aaahhhh - vented

I just needed to get that off my chest. It won't mean anything to my readers, but it meant a lot to me to just write it down and release it somewhere.

We've had a busy couple of weeks. Uncle Derek and Aunti Wendy were here for May long weekend and then Aunti Paula joined us after May long for the rest of the week. I'm not really feeling super hot tonight so I'm going to just load a few of my photos and call it a night.


Another beautiful day in the Cariboo under our apple tree


Shells


Our garden for 2008 - this is a new addition to our backyard and I can't say thank you enough to Paula and my parents and Andy for helping getting all going - we've now planted a bunch of flowers, sui choy, beans, broccaflower, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, beets, gai lan, lettuce, cilantro, parsley, chives and basil and we have carrots, sunflowers and swiss char left to put in.

Aunti Paula bought Kyle an Indiana Jones figure as Kyle is quite interested in him right now. (He watched five minutes of Raiders of the Lost Arc and about 30 minutes of the Last Crusade and fell in love.) He took Indy to show and tell today and as I was dropping him off one of his little girlfriends comes running up to him and says "come on Indy" - she proceeded to tell all of there friends that Kyle should now be called Indy. So Kyle has his first school nickname... not a bad one to get.

categorically

"an unqualified manner; he flatly denied the charges"

ARG and let me just say - ARG again!

may long

It is Monday night and we had an excellent weekend with exciting times for all. Uncle Derek and Aunti Wendy joined us for a couple of days and we are awaiting Paula, who will be joining us tomorrow. We went and met the new puppies today, who are super cute and make adorable sounds. I'm rejoicing that today is not my last day off - I have to do some work and have some meetings tomorrow but I'm really off work until next monday - hip hip hooray!


Here are the cute seven - pure breed golden retrievers


"Patience"


Here is a great photo of Kyle we took while doing some art a few weeks ago - as cute as ever - growing up fast.

too early

At 5:30 this morning Andy got his third call out on his second shift in Q-town.... so now I can see how paramedics might actually be able to live from this employment - three calls on one shift (over night) - that's more calls last night than he had for the whole month of April in Wells

I might go back to bed, but was thinking it was nice and cool and the house smells like spring - with the scents of fresh cut grass and new leaves emerging from their winter sleep - and that maybe I should just stay up this morning - we'll see - maybe I'll chuck some coffee on this morning - not sure - I'm kind of anti coffee for the past two weeks... alight - so tea it is... have a great Victoria Day long weekend - enjoy the beautiful weather

Ok - so I went with hot chocolate and am opting for getting my hummingbird feeder and taking myself outside for some cool macro photos.... I won a Canon t-90 (tank) and 5 lens at the Quesnel RCMP auction - the canon I don't really care for - it is too big for my girl hands (that's what she said) but it came with a super wicked macro lens and I've been shooting a lot with it

holy catfish batman - it's summer

alright get out your shorts and t-shirts, put on your sunblock 70 and fill your cup with your favorite beverage and say cheers to the return of summer (well at least for a few days)

it is plus 13 at 9:20 this morning and I here by declare that the next few days are going to be BEEEE U TA FULL!

me and my quatchi

Ok - so I won't say that I'm in love with the idea that Vancouver/Whistler is hosting the 2010 Olympics, but I will say that when I got to meet the mascots it made me feel good about the games. Love 'em or hate 'em the mascots are fun in person. The people wearing the costumes are well trained and made it fun for everyone attending.

Here I am with Quatchi and Miga. Quatchi was hiliarious and made the whole photo taking thing fun.



So let's hear it - what do you think of the mascots?

some pictures

I don't know if you've heard this before or not but there is some info online about orbs/circles in photographs. Now I didn't notice this until I was looking tonight at some photos to load on here and noticed that I'd captured two orbs in this photo. Do a quick search on orbs if you've never heard of it before. I met a native person who told me if you captured orbs in a photograph you were capturing photos of spirits. By searching you'll find that most people say that is for the birds, but the woman I spoke with insisted it was true. I don't know, but this image shows two and I thought I'd share it - this was taken off the tip of the SS Sicamous in Penticton on Okanagan Lake.

better late than never

Alright - so I said for my 300th post I was going to get some candy out there... so here I am at 312 and here it is... blog candy festival!



Alright so there is just over 50 sheets of 12x12 (includes set of Disney World pages), 2 envelope making sets for christmas, some stickers, 2 ziploc bags of cardboard die cuts (I think they have a more formal name than that but... ) one bag is sayings and one bag is shapes.

So what do I want? Well first of all I'd like a small exchange for all this candy. I know I can't hold the winner to this, but I would really like the winner (once they've received all the candy) to send me a card they've made. I don't make cards, so the thought of getting a card that I can use sounds like a great idea. Now - how do you enter? Well I would like you to do two things - 1) share your favorite website for finding cool new ideas for making pages or cards and 2) I'd like you to share something about your current or best camera and how you take awesome photos.

If there are more than 20 entries for the candy I will split the loot in half and send out two packages. I will draw a number based on the order of entry after May 18. That means this will be open for 10 days and I'll send out a package after May long weekend. Good luck!

terrible

A week or two ago we trimmed our apple trees and while adjusting the ladder I let it slip and it landed on my chest. It didn't crush me, but it hurt. I've been sore on my collarbone and shoulder since. I decided that a massage might be just the thing to heal my wounds. Being the massage virgin that I am (was), I had very high expectations and anticipated a relaxing and fantastic 30 minutes. About 5 minutes in I realized I'd made a mistake. She pushed so hard on my skin that it hurt, she did the whole karate chopping hands multiple times followed by pokes of pain (my name - not the massage industries).

I actually didn't feel too terrible immediately after the beating, but about 4 hours later I put a strap over my shoulder and thought I was going to cry. It felt like I'd been sunburned all across the top of my back. And not just a simple burn, a terrible, terrible burn. That was yesterday and today I am still in pain. Still feeling burned... both literally and burned in the sense that I burned my flamin' money on something that hurt me... what the hell is the point of that - is this the same for everyone? Come on - are people paying to be beat up to Enya?

Ok - vented.

Now because I'm queen of the geeks I also created a map of garage sales happening in Quesnel this weekend. Click on this link if you want to join my lame club. http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=52.977434,-122.474556&spn=0.0953,0.32135&z=12&msid=107827218300676941518.00044cb02a5fe62a8f365

smelly feet

I just felt like putting in that title because I need to change my socks.

What's new... well tonight we went bug hunting. I'm putting in a garden in our backyard and have started dragging the gravel in the area out... this is a long and terrible process because nothing moves the gravel well. I've a rack, a shovel and a pick axe. Tonight we moved two wheel barrels full and then started hunting down centipedes, beetles and ants. I moved one slab in the backyard and was a little shocked by the number of ants that came pouring out... the ground swirled with their reaction to the sudden light. We pulled up weeds. When I was 4 (ish) my grandpa used to pay me to take thistles out of the front lawn. It is one of my favorite memories because I'd pull terrible thistles and then we'd walk to Frank's and get an ice cream sandwich. It was all about joy and fun.

So I'm home from Penticton. It was beautiful, the weather was warm and a lot like summer. I'm happy to be home and happy I got some time with the guys yesterday. I was back in the office today and now looking forward to Paula's visit after May long weekend.

