I Have a blog? Ooh! I should update it!!!

So at long last...I'm updating my blog...(get off my back Kim :) ).
I just got the new digital scrapbooking program from Stampin' Up-My Digital Studio and could hardly stand waiting to try it out.
It is so unbelievably easy to use as well as filled with a ton of options. Needless to say I am very happy with it. These are the first few pages I have pumped out.

Loving the freedom to try stuff with no mess, waste or concerns...love it!

TFL
Cat

The things we do for friends...especially the good ones

So...I have a friend (who will remain nameless) who has had a rough week. Let's say for conversation sake she hurt her back, is at home with her two kids and was expected to take wedding pictures for her sister's wedding this weekend. All that of course, is purely hypothetical. Trying to be a good friend I made a wedding card for said wedding for her...and she forgot to come get it. Now hypothetically speaking if this story were true...the card above is what you missed out on...hope you had a good wedding and feel better Kim...I mean hypothetical friend :)

Sneak Peak...

'Cause everyone is as excited as I am about my little group (coincidentally of my friends) that I lead as a stampin' Up demonstrator I thought I would share a sneak peek of what we will be working on at our August meeting. This group has been super fun to work with and has been the best ever introduction into being a demonstrator.

I decided that to ensure everyone is getting their moneys worth out of the stamps and supplies they purchase we would do both a card and a project which shows the versatility of the crafting style. Also it is a great way to make gifts for people or stock pile some last minute hostess gifts or thank yous.

Above is the peek at August's project and card and at the end you will see what we worked on for June and July. It is driving me nuts having to wait a month between meeting with everyone...I just want to do all of our cool stuff right away!

AUGUST

JULY

JUNE

Hope everyone likes the projects...and for some crazy reason if you are not one of the stamping group and you happen along my blog and would like details on any of the projects feel free to leave a comment...If you are part of the group remember what your mom taught you..."If you don't have some thing nice to say..." JUST KIDDING!

Thanks for looking!

P.S. Not in quite so far over my head these days...it has been a nice change :) Thanks a ton to all my awesome friends...had a great BBQ on Friday and I'm grateful to be at a place in life where I can laugh at the losers on 'Dating in the Dark'! ;)

Cheers All!

in over my head

Hello there world wide web. I am here to break a nasty little conspiracy of women...for any men reading ...I don't know...go close your eyes or go find something testosterone based to do... Here goes...

Ahem, my name is Catherine and I am in over my head...
There I said it...

I hate saying it. I hate knowing it even more. but there it is folks, I am in over my head. From bills to kids, messes to 'should do's', I am in over my head. I want to have it all together, and I am the first to recognize some days I do, but not today (or this week for that matter). As women we flaunt our ability to do it all. Picture the mother stirring a pot on the stove, talking on the phone while holding a baby in her arms and if she could juggle for a circus she would. That is the ideal we are all expected to live up to, or I suppose I expect myself to live up to. I have a busy schedule, and three kids but somehow when the laundry is undone I am ashamed of myself. So ashamed in fact that in paralyses me into inaction. I want to breeze through life like we are all trying to do but this week I am stuck. Stuck by work, commitments, kids, LAUNDRY(!!!) and so on.

I think the hardest part this week is that I want so desperately to be a good mom, not just good but the best that I can be... and I feel like I am missing something. This is based on the frustrations my husband and I are currently facing with our two oldest little darlings.

Does anyone out there have any feedback on what makes your day work? Anyone got a clue about how to keep the motherhood/wife hood/womanhood show on the road? I don't know maybe this is really only about me and my challenging week, but it seems like in the dark corners of all of our conversations there is a secret acknowledgement that none of this is as easy as we thought it would be when the husbands were members of a boy band we dreamt about and the babies were dolls that ended up being left out in the rain.

I am open to any and all suggestions, ideas, critiques or thoughts...PLEASE HELP!!!

Howdy from Banff

I know Kimberly...it has been too long since I posted on my blog...but I finally had something I really couldn't resist sharing with you all...all like 3 of you but really who is counting. Anyhow we have been enjoying a week in Banff with my mom, the kids and myself...waiting patiently for Sean too...and just wanted to let you see what we have been up to.

We have had the chance to explore, swim, head up the gondola to Sulpher Mountain, check out some wild life and of course...this afternoon was makeover time...what girls trip is complete without that?

Our weather has been pretty rainy, but nothing compares to a Rocky Mountain thunderstorm...WOW! Trip has gone smoothly so far and I have only threatened to leave someone on the side of the road a few times...and in my defense I have never followed through!

