Visiting

Szabicots came to town last week! They tented on our lawn and it hardly even rained on them.

Here are the kids enjoying some Uncle Redinbockers while the cool adults watched So You Think You Can Dance. The uncool adults were somewhere doing uncool things.


The first night they were here, the tent hadn't been seam-leak-proofed yet, so there was an indoor camp-out in the kids' bedroom. It only took them about 2 1/2 hours to fall asleep. Elora and Sage were the most stubborn, still awake at 10:30pm.

Thursday Jake, the boys, Carol, the girls, and Grampa went blueberry picking. The season for berries was late this year because of how little sun we've had. In my opinion, summer should go into October to make up for it.

There were no berries picked for home. They were all eaten on the spot.

Stop for snack on a rock.

Sage falling over.

The only photo with Jake in it.. ok just his shadow, but still.

The Berry Pickers

This little guy was the focal point of the kids' attention for a while. Unfortunately when it was time to go, the kids all stood up and Squishy, as he'd come to be known, suffered an untimely fate.. Elora stomped him.

Ahh! Squishy II! Fortunately he did not get squished.

Kids played "slide down the trecherous rock but stop just before the cliff" to their hearts' content.

The cliff is behind my dad there. Ahh nice and safe. Adult supervision.

Hey!! Where did the supervision go??!! Note the cliff behind Dhara there.

Oh yeah, NOW I remember...

We had to get dinner out tonight. We were both tired and had had long days at work, plus it being payday, it's usually take-out night when these factors align. I said "I feel like eating out instead of getting takeout. We haven't eaten in a restaurant in forever." Jake, who works in a restaurant, didn't want to. But then he changed his mind, and we went as a family to Casey's. We did all the usual things to maximize the experience: ordered kids' food quickly and asked them to bring it asap; put all knives and salt-shakers out of grabby's reach; ordered the same drink for both boys so no one would be jealous. It all started to go downhill after we forgot to tell her to bring the kids' drinks AFTER the meal. Jake had been to Zellers and had a colouring book for Sage and a phonics book for Hayden. Golden, right? Nope. They didn't want to stop playing with them when their food got there. Then chicky didn't come back around for many minutes while the kids whined for ketchup. Then they brought my fajita stuff tower which was an object of distraction. Then Sage dipped his coaster into his plum sauce. Luckily I grabbed it from him before he frisbeed it across the restaurant. Sage didn't want to sit in his chair. Sage really didn't want to do that. A lot. It didn't help when Hayden had to pee and Mommy and Hayden left the table.. why can't *I* leave the table tooooooo? he said with his whines and cries and misbehaviour. Then our food got there. Jake got his salad, steak, and bread all at once. He ate his salad. I was eating my fajitas. I offered a fajita wrap to Sage; one of his favourite types of bread. Nope. didn't want it, and it ended up on the floor. Big white circle on the black floor. I didn't want to pick it up because there was no where on the tiny table to put a dirty fajita wrap. Sage misbehaved some more and Jake, finished his salad, said he would take him outside. I was to get the cheque, ask for everything to be wrapped up. The kids hardly touched their dinners, Jake's full platter was not touched yet, and I had about 1/3 of my fajitas left when Hayden announced he had to poop. Jake was outside. Damn. Waitress again gone into oblivion. Plus they all dress the same, are all young, and all have the same hairdo. Casey's hires clones. I asked Hayden if he could wait. Nope. Damn Damn. I stopped one of the clones and told her where I'd been sitting, asking her to get all the food wrapped up and the cheque and we weren't dashing but my son had to go to the washroom and husband was outside with other son... (dancing Hayden) ok? ok thanks. In the washroom again.. waiting for Hayden to finish up. I didn't tell him to hurry. I didn't ask him to pinch it off, but he thought he was done, wiped, pulled up his underwear and said "Oh I have to poop some more but I can wait till we get home." "really Hayden? you can wait? why don't you just finish here?" "no I'll wait." "But when you get That Feeling you should listen to your body. Here's a toilet, why don't you just go?" "No I'm okay." "Okay, let's go home then." "uh.. I think I should finish pooping here." arg!! "Okay Hayden. You stay here for a second, okay? Mommy will be RIGHT BACK." I left to go see if our waitress was around to confirm with her we were not dashing. I saw the real her (not a clone) and I said "You packed up all our food? I 'll get the cheque too once my son's done in the washroom" she had nodded. I went back, Hayden was done so we both washed our hands and I picked up the to-go bag and paid. It was lighter than I thought it would've been. I looked inside. "Oh, I'd wanted all the food packed up.. this is just the steak" "um.. well actually they thought you all had left so they cleared the table and threw most of it away.. I only just barely saved the steak." ARG!!!! Two barely touched kids meals, $7 each, 1/3 of a $17 fajita dinner, and she barely saved Jake's steak? AAARRRRGGG!!!!

