closure

And so after writing for six years in this location I'm moving house.  I've been working on the new blog for about two months and plan to send my coordinates to some of my long time readers that I'm aware of - if you want the link then Facebook me and I'll send it your way.

Thank you for reading here - thank you for all your caring words - I look forward to reading and hearing from my friends on the new blog.

xo

Friday plans

On Friday the Summer Olympics kick off in London and we definitely plan to watch the opening ceremonies... plus I really enjoy the summer sports so I hope to be able to watch a few events... in case you care to watch you'll be able to catch the opening ceremonies on a number of channels - apparently NBC is doing a long delay... when it starts at 9pm in London - that's 1'o clock in BC -  I understand they won't start airing it until 7:00 ish on Friday night... regardless - I'll be watching on Friday night.  (That said - I don't think anything will ever top what they did in Vancouver and nothing will top K D Lang's performance... sigh)

But the root of this post was actually to ask about the London mascots... I know lots of my friends complained and complained about the Vancouver Mascots - which I actually enjoyed - however the London ones... well I have to say I think someone watched the Simpsons a wee bit too much and just shaved off a few of the aliens legs in coming up with these... www.mascot-games.london2012.com

What do you think?

shock

The shooting in Colorado last night (CNN) is shameful and tragic.  I'm not sure what would drive anyone to do such a thing.  David read me what had happened this morning as we drove to work and I couldn't believe it.

Of course, the anxious person in me is like - well that's it for going to movies.  I know - ridiculous - but still there, nonetheless.  The stories are haunting though - and with social media, parents are founding out their children have died before the hospitals are able to contact them.  Very sad and very disturbing.

I had a significantly longer vent about all this, but can't really stomach this whole thing right now.  CNN has put so much information on their website that I've just stopped looking at it.  No one should have to experience that - and really I don't want to read more about it because my brain just starts fabricating what that might have looked like - since the descriptions are so vivid.

I hope all of you are safe and that everyone has a great weekend.  xo

just a pretty sky

This was from a few weeks ago - just never posted.

Not much else to post tonight.  Just wanted to say hi.

xo

lightning by David

This was from the Saturday July 14 storm that rolled over the house - fantastic!

And because you come for the photos.... (and my ridiculous stories of adventure)

summer

We (when I say we I'm using the royal 'we' because I'm not that super helpful being at work a lot) are renovating the house.  New fence, new decks (the back one has a pond and amazing couch that we watched a storm roll in on last night), new bedroom - converting garage to massive new bedroom for Kyle or possibly Michael depending on how Kyle feels, new windows, gardening - it is fantastic - so much has been accomplished.  It shocks me what David finishes every day and that he isn't completely burnt by the sun or just completely a mess and tired - it is so great to move forward on things.

The kids are enjoying summer vacation - last night we went swimming at Deep Creek - my favourite swimming hole - and just cooled off - the water was pretty cool especially because the air temperature wasn't high when we arrived - poor skinny Michael was freezing, but had fun - me and Kyle were pretty good - both of us having a little extra blubber help :)  David also froze... my two skinny guys :)

Kyle and I were swimming upstream and he says - 'yeah we aren't cold cause me and you are like polar bears, both with our extra blubber' I laughed and agreed - I totally have extra blubber.

Michael has become a music lover - he loves to listen to all kinds of music and sing to himself.  I gave him my iPod (the original little rectangle kind) and last night he requested a CD of music we've been playing in the car - so I run outside and grab it and see this amazing cloud - lots of bubbly edges and very very white and then it happens - the cloud throws lightning - piles of it - through the cloud - I've seen that kind of thing on tv but never here - so I run in the house and we take blankets and gear outside and we all watched this amazing storm for about 30 minutes - it was incredible.  It rolled east and because we are a bunch of wieners - we piled in the car and chased it - sadly we never really caught up with it but we did see a brilliant meteor - it changed colours as it passed through our atmosphere - it was a fantastic summer night.

We've had a lot of those great nights lately.  We watched another storm a few nights ago and David got amazing photos of the lightning (I'll post from home).  The storm sat over the house for an hour - and we just oooooed and awwwwed - I've never seen these kinds of storms here before.

Last weekend we had a funeral, my cousins husband had a tragic accident - they did a great service for him and the company he worked for made a contribution to the family and closed down their sites so friends could come to the funeral.  They filled the senior's centre with people - so about 300 must have been there.  The service had a great video and lots of great photos.

Then on Sunday we hiked into where they had my grandparents ashes.  It was an easy hike until we got to the hill - there is this giant downhill section that you slowly climb down - trying not to take a spill because if you slip it is a long, bumpy way to the bottom.  My brother made a cross and plaque that a bear decided chew on - but it was still intact in the ground - we just kind of looked around - no one really said much - I took a few photos.  I walked in with a rock I'd found that was in the shape of a heart that I left at the foot of the cross.  I wanted to bring an owl to sit in a tree, but will try and do that next time.  Then we had lunch back at the trucks.  It was a good day.  My brother was here for a few days - for the funeral and then hung around for a while.  So - it has been a busy July...

Now we are all just looking forward to more summer and our vacation to Cannon Beach in August.
We are all super excited about heading there... can't wait to have a break and get to play at the ocean all day.

wow

One of my relatives posted this on Facebook tonight.

I certainly don't believe that this is directed at me - it was simply her sharing her point of view.



I'm not really sure what I wanted to say about this - only that I disagree.  If people want to stay together then giver but if what you show your children is hate, unhappiness and disregard for your personal well being I simply must say that I think you are not doing a good thing for your children and that leaving is better for them - despite all the bumps in the road ahead.

Sigh.

Ok - and now back to a great weekend with David - hooray for three day long weekends where things get accomplished!

xo

side note - I absolutely agree about not cutting your spouse down - no one should do that - it is completely ridiculous - I just disagree with people staying together and quietly hating each other and waiting for their kids to move out and then moving on with your life.  end vent. 

And because I absolutely keep forgetting to write this down

I've been meaning to write this down somewhere for the past 12 hours, and just never got to it last night and in fact, kept remembering and then forgetting.

Kyle received a silver academic award, which means he got all A's and B's on this report card - fantastic!  So we went outside to take a few photos.  I took one of Kyle by his favourite flowers, then David tried to take one of me but I was being cranky and didn't like that my flab was showing in it - then David and Michael went in the house and me and Kyle were sitting in the front garden trying one more picture of him.

He said he wanted a picture of me and him with the plaque (yes, he got a whole plaque to keep...) so we sat beside the garden. I tell him I'm so proud of him, that he worked really hard for this - we had a talk after the last report card and I said he really needed to focus on pulling off some great grades in the last semester and he says to me - Mom, this award is for you too because you worked just as hard to help me - well I didn't cry, but sitting here typing this right now gets me all teary eyed.  That kid has the best lines :)

So we took one photo of us with the plaque and I'll hopefully load that tonight.

Michael completed kindergarten and was a top star in his grade - his reading is great - he has read us green eggs and ham (the whole thing) a few times now and he just seems to be a machine for information - the teacher also noted that he was exceptional in his math skills.. hooray!  His little "grad" ceremony was great - his teacher was fantastic and it was just a good day.

David took the guys away for their first day off of summer - up to PG for adventures and fun... and yes - I'm at work - taking a break - writing to share with you... yes - I will take time off - absolutely - just not today.

xo