It's a..............

Well, the countdown for one thing is over!!!! I am so excited. I pretty much already knew what Diana was having anyway and now I'm even more excited that we actually know for sure. We all had our suspicions and all had the same guess just mostly because of how she's carrying this pregnancy. I think she's pretty excited about it too. Now she can decorate and paint the room in the theme and colours she wants and not something gender neutral.

Now to only count down for everything else. It's now about one week less for everything else. Two weeks till Easter, 5 weeks of misery and tax season (hopefully we'll shut down May 1st and take that Friday off), 7 weeks & 2 days till Mexico, 14 weeks for baby #1 and 28 weeks till baby #2. I'm feeling pretty good about it all. And yes Cath, I'm going to enjoy every moment I can in between and enjoy the journey of it all!!! Oh, did I forget to mention that it's a........... hahahahaha, just kidding, it's a girl.

3,3,6,8,15,29

THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS!!!!!! So, I started counting down to things. The first 3 is for the number of days until my sister Diana goes for her 3D ultrasound to find out whether she's having a girl or a boy. It's pretty exciting. Then it's 3 more weeks of work, including this week, until we get a day off for Easter. It will be so nice to have that. Six is the number of weeks left of this miserable tax season. It's been crazy around here at the office and I'm looking forward to things calming down. It also means that I get my Friday's off back. I love Fridays off and they last until sometime in September. Oh for regular four day work weeks!!!!!

Eight is the number of weeks until we, as a whole family (well mostly) go to Mexico for my brother's wedding. It's going to be so much fun and I can't wait to sit around for a week and just veg. Veronica's dress is gorgeous and Cachie's outfit is absolutely so cute!!! Diana's even being adventurous enough to make a dress for the wedding. She's having to piece together patterns and basically make it up so I think she's nuts but that's what she does. Fifteen is the number of weeks left until Diana's due date and I get baby #1. I'm so excited to have another baby in the family and especially that Diana's finally having a baby. And finally Twenty-nine is the number of weeks until Karen's due date which is baby #2. Yup, I get two new babies this year!!!!! I'm so excited. I cracked up when I realized all her kids are 3 years and 3 months apart. She said it was a total fluke. Karen's kids are the cutest so it's going to be fun.

So in the mean time, I try and survive and sometimes enjoy each day. Some days are harder than others but soon it will be relaxing again. As it is today I have a busy busy day and I'll be away from the office helping out a client learning some bookkeeping stuff. It's either going to be a short day, or a very very LONG day.

My Widowed Mother Drives Me Crazy!!!!

Now, I love my mom and I'll do anything for her, which may actually be what annoys the most in this situation. So she calls me around noon today a little stressed because her check tire pressure alarm/light/whatever you want to call it, came on today. So I told her I was busy but I'd be there eventually. She starts panicking like she wants me there now but all I needed was an hour or so, I hadn't even showered yet. Anyway, so I go over to her house and I pull out a tire pressure gauge and show her how to use it. She thought it was just the one tire that was low, which was low. So I told her if we were going out I was making her come to Best Buy with me. Well, I had washed my car just before I went over there and so now all of a sudden she wants to wash her car too. So we go to the gas station and before we even filled the tires I checked all of them and they were all low, so I showed her how to fill the tire. She figured it was pretty easy and she might actually remember to do it. I made the comment that it was easier than checking your oil in the car and she said ya, she doesn't even know how to do that. I just rolled my eyes.

See my dad taught Karen and I how to do all this stuff and take care of a car. Diana totally missed out, not because dad wouldn't teach her but because she had her head in the clouds too much and mostly just didn't care. Mom figured she'd never have to take care of a car and swore she never would but now, without dad, ya, she's calling on me now to do most of it. So we got the tires filled, washed the car and headed to Best Buy. Of course since we were going there we had to stop at Chatter's salon for hair stuff for her, and Home Depot. Now Home Depot is another funny story.

The bracket on the back of her dresser had broken so she took it upon herself to go to Rona last night and ended up buying the wrong bracket. The had the right one at Home Depot. So then come to find out that she had pulled the drill out to install the one she bought last night. Oh my goodness. She so did not need to do that and I was laughing and making fun of her. She said the funny thing was she pulled the drill out because she thought I'd laugh at her if she didn't. The old bracket had a 3rd hole in a weird place, well all I did was put the new one in with a screwdriver and had to make 3 new holes and still didn't need the drill. You kind of have to see it to understand but it's really quite funny. Honestly, some days that woman drives me nuts. The only consolation I got was she at least took me out for dinner to repay me for helping her. My mother is far too much class to do all this stuff on her own. Good thing that at least Karen and I are enough tom-boyish enough to know how to do stuff and help fix things.

