2 Years

So as of October 1st it will have been 2 years since Kyle and I moved into our apartment, though honestly I didn't move in until October 21st, though all my stuff was moved in with Kyle's stuff in order to make it one clean move, as Niagara is a long way to drive 2 times to move. Today being the last day of the month it is the "big clean" day. I casually clean most days but I save the big one for the last day of the month. I have a long list of things I do, including ironing and changing sheets and flipping the mattress (you know things that don't need to be done on a daily or weekly basis). So this was the perfect time to take some pictures and see the difference 2 years makes.

October 1st 2006 - The Day We Moved In

October 1st 2008 - Present Day

My choice of home decor has changed alot, from a plastic dollar store shower curtain for a patio door covering to a .... well a more expensive shower curtain that compliments the colors in our living room. And I can admit that the present pics look alot better since the first ones were taken by Mamaz with a disposable camera, and the present ones were taken with my 7 mega pixel digital camera.

Thoughts Before Sleep

So at times I amuse myself, however at night time I do not amuse myself as I lay in bed ready for sleep but my brain doesn't stop. So here is what can go through my mind before sleep comes.

Is the door locked, because someone could break in. If they did where would I hide? I argue the pros and cons of each spot till I realize what would I save if I had to save something? It would be a different answer if the apartment was on fire....then what? I would jump out the window. How far can a person really jump? Odds on breaking something as I hit the ground? What are the odds I would land on my head? Maybe I won't jump. I have been on a roof before, that wasn't too scary maybe I could jump. What if Jessica fell off the roof? She would be hurt for sure. Next time she is going up there I will fight her down so she doesn't fall. If she fell I couldn't live if she was dead or really badly hurt. Oh no I am like a mom with a baby....but that's ok right? I mean it is my sister, but at what point is it not ok to say that? What relation would I have to be to not care too much if someone got hurt? Am I going to hell? I am sceptical of what someone said at church, does that make me bad? Is the devil as bad as the movies say? Will he really make my head spin round? How could that possibly happen, the exocist? Am I too sceptical? At what degree are movies real? Why should I be afraid of movies they probably don't happen. What do I have to do tomorrow? I should have done it all today, I had lots of time. Did I forget to tape that show? I totally forgot to tell Kyle that story, will I remember it tomorrow? Should I clean up around here and throw out some junk? Will my kids want my old toys? Maybe I should just throw them out, but then I have nothing how is that fair? Maybe I will get a Cabbage Patch Kid for Christmas this year from Kyle. What can I put on my Christmas list? How much IS too much? Will I just know when it is enough? What would happen to me if Kyle left? I wonder what is going to happen next in the book I am reading? Should I write a book about me? It would be awesome but I am not funny anymore, what would I say? What would I say if I won an Oscar? I know that the talk show I would do first is Ellen, then I guess Oprah. Why do people like her so much? I would only talk to her because well if I didn't people wouldn't like me by the fact I didn't like her. Maybe I need more friends. I should have talked to people when I was at church. I totally wish I could go back to school now, I would rock those tests. Then I ramble facts and math equations until I can no longer stand myself and I sleep.

Mamaz thinks that I think too much. I have been told that I am in my head too often. Perhaps I am, that will be something that I ponder as I lay in bed tonight.

Getting Anxious!!!!

So as I am sure I wrote a while ago, I got the material for the new bear in the mail. Unfortunately though, summer never is my time. I hate summer for the small and simple reason of there is no time. It seems that by the time I am done markets and rested up, it is time for markets again. However it is fall now and I am officially done markets for the year (though I am still "on call" for this weekend, but I doubt I will be needed). Mamaz says that she is happy to see it over as towards the end of the season everyone could see that I was not handling everything very well and I was so easily angry and flying off the handle that it wasn't healthy. So what have we been up to since we don't have markets?? Hanging out?? Sleeping?? Just plain out nothing?? NO! It seems that there never is an end to my husband being pulled from me. Just as markets is closing the computers back home are needing more and more work. He is on the phone and chatting online all night with family needing help. So still no time for much of anything. Especially on Wednesday nights when we are both busy with Scouts and Activity Day Girls. I have been so sad lately and I am sure that the reason that I have completely lost it is because I have been without Bluetooth for 2 and a half weeks now. Mamaz says that I need to be more flexible in my life and with my sleeping abilities, since I have fallen into a pattern of snuggle bear, snuggle blanket, sleep. I have slept with Bluetooth for just under 4 years now, so he has become part of a sleeping pattern/habit. So now getting to the anxious part as this seems to be getting long and not to the point. Last Tuesday we found that we were free for the first time in forever so we started the new bear. It took Kyle that first night to cut out most of the pieces, then he finished that the next night before Scouts. Thursday he started sewing what he could. Friday he started sewing the paws but they were slow going and not turning out right at all. So after a weekend of thinking about it I started sewing the paws (they have to be done by hand which is what I am better at, Kyle is better at machine sewing). So it has now been a week since we started and all we have done is 1 leg, but I have just 1 more paw to sew at which point the rest of the bear can be sewn together. Kyle said by the end of this weekend he will have it done for me. However he has also decided that it is too long of a process when there is no bear for me to sleep with, so we will be buying materials for other bears and start making them slowly after Christmas. I am excited about this, so I have already planned it all out.

