:: Happy Birthday! ::

:: I've celebrated a birthday {of sorts} around here over the weekend...can you guess who/what birthday it was that I celebrated? ::

:: Here is Jacob on Saturday night -- he found H-A-P-P-Y B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y candles and stuck them in 1/2 a pound of butter that was in the same cupboard. Then he walked over to me at my desk and said "Happy Birthday Mama" - and reenacted it for the full affect over and over and over again. It was truly very sweet! Paul grabbed the camera and got this shot ::

:: So if you can guess what "birthday" I celebrated this past weekend, you'll win a $75 spending spree at BeautiControl {the SPA products I can't get enough of!} ::

:: So guess away, you have a limited time to guess, this post will be closed by 5:00 pm on Friday evening ::

:: I'll be pulling a name randomly on Saturday morning and posting it by noon -- happy guessing! ::

:: XO, *Shawna ::

:: Playing Catch-Up - Take 2 ::

:: I've updated another post back from September --- You can find our camping adventure here! Enjoy!!! ::

:: XO, Shawna ::

:: Easy as Pie...but it's not Pie ::

:: Hey - one more thing here...I just thought I should post this recipe {currently my house smells amazing from this very "fall" comfort food dish} ::

:: I was raised eating this for Sunday lunch, as my Mom could stick it in the oven, turn the timer on in the oven and we'd come home from church lunch would be r-e-a-d-y! Aren't moms so smart! ::

:: It really is a stupidly easy recipe, but add a side dish of a veggie and dinner {or lunch} is done! ::

:: So here it is ::

{PS. I use any kind of "cream" soup I have in my pantry - it comes out just the same!}

CHICKEN & RICE CASSEROLE
Butter a shallow casserole dish. Put a cup of dry rice in. Lay chicken on top. Add one can of cream of celery soup mixed with one can of water. Sprinkle 1 package of Lipton onion soup mix over all. Cover and bake about 2 hours in oven at 350 degrees. Do not add any seasoning.

:: Luxe - Special just for YOU ::

:: Hey Lovelies -- I just have a minute here but I couldn't wait any longer to post this fun and fabulous deal for YOU! ::

:: When I was at the One of a Kind show in Vancouver I stopped by the Luxe Design booth and visited with the owner Joanne {so great to see you again Joanne!} -- I oogled over their new designs and decided that I need a different chain for my personalized Luxe necklace, what girl doesn't need two chains for one necklace!??! ::

:: Anyway {here's the goods} while I was chatting with Joanne, she said that I could post a special promo code for y'all...now isn't that nice of her! So here's the deal, enter this code: OOAKV10 when you place your order on their {new & updated} site and that's it, you will get 10% off your order!!! ::


:: Now isn't that fabulous!?!?! Now if you are wanting this for Christmas, Joanne told me that they have a new wish list area on the new site as well, so make it easy for your hubbies this year, and just sit him down to the computer and say order this. What's that saying... a happy wife = a happy life?!?!? ::

:: Hope y'all love their stuff -- I am constantly getting compliments on mine, it's definitely a piece that I treasure! ::

:: Shutterfly Photo Book Deal ::

:: I just couldn't resist passing on this "FREE" photo book from shutterfly...it's such a great deal! ::


:: I have a shutterfly account and I have ordered cards and stuff from them before and they have always turned out very well, the free book only comes from a family tree facebook page here - or you can go here to see the original blogger that wrote about it. Apparently once you enter the promo code you've got until November 15th to make your book and all you have to pay is the shipping! Such a great deal! ::

:: Here's to almost free Christmas gifts! ::

:: If the Shutterfly one doesn't work for you - try out this free book here ::

:: I didn't do that! ::

:: Today I was in my local grocery store - around lunch time...this is a true story that happened in my world ::

:: My sons and I were running some errands around lunch time at our local grocery store, I love this store because it's small, same prices as the big box store - but less busy, except when the local high school is out for lunch, then it's a crazy place! ::