I didn't want to deal with it today. But tomorrow I will be calling the manager and asking for some sort of rebate. OUR COLOURING BOOKS WERE STILL ON THE TABLE. There were piles and mountains of food uneaten!!! I had told people what was going on... !!!! what a waste of money, time, and I regret it immensely. And we will NOT be going out to dinner again for a long long time.. unless there's a babysitter.

We're BACK baby!!

YAHOO!! Computer is returned, and all is well in the world again!!!!!

Look! A full keyboard!! No more "typing" on Jake's psp!!! ahhhhhhhhhh

ok readers.. a real blog with photos and everything will ensue in the next couple of days.

thanks for waiting. I know you hate that.

Hacked

Carol is the sweetest sister in all the land. Oh how I love her. She is the bestest. And the kindest most nicest girl you ever met. I think I will give her all my favourite things, I love her that much. But not my computer, because it is sick, and at the computer hospital, and so I can't actually blog myself, I have to get her to do it. Carol, could you write me a blog note please? Something that says how I can't actually do anything computerish until it's fixed, and make it sound like I'm writing it please? Here's my login and password...

Carol playing with a hairdo from the show "Avatar." Isn't she cute?

Great Day

Hi! I had a great day today.

A) Chiropractor said I could cut down to once a week! I'd been going three times a week for a month, then I went twice last week, and this morning she said I was retaining the adjustments so well we are going to try once! This is great news because I'm almost at my $500 cap in my benefits.

B) After work I got a size 4 winter coat for Sage off Kijiji, and it was right around the corner from my dad's house, so I dropped off the sewing machine at the same time, surprizing him with my speediness in the return.

C) I also had a meeting tonight with my credit councellor, Francine. I'm done! DONE DIDDLY DONE DONE DONE!! And the student loan that I thought went to collections years ago was sent back to the bank! And is not appearing on my credit score! The only debt I have is my student loan payment and car payment!! I FEEL FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

D) I was feeling so good after the credit news that I bought Jake a new Pink Floyd t-shirt from the rock and roll t-shirt store.

E) Then I stopped at the Jerrit Center and bought 5 t-shirts and 2 shorts for the kids for $2.07. It's sold by weight. A dollar a pound. It weighed 2.07 pounds.

F) Then I bought Burger King for dinner and headed home. Jake peeled a gamepiece off his cup and won $50!!!

G) Jake also played in an online poker tournament and won $28!!!

H) I restrung my guitar yesterday and today found some of my original songs I'd written long ago and thought I'd lost. It felt good to play my songs again. Phlebotomy Blues and The Moon Song especially.

My Friend Dawn

Hey. My friend Dawn from highschool sounds awesome. Give her a whirl.

Lacy, gently wafting curtains.

For aeons I've hated the blinds in the living room and kid's room. Ever since we moved in, in fact (four years in September! my my how time do fly). Luckily the blinds I hated on the front door were quickly dispatched by Lacey. As the years went by, the children, time, and the sun succeeded in making the ugly blinds even uglier and less useful. So yesterday I bought a piece of pipe from Home Depot, and some material from Fabric Land and today I zipped together this fabulous window treatment!

These were taken in April and they'd broken down even further since then. As of today. the one on the far left was as broken and ramshackle as the one in the middle, but I couldn't wait long enough to take a picture once the curtains were finished. I ripped them off the wall (not hard because ALL the brackets were broken and they were being held up with duct tape) and threw them in a pile outside.

Before:

After:

AND I accidentally bought twice as much of the eyelet (white) stuff, so I also made a table cloth. Woohoo!

I'll be sad when school is over, but not why you think.