Mom and dad may have had 6 girls and 1 boy but dad taught his girls to do work. I can't tell you how many projects Karen and I did with dad. I built the fence with him, both fences in different summers. You should have seen Diana trying to help with the first one when we were teens. That was pretty pathetic. I'm glad I learned all I did because it helps with fixing my own place and with all the phone calls I get from mom. I'm usually the first call since I'm the single one. Ugh!!!!! One more reason to wish to be married LOL!

Oh to have more money!!!!!

As you can tell there hasn't really been anything going on since I got home from Utah. My life is pretty boring and plain. I even already started counting down the days to MEXICO!!!!! Only problem with that one is I have to go with my entire family to that one. That's going to be interesting.

Now on to the reason for writing today. I noticed something my boss had the other day and it quite excited me. Only problem is, a) I don't have the money for it and b) I don't want to go alone. They call it Broadway Across Canada and there are 4 plays coming to Edmonton I'd love to see. They are Lion King, A Chorus Line, Fiddler on the Roof, and Chicago. Apparently you can buy season tickets that gets you in to all of these. I looked it up and to go to all four of them would cost me about $300 - 350 for just me!!!! Oh to have money and be able to buy a SET of tickets and have someone go with me to them. I don't get to do stuff like that often enough and I totally love it. I remember seeing Joseph and Les Miserable with my family. Maybe one day if I ever get married (HA ya right) he'll do things like that for me. Oh to dream!!!!! As it stands, I realized the other day that I haven't been to a movie in FOREVER and there are a ton of them out there I want to see. Heck, there are about 30 I'm sure I'd love to rent at Blockbuster alone. I've been missing out a lot lately and it's just because I've been so dang busy. I have something planned at least one night of every weekend for then next month and none of it includes dates of any kind or any activity that will find me a man LOL.

So for now, I sit and dream of the hopeful possibility of someday somebody loving me enough to take me to the shows. Yup, that's what I'm doing at work today, day dreaming of things that will never come to pass. Might as well, got nothing else to do since I finally caught up on all of my work.

Cock-a-doodle-doo

At this point I am so glad to be coming home. My back is starting to kill me from the bed I'm sleeping in, and I thought mine was bad. The best part of the day is that I get to be woken up by a stupid rooster every morning. My sister's neighbor has a dumb rooster. He's a hairdresser, barber or whatever the heck you want to call it and he got the dumb thing in trade from someone (I found this out from his daughter-in-law who is embarrassed over it and was the photographer at the wedding). They have some hens too and use them for the eggs which is fine because they're quiet. The dumb rooster isn't though.

The first night we were here my mom wanted to sleep with the window open so Kathy really found out what time the dumb thing crowed at. It was 5:17 am when it started. The funniest part is that they have it fenced off in their part of the yard and you can't see it in their yard, but the fence they have with Kathy is a chain link fence and Kathy can see and hear every thing. Plus since they live on the corner of the street the back of their yard is on the side of Kathy's yard and it's the side right next to her window. I find it all really funny actually, and the best part is that I get to go home and won't hear anything ever again!!!!

I definitely don't have plans to come back here for a long time. I have now been here four years in a row. Usually I only come every other year but this year and two years ago some "extra" trips came up. I am SO done with Utah for a long time. I'm absolutely allergic to this place too. I wake up every morning with a swollen face and my nose so stuffed I can't breathe. You should see how much I sneeze everyday. And if I'm not sneezing I'm trying to sneeze but it never quite comes, which drives me completely nuts. I think home is the best place to be. I just hope that San Fransisco gets it right and that my luggage makes the connection so I have my stuff when I go home. (Sigh) Ahhhhhh, to sleep in my own bed again tonight!! This makes me very happy!!!

