel my service right now, which without having a reliable device I may as well do and then purchase a prepaid phone with another company to use when I am travelling, which is really the only time I use the phone.

I am not even sure that anything can be done at this point, according to your customer service department I have been given all the options. I am just really not happy with any of these options. I am not looking for one of the new fancy phones, that really doesn't appeal to me. What I need is a device that works and that is reliable, which is something I do not have right now, and I get the impression of your company via your customer service department that unless I want to pay hundreds of dollars, I'm out of luck. Unless of course I want to find a used one somewhere like kijiji, which is the advice the first representative gave me.

Our trip to Saskatoon.. in pictures of course

Colby has been saving his money for this Nerf gun. Just what I need, a Nerf gun that shoots 60 darts.

Rob enjoying his Red Bull, a little too much.

Saskatchewan is so proud of the Roughriders Tim Hortons actually has a Roughriders donut.

Look what we bought at Wal-Mart!

Colby being silly.

Cart racing.

Playing tic tac toe while waiting for supper at Montana's.

Pebbles.

My boys love to wrestle.