random thoughts

this guy, John Flaig, who's parents would bring him some coffee crisps from their trips back home to winnipeg REALLY wanted to have his coffee crisps available in the U.S. - so he started a petition and a huge campaign. it took six years but nestle has brought coffee crisp to the states as a result. i guess there's more of us out there that have a liking for coffee crisps! it sure made big news, like fox news reported here! if you like coffee (or even just coffee flavours) you'll LOVE this candy bar! it has "wafers with coffee creme centre". keep your eye out for something that looks like this...

since we're in canada all the time, it wasn't a problem to get a coffee crisp every once in a while. or a triple mocha coffee crisp... now i'll have to ask at the holiday gas station here in town if they can get some in so i can have it more often! maybe that's not such a good thing?! on the nestle website you can even print out a product request form for a store to start stocking coffee crisps : ) i think i'll start by just asking them.

nestle's coffee crisp ad campaign in the states: "how do you like your coffee?"

(answer: crisp)

AH, I LOVE IT!!!!

chin guys singing christmas carols
(my favourite is "twelve days of christmas" or try to stump them! these guys are hilarious!!)

http://www.asksanta.ca/

make your own snowflakes on the computer
(me and the kids love to make our own snowflakes every year, even guy's made some!)

http://www.northpole.com/

desktop calendars

the ultimate christmas light show!!! "christmas in lights" and this was for real!!! i guess it was featured in a miller lite commercial last year... i missed that... you'll find more info about how he did it here

and then the flip side.... there are always people who don't know when to stop... ugly christmas lights

well, winter is definitely here! wish it wouldn't have been so warm lately - now it feels REALLY cold! i'm going to miss wearing sandals.... i'm sure i won't get any more chances until spring again. oh well, it was fun while it lasted, can't remember the last time i was able to wear sandals in november : )

guy put up the christmas tree on thursday since he was home with the kids and i decorated most of the day friday and saturday morning.... always feels good having the house ready for christmas! i did good time this year, it sometimes takes me a few days. guy is so anxious to put everything up every year - it seems it's never soon enough for him! it's kind of plain looking outside... have the lights up on the house and the icicle lights in the windows in front... just waiting for some fresh wreaths, that will help. still have to put the pine garland and lights on the little side deck - yeah, wasn't that smart putting it off til it was really COLD outside!!! then i can concentrate on the shopping part! i can't believe how many people have said they're done their christmas shopping already! that's awesome - more room in the stores for me! actually, i don't mind either way since i do a lot of shopping online! especially toys. i find it so much easier than hauling three kids in and out of the cold to go from store to store. and it makes it a lot easier to hide their gifts them! you guys ready for christmas? less than a month away!

for someone who usually doesn't win anything (at least anything more than what i paid for my scratch ticket) my luck has been changing! started this afternoon when i finally got around to scratching some of those big scratch tickets guy got me for my birthday (yeah, i've had them for a while...) out of those four scratch tickets three of them were winners - totalling $43. woo hoo! then i had one texas hold'em scratch ticket where i won on each hand - total winnings on that ticket $40. !!! i was kidding when i was talking to lisa and said i'd have to check my grey cup tickets since today was so lucky - so i was so surprised when i checked them after half time and i had 3 east 19 west!!! into my scrapbooking fund it goes : )

woo hoo! i'm so happy! i finally got this done this morning... managed to get it all to fit in the closet - that is except for two rolling cases (so i brought one that i don't use as often downstairs) and a big bag. the living room looks so empty now : ) of course, there are still three other cabinets; one holds the finished albums and albums in progress, one for idea books and magazines and one cabinet has cardstock, adhesives, cards, memory boxes for each of us.

i keep checking out ideas on 2peas for organizing my "scrapcloset", i don't usually find a lot of ideas that i can use for my space because they all have ROOMS and i just have a closet! i probably have the same amount of sb stuff to try and fit in my closet (and a few cabinets) that they show in their rooms : ) what an awesome place to scrapbook in, i wouldn't mind living in some of those rooms - guy and the kids might not enjoy it as much, eh?

even though, i may not be able to use them now, i still keep all the ideas i like in a folder and one day when we finish the basement, i'll have a great resource on how to set up my office/scraproom. so in the mean time, i have my awesome scrapcloset! guy helped me build it a few years ago. it's by the front door in our living room, we used it mostly for storage, and it was pretty obvious soon after i started scrapbooking that i had overgrown my satchel and case mom got me. i painted the walls with some paint i had planned on using on another project and guy put in a laminate countertop, a good light fixture and an extra shelf. the closet is a fair size, and i have it organized enough, but it seems like i keep reorganizing, always looking for a better system. which is weird, because i like the way i have it set up now. although there are still a few things that are waiting for a home. i guess that's more what the problem is - making room for sb supplies i acquire. solution for that is to scrapbook more to use up my supplies and purge more of what i probably won't use. pass it down to the kids to use in their scrapbooks!