Today is Monday - which means it is 6 days until Mother's Day. I'm planning on going to Mom's to plant some hanging baskets for her - this will be fun for the boys and give us something to do while we visit. Sarah (mom and dad's dog) is due today and we'll have puppies to glance at too - I don't think their eyes will be open by the weekend - that's if they've arrived... I'll post pictures of the puppies once I have some photos to share.

ARRRRGGGG

Final information due on report

Internet not working properly unless I sit in the DAMNED lobby and work

ARG - plus I'm paying 4.99 for the usage - double ARG!

That's it - I'm turning into a pirate this morning!

Avast me buckos - it is time to start a revolution!
IT IS TIME! I'm not paying for "no-speed internet" let us pillage the flower displays and eat all the counter mints!

things that rhyme

So kindergarten is big on rhyming. Most mornings Kyle arrives to his table spot and there is a puzzle piece with a picture on it, along with a bowl of other puzzle pieces. He is asked to find something in the bowl that rhymes with his piece. He is quite into rhyming and has even started doing my name... "mom, April rhymes with Rapril"

This morning he is playing with Michael and I hear "kitty, shitty, kitty shitty" I look in and say 'um, are you rhyming kitty with city - no mom I said shitty. That rhymes right. Yes Kyle is rhymes, but that isn't a good word. Can you make it rhyme with city instead? Ok - kitty, city, kitty, city. Tomorrow he'll be rhyming with truck.

The other thing Kyle asked me about today was S.O.B. He says, what does SOB mean? I ask 'where did you hear that from?' doesn't want to say - i ask if it was at school - yes - so I still him it is short for another group of words - what words? SOB spells sob and sob means being really sad and crying. His response - ok... Flash back to 1988 in the canning room of my basement. My brother says to me - april you are an SOB - then the retort went back and forth too many times - it was all just fun because neither of us knew what we were going on about when my dad walks in and has a mini explosion - and tells us what we are saying and why its bad. I learned my lesson and also learned that I didn't need to go into all the detail for his five year old ears.

lightning and thunder

Well after some rain throughout the day we are now experiencing thunder and lightning. It appears to be sheet lightning and just brightening up the sky. Michael is still sick and his temperature started to climb back up again tonight. Kyle is better but still coughing and Andy is sick, but surviving. Me... well I'm not feeling great, and wrongly decided to venture to wally world tonight - I was ready to barf after a couple of aisles of walking. We made it through and got all the stuff we needed.

Now it's Dora time (unless the power goes out) and then bedtime. Time to be comfortable - I need to be better for Wednesday as I'm off to another conference in Penticton - woo hoo! I'm hoping for a fun time - I just have to remind myself that deep fried foods are from the devil and all will be good... damned yummy egg rolls at the premiers event. (I'm still waiting on copies of the photos - now I'm wondering if they forgot to tell us that the photos actually cost something...)

woo hoo

It was plus (PLUS) 17 in the shade yesterday and tonight - right now - its plus (PLUS) 14... woooohhhhoooooo!!!!!

Michael is getting better - Kyle is pretty much through it. Michael was pretty bad last night - but today was eating and somewhat normal. Andy is sick - seems like something different - blah! me? well today wasn't a great day, but I'm feeling good.

For those following the use of the secret... last night I made it work! Well close... for two days I told myself I was going to win a big prize ($500 cash) at the Nazko Auction. Every year they give it away. So I told myself I was going to win it and then thought about how I'd spend it. Made it real!.... so we are sitting there... 041463.... last night - 6.... I had 7.... but then I knew - I knew that Kyle or my parents had the winning ticket... and they did - Dad had the winner. woo hoo! I've got the DVD now and I'm going to try and focus on some other things because I got lots of things I want to get done :) All that might sound crazy and maybe we would have won it anyway but it was something else... makes me think about all the good each of us could do with a little more focus on the things we want to succeed at. Here's to success - go out there tomorrow and reward yourself with positive thinking!

Night.

another day home

Kyle came down with a cold on Sunday and he had high fevers for two days after. Then he started coughing and this morning he seemed to be back to his normal happy self. I dropped him off to school and then took Michael to daycare. I hadn't even gotten my computer on in the office when the daycare called and said Michael was sick with a fever and needed to be picked up. Now we are home - I've lit a fire to keep the living room nice and toasty and now we are watching a movie. He was very hot until about 30 minutes ago and now he seems to be a little better. It seems this cold doesn't want to leave our house...

I hope everyone else is feeling good and not experiencing the cold or flu. Best wishes for a happy weekend!

ER

Ok - are you watching ER? I understand the show will come to an end next year - with September/October marking the start of ER's last season. At this point I'm wondering why I'm going to continue watching to the end. I'm tres disappointed that Luca is leaving the show - or only doing a few more - he is the only reason I watch. Are there other TV shows? What's the deal with Grey's Anatomy - is that better than ER? I've never even watched an episode.

Am I the only one disappointed in television? Should I just be walking away from the whole damned thing? I need friends to play cards with or more fun stuff to do.

I have a headache tonight and (last night) also started using tanning cream again only to get an orange ring around my wrist - BLAH! Boy, oh boy, whiny April - so sad - I know I'm having a poor me day. I guess I'll go to bed and sleep it off. - I know - beautiful, happy, beautiful, happy - so it will be.

home again

Home - hooray!

Last night I had a great night with Paula. She met me at the swanky hotel and had her car valet parked - us valet virgins had fun learning about how valet service works and how to tip. (Note to all other valet virgins - tipping occurs when you pick up your car - plus I think you can tip whenever anyone else from the hotel is remotely nice to you)

We then went to a press conference with the Premier. Me - the political junky - was very pleased to get to meet him and stand in a line of 50 people to get my picture taken with him. He is only an inch taller than me which was surprising - I anticipated him being 6 foot something. He made a very good speech to inspire our group and then took photos with all of us. Free booze and chocolate strawberries were available to all. We followed this excitement with a tour of Stanley Park and a 30 minute drive to figure out where to eat. We ended up at Shabusan - mmmmm - sushi, edamame, YUMMY - and sat at the sushi bar that included all forms of excitement in the way of a large group of pink haired friends hootin' it up, a couple that was a little overly friendly immediately beside us... and then it started to snow. I think it's the first time I've seen it snow in Vancouver - it was beautiful - but it also sent a message to all the stupid people to come out in full force to drive in the silly weather. We made it back to the hotel room and checked out the gym. We had a great - ok - not great - but a hell of a laugh - from the steam room. I had eucalyptus on my tongue - or it tasted that way - it did do wonders for my skin. It was a great night!

So I'm home in the minus weather now and I just wanted to wish Paula good luck in the sunrun (snow run) tomorrow. Enjoy running with all those 50,000 other people and have a great day!

today

So I'm in the big city - vancouver - here for a quick conference - I'm on the 20th floor downtown and I can see the Lions Gate Bridge from my room. It is surprisingly cold here today - I just went for a quick walk and only wore a t-shirt and vest and holy brrrrr.... I slept like a rock last night - my general anxiety disorder started to gear up last night and as I was falling asleep I kept thinking about the building falling sideways... I finally managed to shut that part up... phew :)

I went to starbucks this morning and joined a line 10 people deep and thought why am I doing this - why am I here - there has to be another coffee shop. I go to the next coffee shop - equally long line - then I see a coffee shop - restaurant and decide to go in - well I'm glad I did - I not only got a nice morning drink, I also got a great in-house muffin - apple muffin - they made at least 20 different kinds of muffins and all of them looked yummy. It was a place called moonpennies - and it was definitely better than starbucks - I was on my way back to here to continue working before I'd likely gotten my overpriced coffee and dry muffin-ish thing.

what's going on

Ok - the blog candy is going to have to wait. It isn't priority this week and it won't be priority for a while so post 301 is this and I'll post some candy soon.