:: So my sons and I were perusing the aisles with all the young-uns {half of them that were feet taller than me}, and there was this "Guy" that kept on creeping around the girls, going in and out of the aisles, his eyes following the girls around...now I am known to overreact when a situation seems abnormal, what can I say - I come by it honestly, policing is in my blood! He was wearing a tuque, had a Celtic tattoo on his right forearm and was just SO creepy looking. So while he's preoccupied with the teenagers, I was preoccupied with him; being a Creep! ::

:: I was so ready to talk to management about him, until I stumbled across him in another aisle, and he was alone. So I gathered my gum shin and walked right up to him and said "you better stop it" --- yeah, I did. He said "what are you talking about?", I responded "I've seen you checking out those girls, they are half your age, if you don't buy your food and get out of here {he had a basket full of junk food}, I will call management and they'll have you removed!". Yeah, I did ::

:: He proceeds to whisper to me "I'm store security, I'm hired to blend in to ensure the students don't steal". Okay, I was so relieved {sort of} I still thought he was being too loooky with his eyes, but he was doing a job, not being a super creep...he was being paid to be a creep. I laughed so hard when that happened, only I would have the thought to walk up to a full grown man and tell him my mind on his grocery store etiquette! ::

:: Oh, I SO didn't do that! But, what I do know is that I can tell when somethings not right and something wasn't right! One day I might help someone that is really in trouble...maybe, one day! ::

:: For now I'm stalking the local grocery stores security guy, nice Shawna, very nice! ::

:: Happy Tuesday Y'all! ::

:: Lately ::

:: Wow, I did have the best of intentions to start writing up a whole slew of posts and posting them this last week. Obviously, that didn't happen. I had/have some sort of food poisoning or something of the sort, so I haven't been doing anything more than I have to... ::



:: Today Mr. L has the day off and, thus I have the day off {kinda - SAHM you know what I mean}. So I got to go out for coffee this morning with a friend while Mr. L went through his closet and cleared the clutter and organized his Summer wardrobe to be put away in the trunk until next year. Oh, it is pure joy to find Mr. L doing this! Seriously, pure joy! ::

:: Since it's a beautiful day here and we've been on the go since mid July --- we're in the mode {well at least I am}, to clear the clutter, organize and do those little pesky jobs that get put off throughout the Summer. As I write Mr. L is in the crawl space packing away the crib, that's right my littlest boy has been in his big boy bed officially for about a month now, and so the crib can go away. This is crazy for us as we haven't put it away since we had Jacob! Next I'm going to attack my closet, because Mr. L has put me to shame with his organization, then I'll move on to cleaning our carpets in our room...they took such a beating over the last year! Then I'll move onto the bed and put my fall bedding on our bed get rid of some of the junk that gets dumped in our "sanctuary" {yeah right!} ::

:: Once the babes are up from their naps, we'll head outside and clear the gardens for the winter, plant the bulbs {before January even! Ha!!!} and hopefully tidy up the garage a bit. We also need to re-landscape our side yard as we now have a motor home...oh, sorry, you didn't know!?!? Yeah, we bought {we is a loose term, Mr. L bought} a motor home early August, so we need to park it in our side yard so I can access the garage to park in during the Fall and Winter months. We've got a full few days of work here but it'll feel SO good to get it done! ::

:: After all that we have Thanksgiving to celebrate too! What a full weekend it will be...and hopefully {no promises though} I'll be able to get a few posts up -- geesh, I haven't even posted any pictures from our camping adventures with our new {old} motor home! ::

:: Happy Thanksgiving Y'all ::

:: Anniversary Photoshoot ::

:: I just have a moment here, but I wanted to post a few of my favorite shots from our Anniversary photo shoot w/ Jamie Delaine ::

:: We had a fabulous time working with not one but TWO photographers...Kim Kalyn came over from Victoria to have a one on one session w/ Jamie and we were their models {I use that term very loosely!}. Anyway we had a great time and look at the fabulous photos to show for it! ::


:: Check more of them out here on Jamie's site -- I'm still waiting for Kim to post hers on her site -- Hint Hint Kim ;) ::

:: I'm at work today...really I am Mom! So I better jet so I can get back at it..Happy Monday Lovelies - I'll be back later to update the blog again today ::

:: I'm still here...Seriously, I am! ::

:: And I've been sick with angst {well, maybe not THAT sick} - by barely posting anything lately! ::

