ROAR

I don't have anything happy to offer you tonight... super long day... I'm having a OM-freakin'-G day... actually had someone roll their eyes at me and I just wanted to jump up and say - you know what... you can go and f*&@ yourself... how do you like them apples - then get up and just walk out..

Tomorrow will be filled with joy and happiness as I'm going on a photo shoot and another road trip - can't wait to get going... I'm taking one of my staff and am looking forward to the trip. And in honor of my staff and the laugh they get out of it - I'm planning to bring my "hooker" boots - as they've called them - just to make the trip even better... (I was going to say funner... but I know - that isn't a word.. see my english friends - I can learn some things.. but only some things... )

fun and fabulous

So I was away from the office last week for a few days and while I was gone a couple of my staff went to work in my office... now the last time this happened they put at least 100 post notes all over my office. I like it though - and I work with them on targeting others... like one of the staff had 50 bras put up in their office for their 50th birthday.. it was a riot - I wasn't really in on that one... but it was damn funny... anyway... so I go away and they didn't know it but I decided to work on Monday and so there surprise was a little bit wasted because they didn't get to hear my reaction.. so I took a photo of the moment to share with them at our staff meeting this morning... and now I share it with you - my loving, beautiful friends and family :)



Yes, that's right. They wrote Queen of the Universe on my wall and used everything that was sitting on my desk to do it... har har... I laughed pretty hard... and I appreciate that everyone around me is feeding my ego on this Queen of the Universe thing.. :)

So at this point I cleaned up my office and then sat down to get some work done.. I did actually get some work done and at some point in my work I needed something from my desk and it turns out those great staff of mine had taped my desk shut... at this point I cursed a little - laughing the whole time - smart... yes, very smart... I love them! I couldn't ask for a better group of people to work with!

What was used to spell out Queen of the Universe, you ask... well... "Queen" was all of my pens and pencils, "of" was rolled toilet paper, "the" was bottle caps, and "Universe" was chocolate eggs... freakin' awesome... I'm totally going to get them back... suggestions can be posted here...

kamloops photos

Here are the guys at the Kamloops Wildlife Park - they had a great time.


Bald Eagle


What you lookin' at?


A beautiful cougar - I don't know if I've ever seen one this close - it was pretty amazing.

Tomorrow is the start of grade 2 for Kyle. He is pretty worried about stuff and as a result has had a tough couple of days.. I'm hoping things get better for him once he is back in the swing of things. It is crazy for me too - grade 2 - holy crap... where did the time go?

Ahhhhh, just had a great bath with my strawberry champagne bath bombs from Candied Beauty over on etsy... fabulous! I made the water a bit too hot though... I can't seem to get the perfect temperature - usually I'm cold or sitting in luke warm water and, I mean, seriously - luke warm water - what the hell... tonight it was scorching hot - my skin is still red/pink and I've been out of the tub for 20 minutes.. lord... still reading the scary book... that was how I passed the time in the tub... what is the scary book... well it is called Food Matters... I'll share more once I've gotten a little farther in the book and speaking of books - 'binder - did you finish Time Travelers? what did you think?

Oh and I've abandoned dairy... until about 30 minutes ago - by complete stupidity I thought I could have some microwave popcorn.. nope - not that kind we had - it actually clearly said product contains milk... it did some damage - but I'm recovering... I've stopped eating/drinking all dairy for about six days... and yes, it has made a difference - how much? Well I want to give it a few weeks and see...

Alright and now since I'm on here.. a rant... I'm watching late night tv - well not really - but it is on in the background and a commercial comes on that grabs my attention - it said vibrate and I was all ears - it was promoting the vibrating touch from Trojan - I'll let you guess what this is and if you don't know what I'm talking about... google it - you'll find it no problem... anyway - so I watch and the commercial has two younger women chatting about how awesome the "touch" is and then there is some whispering, one of the characters asks 'where can she get one' and an older women who's been listening to the conversation tells them to get it online - like she did... and then the younger ones laugh a little... so what's wrong with all that.... well this might be age speaking but what the freakin' hell - do people stop having sex eventually - are there more things no one is telling me about - do married people at some point go... gees I think that was quota - so I'm good for... let's see... for the rest of time... seriously... does that shit happen... I heard tell about married people who started sleeping in different rooms and then I started hearing it more and more and now it seems that damn near everyone I know that is married and over 60 mostly sleep in separate rooms... ok I won't get into that - I'm just disappointed - I mean I know sex won't be the same later in life - I get that some things just won't be working the way they use to but will it all be over... right - I know, you get what you make of it - thanks... thanks for the wise answer... tell me the truth... I know when I was a kid we joked about parents having sex and how that must be terrible and gross and really parents only have sex the same number of times they have children... right... ok, but now that I'm living it and because I see a commercial where young people laugh about older people getting some I thought I'd ask... and now I will go back to my scary book

