Cup Cakes

Halloween Cupcakes for 3 classes tomorrow. 72 Blood Red Velvet cupcakes, decorated in just under 4 hours=) I'm not even going to tell you what my kitchen looked like at the end of this...thats alot of icing and alot of food coloring, lol.

Words on my Wall

Gary wanted to put "Abandon hope all ye who enter" but I vetoed it=) I like this one better, lol.
He picked the fonts we used though..Good job Gary!!

The kids pictures are going on either side of the "Family"...as soon as I get them taken...and put in matching frames...I'm sure it will happen sometime before graduation...Alainas graduation

Please ignore all the crooked pics, the kids keep hitting the wall.... maybe we shouldn't throw them that hard=)


I love this poem, I heard it during a talk in church and when I decided to do the words on the wall I knew exactly where I could put it=) It looks soooo good.
Thank you Jenie for your expertise and help on the actually placing on the words on the wall, I couldn't have done it with out you=)

A tale of 2 birthday cakes

October is Alainas and Lincolns birthday month here at Casa Hamon/Jones. We tried to think about how to do 2 family parties (one for each of the kids) but with holidays and travel and stuff it just worked out better to plan one joint party. So tomorrow we are having everybody over for cake/ice cream and singing. I didn't want to make 2 birthday cakes, that would just be to much work, lol. So here is my compromise, a half knights/dragons and half Princess castle that was blast to put together=) 7 cake mixes and 2 bags for icing sugar, 7 colors of icing and about 2 hours to assemble. Fun time had by all, including spectators/helpers.

Lazy Lazy Lazy

Okay so...huh...where to start...I am going to make a slide show of all the pictures I have of stuff that's been going on 'round these parts for the last month but maybe I'll just give some back story as well. I find myself all confused as to what to write about, some I have posted on FACEBOOK and most I have discussed with a couple dozen of my closest friends (okay, like maybe 2 people) so I'm trying to get everything straight in my head about what I have BLOGGED about and what I have to catch up on.....

The kids started school. Alaina is even in KG this year. I was worried about what to do with my "free" afternoons...it appears that won't be a problem because I don't actually HAVE free afternoons=) something from work or errands for kids always seems to come up. My goal is to ONE DAY actually sit down, watch trashy TV and eat bon-bons, just to see what it's like. I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Alaina is in Ballet and LOVES it...okay to be fair she LOVES to hair and the outfit, the jury is still out on the dancing but she seems to enjoy it=) Trevor ,Terina and Rhys are all in Comet youth Basketball again this year and they (especially Rhys ) are enjoying themselves. I can actually see a difference in Trevor and Terinas skills from last year...so maybe it isn't wasted money after all, lol. Trevor and Terina re also in JUDO with the Raymond Judo Club. I was a little apprehensive about this, especially for Terina who can't walk through a room without bumping/twisting/falling/pulling something. After we got to the bottom of the Judo headache ("tuck your head when you roll, don't LAND on it") she is doing very well and is still excited to go. Trevor thinks it is great especially after they learned the first hold and he "Totally OWNED Terina on the mat", some days I wonder where these big kids came from and where the little ones went.

I had surgery (AGAIN) last week and this time everything went like clockwork and I am well on the way to recovery and can now sneeze/cough/run/jump without peeing...TMI??? TO BAD=) My BLOG my choice, lol. I owe a HUGE thank you to Gary , who used a week of his vacation time to be home for me this week and to Jenie who kept everything running while I hid out in my siting room and watched 2 full seasons of Big Bang Theory and NCIS.

Everything is running pretty smoothly at Casa Hamon/Jones. People on the street are stopping me to ask "How ARE things at home?" in hushed tones n(to be fair it's a SMALL town and Raymond really only has one street). I guess they just can't believe that 2 families can blend there lives/kids/possessions and not want to be in a clock tower with a deer rifle, but we ARE doing just fine. Jen and I have a schedule and rules and we work very well together, on the weekends when the dad's are around it all goes out the window and Jen and I are out the door=) Sanity breaks are very important, lol. Michael will be here, for real, starting on Wednesday and his family is really looking forward to that and we all wish him the best of luck with his new job!

