Calling all Chocolate Lovers

OH.MY.GOODNESS! I have honestly found the most perfect brownie recipe EVER!...Actually I can not take any credit for finding the recipe, as Irish did. BUT I can take credit for MAKING them! :)

Go ahead, check this blog out!!
http://rainydaygal.com/?p=3441

I was going to add ingredients, direction, pictures and all that jazz...but 'rainy day gal' has done such a nice job...I won't try and take from that!

Go and Make these now....seriously! ENJOY!!

My B-day

I have had a WONDERFUL birthday!! It all started last night with our Pre-Birthday celebrations! First Irish and I had Nacho's (which is becoming our Sunday evening tradition! AWESOME) and then we had Root Beer floats, all while curled up on the couch watching Home Extreme Makeover (that show makes me cry EVERY week!)
This morning my kids were so nice to me and slept in until 7:45!! It was so nice to have a little sleep in on my day!
Then the kids and I went to work for the morning, which actually wasn't too bad (maybe knowing that I only had to work for four hours, but was getting paid for 10 hours had something to do with it!)

 Once we were home Paisley fed me "my" lunch 

 Irish let me Sew ALLLLL afternoon, and Paisley helped me finish her quilt!

Irish made me an AMAZING homemade Lasagna, Caesar Salad & Garlic toast dinner!

 I even got NEW earrings!

 

My Lovely Children :)

 Thank you for the wonderful birthday Irish!

 MWAH!

           My Birthday Flowers that Marshall helped pick out!          

Miss P's Quilt!

YAY! I finally was able to finish Paisley's quilt! I had the top part all done and ready to go before Christmas, but I was waiting on some fabric for the back. I got the fabric and just kept looking at it. I just couldn't bring my self to cutting it up, it was so darn cute! I then decided to just go buy a flat sheet from Wal-Mart and use that as the back. I found the perfect green sheet, best part...it was only $9!!

A couple of weekends ago my wonderful Mother In Law helped me pin the top, batting and bottom piece together. ALLLLLLL last week all I wanted to do was SEW this quilt together....but I could never find the time!
SO finally this weekend I was able to machine quilt the entire thing. Now please don't look toooo closely as it is anything but perfect....BUT it was my first time machine quilting (besides 'stitching in the ditch")...I wanted to try something a little more 'adventurous' this time around.

Paisley even helped with the binding!
SO here it is!!

 Not the clearest picture, lighting wasn't that great, but here is Miss P cuddling with her new quilt!

 Checking everything out!

I must say, I am VERY pleased with the End result....the hardest part was putting it in her crib...I just wanted to curl up with it! Next quilt I am making for me! :)

Bitter Sweet

In all the time that I have worked for my employer, Golds Gym (...and I just past my 5 year mark....minus two maternity leaves, so an actual 3 years of working for them) The Child Care has never, ever EVER been open on a holiday Monday. That was one of the pro's for working in the childcare....plus not having to deal with grumpy members at the front desk, and answering phones with irate customers yelling at you because they got an INSF charge on their account because they didn't have enough money in their account! -I'm sorry but I completely fail to see how this is my fault.

A couple of months ago when I figured out that Family Day was my birthday, I was excited because I was going to be getting paid for not working on my birthday....how sweet is that!!

Bitter:

For some strange reason this family day the childcare needs to be open as there are some classes going on (which has never happened as well). Both of my evening girls have taken reading week off, and the girl that helps works with me in the morning is going to Calgary for the weekend and won't be back until Tuesday.....THIS means I am the only one left. Not only will I be working on my birthday, which is a statutory holiday (in Alberta)...I am also stuck to work three split shifts (9am-1pm & 4:30pm-7:30pm) that week (Tues, Wed & Thurs)...the week that Irish does not have school! Meaning some serious family time will be missed!!
Okay My rant is over...On to the SWEET

Sweet:

Because I am working on a holiday...which is my normal scheduled day to work, I am entitled to be paid for my regular hours plus time and a half!! So I will be getting paid for 10 hours!!! AND because I am doing three split shifts, my total hours for this next week will be 31...when I usually only get 19. That is 12 extra hours going towards my goal of 600!!

Observant little boy

Yesterday at Supper time, we were asking Marshall where all the different Countries were that we have taught him so far. After he finished naming & pointing to them all I asked him if he knew which Country WE lived in?!
His Response: "Umm.....Country Ninety Five Five"


....I guess he pays attention to which station I listen to while driving the van!

I think Irish was a little worried that I've "corrupted" our son...as he strongly DIS likes Country music....but I couldn't help but bust a gut laughing!!

Luigi

We recently acquired a large World map in our kitchen, and it hangs just above our table. Each meal time we talk about where we live, and teach the kids (mostly Marshall at this point...but Paisley will soon learn too) about the different countries on the map.

Right now it's pretty basic, "this Country is called _________" or "Can you show me where _______ is" or "Where is Uncle Mark on his Mission?" or "Where did Gloria, Marty, Alex and Melman all go?"

So far Marshall can tell you where New Zealand, Fiji, Australia, and Madagascar are. (Marshall sits on 'that' side of the table so I guess he will learn the Eastern side of the map first)


In the morning we always 'refresh' what we learned the day before, so today during breakfast I was pointing to each of the different countries that Marshall knows and asking him what they are called. I started out with New Zealand, then Australia and he got those right away! Then I pointed to Fiji and asked him what it was called, he thought about it for a second (as we just introduced Fiji the night before at supper) and then replied "Luigi?!"

I got this idea from a friend of mine (Heather Jubber) who also does this with her children and did it while she was growing up. I immediately liked this idea....because I have NEVER been good at geography (Just ask anyone!!), and I want to give my kids a better 'start' on their geography lessons!

When we first put it up, I noticed that were some islands called "Marshall Islands" so I excitedly said "Marshall, guess what these are called"
"Ummm What?"
"The MARSHALL Islands!! Did you know you have your OWN islands"
He then goes "Ya I go there, (pointing with his fingers) and then I run over here (towards Ireland...as we were showing him this is were Uncle Mike went on his Mission) and tell Uncle Mike I have to go pee!"

We all had a laugh!

The Hungry Store

This past Saturday we were out grocery shopping as a family. Due to the way the day played out we had to wait until Paisley finished her afternoon nap until we could go, which means we weren't able to leave until about 4pm.
 We went to Superstore first and then headed over to Wal-Mart. As we were getting out of the van, and walking into the store Marshall asks me
"Mom, can we go to the hungry store?"
puzzled I ask "the hungry store??"
"Yeah, the hungry store" he says again with a little bit of a "duh, don't you know what the hungry store is?!" tone in his voice.
I ask him "what is the hungry store?" He then points to the big M (for MacDonalds) on the outside of the Wal-Mart building!
I had a good little chuckle over this and told him that we were going home shortly and we would make some supper there. To which I'm pretty sure he replied "Aww darn it!"

I love you 20

Frequently throughout the day Marshall will come up to either Irish or I, put his sweet little arm around our neck, lean his head on our shoulder and say
"I love you Dad/Mom"
we will then reply "I love you too Marshall!"
to which he replies "I love you three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, nineteen, twenty"

(Sometimes he can count all the way to 20 without missing numbers, but usually he misses 17 and 18)

It's moments like this that totally make up for all the times I feel so frustrated with him and his whiny self!
I love you Bud!