cheers to canada day

On Dec 22, 1997 I drank a bottle of wine with Liz (a roommate, later a floor RA and a friend) - this was my last day at UNBC. It is also the last time I drank red wine, until tonight... I cracked open a bottle of Australian Banrock and since I had no wine glasses- yes it's been that long since we drank wine in our home - I put it in this sad coke glass...



So cheers to everyone - happy Canada Day!

a sad, sad update - good lord that is TERRIBLE wine - GOD - how can this be? how? how? - I can't even drowned my tears... why can't I be a beer drinker - there are four in the fridge right now... but I have no interest... I guess I'll go have some water... very very very sad - well the label was definitely right - smokie, oak, a little bit of berries - I guess that's why they don't right that it is good wine on the label... damnit...
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it is now 1:03am... it is 79 degrees (about 27 celsius) in my house - I can't sleep - it's 12 degrees cooler outside than it is in the house... I'm soooo tired, but I can't get my eyes stay shut long enough... it is a couple of degrees cooler in the living room so I'm out here hoping to get some sleep - if there was just a little breeze from outside.... a little one...

puppies

So there are three cute little puppies left. Four of the seven found homes this weekend. (http://nazkopuppies.blogspot.com)
Pretty uneventful weekend - Michael started getting sick as soon as the weekend started and is still trying to get over it. His nose is running out of control and he has the red burns on his nose from all the damned tissue paper. I'm over heated tonight - and very pissed about my camera...



See this picture - aahhhh - cute boys- I showed it last weekend - see that black bag in the photo - that's the bag - that's the bag that is missing - and I could just pull my hair out over losing my stuff.... !!!!!!!! Tonight I actually reopened the tent trailer (alone) and pulled it apart trying to find some hint of the camera... how can this be? How! Is it a sign? Is it time to get a new camera? it makes me sad - I loved my camera - literally - loved it - I'm going to go grab a cooler and put it on some ice and start designing a new website...

another carmen boredom buster

Hit forward and place an X by all the things you've done and remove the X from the ones you have not. Answer the 30 questions at the end and send it to your friends (including me). The questions refer to your entire life .

( ) Gone on a blind date
(X) Skipped school
( ) Watched someone die
(X) Been to The United States
( ) Been to Mexico
( ) Been to Florida
(X) Been on a plane
(X) Been lost
( ) Been on the opposite side of the country
(X) Swam in the ocean
(X)Cried yourself to sleep
(X) Played cops and robbers
(X) Recently colored with crayons
( ) Sang Karaoke
(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't?
(X) Made prank phone calls
(X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
(X) Danced in the rain
(X) Written a letter to Santa Claus
( ) Been kissed under the mistletoe
(X) Watched the sunrise with someone you care about
(X) Blown bubbles
(X) Gone ice-skating
(X) Been skinny dipping outdoors
(X) Gone to the movies
1. Any nickname? Ape, Ape of the Jungle
2. Mother's name? Kathy
3. Favorite drink? water
4. Tattoo?? 1
5 . Body piercings? Ears
6. How much do you love your job? What isn't there to love... ha
7. Birthplace. Q-town baby
8. Favorite vacation spot? Vancouver Island
9. Ever been to Africa ??? No
10. Ever eaten cookies for dinner? No
11. Ever been on TV? Yes
12. Ever steal any traffic sign?? Traffic sign (singular... no) - traffic signs... well - ok
13. Ever been in a car accident?? No
14. Drive a 2-door or 4-door vehicle? Both
15. Favorite salad dressing : Homemade
16. Favorite pie? Blueberry (Cariboo blueberries)
17 Favorite number?? 8 hundred million
18. Favorite movie? One - that's tough - there isn't just one...
19. Favorite holiday ? my birthday - let's everyone take it off this year and call it the new holiday
20. Favorite dessert? Q-town bakery - Black Forest Cake - I can't really eat it anymore - but it is definitely my fav
22. Favorite day of the week. - Monday -
23. Favorite brand of body wash? Olay
24. Favorite toothpaste?? Colgate with the little pieces of Maxfresh in it - I like the same as Carmen - who knew
25. Favorite smell?? Vanilla - I like vanilla too...
26. What do you do to relax: - well working out actually works - but I hate to admit that I enjoy it...
27. How do you see yourself in 10 years? A millionaire
29. Furthest place you will send this message? Well if you are outside of Q-town and reading it - it went pretty far then...
30. Who will respond to this the fastest? No one - Carmen already did it - so that's that...

