from carmen's facebook

So this is a long.... long "survey" type thing... if you feel like doing it on your blog or facebook space let me know and I will link it up...

A
- Available: No
Age: 30
- Annoyance: Too many things to list... ok - #1 right now is people who think they know everything
- Actor: Ewan McGregor

B
- Beer: No thanks
- Birthday/Birthplace: Dec 29 - good ole' Quesnel
- Best Friends: Paula
- Body Part on opposite sex: um, biceps, chest, my list could go on and on right - I'm definitely love starved....
- Best feeling in the world: Succeeding at something you've worked hard at
- Big words: nothing comes to mind tonight... I tell you what - add this to the annoyance list - I hate it when people use big words when they could just as easily use a regular human word, but want you to think that they are uber (i hate uber) smart and because they are using a big word it is obvious to all that they are... asses...
- Best weather: Big puffy snow
- Been in Love: Yes
- Been bitched out?: Yes
- Been on stage?: Yes
- Believe in yourself?: For most things
- Believe in life on other planets: Yes
- Believe in miracles: Not sure
- Believe in Magic: No
- Believe in God: No
- Believe in Satan: No
- Believe in Santa: Of course
- Believe in Ghosts/spirits: No (but I did read the allison dubois book and I do have doubts now...)
- Believe in Evolution: Yes

C
- Car: I've got a CRV - not lovin' it - but it works
- Candy: Runts - orange
- Colour: blue
- Cried in school: Yes - cried during a presentation to add drama - very sad - very well performed - definitely oscar worthy
- Chocolate/Vanilla: neither
- Chinese/Mexican: Chinese - duh
- Cake or pie: mmmmm PIE! - well sort of - not so much right now
- Country to visit: China
D
- Day or Night: Day
- Dream vehicle: not sure - definitely not a mini van but I don't think I'm going to get out of that
- Danced: yes - not so much anymore
- Dance in the rain?: yes
- Do the splits?: not so much

E
- Eggs: Poached
- Eyes: Blue
- Everyone has a: an evil side
- Ever failed a class? Yes, yes and yes

F
- First crush: Corey
- First kiss: can't remember
- Full name: April Marie Cheng
- First thoughts waking up: Where are the kids
- Food: popcorn twists

G
- Greatest Fear: Death
- Giver or taker: both
- Goals: to live forever
- Gum: not so much
- Get along with your parents?: Yes
- Good luck charm: nope

In girls/guys:
Eye colour: Brown/Dark
Hair Colour: Dark
Short/Long: Short
Height: Taller for sure
Clothing Style: Uniform

H
- Hair Colour: Blonde
- Height: 5'8"
- Happy: Yes
- Holiday: no favorite
- How do you want to die: I told you I'm going to live forever... gees
- Health freak?: A little bit
- Hate: Fat
- Hockey Team: Vancouver Canucks
I
- Ice cream: Blackforest
- Instrument: Flute, oboe

J
- Jewellery: Ring, earrings, necklace (occassionally)
- Job: Office & Project Manager - Jane of all trades

K
- Kids: Two
- Kickboxing or karate: nope - taebo
- Keep a journal?: yes

L
- Longest Car Ride: Red Wood Forest
- Love: all the time - all you need is love, love is a many splendid thing,
- Letter: A
- Laughed so hard you cried: Yes
- Love at first sight: Yes
- Long Distance Relationships: Yes... boo hoo hoo

LAST PERSON WHO...
1. Slept in a bed beside you? Hubby... well I guess the kids...
2. Saw you cry? Hubby, and the kids... "mom why is there water on your face..."
3. Went to the movies with you? Hubby
4. You went to the mall with? What mall... I guess the Kelowna mall was the last one I was at.. so Hubby and kids
5. You went to dinner with? my board - wholy -I'm lame
6. You talked to on the phone? Gord my sign guy
7. Made you laugh? Kyle

M
- Milk flavour: Soya...
- Movie: Love actually - plus hundreds more
-Mooned anybody: uuummmmmm - no it wasn't me
- Marriage?: Yes
- Motion sickness? Yes

