Read these.

yae yae horray!

School is out, and the year is done.
Homework and textbooks will be replaced by fun.

The days filled with hours, to idle away.
This will be the aim, for many a day.

We will enjoy the well lit evenings, as we sit out back.
As we sip on sodas and munch an evening snack.

The days are our own, to do as we please.
Perhaps the occasional chore thrown in for a tease.

There are summer camps to attend,
and many hours at our favourite beach to spend,

Included a trip out of town,
which should be exciting to venture out on our own.

We can read our books till all hours, and then debate whether
to continue a chapter or tend to the flowers.

The summer is ours, waiting for great adventures to be unfold,
which will add to our memories to remember when we are old.

Those teeth of mine...

I went to the dentist last week. Not a shock, since I seem to be at the dentist an awful lot, I think more than the average person. Currently I have hit the high note of showing up every three weeks!

I got this "appliance" a number of weeks back.. I think it could be months now actually.. and I am supposed to wear it to straighten my front teeth. Or some parts of my teeth, I'm not sure. Anyways... I complained to my dentist for two reasons: one, that I hissed all the time, or at least I felt I was hissing all the time... and that wasn't even when I was talking to my children.. I was now hissing in regular conversation. I disliked the hissing... "Oh, there's that Mrs. MacSnake... you don't want to talk to her... she will just hiss at you....", you know that sort of horrible hissing. And two; I was quite pissed that I had realize how crooked my front teeth were, and was even more pissed to note that not only did I have braces for an extensive period of time during the crucial most crushing years of my life.. ( OH FLIP... ! the realization just appeared.....!), and then I had the FREAKING things again when I was 21 because my front teeth were crossing again. Shock of shocks! Well... now that I am truly ancient, and am showing the signs to prove it, I wasn't happy with the crooked teeth keeping me from smiling.. and I thought to myself.. I am going to get myself some of those well deserved laugh lines... and I better bloody well get them from laughing, and not simply from aging... and for some reason I was thinking to myself that I wouldn't just laugh at will because now I had these hugely crossed teeth appearing out from under the overly bright lipstick. Now this gave me an icky feeling.... ( essentially laugh lines without laughing.. truly unfair!)... hence the visit to the dentist.

There I was in his office last week, and I wondered if the appliance had made any improvements to the crooked factor. I know that I have quit hissing... I can just tell, but I have to be careful not to make the notations when the children are near.. it is very easy to hiss at them sometimes.. so I only make note of the nonhissing in adult conversation... anyways... the dentist hauled out the models made of the teeth.....

HOLY SHIT!!!!!

Yes, the appliance is working. I can't believe how almost uncrossed they actually are. Mind you.. they are still crossing a slight bit in the front, but they are certainly a HELL OF A LOT straighter than when I started. I couldn't believe it. Of course I am supposed to wear it ALL THE TIME... but then for some reason I forget to take it with me in the mornings, and then I don't wear it on the weekends when I work, or on Mondays when I have my group.. so I am pretty impressed with the slow steady progress. I will be more impressed if I could get my teeth back to what they once looked like a number of years ago: big, straight and white.

I know I am going to hit the first one, the second is a challenge, and the third one is a constant, but at least I am still swigging the Hydrogen Peroxide in the meantime. ( I will have to remember to share; and stop the swilling with the pouring of it on the girls head of hair, now that summer is here, and potentially that also means that the sun will shine!).

I am here for a short time....

I am having issues with my blogger buttons, they seem to have gone missing, therefore I can not rattle on endlessly! I googled blogger, and for some reason the dashboard thingy appeared, it is most odd.....

Anyways...

It's come down to the wire this past week... both of the chicklets are almost out of school. It is very nice that they are out of school. I am not certain who enjoys the break more.. me or them.

I went grocery shopping today.. and I did not have to think about lunch food, that was nice. There are the times when you enter the grocery store and try and figure out what to give the kids in their lunches for the week. Then of course there is the constant situation of what to make the whole group for dinner. This is where you just need to have a good imagination.

Just yesterday the silent husbandman entered the kitchen after returning from a good days work. He silently slid his paper on the counter, put away his glass tool items, changed his sunglasses, and then looked around the kitchen for some sort of food that might be coming his way. There was none. He looked in the fridge for the longest time, and then in the freezer, just willing and hoping that something would fall into his hands, and be cooked, plus taste good. After many moments praying to the chilly white beast he closed the doors, and sighed. He wondered into the den and sat down then turned on his video game. He half heartedly called from the den... and asked if I had any plans for dinner, to which I told him "NO!" There was more silence, but this doesn't really mean anything by the silent husbandman.