And yes, I worked out - and feel better - not as hostel and angry - still hate my neighbours though.

anger just doesn't even come close

I'm trying to figure out if I've lost my mind or if there are really that many assholes in Q-town. I think I've mentioned that we won this great bag of camera gear and camera at an auction. I've been using the new lens a fair bit on my old camera as the other one is too big for me. I took it camping with us and took my first picture and the shutter stopped working. I reloaded film and it wouldn't load. I put it back in the car with the new lens on and the macro lens between the seats and didn't really think about it again. A couple of days ago I started looking for it because I couldn't remember where it had gone after camping. Nothing. Now we've noticed that a bag is also missing from the car. So what I'm hoping is that somehow it is lost in the house - we unloaded it and it has just gone to a different part of the house.... or worst case that someone took it out of the car and put it all in the backpack as they left. I'm pissed. I'm pissed that I've lost it and getting madder thinking that someone stole it out of our car - WHAT THE FRICK!

So I needed to put my anger somewhere - now I have off loaded - not feeling a lot better - but at least it is out - somewhere... I've been trying to think back to the last second I say it and I remember grabbing it to take a picture of a golden bear on the way home but didn't stop in time - that was about 13 km from Quesnel. That's the last time I can think of seeing it... here's to positive thinking and finding it in the house...

Wanna hear a few more reasons why I'm hating my neigbourhood right now - a couple of nights ago the neighbours behind us set off fire works at 1am - WHAT - then Michael started throwing up at 4:30am - then we went and watched cartoons and the neighbours beside me decided to come outside and beat each other up with 2x4's - I'm not kidding - I watched them - I hoped they hurt each other so I could get some sleep.... I hate my neighbours! They are fighting right now - I can hear them through the wall - what is wrong with these people - your selling drugs - why don't you take some and just pass out for the night so we don't have to hear your crap all over again. Oh right - that might impact profits... right - better to just yell at people on our street and all the other people that visit you.

Books

A little boredom killer from Carmen's blog...

“The Big Read" reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed.”

1) Look at the list and bold (or color if your bold isn't working) those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated.
5) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve read 6 and force books upon them ;-)


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (large sections of it, but not from cover to cover)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple, Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine de St. Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

18 out of 100... well better than six... I'm surprised by the list though - there are a lot of books on here that I wouldn't have thought would make a top 100 - Bridget Jones was a funny book - but it shouldn't even be on the same list as shakespeare...

Ok - so let's mix things up - what books do I think people should read... my pics - if you are copying and pasting this to your blog than add your own list for best reads that didn't make this list...

1. 100 Mile Diet - MacKinnon -Smith
2. The Secret - Byrne
3. The Green Mile - King
4. Timothy Findley books - any of them
5. The Griffin and Sabine series
6. The Pillars of the Earth - Follett
7. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon - King
8. The Poisonwood Bible (well it was mostly good) - Kingsolver


Planning to read

1. A new earth - Tolle
2. Stash of smut :)

today

Alright - so me, the political junkie, got my fill again today. We had a special event happening in Q-town today - the opening of our Spirit Square - first one in BC completed. And so the Premier joined us to open the square. He did a great speech, followed by other good speeches by our local dignitaries and committees and then he made his way to our volunteer cake cutting station. He came over, cut the cake, and thanked me and another volunteer for our time. I did manage to get a close up...



Needless to say I was pretty pleased to get to shake hands. I know - I'm an oddity, but I just truly respect our politicians for the work they do. It isn't fabulous pay - but some get pretty good pay for what they actually do - they never get to take off their political hat - they are always a councillor, mayor, premier, minister... they don't get down time, people always complain to them, it must be rough every day and also a rewarding experience to represent a community. Alright - so there you go. Happy days in my life :)

A little bit of camping

On Friday we took our tent trailer out for its first test drive... I found out that I can't back up the way I thought I could with a tent trailer, but did drive it a fair bit and learned a lot about pulling a trailer... hooray for learning something new. We arrived in the evening and were welcomed by a swarm of mosquitoes - it was brutal - it made me want to cry and I'm not a crier.

We set up camp, ate a few bugs and made dinner.

Can I please have some bugs with my soup? No problem!

It was the longest day of the year so the boys stayed up late and then Andy and I stayed up even later and watched pelicans land and take off in front of our campsite. It was amazing to watch and listen to. When they landed (about 50) it sounded like thunder clapping. We then went into our tent trailer and slept with the swarm - I couldn't sleep - I was freezing - listen to me complain - I was the one that really wanted to go - lord it was COLD - C-O-L-D cold! At 1:40am I asked for another blanket... we got up early around 6am and hung out with the bugs... we'd decided we'd be going home early as the bugs were a little bit too much - we did managed to get through breakfast and lunch and then went home in the early afternoon.