I am going to be taking a cake decorating class soon and I am way excited about that, I love making fun cakes and I am looking forward on knowing how to do it "right" ...and then probably just do it how I want to anyway but then I'll have the right tools...I figure in 10 years or so when we will have to start thinking about weddings I'll be a pro and save us thousands=)

Tomorrow

School starts. You have no idea how happy those words make me=) In other news: the basement is done and the Jones' are all settled in. The kids are all treating each other like siblings, which means alot of bossing and fighting and playing and tattling and joining forces against the parents...the usual. We had Lilys birthday party yesterday and it was great. Lots of food and people. I had a great time decorating the "Pink Princess" cake (my first time making real rolled fondant and it worked out really well) and Lily had a wonderful time opening presents she especially loves CASH , lol. We will be getting school backpacks all organized today and going over the RULES with the kids, you know "Look both ways before you cross the street" , "Don't spin your sister on the tire swing until she pukes" the basics. Then tomorrow morning a lovely 2 hours of peace and quiet (stupid short first day of school).

Here we go...

I will attempt in a short(ish) post to fill you all in on everything we have been up to this summer, beside buying really Cool shoes=).
My fave was the few days Gary had to go and check on on stuff for the stores in BC. We threw the kids to the grandparents and I went with him . Three wonderful days of driving (I LOVE road trips) and spending time together (mostly uninterrupted because alot of BC is a Cell dead zone, lol) It was really fun and I now now the locations of all the SUBWAYs from here to Kelowna.
The kids have been having a great time at the new pool, it is a pretty great facility. They are also in Library Club. So summer has gone by really fast for them.
We are finishing our basement and it is moving right along, Gary and Jesse finished the third coat of mud tonight so I will be able to start painting on Friday and Jenie and the kids should be all settled in by mid-next week...
Which brings me to the biggest change in our house recently. Michael and Jen and the gang are staying with us now that they have decided to return to the promised land=) Michael got a job at a law firm down here and although he doesn't start until October he and Jen want to start the kids in school here. Soooooo we have a houseful and it is going really well. We are planning on having them stay until they can sell their house in Whitecourt and buy or build one down here so it's probably going to be for awhile which leads me back to finishing the basement ASAP. Once it is done there will be 4 bedrooms, a playroom, a bathroom and a living room down there (and the laundry room) We have pretty much the same up stairs so there is lots of room and I am REALLY enjoying the division of labor Jen and I came up with=) I handle the kitchen and food and she does the laundry. LOVING not having to fold laundry...clean and folded clothes just magically appear. I figure when it's all settled Michael can have the kids but I am keeping Jenie and her front loading washer and dryer.

Less mess=Gooooood

My kids love cinnamon toast. I do NOT love the mess left on the counter when they are done. I was walking in the grocery store the other day and saw a container of cinnamon spread (the kind we used to get when we were camping with the Coads, lol) and it came to me....homemade Cinnamon Spread!! Yay! The kids can make cinnamon toast to their hearts content and I don't have to sweep sugar off my floor for 2 days=) So here is the recipe I found/tweaked and LOVE.
Cinnamon Spread

1 cup softened Butter (or Margarine)
2 cups Icing Sugar
3 tablespoons ground Cinnamon (yes 3 TABLESPOONS, trust me)
Combine all ingredients in mixer (food processor if you have one) and whip it all up. Store in airtight container in cupboard or fridge, depending on how soft you want it.

Terinas Photo Shoot

Rae messaged me this morning asking to borrow Terina for a photo shoot so Rae could break in her new camera. 4 wardrobe changes, 5 hats and 3 locations later (I'm guessing Rae, lol) she got some really amazing shots here are some of my faves....oh, yeah she took over 500 pics so this is just a brief overview and does not even come close to showcasing the talent of the model or the photographer=)

COLOUR!!!!!!

Please note how big my kitchen is without all the pantries=) Sooooo, I'm not putting them back! They will stay where they are (dining room and little hallway) until they can be moved into the new PANTRY aka the old master bedroom. This wall is going to have a poem and 2 picutes on it, no more cupboards and stuff piled on top, YAY!

Looking for ideas for that wall...sayings ...pictures...???? I am not putting the mirror and stuff back and the "family wall" for the kids pictures is going to be in the living room...
Contrasting and yet complimentary=) It's like I planned it, lol.

Gary's comment " Hey that color looks good with the couches." Yes honey, IT'S LIKE I PLANNED IT. Men. These walls are going to have the words "faith" and "family" on them with the big pictures that were there before. Jenie, could you ask your mom about those too? lol

A sure sign...

...that Summer has finally come to Raymond=)


We got a family pass to the new pool (which is AMAZING) and the public swim hours are 1-9 on weekdays..the kids are taking full advantage of that but may have overdone it a bit today...

