A good visit .......

Well my close friend Kelly-Ann made it to the city on Saturday ~ and we decided to go out and do a little dancing at Oil City Roadhouse in the evening. This is my son Alex taking our picture on the way to the bar, he was generous enough to be our designated driver for the evening, not only driving us to but coming at 2:30-3:00 am to pick us up! haha Awesome kid I have, but it certainly gave Kelly-Ann and I an opportunity to let our hair down a bit and have some fun, which we did. We also went the next morning and had breakfast with our friends Donna and Chris out by Ardrossan ~ god the country is so beautiful, I think I need to go on some more weekend drives to really appreciate the beauty before the snow flies, or we lose all the beautiful colors out there. All in all it was a great weekend ~ time at home, time with my friends, and time to appreciate the world around me. :-)

This is us as we got home that night, I would definitely say not bad for 2:30-3:00 am in the morning, after a night of drinking and dancing haha ~ it's the awesome karma we share, she is a good for my soul friend, and look forward to another visit soon.

Hope you are all having a lovely day!

kinda been a tossy turvy week .......

Wednesday it is ~ though for some reason the week seems to be going impossibly slow and it should be Friday I think haha.

Tonight I am heading over to a Celiac "Anti-Panic" session - On the Celiac Association website it explains the session like this:

Linda and her helpers will take you on an imaginary trip to the grocery store. You will be shown a large variety of foods that are available, learn how to check labels, and how to use your kitchen wisely.
This is a fantastic way to learn how to eat well and be healthy on a gluten free diet. So, bring along your family, friends and, of course, your questions.

So I am not quite sure what to expect, but I am excited to give it a go ~ I know the more I learn to live a smooth day to day existence with Celiac Disease ~ the better off I will be physically and mentally. Some days I just feel very overwhelmed and trully lost as to how to do this, disappointed and down when I make slip ups (like today ~ had a beverage that did not sit well and now fighting to just stay sitting up straight) and lost ~ and then other days I am on the top of the world, feel like I could accomplish anything and have a new zest for life that is refreshing and uplifting, and all I want to do is share insight and love with everyone I care about haha.

Now the trick is to balance the two ~ and I have it made. :- )

My friend Kelly-Ann is traveling up from Calgary this weekend to spend a couple days in the city ~ and I can't wait! I have missed her terribly since she moved to Calgary, and though just lately we finally have been back on more of a regular communication basis (she took mat leave so we lost touch for a while until she could get internet access) it's just not the same as a face to face chat. So that will be a big highlight of my coming weekend ~

I hope everyone is having a lovely week!
cheers

It's late and I am sitting here awake ....

Not sure why ~ I think it was the half a cup of coffee I had late tonight ~ trying to get a little more out of the weekend. Long work day but working with Sarah and Angela today so it was alot of fun ~ I do know that I am going to miss all the awesome people I work with on my weekend job ~ especially Miss Sarah who I mostly work with on Saturdays, she is awesome and I miss her already!

I bought another awesome ceramic plaque today from work, saying:

"If you have no regrets, you need to get out more."

haha love it ~ and so correct, got to get out there and live life, and yes it is not always going to go the way we want it to ~ but that's okay, on we go ~~~~~ :-)

I have another one on my fridge that I got a while back it says:

"Wise enough to know better, old enough to care less."

Love that one too, could you say I have a bit of an attitude? haha yep maybe ~ but I think it will serve me well, I am ready to take a bit more of a hold on life, and run with it. I owe it to myself, and I owe it to the people in my life that can't do that anymore.

Okay since I am so wide awake I am going to go and do some scrapping ~ and maybe a little dreaming ......

Little ones on the brain today .......

Little Devlin goes in for double hernia surgery today, the little guy has gone through so much since he was born premature in May ~ and I am hoping once he gets this little problem fixed up today he can get on to the business of growing nice and strong. My heart is with his mommy Kelly-Ann, and sending her strong cyber hugs and support her way. And a huge good recovery kiss to Devlin.

