9:42pm.

Sunday night.

I've been home from Vancouver for almost 24 hours.

We had a long, amazing, exhausting, memorable, challenging and powerful week.

I committed to do nothing but sit today. Sit and relax and sit and play with Missy D.

I'm so happy to be home.

I've cried more than a few times since last night. During commercials, sporting events, TV shows and just for no reason at all.

I'm emotional. I'm tired.....

.....and am feeling just as pregnant as I should at almost 10 weeks.

Somewhere near the end of September our little clan of three will become a home of four!

Somehow I managed to survive a week with 20 teenagers, sleeping in a room with seven other people in a strange bed and long days full of lots and walking and dancing and huge mobs of people.

Thanks to Oma and Opa and my crazy wonderful husband cause I wouldn't have been going anywhere if it weren't for you.

I came home to a clean house, an empty laundry basket and fresh flowers (along with a card and a package of my favourite fuzzy peaches) on my nightstand.

I do promise to do some serious updating this week but for now, my big comfy bed is shouting to me.

Happy March!

~ A Special Touch ~

It's no one's fault but mine that this post took so long to get written.

Over the last few weeks I've been working on some finishing touches in Denay's room.
One of my favourites being these plates that I used to have hanging in my room. It is the complete High Fashion Barbie Collector Plate set. My parents gave me one every Christmas until I had the whole set and they have been packed away for the past 15 years or so.

They look so totally perfect in her room.

She also has my old jewelry box (I've had that thing as long as I can remember), a hand painted ceramic rabbit that was a gift from my aunt many years ago and a hand painted coat hook that my dear momma painted for me when I was little.

This poster has also been around for as long as my mind goes back. It used to have a really tacky plastic gold frame but a cheap $13 poster frame from Walmart spray painted white gave it new life......the little rocking horse in the bottom left was painted by yours truly when I was 7 or 8 and the large carousel horse was painted and given to me by a different aunt.

I still can't help but smile every time I go into her room

I'm still working on painting some wall boxes and getting them mounted around the poster but with all this sunshine, we've been outside in the stroller more than we've been huddling at home. The Olympians may be complaining about the weather, but I'm sure not!

Had To Share

So ever since I've been married, I've been on the hunt for the perfect cookie jar. Something unique and cute and fun. Yet it goes without saying that I'm still without one.

Tuesday night is usually a night in around here so with Olympics reruns on the tube and the baby in bed I turned to the one place I know, would have just what I was looking for. Etsy.

Within 30 seconds I found this perfect hand poured and fired cupcake cookie jar.

They have a slew of different colors that you can check out here.

The very serious problem is the price.....ouch. Alas.

Maybe I'll put in on my Christmas list for next year.

{ Opa's Truck }

Ahh, Sundays. A day of rest and relaxing and the perfect time to catch up on all those blog posts that have been piling up during another busy week.

On Wednesday, Denay and I went down to Victoria for the afternoon to do a little shopping with Oma and while going over the Malahat we passed a semi pulling a cement trailer. Sure enough, it was Opa! We pulled over and Denay got to sit up in Opa's big tractor and even honk the air horn. I had my point-and-shoot in my purse and got some well needed pictures.

My dad now proudly displays one of these pictures on his visor.

Sheerly Covered?

Okay, so normally, this lady is not an infomercial fan/watcher. Sometimes I'll tune in for a little bit because some of the stuff they sell is just hilarious (ie - SlapChop, Snuggie and Hawaii Chair), but at the beginning of January I got caught up one for Sheer Cover mineral make-up. My morning "make-up" routine (if you can call it that) consists of mascara. That's it. But with a full money-back promise and only $10 for a months supply, I figured I couldn't go wrong. So my package arrived on Wednesday and since we had a get-together Friday night to celebrate a friends completion of her Masters Degree (congrats Megan!!!), I thought I'd get Trev to take a before and after shot.

Both pictures were taken with the same lighting, ISO, white balance, shutter speed and f-stop and when I edited them I brought the levels up the the exact same values.

Now that I see them side-by-side you can tell that I've got something on my face. I can't say that I am totally blown away but I do notice a more even tone to my skin and that it feels less oily. It won't be something I'm going to start doing on a daily basis but I like that when I do want to get a little done up, that I can have the option without my face feeling cakey or over-done.

I am curious though, if anyone can recommend a brand of mineral foundation that they really like that I can get from the grocery store?

:: Making The Switch ::

This is one choice, we've been told by many, that we will never regret.

Moving from a queen, to a king sized bed. We found an unbeatable deal on a very nice one at Sleep Country on Monday and yesterday the delivery truck arrived. I probably would have had an amazing night sleep except we forgot to turn the heat on so we both ended up shivering all night. Great, I know.

We found a great bedding set at Walmart and some nice sheets a Home Outfitters.....

Trev wasn't feeling well on Friday so he came home early and while flipping through a flier, found some perfectly-sized side tables for almost half-off! You can sort of see it on the right side of the after pictures. We had to get the other ordered in but they are just the best size for the extra space the bigger bed takes up.

I am loving the fresh, new feel of the bedding and wonderful spaciousness of the bed. I am a very light sleeper and am often kept up from Trev's moving around and last night a felt like I really had my own space and knew my moving wasn't bothering him. Maybe tonight we'll remember to pop the thermostat above 12 degrees and actually be able to sleep.

Especially For The G-Parents

We spent the evening relaxing last night and that means I got a chance to do some catching up on my editing and organizing of my photo folders. I seem to quickly loose track of the pictures I take!

Denay's Grammie and Bobob are away, so these are just for you!

We took Denay to our churches Family Carnival a few weeks ago and she got her little face painted with a sunshine.

Favourite. Pictures. Ever. She wore her dancing gear to church on Sunday.

Last night was spaghetti and chocolate pudding night......

I got a big surprise yesterday when I woke up and it was February. Yikes. But the days are getting longer and each day is a day closer to Cuba.

Happy Wednesday.

:: Norwex Believer ::

Okay, so this may be old news to lots of you, but I still had to share my excitement about a new-to-me company.

Norwex. Cleaning without chemicals.

My girlfriend hosted a party a couple weeks ago and I was slowly able to get over the price tags of their products once I started to hear more and more about the (obvious) benefits of natural home care. I got my items today and it didn't take long before I was cleaning, with just water!

Antibac Window and Polishing Cloth

Antibac Enviro Cloth
Scrub Cloth

Laundry Detergent

Thus far and I extremely pleased. The scrub cloth cleans stuck on stuff without scratching and I love that the window and enviro cloths have silver woven into the fabric acting as a natural antibacterial agent. No more stinky dish cloths!

I am current running a wash with the detergent and am interested to see if it work just as well as everything else.

I am in love! It was a hard cost up front, but knowing I don't need chemicals anymore very much makes it worth it in the long run.

Anybody feel like recommending their favourite Norwex product?