A layout

Last night was the Friday night crop at Scrapbook Centrale and I managed to do 2 layouts. One of them I'm keeping in my "MMM possibilities", but I can show you this one. It's for my Cuba album, which is coming along nicely.

JJ , Noemi, Tamara, Sass and Brigitte, it was nice seeing you! Erin, you sure were missed!

SYTYCD... and some pictures!

Okay, I intend to put my favourite routines on my blog as long as SYTYCD is on, so expect one (or a few of these) every week! This week, my favourite was definitely this routine by Napoleon and Tabitha danced by Mark and Chelsie H. Hip-hop. Who would've thought it would be my fave?! Go to 2:45 to see just the dancing, not the blah-blah!

*************************************************************

And now here are a few favourite pictures from the past 2 days:


Keith and his dad:

Kira rolling in the grass:

Joe, Keith's best friend, during his softball game:

Sean at Jarry park:

Sean and Kira having fun together:

Keith as he touches home plate after his second homerun of the season!!! They scored 3 points with this HR!

Week 2 at the gym (and potty training news!)

After going to the gym on Wednesday and Thursday of last week, I fully intended to go again on Sunday. I couldn't make it Friday night b/c Keith had a softball game and I was at an all-day crop on Saturday. But when I came back from the crop, I was just too wired to go to sleep. So I kept cropping and surfing the net. I'm not sure what time it was when I went to bed, but I can tell you I woke up at 2:30PM on Sunday. Yes, you read right! I'm telling you: if you don't wake me up, I can sleep indefinitely. I love my sleep!!! Then we had errands to run, and since the gym closes at 5 on Sundays, I didn't make it. Then on Monday evening I had a doctor's appointment and on Tuesday the gym was closed b/c of of la St-Jean. So tonight was my third time at the gym, the beginning of my second week. I did 22 minutes on one of those ski machines, I'm not sure what they're called. I absolutely love those machines!

****************************************************

In a previous post, I promised I'd tell you about Sean's potty training. He's been dry for many months now, I'd say maybe 6 months, I'm not sure. So he's been wearing underwear, no more diapers. Cacas, however, were a whole other story. Every 2 days, in the evening, we knew we'd have to clean up a soiled pair of underwear. We were willing to do it for a while, figuring he'd "get it" soon enough, right? Plus he was so proud of his underwear, we didn't want to "regress" to pull-ups. But no. He wanted nothing to do with it!!! Arghhhhhh! Then it was his 4th birthday on May 14th. Xavier came to the party with his Bakugan toys and Sean was completely captivated! In case you don't know what Bakugans are, they are toys based on a TV show. Here is a pic of them:

So when the party was over, we told Sean: If you go caca in the toilet, we'll bring you to the toy store and you can choose a toy. And he'd say he wanted Bakugans. We figured that would do it, he loved those toys so much! But noooooooooooooooooooooooo. He kept saying "if caca toilet, I get Bakugans" but he'd still go downstairs, poop in his pants and come and tell us. No toilet!

Then not even 2 weeks ago, I was at a Friday night crop at Scrapbook Centrale and I was telling Brigitte and Sass about Sean not wanting to poop in the toilet. They said I needed an incentive. I said I gave him one, we'll bring him to the toy store. They said "no, you have to get the toy, put it somewhere he can see it but can't reach it. You'll see, it'll work." Sounds cruel, but it had to be done!!!! So on the Sunday, I went and got him a box of 6 small Bakugans and 3 larger ones. I showed it to him but didn't let him touch it. I put the box on top of the microwave. Believe me, he cried that evening! He wanted his Bakugans!!! Then he started saying "if I go caca in the toilet, I get 6 Bakugans!" Five days later, he pooped in the toilet!!! And I am proud to say that since then, he has earned 2 of the large Bakugans and I'm certain the 3rd one will be his soon!!!

Oh, and if you are offended by my use of the words 'caca' or 'poop', you are obviously not a parent or you are of a very small nature and all I can say to that is: TOUGH!!!

All-day Crop layouts

Here are 2 of the 3 layouts I managed to finish during the day yesterday. I can't show you my 3rd one since it's for the DT at Scrapbook Centrale, but stay tuned on July 6th, we'll be showing off our work!

This is a page of Sean with his favourite toy ever, a dinosaur given to him by his Godmother Caro. He loves it, it's almost always with him!

