IT'S OFFICAL MICHEAL HAS LEFT THE BUILDING.

Well he finally did it after much discussion and getting a new job Mike moved out. He now lives with a few of his friends in a nice place in Spruce Grove. It turns out that his latest call out is back in Fort Mac so he isn't there much anyway but He likes it. Stay tuned for how I re-did the basement bedroom to make a bigger family room.

Rascal Flatts Concert

I was listening to the radio and heard that one of the DJ's had found a family pack of 4 for the concert was much cheaper. I had given up hope in going to any concerts this year as they where either SOLD OUT or during the middle of Shawn's shift. The 4 pack in the nose bleed section was the same price as 2 bowl seats. It was fabulous we got to take the kids and didn't need to hunt for a baby sitter. The opening act was Darius Rucker who Shawn and I love from his Hootie and the Blow fish days. We would have paid the $200 just to see him but then we got to see Rascal Flatts too. What a deal!

The concert was great we got a perfect parking spot with minimal walking to Rexall and right beside an exit gate for easy leaving. Sometimes saving up your entertainment budget for one big evening out can be a perfect memory.

Cheap Night In

We decided to have a cheap night in because we got a great deal on Rascal Flatts concert tickets. We found a 4 pack of tickets for the same price as 2. This meant that our entertainment budget had been blown already. We bought the fruit that was on sale and then had a carmel and chocolate fruit fondue while we watched the hockey game on tv. The kids still talk about how much fun it was. Normally our entertainment budget is spent on a new DVD and a box of microwave popcorn. What are your Cheap Night In ideas?

Slogging away thru my 10 in 10.

Well today 2 jobs were completed, not very exciting but at least I got them finished. FINALLY!

Every year Jesse grows a large mint garden. Every kind of mint that he can find. We hit all the greenhouses in the spring. Hint: It keeps him busy on the long trips as I wander peacefully thru the greenhouses. No Whining because he is looking for his own garden. Anyway this year instead of tossing the plants as they won't last the winter outside, I said that I would try bringing them in and put them in the front window. I really didn't realize what a huge job this would be. I didn't realize he had found over a dozen different types this year. I had to re-pot, fertilize and then find a good window to put them in which ment furniture rearranging which is now becoming a total redecorating project. All because of one of those " I wasn't really paying attention SURE I'LL TRY's that Mom's do when they are busy doing something else." Jesse is the King of knowing when to ask me a question when I'll just absent mindedly say sure.

I bought the cords back in August for Jesse thinking that he was about to hit a growth spurt and then they would be the right length. I was shocked when he didn't grow any taller so I figured I better just chop off 2 inches from the bottom so he could wear them now.

DP Miniatures

http://www.dpminiatures.com/

I want to let all my friends know what a a great company my Mom - Danielle has. DP Miniatures is the bomb. I love just checking out her site. I'm not into miniatures really but I love getting a few little pieces here and there for an unexpected surprise in my decorating. A beautiful painted display hutch on my boring old bookcase, a fish pond complete with gold fish on my window sill in the middle of winter, a one of a kind hand crafted basket on my night stand to put my favorite earrings. The possibilites are as wide and varied as your imagination. My favorite is a one of a kind room box that Mom made me for my 40th B day this year. It is taken from a Kim Jacobs' calendar page of a root cellar. Please check out her site and let me know your ideas of how to use miniatures in every day decorating. You can click on the title or url under the picture.

30's Lamps

AFTER

BEFORE

Lamp Bases: Free

Lamp Shades: 3 for $3

Trim: $15 a meter/ 1 meter needed for 2 shades.

Living with a piece of Perry family history in my home priceless.

My 10 in 10 Days.

Well unfortunately the kids and I had a cold all week so I didn't finish all of my 10 in 10 but I plan on finishing them off this week.

Winter is coming!

I know all you readers from down south have a limited winter but our first day of snow was October 7th. I know that is even about 3 weeks early for us northern girls. We had a week of snow about 6 inches in total and then it warmed up and melted away for a week. This week it is cold, windy and the green leaves are even giving up and falling off in the wind. It has been so cold that they never had a chance to turn colors. I truly miss that. If you look carefully at the family portrait collage at the top you can see the driveway with it's over hanging trees and carpet of colored leaves. Not this year just puddles of mud and green leaves stuck to branches that fell in the wind. I always get the panic twangs to put up for the winter in the beginning of Sept. but this year both Shawn and I went crazy. On holidays we got a freezer full of fish and crab, we bought huckle berries and made jam, cucumber for hotdog relish, our own garden was put up, raspberry jam, crab apple vinegar, every little thing possible. It seems our DNA is telling us it's going to be a long cold winter.

