Almost every store in our town has gone green, which is great, except I keep forgetting those bags I spent 2.99 on and having to purchase the stupid plastic bags anyway.

Green shopping is worth it, I guess, from an environmental stand point, but since I suck suck suck at remembering things, this whole change to green has been a hassle for me.

I like Costco. When we shop there, it is usually boxes of food, or bigger items and Costco never has the bag option. Instead they offer boxes that you can use to cart your stuff to your vehicle. Often we are buying foods that are already packaged in boxes and don't use on of the store boxes. Grocery shopping, with all the little things that need to be bought, you NEED bags! (I guess a box could work, but you need something!)

AHNYway. I was just thinking about how on Friday it is Hub's payday and we go shopping every Saturday after payday except this Saturday we will be heading down to my dad's house to mud, sand and paint some exposed drywall before dad gets antsy and tries to do it himself!

I guess we can do our shopping Friday evening. Or Sunday. Doesn't really matter, I guess, It's not like I will remember to bring the bags !

O_0

When we moved into our house five years ago, there were four bushes, two different kinds, in our front yard. The Creeping Juniper bush, disgusting, spider filled ickyness that they are were removed the same weekend we moved in - before we were even unpacked all the way!

Three years ago we planted apple trees where the Junipers had been. I love my apple trees.

The DogWood bushes were OK looking, nothing spectacular, but they grew, a lot. I was constantly trimming them, and every time I trimmed them, I got a nasty itchy rash all over.

Two weekends ago Micah cut the bushes down to stumps, which we left because we needed to fill the hole they would leave with landscaping plastic to prevent weeds.

Today I sat on a tiny plastic chair with a hammer, a mini garden claw and a skill saw hacking away at the stumps. it took me four hours to get them out.

Four. Hours. What I wouldn't have done to have plow horse supplies so that I could have yanked that root out in seconds. People. Four HOURS.

But it was worth it. The yard looks so much better without the stumps there!

(four hours!!!)

Now. Generally speaking, I am super duper lazy and do as much as I can to get out of work! Today, however, on top of the stump removal, I pulled every weed, blade of grass and raspberry root out of a 25 x 5 foot area, then started on the side, weeding a 5 x 78 foot patch.

I got about 50 feet of that one done before my lower back started to spasm and I had to stop.

Standing up I noticed that my feet were swollen so bad I was unable to get my flip flops back on, I was sunburned on my shoulders back and face and my fingers were bloody from the thorns I encountered in the weed patch.

I had a long, hot shower when I got in the house, and felt sore, but OK. Then I sat on the couch for an hour before standing up to grab a fresh cup of coffee and realised that I was unable to straighten up all the way! My back is so stiff from the weeding that it has stiffened into place!

ZOMG.

I guess what I am trying to say is this : LAZY is the right way. It is the good way. Nothing good EVER comes from hard work.

Just ask my back!

Logan, Our baby, was born on June 27th, it's an OK date, better than Parker who is stuck with the 29th of October. OK, except for the fact that, in Saskatchewan, school lets out for summer vacation at the end of June.

For the last two weeks I have been trying to keep track of end of school field trips, end of school parties, end of school projects due and of course, Logan's party.

Because my in-laws were going to be gone on the 27th of June, we chose to hold Logan's party a week before, on the 20th. Because I don't have very much room, not to mention, patio furniture sets, we held the party at the spray park here in town.

We had quite a few adults show up for the party, and four kids plus my three. We served these :

One would think that I was done with birthdays, right?

Nope. Our school still allows the children to bring snacks to school for a quick school celebration, and as long as the school district allows it, my kids will be partaking in it.

It does get tiring though, having to make so many cupcakes!!

I love these shoes :

They are DA Bomb. They are certified diamonds when it comes to foot wear. Comfortable, and cool. And awesome. And wonderful. And freaking expensive! eBay wants 50-300$ for them. Plus shipping. The shoe stores I frequent want 37.95 plus tax for them.

Every time I think about how much I want these shoes, and then how much I cannot afford to splurge on shoes right now, it makes me sad.