Complications

****WARNING GRAPHIC MEDICAL STUFF YOU PROBABLY DON'T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT ME***

Sooooooo. I decided awhile ago to have surgery to "fix" my bladder. After having 4 kids it needed it=) So I went in yesterday for a simple "Monarch" procedure, it's where they put the bladder in a sling of mesh and lift it back up where it was before kids, sounds fairly straight forward and my doc has done hundreds of them. WELL there was a slip up and during the surgery my urethra got a 1 inch cut in it. Long story short the Monarch has been put off until September to give the urethra time to heal. The biggest thing is that I came home with a cathiter and it is going to be my trusty sidekick for the next 15 days. I guess I will get to spend alot of time at home for the next little while, carefuly not lifting anything over 10lbs or doing anything strenuous...so being pretty much useless=( On the other hand I got some really good drugs=)

'nuff said

The front of the apron Gary gave me for my birthday. It is my new fave, yes I wear aprons, I am a slob in the kitchen and they cover and save my shirts from MUCH messiness.

Soccer, Alaina Style

FIRST You walk randomly all over the place and ignore your coach and teammates.



SECOND You catch up with your teammates and tell them how to play soccer.


THIRD. You get bored of telling everyone what to do and pick grass for a while.


FOURTH. You SLOWLY decide to join the rest of the team making sure to turn around and make sure mom and dad know you are doing this under protest


FIFTH. You PLAY SOCCER and have FUN...who knew??


SIXTH. During a dispute over who had possession of the ball you talk with one your "friends" from NURSERY (2 years ago then they moved away) and when she doesn't' remember you you burst into tears and run back to mom yelling "The girl with the earrings doesn't REMEMBER ME!!!!!!!"


Seventh . Sit out the rest of the game pondering how on earth someone didn't remember you.

Mmmmmm....

Mmmmy new favorite toy=) I got this little beauty at Target and I can already see MANY ice cream parties ahead...

It even came with a recipe I will be playing with. It's very yummy and Vanilla-ie BUT it is also a little to fragile. I need tough Waffle cones=) you know, so you can put ice cream in without breaking them. Maybe I just need to let them sit for more than 5 minutes before eating them...something to think about. You can make Waffle Cones...

With a little help from Rhys... don't forget to fold the end over a bit or you just end up with a funnel to direct ice cream onto your shirt or into your lap.

Or Sunday Bowls...for the grown ups=)
Allie helped out by taste testing and you can't properly test an Ice Cream Cone without ICE CREAM. I thank her for her willingness to help me out.

Apparently...

the medical communtiy has a few tricks for treating burns=) I went to the Doctor on Tuesday and they had a look at my burn. They said I had done a really good job of keeping it clean and debriding it ,that means removing the burnt dead skin. (Is it wrong that after I heard that word I had a Jeff Foxworthy sound track in my head? The redneck dictionary. Debriding: to get rid of your Bride. "I went to Reno and De-Brided myself this weekend!" Sorry just had to share that). They measured the burn and apparently when you have a 3.5 inch by 6 inch 2nd degree burn on your arm you SHOULD go to the ER - they can help=). They gave me a WONDERFUL ointment called Flamazine (which everybody knows about but me until now) and the healing process has sped up and the "injury" is doing very well. The really dumb part is that if any of my kids or Gary had done this I would have rushed them to the Doc and had them fixed up, but because it was me I just swiped at it and finished mowing the lawn, lol.

Remember...

Seredipity?

I loved these books as a child. Leo the Lop eared bunny, Nitter Pitter the horse, the Saveopotamus and the Hoardasaurus. Such great stories and illustrations and every story teaches a moral...everyone is "normal" , sharing is good, you know, the basics=) Well when I was down in Great Falls with Barb this weekend I found Leo the Lop (not pictured here because the kids are reading it in bed) and the nostalgia almost choked me, lol. I thought "what a wonderful set of books to have for bedtime stories!". We have been reading the Wemmicks series by Max Lucado another amazing set of books with insightful stories and illustrations and morals (are you seeing the pattern?) but with only 6 books in the set I have the repetition was killing me. So today I had a brain storm. The second hand book store I go to in Lethbridge is going out of business and everything is half priced the already halfed price so I went there and asked the Crazy Lady who runs it if she had these books. She did, I bought them. I am now very happy to have new material for bedtime stories and at the same time it's like I have found old friends. I take books very seriously.

Oooowwwwcccchhhhh!!!!

I promise that is all I said when I did this on Friday while readjusting the mower wheels....

the good news is that it looks MUCH worse today.