So what's been going on? Well I went to a conference in 100 Mile House and had a great time. I met some new people who were passionate about tourism and got a little re-inspired about the work I do. I stayed at the Hills Health Ranch.



Here I am enjoying my spare time at the Hills. This looks more spectacular than it was - the tub was a regular hotel one nothing fancy - the difference was that the Hills had very nice smelling soaps.

On Sunday our family dog passed away. Fozzy Bear got sick about a week ago - we were out for dinner and everyone kind of all looked at each other at the same time and said where is he. He begged at every meal and yet at this dinner he could've cared less. Mom and I thought he'd gotten into the fish we'd caught (went ice fishing earlier that day) but that proved to be overly optimistic. Fast forward a week and he was still sick. They took him to the vet on the Saturday I came home from the conference. He sat in our yard and laid in the shade. Michael and Kyle sat with him and we talked about how he was doing. They had done a lot of tests and the vet had suggested he had diabetes and needed insulin 2 times a day from now on... but they did additional tests because they didn't think that was all that was going on. He was a big dog for his size - a little pomerian, but a big one really - lots of fur, - but the truth is that he ate from the table a lot. When I went and sat with him I realized how bad things were - he was all fur, you could actually feel his bones and that was very unheard of. Of course I didn't think that this was going to be our last visit with him.

Mom and Dad showed up on Sunday and I knew as soon as they pulled in that the news was bad. Mom was wearing sunglasses and my mom never wears sun glasses and my Dad just looked upset. I simply asked, are you in town for the reason I think you're in town - yes - they'd taken him to Williams Lake and test results had come back worse than expected. I must be getting old because I never thought I'd be so upset about his passing. What really beat me down is that Kyle asked how he was and my parents said he was fine. Six hours later I was trying to tell him that he wasn't and it was one of the hardest things I've had to do - I could hardly get a word out to tell him. Kyle took it in and asked if he'd see him again. I said no. He asked if he was buried in the ground and I was just dumbfounded by his question. I said I didn't know. That upset him. But it turns out that he was more upset with me being upset. I'm still a wreck over it. I think it brings up a lot of other issues for me. Having to explain death to Kyle tore a hole in me and now we have to talk about it every day because every day he has a new question. I'm happy to answer, but it is gut wrenching. He keeps asking if he is going to see Fozzy Bear - I think he thinks if he asks enough he will. So every time I explain it and remind him that he knows. He keeps asking my mom how he is and the first time made my mom burst into tears on the phone. Kyle told her it was ok and that he knew she was sad about it.

So as a tribute to our family dog, Mr. Bear aka Barky-bar-taka-moose as I sometimes fondly called him I've pasted a couple photos.

299.5

Ok before the blog candy festival I needed to make a post - so the blog candy will follow this post.

Today I get that phone call. "You need to come and pick up Kyle." Why? "He's put a rock in his ear."
GREAT! I drive there and he is fine - just sitting there. No problem. I take him right to emergency and he is all laughs and 'oh isn't this fun'. I'm freaking out, but remaining calm. They take us in immediately and find that it isn't that deep. They weren't really kid friendly and the doc didn't really know what to do - I think he really thought that Kyle was just going to sit still. He was in for a dramatic shock and kick in the nards.

First they try suction and this is when he reacted very poorly and made the first round of screaming and flailing... it was on at this point - Kyle went into basket case mode. So the suction idea was a poor one - if anything it just wedged this damned rock even further into his poor little ear. Then, because it wasn't that deep, he decides to to use syringe full of water and fill his ear up so the rock "hopefully" floats out. Kyle freaked out further and flailed with both his arms and legs - I was on arm duty and a nurse was on head duty. The doctor got about 10 kicks from Kyle's shoed feet and Kyle wouldn't give up. So then we tried the water again and this time I've got him pinned. Legs between my legs, arms pinned, nurse holding his head - and then the rock moves. We move Kyle a little and he spazzes out and he tells Kyle to sit up and he's going to pull it out with micro tweezers. He (wrongly) shows Kyle what he's going to do and Kyle goes ballistic. He is cursing everything - not really cursing - but he is screaming louder than I've ever heard anyone scream and crying and - it was terrible. So the doctor finally just reaches in and pulls out this 1.5 cm by .5 cm triangle shaped rock out of his ear. We tell Kyle it's over and Kyle is trying to get out the door. "I don't want to ever come to the hospital again. Let's go, let's go, let's go." The doctor hands me the rock, which I end up losing and he says it should be fine - no damage. And then Kyle sways towards me and screams again - my ear is bleeding, my ear is bleeding - and sure enough his ear is bleeding all over and it's on his hands and the screaming is on again. They give us a swab to clean up and the doctor says it should still be fine and Kyle had no hearing issues. They looked and it was all clear. The doctor leaves and I thought he was coming back, but after 10 minutes makes no appearance and I hear him dealing with others. He didn't think we needed drops or that there would be anything else wrong so we just headed out - I'm sure they were happy to see us leave.

We got into the waiting area and we sat down and talked about why the hospital was good and why it was good that they took the rock out. We went and saw Grandma (she was working today) and he cried a bit again and then we went to the car. He was still crying and shaking and upset. We went to get a drink and I took him to my office. He was still in shock. I said we'd go home and I'd pick up Michael first, but by the time I got to daycare he wanted to stay. We talked a lot about not putting stuff in ears but he didn't really say why it happened. I just couldn't believe that he thought hey, there's a rock - let's see if that will fit in my ear.

Tonight as we were reading our bedtime story I asked again -telling him it was ok to tell me why he thought that was a good idea and he says - 'mom the other kids were being loud and it was nap time - i just wanted to not hear them anymore' ... so I'm buying earmuffs tomorrow.

And there you go - another story about why parenting is much more difficult and gut retching then the books will ever tell you. Another day that I will remember for all my days.

I hope everyone else had a far better day then me.

a little fanfare

As you may have seen a few weeks ago we celebrated Chinese New Year by making a dragon and then took it to Kyle's kindergarten to parade and dance with. The idea came from Canadian Living and I sent them a thank you for the idea and this month (on newsstands now for only $1.99) you can find a picture from the parade.



Here is a terrible photo of the magazine... my camera didn't want to cooperate in getting something better. For a $1.99 I'm sure everyone can go and get a copy... if a picture of Kyle and our dragon isn't enough they do have some great recipes for Mother's Day and some great places to see in Canada this year.

Near my 300th post

I was thinking of giving away a bunch of scrapbook stuff that I'm no longer using or don't plan to use for my 300th post. It made me think of the following:

In high school I received a chain letter. I believe it was my friend Angela but I could be wrong. I had a number of pen pals throughout high school and even early college so I do mix up where I received stuff from. In any case I opened the letter (isn't mail fabulous) and it is a chain letter with a twist. Send a pair of underwear (this was before I knew what sex and sexual stuff was about - I will admit there are more years in my life when I was clueless then when I had a clue...) to the people on the list. I bought some gonch and sent them off expecting to get hundreds of pairs of underwear because who wouldn't get in on this - free underwear - AWESOME! Ah, the mind of a young teen. No, I didn't get any undy - but some girl did.