May Long Weekend 2009

Picture 1: Bailey getting her hairstyle figured out for the wedding.

Picture 2: My cousin Donna Lepage getting married for the first time at 45ish to Larry Boudreau. Too Cool!

Picture 3: Bailey with the bride cousin Donna. Gloria and Ron's middle child.

Picture 4: Mom, Dad, Jesse, Bailey and I having lunch at the Chinese Restaurant in Barkerville. What great food. I love going to Barkerville. There is a new wonderful idea around every corner.

Pen Holder

I saw this idea in the Rona Design magazine. You know the free one they give out at the store. The minute I saw it I thought how perfect. I have all the stuff for that and all I need to do is put it all together. I don't know what the trough like box was used for here on the farm but I found it in the tall grass while mowing when we moved in.

Antler Hat Rack

This set of antlers is from 2 years ago. We kept them because they were nicely matched. Last year I bought a mounting kit from Wholesale Sports and some how it got taken down to the basement and forgotten. While packing for holidays I found it again and became obsesive about getting it hung to get all the ball caps Shawn brings home from work up off the dresser. Ta Da What a difference a 5 minute project can make. Note to self: Antlers point upward. When Shawn came home I proudly showed him my project and his first comment was "It's very nice but upside down." Ok take 2 was much better.

My 10 in 10 Days.

1. Antler Hat Rack
2. Kids Mirrors
3. Plant indoor Mint garden
4. Pen Holders
5. Front Flower Beds
6. Jesse's Bug Box
7. Hem Jesse's Cords
8.Recover Sewing Bench
9. Recover Computer Chair
10. Finish 30's lamp refinish

I am hoping to finish these 10 jobs by Oct. 20th. These are along with my normal everyday never ending list of chores.

I'M BACK !!!!!!!

Well summer is over and I'm finally ready to tell you all about it. But first I must tell you that at 40 I finally learned to make bread. I have been wanting to learn to make bread forever. I'll try 2 or 3 loaves and after left brain, the kids, the dog and the sparrows all turn up their noses I give up for awhile and move on to something else. Left brain has been promising to teach me to make bread our entire married life but we never seem to have time. I'll always trade lessons for some cuddle time saturday morning. I discovered a recipe by hearing about it referred to on the blogs I follow and then finally tracked it down on google. It is the No Knead Rustic Bread recipe(New York Times). It only makes one loaf at a time and needs minimal attention. The first loaf I tried out on the kids. They ate it all in one sitting. The second I made especially for left brain as he came home from work it was all warm and smelling great. This recipe takes 2 days to rise so it isn't a spurr of the moment thing, but it only takes 5 minutes each time you deal with it. It's the perfect busy mom recipe.

Seeing as you all missed out on my summer I will start with the May long weekend and work my way thru till we are current. I'm also taking the 10 projects in 10 days challenge from The Shabby Chic Cottage blog so I can get caught up on all those unfinished projects before I start Christmas projects.

Busy Couple of weeks

Well I wanted to blog about my fantastic road trip with Mom except I realized that I had lent my camera to Mike. I wanted to blog about Mike going to Costa Rica on a missions trip but the blog that I am supposed to put a link to hasn't been updated so there really is no use. I want to tell you all how excited Jesse is to be going to Horsemanship camp but I have no graphics. I want to tell you that Bailey and I are going to have a girls week next week with no boys but it hasn't happened yet so there is nothing to tell. The only thing I can tell you is that we have a frost warning tonight; of all things July 9th. Global warming my fat ass. Anyway I hope that I will have time and pictures to update you all very soon.

How Much Do I Really Get Done In A Day?

