And, after all the baking and gardening... Jim took me shopping! Where I bought these for Paris!! What do you think? They were on sale. Guess how much... guess... Twenty-six dollars. What a steal. I was thrilled, but... I've been wearing them now for a couple hours and it's cutting into the back of my heel. Frig! I'm going to wear them this week to break them in. If they still hurt by Friday I'm not taking them. Still happy I got them tho. It was a good price.


I hope you had a good mother's day. Wish I was there or you here. We should plan something for next year.

Happy Mother's Day Mama!! Did you have a great day? Did Vance take you out for dinner or did you cook? Were the girls there too? It was a beautiful day!


I did a lot of baking and gardening today. My mother's day gift from Liam was decorating chocolate chip cookies together. And, I also made that cinnamon roll loaf. I was happy with how it turned out! 


Then I went outside to tackle the garden by the deck. I even cleaned out the pond. My hands still smell like decomposing vegetation... you know that rotten smell. Ugh. I didn't do a perfect job but at least it's not green with algae anymore. The pond plants survived and I believe the water lilies are still alive too. I started weeding the garden bed but then stopped as I started to question whether I was pulling up weeds or good stuff. But, everything is pruned and coming up quickly!


I think Jim's mother's day gift to me was mowing the lawn without me telling him to. And he said he enjoyed doing it too? Honestly, I think aliens took my husband. 

Proof that Jim was mowing the lawn.

Weed-free sort of...

The Hosta bed. 

The semi clean pond. What do you think?

Hey Mama, It's Liam! The photo to the left is my Mother's Day gift to you! I hope you like it, and happy Mother's Day! 

I got my Euros!! Isn't it pretty? I have about $500 spending money and $500 for our lodgings. I don't suspect I will be buying a lot there. At least that's not my intention!!! But, you never know with me. Most of it will be spent on food. The girls are working on the itinerary. So, I don't know what the plan is yet. I found out that they fight a lot. Honestly, I don't care. We are staying in the St. Germaine district on the left bank. If everything falls apart I am quite happy walking around and doing my own thing. On my wish list... Eiffel Tower, Musée d'Orsay, Shakespeare and Co., Cafe de Flore and Les Deaux Magots, a boat ride along La Sienne, a stroll along the Champs d'Elysse, shopping at a local market, window shopping at Chanel... c'est toute! I'm considering taking my laptop as we have WiFi at our apartment. It would be a pain but in the mornings I could update my Facebook and blog :) Saves on cell phone charges!!

How's your garden coming along?? Are you done yet? lol I finally saw signs of the hostas peeking out!! This pic taken yesterday. The lilac tree is showing some signs of life too. And the day lillies around the trees along the driveway are coming up fast and furious!!! They look very healthy and full too despite the horrible soil conditions! Must be all the rain.


I really must find time to clean out the garden bed by the deck as it's soooo messy and wet. Because if I don't do it now I won't get back into the garden till June! It should only take me a day, right?

So, I was away last week at a conference in Toronto. I was eating well... not sure about the boys. lol. It was a great conference called Flash in the Can. It's a digital, multimedia conference. I arranged it for the whole studio to attend. I attended all the days while the studio had a couple days here and there. Met top people in the industry including the developer and right had man to Bill Gates... Well, I'm sure Bill has a lot of right hand men but I met one. Along with the Creative Director who did the opening credits for the movie Se7en. That's all he does, creates opening sequences to all the top movies, like... Superman, Spiderman, Ironman... I can't remember them all. Uber talented people. 


But, I'm back to reality now and getting super excited about Paris... 12 more sleeps!!!!

So, my bad luck comes in three's... first the propane, then the basement flood. Now, shingles were blown off of our roof. We had a really bad wind storm a couple weeks ago. Power outages everywhere, including work, including a gas leak at our office too which resulted in me evacuating the building because the smell was so strong. I noticed a few other homes in our area had shingles missing too. 


So, the bad news is because we claimed the flood, we really can't claim the roof too. I suspect it's going to cost us $1,000 to fix. I'm going to look into it after I'm back from Paris. Right now we have plastic of some sort covering the bare area. The guys who did our basement did that quick fix. 


As for the basement, still no carpet so that is in limbo. Honestly, I haven't even been around to care but I will have to get on it when I'm back! The house seems like it's falling apart!!!

Here's one of the last meals that I've cooked since April. Pork chops, mashed potatoes and homemade apple chunks. Sadly, I've been so busy I really haven't been cooking. Not a good way to lead up to Mother's Day. I don't expect much from my son this year. As I really have not been around :(

French toast to continue my french food theme! Haha, the pan is coming in very handy. 

Making crêpes in prep for my trip to Paree!!! I will definitely have to have a french crêpe while I'm there. Notice I am using the kitchen aid pan that you bought me. Love those frying pans thank you!! They make beautiful crêpes!!!

Mumsie!! I miss you. Where did the time go? I have some serious catching up to do!!! Not sure if I talked to you about the horse clinic. The guy was a real horse whisperer. Gorde Searle from Alberta. It was a rainy day but a lot of people showed up. I learned a lot from him. But, wasn't too inspired to get back on a horse. I ended up cancelling my lessons since. Yup. I haven't ridden in about a month which is the longest I have gone without riding. Sad, I know. But, I did it because it was relaxing and enjoying for me. With my new coach and the loss of Beau, I lost all of that. I know it will come back but I'm just taking a break from it for now.