Maddie's birthday adventures

At midnight maddie wanted to open her presents, so as soon as that clock hit 12 she was into the wrapping.....


one of her gifts, she wanted a book she could draw in as ideas hit her.... so now she can create!

in the morning we went to a few stores, Value Village and ended at Cross Iron Mills. Maddie's phone was ringing off the hook with birthday wishes :-)

we had her favorite lunch from the crepe place.... I had a nutella crepe, Maddie had a veggie sandwich.

cool clock in the movie theatre area

she had a gift card from forever XXI so we had fun in that store, there are a few cute dresses in the bag.

then over to Michaels to buy clay. We went home for a bit and then I dropped her off at her friends for a sleep over... and that's another year :-) of fun.

Not a bad Mommy

Just stating my case.... lol, I'm not a bad Mommy and forgot to blog Maddie's b-day.... we had a funfilled day, ( which I also have to prove at work, since I booked the birthday off hehe ) but.... Maddie had a sleepover at her friend's last night.... and ALL the pix are in her camera... so I will blog them after I upload the day :-) 17!!! wow!!! when did she grow up.... ??

So, Honey, How Was Your Day?

I kind of had an interesting day today. It was like I was hanging out at the intersection of three TV shows all at once. It was kind of like a dream where you meet famous people and you have a normal conversation with them. Well, at about 11 this morning, it happened to me for real.

I was fighting the Storage War (show #1) at Calgary Coin (Pawn Stars - show #2) when a certain Canadian Picker (show #3) walked in the door. Was this really happening? It was none other than Scott Cozens!

Scott is on the left. After getting over my initial shock, I tried something crazy and talked to him. It worked. Nice guy.

Ever since we started watching American Pickers, I have been eyeing the Coke button proudly displayed in our yellow room. What was our french version worth? Scott said indeed the french was rarer but it is not worth more because people want the english one usually. He said a coke button is worth about $250.00 and they are not as rare as some people think. I told him how much I enjoyed the show and asked him where he was going next - he said Edmonton in July and then near Calgary after that. I asked him if he had ever met or spoken with the American Pickers.

He said no he hadn't. I suggested how cool it would be if they would meet and have a "Pick-Off"-a competition between Canadian Pickers and American Pickers. He seemed to like that idea and said that would be a cool thing to do in Seattle. If you see an episode featuring this, you heard it here first! He also said the show had been bought by broadcasters in the UK and it is going to be called "Cash Cowboys". Haha- I like that name. No, I didn't get a picture with him. I didn't want to bother him. I got to have a real conversation with him and that was good enough for me!

So, yeah, kind of an interesting day. I will tell you what I was doing at Calgary Coin in a later post. So, how was your day?

Happy 40th Dean!

Dean's 40 today! And still cute as a button :-) We were all off today so we started the day with the drive downtown for the storage locker stuff.... ( see Dean's blog entry ) and then came home for present opening...

Corner Gas season 6...

a spatula for the cooking wii game

more Wii...

and some CSI books, then a day of relax, and TV and more relax... Happy Birthday xo

A Winning Battle in the Storage War

Monday was a great day in the Storage War. Remember that gold we struck? Well, we sold it for $1000.00 - a nice birthday present.

Storage Wars is a dirty, tough job but days like this make it worth it!

Candyland Birthday

Normally when Maddie's birthday rolls around we have planned it for months already, but this year, she couldn't decide.... so... it was a scramble last week when she said " I want a Candyland Party" ok..... put on the thinkin caps.... and this is what we came up with :-)


first you need a board game, but not just any board game, we were going to make the kids the playing pieces.....

completed board game even the black hole and the super candy spots were added!

then to make giant candies, we made suckers, and candy wrapped in cellophane and one big bag of jelly beans.

looking pretty on the game board

snack station, in ice cream bowls

then we hung the candy from the ceiling

Maddie made her Strawberry Shortcake Dress out of a sheet.... and now she waits for guests...

trial run, Maddie got the black hole :-( Zack and Katie are happy!

Addy arrives cute as a button, dressed in candy head to toe!!

the crowd arrives, and the game begins.... some squares were pretty crowded!!!

time for cake, or course it's a Candy Land Ice cream cake! with candles that have kewl colored flames!

Happy birthday to you... happy birthday to you......

make a wish .....

I have to plan the cake better next year, Maddie always wants to eat the WHOLE picture on the cake.... so I think I will have little pictures next year!! Any way, this year she decided to share with Addy.... good luck!!

Shane got Maddie a really cute tea set...

hugs to Shane....

hugs to Zack

hugs to Emily

hugs to Katie, and then they're off to park to play, and return for movies and more games. Happy 17th Maddie!

Dispatches From Storage Wars.

When I first started watching Storage Wars, I thought the war they were referring to was the bidders competing against one another. Maybe that's what they meant. However, the reality is as soon as you win the locker the war is not won. In fact, the war has only just begun. We have been at war with this locker for about two weeks. Sifting through the contents of the biggest locker ever, as one blogpost put it, has been quite a challenge. Random would be the best way to describe this locker. From brand new Harley Davidson boots to an old computer from 1982 to some pins from Calgary '88 Olympics. Today, we made a full frontal assault on the locker. A friend and I completely tore apart the locker. Our mission: to put all the good stuff in the front and all the garbage in the back. We succeeded. And oh yeah, we literally struck gold.