BLACK OUT Before the Wedding

You would not believe the day we had yesterday. My sister Kathy, mother of the bride, was just trying to finish sewing the sash for my niece for her dress when we saw a flash of light and heard a bang/popping noise outside and then the lights went out. Now Kathy has has a few blackout's here before, they have issues with it more often then most people should. So after about half an hour Kathy called the power company and they gave us a time of 10pm for the lights to be back on, it was 4:45 when they went out. When Braeden, the groom, came home he told us that there was a pole bent in half on some one's house. Kathy ran over to a friends house to finish the sewing and mom, Shelley and I stayed and did our Sudoku and other puzzles. Rene showed up (childhood friend of Kathy's that lives here now) and we visited with her and then the light from outside started to disappear quickly. Now in the valley here when the sun goes downs, it disappears fast behind the mountains. It got dark very fast. Kathy finally showed up and we all went out for dinner. The funniest part though it when Kathy was gone her ex B came to get Toren for dinner and had been outside ringing the bell getting angry and annoyed that Toren wasn't coming to the door so he called Kathy very upset. Kathy then nicely asked him if he had tried knocking at all cause Toren was home and the power was out so the door bell wouldn't work. He was like, oh, then knocked and I answered the door immediately. Goof

So we went to dinner and then did some shopping. While we were out we got a phone call giving us a revised time of 2am for the power to be back on. We stopped and got some additional flashlights from friends. So here we are running around the house with flashlights. I had stuff all over the bed and had to use that dinky light to clean up the room so Shelley and I could sleep in there. Then we got the retarded phone call giving us a new revised time of 6am. That's when Kathy started to panic a little. She had to be up at 6 since she was getting her hair done at 8 so phone calls were made to a few people to have them prepared in case we had to go use their houses to get ready in the morning. Not the kind of thing you want to have to deal with on a wedding day. You should have seen how ridiculous Kathy looked running around the house with a headlamp and flannel pyjamas on. The funniest thing. Finally at 5:30 am I was woken up by the sound of the stereo turning on and cycling through the Cd's. Oh happy day!!!! It has definitely made getting 8 people ready for a wedding easier with light. At least not all of us have to leave early which is helping the showering schedule too. As it sits right now all but 3 of us have showered and that batch of us isn't leaving for another hour and a half, but we are low on hot water and have to wait for a bit for that. I'm not showering in a cold shower.

I'm just hoping that the rest of the day goes smoothly and I don't end up wanting to kill anyone, if I do it would most likely be Kathy, but she's been better than expected so far. Or it might just be an in general want to kill everyone just because I'll be gone ALL DAY stuck in someone else's car and have ABSOLUTELY NO ESCAPE from everybody. This is the only really huge disadvantage to flying is that I can't run away and if I want to I have to beg to go somewhere. Here's to hoping I survive and make it back home in one piece on Sunday!!!!

Frustratingly Ticked Off

So I flew down here to Utah for some fun and for my nephew's wedding, which it tomorrow. So first of all I get to Denver and have to go to the counter to get a seat assigned only to find out that they had over sold the flight and they were asking for volunteers so another girl and I could get on the plane. They did get the volunteers and I made it on the plane, but of course, my luggage did not. This wasn't a big deal because it was on the next plane from Denver which came in another two hours. They told me they would deliver the luggage and if it wasn't there by 10:30 to give this 1-800 number a call. Well, they weren't there and when called were told they should be there by 12:30. HA YA RIGHT!!!!! They had a snow storm last night, which was so mild it's not even funny. It was thick wet snow but not a big deal but oh my goodness, I'm sure whoever the courier service was decided they didn't want to deliver any more last night.

This morning my sister Kathy was so ticked off that she called and bugged the guy saying we had a wedding at noon, which we do, it's just tomorrow. He had promised a call back and we heard nothing. An hour later - 8:30am by this point - Kathy called again and got the same guy on the phone and said we were leaving by 10 for this wedding. Well, five minutes later the delivery guy called and said the van had broken down (same excuse they gave Kathy at Christmas when Taya went home and her luggage took 2 days to arrive) and he had to get another one. He said he would be 30-45 mins, maybe an hour and Kathy again emphasized the wedding thing. I mean I'm only here for 4 days really. All this time she's doing this she's pretending to be me too!! Then after an hour she called the delivery guy, caller ID, and bugged him again. He had passed it off to someone else and said he'd check into it. About half an hour later I finally got my luggage and went downstairs BUT THE FREAKING BAG IS BROKEN!!!! At first I just saw the clip was broken and then raised the pull along handle and oh my, one of the sides is completely gone. This is BRAND NEW never used before luggage too!! I am so ticked and now I have to go back to the airport to report the freaking damage. UUUUUGGGGGGHHHH!!!!!! I hope it's not such a pain in my behind when I go home Sunday.