N
- Number of Siblings: 2
- Number of Piercings: 2
- Number: eight hundred million

O
- Overused Phrases: i hate hearing 'like' - I'm a recovering like-aholic
- One wish: ummmm live forever ;)
- One phobia: lots

P
- Place you'd like to live: vancouver island
- Perfect Pizza: alfredo chicken
- Pepsi/Coke: neither

Q
- Quail: rhymes with hail

R
- Reason to cry: everything
- Reality T.V.: Survivor
- Radio Station: CBC
- Roll your tongue in a circle? Yes
- Rolling Stones/ Rascall Flatts: Neither

S
- Song: loads and loads - I'm still lovin' JT and what goes around...
- Shoe size: 8-10
- Salad Dressing: Ranch
- Sushi: Yes mmmmm sushi
- Scent: Lily of the valley
- Slept outside: Yes
- Seen a dead body?: Yes
- Smoked?: No - but might as well have
- Skinny dipped? Yes
- Shower Daily?: Mostly
- Sing well? Sure
- In the shower? Yes
- Swear?: Yes
- Stuffed Animals?: No
- Single/Group dates: Single
- Strawberries/Blueberries: Blueberries - fresh only -
- Scientists need to invent: a way for me to live forever
- Sex: missing it

T
- Time for bed: 12am
- Thunderstorms: Are ok...
- TV: ER
- Touch your tongue to your nose?: Sorry no
- Truck: Four door by whoever... probably Ford... I guess someone needs to support that company
- Tattoos: Yes

U
-Unpredictable: No
-Unpredictability: Laughable

V
- Vegetable you hate: Lima beans
- Vegetable you love: Lots - most
- Vacation spot: Interested in going to Vegas, or Hawaii and Newfoundland

W
- Weakness: Ankles
- When you grow up: Astronaut
- Which one of your friends acts the most like you: Aunti Jenni
- Who makes you laugh the most: Everyone makes me laugh
- Worst feeling: Loss
- Wanted to be a model?: Yes, but only because my brother was one for Zellers
- Where do we go when we die: since I'm living forever I don't need to answer this question... (Ok - I hope that Dubois book was right - I hope)
- Worst weather: freezing rain - blah

X
-X-Rays: A few

Y
-Year it is now: 2007
-Yellow: is the color of corn
-Zoo animal: Giraffe
-Zodiac sign: Capricorn

Holy and if you read all that you must be bored... phew - all finished.

Other crazy bastards who managed to finish this thing : Sarah, Jodi, Carmen

shmeep

Cute Michael playing on the slide on our deck.


I know his nose is running, but I really like this pic. We managed to have some photo time together while Kyle went on a play date and dinner with Aunti Leighann.


So I've joined facebook and I thought I would provide some of my old quesnelly friends with community updates... this is granvilles.. yes it is still open... and...


We love it so much that now there are two. This one is near Correlieu. Yes, still the land of crazy.


Here is cover on the side of my house that goes no where and is purely decorative - thank you previous owners! Way to go on kicking so much ass!


This is a tulip in my garden. It is the only tulip and this is all it does. It grows one pathetic leaf and will likely be trampled by some stray poop spreading neighbourhood dog (THANK YOU NEIGHBORS... I'm going to start leaving diapers on my neighbours yards and see what they think of that.) or be smushed by one of the kids... both kids have nearly stepped on it.


This is the boot that kicked my face.


This is the face that took the boot, that tried to laugh, because of the boot in the face.

the wheels on the bus

Today marked our first trip as a family (minus dad) on Quesnel transit. Kyle kept asking why we had to take the bus and halfway through our journey he says to me "mom, i miss your car" My mom had car issues last night and had to borrow mine to get home, leaving us vehicless. We got off at school and I walked to work from there. It was actually quite nice as spring has finally come. Could I take the bus everyday? I think I could - I have some meetings that it might not work for, but for the most part I could... would I? Well saving the planet is one thing, but I felt like I was getting exposed to second hand smoke by sitting on the bus. I swear that everyone around us was emminating smoke... it was so gross. I'm quite sensitive to that now and it gave me a nice headache and sinus pain. That is a pretty big deterant...