So the first bear is Bluetooth (male, 4years), then Pentium/Penny (female,1), and the new bear ATi (female). These bears are all connected, Bluetooth was the first so he is all blue, I tried to tie in his blue material while making Pentium who is pink with a blue nose. Now ATi, she is purple with pink and blue bows in her ears. The next bear's name is Port. He will be green, with a purple vest and blue and pink buttons. After that I am not sure, the other colors in this material are Red and Yellow. I don't like either of them so I don't know if I will continue my bears. Though I did tell Kyle I will be needing the extra large casket when I die to fit in all the bears I will have.

All the material ironed out.

All the material laid out with the pattern, ready to cut.

The Legendary Wife

Yes, now I know you have all heard legend of a wife that shall come to rule them all, and she shall be of legendary proportions. She shall answer to Awesome, The Best, and Even Awesomer. She shall rule with gentleness and goodness and total humbleness. She shall serve and love her husband for all eternity, and those husbands that she didn't choose to be hers shall be sad and shall only wish for such greatness. She shall rise early and go out in the cold, and scrape the ice off the car, after that legendary ice storm that had kept her chosen husband up all night. Yes, you never thought that she should come in your time but she has and her name is ME. Yes I am THAT great. Oh man I am so humble....you just wish you could be as humble as me....

Ok so point being I am awesome and not to stomp on anyone else, but yeah I am the legendary awesome amazing super cool awesomer wife. I have decided that I shall get a TV as big as I can. I am currently looking at a 65" LCD, but I could go bigger should it cross Kyle's little mind that it needs to be bigger. Also you can't just have something that awesome without being awesomer. I am even throwing in a blu ray player, hey why not, right? Then the super cool part. All 3 Pirates of the Caribbean movies (Kyle's favorites). Yeah I know what you are thinking....and no it is not illegal to be this awesome amazing super cool awesomer, but it is super super hard.

Ok so I might only make myself laugh, but that was so fun to write. And yes that is all true I am indeed going to buy that for Kyle. He is as excited as a 5 year old boy on Christmas, or a newly married man on his wedding night......ohhhhh yeah that excited. I am SO giving. I need to stop writing as it is just going down hill and I shall end up making more fart bubbles in my sensitivity.

Sewing Project Updates *contains Christmas present pictures*

So I haven't slept well since having to shelve Bluetooth, so when the material for the new bear came in the mail Kyle started on cutting right away as to get material turned into a bear as soon as possible. I am starting to get really excited about having a new bear. We couldn't find the material that we had previously bought at Fabricland so ordered some much more expensive material from ebay, Kyle said it was worth it since I wanted only a certain material so that all the bears would match. He wasn't very happy when he seen the same material at Joanns across the river for alot less, but he said there was no way of knowing that they had the material I wanted, but then I made him more angry by saying that I knew. I wasn't even kidding, I knew they had that material because once I seen it I remembered a previous trip to Joanns in which I seen the material and said to Kyle we will need to come here to buy some since I will need a new bear soon. So armed with the knowledge that they sell that material Kyle is now going over there on their big sale day and buying some of all the colors I want so that when the time comes I will have material on hand for a new bear. So while Kyle is busy with this project I am still trying my best to know exactly what I want for the girls quilts and my parents pj pants. I am almost all done the planning stage, however I am having a hard time with the quilt my sister ordered. She wants it to match her bedding, so green, blue, and brown. Do you know how hard it is to get a good patterned material that follows those colors?!?!?! I found one, Jungle Babies, I love it so cute and matching (Sylvia had bought some last year and I fell in love with the pattern). However upon showing Jess the plans she said she didn't like the Jungle Babies, so back to the drawing board for me. I will post the plans that I have so far, including the not loved Jungle Babies.