Quite the day ~ my friend Donna also became a grandmother this morning ~ her daughter Desirae gave birth to a beautiful baby girl this morning. Hayleigh did not come easy, but she is now here! My congrats goes out to them and the whole family.

I so love the long weekends!!!

It's Monday and here I have another day at home!!! I so love long weekends so that I get to just spend some quality time doing what I want ~ yesterday I cleaned, and did some scrapbooking and some reading!! And I think maybe today should be full of the same ~ here is my layout that I was inspired to do yesterday by this weeks creative Sketch on Creative-scrappers.com ~ I so love the inspiration I am drawing from the group, it is amazing when you see sometimes 20 layouts or more go up of the same sketch and they are different! Really opens up your imagination and also shows that if you love a sketch there are so many ways to use it again and again in your books, and by changing this or that, flipping it, turning it sideways using different techniques it's a whole new layout! So so cool ~

I hope everyone has a fabulous Monday ~ I think I am off to do some scrapping this morning as I was inspired by a new TECHNIQUE challenge on Creative Scrappers! Cheers :-)

Friday Friday Friday! :-)

Well the week is ending like it started - pretty darn good ~ I am over the worst of my reaction and starting to feel good and healthy again ~ yippeee!!

In fact last night I sat down and did a layout - using the sketch from this weeks sketch challenge on Creative Scrappers ~ love the sketch and think I will be using this one more often. Using one of my favorite subjects of course my niece Carys ~ she has changed so much since these 3 month pictures haha as of course she would.

And on Monday night we had another 1 hour Sketch challenge on Creative Scrappers!!! It was the site's third and my second one ~ I so love the inspiration I am drawing from this group of very talented ladies, and being able to delve into my love of using sketchs while scrapping. Two layouts in one week so far ~ hey that is a record for me in the last while, and I hope to keep on a roll :-) Maybe after a little housecleaning tonight, I will sit and do another (we have a bonus sketch this week as well that I am itching to do) I am feeling so inspired! It's so good to be on the good side of a bad reaction now ~ and up up up and away!!!!!!!

Have a lovely long weekend everyone!

It's crazy the difference a day makes .....

Yesterday I was in a fabulous mood in the morning ~ Tuesday night not only did I finally convince my sister to join the online scrapbooking group Creative Scrappers ~ she needs inspiration very badly ~ she is a tool collector has some really cool things I don't haha ~ but she needs to find her creative outlet and actually USE THEM! So that was a big plus.

And I also reconnected with a friend that night, had an awesome chat that left me feeling great about everything ha ~ I love those kind of chats ~ re-energizes me and makes me motivated to get things done. And I am so happy to say ~ and in large because of all the talented and friendly gals on Creative Scrappers ~ I feel like scrapbooking again!!!!! Course I have to balance it with all the other stuff I let go of late haha like housecleaning but I am feeling inspired. I just wanted to get through the work day and go home and do some balancing hee hee ~ some cleaning and some scrapping ~ it's so good to feel inspired again! Then I got to touch base again in the day and chat with my lovely friend Kelly-Ann ~ she is back on MSN messenger on a more regular basis so I am able to connect with her more often ~ I so so missed her ~ and she confirmed she will be coming up to see me in a couple weeks or so, and I can't wait to see her and spend some quality time with her.