I'm trying to stay upbeat on here. I have some work things I would love to download to my blog, but you never know who is reading these things... Let's just say that I'm too stressed out.

In the book of oddities... my mom is doing her docterate (?) in naturopathy right now. She is doing quite well and let's face it - I think it is pretty bogus. She rolls healing touch with auras and lots of other things that seem a little off in my books... but tonight... well my back has been bugging me for a couple of days. I over did my last work out - so not unbearable pain but that ache... however my back was really complaining. I kid you not that I'm sitting in the car with her and she says your back hurts - I'm thinking - is it that obvious... I knew I'd made some motions and was probably stretching - so I say yeah... (inside voice - please leave me alone, please don't tell me I'm blue.. lord) and then she puts her finger on the exact spot that had been killing me ... and it shut me up. She's like it's right here - right... all I could say was yeah... and she's all - yeah it was calling me... so that's it - I'm removing the cellular implant in my back - who knew it was going to start making calls on its own. Very very odd!

Nature news - I saw my first 2007 hummingbird tonight. Nice bright pink one - hanging out in the apple trees. My feeder is going out in the morning.

facebook

So I've been introduced to the phenomenon that is facebook. It is all kind of intimidating... maybe that isn't the right word. There are people I haven't seen in ages - some who I've missed, some who I didn't really know that well and some who I treated like shit and didn't realize it until I saw there picture again and felt really bad about the shitty person I was ten years ago. So I'm sorry to you - in case any of those people that know I was shitty to thenm happen to read here... not that I expect any forgiveness cause let's face it - I was not a good person.

It actually made me sick for the last two days. How messed up is that? I should be pleased to see all the shiny faces again but something just hasn't sat well with me.

So what to do? I've been very caution about updating anything. I don't know if I'm ready for that. You can tell me I'm a lame-o I'm will to accept that.

There you go - me blogging about nothing... my apologies.

Come
as you are
as you were
as I want you to be
as a friend
as a friend
as an old enemy
take your time
hurry up
the choice is your
don't be late
take a rest
as a friend
as an old memoria
memoria
memoria
memoria

Now that brings back memories... holy - I need to go have a glass of wine and chill out. Night my loves.

gone

Andy arrived on Friday night, just before midnight... of course Michael decided he was going to pull the cry of the century. I'm lucky I even got to get into bed at all... he cried for two hours... at least. I finally got into my own bed at 3am. It may have been the start of a cold - but he had no other symptoms. We spent Saturday doing what we usually do on Saturdays - garage sale - Kyle got a few new friends - I can't say no to 25 cent toys - or 5 for 25 cents... and I got Michael a new (used) comforter/sheet set - Bob the Builder - very nice - used - but still nice and all of it for $7... I know - some of you are not into garage saling but that was good find :)

My mom came with us and hated it - she doesn't like garage saling and said something like 'i don't like the crowds...." whatever - I hate going because I feel like I have to buy something, but I've gotten over that... now I browse and leave :) hooray!

We had sushi at home last night and then just hung out. This whole being apart crap is super draining. Andy napped for two hours in the afternoon and we went to bed by 11pm. sad... and Michael only got up at 6am... amazing.

He left for Kelowna at 10am and just called to let me know he'd was just outside of Kamloops.

Did you know - From Cache Creek there are at least 4 different ways to travel to Kelowna. I can do a different way every time and it takes me nearly the same amount of time..., in any case, it was definitely a sad morning. We've just hung out today. I managed to clean the fish tank (10 gallons) with two kids and that should be some kind of medal achievement. The tank was disgusting - like ruggles disgusting.. ok maybe not that bad, that poor pyranah - anyway after an hour I got it all clean and put our only surviving fish back in - see how he does with new water - I think I figured out why all the other fish died - I took all the parts out of the tank today and picked up a damned Walmart tank toy - a little shark and the paint was peeling off - the paint actualy came off in my hands... it isn't going back in the tank... I'm also going to get a algae eater and see if it doesn't commit suicide - in university I had multiple fish suction their way out of the tank only to find them exploded on the other side of the tank - was the tank that bad... maybe it was living with all the girls...

