Diva Loca

a country christmas

my hottie and i had the GREATEST evening last night.

it was so nice to have a somewhat impromptu date night. you see all of our outings over the past four months have mainly revolved around doctor's appointments or are carefully planned out for weeks. last night we went out JUST CUZ and it was divine!

i have loved the town of merrickville since the first time i step foot there. it is such a quaint little place to visit. it almost feels like you are stepping back in time. my very favourite is to visit the town around thanksgiving when the leaves are dancing with colour and the local businesses all decorate. in fact i love merrickville so much we even considered moving there, but ultimately the commute was far less convenient for D.

one thing i LOVE about where we are right now is that merrickville is just a short 15 minute drive down the highway. last night denis and i finished up work and took a more scenic route to get to the town. along the way we had fun looking at the country houses along river road all decorated for the holidays.

last night the town was kicking off christmas in merrickville with a tree lighting ceremony. a small crowd gathered at the end of main street to watch the mayor turn on the lights. a choir sang some carols. and then when it was time for the big moment THE LIGHTS WOULDN'T GO ON! ha. straight out of christmas vacation! the mayor and a few of his buddies were able to get it all figured out while the caroling continued. it was such a lovely way to kick off this holiday season.

here are a few pictures...

before

 

after (the weather was SO NICE we were only wearing sweaters!!!)

the choir leading us in some carols...

the sky was gorgeous - the only thing missing was big fluffy snowflakes that had fallen earlier in the day

 

 

 

 

the "big" tree that was finally lit!

the whole scene

from there we walked back down main street to the christmas shop. we are trying to find a christmas ornament for parents to be that isn't too cheesy, and we aren't having any luck. i thought FOR SURE this store would have something, but nope!

next it was time for a bite to eat. we decided to try a new spot and THANK GOODNESS we did. supper was at harry mclean's pub in the baldachin inn. to be honest, my expectations were low. i was just expecting regular pub grub but we were fine with that. i was SO WRONG.

we shared a salad and soup to start. the soup was coconut carrot ginger. i knew i would love it as soon as it was placed on the table. just the aroma alone was incredible. i had a club sandwhich for my main course that was probably the best club i've ever had. it was made on foccacia bread and the seasoning on the chicken and even tomatoes was DELISH! it was so fresh and tasty. denis had prime rib, which he also loved.

the nicest part was being totally CHEESY and sitting together on the same side of the booth watching the world go by. the pub had decorated their windows so as people walked by i felt like i was in a christmas card or something.

 

 

we finished off our evening with a bit of a walk down main street to country bumpkins for some fresh fudge! i just love the people that work there, they are always so friendly. i thought of my niece and nephew so many times last night because they would just love a few of the stores...especially the ones with horse stuff (for ry) and stuffed animals (for hayden).

 

we took the scenic route back home, but this time (7 p.m.) most homes had their lights OFF already! i'm glad we got to see them on the way there. we did drive through our development to look at some of the lights around here too.

last night was exactly the type of thing christmas should be about. trees, lights, carols and just enjoying life with the ones you love the most!

a long overdue post...

i have been away from blogging for so long i barely know what to do anymore!

i have been wanting to write this post for days...weeks...months...even years in some ways.

it turns out that the mullet house had a great big surprise waiting for us shortly after moving in.

how's this for a housewarming present?

to say we were in shock and disbelief is an understatement. it took me days to finally get over the denial and test. and then denis didn't actually believe the tests at first. so i kept testing. and after acquiring a nice little collection, there was no denying it. we were indeed pregnant.

as excited as i was, i burst out crying when the first test came back because i was terrified too. our past two pregnancies led to heartbreak. could we survive that again? did we want that sadness in our new little house on the prairie?

thankfully my doctor is very proactive and he immediately put me on medication and bed rest for the first half of the pregnancy to help baby as much as possible. i'm just two days shy of 20 weeks and thrilled to say everything is going very well so far.

i'm not going to lie...the first months have been rough. the meds i'm on increase the pregnancy symptoms so i've spent a lot of time feeling brutally hungover and/or exhaused. thankfully being off work has meant all i need to worry about was taking care of baby and i. all the rough days and the sickness are well worth it though. it's for the best reason and all.

and we've been so lucky to have the greatest nurse taking care of us too! D has been working from home and taking care of EVERYTHING. meals, cleaning, groceries, errands...you name it. and he's done it all with a smile. he is going to be one incredible dad!

we are FINALLY able to start getting excited about the possibility of meeting this little person. we listen to the heartbeat often at home. nice healthy heartbeat. yesterday we had our anatomy ultrasound and the little squirt was being very difficult and stubborn...i wonder which parent (s)he gets that from! we are going to have a 3-d ultrasound on Saturday just for fun and so our parents and friends can be part of it too!