This one is for my Cuba album (nope, it's not finished yet!) It's the view of the bar from the beach and the view of the beach from the bar. Let's just say we visited the bar quite often!! Hurray for all-inclusive vacations, lol!

All-Day Crop at Scrapbook Centrale

I love these all-day crops. Love, love, love 'em! 12 hours of friends, coffee, laughter and, let's not forget, scrapbooking! My mother is always amazed that I can do this for 12 hours straight. I must say, before my first all-day crop, I wondered the same thing myself! But it's more than just scrapbooking. It's about having a day off from the day-to-day. It's about fun conversations with ladies who share the same passion as me. It's fun to look around and see what everyone else is doing, to see how they work. I honestly don't see the time go by. It always ends way too soon.

Natalie, the Big Cahuna at Scrapbook Centrale is a wonderful lady. She's friendly and has a genuine passion for the craft. As always, she did raffles throughout the evening. I walked away with these Autumn Leaves stamps, called Brushed Flowers. Aren't they cool?!

I also won a chipboard album by Bo-Bunny and the latest issue of CK. I'm a happy camper right now!

After the crop, us girls (with the added bonus of Isabelle, who was able to join us today) went to Starbucks for more coffee and even more talking. I've already blogged about how much I love these outtings, no need to repeat myself. I indulged in a Mint Mocha Chip Frappuccino® blended coffee with Chocolate Whipped Cream. What can I say? JJ is an enabler!!! ;)
Here is their description of the drink:

Mint Mocha Chip Frappuccino® blended coffee with Chocolate Whipped Cream
Classic chocolate and spearmint flavor combined with Starbucks coffees and
milk, mocha sauce, Frappuccino® chips, blended with ice, and then topped with
chocolate whipped cream and mocha sauce.

One word: delicious! However, I'll have to add an hour or two on the treadmill to make up for it, lol! But it was worth it!

The next all-day crop is on July 26th. In the meantime, there're always the Friday night crops!

*************************************************************

I wanted to talk about Sean's potty-training, but I am exhausted. So I'll update you tomorrow! Good night!

More gym... and another layout!

Yesterday, I went to the gym once again. This time around, I did 21 minutes on the ergonomic bike. Why 21 minutes, you ask? Because I started with 20 minutes yesterday and I want to slowly go up to 45 minutes. I don't want to go too fast. First off, I am not in shape at all, so I don't want to push myself too much. Second, I know that if it's too difficult, I'll get discouraged and stop. I want to do this for the long haul, so I'm taking it slowly. Anyway, there's this feature on this bike called Fat Burn (handy, uh?!) and what you have to do is keep your hands on sensors that measure your heartrate as you bike. The machine then ajusts the resistence so that your target HR stays constant. I thought that was cool! I think the next time I'll go to the gym is on Sunday. Can't wait!
******************************************************

Tomorrow is the all-day crop at Scrapbook Centrale! I can't wait! I love getting away for a whole day, doing what I love best! It'll be nice to get together with the girls. The only thing that I wish could be different? I wish we didn't have Subway for lunch... It always makes me feel sick by the end of the day!
******************************************************

And here's another layout inspired by Ruth's sketch for this week. To see more of her great sketches, click here.

These 2 videos are worth watching

My favourite of the night, a contemporary dance:


The viennese waltz:


Of course, they both come from So You Think You Can Dance

A layout

This took me 45 minutes to make, I am in shock! For those of you who don't scrap (and aren't called Noémi!), you have to understand that it is really quick! It usually takes me hours! But the kids were having fun by themselves, I had an idea of what my design was going to be and there was no way I wasn't using these adorable papers! Who knew I'd ever love Basic Grey?!?!

A few things today

Well, first off, I am happy to say that I finally joined a gym! I've been talking about it for a while and now it's done. Pro Fitness Gym in Fabreville. They were the cheapest and really, all I need are a few machines, weights and the occasional class. No need to pay twice the price for stuff I don't need. And they are actually really well equipped, I don't think I'll have to wait in line for a bike like I had to at Nautilus. They have tons! Now if only I could convince Caro to join me!!