Alright I'm going to go and get Kyle (he's watching a movie) and finish the cleanse in my scrapbook room... I should actually be able to effectively scrapbook again... amazing! Go Canucks Go!

i forgot

well I didn't really - I've just been swamped and little under the weather... or something like that - to post.

What I wanted to do more than a week ago was say thank you to Paula and her family to taking my crew in for Easter. The boys had a great time and Paula's grandparents are always a hoot :)

I also didn't talk about our trip to Kelowna. It was great, but I was a train wreck. All I could think about was leaving and how much that was hurting my guts. I just wanted to soak up every ounce of my husband and... really I just wanted to stay... but that just isn't in the cards right now. He had a lot of fun together and he might even come home this weekend. (Of course I'm already getting a knot over it, but trying desperately to just enjoy the time together and not dwell on our apart time.)


So this is the tub in the motel room Paula and her family graciously put us up in - this isn't a slam to them at all - they didn't realize that the motel hadn't been taken care of over the last year - what made this experience worse was when I ran the water and filled the tub for bath time - I walked away and came back to a black tub - Okanagan (OK) falls has had a water ban in place for a year and... well I don't think I'd even be boiling that stuff.... blah :( I know... Paula would say - it was fine after it ran for 30 minutes... but I didn't risk it - we waited till we got back to Kelowna for baths.


The room was a two bed suite... one of the beds was split in half though... odd - Paula being the great friend that she is slept on one of these - the boys slept with me on a full size bed... I was later told that more bugs were found under one of the "bed" covers the next morning... blah and double blah


Here is the start of the easter egg hunt... on your mark's, get ready...


Here is Michael picking up some bunny loot.


Here is Michael dragging his easter loot. His basket was so full that he was losing all the treats.... but this turned into a great game because he kept finding more. The endless supply of treats.


Here are the boys and me Paula after the easter egg hunt. Again, it was great fun and we can't say thank you enough for your families hospitality.


Here we are at the Chapters in Kelowna


This is a photo I took while we were driving under a willow tree in Kelowna. Kelowna was blooming up during Easter Weekend - very nice - we even got to go to Farmers Market - I'm really looking forward to go to future markets there.

Willow,
weeping for a lost love,
weeping for the pain of a friend,
weeping for the world,
the weight has pushed your branches down,
you drag and touch the ground and weep for us all to see,
you carry the load so beautifully,
your shape, your form,
your generous nature to take such a burden on.

Sauerkraut disaster

Today was my breaking point with the kids - I lost my mind and Kyle just stood there like... what mom? ... or momma as he calls me when he wants to piss me off that little bit more - he definitely knows my buttons... kids.... anyways I lost it and then like a cool wind it went away - I had my meltdown and I felt a million times better after. Kyle was just being his non-listening four year old self - fun... nothing really happened - I yelled more than anything (extra loud... even for me) and he could have cared less - of course 20 years from now he'll be like my mom is a psycho cause once she freaked on me - I played it cool but I cried inside.........

we had a good afternoon together and then we went outside for fun with grandma and grandpa - Michael decided it would fun to do a faceplant on the driveway... he was "running" down the driveway and I got behind him to stop him when he crashed - he actually just fell down quite softly - no problem - then... he decided to pull his ostrich move and smack his forehead into the ground - it sounded bad - he cried for a couple of seconds (he cries harder when I drop him off for daycare) and then we saw his goosebump and scratches - no blood... and he was off running with grandpa shortly after.... but then he was a grump the rest of the night - things that would typically cause me great stress like two hours of whining and complaining caused me none, since my meltdown I'm feeling better about everything.

So we had sausages for dinner (rice and sausage for the boys, sausage and salad for me) and I chose to have sauerkraut with my meal - mistake number one was thinking this wasn't going to react poorly with whatever the heck is going on with my mouth - it actually feels like a layer of skin is coming out of my mouth when I eat some food (bacon, chocolate and now sauerkraut) - I'm casually putting the top back on the bottle of my lovely sauerkraut when I launch it - it goes everywhere - all over the kitchen, all over me... I guess it is all for the best because the first mouth full destroyed me... maybe it was foreshadowing...