in other news life at the mullet house continues to be WONDERFUL. we love it here. it's still complete chaos and renos haven't started (other than D knocking down a few walls to get started) but that's ok. we've had more a more important project to work on the past few months. now that we are in the home stretch for this little munchkin we really need to get going. we are basically redoing almost the entire second floor. how wild to think the room that was supposed to be my scraproom will now be the nursery. amazing.

after a hard day of working and playing nurse, denis is still enjoying the hot tub occasionally. i can't wait to join him again! we are getting to know the neighbours more and more and they are just awesome. well mostly d is getting to know them, i just see them from my window! our first halloween here was fun. definitley much fewer kids than we are used to so we went all out and made cool treat bags and they each got two of them because we were worried we'd be left with way too many.

one downside to the current chaos here is we won't be decorating for christmas. we usually start the first week in november so it's weird to see everyone else's decorations up with none in sight around here. we may put up one small tree. next year we can create a winter wonderland once again with our littlest elf.

well, time for a shower and bed!

i'm going to try to write on here much more frequently now!

'night lovelies

today's thought...

Letting go of the past means that can you enjoy the dream that is happening right now.

~Don Miguel Ruiz

home automation - mullet house style...

wow! the high-tech perks here at the mullet house just keep on coming.

you may remember this stroke of genius we discovered our first night here. we wouldn't you know, the boy discovered another convenience last night...home automation. but not ANY home automation, home automation MULLET STYLE.

most of you know our old house was programmed up the ying yang. there wasn't much we couldn't do from the touch of a button either right in the house or across the world. when we hit the "good night" button, all the lights in the house would go off, the garage doors would close (if they had been left opened), the security system would arm and the music in our bedroom would go on. my personal favourite setting was the "romantic" setting that would dim the lights, turn on the music and start the gas fireplace in our bedroom (during the winter months naturally).

one of the compromises of moving to the mullet house was having to give up those creature comforts. UNTIL NOW.

as we were all snuggled into bed last night we realized the light needed to be shut off and hitting a few buttons on our iphone wasn't going to do the trick. and then...denis discovered our pioneer home automation system.

kids - even YOU can try this at home with the right equipment.

you're going to need one of these:

and one of these (preferably beach size depending on the size of your room*)

depending on your dexterity, this may require some practice.

take the towel, wind up your arm and SWAP!

if you are lucky, the light goes out in the first shot. if not, keep trying - it'll work eventually.

so there you have it. who needs thousands of feet of wiring and fancy key pads with buttons. just get yourself a towel and you're good to go!

*not all bedrooms are created equal. we currently have our king bed shoved into what will be a small guest room.

today is sunday which means it's FARMER'S MARKET DAY!

yahooo.

i'm just getting my shopping list ready now.

and while i'm doing that, i've got some yumminess cooking away.

i'm going to follow my pioneer idol and i'm making these

i figure they'll be nice and easy for D to grab and heat before his long commute to work in the morning. AND he's already got three freezer meals waiting for his lunches this week!!!

i wish y'all could see the scene from my office window right now...

three of the young neighbourhood boys are out playing.

they have a VERY long driveway that has a decent slope to it, a small ramp that they made out of a few pieces of plywood and one of these

so they start near the top of the driveway, pick up some good speed, this the ramp and go right across the road and into the ditch on the other side of the road where they are promptly thrown from the vehicle!

ha!

it's quite the sight to see and SO TYPICAL of boys!!!

oh- mom is out there supervising them now...i wonder if the fun will be changed once she witnesses one of the stunts!!!

well lovelies, back to domestic duties...

ooops - i was right.

they mixed up their stunt this time - two boys in a wagon - the front boy nearly lost both legs after flying our of the wagon post ramp. the good news is he's walking - the bad news is...he's walking home - fUN IS OVER! we are sitting here laughing- denis thinks he may have injured his "boy" parts on the wagon handle...i swear it's like a scene out of the little rascals!

night magic...

hi lovelies.

did y'all see it? did you watch? there was a meteor shower last night.

*photo taken from google images - not from our camera!*

the sky out here at the mullet house is reason enough to live in the country forever. i had no clue. i really didn't.

on a clear night, it's nothing short of spectacular to just sit and look at the stars.

last night we climbed into the hot tub for a front row seat to watch the show. so cool. something i've never done before.

it was the perfect summer evening. very few bugs. clear sky. and lots of "falling stars" to wish upon.

MAGIC.

'night lovelies

pioneer diva cooks...and nobody dies!

yes lovelies, you read that correctly. not only did everyone survive...it was DELICIOUS!!!

and i used some wonderful fresh ingredients from the farmer's market.