I'm Gonna Fly Away

YYYYYYEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!
I am so excited. Today I get to fly away. The destination isn't important, just that I get to go away for a few days. I love getting away. I'm a little nervous to go through security because of all the new crap they have going on. The last time I flew it was easier than it is now. The whole reason I drive everywhere is cause I can't stand all the rules and crap you have to go through. I'm only headed down to Utah to visit my sister and nephew since he's getting married on Friday. I figure it's a good practice for a run through when we go down to Mexico in May for my brother's wedding. I'm all packed, ready to go and waiting till 9am when my brother is picking me up to drive me. I'm not nervous to fly at least. I get a little stressed when we first start to take off and land but otherwise I enjoy the flight.

I'm still really sad about not seeing Dreamboat this week. Like Jenn said though, maybe it's a good thing and he'll appreciate what he's got when I'm gone. In spite of that, it all in all has been a good week. I found out I have a second baby on the way this year. That's two babies I get to play with and enjoy without all the fuss of being pregnant and raising them. One due in the beginning of July and one due near the beginning of October. This is SO much fun. I love my little kids and to have 2 more will be even more fun!!!!

I'll keep you posted on how I survive the week with my sister. This could be interesting but I'm hoping she's pretty chill. I think tomorrow all the kids are in school or working and Kathy has the day off so she, mom, Shelley and I all get to have fun and play. Shelley hasn't been down to visit in years so it's good for her to be going. She and mom flew down at 6am this morning and should be landing soon. Those suckaz got stuck with an early flight and had to be up at 2 am to leave by 3 or 330 since you have to be at the airport 2 stupid hours early. HAHAHAHAHA on them. The flew direct and I do have a layover, but at least it's only and hour and in Denver so I'm all good. See ya soon!!!!

I Like Big Butts and I Cannot Lie.......

I can honestly say life is so fantastic right now. I may not have everything I had hoped for in life right now but I have some of the greatest friends anyone could ever hope for and that makes it so wonderful. Saturday night was one of the funniest times I've had in a while. Jenn and I had decided that since Emily had to cancel her birthday last month, due to the face that she had the flu and bronchitis, that we would throw her a surprise party. Jenn was going to have people over to celebrate her new basement but decided this was more fun. Emily had been pretty sad about having to cancel and we felt pretty bad for her. It was so much fun to plan too. We decided an a Hawaiian theme since Em had lived there for 2 years and loves it and I have to say, Jenn got some pretty fun stuff at the dollar store. We had chocolate fondue, and mix stuff to make our own virgin strawberry daiquiri's and pina colada's. Somehow I turned in to the bar tender and everyone loved the drinks, even when I don't like coconut and pineapple and couldn't test the pina colada's. Then the games began hahahahahaha!!!!!!

Well, Boxers or Briefs is the favourite game when we get together to play these days. Such a funny game. When can give the craziest cards to your friends and then can insinuate what you want them to and take the harshest criticism with the joke it's intended it's the best. When JB can get the card "I am the wicked witch of the west", laugh about it and then give T the true chip for it you know it's a good night. I'm still laughing about that one today. I got a few I am out of control, I am on something crazy type of cards which were funny. Every time someone rolled "I like" there was always someone in the crowd who started to sing "I like big butts and I cannot lie". So when it came to the last couple of rounds I heard Jenn say "oh yes, I got it" I was curious which card she had. So we did a couple more people and then it was Emily's turn and we were finishing with her. She asked what she should roll and Jenn wanted an "I like" and just by fluke Emily did roll and "I like". So we all chose our cards for Emily and then when she read them she got to the one Jenn threw in and it said "I like big butts and I cannot lie". What a funny way to end the evening. It could not have ended on a funnier not. You know it's fantastic when we all stayed for the entire time and we were all laughing to hard. I mean, I had streams of tears running down my face constantly. The hyena didn't really make much of an appearance thank goodness, but oh did I laugh. It was such a funny night. I love it when I can laugh that hard, I feel so much better. I had been tense and stressed before I got there from all the secret keeping and getting Emily there (btw, she was very surprised) and then thinking about getting ready for my trip. Laughter really is the best medicine.