Ok - well that wasted a minute of your time.

Crappy television - what is up with the bachelor this season - I can't even try to pay attention to it - 1) I don't find him attractive 2) the women are all whiners, 3) it is lame! I can't say I've ever really paid attention to these shows but I just watched (kind of) 5 minutes and.. well maybe I'm just not in that place in my life that I'd think that was a good use of my time - watching that

Lame - wanna hear lame - well I just watched an hour of council... it's official I'm a political junkie and a freak,... night.

when I said snow... I meant snow

See the roof - there was a solid 3 feet on that roof and all the roofs around town - they'll probably have snow until late May...

frozen toes

Today I went to Wells (www.wellsbc.com) twice. First time was for work - long meeting, lots accomplished... I stopped in to see Andy for a minute on my way out and he mentioned that he'd forgotten his shoes to work out over the weekend. I made it home, picked the boys up and packed up to go spend the night out there. We got out there in an hour (saw 4 moose together - the most moose I've ever seen together... it was great) hung out and then ended up coming back because spending the night was going to cost $70 plus everything else and really I just wanted to get Andy his shoes, the boys did get a great tour of the ambulance truck and the shop... so we turn around to come home and about 25 minutes out of Quesnel I have a tire that went flat... it's dark (very), it's -5 or more... and there is a tonne of snow - so I have to change the tire in snow on the side of the road - BLAH! On top of that Kyle is doing this - "mom, aren't the bears going to come, mom aren't you worried about bears, mom I think the bears are hungry..." on and on and on... now I wasn't worried about bears, but having the chatter and the mind starts to wonder - I kept thinking about coyotes or some other furry animal watching... the tire came off ok, but it did not want to go back on - it took me an hour to change the tire - didn't help that my toes were freezing - actually frost bite set into my feet and a couple of my fingers - so then everything was burning as it warmed up... now I'm home and just trying to warm up - very glad that I know how to change tires and glad that we made it home and no one was hurt when the tire went :)

Ok - I'm going to go and get a blanket to further warm up.... I hope everyone else's start to the weekend has gone far better.

Big Willie

Movie review.

First let me say that I love Will Smith. When I saw the previews for "i am legend" i could hardly wait for it to come to DVD for us to watch. All I heard was how fantastic it was, some of his (Big Willies) best film, oscar worthy. Now I don't know if any of you have seen it, but I just spent the last 90 minutes of my life watching and I don't get it. What the hell kind of film was that? MAN! 90 minutes long and they could have trimmed it to inside an hour and maybe I wouldn't be feeling like I just wasted my time. I don't watch a lot of movies any more and I really pick the ones I do watch and now I've wasted 90 minutes that could have been spent doing nothing on facebook. Did I miss something? Was that really a great film and I'm not getting it... tell me - what did I miss - have you even seen it? I guess I'm just not into monsters, long periods of silence in film, gore, blood, violence and an attempt at blending in God...

Ok - now I feel good and vented.

nut allergy alert!

Happy Easter... not really - please check the treats the Easter bunny is leaving for your kids! This isn't a joke - I saw a little blurb about a recall tonight and new that we had some cadbury in the house... I took this off of Canada.com which is part of Global.


The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is warning people with hazelnut allergies not to eat Cadbury Mini Eggs because some packages of the perennial candy-coated chocolate might contain traces of the nut without saying so.
Early Saturday, and after one reported illness, confectioner Cadbury Adams voluntarily withdrew 39-gram packages of the sweets, which were distributed nationally. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is monitoring the recall.
For those with allergies to hazelnut or hazelnut protein, eating the chocolate could cause a serious or life-threatening reaction.

Packages of Cadbury Mini Eggs.

The recall is of Cadbury Mini Eggs, regular milk chocolate, UPC 0 61200 08021 6, lot codes 02457T and 02357T.
For more information, call Cadbury, 1-866-782-3267; or the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, 1-800-442-2342/TTY 1-800-465-7735.

happy first day of spring

Welcome to the first day of spring! I don't know if you were feeling spring or not today. We still have more than a foot of snow where it is largely shady and about 6 inches where the sun gets to more often. The willows are starting to get ready for spring though. Long winter this year. There have been a few recent years where the crabapple trees near my office have started to leaf up this weekend.

We wish everyone a Happy Easter and good luck in hunting for treats on Sunday.

motivation

Today has been a long day and I'm getting a terrible case of terets. I'm not kidding. I'm talking to myself in four letter words and blending them into regular words. I'm doing well with a better healthier lifestyle but tonight I just wanted to consume - I didn't - Andy says to me - just go work out - I blurted more profanities and stomped downstairs - it took me two Bon Jovi songs to calm down and after that I found a good pace and made it through my workout. I'm not feeling as full of f-bombs now. They are lurking, but not manifesting.

Thank you to my husband for being courageous enough to tell me to go workout when I was full of madness.

Now for my runners - I know lots of you who come here often have run at one point in your life and some who continue to run. I run sideways - to the left actually - have all my life - I run into things - I know this sounds like I'm a little retarded (I know... I heard you... you are... ) but I'm not kidding. Right now I'm on a treadmill so when I start steering left I can make a quick correction but the middle of my foot - right below my middle toe is throbbing. It doesn't hurt while I'm running but walking in regular shoes the following day isn't great. Plus my knee on the left retarded side is also blah. Any suggestions.
(Please note that this wasn't supposed to offend anyone when I said retarded - I don't mean that in some kind of evil or mean way - I seriously think I have an impediment and am challenged when it comes to straight running - every word more sounds like a stand up routine, but sadly it is true.) Ok - so tips - suggestions - are there doctors who look at how you run and tell you what can be done to correct it... or is there no cure :)

have you seen this?

As good Canadian consumers you've probably seen the campaign that Dove is putting on - "campaign for real beauty". I was watching biggest loser - my tuesday night love affair - and saw a commercial for a free sample... well you know me - I went to check it out - of course - only for Americans - but I thought it might be on the Canadian site and I ended up finding something else... Dove Canada is giving away (ok - you have to pay shipping and handling..) free pj pants. Ok - so they said free but then you also have to buy two of their products - kind of like the cereals of old when you saved up your UPC codes and then mailed them in for some piece of crap toy. I write this because maybe you are consuming dove products (shampoo, conditioner, skin lotion, etc) and this won't be an added expense or you can make it an added expense and switch brands for a while to get in on the free pants... Anyways - you send in your two product receipts and your pants order form by April 11 (3 weeks away) and then you get free pants - why pants? Well they want people to host sleepovers for self esteem and they want everyone to do it on June 7. If I've sparked some interest check out their website at www.dovesleepover.ca. The site is very well done and worth the visit.

March 17

Happy St Patrick's Day!

it's coming

How do I know that spring is coming

1) Seven Canadian Geese just flew over my office building
2) 12 Robin's counted on Sunday on a sunny day - they sang as Kyle and I built the last of the winter snow forts
3) You can see the rocks that line my driveway that have been covered by snow for months
4) The main streets are more rocks/pebbles than snow

Hooray

tips

First I want to thank Sarah for noting on her blog that she had found a way to keep her son from taking toys on car rides. Sarah said she'd told her son that his favorite toy needed to stay home to sleep while they went out - and so began the easiest way to get my kids to stop bring toys in the car. THANK YOU!