Well that was Wednesday - I was feeling on a high and went home and started some organizing of bookwork I have been ignoring for a few months ~ bad me ~ and got right into it as I was making supper ~ which turned out to be a very good thing that I got something done before I ate. Now here is my vent ~ I started to crash as soon as I ate (telling me that somehow I had contaminated myself with my food, and that I still have a ways to go to make my cooking in MY KITCHEN gluten free). As my body started to slump I got so angry and depressed (it's all part of the reaction though dealing with it isn't getting any easier) and then I further compounded it by eating something that I was unsure of (like that makes sense) because I was trying to ~~~ I don't know ~~~ better my mood? What I did was crash my whole system entirely. I became almost frozen with pain and discomfort and my body felt like it was falling into a drug induced coma ~ it's so hard to explain to people what it means to slip up ~ and I am not sure if the reactions are just worse when I slip up now ~ might be as your body is usually pretty gluten free and it is a shock to your system when you slip up. And I know part of the anger, that I start to feel unreasonably quickly, is because unlike indigestion or a mild stomach upset - I screw up my system for days! I mean I am up and at work like I have to be today, and my stomach pain has eased ~ but the drag on my body (like you are getting the flu) stays with me for days ~ therefore erasing all the wonderful motivation I had just a day before ~ lord it is frustrating. And there is not a thing I can do about it, not a pill I can take, or a way to eat something to offset it ~ I just have to ride out the reaction and try not to screw up too badly in the meantime. Which is frustrating in itself, because of course my lunch today is my supper last night (had no choice as it is all I had made in my fridge) it was either take that or starve today ~ which may end up being the choice in the end. I may have my son bring me some cereal (gluten free of course) for lunch ~ that may help that.

It's a bit overwhelming at times, and of course at the moment my mental health also takes a dip when I have a reaction ~ for it is harder to handle simple stresses in life when you are feeling like a truck hit you ~ but at least now I know I can climb out of this fog and there is a good place to be evenutally ~ I am usually in that good place most of the time now so I am going to try and take this dip and stop being so hard on myself. It does show me though that I have more work to do in my home, after having replaced so many things ~ I still have some research and changing to do. I mean a plus is that I have a whole new set of pots and pans, of bakeware, of cooking utensils ~ that is cool (if expensive) for haven't had new stuff for years and years, kinda fun to have new stuff.

Okay so that is part of Celiac Disease and learning to live with it ~ incredible highs and mind numbing lows ~ and I am striving to have more and more highs in my life (and I am well on my way) than lows. So today I am sick and unmotivated and feeling crappy - but in a few days I will be back on top of the world and back at it!!!!!

I promise myself. Hugs to you all ~

Monday Monday Monday .....

to all my friends who have "tagged" me on their sites of late, I will get to the tag never fear, though haha I won't have anyone to tag myself as you are the ones I chat with at all through my blog haha.

Well it was a very nice weekend, I went out by myself and joined my mom and her husband Ron out at the lake for a relaxing weekend. It was so nice and very much needed ~ just to be able to kick back and totally relax because well you have no other choice. Seems as if I missed too much of the summer this year, and will strive not to do the same next summer ~ too much work not enough play makes Sherri a very dull girl haha. I need my weekends back I have decided, and while giving up a second job I really enjoy (people, place) and the money that comes in from it ~ will be very much missed, my whole weekend and peace of mind will be a gain.

I keep waffling as to when, always something to save or pay for ya know ~ but I do know before the snow flies. Camping this weekend was so nice, we took a huge walk around the lake and went and viewed a few (from the outside) lake lots that are for sale, most with pre existing houses on them ~ my mom and Ron thinking of investing in a lake lot. I know it maybe a while coming yet for them to make a decision but it would be a definite plus to have a year round get away. When the world gets to be a bit much to be able to head out and not be too far from the city ~ just far enough to regroup and then get back at it.

I have been missing getting out on a regular basis and seeing my cropping friends, but they have all very busy lives right now and doesn't look like a meet up anytime soon. All fine as I have found a comfortable niche at home, and a great site for inspiration (Creative Scrappers) and I always have other lovely friends out there like Mel and Kelly that are a call away if I need some good ol' friend scrapping time. Fall is coming too and soon most will start back into regular routines, school starting, and while this brings it's own busy time ~ seems as if the scrapping world starts to come alive again.

Touched base with my friend Kelly-Ann this morning, it was good to hear from her ~ little Devlin is going through a bit of a rough spot, has a double hernia that he has been booked for surgery for, precious little one ~ and it will be nice when he is over these hurdles and can get to the business of growing strong and healthy. I am hoping to see her soon, she is going to try to come to Edmonton for a weekend and some good friend time, once the little one is finished his surgery and well onto healing. I can't wait to see her ~ and I hope that all goes very well with his surgery and his recovery and he is feeling tonnes better soon.