Yes, I'm still here.

We just got back from Drumheller/Calgary yesterday and had a blast...today will be spent cleaning, doing laundry and ripping out our back porch. I also have to go into work to check out the new computer system so that I'm not flying by the seat of my pants tomorrow (well...that's probably still going to happen lol).

When I get some time I'll post some vacay pics and a few sewing projects. My sewing desk is covered in mending right now...gawd, how that stuff piles up.

Later, taters.

Pics

We've been so busy around here, lately...swimming lessons are over, trying to get some yard work done...we had a killer wind storm here on Saturday night, winds were up to 105km per hour!!! That's 65 miles per hour, it was just unreal. The whole city was without power for hours, and there are downed trees everywhere. A few blocks away, there was a car crushed under a giant tree that fell...but thank goodness no one was seriously injured. The kids occupied themselves with playing their DS's, but Jake was pretty scared when the power went out.

Anyway, onwards...


This guy has been hanging around our yard lately, and we were all puzzled because the only white birds we see around are gulls and pigeons, and he's neither. So after a bit of Googling, I found a local photographer on the internet who was kind enough to tell me that our guy is a leucistic magpie. So he's not albino, but it's sort of in the same vicinity. That's kind of cool. If you're interested in seeing this bird expert's photos, there are here on Flikr . He's very talented, some beautiful pics there.


Jacob made himself a camera bag from an old t-shirt sleeve. Orange, his favourite colour :) .


Kylie had a giant M&M cookie for her birthday instead of a cake.


FINALLY...it rained, and left enough puddles for Sam to have some fun in. I honestly thought it wouldn't happen this year.


The Jonas Bros. concert was on July 2nd and it was really fun. I have a few pics, but they aren't very good at all. I'll have to see if I can fix them up a bit. Kylie sat in her chair, clapping and singing along quietly, until I made her stand up and scream and wave her hands frantically like everyone else was lol. Gawd, it's a concert...have some fun lol!!! I wore earplugs the entire time...I never thought I would see the day where I was sitting at a pop concert with earplugs in my ears.


This picture was taken on Canada Day (July 1st) at 10:15pm, no where near dark yet. Even by 11, you could still see the sun on the horizon. It's funny...people buy those solar garden lights and in the summer, you're in bed by the time they come on...and in the winter, there's not enough sunlight to charge them fully lol.

An Announcement

OK, I feel the need to clarify something: the Crazy Crack Head Lady isn't 'you', unless you live on my block and do stupid, crazy things...and you look like the cat lady from the Simpsons. I can also pretty well guarantee that you don't know her.

I don't gossip, I'm not catty or any of that other stereo-typical female bullshit, and I certainly wouldn't make fun of someone right under their nose. Of course, you don't know me IRL, only what you read online, so you don't know these things unless I tell you. So I will cease and desist with the Open Letters as I can see that it is causing some hurt feelings.

I had explained this before, but it was in the comments section, and I realize that everyone doesn't read those.

The end.

Happy Birthday Kylie!

My oldest is 11 today :) . I can't believe how she's changed in just the last 6 months...sometimes I look at her and think, where did my baby go???

She's a great kid with a kind heart, although she morphs into Katie Ka boom at the drop of a hat sometimes...but we still lurve her :) . If you don't know who Katie Ka Boom is, here she is:




Some pictures for you: I was too lazy to take the pics out of the frames and scan them, so I just took pictures of my picture wall lol.


Kylie at 22 months (same age that Sam is right now!)


Kylie just before her 4th birthday with her cousin.


Kylie age 4, Jacob 8 months.


My 11 year old girl :) . Happy birthday, sweetie!

Backyard Pics

I don't think I show too many pictures of our back yard...there's not much to show. When we moved here, it was overrun by crazy lilac hedges and raspberry bushes. I came home one day from Wal Mart and my mom had come and chopped everything down lol. Scott built the raised garden bed for me, using lumber from our old front stairs that he recently replaced. We have garlic chives, 2 tomato plants, a whack of strawberry plants that Old Pearl planted on the other side of the yard 50 years ago, and a bunch of the cutest little pea plants you ever saw. It's traditional around here to plant on the May long weekend, after the risk of frost has passed, but it was still snowing into late May so I didn't plant anything until just a few weeks ago.


