Happy 90th Grandmama!

Excited party guests.
Kira and Grandma Nancy. Say 'cheese'.

Now she can't stop smiling.

Look at that impish grin.

Kira is making the rounds with Bob.

Campbell and Kira check out the old photos.

Kira is helping the ladies clean up afterwards. She is taking the tablecloths off and giving them to the ladies in the kitchen.

Patrick and Damon visiting with the birthday girl. She enjoys visits from the kids.

Happy 90th birthday to a sweet and beautiful woman!

Tally

I'll spare you the photographic evidence, but we have 7 fewer mice living with us now. I must say that Matt gets too much enjoyment out of killing these things. We haven't even put out the poison yet.

Cheap cat toys

Yep, that's me, always looking for the silver lining. One day last week, I woke up to Charlie skidding into walls. Seeing that it was 3:00 am, the only reasonable reaction would be to grab my camera so I could blog it all from the safety of my desk chair.

You can't see Charlie's puzzled expression as he looks for the mouse. Where is it?

This particular mouse kept Charlie occupied for HOURS. Maybe by the time we get rid of them all he will be a slimmer trimmer Charlie.

I don't fear many things, and I used to work in an animal hospital with many small wriggly animals, but the first time I saw a mouse in our house, I don't remember exactly what happened, but I ended up doing the stereotypical leap onto a stool madly waving a broom around. We battled the mice in this old house for years before finally winning about 8 years ago. We haven't had a real problem since. But we are combat ready have since stocked up on traps and poisoned bait (don't worry, it is only put out in pet-proof containers away from the kids). Sorry Charlie.

Beauty

The other day we were visiting Matt's grandma and I looked over at Patrick and I had to take a moment to admire him. I'll be frank, as a baby he was never the most photogenic of my kids, but that has been changing in the past year or so. He just looked so beautiful and sweet, caught somewhere between childhood and puberty. His messy blonde hair, his smooth fair skin with just the most perfect mole in the middle, I can see a hint of the jawline that he will have once puberty is done with him. He is so thoughtful and caring, yet fun loving and athletic, he is cautious and shy, but has a self-confidence in his intellectual and athletic abilities.  I am proud of the boy he has become.

First of the season

Kira woke up in the night miserable with a high fever. She doesn't have any other symptoms though. I went to sleep on edge because Campbell hadn't been feeling well all weekend. I was half-expecting him to wake up with a fever and then Kira did.





A dose of Advil and a live snuggly toy keep her in a good mood though.

Rainy day at the races

Before the race, he was so nervous, it was terribly cute.

The kid next to him had pushed him down earlier and he got back up and caught up to him.  Go Damon.

He ended up finishing 7th and he was crying by the time we got to him at the finish line.  He was upset because he thought he could have done better if he wasn't pushed.  His buddy and hockey teammate came in first and another friend was 4th!  After he thought about it more, he was pretty proud of himself and his friends.

It was so cute though, when his friend came out of the finish line (like a queue), with the utmost admiration, he says to us, "Now I am like PATRICK." Later I overheard him telling a group of admirers how he followed the leader until the homestretch "just like Patrick". Patrick is the stuff of legends at our school.

Here is Patrick shortly after the start of the race.  He was about 12th, exactly where he wants to be at this point.  Remember he just moved up to this grade 5/6 age group.  So he is one of the younger kids.


Now he is about 300 metres from the end of the race.  He just finished passing the boy in the red who had the lead before the bridge.


The boy in red is trying to pass him.


He manages to hang onto his lead for now, but right before the finish line the boy catches him and won it by a hair.  Patrick isn't disappointed though.  They shook hands and congratulated each other.

We are so proud of both of our runners!  Didn't they do an awesome job!?

Testy

I'm trying to do a cross country update, but I can't focus on uploading pics.

I am waiting for the nurse to get here to take blood for a FASTING bloodtest for our new life insurance policy. I said FASTING! It was a last minute appointment and when I called her we hadn't eaten yet, just snacked at the meet. So she said no food until after she took our blood. NO FOOD and we hadn't even had lunch. I'm not doing so good with that.

Test me kids, I DARE you!

Oh yeah and my husband bought me a new minivan. A Ford Freestar Limited. Leather interior, dvd package, and so on. Fully loaded. I get it on Friday. Cool, but kind of weird. We're standing at the meet and he says, "oh yeah I want to go visit Coach Kevin at the Ford dealership after the meet." He called me to ask if it was okay to buy it. I told him I don't really care, as long as it has 4 wheels, 7 seats, gets me there all the time and I don't have to hear whining about how much the payments are. I'll be grateful by the time we pick it up.