I don't know but some days I feel like nothing is getting accomplished. Today was Sunday Shawn was gone. Mike went to early service. I decided to sleep in. I always feel guilty when I sleep in. I am a list keeper I always have an ongoing list of what must be done and when. By 4 pm when I talked to Shawn the most I had done was manage to crawl out of bed and go downstairs to the tv. By the time I write this I have had a shower, fed the kids, washed dryed & folded 4 loads of laundry, Addressed printed & prepared 21 invites for the mail, loaded washed & unloaded 2 loads of dishes from the dishwasher, spent one hour mowing my never ending lawn, planned my garden planting for tomorrow, made a grocery list for thursday, pulled deer meat to make into jerky tomorrow, updated my blog, took an online survey, looked up the addresses for 2 long lost cousins, cleaned up all the toys on the lawn so I can mow more tomorrow, washed the animals food and water dishes and fed and watered them and finally revised my To Do List by adding another 10 things for tomorrow. Among these many duties I also needed to remind Mike to give payroll the blank check I picked up from the bank; so he'll get paid next week & phoned Dad to remind him of his 2 must do errands, and started planning Mom and my antique trip to Nanton. Why as woman do we feel that we have never done enough as we crawl into bed every night. I hope as Bailey gets older she doesn't become as obsessed as I am with "How much did I do Today?"

Lasts

As my friends and family blog about their firsts I find that I am looking at a lot of Lasts. This year the 4 of us went to Ft. Edmonton for an Easter egg hunt. As I walked thru the park searching for eggs with the kids Shawn and I began discussing how this will probably be our last. When our children are born we marvel at all of the firsts that they accomplish but as the last child grows up I think we should solute the passing of an age. No more dressing the kids up in their new Easter outfit or finding the perfect basket for each of their personalities. Well maybe I can still do that for a little longer Mike didn't want anything this year but Jesse was looking forward to his favorite hollow bunny. I hope that as this time passes that I never look back and say I wish I would have ... I always know that the dirty dishes and the unvaccumed floor will still be there when I get home but they might not be wanting one last egg in the basket at the Easter egg hunt. I truly enjoy being a Mom and I keep thinking that it will end all to so.

Invite Only.

Dear Readers.

I have decided to make my blog private. So if you would like to continue reading please email me at ccfarm@telus.net and I will add you to the list.

Trish

SHAWN

Many of you refer to him as the invisible man but I want to tell you all what a special man I am married to. Shawn has an incredible sense of humor and always makes me laugh. He chose to help me raise a troubled young boy into an exceptional young man. This could only have been done because Shawn is an incredible father. Some months we don't see him alot but every minute he spends with me and the kids is quality. For some men when they go to Fort Mac it is to get away from their families and responsibilities but Shawn is available to us by cell phone anytime anywhere. Even though this is very much against the rules. As a family we made the decision that for 10 years Shawn would work away from home so that all of our dreams for the future where financially provided for. Without a thought to the sacrifices he would need to make he agreed to provide for us this way. You may think that this was an odd choice but it has provided us with the ability to have me stay home full time with the kids and have very little debt. Shawn is a fabulous cook and enjoys cooking for anyone who will sit down long enough for a meal. He currently lives in a 8X8 room in a camp in Fort Mac. It is smaller than a prison cell yet he never complains. We all love him passionately and even though we never say it enough we really appreciate the sacrifices he makes for us. Here is to our invisible man may God bring you home safely to us and let our last 4 years fly by so you will be home for always.

MICE

Well to be more exact a single mouse and not this kind but my wireless computer mouse. This week I have been fighting with my mouse non stop. I have replaced batteries, checked its software instulation everything I could think of. Cussing at it throwing it the whole nine yards finally at 3:30 am this morning I thought that just because it is wireless there must be a connection to my computer somewhere. After digging around in the wire jungle that grows beneath my computer I discovered and odd shaped black box on the end of a wire. I pulled it forward and instantly my mouse began to work. I now believe that when Shawn adds something new to my computer I should take a little more time than the typical YES DEAR and check it out. I feel so dumb that it took me a week to figure it out I can command a house full of children, manage the finances of a household, home school 2 children and yet I am defeated by 1 small mouse.

When is it going to be Spring?

Well today was the first day we have been above Zero for a couple of weeks. I thought we were finally going to get some Spring weather. When I looked out the window as I was locking up for the night what do I see but the biggest snow flakes. Some time after it got dark it started snowing and we have 6 new inches of snow and I'm sure that there will be much more by morning.