Jessica's unloved Jungle Babies

Sarah's Moon and Stars

Kaleigh's Simpsons

Ode to Mamaz

So while I was home this past weekend Mamaz asked that I look through some stuff and toss what I didn't need anymore. I have a limited attention span so I didn't do that after I said I would. However I have a good reason, there was a pile of her stuff next to it and on top was a card written in gold crayon. It caught my eye and I couldn't resist reading it. It was a birthday card from me to Mamaz dated a couple years ago, inside was a poem I wrote her.

Mama you have been there since I was wee,
And changed my diaper when I would pee.
When you get old and in your diaper you should pee,
I will pay a nurse to change you $10 hourly.

I laughed so hard, Mamaz thinks it was funny, so I don't want people posting that I am mean to the woman who sacrificed for me. Anyways I love Mamaz and we have lots of fun together. Also that poem is true, I will pay a nurse as I hate diapers.

Saying Goodbye

So this weekend ended pretty hard for me. I had joked at the beginning of the weekend about saying goodbye to Bluetooth as it was his last trip, based all on the fact that I had ordered some new material and didn't know when the next sleep over in Niagara would be. Well I should be careful of what I joke about because as I packed everything into the car and got ready to drive to Mamaz house I was clearing things off the passenger seat for Kyle when I seen something funny on Bluetooth's face....a huge hole. I had slept with him all weekend and didn't notice it, but right there in the car sat a bear whose material had become so very thin that he had now lost some of his face. My heart broke and I almost cried...almost because I was driving so I needed to keep it together. So when we got back to the apartment that night he was shelved never to be cuddled again. This bear that I have had for almost 2 years, this bear that has seen me through all the rough times, this bear that I thought I would cuddle forever and be buried with has now passed on...to the shelf. Sigh. I shall miss him and his smelly yellow material. He was a good companion to me when the lights went out and I was scared (yes I am still afraid of the dark). Yesterday I woke up on the grumpy side of bed and had a bad day. Kyle asked me what had cause such an attitude that he had never seen from me, I hadn't an idea. However thinking more about it I didn't sleep well without my bear. I now have to sleep with HoneyBear, the build a bear I got on my honeymoon. She isn't nearly as snuggly, and she has fur which isn't very nice to wake up to stuck to your mouth. Now all I can pray for is the quick arrival of the new material and that Kyle will be able to sew ATi in a reasonable amount of time.

Wow my blog is full of nothing and almost completely useless. Oh well I am full of nothing, Kyle made me stop swallowing my gum. Hey now that is a story....but maybe one I shan't tell, though it pretty much made my life. Hmmm I will ask Kyle if I can write about that as he is more into the manners and politeness than I.

Onyx Noor Barton

So while I was at Mamaz place for a few hours Onyx got out...it was all Dad's fault...but she is allowed out so it wasn't too big of a deal. Anyways she is a nasty little thing that is mean to everyone but Mamaz and Jess. However when she is outside she is fairly nice, unless you try to take her inside then she is mean again. Anyways she is in my opinion a beautiful cat, she has the most perfect green eyes. I have been dying to take some really great pictures of her but haven't because she won't be still and nice inside, however she proved to be very patient and photogenic outside Monday afternoon. While looking at the pictures I seen some photoshop possibility so I used Kyle's pro-star computer to make the pictures just perfect. However I was able to use the sepia and black & white functions on my camera so those weren't altered.

Art

I was home over the weekend for my father in laws birthday. Kyle and I has spent nearly all of our weekend over there with the new empty nesters (which don't like being empty nesters as much as one would have thought). However Monday night we got to go back to my parents for a little bit before having to make the big drive home. We had bought a sleeping bag liner for my uncle to go on the annual Barton men's hunting trip, so we dropped it off and he said he would pay us back later when he was over at my parents place. So when that time came my cousins Kaleigh and Aaron (aka the biggest cousin, I think he stands something along the lines of 10 billion feet tall and only weights 100 pounds). Anyways Kaleigh said she had something she made for me, which surprised me because I am usually not as close with her. Anyways she had to do an art project where she had to take a picture and cut it out into a clay stamp and then use it to make stamped pictures. She explained that she couldn't find a simple enough picture but remembered that I had given her a picture of Sugar in a Christmas card, so she found that and used it. The pictures she gave me are so amazing. Kyle and I have been looking for some art to put up and here is Kaleigh giving us some awesome pictures that will match our apartment (which she has only been to once so I am not sure if she would even know what colours our apartment were) and they are of Sugar, which will no doubt make her continue to believe that it is all about her.