Hope everyone at home is well and Sean; we MISS you SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much. Can't wait for you to get here!

Lotsa love,

Catherine, Hannah, Meg & Kane

A year has come and gone...

First day Of Grade 1!

As a child a year of school was interminable and I am finding as an adult, that year is gone before it even feels like it started. Today was Hannah's last day of Grade 1; the beginning of her first ever real summer holidays. Kindergarten didn't really count as it was only twice a week... That is what she said anyways. By chance she wore the same shirt today that she wore on her first day of school so I couldn't resist the before and after shot. I have officially become that mom...and I love it!

I will be the first to admit that Hannah can be a challenging little person. This year has confirmed for me that if nothing else! My apologies to her teachers... This year has confirmed many other things for me as well. So here are 10 randoms on what I have learned about Hannah and school this year.

1. She might be the poster child for ADHD...wanna ride bikes?

2. She is a social butterfly, just like her mother was. She knows all the kids names in just about every grade, she knows who everyone is related to and can strike up a conversation with any of them.

3. She loves people a lot. Every teacher has told me if they feel a little person hugging

them...they then know Hannah is out and about because it is almost always her hugging them. I love that our teachers in our small town school can hug her back.

4. She has a great sense of humour. Lots of the stories I have heard about her involve her and her funny antics. She loves to make people laugh!

5. Watching her go from learning a few sight words to snuggled in bed reading a chapter book may have been one of my favourite progressions ever...even better than the crawling to walking (and she gets into less stuff now!)

6. I have to really be commited to her daily school routine. Helping with spelling tests means successful spelling tests...She is needing that support at home if she wants to be successful...and it is really special time to be with her.

7. They learn a lot in school and my daughter (like everyones kids I'm sure...) is a sponge. She can talk urban vs. rural and herbivore vs. carnivore...very cool!

8. Hannah has some really awesome friends. It encourages me to think that she is a good friend back. Learning lessons like apologising if you were rude, standing up for what is right, and caring for those you love are lessons that will serve her for the rest of her life.

9. My daughter has the weirdest sense of what is good...like leaving your socks in your desks for weeks on end...or creating a pencil lead collection...um...yeah...

10. School can be/is fun. She is super excited to be on summer vacation this year since we have a lot of fun stuff planned but she can hardly wait to be in Grade 2. That tells me that school is fun...or Hannah would be praying..."anywhere but here...anywhere but here"

Last Day Of Grade 1!

My new toy...

I totally fell in love with photography when I worked at the paper. Before then I had enjoyed it but to find a new angle...a new image for an annual event...that takes love. I count that as one of the huge blessings of having worked at the Advocate for so long.

Anyways...when Kim upgraded her camera to a new body and was looking to sell her old digital SLR I jumped at the chance. When I was young, my mom took beautiful photos and had a variety of lenses for her camera and with a very inexpensive adapter...I am now photographing her grandkids with the same lenses. Admittedly, it will take a while to get used to putting a bit more work into each photograph but I am hoping with some dedication and imagination it will be worth it!

Great kids!

Just had to share this picture...all three are smiling...I was starting to think that would never happen! In honour of a full sibling smile I will do my randoms on the great things about having kids...admittedly these are the great things about my kids...yours are great too, um...I'm sure.

1. No more than 10 seconds after a screaming fight with each other they are willing to defend each other. Doesn't matter how they were going to sell their sibling to travelling gypsies moments ago...they always have each other's back.

2. How positively angelic do they look when they are asleep?

3. The look on their little faces when you tell someone how good they were at something. Not only are you proud of them...you are proud enough to tell someone else!

4. While occasionally they repeat the words you wish they hadn't heard, once in a while they say the right things...Meg and Lily were playing the other day and when Lily fell Meg was right in there,"Oh sweetie!, Are you OK? It's alright now...up we go..." Damn, it was cute.

5. When they are sick you become superhuman. In true Jasper Cullen style, just being in the room with you makes them feel better.

6. You are a veritable font of information to your children. No one in this world...or their right minds...think I am half as smart as my kids think I am.

7. The unlimited access to the super-soft-baby-cheek as they drift to sleep in your arms.

8. The purest form of humour is the innocent humour of children. They have no idea how funny they are. If they knew it wouldn't be half as funny!