Tonight I'm looking for another tip. Kyle has started to get panicky at night. He thinks that monster are coming to get him and that skeletons are coming from graveyards in town to our house. He's thought about it enough that tonight he asked me to close the blinds to his bedroom and then changed his mind and said that if we closed the blinds the monsters would know that we were home... I told him that he didn't need to be scared - that it wasn't real and that if it was something to be worried about, I'd be worried too. He decided that sounded ok and went to sleep. I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced this and any words of wisdom they'd like to share.

Ok and now a scrapbook page...




And... here's a little friend I found in some clams I recently opened for homemade clam chowder.

sex 101

When I was a child - say 13 - I asked my mom where babies came from. I didn't want to know about the touchy feely stuff - I actually wanted to know where they came from. I got a short conversation on babies and really, no answers. It wasn't until much later that I got any kind of information on it. My parents just didn't talk about that stuff with us. Everything was - down there - and was disregarded...

Yesterday I went for coffee with my parents and had the longest conversation (probably 5 minutes) on sex.

Backtrack - diddly do diddly do diddly do (Wayne and Garth style)
Two weeks ago my parents let the dogs out for a run and Sara started chasing the scent of a moose. She chased it for the next two days. Doc (her brother) followed. He won't leave her side. My dad eventually tracked them down after at least a 40 km hunt of the area and brought them home. They then figured out that she wasn't really on the run, she was looking to get some. Once they figured that out they looked for a friend for her to visit. And so began the courting.

Back to the sex talk.

They start telling me about Sara going to get breed and I'm like - um, that's foreign territory and I think you should cease and desist. They continue on - it wasn't like it was "dirty" - it was just different to hear them say anything about it. "Oh yes she's getting breed today, again." *giggles* (Like she's some kind of hoochie woofer) "Today she went to see an old man. He looked really old until he saw her coming and then he was dancing around...." ralph.... Ok so I'm not into the dog breeding scene. I know that dogs and everyone else has to do it and some of us even like to do it but lord knows I don't need to hear about the old man of a dog that was humpin' our dog.

Ok - so there you go. I hope everyone has now had their fill of dog humpin' and can carry on with their happy weekend. Back to the world of playdough for me.

very smart

What is this? What could it be?

Well folks here it is. For all of you tired of chewing your cup to win a smart Canadian has invented the rim roller! These are available at Lee Valley Tools online and are quite inexpensive. I'm actually surprised that Tim Hortons isn't capitalizing on this and branding as their own. Google rim roller and you'll quickly find a place you can purchase these for yourself and your friends.

Happy rolling!

Have we had any winners yet? I'm up 2 coffees... the most times I've won in any year.

fun

First, let me say that if you haven't already check out save.ca you should stop by for a visit.. They have great coupons for lots of different companies. All you have to do is pick the coupons you think you'll use and they mail them to you - FREE! I've used lots of coupons I've gotten off this site and continue to save a buck or two by visiting. On my most recent trip to the site and decided to have some fun.



Here's the challenge. Can you get better mail? Points will be given out for attempts and extra points for fun and creative mail that you actually receive and don't doctor in photoshop.

sick kid

I guess it just isn't going to stop this year. Michael is sick again. Today they sent him home from daycare after an hour. His temperature was up to 39 degrees. I'd like to say its his teeth, but he was complaining about his ear a little and now he is just out of sorts. He's been up twice since he went to bed and I'm sure there will be more to this story. I guess we will see what tomorrow brings.

Ok - brief tonight - I'm going to sleep.

out side NOW!

Lunar eclipse - happening right now... get out side if your skies are clear and take it in - it's the last one until after 2010...

go

NOW!

Feel one with the earth ... or something like :)

a week

Was I hit by lightning? No. I guess I just didn't have much to share.

We had a great weekend. I took the boys to Nazko to enjoy the snow. It's funny that the snow out there is different from the snow in town. When I was a kid we used to make forts and talk about the diamonds we'd find because the snow glimmered and shined. We'd have diamond mines, akin to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I don't think I've seen snow like that until this past weekend. My parents have their potatoes and carrots in storage under the snow (2 layers of tarps, hay, dirt), plus 4 ft of snow.... so we (ok my dad dug it out and I dug out the path from the road to the storage area) dug it out and while this was going on the boys dug around and played and it just caught my eye, the diamonds glittering in the sun. It just made me feel young and alive. It was great.

After that I thought I'd get out and enjoy the beautiful day a bit more (we went sled riding for about an hour before the potato dig) and took my dads cross country skis and went for a 90 minute ski. I haven't been skiing since before Kyle was born and it was awesome.

I've got a small head cold, but I'm hoping it will depart soon. Kids are good - Michael it seems is coming to the end of his cold and Kyle is doing pretty well. No coughing through the night. Andy's busy working in Wells, a lot. So we don't see him much, but we will see what his schedule is like for next month. It feels like spring is coming, but I'm think we've got a ways to go... I say spring and its -7 right now... but that really feels warm compared to this winter. I don't mind if it snows a bit more though - I wouldn't mind getting out to do another couple skis before the thaw is fully here.

Ok - I'm going to rest and read.

Question of the night - what are the top three things you've done in BC as a tourist? what are three things you'd like to see?
me... I love Prince Rupert - Cow Bay is awesome!, that's #1, I love Granville Island - as everyone knows, that's #2 and then Toe Hill on Queen Charlotte - I feel in love with the island - well I've never been to the Peace so I'm thinking a trip to Dawson Creek/Ft St John is overdue, I'd like to go back to Queen Charlotte with family and really take it in, and probably nelson/cranbrook because I've heard great things, but have never beeen... ok one more - I'd like to go to Stewart for the grizzly viewing.

Good grief...

Now there's thunder... what the heck happened!

boo hoo

It's raining....

ding ding ding

It's officially summer! Plus 6 - amazing!

did you see

It's plus (PLUS) two! Hooray! That's the warmest its been in ages. I'm going home to get on my bathing suit right now.
Ta ta for now.

A review

Kyle and I have some time this afternoon while Michael is snoozing to review some recent products we've purchased.


Mom says "This is a toy designed for children over the age of four. You plug it right into the tv (audio/video), turn on the appropriate switch (video a or b) and then find out that it requires 4 flaming batteries - unscrew everything- and then turn it on. Then there are three games and a reward area. Pretty simple. The games are educational - all about spelling and word sounds. All that said it was $40 at Wal-Mart. It isn't something Kyle would spend more than 20 minutes with because the graphics are terrible (and yes, at 5 he can tell that), and the games are so repetitive that he got a little bit bored, but only after 15 minutes - so for me that isn't bad because he doesn't need to be on it for any longer than that anyway.

Kyle says "I got to unscrew the back of the machine. The game is fun. I like building the roller coaster. I turned it off so we could watch Scooby Doo before Michael woke up."



Mom says "These are koolaid cool jammers; grape flavoured. I don't think you can recycle the packaging, but they are very convenient. I have had few accidents with these versus the other box juice containers. For school we stopped using the jammers and moved to a container that could be washed. These are kicking around from a road trip."