An Angry Post

Ok so I have been trying to be funny Laura again, but from time to time I get angry about things. This time I have a really good reason. A few posts ago I talked about how we had these kittens at the trailer that were very tame and very cute. We raised these cat, which were ferrel however we had been feeding the mother, also ferrel, for sometime and she had grown to trust us to help with the kittens. So that being said they are about 2-3 months old, and completely fine for an indoor pet. How could I possibly know this??? Well for years people at the park have been taking them in as pets, Mamaz for example took 1 in last year that was very sick and nursed it back and Onyx is now a very happy cat who lives very much so in the house (the odd time she got to go out with Browning). So what to do with such kittens?? Other than me myself taking them home, since Kyle said that wasn't going to happen even after Mamaz and I tried to convince him for 2 weeks. We needed to take them to the shelter so that a happy family could adopt and love them the way they REALLY wanted so much to be loved (I have never seen a ferrel cat that would hop on your lap and cuddle and want to be petted). So Mamaz with tears for her little friends that she took such great care of, put them in a carrier and brought them to a local shelter (I will not name names). This shelter had taken the other older ferrel cats a few weeks before, so why not put them with their mom and other similar cats. So Mamaz left them at the front and said she wanted to look around, upon looking she seen NONE of the other cats. When asked they said they killed them all for the simple fact no one wanted black cats. They assured Mamaz that these kittens were totally adoptable. Now almost 2 weeks later, no sign of them. They have also all been put to sleep. When Mamaz told others in the park about this disgusting shelter a neighbour said he dropped off kittens there several weeks before and they told him upfront that they would kill all these young helpless kittens. That is just sick. If I had known what kind of fait was to befall such small creatures I would have told Kyle I could care less for his rules and taken at least 1 home with me.

Sometimes I think I could just hurt people who are like that with animals. So after hearing all this Kyle and I decided that when we have our own home we will be a Humane Society Foster Home. I told Kyle that my family would be complete with 4 kids (2boys, 2girls), 2 dogs (black lab and weimaraner), and 5 cats (blacks and torti's are my preferance). However he doesn't like a house that full so I can be a foster mom to animals that need me.

I look over at my Sugar Petals and wonder how people could be so cruel to such innocent and loving creatures. Last night Kyle and I were talking about it and we are told (I am not an accurate scripture rememberer) that if we do it unto the least we do it unto Jesus; and I posed the question to him what is more low than an animal (not to say they are any less of anything than a person), so people should take care of animals and respect them.

Anyways that is my rant for the day....yeah that should do.

Can you look at this face and think "oh well you are black so you should die, no one wants you"?

Quilts

So at the beginning of the year I started to make a quilt intending on it to be a year long project as my mother in law, Sylvia, said that it would take forever to cut so many pieces of fabric and sew it all together. I knew it would take a long time and I was FINE with that, something to keep me going during the year when there was nothing else to do. I guess we under estimated a Barton's talent and super human sewing abilities as I was finished in 20 hours. That wasn't even just 1 quilt that I made, I made 2 fronts but still have yet to find a fitting back to the Princess one. I love my quilt, it comes with me EVERYWHERE, seriously if you know I am going somewhere new or sleeping over somewhere you will find that quilt packed neatly into it's suitcase (Kyle found this cute suitcase full of Little Mermaid stuff so he bought it for me, it matched my quilt so he figured I would love it, and I do). Now don't think that the quilt could ever replace my Bluetooth, he is there too. So what happens when I went to my sisters birthday party??? My cousins fall in love with the quilt (as everyone who has seen it has) and ask where there's are. Well with Christmas around the corner (yes I am throwing that out there, I love Christmas, I think it starts as soon as I can convince others that it is around the corner) I have decided that since my favorite gifts are the homemade variety that everyone shall get a homemade gifty. Now don't think that I am giving this away, everyone already knows what they are getting as I have not a clue what colors I was going to use and such. Anyways so my parents are getting PJ bottoms (I already know I am getting scotty dogs if possible for Mamaz as she loves that pattern). My sister Jessica, and cousins Sarah and Kaleigh are getting quilts. I have officially finished the pattern for 1, it has only taken me all year to figure it out. I have had these patterns made up and sitting here blank of color most of the year. However I am waiting till the American post-Thanksgiving sale to come on as the material I am using is normally $6 but is apparently going to be on for 99cent a yard (yes I quilt and use the imperial system, I grew up so close to the boarder I know nothing of metric). I am so excited about these quilts, especially the one I have finished the concept for. Oh and as I am spilling on the material front, this week I took a big step in the new bear front and bought the material off ebay. Yes ebay, Mamaz and Sylvia could hardly believe me when I said that. I will find out if any of the quilt recipients actually read this, and if not I will post the concepts. For now I will post my concepts and finished quilts.

Where Did Funny Laura Go?