I made Ina Garten's Spaghetti with Shrimp and Broccoli from the House Beautiful website. I substituted the spag for whole wheat bowtie pasta..It was total deeeeeliciousness. I also made bruschetta FROM SCRATCH with incredible Ontario garlic and fresh tomatoes from the farmer's market. It was possibly the best bruschetta I've ever had if i do say so myself!!!

Here are a few pics taken with my iphone...

and another (a bit closer)...

 

Last night was pierogies from my parent's church with onions and bacon...

It's nice to finally be back into a routine where we're not eating out all the time and we have a kitchen again. Now if only we could find a few of those key kitchen tools!!!

I'm still feeling under the weather here but I think I've finally turned a corner...

Off to my nyquil-induced coma.

'night lovelies!

i may need an intervention...

i am about to tell y'all something VERY shocking.

it's embarassing. VERY embarassing. i still can't believe it has come to this. what has happened to me? when did i give up? when did i let myself go this far?

are you ready for it.

"it" is this:

the one thing i've been avoiding all these years.

the one thing i said i'd never do.

i am completely ashamed to admit i own not one but TWO pairs of these god awful hideous shoes.

when did i become this person? is it time for me to move back to the city already?

what next? will i stop shaving my armpits?

the truth is i have feet issues and going barefoot around the house is a no-go for me. i have been wearing runners but they aren't the best option for me for around the house. i picked up two pairs because they were on sale.

and you know what i hate to admit the most?

THEY REALLY ARE AS COMFORTABLE AS EVERYONE HAS ALWAYS SAID.

but i still can't believe i'm THAT girl.

who knew the country would get to me this quickly?

pioneer diva in training...

hi lovelies

i have been meaning/trying to write this post for a week now. time/inspiration/focus seem to be alluding me. but tonight, i'm in a get 'er done kind of mood. i had to work today and as soon as i finished my day i started checking things off the to do list...

last weekend i had the distinct pleasure of welcoming our first pioneer diva in training. now this was no easy feat. i had my great friend jodi visit from winnipeg. it was a very last-minute decision and couldn't have come at a better time...i've SO MISSED MY JODI.

we have the kind of friendship where we do nothing at all and yet it somehow turns into a great adventure...

so i hopped in the tractor and headed to the "big city" to pick her up at the airport. we had lunch at swiss chalet (her choice b/c they don't have them out west) and then headed to home sense and grocery shopping...gotta stock up for a big weekend!!!

friday night once we got home we got into our comfies and spent SEVERAL HOURS on the front porch. i think it was something around seven hours by the time denis got home and we all headed into the hot tub for a bit...

it was a VERY LATE NIGHT (3 a.m. if i'm not mistaken) and denis was up crazy early to be at the old house to let the professional movers in...

jodi FAILED MISERABLY at being a pioneer diva saturday because she does not know how to relax!!! by the time i woke up (which wasn't that late) she had already whipped up an amazing breakfast. SO DELISH!

i wanted to show her merrickville so we headed there but didn't last long...it was STINKIN' HOT, the humidity was about 300% AND very few stores had air conditioning...we did score a few fun finds at one of the kitchen stores where we ran into ROSA and her family...

we hit a few more stores on the way home looking for some random stuff - i never grocery shop more than when jodi is in town b/c she always has great ideas for recipes...

we were home by early afternoon, just in time for the movers to arrive.

for the next 6 or so hours jodi and i sat in our "office" (the front porch) and made smart ass remarks supervised while three professional movers and denis lifted TWO TRUCKS of really heavy stuff. i'm CONVINCED the neighbours must think we have at least five families living here with all the stuff!!!

just as the move was winding down, jodi and i made our way to the pool and alternated between that and the hot tub and then denis joined us when the move was done.

i just have to say Total Move Management from Kemptville was AMAZING. they worked hard and fast and they had fun doing it!!!

the three of us spent more time outside and finally managed to make some supper at around 9 while watching the football game. denis had to be up early the next morning for work so jodster and i returned to the office for more chatting...

this was an experience in itself

oh - before i go on, i must say that my "student" GREATLY IMPROVED her performance on saturday. she was able to just sit for a bit rather than DOING ALL THE WORK.

exhibit a

(see the dude behind her lifting heavy stuff - normally that would be jodi doing all the heavy lifting!!!)

although we did a lot of shopping for food, we didn't really eat "meals" per se - we stuck with "dips" and "bevvies."

this is our set up in the office while we waited for the movers to arrive...

and this was our chaperone

i did manage to try a local delicacy on friday night...mosquito. jod and i were in the hot tub talking away and all of a sudden i'm choking on mosquito. the little bugger was stuck at the back of my throat and no amount of beer would get rid of him!!!

i guess that was my protein source for the day.

jodi and i were more like "explorers" than pioneer divas as we sat on the front porch. i saw a light that seemed to be flashing red occcasionaly but it wasn't a plane b/c it wasn't moving fast enough. it would dim and get brighter and turn red. we thought maybe it was mars b/c jodi had gotten an email that night saying mars would be very visible. it turns out it was something we never expected...a star!