Today is Patrick and Damon's semi-annual cross country meet. I'm excited for them, but a bit nervous.

Last year, Patrick finished second in the fall and first in the spring (despite being up all the night before with stomach flu), so he has a certain expectation of himself. But this year he moves up to the next age category where he will race against boys a year older than him (and since he was born in November, some of the boys will be almost 2 years older than him). He is smart enough to know that if he doesn't do as well it isn't anything to be ashamed of, but he i still driven to try to win.

Damon came in 164th and then 31st, so this guy is moving up in the ranks as he gets more focused. This year he will be one of the oldest kids running. Last fall he had no clue what he was there for. He was more interested in the sights along the race route. In the spring, he was much more competitive and he was so proud of Patrick after his win that now he wants to be like Patrick.

Fall fun

Last Friday, I took Campbell and Kira on a big walk in the woods with our friends Sean and Reiko.  At the end of the walk our wagons and strollers were full of autumn leaves, teasels, dried grasses and other fall goodies for our Thanksgiving decorating.  We stopped at the park where our very tired kids got a second wind.

Here is Campbell at the fall fair.


The weather here has been fantastic, but finally this past weekend, the temperatures have dropped and we are into real fall-like weather. *sigh*

Unusual news: Danish air force compensates Santa after fighter jets scare reindeer to death

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - The Danish Air Force said Thursday it paid the equivalent of about $5,880 Cdn in compensation to a part-time Santa Claus whose reindeer died of heart failure when two fighter jets roared over his farm.


The animal, named Rudolf, was grazing peacefully at the central Denmark farm of Olavi Nikkanoff when the screaming F-16 jets passed overhead at low altitude in February.

The reindeer collapsed and died, leaving Nikkanoff with the prospect of only one animal pulling his sleigh next Christmas.

He complained to the air force, which agreed to compensate him for the cost of the reindeer and veterinary expenses.

"We got a letter from Santa complaining about his reindeer's death and looked into it seriously," air force spokesman Capt. Morten Jensen said.

The air force checked flight data and veterinary reports and concluded the planes had likely caused the animal's death.

"We're more than happy to pay if it means that children around the world will get their presents," Jensen said.

Nikkanoff said he was satisfied with the compensation and would use it to buy a new reindeer before Christmas.

Shhhh, don't tell my kids that the real Rudolph dropped dead from fright.

My 23rd Post

Okay my once DEAR friend, Melissa has tagged me. Here are the rules:

Go into your archive
Find your 23rd post.
Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
Tag five other people to do the same.

My 23rd post was a Christmas post and here's the fifth sentence: "ohhhh my nutcracker"


I'm tagging Kathy's Potomus, Sandy and the drama life, Bridget's Happy Hour Somewhere, Karen's Momness and hmmmm I'll give preggo Sam a break and Bethie it will be.

Brilliant Minds

MIT Media Lab: $100 Laptop

I think this is a brilliant idea and will have a huge impact on the world if it takes off.

bathroom blog - vanity fair

Well we finally made up our minds and bought this vanity from Costco.

(click on the image to buy one too)

Here it is in my bathroom sitting next to the yet-to-be-installed new toilet.




Now I need to get my husband to stop standing around and admiring it and actually install it.

Miracle baby

During my pregnancies, I have often felt like my babies were wedged between my liver and my bowels, but never quite like THIS.

Grinding + Brakes = HEADACHE

We went for a drive in the country today and picked up some information packages on a couple of new subdivisions. A little bit tempting, great floorplans and affordable for a 5 bedroom house, but it's just really far from everything. The kids would have to switch schools and probably hockey teams. Not that I agree with avoiding that at all costs, but hey, the parents from school and hockey are my friends too. lol I was looking at all the floorplans on the way back and got really carsick. Then the brakes started grinding. GRRRRRRR. Matt starts getting irritable, going on about how much it's going to cost etc. The same guy just told me it was WORTH the extra $30,000 to put the 5th bedroom over the garage, and he's freaking out about 200 dollars for new brakes. We checked and we can get them fixed tomorrow. We were planning to go straight to Patrick's out of town hockey game. It's the first regular season game. But we decide that we shouldn't take the van out of town like this, and Matt dropped Damon, Campbell, Kira and me off at home and we won't go to the game. So I'm still nauseous with a headache, 3 wound-up kids and I'm missing my boy's game. WAAAAHHHHHHH.

Ok I'm done now.

Oh yeah and the dog still smells, no italian for us tonight.

Addendum: I put a chicken pie into the oven for me and the 3 kids, the phone rings. It's Matt, he forgot Patrick's hockey jerseys in the back of my van!!!!! Can I meet him 1/2 way? With my grinding brakes. Great. I turned off my pie, threw the kids in the van as is and off we went.

