friday

Tonight I'm alone.  First night in quite a while.  I took my chance to run the river front trail which I shockingly completed in 40 minutes - I had to walk parts and also had work phone calls and great texts... then I did a little shopping at a big 50% off sale at Carvers - got to try on clothes and wander around - now I'm home - have some clean up to do and well... I'm not sure what else right now.

It has been a wicked long week - work was challenging (wow - that's polite) and held very few rewards - I had one rewarding moment but that didn't cross out all of the other things that were... challenging.

On my run I ran into a fox - he was packing stuff to his den - he kind of looked at me like - 'what -this is my trail too' - and off he went.  Running helped take away the challenges of this week and I'm thinking of hitting the trail in the morning too - just to get some extra work out time in.  I feel like I could have run longer tonight and only stopped because I got back to the car.

Ok and a few more things to smile about...

And ... David comes home tomorrow - hooray :)

Ok - off to do something... 

xo 

yep - I love them!

A big storm came into Quesnel tonight and rather than just give up and go home for the night after work we ran in the house, dropped off our stuff, grabbed what we needed and ran back out the door to hit West Fraser Timber Park before it really really started raining... here is the outcome of our adventure tonight... it definitely made my LONG day better...

Our new fun with photography is faces and body shape when you jump out of a swing... Kyle likes to go super high and then toss himself out of the swing.. so much fun!  He is free and I love shooting it!

He went across this one a couple of times... 

Monkey (a really long tall monkey)

I love this photo - crazy kids - well trained

More jumping out of the swing photos

This whole 30 minute adventure in the park turned my day around.  This plus some ACDC and Timberland seemed to clear things a bit.  I've postponed the photo review - don't need anything else bringing me down tonight - not after my day - so I'm going to crochet, read and journal (yes - I still write on real paper and not just on here... )

xo

note to self

Mr. Hugh Culver - a wicked super smart British Columbian and master of time management and many other things emailed me great advise that I totally procrastinated on reading and then yesterday I read it and did something about it...  you see - he talks about getting those things accomplished that are taking up your time in your head that you could easily get done - allowing you to move forward... (you can listen to his free seminars and get free info all the time here - http://www.hughculver.com/ he is fantastic and it will be worth your time to sign up and listen to his advise )

I had a few of these things... that could be "easily" completed and then I could stop worrying about them...

1. A pile on my desk that I lovingly called - the reading pile - this pile continued to grow - I swear the newspapers were 'doing it' in my office.  Today I took the entire pile to the recycling bin and stood over the recycling bin and threw things out.  Shocking to me was a paper that I'd had for more than a year and when I actually read the damned thing I found out it was based on stats from the 70s and really weren't applicable anymore... blah... so lesson - read crap as it comes in or recycle

2. Email - I have gobs of emails that I was hoarding.  I kept telling myself (again) that at some point I was going to read them - and fancy that - hadn't... (thank god I didn't print them) so how do you tackle more than 3000 emails... well first I sorted them by who they were from and immediately deleted the ones I absolutely knew I was not going to read.  Then I deleted all the work related ones because my home computer - you got it... it's my home computer... and work is not my life... not any more... then I went through the rest of the emails and since last night I've purged more than 2900 and am working through the last of the emails tonight.  (update - 11:27pm - finished all the emails... only one left and it is a recipe I want to print... or somehow pin to pinterest and look at later...)

3. Photos - 100,000 (plus) which needed to be uploaded off my laptop and put on the new computer.  So that part is done... and now I need to sort the photos and purge some.  I plan to keep the bulk of them - just not in my main photo database as the kids need all the photos - past, present and future - I just don't need to be looking at them all the time... so this organization of photography is a long time coming and also helps with future projects - like the book writing...


xo


and really... go look at Hugh's website - you won't regret it - he is awesome!

p.p.s - I did my taxes - finished... easier than I had even remotely imagined - hooray! hip hip hooray! (imagine pooh bear and the 100 acre woods gang singing when they were able to free Winnie the Pooh from the honey tree... that was kind of what I did... a little happy dance and song...)

Hurray for you
Hurray for me
Hooray, hooray
My money will soon be free

Dum da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum
Now the time has come for proving
What paying my taxes did for me
And since I pledged to finish them
That's what I'm going to do

I'll be pulled and I'll be tugged
And eventually unplugged
We'll have a tug of war
To open Harper's door

Think deduction-age, think contribution-age
And out the money will go-age
For mind over matter
Will make the Government unfatter

Heave! Ho! Heave! Ho!
Heave! Heave! Heave! Heave! Heave!