i started "reorganzing" again this weekend and i'm still working on it as you can see from the picture above... this time i'm determined to get it done right. guy even added another shelf in my scrapbook closet, so maybe now i can get rid of that extra table. i think i've averaged about 4 hours of sleep a night since friday night in an effort to get all my stuff to fit : ) a few more nights and i should be done! guy's really anxious to get some of the living room back - it's only been a year that i started expanding my "space"! i don't know what the big deal is! : ) i'll be sure to post an "after" picture.... i guess that'll be my incentive to get this closet done and to show you that i can actually get it ALL to fit IN the closet! okay... how about that i can get MOST of it to fit IN the closet?!

hope everyone enjoyed their night of trick or treat?! it was a little chilly for me - what was it? like 26F/-3C or something? the wind made it feel colder than that. don't worry about the kids, they were nice and toasty with their layers and layers of clothing under their costumes. matthieu was a ninja, we ordered his costume online and it came late last week (nothing like waiting til the last minute!) his ninja blade arrived a little busted up but good old duct tape fixed it up like new.

we met up with the bedard's and the schmechel's so the kids went as a group. they seemed to have a blast together. guy and mike had the priviledge of escorting emily and amanda, brooke, matthieu, danielle and chantale. terry, lesa and i followed behind them in the van.

some of the (older) kids were too chicken to check out the haunted house at tim erickson's house. we discovered it last year and thought it was AWESOME!!! i'm sure it was just as great this year! danielle seemed to think she was big enough to handle it so she went on in... she said she didn't remember going last year and after seeing it last night she said, "i'm not going back to that place ever again! it's too scary!" just watch... she'll be going to see it again next hallowe'en : )

well, i knew this weekend was coming but i still wasn't organized enough to find something to dress up as for angie and raquel's fundraiser hallowe'en social on saturday night! only about half of us there seemed to have that problem but we had a lot of fun anyways! mom and don kept the kids for me and guy AND lisa and joel! thanks, by the way! in all the stuff that went on on sunday, i forgot to thank you guys for keeping the kids! so thank you : )
we weren't sure where the hall was in elm creek but didn't figure we would have had too much trouble finding it. you know, cause elm creek is such a big place : ) still, we drove around for a while, touring the big town of elm creek, in the dark, cause that's the best time to look at anything... yeah right! well, luckily, we eventually found it!
we loved hearing tooth n nail again! they were great of course, even considering the elm creek hall isn't the ideal place to hear a live band... the other band was pretty good too, i'm not sure if they are still without a name? i heard they've been introduced as the "jugsuckers" LOL
even elvis (one of "guests") did a number on stage... "blue suede shoes" if i remember right. some guys (and girls) had awesome costumes, some wrestlers (all oiled down, even), a VLT, a plug and a socket, not a side table and lamp but a ONE NIGHT STAND (that's so funny!), candy corn, so many cool costumes! i can't remember them all! i already mentioned elvis... oh! and of course, i can't forget "relic" from the beachcombers... if you click on beachcombers, he's the one in the picture on the left. if anyone (angie, the "angel", that's you!) has a picture of patrick as "relic" please send me and i'll add it to my post here!
but the best part of the night was that i, who NEVER (okay... rarely) wins anything, came out pretty good at the rainbow/chinese auction! when i went to put tickets in for the draws, i never even looked what the other things in that first group were, i just saw the gift certificate for a one night stay on fairmont gold (gold, that's usually good right?!) at the fairmont hotel in winnipeg and dumped six or seven, maybe even eight tickets in the bag. i also put tickets in for the one with a whole bunch of scratch tickets/cell phone prize (although i'm not sure what i would have done with the cell phone - oh i know! given it to mom, i think she's going to get one for the first time today!) and the one that was wrapped in yellow cellophane (cause that one also had a few packages of scratch tickets), i can't even recall what was in the other drawings i put tickets in for! i usually put a few of my tickets in each of the drawings but this time i split my 25 tickets into four of the drawings. that worked pretty good! i'll have to try that again next time : ) i was so excited when i went to check my tickets to the ones they drew for the rainbow auction!!! i had the ticket for the one with the fairmont hotel gift certificate!!! woo hoo!!!
the other stuff that i hadn't noticed was some norwex products (which i've heard are great!), a set of three glass candleholders, and a wooden album box. i'm still excited!
i forgot to ask angie how they made out at their social, but it looked like it was a full house - there was still people coming in at 11:30! - they had already exceeded the$12 400. they needed to raise for team diabetes for the marathon in honolulu, hawaii, so way to go! you guys had an awesome night!

anya by cd muckosky.............how awesome! a winnipegger - cd muckosky a.k.a. feeling inspired on two peas mb - was named scrapbooker of the year!!!

i love her scrapbooking style, she's a "hybrid" scrapbooker, that's where you mix digital scrapbooking with traditional scrapbooking.

she was chosen out of 10 finalists but there were 500 entries received from all over the u.s. and canada and i think even other countries! all of them had to submit 20 never-published, never-posted-online scrapbook page layouts and write a 500-word essay on the effect scrapbooking has had on their lives. ugh, that's a lot of work : )

lucky girl! she won $10,000 in cash, plus almost $10,000 in sponsorship prizes — the largest prize amounts ever awarded to a scrapbooker. plus she'll have two years of commitments... and who said scrapbooking was just a stupid hobby?!