no photos

Tonight I decided to work out as opposed to loading photos and blogging... and now I'm reading - something scary... I'll share more about the book soon - so I said I'm reading... I'm reading, but only between commercials - as Dirty Dancing is on tonight and this weekend marks 21 years since I watched it for the first time and fell in love with Patrick Swayze... I also watched it another five or six times that night with my best friends from Elementary School - it was awesome! Watching it now I'm a little shocked that I watched that pre-grade seven and really fell in love with the movie... there is stuff in there that is um... well I would think my parents probably wouldn't have wanted me to see that stuff... now did I get it... well no - I figured that when the lights went out in the sex scene that they were just going to sleep and being close to each other - I didn't know about sex or all that other stuff... I didn't get that the plot of the story "dances" around a character getting an abortion - I definitely didn't get any of that - I just loved the dancing and the closeness of the two characters and how much I wanted that - that closeness... aahhhhhh.... back to the movie :)

um, yep, holy freakin' awesome

Today I bought myself a present... a remote for my camera... hooray! Now why do I need this kind of thing... well when I take all those night photos or lightning or even landscape it would be really nice to sit back and frame things up a bit and not have to worry about bumping the camera to take a shot... so this little piece of technology helps me a tonne with that... hooray - and it totally works - so that makes it even better... tonight the sky in Kamloops was amazing... I didn't get a photo because I missed the light as we came up the hill but it was something else... and that, my friends, is the only compliment you will get out of me about Kamloops... wait - that's a lie - the Kamloops Wildlife Park is HIGHLY superior over the Edmonton Zoo... the kids had a great time, we saw lots of animals and we even took a ride on the train... it was a little pricey - $50 for us... it would be nice if they offered a family rate or something... but really - $50 isn't that much when you consider going to dinner nearly costs us that and the experience certainly doesn't last a life time... so I guess I'll get over that... back to Q-town tomorrow after a little more shopping...

another friday

Tonight I put in a good 10 miles on the bike all in the comfort of the gym at the hotel... so what did that mean.. it meant that I got a good old hour of kenny vs spenny in.... woohoo... hate me for it, if you like, but I really get a good laugh out of watching them - they are insane - but I like it. (One of the episodes was - how ever gets a boner first is the loser - you can't even imagine the stuff they did to each other or how it ended.. well I guess you can actually guess that... duh... )

Now I'm sitting here writing you and listening to Kyle snore his little heart out... we did have a special afternoon though - I bought an in-room film (not that kind you pervs, I can get that free on the internet...) and we closed the curtains and turned out the lights and pretended we were at the theatre. We watched "Up", one of Disney's new films. I don't know if many of you have seen this movie, but I can understand why it wasn't as popular as Disney might have expected. I will say that I enjoyed it and cried throughout most of the movie - sometimes big tears, sometimes quiet tears... maybe I was just watching it on an off day... I'd watch it again and probably cry as much... the guys didn't shed a tear - which actually does say a lot because Kyle usually sheds a tear or two in a film like that... and nothing - I'm the only one crying. In any case - was it a kids movie - yes, once the dog was introduced as a character... then it was a kids movie and then the kids really started paying attention. At the end of the movie I opened the curtains and it was just like when you leave a theatre, Kyle was shocked that it was still light out...

Tomorrow we are heading to the Kelowna Farmers' Market - 'cause I love it - and then back to Kamloops.

Wanna know what else was great today - I woke up and read the paper - I LOVE THAT! Did I learn something... multiple things in fact... like some new books I should read, that teens are having sex earlier and that there is way more oral - sorry - but that was in the paper... I didn't even know what that meant when I was the age they are reporting is doing it... , I read all the angry editorial on the government (love it) - there were just pages and pages and pages and... you get the idea - simple happiness....

Ok - one more thing - the movie that I really want to see - that someone can take me to - is Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs... I'll be in Vancouver then - so I plan to take myself should I have no one to go with - I think my hotel for the conference is near the theatre in china town...

I'll have photos tomorrow... unless I feel super inspired and get a couple up tonight... ... wait I found some motivation...

Here are the boys at one of three water parks in Kelowna... there is a water slide at this park - the guys had a good time... please note that the next photo is not G rated....