OH YEAH BABY. between the two of us we have a number of university degrees and yet it took us over an hour to figure out it was a star!!!

at one point i told jodi to check out the cat on the road. her response? "laurie, that isn't a cat, it's a fox." um - ok then. i'm REALLY new to this wildlife thing apparently.

ok - i started this post on monday i think - it is now wednesday...can we say NEVER ENDING POST!!!

sunday morning jodi made baked french toast with cinnamon raisin bread that we picked up in merrickville - super fresh bread. it was soooo delish!

we spent a bit more time on the front porch squeezing in all the talking we could manage, and then we took down all the drapes in the house to try and stuff in jodi's itty bitty leprechaun purse suitcase. seriously. i'm pretty sure my purse can hold more!!! the old owners left behind curtains that we won't be using so rather than let them go to waste, jodi took a piece of the mullet house home with her!

it was finally time to say goodbye, but it was not without incident...when we got to the airport there were some sirens going off inside and firefighters showed up. i was seriously hoping she wouldn't be able to fly and that we'd get to keep her a bit longer. unfortunately, no such luck!

jodi's departure was nearly two weeks ago now and in that time we've done more settling in and entertaining as well.

this past saturday we had denis' mom, aunt and uncle (from his mom's side) and two sets of aunts and uncle and his grandma and "grandpa' (great uncle from his mom's side who is married to his grandma from his dad's side) over for a bbq. it was WONDERFUL. we just love being able to entertain outdoors. we got a patio set for our wedding five years ago now that we've used maybe twice in all these years. now it's being put to GOOD USE.

the weather was gorgeous and the company was even better. we had a great catch up and many laughs. in an ironic twist of fate, it turns out d's uncle danny did all of the plumbing in this house when it was built eight years ago...what are the chances? just another sign that this is all meant to be.

denis finished painting my office and we are slowly putting it together. the furniture is in there and now it's time for the decorative touches. i absolutely LOVE THE COLOUR...it's sarah richardson's blue box.

it's going to be a slow process to get all settled in. we need to get planning on our renos or it'll take ten years to get them done!

on sunday we went to see the black eyed peas at scotiabank place...WHAT A CONCERT! we had general admission tickets so we got to dance the night away near the stage. it was SO FUN. wow wow wow what a concert!!!

today was another big day in our household...one of denis' lifelong dreams came true when this was delivered...

he is like a kid on christmas today. we've already watched the dvd that came with it and he just went outside to start it up.

i think we are going to need to build an extra triple garage for all of the "toys" that he got to go with it!!! i have this feeling our grass is going to be cut several times a week now!

oh my - i'm sitting in our family room and i can hear meowing...hopefully it's coming from outside because the boy has a tendency to leave the doors open :)

well, i'm going to sign off for now - i think this post is long overdue and long enough!

'night lovelies

state-of-the-art kitchen...MULLET STYLE!!!

happy thursday lovelies.

can you just TASTE the weekend? just around the corner.

i dunno about where you are living but we are having a PERFECT day her today. the sun is shining, it's warm and there is a slight breeze. i ventured out for a walk on my lunch to soak up some vitamin D. fortunately i didn't encounter any scary creatures this time. i did see a bunch of butterflies though, and they immediately made me think of Cawi and our visit to the butterfly conservatory.

now...

please take a seat and prepare to be amazed and i mean REALLY AMAZED.

i've been keeping a secret from you. a big secret. perhaps the best-kept secret of mullet house. we have a state-of-the-art kitchen. yes. that's right. all along we thought our old kitchen was pretty darn amazing - that was until we discovered what mulletville has to offer us...

are you ready?

DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SCREENS.

you are indeed seeing correctly. we have built-in bottle openers! not one, but MULTIPLE built-in bottle openers.

this fact was discovered by denis' coworker as we waited for the moving trucks and boys to arrive last friday evening. thuy and i were stuck here alone with A LOT of beer and no opener. the house was pretty much empty so we had to get resourceful and thuy discovered this little trick!

look out sarah richardson - your kitchens don't have a THING on mulletville!

i'm just itching to decorate around here so i picked up a few new accessories to bring a pop of colour to our spaces...

the only problem is this particular accessory is giving me bruises - the damn flies keep landing on me, and when i try to swat them, they fly away and i hit myself instead!!!

tonight is going to be a bit of a scavenger hunt to find certain boxes - tomorrow afternoon our very first houseguest arrives....JODI!!!!

i'm not sure the mullet house will ever be the same!!!

enjoy this lovely summer evening lovelies!