Ok so I thought I would share something that I read in my journal. I wrote this in my scripture journal and I am not sure why because it has nothing to do with anything scriptural.

Dated Wednesday August 30 2006

101 Things Not To Do Alone In An Apartment...Or At Least 12 Things
1)Do not loose your coze hose, as it could be useful come Tuesday.
2)Do not leave underpants in the toaster, it may just burn.
3)Exercise only on Thursday with a paper bag, other wise it could go all 80's on you.
4)Just because you have achieved the highest level on all your video games does not mean you have achieved much of anything.
5)Families CAN be together forever, but first you have to find one...first check the hall closet that's where you found your loose hamster, though it was too late for him.
6)If it smells and creeps around the apartment, it isn't a burglar it is probably that dinner you lost track of near the heater 3 months ago.
7)Brown paper towel is not only good for spills, but an excellent source of fiber and germs scientists have yet to discover.
8)Baths aren't required everyday like at your mother's house, however once in a blue moon couldn't hurt.
9)Don't play any games with the cockroaches under the sink, they are lousy cheats. However the ones in the toilet are pretty fair.
10)Fish are great pets, just don't let them drink alcohol they are down right nasty drunks.
11)All the varieties of insects living in your apartment does not qualify you for Guinness World Records, or as a "Bug Scientist".
12)If the rats in the apartment are bigger than you don't start any fights, it will always end with you being treated for rabies and big bites.
13)Flowers can spruce up an apartment, as long as you don't buy the kind that eat people.

I am no where near that funny anymore. So it left me thinking, where did funny Laura go? Currently I am grumpy old person Laura, the letter H and that stupid condo with purple and red lights make me so angry.

End of Summer Vacation

So for our long weekend we did as most every person does, we went on vacation. So it started out just as any other weekend, markets. It wasn't too bad of a day, and Kyle even got to work at my stand. I did however get a sunburn on the back of my legs. We sold 700 of the 720 masters of fruit that we brought up. So you know a master is a box that holds 4 3liter baskets of fruit. Anyways my mom was there working as well. It was a good day. We got to the trailer that afternoon and it was so relaxing not to have to drive all the way home. My mom said that she would be going to town on Sunday morning to get some rubber sealer as the roof was leaking water. So Sunday came and once again too far for church so I slept while Kyle sat on the swing on the deck and read his book. Quite a nice start. But that is where nice stops. Mom had hosed off the roof and got all the rusty water on my car which was parked behind the trailer. I started to wash it off with a washer thing that Aunt Barb gave me when Kyle decided he had to come and overlook what I was doing. However I am smaller than him and able to fit much better under the windows, needless to say he hit the sharp edge of the window just inside his hair line. He wasn't even mad, but said he though that he cut his head and went inside. I followed after a couple minutes to see if he was OK.....BAD CHOICE. He was bleeding EVERYWHERE. It was running down his face and hands and arm as he held the cut. I am not good with blood, nope not at all. So I had enough in me to go back out and tell mom that Kyle hit his head and was bleeding a lot and barely made it back inside to the couch to die. Mom couldn't get off the roof so she yelled to the neighbour Jerry to come help and he came in asking if I was OK (apparently I looked scary white). I told him Kyle was in the bathroom (and for reference that bathroom term is loose, it is a door you open to a 4' by 6' room like closet). So he brought over the first aid kit and made sure Kyle was OK and then bandaged him up. As he left I could hear him say that someone should watch me as I didn't look too good. I had been near the bathroom but hadn't caught myself in the mirror. Kyle said when I seen the blood even my freckles disappeared, and my lips lost all their color and I was really white. Apparently I was whiter than all the dead people he has seen! So that was it for my day, getting that white takes a lot of energy and I was left weak and tired by such an ordeal.

Monday. Ah Monday, an extra day of vacation for all. This marked my sisters move back to school. However unlike the last 2 years she was not moving back to Hamilton to attend McMaster, she moved to Belleville to attend Loyalist. I did not know how far Belleville was (and still kind of don't as I slept the way there and the way back). So we unpacked her stuff into a basement apartment and had lunch together at A&W, then it was time to say good bye. Now we had already decided this weekend that I was heartless and cold so it didn't surprise anyone that I was pushing so hard to leave fast. However it was a shock that I barely got in the car before crying "I want my sister, I miss her too much". Mom told me to sleep since I don't think she could handle my crying even harder after she made a joke about the people chopping my sister into bits and eating her. I am still sad and wish that she would have gotten in at Conestoga so she could live with us.

We drove home last night at 8:30 and got home just after 11. Kyle has today off as well, but I think he is going to use it to recover from such a crazy weekend.