************************************************

In other news, Keith was named player of the week for his team in the Ligue de Balle Molle Amicale! He has been having an awesome season, I am so proud of him! He's hitting like crazy. I'm glad he plays softball, it takes his mind off of his work, which is quite difficult on him these days. Here is what they wrote:

Aigles 5 vs Harfangs 12…Une partie à sens unique en faveur des Harfangs, qui
grâce à cette victoire, s’emparaient seul du premier rang au classement général.
SÉQUENCE : 1- 0 A , 5-1 H, 8-1 H, 10-1 H, 12-1 H, 12-5 H. L’ÉTOILE DU
MATCH : Je m’en voudrais de passer sous silence la performance de Marc
Vanier, qui est venu à un simple d’un carrousel, mais mon choix se doit d’être
le surprenant Keith Beauregard. À lui seul, Keith a scié les jambes des joueurs
des Aigles grâce à un circuit dès la première manche, bon pour trois points. Une
première claque en carrière pour «Good Looking» dont les noirs ne se sont jamais
remis.

*******************************************************

And now, a few random pictures taken yesterday in our backyard.


Isn't she adorable in her little skirt?!
I love how his smile goes a the way to his eyes!
She was playing with water on the deck, hence the wet hair and drop of water on her chin!

This made me happy today!

I got an email from my sweet little niece today. Well, not so little anymore, she is 20 years old, isn't that amazing?! Anyway, Evangeline contacted me to let me know that she still reads my blog and loves seeing pictures of her cousins, so I'll keep posting my layouts. Have a great day sweetie!!!

So here's one I made about 2 months ago. Sean wearing my beach jewelry in Cuba!

Gosh I love Friday nights!!

On Friday nights, I go to the crop at Scrapbook Centrale. I get to hang out with my friends Erin, JJ, Noémi and Eliane. I always have such a wonderful time! I'm usually very lucky to get one layout done, we talk so much. But you know what? I don't care! I just love them and it feels nice to get out of the house and hang with the girls! Unfortunately, Eliane can't join us every week and Noémi can't sit with us to scrap because she's actually working. But once the crop ends at around 11:30PM, we always go out for coffee. And then we get to chat as much as we want. It's nice to have friends like that. I've never really had friends that I felt comfortable around, other than Caro. I'm the kind of person who has acquaintances, not friends. I'm too shy. But these girls are my friends. I hit it off with Erin the first time we met for our kids' playdate. She's actually going on mat leave soon, which means I get to go to her place (and her to mine) to crop. JJ is pregnant too, actually further along than Erin, but she's going on mat leave later. And Noémi just hit the 12-week mark (YAY, it stuck!) Yup, it's a baby boom in there! What are we going to do when they have the babies? I'm soooo going to miss these evenings! Anyway, I wont think about that now! I'm gonna concentrate on right now. If only I could convince Caro and Isabelle to join us! :) Oh, I would show you the layout I made tonight, but I'm keeping it secret a while longer b/c I'm rethinking this whole MMM thing. I just might enter after all!
I will, however, share this layout with you of Kira, Ethan (Erin's son) and Charlie (Isabelle's son) on their first playdate.

No MMM for me (I think!)

I had pretty much decided I would enter The Memory Makers Masters contest this year. I had decided not to make special pages for it, though. I was scrapping normally and if there was a page I was really liking, I'd put it aside. It was working well, but now I see the deadline approaching and I am starting to freak out a little bit (ya, I know, shocker!) The idea of having to go get all these layouts colour-copied, putting it all together, all that when I know I have no chance in heck at actually winning this thing... I'm not sure anymore. Or perhaps I'm just PMSing, LOL! I'll let you know my final decision! Anyone else entering?
**************************************
On another note, here is a layout I made quite a few months ago but never got around to posting. I don't really like it, but I like posting my stuff so that my brother Richard can see pics of the kids! Chime in if you still actually read my blog, big brother!!

Ode to my PVR (and a layout!)

A few weeks ago, my brother Sylvain called us up and asked if we'd be interested in buying their Illico PVR since they were switching theirs to the HD one. Of course we said yes! The price was great, and since we had wanted one for a long time, it was a no-brainer! I was getting so sick of old tapes and not being able to watch our digital tv while we were taping. It was a pain to have to find an empty spot on tapes. We sometimes taped over stuff we wanted by mistake and we sometimes forgot to tape things... Now, we just ask our beautiful machine to record our shows and just forget it. No mistakes, nothing missed, great digital image. I love it!

Here is a layout I did at Scrapbook Centrale's NSD crop. I used old Chatterbox papers given to me by my friend Noémi.

Cosmo Cricket DT search

Cosmo Cricket is having a DT search. How cool would it be to be on that team?! Here are my two most recent pages featuring CC papers (Cogsmo line):

Don't you just love those robots???!