A photo by Michael - he is pretty camera happy; I don't know where he gets that from...


Looking at worms on the log. A nice guy from Mill Bay was camping across from us and gave us his worms for fishing - we managed to catch one - hooray!


Kyle - letting his feet dry - he'd tromped in the water most of the morning and had complete prune feet. They had a great time being explorers and running around the campsite.


Hey Kyle, do you think we should tell mom and dad that we are staying?

more puppy pictures

Ok I don't think these puppies could be any cuter. I've loaded up photos of each of the puppies on my parents blog - in case anyone is looking for a puppy - or would simply like to look at puppy photos 'cause they're so gosh darn cute. :)

What else is new? Not much, pretty quiet around here. The weather has been blah and so we haven't even had a chance to test drive our new tent trailer - with any luck we'll get out there this weekend. The garden is doing well - everything has come up - some of it is doing better than other parts... I'll share some new photos later this week - for now here are a couple from a few days ago...


A pretty pink daisy


Sui choy... first time growing this - kind of looks like radishes at first....

the love guru

I love Mike Myers but when I saw a clip for the Love Guru a while ago I was a little less than impressed.... I was browsing through trailers tonight and came across full clips for the movie and now I'm hooked - Mike Myers is the funniest man on the planet - how could I doubt... check out the love guru.

puppy blog

So my parents (as I've mentioned before) have seven little puppies and now they are for sale... they can leave their mom at the end of the month. I've put together a blog for them and thought I'd share it with you guys... Nazko Puppies

survey says...

Here's a little something Carmen challenged me to complete... Mel, I challenge you to complete it and anyone else out there in the little old blog land. (one word answers only to all the questions...)

1. Where is your cell phone? Pocket
2. Your significant other? Andy
3. Your hair? Flat
4. Your mother? Loving
5. Your father? Loving
6. Your favorite thing? stars
7. Your dream last night? sexy
8. Your favorite drink? water
9. Your dream/goal? $850K
10. The room you're in? living
11. Your hobby? lots
12. Your fear? few
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? unknown
14. Where were you last night? 7-11
15. What you're not? smelly
16. Muffins? banana-nut
17. One of your wish list items? gardening
18. Where you grew up? BC
19. The last thing you did? movie
20. What are you wearing? socks
21. Your TV? on
22. Your pets? cats
23. Your computer? mac
24. Your life? woohoo
25. Your mood? yippee
27. Your car? crv
28. Something you're not wearing? parachute
29. Favorite store? chapters
30. Your summer? short
31. Like someone? love
32. Your favorite color? blue
33. When is the last time you laughed? Today
34. Last time you cried? today
35. Who will do this? hmmmm

a ticket to ride

A couple of days ago a hornet landed on my passenger side mirror. He stayed on the car for a tour of Quesnel. I'm not kidding. He rode with me from work to home and home to work and work to home and home to 7-11 to get a yummy slurpee and as I pulled into slurpee land he tried a different way to sit on the mirror and bit it - I actually stopped to see if he was ok. I mean really, that's a long fall for a hornet.

The garden is doing great. I'm shocked at the growth. The gailan, sui choy, and beets are up. The beans haven't made an appearance yet, but I think they'll be up soon. We are waiting on carrots and swiss chard -- mmmm - swiss chard - oh yummy yummy! We also put in a little fence (1 footer) beside the raspberries to make it look 'purdy' and planted some other plants - lily of the valley and some other pretty red one... seriously I don't know what it is called or how big it will get... it just looked nice but the label said nothing about what it might actually do... one line of instructions repeated in 10 languages and that was it.

Tonight I was attacked by mosquitoes - I was bit 4 times on my back, twice on my hands and once on my wrist.... ARG! Damned itchy mosquitoes! So watering was quick tonight. The guys were covered up and didn't have any bites... lucky guys. And speaking of the guys - Kyle is still terrified of getting stuff in his ears. I tried again tonight to clean his ears and got the screaming yelling version of my five year old. I told him I wouldn't clean them and he says ok - you can tomorrow and I say "no thanks" and he has a melt down... a complete and total melt down. Good times, good times :)

PG

I'm sure most of you have heard by now that PG had a terrible bunch of fires last night. The plywood mill was burned to the ground followed by two more sites in the industrial park. On top of that a business in the downtown of PG went up this morning (unrelated). A friend of mine manages some properties in the region and got the following photos of the plywood mill fire. There are some regional photos on PGTV

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.