:: We've been good, really good, really busy good. But the feeling of crazyi'mgoingtochopoffmyhead is coming to an end very very very soon ::

:: This is a good thing, it is. I keep on trying to convince myself of this, I like a busy life, but it's not healthy for the other members of my little world. So it must slow down. This is a long and quite painful process for me ::

:: In the meantime, I'll leave you with this; we've celebrated a lot in these past months that I have yet to journal {blog} about, so I will be doing catch up on manymanymany things. Fun things, busy things, things that have flashed by my eyes that I have barely taken time to sit and enjoy the memory of. Do you ever feel that way? At any rate, I will be going through all those memories {aka: Pictures} of the last three or four months and blogging about it, as a way to etch the fabulous experiences in my memory ::

:: So I'll be back, trust me, I've missed it around here! ::
:: XO, *S ::

{Ps. props to Mrs. Lisa B for the fabulous anniversary flowers, we're still enjoying them & to Nanny C for the beautiful lead glass vase, that I didn't quite appreciate having until just this week when I pulled it out of the box it's been in for the past 6 years, my how life changes!}

:: Anniversary ::

:: We celebrated our anniversary in the big city. We have a beautiful city, especially beautiful in the late Summer & early Fall - which just so happens to be when our anniversary is! ::

:: September 21st is almost always been a beautifully clear day and this year was no exception. Mr. L had to work, so I dropped the kids off at my parents place for an overnight excursion and headed into the big city to meet up with Mr. L ::

:: Where we checked into our hotel room with a view ::

:: Timed perfectly, we had about 15 minutes to get to our next destination - this was all a surprise to Mr. L. We walked 2 blocks further into Yaletown and found ourselves at the same building that we 7 years earlier booked our photographer for our wedding. Sweet memories we had of that day. So we walk up a flight of stairs and enter Tranquility Spa. It was delightful, I had booked us for a couples massage, one full hour of pure bliss. It was so heavenly, no rush, nothing to think about, ahhh, just heaven! We walked out of there barely able to keep our backs straight! What a great start to our 24 hours in the big city ::

:: We had made reservations at The Cannery as we had an Entertainment coupon that needed to be used. Well, what an experience dinner was! Oh my! ::

:: I didn't know this but when we were walking into The Cannery Mr. L shared with me that this was where his parents had their wedding reception 34 years earlier. It was the first wedding The Cannery had hosted ::

:: By chance we scored a window seat and we were just in time to see the sun setting, what an amazing site ::

:: They even had specially printed menu's just for us ::

:: Here I am in the light of the sunset, I don't usually look this nice, I think it was the euphoria from the spa treatment & the lighting from the sun setting ::

:: Here's Mr. L - I would dare say the same thing about him. He ALWAYS looks this good ::

:: We spent hours at the restaurant, enjoying the food, company and surroundings, it was an unbelievable night ::

:: The next morning we got up and headed across town to Granville to do some shopping, we also enjoyed the pool, steam room & sauna at the hotel ::

:: Here's what our hotel looked like from the courtyard - it was quite the day! ::

:: Next we had an appointment with Miss. Jamie Delaine to take our pictures in Kits, we did that for an hour or so then headed down to the beach to enjoy the view. It was a glorious day! ::

:: We then headed to Granville Island to walk around and people watch - Mr. L purchase this french cinnamon pastry - it was huge, at least 10 inches in diameter...oh but it was good! ::

:: We wandered through the market, looking at all the treats and beautiful sites ::

:: We then headed to The Keg to enjoy dinner, it was a great steak dinner at the brand new Keg in Yaletown ::

:: We then headed to Robson to do some shopping, Mr. L ended up finding a pair of jeans and we just window shopped the rest of the strip. After that we headed to Milestones to enjoy our last celebratory dessert together, the chocolate ganache dessert - it was oh, so yummy! ::

:: It was an amazing anniversary trip to the big city and we hope to make it a yearly event, going away, even just into the big city is certainly attainable once a year! ::

:: Babe, I love you more than the day I knew I loved you and even more than the day I married you. I'm proud to be your wife. xo, *Your Gurl ::