From: "Christine Sibilleau"
Sent: Oct 20, 2006 7:50:53 AM
To: service@futureshop.com
hi there, i just thought i would share with you the most unpleasant shopping experience i have ever had! actually, i believe it is my ONLY unpleasant experience! i spent all morning yesterday researching online what kind of lcd monitor we should get. after reading reviews as well as user comments at several sites, i settled on one model that was available at your store (which, by the way, is a TWO HOUR drive). we did some other shopping, of course, checked out the selection at costco and then went to your future shop store on regent. there was a lady who said hi to us just after we had walked in to the store, that was the last time someone talked to us. we went straight to the monitors, i found the monitor i had looked at online, i was happy with the display so i was ready to purchase it. unfortunately i couldn't find one in a box, the tag said "open box" so i assume that meant there was just the display model left. that was fine, i didn't care, i just needed a sales associate to help me with it.... we waited around for someone a few minutes then one of my girls needed to go to the bathroom so we took care of that and came back and waited around for assistance again waiting, waiting, walked around looking for someone in the area who was available, waiting, waiting. see sales associates go by, looking at us as they walk by, waiting, waiting, same sales associates go by, looking at us, waiting, waiting. another sales associate helps someone near by, they're looking at computers and then at monitors. he's beside us on our right, walks in front of us to our left, goes back to our right, at which point i actually started to speak to him. he didn't even look at me! not once, no "i'll be right with you" or anything like that. i see another sales associate always busy in the computer section and he's never in our area. finally a couple sales associates, one of which had looked at us as he walked down the main aisle SEVERAL times (after the second time he wouldn't look in our direction anymore), came in computer section, again seeing that we were needing assistance, but again not acknowledging us. i seek them out, i was impatient, i was upset, i demanded for help and went back to the monitors. i was even more upset at his answer, he never asked what i needed help with, he never said someone would be with me shortly, instead he pointed out the two sales associates that were in the area and said they were with someone else. well, obviously, otherwise i wouldn't have been standing around all his time, trying to keep my three kids civilized! i was fuming at his attitude! he didn't care what so ever when i stormed out empty handed. i think he actually said "fine"! hard to believe that if anyone would have asked, they would have found an easy sale. i already knew what i wanted before i entered the store!!! i just wish i could have brought the display model to the checkout so we wouldn't have had to waste our time with you guys!!!

we were in your store for an hour!!! we waited for someone to talk to us for an hour!!! (ok, take off 5 or 10 minutes for bathroom break) no wonder my kids were running around, making noise. i would have left long before had i known that much time had passed! i wish the monitor i had picked was at a different store and i could have totally avoided dealing with your incompetent sales people. now that i think about it, it would have taken me less time to drive to another future shop. but who knows if we would have had the same experience there?!

i wasn't ready to go back home without a monitor, that was the main purpose of our trip to winnipeg! so we went a couple of doors down to best buy where the sales associates actually asked if they could assist us. imagine that, what a concept!!! one of them even opened up with "what brings you to best buy?" oh if he only knew!

don't worry! i won't be going back to future shop so your sales people don't need to worry about me yelling in their store again...

christine sibilleau

i don't know about you guys but we had a quiet weekend, haven't had many of those lately : ) danielle noticed too - her comment when we went to town to bring matthieu to sunday school this morning was "we're staying home for two days?!" that brought on the twenty other questions that always follow whenever danielle asks about anything: "how come dad's not working today", "how come you're not working today", "how come we're not going to diane's", "how come it's sunday", "it's not sunday", "all the other kids are at diane's how come we're not"... whew! those were easy enough to get through! sometimes she has me stumped - you know, about the things that don't always have an explanation because that is just the way it's understood to be - it's usually the science questions, like why is ice slippery? once in a while, she lets me get away with "i don't know, we'll have to ask dad, maybe he knows"... life from the perspective of a four-year-old...

danielle is so bummed that she doesn't have school this week. she only goes to school readiness on thursdays but there is no school here on thursday or friday. she wishes she could go to school every day so she is really bummed that she has to wait two weeks this time! she LOVES riding the bus to school in the morning, matthieu brings her to her classroom. it's so awesome having an older brother! i imagine he'll be off the hook for chantale, danielle will probably take over for him since she'll be in 1st grade when chantale starts school readiness and matthieu will be in 7th grade AAGH!!! i'm not ready for that!

i need to go have some chocolate now : )

i like my purse. i like the colour, i like the shape, i like the size! i bought it a few years ago from a thirteen sisters home party (did you know they have a store in greenbush now? love it!) and it's the one i use every fall - because it just feels like a fall purse! don't you think? and orange coordinates with everything LOL

give me a break! i'm new at this : )
don't forget to give me the link to your blog i'll add you to my list!!

well, this is a big step! not so big maybe, at least i've heard of a blog before - unlike dh : ) where has he been?! i hope to use this to share about us - and maybe showcase some of my stuff! in case you didn't know, i like to scrapbook and make cards, dabble a little bit in some altered stuff... ok, maybe like isn't strong enough a word....

later,
christine
a.k.a chris