It's really funny to try and figure out what's happened each day at school from the weird little stories Hayden tells. Yesterday when I asked him what he did at school he said that he and his class walked up the big stairs on top of the thing, and sang the song, and Madame Monique said good job, and then all the moms and dads were there.

What was the big thing? I asked.

A rocket ship. Yah a rocket ship with stairs on it. And we walked up the stairs.

Oh neat! Was that in the gym?

Yep.

What song did you sing?

"Nous allons au l'Ecole Westmount"

Oh cool! Can you sing it for me?

No.

Oh. What moms and dads were there? Lots of moms and dads?

No. yeah.

Lots of moms and dads?

yeah.

oh. I didn't know there was a thing for moms and dads today.

Yah there were some moms and dads there today to watch us sing on the rocket ship.

And Madame Monique said you were good?

Yeah she said good job so I got a sticker can I have a sticker? I did a very good job.

And I cried inside because I missed the thing in the gym where all the jk's sang on the rocket ship. wahhh.

Ice Balls and Sun Shades

We had a hail storm on Sunday afternoon. Jake was at poker. I gave the kids each a piece of hail to hold. Hayden put his on the table to save until Daddy got home. Incidentally, Hayden says Icek for ice. As though he were going to continue into "ice-cream". Icek. It's cute :D Also, notice the beautiful red wagon Grampa bought for the boys last week.

This photo does not do justice to the severity of the rain and hail coming down. There was thunder and lightning too, and about 10 mini power outtages, but the kids weren't too nervous.

Close-up of the hail onna ground.

More trying-to-get-a-shot-of-the-deluge attempts.

The other day in the grocery store I got little kiddie sunglasses for my cool cat boys. Yellow of course for Hayden, green of course for Sage. Sage says "uh oh, Dark!" when he puts them on. But I think he's getting used to them. I can't believe they haven't broken their arms off yet!

A bit shadowy, but I love this shot.

Hayden's make him look like Elton John. teehee!

Posing with the shades on, next to one of the two mattresses we just got gently-used from an ad in Kijiji. It's waiting till next weekend when we put Hayden's new bed together. We took the crib down this past weekend. Oh! And for those of you interested, we paid some people to take away a lot of big crap off our lawn. Old mattress, old fridge, old couch that had been outside for 2 years. Yay!

This picture makes me want to go and wake the boys up and cuddle/squish them.

squish squish squish squish squish squish squish squishmore posing

Here let me fix your shirt during our photo shoot.

My two dudes. Favourite picture of the bunch!

I've got electric boots.. a mo-hair suit.. you know I read it in a magazine.

Moo

To Carol:

Taxi Dermy

I posted this picture because I need a web address for it.

My main taxi from City of Heroes - Taxi Dermy.

June Fourth

...



sigh



.

Ode To Carol

Oh Carol, you are so old.
I laugh whenever your toes are cold.

Your birthday today we celebrate.
As a sister you are so great.

But not just a sister, you are a mom.
A wife. A daughter. You've been to the ROM.

In all your roles you are the best.
Now lie down here and take a rest.

Busy busy busy bee
Girlguides, Choirs, and daughters three.

So Have a Happy Birthday. Do.
You have to know we all love you!

First Barbeque of the Season!

Saturday we traded in last year's empty propane tank for a full one, and I'd gotten a couple of choice pieces of meat from the butcher counter (steak for Jake and 2 large butterflied porkchops for me and the boys), we made veggie packets and everything was cooked to absolute perfection. AND the KIDS ATE EVERYTHING. Hayden didn't try the steak, but Sage did. They both loved the pork chops. And ate cooked carrots. And Sage discovered that he likes sour cream. By the forkfull. Which I gave him a few big dollops of because hey, it's almost yogurt, isn't it? Only better for him cuz it's higher fat? Anyway I was so happy that they weren't picky. Their chicken nuggets/preformed hamburgers/hot dogs/pizza-only-diet is expanding! *wipes a tear* I'm so excited.

Our Yummy First Barbeque

For christmas last year Carol gave me a humane bug-get-ridder-ofer. Since the bugs are now awake again, I used it for the first time to get rid of a spider in the bathroom (instead of my usual spraying-it-with-hairspray technique).

Proving I used it. Step 1: Catch

Step 2: Carry outdoors (and try not to drop it from heebie-jeebie shakes)

Step 3: Let free outdoors (then run back inside so it doesn't follow you)