9. Hannah is a defender of justice and any time I see her rooting for the underdog, standing up for the little guy or ensuring the play is fair my buttons burst with pride. It gives me a bit of confidence that we haven't done a half bad job ;)

10. Ironically, my children each in their own way--without knowing it-- have healed my wounds, kissed me better when I was down, told me they loved me more than anything else...and meant it, made me laugh harder than anything else, made me cry with joy, and made me into a woman I never dreamed I would be...for that and a million other reasons...I absolutely love my kids!

It's almost graduation day!

So for the last few years I have been involved in organizing our community's Kindergarten grad. It is a night of pint-sized pomp and circumstance and is always super cute! Last year, being Hannah's year, I made a video yearbook for all the kids and was asked to do the same thing this year. it is so fun to watch the parents and kids review the year and is always filled with lots of laughter and a few tears... proud mamas usually...yes, I cried at my own video last year...shut up!

I made personalized DVD cases for the kids both years but didn't think to take a picture of all of them last year so...here is this year's group. was super fast and fun to make them. Congrats to all Champion's little graduates!!!

Totally Bodacious Day!!!...God, I loved the 80's

'Cause our kids don't think we are old enough...they have 80's day at school. While I'm sure the kids have fun (Hannah was grinning from ear to ear) it just reinforces that we are ancient..."You were really alive in the 80's? WOW you're older than I thought!"...yes she actually said that to me this morning. So, that being said how much fun is it to vicariously relive the 80's through your child? A lot!..No guff!

With all things 80's in my heart...(read-banana clips, Vaurnet, hyper colour and 'the Coreys') I proceeded to make over my daughter. I think the result was great and she was just happy she got to wear lipstick and eyeshadow to school. Anyhow I have now pulled out the retro 80's genre on my list of music and am currently swooning to Please Don't Go Girl from New Kids On The Block...(when they were kids) and can't wait for the Bangles which are comin' up next! In honour of this most special of days I have 10 randoms of why the 80's rocked!

1. Bigger was better. Trying to explain that to Hannah this morning was a bit tough. "Why did you want to have the biggest hair, the biggest hat, the biggest satin bow, the biggest bag Mom?" Well...Cause that was the 80's.

2. Teen Mags were the next best thing to Playgirl for kids. We all drooled all over the pin-ups...Ralph Macchio, John Stamos, Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, The NKOTB, River Phoenix, Patrick Dempsey...before he was McDreamy...


3. Happy endings. Everything in the 80's still had a happy ending. The girl got the boy, or viceversa where applicable. The dork usually got friends or laid depending on the movie (Long Duck Dong and the exchange student anyone?) The jerk at the beginning found that true love needed him to be nicer and the hot cheerleader usually ended up filthy and screaming. There was a balance in nature and the good guys always won! Like any of us wouldn't melt if the crowd cleared and the resident hottie was sitting on the roof of his car waiting just for us!

4. Tom Cruise was still hot...and not crazy yet. He was, come on admit it. Think Risky Business in his little tighty whitey's? He was hot. Top Gun? I don't need to say any more.

5. We had a knack for shortening company names to somehow make them our own...and those names for me have stuck. They were Cons not Converse, Docs not Doc Martens and so on.

6. Hammer pants. I had them...you had them...none of us should have. They were wrong even for the 80's.

7. What we were sure musically was cutting edge and rough, is tame by today's standards. If you want proof of this, listen to a song or two from Billy Idol. Madonna was as risque as it got and Paula Abdul in her short skirts got people talking. My mother was disapproving of this stuff then...I don't know how she is still managing to breathe these days...Love you, Mom...

8. Jamaica put the infamous bobsled team in the Calgary Olympics a la Cool Runnings. Anything was possible in the 80's. We all felt it and I think it changed the way we would live our lives out.

9. Video Games took over the brains of the youth turning most of us to mush. What started as something like Pong, turned into Pac Man, turned into today's Wii. I still have never rescued the Princess from the original Mario Bros. for the NES. Sean says he could do it in about 10 minutes...show off.

10. TV was as addictive as ever. Like you couldn't settle in with a pint of Ben and Jerry's Funky Monkey ice cream and watch a solid night of 80's TV... Family Ties, Facts of Life, Growing Pains, Silver Spoons, Punky Brewster, A-Team, Knight Rider, ALF, Cosby Show, Night Court, Cheers, Smurfs, He-man and the Masters of the Universe, Care Bears, Oh...I could go on forever...

So that's it...I thought long and hard about how to sign of...decided this would do the trick.

"Sit Ubu, Sit!

Good Dog!"

"Woof"