Well by the response I got to my last blog you would have thought I had commented on your sex lives. I'm not sure why people feel the way they do about money it almost seems they are ashamed by it. Whether they have alot or alittle it seems like a touchy subject. I personally find it offensive when people ask Shawn how much he makes a year but I believe that discussing how to save and spend your money wisely can be a good thing. It is not something they teach in school and unless your parents taught you about it you learned by trial and error. I can tell you that I have made a lot of errors with money in the past but thankfully I learned from my mistakes and got some good advice from those I respect. Money is a tool and there should be no shame associated with it.

ECONOMIC SLOW DOWN OR JUST A BUMP IN THE ROAD?

Over the last few months we have witnessed many of our friends and even some of our family feeling the pressure of the economic slow down. For us personally construction has always been a feast or famine industry so this latest round of down sizing and lay offs to the oil patch just seems to be an expected bump in the road. My question to you loyal readers is this new slump a drastic change in your life or is it just something that is happening to others on tv. In church on sunday we had a guest speaker a Nigerian Bishop who brought to mind that many families live for weeks off of what we make per hour. Do we indulge in to many wants instead of needs? Could we survive without? I am not a Catholic so if I get this wrong please excuse me but I want to challenge you all to participate in Lent. As I understand it for the 40 days leading up to Easter those who particapate give up something. Literally sacrificing it to God. Whether it is your very expensive morning coffee, having your nails done or what ever; I challenge you to sacrifice your I want for 40 days. My sacrifice for Lent is going to be NO eating out of any kind for 40 days. This is going to be difficult for us as every Thursday we spend the whole day in the city. I must pre plan snacks, lunch and dinner to be taken with us. My hope is that this sacrifice will bring the family and I to really appreciate how much God has given us. We are so fortunate to have Shawn still working; even though at much reduced hours; when 65% of the oil patch are unemployed.

My next thought is that making these sacrifices might also be a way to save money. Are you feeling the pinch of a lower income or maybe none at all? How are we coping, are we helping friends and family do with less by planning a potluck movie night instead of going out to a restaurant? As I was rooting in the dark recesses of my cupboards looking for an elusive bag of microwave popcorn I had a realization. There was several things that I had bought in the famous Costco multi pack and once the kids had tried one pack they decided they didn't like it. It had been discarded to the back of my pantry. Maybe it is time to take a look in the cupboard and see what should be donated to the food bank before it expires and we simply toss it in the land fill.

Whether we are feeling this slump as a bump in the road or the edge of a cliff maybe we should take this time to reavaluate how we spend our money. Shouldn't we use every penny to God's will rather than just thoughtlessly dropping it along the way in a drive thru window or a coffee shop register? Please let me know your thoughts about our changing economy and how you are coping. Or are you even affected?

CAN YOU DO THIS?

Over the Christmas holidays Bailey learned that rolling your tongue is a heriditary trait. Out of the 5 of us in this house Bailey is the only one that can do it. Bailey learned to do it from my mom so we know she can do it but can the rest of you. Let me know.

What Country Mice Do When It Is To Cold To Go Out.

I know that for some of you, you could not possible imagine being stuck in a tiny house with only your children to talk to for weeks on end. But I do this every January. For some reason the new year always brings a sense of urgency to the construction trade so Shawn is never home much and with January also being the coldest month of the year going outside is out of the question. This January I also happen to be vehicle less and I have had to become creative. When I start feeling sorry for myself I drag out one of my favorite books. It happens to be The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It is about how her family endoured an impossible winter. I read 2 chapters every night and it always seems that when I am finished the book my winter does not seem so hard. If you haven't read the Little House Series you really should. My other trick to conquer cabin fever is drag out all my seed catalogs and begin praying fervently for SPRING.

What we Country Mice do when it FINALLY warms up.

After a wonderful Christmas Eve Celebration with the whole family in my very small house we where looking forward to some warmer weather with desperation. Angie, Rhon and the girls had to go home before our day of warm weather but Mom and Dad where still here to enjoy it. So far this winter the weather has not got much warmer than about -20 so when it reached -12 we felt our prayers had been answered. We built a large fire and then took turns riding down our driveway towards the barn. Way to go Mom and Dad you seemed to keep up with the kids no problem. Seeing as Shawn hasn't had hot water in camp for more than a month now we are hoping that the days and nights will get a little warmer both here and in Ft. Mac.