Kyle says "Good. It tastes like strawberry, it is purple. Mom filled it up again for me with water. "



Mom says "These are some treats we bought at Save-On Foods from the bulk section. They are M&M Kisses that are candy coated. I didn't eat them - we only bought enough for the guys to have a small treat."

Kyle says "They are hard. They are good, but there were just four."

Spirit of BC Week

Guess where I am in the picture?

Good guess Jen!

Gong She Fat Sigh (Mandarin)

We celebrated Chinese New Year with Kyle's kindergarten class today and had a great time. We spent the better part of the morning with the class. Michael joined us too and had a great time as well.

Here we are parading at the school. Thanks to Canadian Living for inspiring our design! It was a huge hit!

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Thursday Feb 7 is Chinese New Year. Kyle's kindergarten teacher asked us to help out with celebrating, which was great because I was hoping something could be done to recognize it. So today while celebrating groundhog day Kyle, Michael and I made the head for our dragon.



I'll share more photos when the tail is completed and the kids parade with it.

Punxsutawney Phil

Today is Groundhog Day and good old Punxsutawney Phil says there will be six more weeks of winter. I'm think we'd be lucky if it's only six.

Visit Punxsutawney for all the fun they had this morning!
I'd actually like to go to this one day - the town looks like it puts on a great show and everyone seems to have a great time!

Ok - I know, I know, where is my political commentary and sarcasm about this whole event. Well I'd like to say - gees that looks like one unhappy groundhog and what the hell kind of society do we live in that this kind of event gets any coverage, but... to be honest, I like this whole event and idea of celebrating that winter is coming to a close. It helps that I also love Bill Murray and really enjoyed this film Groundhog Day.

bring on the illness

I've been stressed. Too stressed.
I procrastinated as long as I could on the course I've been taking for my bachelors and amazing as it is - I actually finished it tonight and sent the last paper in. At work I've submitted all of the proposals and I should have my year end completed tomorrow. Andrew starts his new job tomorrow. All of these things are loading up against me... the bugs always like me most when I'm finally feeling like I can take a break and enjoy the other parts of life. It's been a year since I had pneumonia and I really don't want that to come back. I know, I know - I'm crazy. Bugs can't think. I know. Alright I'll go and just sit in my general anxiety disorder...


And how flamin' sad is it that someone decided to drop there baby off in a stairwell. What the hell is wrong with people? And those poor little girls in the cold in Saskatchewan - lord. I just wanted to cry when I saw it on the news. First - what the hell is wrong with the media that I should have to see that and that my kids should have to see that. What the hell is wrong with some parents? Stop hurting your babies. Stop it!

It's 11:30. I'm hungry, but I know better and I'm going to have a glass of water and get into bed. Good night my friends.
Sweet dreams.

Wait - speaking of dreams, since my stress level has begun shifting I've started dreaming again. I might have had three dreams that I recalled in 2007. I've already had that in the last week. How's this one? I'm walking with a group of people along the edge of swampy area. People start panicking as small spiders are noticed. The spiders climb on me (shiny), and inject something into me. I'm the only one this is happening to. Then we are at a camp and something is crawling under my skin. My skin breaks and I'm able to pull out six inch long creatures. Now you'd think - spiders did this, must be spiders coming out.. nope the creatures were sea scorpions (these are from Kyle's Chased by Dinosaurs movies). The oddity to all of this is that I pull one out and my dream carries on. I knew that I should have woken up, but I kept pulling these creatures out of legs. Different spots on my legs, never the same spot and there was always a building up sensation to them being pulled and it really felt like I was pulling them out. Then I think I heard something - Michael giving me the 6am hello and I woke up. But I woke up wondering what the hell was that about. And there you have it - a little bit of everything tonight - if you have some insights on my dream I'd love to hear it. Yes, I know I'm crazy... that insight is obvious. :)

Wait, one more - and this is for my aunt - if you still read here - my crazy mom tried to pull another fast one on me. The other night she told me that a family friend (gran's "man friend") had had to get an amputation. Like telling me they were sick wasn't good enough and the shock value wasn't there - to up the anti - this addition needed to be made. Now I was a little skeptical, but also saddened by the news. Tonight I get a voice mail from grandma and its sad. She says she is sad and things aren't going well. I call back, immediately, fearing the worst and hear that she is doing well and that the sad was that she hadn't had time to catch up with me. No amputation - there was a scare, but medical science prevailed and the amputation wasn't necessary... Oh and she's (mom) also started talking with "ghosts" in other homes. She had a client (client implies payment... please accept these three shiny rocks, and as a tip for this service I'd like to throw in a nice magic bean) who had a ghost living in her house. The ghost was starting to cause problems - could my mom get her out of her house. She apparently telekinetically (wrong word/right word - no idea) got herself to this women's house and after a lengthy discussion with said ghost, the ghost chose to move on. So there you go. Maybe that explains those crazy dreams... crazy begets crazy.

to do in the cold

Ok so tonight I'm looking for the answer to - what are you doing to get through all this cold, miserable weather?

Right now I'm procrastinating. I have a 1,500 word paper to write (finish) tonight for the course I'm taking right now. I'm not interested in the topic and I'm having a hard time focusing on what to write. This part of the last four courses I need to graduate and actually have a real BS after my name. It will actually be a BGS which I think will really stand for bachelors in general shit.

Ok - so lets hear it... what are you doing to get through the cold... and who had it the worst today? Today it was -27 at its coldest this morning - right now we are up to -20 - near balmy conditions. :) This doesn't include the wind chill. I don't know what it was with the wind chill - I didn't stand outside long enough to see if my nose hairs were freezing or not. It's the high speed shuffling to the house with everything the kids took to school, plus kids, plus my crap.

um, frickin' brrrrrrr

Alright so I was whining about a little -13 earlier this month... and now it is -25 and likely to get into the minus 30 territory - BLAH! -32 and there will be no school... which means I could probably stay home from work tomorrow... come on - bring on the cold - what is the shut down situation in the lower mainland - how cold before they shut schools down... ??? anyone know? I bet its a heck of a lot warmer than -32...


Ok - I'm going to go warm up - it's weather like this that really shows how poorly your home is insulated...

a break from work

aaahhhhh

Remember those 17... well they needed some extra content - it was actually completed in a team effort this time, which is nice and they were all just whisked off to the right person... hooray! I might actually get to do some real work done next week!

I hope everyone has a stress free weekend. I'm going to go and cook some dinner and clean up... hey maybe I'll even post some kitchen reno pictures tonight... what a treat :)

sick, cold, sick

Michael is still struggling with whatever he has had for nearly three weeks. I think he is on his second cold though as we thought he was getting better and then is got worse again. Terrible cough - blah! Kyle is much better - a little cough, but nothing else - now the corner of his mouth has cracked and he got some kind of infection there... so no daycare.... blah...

And what else... well of course I'm coming down with something. I can just feel it looming - working its way in - trying to find somewhere to hang out for a long time... lord. That's about it - work is... well you know. I just can't believe that January is nearly over. My to do list is too long and every time I start one task I'm reminded of something else I'm also supposed to be working on.

