Quilts and Things

It's done! My doll quilt is finally finished! I can't tell you how much fun I had sewing my first quilt. First, I read several books on quilting so as to familiarize myself with the lingo. Then I happened to stumble upon a quilting store in Pointe-Claire. They were fabulous! They guided me through the various steps, both in-store and by phone. And after 3 sessions, here it is!

Now, it is very far from perfect but a good first attempt, if I do say so myself. I always felt so sorry for my swap partner but now I am not as stressed. I am quite satisfied with the results! So much so, I have already purchased more fabric to start on a second quilt, this time slightly larger.

Do you remember that famous toothache I had just weeks before leaving for China? And all my dentists were on vacation and I had to beg and plead to get a root canal done? Yeah, that tooth. Well, I was having a sandwich today when all of a sudden I felt a strong shooting pain right at that spot. Yup. After spending a gazillion dollars trying to save the tooth, I can just see it now... ''Ma'am, there's nothing we can done. It must be extracted.'' I am booking an appointment with my dentist....

And finally, we headed out to see our pediatrician for Alexia's 18 month visit and guess who we ran into? Dumpling and BB from Mortimer's Mom. The girls really like each other, it only took them 2 seconds to warm up to one other. And the Doc got a kick out of the fact that the 2 older girls are from the orphanage.

Oh, here's that pic of Alexia and her new do as promised. It's the best I could do for today.

Birthday and Ottawa-bound

Guess who turned 18 today? Alexia, of course! 18 months old already. Time does fly by when you are having fun. She is changing so much with each passing day. She now understands everything we say. I can ask her to do almost anything and she will pretty much do as I say. Unless she is being playful and runs in the opposite direction! Her hair is also getting longer. I was able to make two pigtails on the side. She looks too, too cute! I will post pics of this tomorrow as I was unable to get a good picture today.

My dear friend L. and I headed west yesterday to Ottawa for the day. The plan was to go shopping to places such as Michaels Arts & Crafts store as we do not have such a place here in Montreal. We also went to Bulk Barn which is a store that sells everyting in bulk. I managed to find things there that I have been unable to find in Montreal such as Isreali couscous and cake decorating sprinkles in every shade imaginable. Also, there was a stop at The Disney Store and Gymboree. Dinner was on a lovely terrasse in the Byward Market where I had a fabulous Raspberry Mojito before heading back home.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you a funny story. On our way to Ottawa, I was pulled over for, yes, speeding. This is NOT good! This little shopping expedition is now gonna cost me a fortune! Out of the patrol car comes this gorgeous piece of humanity who very politely informs me of my infraction. Upon his return with a ticket in hand, he tells me that I was clocked at 132 km/hr in a 100 km/hr zone which would be a $252 ticket and a loss of 4 demerit points. But he quickly continues to say that he marked down a speed of 115 km/hr instead therefore only getiinga $52 ticket and no loss of demerit points. Wow! How nice was that? Mr. Hunk concludes with, ''Susan, have yourself a nice day and please slow down a little!"

It's Spring!

Wow! What a wonderful several days we have had in this neck of the woods! The weather has just been stupendous!! We go from 4 C (39 F) to 24 C (75 F) from one day to the next. It is nuts. Just a few days ago, we were wearing coats and mitts and today we were walking around in shorts and sandals. My closets and drawers are still full of winter stuff. Must get busy!

Finally some spring flowers in our garden!

Don't be fooled! We still have some snow in our front yard!

We have been spring cleaning the entire weekend, such as backyards, garages and cars. We also have been getting our bikes ready for some family bike riding. So inventory of the bike helmets were taken. Alexia inherited Cara-Li's while Cara-Li got a new one. This is what Alexia thought of her new bike helmet.

She absolutely loved it and would not take it off! I wanted to get a photo of her in the crib with it but she had a complete meltdown because she knew that I was going to take it off.

Work, TV and Family

I went to work yesterday for a full complete day, that is, 9AM to 6PM, for the first time since last August. I have been back on average a day every 2 weeks but never for a full day. Yesterday gave me a glimpse as to what it will be when I return full-time shortly. NOT GOOD! It is next to impossible to arrive home at 6:30PM, have dinner and spend some quality time with the girls before bedtime which for Alexia is 7:30PM. And dinner was made and baths given before I got home yesterday. Otherwise it would be impossible! I will have to leave work at 5:00PM for things to work. Must come up with a plan...

Gord was home with the girls when I was at work yesterday. I got an e-mail from him late afternoon indicating that dinner was in the crockpot, that there was a quilting fair in the neighborhood in a couple of weeks and that he had taped a quilting show for me. Too funny! He does listen to me when I talk... I have been ranting about this quilt for the last 2 weeks.