Ok - so this photo comes to you from dinner... this pretty much ended things for me... nasty, nasty... now if you are just seeing a clam - good for you - you are not as nasty disgusting as I am... yes I took a picture - but only so that I could share it with you... nasty nasty... think Everybody Loves Raymond and the painting Marie did that everyone could see something in and Marie couldn't.... and now you know that I love Everybody Loves Raymond...


And last, but not least, me fartin' around with my photobooth program.... xxoo - good night

crap

Tonight Kyle stepped on my sunglasses that cost me a ridiculous amount of money and busted them... I could have cried... I just told him it was ok - I should have put them away better than I did...

that is all... sorry no inspiration tonight... if others have some to share I'll be happy to accept it :)

another day, another beautiful sunset

These are from Lac La Hache tonight - the sunset was going fast and I could see the colors getting dark and then (sadly) a flamin' flock of geese flew over marking the end of summer and I decided that was it - so I pulled over and just missed getting a shot with the geese in the sunset... but still managed to get an ok couple of sunset photos...

Not much to add tonight - I have work to do before I get to sleep.
Hugs to each of you tonight... we all need more of that...

hello sunshine

Another day, another road trip. Today took me to 100 Mile House and back... it was raining as I came into 100 Mile this morning and then tonight the skies were getting ready for another bought of rain, but to the north - my direction - it was semi-clearing... and so I got these great shots of the rays of light coming through the clouds... love it! I actually pulled over a few times to get these photos - I initially stopped at my favorite hwy stop - the 108 Ranch area stop....







The sunsets made for a great end to my day - or great start to my drive home... as the skies did darken and then it was dark when I finally rolled into the house.... but man, those sunsets were unbelievable. I'm serious... that kind of shit just gets to me... I don't know why - but I just can't get enough of that.

Ok - happy September - hugs and love :)

Alright... one more photo... this is a "stitched" photo... more than one photo pulled together to give a panoramic view...

There are some gray zones on the panoramic photo... but that was just a quick upload - just to share something :)

cassiopeia

Tonight I had to go back to work and finish some stuff and on my way home I noticed how beautiful the night sky was. So I decided to go snap some shots...


Cassiopeia


Same photo - just added some lines in case you can't make it out or don't know what cassiopeia looks like...

Cassiopeia is in the northern hemisphere - meaning the majority of my readers can see it any night they want to look up and find it... the constellation is meant to represent a Greek queen - Cassiopeia. Now many people know it as the "W" in the sky. I want to plant a seed with you tonight. I want to suggest that we see it as a "W" because we look for the easy things in life - we look for simple explanations for things in our lives... I want to suggest that we look for more in the skies and in our lives... the next time you look at the sky and see Cassiopeia I want you to take a deep breath and think about all the positive things you bring to the people around you - I want to suggest that from now on we should refer to it as a crown... because we are looking for more and that each of the five points on the crown are five reasons why we are fabulous. We all have great and amazing things to offer others and we deserve to wear crowns and be treated well in our lives (male and female).


Ok - and one more fabulous photo of the moon - Waxing Gibbous - 89% full

Good night my friends, my family - love you!

Ok and one more thing... this month I blogged more than any other month before... I can't believe it - there are more posts then days in August... crazy... thank you for continuing to read...

how I celebrated my aunti's birthday

First - Happy Birthday Aunti Jenni!

It was birthday weekend around here... Friday was my Dad's birthday, yesterday was a friend of the families birthday (1 year old) and then today... my fabulous aunti! I wish I had been there to celebrate with some red-neck margaritas...
So today we went to my parents to celebrate dad's birthday... had a yummy lunch and then spent some time outside and had a great day.


The only sunflower that came up in my garden... beautiful! I love sunflowers!


My new favorite photo of Michael - on this visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house he figured out how to climb up the slide that has a swinging ladder... something that Kyle hasn't even figured out... he was about a pleased with himself as he could possibly get...


Here is Kyle showing off his true Steve Irwin skills.. I kid you not, that he comes up to me as we are hiking to the berry location and says "Mom, look at this, isn't it cool." To which I said, "um... that's deer poo" I had a great laugh... and then I made him stand beside the pile to get his photo taken with it... he initially freaked a bit that that was what he was in possession of and then I said, well Steve did that.. and then it was like.. um yeah, you can take my picture with it...


Michael enjoying the huckleberries we found in the forest... one of many that he enjoyed...