Well now I'm going to go and work on sleep. I hope everyone else is well - you can post on here... I don't mind reading something other than my blab.

recovery

Paula turned 31 on Thursday, finally catching up to me... I decided to ring in the first day of her 31st year on earth with an excellent round of food poisoning. I don't know what kicked it off... I bought some deli salad from Safeway and I think that is where it came from because I'm the only one that ate that stuff and... fancy that I was the only one that got sick. Yesterday was pretty much a write off, but I wasn't throwing up - hooray! This morning I'm just sore -ribs, back, general muscle ache... blah...
So there - wasn't that a great blog update... aren't you glad you stopped by... ha.

Well I better get back to life around this house,... time for dinosaur king and then I'm hoping we can do some crafts. I did manage to make one half of Michael' bedroom curtains yesterday - so it wasn't a complete write off.

procrastination

One word answers - from Carmen's facebook page :)

1. Where is your cell phone? upstairs
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend? married
3. Your hair? flat
4. Work? pee-on
5. Your father? loving
6. Your favorite thing? lots
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your favorite drink? slurpee
9. Your dream car? tundra
10. The room you're in? office
11. Your ex? unknown
12. Your fear? loss
13. What do you want to be in 10 years? thinner
14. What you're not good at? limbo
15. Muffin? cranberryorange
16. One of your wish list items? travel
17. Where you grew up? qtown
18. The last thing you did? stairs
19. What are you wearing? tank
20. What aren't you wearing? watch
21. Your pet? cats
22. Your computer? lifeline
23. Your life? complex
24. Your mood? itchy
25. Missing? lots
26. What are you thinking about right now? photography
27. Your car/truck? CRV
28. Your summer? maybe
29. Your relationship status? married
30. Your favorite color? red
31. When is the last time you laughed? recently
32. Last time you cried? recently
33. School? ongoing
34. Dinner? wrap
35. Piercings? 2
36. Tattoos? 1
37. What are your plans for this Saturday? homebody
38. Biggest regret?
39. Pastime? whatever
40. Where have you always wanted to go? newfoundland
41. Food? yes
42. Breakfast? smoothie
43. Books you read as a kid? dr.z
44. Show you watched as a kid? gadget
45. If you could be/do/*have something/someone* for a day what would it be? astronaut

tofu

Alright one more thing to share and then I'm hitting the hay. I made agedashi tofu at home. Sure, I'm lame because I photograph food, but I'm ok with being lame.

How do you make this? What is it? Well if you don't like tofu you might want to try this. I really like and I will state it here and now that I am not a tofu lover. I bought an extra firm piece of tofu and then pressed it between napkins. I put something heavy on top and all the extra water/soy liquid came out. Then I cut the tofu into cubes and rolled them in corn starch. Then they were placed gently into a nice hot fry. I used my frying pan, but I guess if you have a deep fryer you could probably use that too... Then you fry them until brown. I took mine out of the frying pan and let them drip any access oil onto some napkins. Then you can eat it with tempura sauce or oyster sauce. I dip mine in oyster sauce too.

MMMMMM!

Ok - now bed - night night.

horses

This is from a photo I took while on our sleigh ride. I've adjusted it a fair bit in photoshop.

ok, 2nd times the charm

now I'm done.... hooray!

I know I shouldn't even write anything about finishing - but the deadline has come and gone and there is nothing I can do to change any of them now. We have some research to complete, but nothing like I've been through for the last two weeks.



And here is a photo of the cute guys. Michael has been sick for a week... blah.. coughing, fevers - it wasn't really much of anything but daycare said he had fever. Now it is a cough. I think Kyle is coming down with something now. He was pretty out of sorts today and just wanted to cuddle. He's a cuddly guy, but overly cuddly. Outside of the health stuff, Kyle is enjoying kindergarten. Lots of new friends and stuff to learn and his teacher couldn't be nicer.

arg

Did I say finished 17 re-writes... bring on the re-re-writes... ARG!

hooray

Ok so I've been a busy beaver for the last week. Two websites (full sites) that I've been trying to complete, 17 proposal re-writes (this might sound easy, but HA it isn't!), my office has been renovated and I tried to get myself set back up... I, at least, had my computer and tech stuff working - two offices are pretty much completed... mine still needs work, but I'm well past halfway...

In any case I'm finished the 17 proposals and just needed somewhere to sing it on the mountain - hoo-frickin'-ray. I know that the work will only get piled on next week - year end (BLAH) and everything else, but at least that chunk of work is completed.

Now I'm going to go and play some boggle... yes, sadly on the computer, but hey it lets my brain take a break :) Happy Saturday.

-13

Yesterday it was a beautiful plus (PLUS) 5, in the last hour I've watched it drop 3 degrees and now we are at -13 (MINUS). I knew winter wasn't over, but come on....

I'm working on a website right now and I'm totally struggling with it tonight. I had this great site designed and then I started looking at it on other platforms and it fell apart - so I started over with something more user friendly for all platforms and now I'm not happy with it... I better get back to it - I want most of it done in the next couple days.




Here is a picture from one of our recent adventures. A friend of mine invited us for a sleigh ride. The boys and I went and toured around her property (same size as stanley park). It was a little cold, but very fun and something very different for us to take in.

birthday, birthday, birthday time

Here is Michael on his 2nd birthday. I, rather unwisely, let all his presents in the living room and so he needed to open everything before we did anything else... I also bought a cake that he didn't want to eat and enjoyed an orange instead... plus some chocolate.

mmmm topped with whip cream, you betcha :)

An Ape-tini

3 parts Intellect 2 parts Ambition 1 part Sexy Momma Splash of Courage and sprinkle of chocolate shavings Finish off with whipped cream

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

#2

Today is Michael's 2nd birthday. We are having a small family party. I'm writing a little in shock, because I can't believe that two years have gone by. I'm looking at the clock right now - it says 3:45. He was just coming into the world now. I still need to go and pick up a birthday cake (I know - for shame, I didn't bake one...) and then pick them up to come home and play some birthday games.

I'll post some birthday pics later and hope that everyone is having a good start to 2008!

Right on the crack...

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year!

From CTV.ca, Associated Press, Chiang Ying ying, these fireworks are coming off of the tallest building in Taipei - Taipei 101 and currently the tallest skyscraper.

Best wishes for 2008!

(BC 150th Birthday)

250

I'm here posting my 250th post on the eve of my 31st birthday. I haven't watched the news since I went on holidays. I've caught snips and snipes of it, but I haven't really paid attention. Then yesterday I was compelled to start listening. I don't know if any of you are following the news, but if you have you've likely heard that the opposition leader of Pakistan was assassinated. Her name was Benazir Bhutto. I've been reading about her since her return to Pakistan in October. Why should you care? As small as one of our voices is, she was heard! She was heard and she was only one. I think we all need to start focusing on the pride points in our lives and make contributions. Slough off all the bull shit. Slough it. I say this and I will struggle with it, but it must be done. Take a minute to google Bhutto, learn about something that might encourage you to be great, in small and big ways.

Stupid me, I also chose to read about the murders on Christmas Eve in Seattle. What the hell kind of world do we live in? What is wrong with human kind? What kind of hope can we have for our children or any children when we have these things occuring in our communities and when our media chooses to focus on them?

(End scene)

New scence
A bench rests under a window and a girl sits looking out the window. Thinking. Pondering. Remembering.

So here I am sitting on the door step of 31, what gems of wisdom/thoughts can I share?