When I told Michael I had burnt myself on the lawnmower he immediately informed me I needed a better story..I'm open for any ideas=)

Somedays....

there just isn't enough time to get everything done. So on the days when Gary is out of town and I don't get a chance to go out for a walk here is the alternative...for me and the dog=)who is a very rambunctious 4 months old and almost 50lbs of active puppy. She goes at a steady 3.2 miles/hour...me , not so much=)

Update...

Alaina is doing fine. We spent yesterday at the hospital...and by yesterday I mean ALL yesterday. We got there at noon as ordered by the doc (Alaina was fasting having nothing to eat after breakfast at 7am) then we waited...we waited in the atrium...we waited in the admission area...we waited in the Pediatric Day Surgery room ...we waited in the play room..we just WAITED. Allie was wonderful, she would periodically say she was hungry or thirsty but then she would say she remembered she had to wait. It was heartbreaking. They finally came and got her just before 8...o'clock...at NIGHT....very long day at the hospital. Then I get a call form the Doctor at 8:15.."Mrs.Hamon your daughter is doing great and is in recovery" all that for 15 stinking minutes?!?!?!?!? So they got all the foam out, she is on antibiotics for a week to kill the infection in her sinuses and she was up at 7 this morning bossing Rhys and Bailey around. All is back to normal=) I especially liked the convict stripe pj's they had for her, lol. A big thank-you to Dad and Sandy for the loan of the DVD player, to Sandy for coming to visit and to Mom for holding my hand through it all=) okay , not literally but she was there with me till the bitter end AND she even sacrificed her glasses to the cause...or they got stolen , we're not sure which=(

New Challenge

I have decided to get myself motivated and get back into shape and lose weight. To help me on my journey I have decided to use the Weight Watchers program. I feel it will keep me motivated and give me the support and accountability that I need to lose and then KEEP OFF these extra (EXTRA) lbs=) So when I start driving you all crazy counting "points" or I turn down seconds or dessert you all know why and can hold me to it. You may also notice a "ticker" lower on the blog page, that is for the embarrassment factor and to keep me motivated. Thank you all in advance for your support!! In other news... About a week ago Alaina apparently stuffed some foam from a dollar store football up her nose. It had sat up there in her sinus cavity festering and making things ooze and stink until her brilliant mother finally figured out that it wasn't Alainas HANDS that stank so bad ("Allie, don't touch me your hands stink , go wash them" the kid now has freakishly CLEAN hands) it was, in fact, her BREATH. This morning it hit me, having been through this vicariously with Rhiannon and Tristan, what was wrong. Conversation between me and the culprit:

Question:Alaina what did you shove up your nose?

Answer:Foam from Trevs football, I tried to get it out but it was WAY up there(demonstrates with finger up nose). And now it hurts.

So off to the doc we go (this morning). He sends us to an ENT doc in Lethbridge (this afternoon) and the upshot is that tomorrow Aliana gets day surgery to remove an undisclosed amount of foam from her sinus cavity. Things are never boring around here=)

Catching up

Okay so we haven't stopped running for weeks now so there is alot of catch up to write about. Gary is busy traveling alot and Easter was great, we got to see Michael and Jenie and co and meet little Amelia (loving the nick name Mia). Then Rae and Tim had their ring ceremony and reception, and it was nice to be able to congratulate them and see friends and family. Stephen and Karin brought Xavier down to play with the cousins and hanging out with Becky and Ken at the reception was great. Then Trev and Rina and I were off to Texas to visit Krista and Co (see slide show below). We saw and did SO MUCH it's hard to remember it all so I'll channel Krista here for a sec and make a list=)
Sunday: Flew to TX. Kids loved flying (Rina not so fond of landing...or turning, lol)
Monday: Shopping and playing on Tramp, hanging with Cousins
Tuesday: Ripleys Believe it or Not, Grapevine Mills, and Rainforest Cafe
Wednesday: Fort Worth Zoo and Red hot and Blue (mmmmmm, Bar-B-Que)
Thursday: Fort Worth Arts Festival
Friday: Attempted to see Medieval Times but went to Golden Corral when it was sold out, lol.
Saturday: Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch, REI Rock Climbing and Medieval Times (crazy busy day)
Sunday: Mountasia, and a movie (at the BEST place EVER to watch a movie, The Movie Tavern).
Monday: Fly home , kids got to miss an extra day of school=)
The weather was wonderful and it was way fun to hang out with Krista and kids=) Got lots of souvenirs and pictures and memories.