Evil Fairy - Evil Butterfly

Not sure which Bailey is being.

With the wand - fairy??


Without - butterfly???


Halloween has arrived again. And with it comes the magical MAKE-UP and costumes.

As the kids have gotten older the costumes have gotten less elaborate. This year, Bailey's costume is black sweats, shirt, hoodie with green wings, a veil of some sort, a black wand and LOADS of make-up - green and pink and white eyeshadow with THICK eyeliner, some glow in the dark glitter, black lipliner and green lipstick and some pink and green stickers.

Shayne's is even simpler as he is going as HIMSELF. Shayne and 3 of his friends are going to be at a friends for the night playing x-box and Wii.

Melissa, on the other hand, being all of 19 this year, has gone and bought herself a "vampiress" costume...complete with SIX inch platform shoes. The outfit is a little short (to my mother's eyes) but is very cute and NOT TOO REVEALING (thank god). It is a velvety material with red satin and sequins and comes with a little cape. The shoes are very funky - thick black platform bottom with clear soft plastic over the foot and red satin lacing through the back of the heel and to go up around the ankle.

Just a short rant

Kids and parties?

I know kids are going to drink. I did it...my three oldest did it. But it seems to get younger and younger that they start.

Is it better if there are adults there to supervise? If parents have given their consent?

What age would you give the okay for your kids to go to a party - knowing that there will be alcohol there - free flowing???

Maybe I am a stick in the mud. But I don't think kids should be "drinking to get drunk" until they are in their later teens.

Thoughts??? Feelings??? Experiences???

Melissa gets "artsy"

Just before supper, Melissa looked outside and got all excited. She came bouncing into the kitchen saying "MOM...where's your camera". I told her and she said "set it up for me to take an outside pic please".

So I did...and off she trotted.

She came in and wow...what amazing sunset pictures she took.




I didn't think the trees in front of the house could ever look good...but she managed to use them in a great way!!!

Insurance and stuff

Well, I got on the phone today to get Melissa's insurance card from our insurance agent - she has misplaced it. Which, in turn, means that she can't re-register her car. So she is now driving mine - at least until tomorrow.

I also talked to them about my house insurance as we are switching brokers.

Man...the questions they were asking. Square footage, age, electrical, plumbing, shingles, size of deck..and on and on. I had to get off the phone and search for our appraisals and home inspections. And even then, couldn't find all the answers.

So I am going in there on Wed to speak to them in person and will be hauling a wheelbarrow load of paperwork with me that they can sort through to find the answers.

I made sure to tell them about my new camera and all my saddles etc. I also told them about my Royal Doulton figurines and they said I need them appraised...especially the one my grandma bought for me the year I was born. So that will happen on Thursday if I can find a place to do it.

Kirby

Well, one week into his new home and he seems to have settled right in. And as you can see by the pictures, this soon to be "big dog" is living IN THE HOUSE. Jesse - you are way braver than me!!!

Jesse (aka Jessica) has been e-mailing me with updates all week. She sure loves this little guy. And I am sooo happy to hear that. I always worry when my babies (be they horses, cats or now dogs) go on to their new lives.

According to Jesse, Kirby now weighs in around 16 lbs - probably more than that as that was a few days ago. He has also had his first bath - of which he was probably in serious need of.


Jesse also said he gets a long great with her boyfriend Greg.

Jesse and Greg are very brave people as they are going out this weekend (or soon) to get Kirby a "little brother" in the way of a Norwegien Elk Hound (possibly named MOOSE???).

I can hardly wait to see pics of the two boys playing with each other.

What a hassle

it is to use travel vouchers.

We are going to Cancun, Mexico in January. I was being "all good" and everything in my booking of the airfare...trying to use our travel vouchers that we received after our debacle of a trip for our cruise last February when they lost our luggage.

Anyways. I was on United.ca - and then realized that I had to call in to use our vouchers. So I did this...went through this HUGE verbal system where I had to tell them the flights I wanted - spell everyone's names etc. I just reserved the tickets so I could talk to someone. Well, it turns out that MEXICO IS NOT ON THEIR DESIGNATED LIST OF PLACES YOU CAN FLY TO. Good lord.

Same with American - who we also have vouchers from. They CAN'T be used on flights originating in CANADA. Go figure...why the hell would you send someone vouchers that they can't use - see we live in CANADA.

You also can't use these vouchers on flights that start with one carrier and end with another.

They get you coming and going don't they.

So now I am on the look out for maybe some weekend trip that Doyle and I can go on to use the vouchers. Too bad most of the costs of those trips will be OUTRAGEOUS.

Video and Pics of Gunner showing

I have contacted everyone that I can to order pictures and video of Gunner at all three shows - Olds, Red Deer (Supreme) and Calgary (Wrangler).

Now to wait - not so patiently - for them to arrive.

There wasn't a photographer at Lloydminster, Moose Jaw or at Olds. I have the video of Lloydminster of Hyde and Moose Jaw of Gunner. Still waiting for the video of Gunner at Olds.

Pics have been ordered and paid for for Gunner at the Supreme. There were only two pics to chose from so I bought both. I paid a little extra to get separate CD's of each picture and they will be ready to go onto my website or to be used for advertising.

I can hardly wait!!

Interesting healthy eating idea

While sitting at bowling last night, I got to talking to one of the dad's that came in to pick up his two girls.

We got onto the topic of healthy eating after Bailey came up and asked if we were going to McDonald's.

He said that there was a study out that showed that if you only ate items that you could buy from the "outside walls" of a grocery store for a month, you would lose weight and be a lot healthier. I thought about it in terms of the grocery store across the road from the bowling alley and boy...it sure makes sense.

On the outside walls of most grocery stores, you will have your aisle of fruits and vegetables, your deli and bakery and your meat department. Nothing processed or boxed for the most part.

It was a very neat conversation. And then towards the end of it...I found out that he is one of the local chiropractors and his wife is a nutritionist/personal trainer. They have a joint office in Vegreville. I asked him a few questions about my back and my health and he said "come in and we will see if we can help you - do some chiropractic work but mainly get my wife working with you for fitness and healthy eating".

I am going to go in and see them early next week.

Shayne has a car

Here is Shayne's car. He is going to help Doyle fix it next summer - it needs a head gasket and a new windshield.


But other than that it is in great shape.

He is very happy to have transportation for when he turns 16. With that comes FREEDOM and the chance to get a job (because then I don't have to drive him).

Soft core round bales

Here are a couple pics of our bales. You can tell they aren't tightly bales or wrapped as they look "mushy" instead of nice and firm.

They are a little more yellow on the outside than I normally like but when you reach in it is nice fresh smelling green grass.

The bales are 75% grass and 25% alfalfa...so perfect for free feeding.