We found 3 of these in an old box that has been partially chewed up by mice once upon a time. What a roller coaster ride this has been. Today was a good day in this war!

Zumba Canadian Record

Today Maddie and I participated in an attempt to break a world record Zumba class. First when we arrived at the grounds, we thot we may be turned away because we didn't have cash! and the bank machine was out of order! But the organizer told said if we promised to bring cash after the gates open and use the machine inside, that they would give tickets! Very nice of her to do that!

Once we had our tickets, we got our Zumba numbers and waited at the gate.



our Zumba crew, lots of familiar faces in the crowd :-)

they sectioned off by the number you were wearing, we just happened to get Chantel and Maria! What are the odds?

the big screen had the main instructors, ( Alejandra was one of them )

once we were all in place on the baseball diamond the music started and we Zumba'd

half an hour passed pretty quick even in the sun! That was fun, and I think the first time I have been on a real ball diamond! Only one small thing that could have better, the music needed to be louder! We're used to dancing to the beat, and feeling the beat!

then we found our seats and waited for the Vipers to start playing, I broke a nail, and Maddie Miss Innovative, filed it down using a peanut shell :-) and it worked!

Slider just chilling in the seats....

OMG how to even explain this picture, I was wearing one of those stupid hoodies that zip up all the way, so Maddie had to see it zipped up, once the picture was taken we had a good giggle fit looking at how it turned out!??

we didn't win the 50/50 draw, we weren't even close...the Vipers did win tho, 10-2 against the Maui Na Koa Ikaika.

7th inning stretch

Well that was a fun day! Meanwhile back at the locker Dean and Nate had some excitement.... but I'll let him tell ya, ciao

Oh ya, we did NOT get the WORLD record, but we doubled the Canadian record, we had 502 Zumbanites and the world record is 1223. So next year we all bring a friend and we can get it! Also The Inflatamaniacs were at the game, and they were hilarious, you'll have ti google them, I had never heard of them, but apparently they are famous? http://youtu.be/JIKGpqr_ZYY

Farewell Columbo

Not many things get me up early on a Sunday, but for years on Saturday night I would set the bread maker to make bread for 7:45 on Sunday morning. I would get up, grab a knife, a breadboard, some butter and the warm bread, go downstairs, curl up in a blanket, eat my way thru the bread, as I watched Columbo spoil someones plans for the perfect murder!

I loved watching the murder unfold and the killers attempt to cover their tracks. Then Columbo would saunter in, coat disheveled, hair scruffy, looking for coffee, scratching his head, and he would. one by one debunk every clue the killer tried to cover. You can't fool Columbo? silly murderer.

I always have a smile on my face when I talk about Columbo. Many fond memories surround his shows, and I was saddened yesterday when I found out that Peter Falk passed away :-( I came home and watched Columbo in his honor and once again he made me smile :-) (just one more thing...... ) Farewell my favorite detective, your memory will live on and on :-)

At 11pm, Someone Knocked On The Door

And we actually answered it. We usually ignore any door knocks as it is usually a salesman or some other unwanted traffic. But today, the knock was legitimate. It was our neighbour who wanted to report something of his was now parked in our yard.

Apparently, we had a little bit of wind tonight and this was the result. The wind picked up this gazebo and placed it in our yard. Kind of cool. Maddie apparently saw it there earlier and figured that we had set ours up again. Our old gazebo is now in Medicine Hat being enjoyed by the Napas.

So, the lesson here is that answering the doorbell is kind of interesting some times!

The largest locker EVER

I'm not sure why the dates of the Storage auction always falls on days I'm not around :-( Today was sign up day at the store and that's where I was, watching my phone for news of the day. Then it came, Dean phoned and said "we got a locker" Again we won! I was shocked!! He said it was big, 20x20. I could imagine about the size of the garage... and I was thinking wow that's big!

everyone lined up to peak into the locker

this one is so big it's OUTside the storage lot. Which makes it easy to access. Now to see what's inside....

not only was it big, it was packed to the rafters and right to the door

not much room to manuever yet...and look how nice there is a ladder for us to climb up. Lol last locker had a hammer on the ground that we used to dismantle the shelves.

Maddie went for a climb to see what she could find.

So far we have found some odd items. Brand new Harley Davidson boots, Dean looked them up they're $200 boots, the tags are still on, so those should sell fast. Then we found pin sets, and drawers full of single pins from the Calgary olympics. Kinda kewl! There's allot of collector stuff in this unit, plates, stamps, coins, and pins. We found a box full of Time magazines from the 70's I can read about the test tube baby again! But they might be worth something. The pins are very intriguing, it will be fun learning about the new finds. Oh and a picture from 1930 about a Oil erupture in Oklahoma, there's written info on the picture and we were able to find the photographer and a historic site that talks about the oil rig. That's the interesting part of the lockers, looking things up and getting some history. Kewl, well that's where that one stands for now. We just have to move stuff around and out so we can start selling.