Publication request!!

Yeah! Jane from Scrapbooking & Beyond contacted me this weekend. She wants to publish a layout of mine, my fourth with that magazine! I love it, she is wonderful to work with. Whenever I ask questions, she's always very nice and she answers really fast. I'm thrilled!

2009? Really?!

I had heard the rumours. But surely, they couldn't be true. There is *no way* a show would air an episode in June 2008 and then hold it's Series Finale (not Season Finale, Series) until 2009. Sure, 24 started the trend of holding off on the beginning of a season to start in January. That's understandable to me: that way, all 24 episodes can be shown straight through, without repeats. I enjoy that, actually. And last season, ABC showed the first few episodes of the season of Lost and then went on hiatus for a while so that the rest of the season could be shown without repeats. That sucked a little more, but it was still okay.

But now, after next week's episode, we'll have to wait over 6 months for a the second half of the final season of Battlestar Galactica. Why? More suspense? Just because? To hang on a little bit longer to one of the Sci-Fi channel's most popular series ever? If that's the case, they should just give us a fifth season. If it's for the suspense, they should just believe in their show more. It's suspensful enough not to need that type of tactic. It's good enough without needing theatrics.

Now, if it's because of the writer's strike and they weren't able to get everything in the bag in time, then I understand. But I doubt that's what it is. And that pisses me off, okay? Will I lose interest enough not to watch when it comes back in 2009? No. But it's possible I wont care as much. Yup. Interest is fleeting. They should know better.

June 4th, 2008

Yup, my favourite show right now is definitely SYTYCD!!!! I got hooked last year and this year I am hooked and in the fishing net, LOL! You have no idea how much I hate myself for not watching the first 2 seasons of this. I thought they were just trying to jump on the American Idol-type-show bandwagon. I also figured I'd hate it, since I know nothing about dance.

But at the beginning of last season, my brother Sylvain made me promise to give it a shot. I was pleasently surprised. Turns out you don't have to know anything about dance to love this show. So I was pleasantly surprised, but not awed... Until I saw Danny dance. When you look at him dance, you know he's a brilliant dancer. It'll be hard for anyone to replace him in my heart. Sabra was a cutie, and the actual winner, but my favourite dancer was definitely Danny!

When I watch this show, I am completely "out of it." I almost litterally fall into a trance. I usually am very aware of everything that is going on around me, even during a tv show. Keith, on the other hand, tunes everything out, which pisses me off! The kids could be killing each other and he wouldn't notice it! I love him, but that's a trait I could do without, LOL! But when I'm watching SYTYCD, I do the exact same thing! You have no idea how many things Keith had to tell me over and over again tonight! Now he gets a tastes of his own medicine, I guess! :)

Oh, and there's going to be a SYTYCD Canada, so it'll be double the fun this year! They are still auditionning, so I'm assuming the show will start in the Fall. I'll keep you updated!

***************************************************************

On another note, here is my latest layout --well, the latest that I'm not keeping secret ;) Click to see it larger so that your can read the journaling.

June 3rd, 2008

I am sooooooooo pissed right now! I have been looking forward to the return of The Mole. Well, guess what? I forgot to watch the premiere last night. Actually, I checked the guide and didn't see it, but then again I wasn't really paying much attention. UGH! I know I can watch it online, but I wanted to be sitting comfortably on my sofa...

Anyway, on a happier note, here are my creations for the Scrapbook Centrale design team for this month. We got to play with the amazing Magpie Collection by ScrapWorks!

June 2nd, 2008

Today, I thought I'd talk about a few random things about me, things you may or (most probably) may not know!

1. I always go to bed with my socks on. Always. Even when I sleep naked. However, I always wake up with only one sock left, and it's always the right one... Odd!

2. I hate dusting and I don't do it. Except when company is coming over, and even then I'll only dust the obvious spots. Our house is by no means dirty, but it is definitely dusty. If you can't write your name in the dust on a shelf, it's no fun, right?! ;-)

3. These days, my breakfasts consist of bagel with cream cheese. That is pretty much all I eat in the morning. I'm quite obsessed, actually. When the kids ask for a bagel, I freak a little b/c I know it means one less for me!

Well, that's 3 random things for now. I might do this again if I think of anything.

I now tag Erin, JJ and Jess. C'mon, give me 3 random things about you!