1) Love; its important, if you don't have it, find it, if you do hold on to it and embrass it
2) Children make your life better and put all things into perspective
3) Life is constructed in a manner that when you do something negative it will one day come back and bite you, maybe just a nip, maybe it will take out your whole ass
4) Life is also constructed in a manner that when you do something positive it will also effect the course of your life
5) Birthdays are only another day of the year, every day should be celebrated
6) Family is everything, even if they bother you and do things that do not match up with what you think is right - see #3 and 4
7) If you have had pets you know that every day you make a point of acknowledging the pet, a simple ear rub, a scratch - do this same small thing for your spouse - acknowledge them, love them, encourage them
8) I like the number eight...
9) Falling behind sucks - avoid it
10) Listen to people - stop what you are doing and when they stop talking repeat back the message, make sure you understood what they shared with you - it will take longer - but what are you rushing life for - it is short, make time to make a difference
11) Be respectiveful - always
12) Everyone can do something
13) Email and blogging should be a glimpse into who you are - don't give it all away
14) Phone people - there was a time before cell phone texting, and email and chat rooms - it is only laziness that drives the internet forward
15) Giving up will leave you with a life time of regret
16) I am far more sensitive then I was a year ago or ten years ago, I'm learning to live with that.
17) True friendship is hard to come by.
18) Entertainers are overpaid and the entire medical system is underpaid and under appreciated.
19) It is easier to give advice than to take it.
20) Drinking makes the pain dull, but causes it to throb the next day and doesn't solve problems.
21) If you put your mind to it all things are possible.
22) Lies are bad. Avoid them. Ask why you are telling a lie.
23) Gossip is bad. Avoid it. Get the facts. Learn. Be intelligent. It is harder to do, but why be lazy.
24) I love my family.
25) Digital cameras are nice, but if you don't make use of the photos you took, you might as well not have taken the photos in the first place.
26) Learning about nature and getting out to see the Cariboo was one of the best things I could have done for myself, and I only saw a glimpse. It has inspired me to see more.
27) Your physical and mental state are very important. Value your body, show it appreciation by eating well and using it - in all of the many fabulous ways it can be used.
28) You can buy all the crap in the world, but it will stay here when you die. Remember possessions can not hold your hand, love you, sing to you, smile at you, laugh, or anything else. This is a tough one for me and something I'm trying to learn.
29) Technically, my list should be ending here because I promised I would just continue to celebrate my 29th... I'm ok with the number changing though.
30) Enjoy work, and if you don't, start looking for ways to make your work better (on your own) or find new work, see #15.
31) See #1, repeat.

home again jiggity jig

We made it back from PG. Uneventful trip - Costco made some good moola off of us, yet again. And now I sit up waiting for my brothers arrival from Port Hardy. I'm assuming at this point that he made his 3pm ferry and should be here soon... especially the way he drives.

I also wanted to post that... what the heck - it's -19... it was beautiful this afternoon - I was actually thinking to myself how beautiful it would be to get out and do some cross country skiing - and since the sun went down I've been watching the temperature plummet. -19 now at 1am.. what about in another 2 hours... what about another 6... we are nearly at the mid point of the year and days will once again get longer - HOORAY! but tonight at -19 I wonder what the next few days will actually be.

ok - I'm going to do something productive while I wait for my brother - night all

home again... well kind of

Tuesday was an extra long driving day for us. We left late from Richmond because we knew that we'd be driving in the dark no matter what time we left the lower mainland. So we took our time and I got thirsty at Boston Bar and my eyes needed a break because the roads had gone in the crapper as soon as we left Hope. I'm grabbing a drink and the lady tells me the highway is closed - just closed it - then as I'm leaving she updates with a minimum six hour wait because there has been a fatality. With that I loop back and turn us around. We ended up taking the Coquihalla - not great - the roads actually weren't too bad to the top, lots of snow but people were mindful of each other and because it is a climb most the rigs just get in a line and don't try to pass much. We get to the top and its a whole different story. Not 2km from the tollbooth we come to our first accident and police officer. He tells us to slow down through the accidents and that the roads are slick all the way to Merritt. BLAH! We passed four accidents from the top to about 30 km from the top and then just took our time down.

And then it was another 5 1/2 hours from Merritt home. We stopped at Merritt and then we stopped in Williams Lake at Tim Hortons around midnight - took in some of the night life in WL - and waited about 20 minutes to get tea and some treats to keep us awake for the rest of the drive.

Then yesterday we had to come to PG. We'll be back in Quesnel this afternoon - just doing a little shopping this morning, lunch and then heading home.

I'm definitely looking forward to this weekend and just taking it easy... oh and on the kitchen front the counter top is going to be another few weeks - extra blah! - at least jan 10 and then who really knows... not the end of the world - I'm not making turkey dinner this year - headed to nazko for that... of course as a result cookie production is way down - in fact zero to date...

the concert

Last night was my first concert since Great Big Sea in university. We were in the upper deck, and funny enough, at the back of the building where I saw my first Canucks game live. Hedley opened and they were pretty good. I confess that I didn't know all of their songs, but I knew three, not bad.

And then we found ourselves inside the church of bon jovi with 17,000 singing strong. It was amazing! They played for nearly three hours and had multiple encores. The old stuff was great - Living on Prayer, Wanted dead or alive, Bad Medicine. I would have liked to hear Bed of Roses - but they had to leave some new stuff for tonight, as they are rocking out again tonight in Vancouver - and hear there are still tickets... definitely worth it and if I'd had an idea they were going to be that good I would have paid more and been closer.

We've cut our trip short, so we will be back in Quesnel on Tuesday night now. Headed to the aquarium on Monday and doing a couple of other things - today is pretty low key - a little shopping and work this morning and then back to Richmond to cook turkey dinner. I hope everyone is taking it easy and not getting beat up in a mall with masses trying to buy gifts. Take a minute for yourself - remember the reason you are buying gifts is because you love the people you are buying for and how much they love you and maybe that will help you see that maybe a gift isn't what you needed to buy for them... will they remember the money you spent on them or the way you spent your time together.

And I finished Potter! Record time for me. Should you read it? Well if you've read all the others I'd be surprised if you haven't already - I'm old and taking too long to read anything these days. Read them, enjoy the story and pass them on to children who will enjoy the growth of characters over 7 years and who will greatly appreciate them. Ok - off to do some work before we had to the mall.

pity

it is -25 here and only going to get colder tonight
please send blankets... and warm thoughts in our direction

coldest winter in 15 years... how about coldest winter ever... yes, thanks - global warming... right... except canada - THANK YOU!

sick

This is a new one for me. I've had pneumonia, colds and flus. Now I've got something I've never had before and it is super painful. It feels like I have something stuck in my throat and everytime I swallow I aggrevate it. It hurts bad enough that I'm not getting alot of sleep at night, because I wake up everytime I swallow.... ok so that was my post 48 hours ago and now it is sunday night and I'm sitting here and feel far far far less pain. I ended up escorting myself to the walk-in clinic yesterday afternoon and the doc decided I had a throat infection... hooray - got some strong drugs and they are apparently having some kind of effect on this bacterial germ in my throat.

I'm definitely taking a sick day tomorrow. Time to recover and sleep in the day if I feel like it. Plus my voice is in no condition to answer phones or even talk to people. We did manage to decorate our christmas tree today - hooray - beautiful - boys had a great time and helped a lot this year.