About twenty five minutes later I handed him a plate of pan fried salmon with a strawberry spinach salad on the side. Yes people, that is what fell out of my fridge in that exact amount of time, almost the same amount of time he stood looking for something to come his way.

Now I know how this man can cook a turkey dinner for the whole family... I deliver the ingredients, and then press the button that says "cook".

It's late but one thing...

Random list of thoughts need to be quickly thrown into post....

1. My little button on the top line has been missing lately.. it makes it hard to post anything with that magic button missing.
2. Last day of the group tomorrow... I have to be busy in the kitchen making things for the pot luck... as I think I am the person that brings the whole pot luck... almost kind of....
3. I am thrilled that the summer vacation is about to start.. I have many books to read.. AND I joined a book club.. I hope I don't forget to go.. AND... they are currently reading a book that I absolutely hugely disliked reading from last year... I can't wait to go and discuss it!
4. The walking group starts next week.. something that I volunteered to do with the city. It's quite exciting... I will be out walking around the city with strangers every Tuesday and Thursday at 0930.
5. The boy will be busy tomorrow.. he will have wished that all he had to do was go to a boring classroom, and not hang out with me!
6. One minute till news time...I can't finish!

Whew....

I'm all itchy crazy right now. It's my hair that is causing all the raucas, I'm not sure why it does that. Perhaps it is still moving in all the crazy directions, as I have done all day. Anyways.. enough of that...

The girl just got home from her friends house, it's 9:39 PM, and she just told me she has homework. I shrug my shoulders, what are we supposed to accomplish now? I had sort of hoped for homework during the school year, not at the end of the year, when they are in shut down mode. Oh well... she can fall out of her comfy bed in the morning and create some words on a page then, I am not driven to start something now... except a book for me!

I took a picture of the juice boxes that the boy pulled out of his backpack. There were 12 of them, and they were all full. I asked him the other morning about what could possibly be in his bag of tricks as his lunches were now hovering at the zipper level, so something must have been impeding the deep drop into his backpack. He claimed it was nothing. The grossest thing he pulled out was the bag of grapes that were swelling and dripping out of their baggy. It dripped on him the whole way home. Ick.

The girl hasn't begun screaming yet, but she will.... she is supposed to be putting her clothes on her deacons bench.. but I think she has gotten distracted. Yes, distracted enoughto find her way back out to me to tell me fascinating tales of nothing. That girl... I must go help her now.

My favourite pictures of the day!

All hands on deck.. on this case... the railing!

This was classic... there is a spot at the front of the ship where you enter through glass doors, and pay the ferry people another $10.00 for piece and quiet and complimentary coffee. Of course there is nothing said about the looky lous that maybe appear from the outside. These two gaffers wondered along every window pane and pressed their noses into the great indoors, they didn't have any idea about what the privilage of $10.00 could afford!

Good bye Victoria!

Titanic fieldtrip!

Shark boy...

That boy of mine has tapered with his faux hawk enough that he looks like shark boy. I haven't quite broken it to him that he looks like shark boy, even though he must look in the mirror and believe that he reminds himself of someone/thing.

In other things less complicated:

The dahlias outback are growing beautifully. The pots that I have scattered along the ugly back deck are a little downtrodden this year. I think today I am going to the garden centre for some "livation" for them, I think my boxes and pots require more friends to join them this growing season.

The Queen speaks...

I have trained the husbandman to turn the news on in the morning. I just love the fact that he turns it on to channel 11 (global TV), and lets me wake up to the sound of news, weather and traffic. Now this took a lot of training.. he just didn't dream up this adventure... I just would wake him up every morning and demand the channel changer, between his snores. Now he gets up.. and turns the TV on, and proceeds with his morning tasks. This is much better than an alarm clock!

French Toastin Toxic!

I am very much in love with the "French Toastin" bread from Safeway. So much so that I stopped the guy stocking shelves and inquired as to where the label was one day. He told me that they had discontinued it, and that I was probably buying that last two loaves. I was horrified...! I explained to him the value of the "french toastin" bread, and the fact that there was maple and vanilla built right into the bread and when you toasted it in the morning it filled the house (in some cases this could be peoples kitchens, but since the husbandman and I stupidly decided to buy a "little" home it permeates through the home....) with that lovely smell. I pointed to the comparibly thick sliced "texas toast" and told him that this bread is just a badly sliced chunk of bread with no flavour, whereas on the other hand there are flavours and aromas built right in to the "french toastin" bread, and is instantly loveable upon first bite.