But today, some kinda wonderful happened.

I took my sister to the Police Station, and when I was dropping her off I saw these pink things poking out of a box in her closet.

What's that? I asked her.

Oh, that's Just some junk a friend wants me to get rid of, She told me

So I peaked into the box and found these:
Excuse me while I scream. These shoes are barely worn, the lining is still a crisp white, the soles are dirt free. They are crumpled and crushed from being in a box with a bunch of other things, but they are MINE. And they were FREE.

And while they aren't blue or graffiti'd up, they are still MINE.

Mine. Mine.MINE !!

The once really good thing about the summer heat (+34 today, before noon!) is that you get too hot to want to eat anything. Better than diet supplements this heat is!

But..I would rather take the pills than have it THIS hot! And I'm pretty worried about next weekend's temperatures too! The Long range forecast for the 20th looks awesome,


buuuuut...

The weather forecast is NEVER true. If it says it will be perfect (at+22), it will either snow or be +7365463287956.

The reason that I need good weather for the twentieth is that we will eb celebrating Logan;s fifth Birthday at the spray park. If it is too hot, no one will have fun, if it rains..well, that's worse! if it rains, everyone comes over to MY house for the afternoon!


Pleaseeeeeeeee let it be nice!

So Spring has sprung and summer is well on it's way! The forecast calls for temperatures in the mid thirty's for this weekend, which is great! (I'm really hoping to see temperatures like that - maybe a little lower on the weekend Father's Day falls on because the Saturday before Father's day we are having a birthday party for Logan at the Spray Park.)

AHNYway. The only bad part about the nice weather is that we have been opening the windows and doors A.Lot in the past few days. While both the door and window have screens to keep out bugs, the screens do absolutely NOTHING to keep the dust out. And there has been a LOT of dust. It coats the television, the desktops, the floors and movie cabinet!

I was sitting on the couch this evening and happened to glance up, and noticed that the BLACK rods the curtains hang on appear light Grey because of the dust! I'm really hoping to be able to clean the curtain rod without having to take the whole thing down, My God, what a pain that would be!!

I'm also really hoping that the incessant wind will stop soon. VERY SOON!

Now that My picture is in, I have been searching for options to frame it. It's a HUGE picture, and framing it in the traditional manor, frame, mat and glass is going to cost us a fortune. However, I was in Costco this afternoon - Blake put his glasses down "to keep them safe" and they got stepped on so we needed to get them fixed - and I noticed that Costco can mount pictures on a picture board and they are framed like that. They have a coating so that you can easily wipe off dust and dirt and I think that having it without frame will add more to the picture.

I'm even more excited now about my renovation on the living room/hallway/kitchen having seen the picture in real life. I have been watching the flyers for sales on ceramic tile in hopes that I can find them on sale and put up a back splash behind the sink.

It makes me sad to think about the fact that we cannot even buy paint until next summer, but in the mean time, I am going to be bringing home paint chip samples from Home Depot to match them up with my beautiful picture!

1. I called the Pharmacy on a whim today. OK, not a whim, I've been wondering for a while, but today I gathered the nerve, picked up the phone, and called. I wanted to know more about the drug Chantix. I found out it is really expensive (boo) but after a call to my husbands insurance provider, a call back to the pharmacy to get the drug ID number, and yet another call to the insurance provider, I discovered that the drug is covered (YAY). Tomorrow I see my doctor at 1:45 for a prescription. I will quit smoking. I have NEVER felt this determined about quitting. I'm almost excited about it. In the past, I have savored every smoke leading up to my quit date, now, I am feeling guilty for each one I have, even though I haven't even seen the doctor yet! (part of this paragraph will be reposted here)
2. My father and his wife are redoing their kitchen. I can't quite visualize what they are planning on doing, but listening to them talk about replacing their scratched and worn stainless steel sinks with copper sinks has given me a huge case of the Wantitises. I especially want the faucet they are getting, it has a spray hose attached to it! What kind of loser am I that I get lightheaded with excitement over a spray hose? Seriously? And the fact that I have hubs 98% convinced we need new faucets (one with a spray hose!!!!) makes me even more excited. Wait. Is that even possible?
3. I was trolling my feedreader this evening and stumbled on a post linking to the Improve Everywhere website. I've seen the videos before on the internet, who hasn't, but I had NO IDEA they had a website! My favorite improve so far is the one where they turned the little league baseball game into a huge minor league game, in terms of fans. I think t is my favorite because I have an almost ten year old son who plays sports and I can just imagine how much it would make his day, no, make his YEAR, if something of that caliber were to happen at one of his games! The co-ordination that goes in to these things is amazing!
   