Since last Saturday, our TV situation has been remedied. The dish was a no go but digital TV was installed and we have one hundred million channels to choose from. For whatever reason, we have all the channels available at this time but I am sure that soon we will only have the ones we ordered. Anyway, this is where the quilting show comse in. Gord was fiddling with it when he ran across it and PVRed it for me. I watched it tonight and when I asked him to join me, he asked me 'Why would I want to sit through 20 minutes of PAIN????' I suppose that makes sense... I was just looking for some company!

And, lastly, my parents are finally empty-nesters! After 54 years of marriage, 4 children (one after 25 years of marriage!), 3 grand-daughters and at the age of 80 and 76, they are finally living alone once again!! My youngest brother and his fiancée have finally moved into their house which they have owned for over a year and have fully renovated. Wedding is scheduled for October 25th of this year. Congratulations!

I Must be Living in a Bubble...

... where everything in my world is just beautiful and harmonious and wonderful! Here we are booking a wonderful trip to Chicago with the family for our long weekend in May. Gord needs to be there for work and us girls would go to hang out... well, shop, shop, SHOP!!! But, just as we were about to hit the BUY NOW button for our airline tickets, I remembered that Alexia does not have a Canadian passport as she is not a citizen yet and we do not have a visa for her either. Stop... let's re-think this. OK, we probably could still get her a visa in the next 4 weeks (it can sometimes take long). Oh yeah... we need her permanent resident card to get a visa which of course we do not have in our possession as we mailed it back to Citizenship Canada last week in order to get her actual citizenship. END OF STORY... we cannot go to Chicago, for sure. Goodbye American Girl, goodbye Crate and Barrel, goodbye Nordstrom, goodbye Pottery Barn, goodbye Magnificent Mile! GOODBYE!

Visits, Sleeps and Swaps

I forgot to mention yesterday that we had a lovely visitor in the morning. Alexia had a playdate with NL, who was part of our adoption group. I just found out that NL and her family moved to Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue a couple of months ago from far, far away :) The girls had a grand old time playing for a while until it was time to pick-up Cara-Li from school. Then it was off to the Patisserie for a quick lunch before it was time for us to part ways and make some well-deserved dodos.

Speaking of dodos, it was Mom's night out last night for my monthly play at the Centaur Theatre and as usual, I can never sleep afterwards. My mind always races and I need lots of time to wind down. Needless to say, I was very tired this AM after only a fews hours of sleep. It was such a beautiful day that we decided to have a picnic out on the deck (which was lovingly shovelled and pressure washed on the weekend by my darling). Once Alexia was put down for her nap shorly thereafter, I decided to return to the deck and lie down for a while. A while which turned out to be over 2 1/2 hours! Cara-Li was right beside me playing with her 'stuff'' the whole time. There is something to be said about the first Spring nap outdoors. I just love it!

I've done a crazy thing. OK, it's not so crazy but I may have bitten off more than I could chew. I have joined a Doll Quilt Swap. What this means... I make a quilt for a doll and send it to the person who was assigned to me by May 31st. And I, in turn, will receive a doll quilt from my mystery quilter. Sounds fun, right? Problem is... I have never made a quilt, ever! I am taking this very seriously! Last week, I went to Fabricville to pick out some fabrics. Lucky for me, I met an older woman who is a quilter and gladly helped me select the fabrics and gave me a quick overview on how to go about making a quilt. I have consulted with many web sites and many books from our local library that I think I am ready to attack this. My fabrics have been washed and ironed as per instructions. My tools are prepared. Get ready, set, GO!

Cara-Li Plays the Piano

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Easy Come, Easy Go

Well, the dish people were here bright and early this AM and the installation was going super well until... the installer came looking for the Man of the House (that would be Gord). Babble, babble, babble... looks like no dish for us! Because of the enormous trees in our backyard, they could not catch an HD signal. The whole idea for this was to get HD. Off everything comes and we are now back to basic cable... again! Needless to say, Gord went off running to our next option, digital TV. This should provide us with pretty much the same thing, hopefully soon!

In conclusion, the dish is gone... but the fish are still with us.

Some Fish and a Dish

I must say that Gord has been particularily productive today for a Monday. Besides going to work, he came home with some fish, a nice variety I may add, to keep our poor little neon company. We now have a very happy fish tank and it was too cute to see the girls with their noses stuck up to the glass. Where is that camera when you need it??



And, yes folks, we have joined the 21st century... FINALLY! We will have, as of tomorrow morning, a satelite dish installed complete with receivers for 3 TVs, PVR and HD. We are going from basic cable to all of this! I hope it rains tomorrow so that we can all watch TV ALL day! I thought Gord was keen on getting the dish for Cara-Li so that she can watch Ni Hao Kai Lan on Treehouse but one of his friends just informed me that he probably just wants to watch the hockey playoffs in HD. The bugger!