Sammy Sunshine watering the garden...she's so helpful :D .




I taught her how to dig up the anthills with a stick. I think she could do that all day long if I let her.

Mama's helper :)

So disappointed...

Just got back from the Grand Opening of the new T&T in Edmonton's north end...their grand opening ceremonies started at 9am and the website announces the grand opening as 10am today! As we were frantically trying to find a place to park, we see a group of performers packing up the dragon costume and the drums. We missed the entire thing, and Kylie has been waiting for this for months :( . Kylie was incredibly disappointed and I was too, for her sake. This girl is Asian-culture crazy, and it is near impossible to find anything other than New Year celebrations in February...even then, there's not much information published about it.

All of the little kids that were there for the ceremony got these little Chinese drum-rattles (I apologize, I don't know the proper name) and they had completely run out by 930.

Oh well...poor kid. We waited in the 6-person deep lineup to get in for about 10 minutes, and then it was wall-to-wall people inside. We got as far as the bakery counter and then left, it was just too hard for Kylie to get a good view of anything. And people were pushing and shoving, it was just unreal :( .

Maybe Gramma will take Sam and Jacob tomorrow afternoon so that I can take Kylie back again to shop. She has a whole list of snacks in her pocket that she wanted to pick up.

I am making the worst grouchy face right now.

Happy Canada Day!

...and happy anniversary to ME!!!! 14 years, baby, to the best guy *ever*. I couldn't ask for a better husband and better dad for my kids. But I just sent him off on a 5 day motorcycle trip with his friend Jason, and it will be Scott's first big highway trip. They are going to Hope, B.C. and will be back on Sunday night. It stinks to be away from him for so long, but I love that he is excited about this experience. Jason is a family man, too, so I'm sure they'll both fall asleep in their motel room by 10 o'clock, after excitedly sharing pictures of their kids lol. Either that or they'll go to a late art show (aka: peelers) and my husband will talk Jason's ear off so much that Jason can't enjoy the show lol.

The kids have been off school since Friday, and it's already getting hard to find activities that we can all enjoy during the day. The playground is still cool for Jake, and of course Sam can find fun in anything...but Kylie would really rather just sit at home and read or surf the internet. Her BFF is in daycamps throughout all of July, and I don't think she's all that happy about it...but whatever, her parents both work so what else can they do. I like that our summer is just about doing whatever the flying f we want to do, I just wish we all still wanted to do the same things lol.

I'm on the look-out for Crush cream soda in a can...do you know how hard it is to find, outside of buying an entire case of the junk??? Kylie wants to make some earrings for a friend and we found a cute craft where you cut shapes out of the pop can and file the sides with an emery board. Other than that, Kyle found some glow-in-the-dark flannel to make some pj pants...and she has some monster bean bags in mind to make for Sam's birthday. I'm also hoping to finally finish the felt food collection I started last summer for Sam's birthday...there are still some fruits and desserts that I want to do.

I made an ironing board cover the other day (finally: I only had the fabric for 6 months) and I just finished a huge stack of mending. Jacob made a blanket and tag blanket for his teacher, who is expecting a baby this summer...but he refused to let me take pictures, he even made me promise not to take any after he went to bed lol. So you'll have to take my word for it :) .

I have peas!!! Just itty bitty ones, but they're there. I have to get pics of my little garden to show you. My mom says there is still the possibility of frost over night, though, so now I'm worried about my tomatoes lol. Oh well, if they make it, fine...if not, at least I tried. Jake enjoys watering the garden daily...it's so dry here, the driest that it's been in 10 years. It will drizzle for a few minutes and then that's it for days. I can't wait for a good rain, so that I can take Sam out to puddle-jump.

Last night, we brought up Jake's train table and all of the Thomas trains for Sam to play with. She was so excited that she took Thomas to bed with her, she just couldn't bear to leave him for even a minute lol...

It's only 21C here today; I was hoping it would be nice enough to head to a splash park but maybe we'll just stick around the house today and play in the yard. This morning I found the maple leaf fabric that I bought last year, to make Sam a dress with for this year's Canada Day...so maybe it will get done for next year???

Later, taters.