My birthday is one month from today. I will be thirty years old. I am not dreading this birthday, nor do I feel old, However - my mother died from lung cancer at the age of 43.

I DO NOT WANT THAT.

For my birthday I am quitting smoking. It is simply the best gift I can give myself.

Now, I have tried over and over to quit. Ive done it cold turkey numerous times, Ive tried Zyban* and the patch. Right this moment I am on hold with my insurance company to see if the drug Chantix (Champix in Canada) is covered. The drug is taken over 12 weeks, and costs 60 dollars every two weeks and there is NO WAY we can afford it out of pocket.

Good news! She just came back and the drug IS covered. I will be making an appointment to see a doctor ASAP to get my prescription. Now that I have decided to quit smoking, I will be doing it as soon as possible, I am not waiting for my Birthday to come, I would like to already be a non smoker by then!

I am so excited. I only wish that there was some way to convince my husband to quit with me.

See. I have three small boys and a lot of anxiety. I believe that a lot of my problems stem from smoking. I get colds faster. Each time my back hurts, I worry I have lung cancer like my mom did. If I quit - I can get rid of so many of those worries! Plus we would be saving money!

After I get my prescription and am a non smoker, I can get back to worrying about real world things, like Thunder Storms and mesothelioma!

*I am quite worried. When I took Zyban, it WORKED, with Zyban, I was to take the pill for X number of days while smoking, then on a set day, quit smoking. By the time that set day came, I was so happy to be off cigarettes! I never wanted tot touch a smoke again. BUT. But. I had to keep taking the Zyban for a certain amount of time after wards. The problem is that as soon as I stopped smoking, I got sick. I lost the ability to focus my eyes and I was nauseated all the time. I couldn't move, I was so ill. As soon as I stopped taking the Zyban and began smoking again, all was well ...except that I was still smoking!

Champix works in a similar way. I need to take the pills for one week before quitting, so I am worried the same thing will happen! I will keep in mind that the two drugs have different active ingredients that work in different ways to help stop smoking!

(I am aware that here is a class action suit against the makes of Chantix and Champix, I do not feel that I am at risk of becoming suicidal on the pills but appreciate that I know the risk and can watch for the signs!)

I called my sister in law this evening. she was in the middle of studying for some medical coding training courses, and welcomed the distraction. Seems she is having trouble memorizing the terminology!

I needed to call her to discuss our upcoming trip to Calgary. We will be spending half of our trip with my Cousin and her family, and the end half with My SIL. I'm pretty damn excited! we will be heading up to Banff! (for the second half)

When I was in Grade 11 we went to Banff for a ski trip and I just LOVED it! I want to tell the boys about the animals I saw on the side of the roads, but seeing as I have no idea if they will be out - the ski trip was in the spring, our trip will be in late summer - I will just keep my mouth shut at hope for the best!

One time our van had stopped at the side of the road to look at some pretty caves and all of audden there were like ten goat type thingys surrounding us! It was both exciting and terrifying!

One of the things we have planned while in Banff is a trip tio see the hot springs. I need to remember to pack a second suit for the hot springs, Micah keeps tellng me that the minerals in the water that feed the hot springs will ruin a bathing suit and since the one I JUST bought cost me eighty dollars, There is no way I am going to risk it in the springs!

Another thing I need to remember is to log into ebay and try and find a few cheap memory cards for my cameras!