Here is my Dad and Kyle picking berries... my Dad couldn't get enough... we finished picking and he was off trying to find another location to go and pick... even though we'd run out of things to fill up...


Here are the biggest berries that I picked today... I know for blueberries this isn't that big - especially the blueberries from the store, but for huckleberries this is pretty good size...


Huckleberry bush... still full with berries... something my dad picked on his last round through the bush... a little token of our trip...


Here are the huckleberries getting transformed into yummy jam...


Here are some of the 27 jars that I was able to get finished.. they are just the single use jars (24) and then a few bigger ones...


This isn't photoshopped or fixed... I was getting ready to leave our berry location - waiting for my dad to come back from his walkabout... and I'm looking at the ground and see this... I'm calling it 'how I found love in nature' - I left it out there... hoping that someone else will also find this and think about a great love in their life - love really is all around


Help me.... help me... don't worry we caught a load of stuff today - two dragon flies - a bunch of grasshoppers and some ants... all of them were returned to where they came from... Kyle just wanted to get a closer look at each one... I loved catching them - I felt so stealth catching dragon flies.. it was like - in your face fast bugs... I caught you... (insert semi-evil laugh)


Well I couldn't help but share this... that's right... this is a photo of dragonflies getting it on! Woohoo! You wouldn't even believe the noise... I mean really... get a room :)


And well I couldn't go without taking one stupid photo of myself...

Well my loves - good night - best wishes on the week ahead - may your week be full of joy!

ah

So I just had one of those terrible nightmares... and it made me wake right up and got me out of bed... it was both scary and shocking.... I think everyone in my family (immediate and distant) was in it and it kept including a set of stairs that I was having a hard time in my dreams descending... I must have gone down them three or four times in the dream - they were open and there was a big hole to the right of the stairs and if you took a bad step you could fall... I was being told to get going and just hold someone's hand to go down the stairs when someone fell to the bottom... suddenly I could sprint down the stairs only to get to the bottom and the person that fell had jumped up and was yelling at me... it was crazy... but I'm feeling like I can get back to sleep, but I also still see the dream in my head when I close my eyes... blah... stupid nightmares... alright - trying to go back to sleep....

the nympho is the state bird of ohio

Yes... that's right - it is 50 First Dates night..

sun and other stuff

Before I get into writing anything tonight I thought I would share this photo of the sun. Tonight Quesnel had a great smoke cloud come through and it darkened the sky and made the sun look pink.



What's new... well I had another fabulous experience that strengthened the fact that I just don't want to get old. My dear grandmother had an accident last night and I ended up being the first one to go help out. I won't go into all the details but it wasn't pretty. She is totally fine - well a little worse for wear as she's got a nasty bruise on her knee - but good and home. She was home in three hours after visiting the hospital. So that was last night - good times :) K- I'm beat... need sleep...

Love to all - smooches.

exxxxcellent....

Well friends today I had an experience that tops my "special" performance for many years.



Now you'll see three arrows pointing to what are pretty deep lines on my face. No, I didn't fall down - that would have been better, no, they are not wrinkles... The lines on my face are more than an hour old... so I had an appointment this afternoon with a "specialist" and apparently I just went to sleep - and went to sleep hard - my face was pressed against a zipper line - my eye was actually where the zipper opener was - so when I finally woke up I could hardly open my eye.

What is really funny is that I woke up laughing and just thought it was pretty funny that I'd crash like that. I mean I was in a tired state, but I've never done that before. My "specialist" just laughed too - she said it was pretty funny that I crashed out like that. And there you have it, another adventure in the life of April :)

good luck

First, a good luck note to my dear friend Carmen. Good luck on your adventure tomorrow! I wish you all the best for the surgery and hope for a speedy recovery.

I burned off some negative energy tonight on the treadmill... I could have probably stayed on for another hour but know that if I spend more than an hour on the machine I get too jazzed up and can't get myself to sleep - even now with such a late start I'm wondering if I'll be sleeping anytime soon.

I was hoping to share something enlightening with you tonight... but alas today had few enlightening moments... ok - I will at least give you a quote... "Identify your problems but give your power and energy to solutions." Tony Robbins (um.. I've listened to Tony Robbins 'Awaken the giant within' three times now - definitely good for a long drive...

What did happen today? I got a smoothie that on the first taste made me think of throw up... and for some reason I went back for the second slurp and decided my first taste had been incorrect - but not far off... boo... today was mostly a liquid day because my jaw is terrible... my TMJ or whatever the heck is wrong with me is flared up and causing me grief... I had a few hours break from it late this afternoon and then I also had a break while I was working out and now it is trying to decide if it is going to make a come back or not.