Happy Belated Birthday to Jen - we hope you had a great day.

Andy was studying for his birthday - we sneakaly (yes it's a word) left a couple of treats for him when we visited - saved me postage :) He teased me with a possible trip home... but I guess we will see. We are in Vancouver on May 9-16 - so we will have to get together - that is an open invitation to all the vancouverite friends - and also - congratulations to gary and yoshie on the birth of their little boy :) HOORAY!

I'm going to go be a like a vegetable - night all :)

another day another dollar

well today was not as traumatic as yesterday - I didn't even cry today - freakin' amazing! Michael cried when I left but I stuck around in the boot room for a minute and it was under a minute and he was playing - so I didn't feel as heavy about it - work was busy - I've got so many meetings and phone calls and grant proposals - it just doesn't stop - and I know I'm missing things - I really want to focus tomorrow but the reality is that it is one of my staff members last days with us and I've got a grant due - I just want my desk to be clean before I leave for Kelowna... HOORAY!

I'm meeting Paula in Penticton and can't wait to see her... and of course the whole family is itching to see dad...

We went to my grandma's tonight - she had some easter stuff for the kids - and - well my grandma has a wee (major) temper about some things - Kyle touched something I think I actually say smoke come out of her ears - it wasn't anything significant but I guess you have to know my gran to understand. Kyle doesn't understand so we didn't stay long. I took them a treat from the bakery and wished them a happy easter.

Well I need to go and finish lunches for tomorrow. Here is my picture of the day.
This is the christmas project I was working on. I need a much better adhesive for the stickers - my first batch are not holding up as well as I had thought - well mine are but my mom-in-laws started peeling right away, as did the others... I think... I used my regular printer and costco photo paper, shrunk the photos with word, (I did a set of kids pics, I've got some cartoon ones that are Kyle's favorites, etc) adhered them to a regular charm bracelet with double sided tape and then coated them with clear nail polish (4-6 coats) I know there must be a product out there that does this better and if you have suggestions I'd love to hear as I would like to do more and would be happy to make them for other people - for as a little as the cost of the bracelet.... (one hundred million dollars - I bought it off of dr. evil :) )

good lord

Today was another suck day.

I thought I was doing fine but it all went in the crapper for me when I left Michael at daycare. As soon as I said I had to go he started to cry and he has a terrible cry - I got outside and cried and cried - I cried in my car and on the way to my office. This isn't why I had kids. This is not fun. I'm not a crier either and that makes it worse - it just makes my insides hurt.

I managed to get through my work day - busy busy busy - and then after work I picked up the boys who had - of course - survived. Kyle had a great day and was asking to stay longer and Michael was pleased to see me and had been great in the afternoon - I guess the morning was full of tears. I caved on McDonald's and now I have to go and finish making lunch for tomorrow.

All I can hope is that the weather gets better and that we can start spending some time outside and I can regain some happiness... I hate being sad. I'm trying to get through the gloom because we will be in Kelowna on Thursday night but - well as I mentioned it is soft comfort because it is short term. I took another job today (yes - I don't have enough to do) so I've got some additional time commitments for that but it should be good pay for easy work - of course those are famous last words. :)

I'm going to watch some crouching tiger tonight - I didn't make it to the end of Potter last night but got my fill of it - night my lovies :)

ultimate sniffy face

Kyle and Michael's aunti wendy emailed me this today and she was right - it is definitely one to share.


On a crappier note today is only day 2 of 183 without Andy in our house. Today sucked! I just wanted to curl up in a ball and roll down the hill - the hill I was already sliding down... ARG BLAH BLAH ARG!

I'm not looking forward to tomorrow - first day of full time daycare - LORD! I've made lunches and snacks and can only hope it goes well. Three days and then we head to Kelowna - I'm actually not looking forward to it right now because it means that I'm a week closer to having an even lengthier time away from Andy... I'm totally reconsidering my once a month idea - I'm thinking every other weekend after this one... alright - enough complaining - I'm off to watch some Potter and crochet my heart out.