And out came my tax return... yep - a wee bit of money back to me... amazing... really really amazing... 

night

My brain is not functioning properly tonight.  My emotions seem to be getting the best of me and just running wild.  Just to top things off tonight Michael spent an hour crying about his first wiggly tooth.  He'd cry and complain and fight me on just wiggling it to see how bad it really is and then go to bed, then get right back up and ask me to pull it out, then chicken out and cry and cry.  Sigh.  This moment put my day in perspective though.  I wasn't in physical pain, I have a roof over my head, I have happiness, I have love - I have a lot - and so... a wiggly tooth taught me a lesson tonight.


 More about lessons.... something I read somewhere recently... 



A professor stood before his Philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes."
The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand.

The students laughed.  "Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. 


"The golf balls are the important things - your God, family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions - things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

"The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car. 

"The sand is everything else--the small stuff.

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.
"The same goes for life. "If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
"Play with your children.
"Take time to get medical checkups.
"Take your partner out to dinner.
"There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.
"Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter.
"Set your priorities.
"The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.
The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked.  "It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a cup of coffee with a friend."


xo - my loves, my friends, my family - many many xo's :)

cheese touch

Tonight the mystery of the 'cheese touch' was solved.  For many months now the kids start to poke each other and shout - cheese touch - and the only way to get out cheese touch is to touch someone else and give it away. Pretty much tag - except you can get out of the cheese touch if you have your fingers crossed or some other part of your body crossed.

Enter the movie tonight - Diary of a Wimpy Kid - and it all comes together.. You see there was a piece of cheese in the movie that got all disgusting and gross on the playground and it kept getting more and more disgusting so all the kids just kept watching it getting grosser and grosser and then one kid touched it - the kids go nuts because he touched the disgusting cheese - and that's how he got the cheese touch. Everyone then avoided this kid until he was able to touch another kid and give the cheese touch away...

Next thing you know they'll be explaining how to use the new i'shit' and I'll be crying in the corner...

spring!

David went back to the coast to work this week so we spent the afternoon farting around.  Fun points - I gave Kyle my camera while I worked on the car and Michael asked to be his subject.  So now I have a series of photos of Michael doing crazy things and also mooning the camera -multiple times... at his request.

I also let the guys walk to the park (its about three houses away) alone... I know they are old enough to do that stuff... but - well I get the scaredy-squirrel feeling - like I can't let them go anywhere alone... but all was good... and it lead to the following photographs...

Little bumble bees on our lilac shrub... (or is this plant called something else... I've heard a different name but it definitely looks like lilac flowers but smells like 'suntan lotion' - notes Kyle)

Helper #1

Lead wiener

Helper # 2 - hamming it up

Messing around at the park

Fun with shadows and timing

Wicked awesome action! Leaping Kyle.  No children were injured during the filming of this photograph.

Winter tires off - summer tires on - 4 tires on and installed in 56 minutes! Yeah baby!  

I know... Kal Tire could have done it in 30 minutes but what fun would that be for me - plus I'd have to pay for it... and this was way funnier - plus I got to teach the guys about changing tires.

easter

We celebrated this easter with an eggtra special event...

(And yes - I know - I'm a week late...)

Michael's plan - wrap it with blue paper, wrap it in duct tape - then strap a support egg to the lead egg... and ... hope for the best.

Scientific Kyle

My attempt... complete with chick support team

David holding his 'vessel' - a plastic container filled with filler and the egg...

David with the launch series

And Kyle was the only architect with the correct kind of transport for his egg to survive.

Sigh - amazing easter - can't wait to do this next year... might even open up the event to friends and neighbours... 

More photos tonight - planning to head out and take a few photos - xo

sunday

Just a quick happy Easter to everyone.  We are waiting for the easter egg hunters to come home this morning and then it will be on... the Easter bunny did a pretty good job in the back yard and we can't wait to see the kids get into the search this morning...

xo 

more photos

Me in front of the Goonie Jail -yep - it really is there.... 

Goonie rocks - those ones they look through the skeleton key with... this is Cannon Beach and FANTASTIC!

And that's about it for tonight - feeling better- one sore spot... definitely on the mend.

xo :)