Reading.. well I started 'love the one you're with' by emily giffin - within a few pages she mentioned when harry met sally and that made me want to read on... I also started that egyptian novel and after a page, put it down - I hate having to sound out names and novels that have a vocabulary list in the back of the book - when I read I want enjoyment - I don't mind having to figure out some of the words, but gees... when the first page has a few and the book is more than 700 pages long.. sorry - I just can't be bothered.. maybe one day... but not right now. I'll let you know how the other novel works out.

big hugs :)

as promised.. the canning photos

So these are the bread and butter pickles that I made... these do not require canning - processed just like jam...


So here is the great big giant pot that I use to can in...


Here is the nasty steam that burned my flippin' hand... for which I will curse about for a while to come... I know, I know - it is my fault... so I curse myself...


And lastly the finished canned beets... hooray... I did it!

And will I do it again... well like everything else... I'm sure that it gets better with practice.. :)

canning and more

So the canning went ok - the cans (all four of them) are popping -which means I did my job :) Now I will have beets this winter to enjoy... mmmmm... beets. I got a nice little steam burn on my thumb as a result of my canning exercise today... live and learn, right... followed this up with making enchilladas... easy - came out of the Chatelaine magazine for this month... but of course I made numerous alterations... like - holy - do you really need four cups of cheese... and then gobs of sour cream... so we used light sour cream and didn't double coat everything, we used about 2.5 cups of cheese (still too much) - but I lived outside of my box and followed the instruction to put cumin in - I didn't use beef - went with chicken instead - 'cause that's what was out - and I think it turned out just fine... the guys, however, hated it - Kyle could hardly put a drop in his mouth and Michael actually put some in his mouth and gagged.. his face made me want to throw up as well... good times at our house...

wish me luck

Alright friends... so I'm canning for the first time... hot water variety... it is wear you (in basic terms) cut up all the stuff you want to keep for later (after first cooking it) putting it in a jar, putting a lid on the jar and then you place the jar in water - then you have to get all that boiling - so glass jars boiling along inside a big pot - and then after a set amount of time - you take them out of the water and hope it all went well and that you didn't just waste a lot of time... ok - that was the pessimist - hard to keep them away...

I'm canning beets because I love them and then I want to try antipasto... because I love that too! And hello - it is way cheaper to make it yourself then buy it in the store. Alright - so I'm going to go back and see if we are boiling and then I can start timing - photos later :)

Note to self - in the event that you try to can again - remember to have canning vice to get jars out.. using tongs and a cloth SUCKS! And now you have a nice burn on the thumb from your stupidness.... Now off to buy a couple of things for dinner and think about whether or not I really want to proceed with the antipasto...

i have a few apples

It is Friday -- so let me just first say - hip hip hooray... long week... and now for the weekend - we started the weekend with a boy battle in safeway - the guys decided to pick on each other while I picked out a few things for dinner... a few reminders later and it seemed cleared... then I try to pay and they have an all out battle... Michael ends up getting pushed to the floor - which was funny to him - until he noticed he was bleeding... flamin' fabulous! He was fine - I wasn't... we go home, eat dinner and then it was off to bed for the crazy pair... and then I thought of something...


First... I noticed the beautiful sun, shining - and I remembered that life is too short for anger and then I also remembered... that I needed help..


Friends.. this is what more than 3,000 apples looks like... and the boys - lucky them - helped me pick ALL of them up... my hands are pretty sore now... and I actually think I found some muscles in my quads and other areas that I didn't realize existed...


And here it is... all cleaned up - notice the light change... it was all pretty and sunny and now it is getting dark... it took us more than an hour and half to clean up - and how do I know it was more than 3000... well I was filling up a 10 gallon bucket and I counted how many I tossed in one of them...


And here are the guys after - of course as we were cleaning up - more were falling - so we saved the ones that just fell... they actually had a good time and I'm happy that a chore is complete


And here I am - goofin' around again... livin' it up...

Now I'm going to watch Kenny vs Spenny... sad... but still true... tonight's episode is who can make the best porno... AWESOME!

Wait... what was that... I think I hear some naked grapes call my name... mmmmmmm - an excellent way to cap off a week

Oh my god... poor Spenny.. good lord - that was nasty... and call me sick - but I totally laughed at it... for some reason with every sip of wine Kenny and Spenny gets funnier... lucky me there are two episodes on and the second one is who can catch the biggest fish...