Much to my happiness, I have been back to Safeway a number of times over the past couple of weeks, and have been pleasantly surprised by the stocked and labelled shelves of "french toastin" bread... however I think I have reached toxic levels from eating it almost every morning. It really is exciting actually.

Saturated!

Gee, how odd... I was down at the dike, walking along... and I took this picture. In an effort to make it look an ounce exciting I changed the saturation of it. I can't believe how you can peer down onto the docks, rather than look straight across.. as I used to... I have a photo somewhere...

I am excited about the contrast in colours and age of this building. It's kind of a cute rickety little old building with the updates of a satellite dish. I am not able to take a complete picture of this place as it is obscured by bushes.

Picture this....

So there I was the other day... traveling along side this emerald forest.. when I heard the subtle movements of brush and ferns.. and what did I spy.. but two black bears rustling about. I love this space, but then.. when you are a completely boring person such as myself, I can see why this would excite me....

Remember Harriet & Harold...?

Here they are wondering aimlessly again...

Meet Miss Pip Messylocks

She was sitting outback playing Polly Pockets when I captured her messy self!

The dike report...

Here is the swelling Pitt River. The water has seeped up into the basin in the foreground as it slowly rises. There is still a fair distance to go before the water makes it to the top of the dike. Time will tell whether or not I start chucking things in plastic bags and store them in my attic!

Well... I am going to have to go it alone!

The stalker is normally around... she is busy hunting me down, and asking me what I am up to. She always finds me...

AND NOW TODAY....

I am wanting to go to Tim Hortons... and get myself a cup of coffee and a tasty breakfast sandwich, and the stalker is nowhere to be found! The nerve of the stalker, maybe she isn't the stalker that I make her out to be.

I could call my friend that lives out in Maple Ridge.... I know she would have a Tim Hortons coffee and a breakfast sandwich... maybe even two!

photo boy

Furrowing the brows

I believe that I am starting to get concerned....

I am not totally convinced I am concerned, but I believe I am well on my way to being concerned.

The dike is slowly rising down at the end of the road, and the weather people and water people are predicting that the waters will rise to seven meters by Sunday.

I have no ideas what my plans are.... so I start to move things, or do I just remain stupidly optimistic that the water will not reach our front door this year....

Can you believe this...

This crazy little dog is only happy when she is tied up to the tree. Yes, she runs to her rope, and then to the tree, where we tie the rope to the tree, and then attach the rope to her. She is wierd... we have no answers to her bizarre behaviour.

Front yard frenzie...

Here's that fence that I was talking about... which the husbandman had nothing to do with! All of this dirt is where overgrown bushes and plants once sat.. it is now being covered with a layer of GREEN!


This is what our ugly front door looked like, but now it's even uglier.. now it has nothing impeding the way to the front steps!

The worst parade happening here...

Pip's Island...


I love these guys...especially the one at the front holding the big stick!

Can't you just see the intensity permeating from the "Mitchinator", he isn't just watching these cars cruise past, he is studying every detail.

Slightly accomplished...

I have been muddling through this yard work for weeks now. I am not done. I am not certain what is taking me so long... or wait... could it be the fact that I have quite a bit to do, and still do?

That might be it.

In other tales of uselessness:

I cut the grass yesterday.... I ventured along to get the newly borrowed lawn mower started. I managed... I liked it even more since I didn't have to put gas in it. I can't stand doing the gas thing. You know; trivial things like the red gas tank thing is filled to complete heaviness, and I can never get the gas cap off, or on, and then there's the spillage factor, which means that I drive the lawnmower somewhere it wont spill on the lawn and create big huge burnt gas patches.

I washed windows... everything was looking really good, until the sun set. SHIT, the smudges almost BURNED my eyes when they sat blazened on the windows. Well.... I have come up with a plan, I will only look out the windows in the morning, and afternoon, and not in the evening when the sun is setting. Everything looks good until then. I am a mastermind!

The front yard grass is growing. Mind you.. the front yard still looks kind of really boring.. so I will have to come up with a prettying up plan... and quick. BUT.... I have to say the "killer" ant banquet that has been provided free of charge over the last two weeks has done a marvelous job at eliminating my little NON friends!

I am off to buy dirt, bags of dirt, they also go with my bags of mushroom manure!