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Saturday, July 28, 2012

THE OLYMPICS!

We are so excited for the Olympics!!  We love watching all the events.  We spent 3 hrs watching the Opening Ceremonies last night...a little long?!


In 96 we went to the Summer Olympics to watch my cousin Alison compete in the kayaking.  Alison competed in the Barcelona and in Atlanta, representing Canada at the Olympics.  It was so exciting and so much fun!!!  Above are my souvenirs I still have from that experience.  I am so proud of Ali and I do not hesitate to brag about her, especially now that the Olympics are on again.  Chance of a lifetime!!!


Go Canada GO!!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Que-pon Queen?

Have you seen the show on TLC Extreme Couponing?  They end up spending up to $1000 and then only paying $5 for the 3 grocery carts full of items.  If I lived in the States I would totally be one of those extreme couponers.  Here in Canada it is not so easy.  I find you end up buying stuff that you normally would not have bought.  There is a great website that can help you double up your savings though.  It is www.canadianfreestuff.com.  The feature I love best is COUPON MATCH UPS.  They take the weekly flyers from a variety of grocery stores and let you know what is on sale and whether there is a coupon that you can piggyback to that sale item.  There are also options that let you get the coupons mailed to you or you can get free stuff to try. 

Just thought I'd pass it on!

Monday, July 16, 2012

Best Potatoes...mmmmmm good:P

I just discovered this recipe off of another website but I changed it up just a bit because I worked with what I had on hand:

Smashed & Trashed Potatoes

6 large potatoes cut in half or a collection of mini/baby potatoes do not discriminate based on colour (all are welcomed)
Parmesan cheese
Olive oil
Salt (I use sea salt)
Vinegar

Boil your potatoes until fork tender
Drain
Take potatoes and put them on a greased cookie sheet and smash them with a potato masher.  Keep them in tack so they are still together only flatten
Drizzle a little olive oil on them, shake a little salt and add as much parm as you love
Bake @425F for 25 minutes
Drizzle (love that word) with vinegar (or not your choice)

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Love Google:)

Last Friday, we realized (OK Jeff did) that our fridge was not keeping things cold, just cool.  So we vacuumed behind the fridge after opening it all up back there.  That still did not work and all I could think is that we are going to have to go buy a new fridge tonight:(  We have had the fridge since we moved in '99.  It is quite large and there was a lot of swearing when it came to trying to get it in the house when we moved in...and I am pretty sure Jeff said if we ever moved that fridge was not coming with us!  So that too had me concerned, how to get it out. 

We went looking for the manual and of course put it in that special spot that we could just not remember!!  So I googled.  I entered Amana, found our fridge and there was a PDF file for the manual on their website.  When I clicked it said "no longer available":(!  So then I googled our exact make and got a Youtube video.  The video was made by a man in 2008, who had our exact same fridge.  In his video he was obviously frustrated about the design of the freezer.  Our freezer was fine, still very cold.  But he showed that where the cool air goes up from freezer to fridge the condensation froze over and you end up with a large chunk of ice therefore no cool air going anywhere.  He had written Amana in 2006 and still in 2008 had not got any help.  He did give us our solution: to pour hot water down the vent in the bottom of the fridge,  that connected to the freezer(our freezer is on the bottom).  After a little chipping of the ice our fridge is back to normal!!!  So the moral of the story is : googling saves you money!!!!

PS I had to pick Daphne up early from camp on Friday because of stomach cramps, I think she may of had some bad food from our fridge...yikes!!!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

The Pink Bus

Last Friday the kids and I visited the Pink Bus.  It is a bus sent out by the Run For The Cure.  On the bus you can get info about early dectection of breast cancer=mammograms.



Then we got to sign the bus!


Most touching moment was when we were behind an older couple and you could tell that the wife was/had battled breast cancer (she said so too).  Her husband was wiping away tears as he first got on the bus!


The run this year has moved to Tunney's Pasture on September 30th.  Do not forget to join SUE"S CREW.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Happy 145th Canada!

Happy Canada Day!!

One of my favourite things to do with the kids is to walk around the Parliment buildings.  Here are some photos from the last time we did:  The kids took most of the photos:)