And to the man in the silver porsche with the rude tongue gestures, I have to say that while I am flattered that you found me to be proposition-worthy during my time of panic, I just need so much more than a middle aged man in a flashy car with a very flexible tongue, to lure me away from this glamorous lifestyle.

Regrets

Yesterday, I went grocery shopping and thought I would be frugal and make my own dog liver treats. I bought a big package of beef liver and came home. I thought I was sooo clever as I mixed the liver with some garlic, whole wheat flower, cornmeal and eggs in the blender.

And you should have seen the smug look on my face as Puck took his first taste of the fluffy brownie-like creations. He loves them. I've never seen him react to anything like that. The kids were clamouring to get a taste. I did a little "ew" and then reminded myself that they were all human food ingredients, so they each had a taste and agreed that they were pretty good. I rarely get this kind of overwhelming approval of things that I cook. I had Puck's undivided attention from then on.

Last night it started. The gas. The dog gas that won't stop. Usually if he starts to fart, it is a sign that he needs to be let out to do his business. But now it is constant. This garlicky dog fart smell that follows me along with the dog. Now I'm a big garlic lover, but this is turning me off of one of my favourite flavours.

Note to self. Buy the dog bland old milk-bones from now on.

Tournament? Oh yeah, THAT's why we're here

Patrick played in a hockey tournament this weekend.  They lost their games, but didn't play too badly. All of the team and their families stayed at cottages nearby.  We had a blast!  There were so many siblings for the other kids to play with. Therefore the parents had fun too. lol 

The boys loved the bonfire.  At the end of the night a bunch of the players were cooking the leftover food in it.  Pizza in boxes, metal trays of lasagna, bowls of pasta, even some shrimp on marshmallow sticks.  YUMMY.

Damon tried out "tubing".

Campbell was satisfied to just get a ride in the boat.

Oh and the things Damon caught.  He caught frogs, and he tried fishing with a pole, but found that it was easier to catch them with his bare hands!  He caught 2 or 3 of them that way.

Kidding around

Praying to the dental gods

Well I got a phone call from the school today. Apparently Patrick had an accident at recess. He and his friends were playing football in the playground and Patrick bumped into somebody's elbow when he was going for the ball. He put his top tooth through his bottom lip and now he has a loose tooth. So far there isn't any bruising or swelling of the gum (the lip is a write off though), so the dentist said it was likely just the periodontal ligaments and would fix itself as long as he didn't reinjure it. Flag football practices this week are OUT, hockey and cross country are in. Please don't let him lose that tooth.

BUSTED!

The other day, my boys pulled out my Jane Fonda workout tape from the 80s and wanted to watch it. They thought it was hysterical. (I'll admit it was pretty funny to watch and remember sweating it out with Jane.) Now Campbell is hooked, he puts in the video but he pretends he isn't watching it. HA! BUSTED.

Smile

How can you not smile on a sunny day? Puck keeps me smiling (even though I have only one bathroom in a house of 6 people with a stomach bug).

My sister's 3 children were all baptized 2 weeks ago.  It was a great day. Matt and I had the honour of being chosen as godparents to my nephew, so our kids had to sit in the pew behind us and behave! Well they did reasonably well. Here's the face of Kirazilla showing itself again.

Isn't the baby adorable now?  She makes my heart melt.

The questions that curious 3 1/2 year olds ask in church are great. "Adri, what is chrism?"  "I'm not scared of being baptized, it's going to be fun like going on a roller coaster."  The best was after she was done being baptized and in front of a full church she says excitedly, "That was FUN, now Campbell can have a turn."

And my godson, preparing to tear off. He is a sweet boy, totally devoted to his mommy.  When she is nursing the baby, he quietly leans against her, sucks his thumb and twirls her hair in his hand. Awwww.

I tried really hard to get a good shot of all 4 of my creatures in their crisp clean clothes, but Damon managed to screw up every shot.  This one isn't too bad though, at least you can see most of his face.

I loved this dress on Kira, the details are beautiful.  And I love putting her pearls on her.  She was comparing her pearls to mine, but then had a tantrum when she realized that I had pearl earrings, where were hers?  Then she screams in the church, MINE! and attempts to rip mine off.  Do I pierce her ears?  If I did it right now, it might be a secret revenge for her mauling my ears.  I'll wait.

Sharing her cookie with her brother.  What he doesn't know yet is that it's a dog biscuit that she stole from the dog. 

Nutro Ultra Puppy biscuits.  Only the best dog food for my daughter.

bathroom blog - paint, floors and lights

The next step was the slate floor.  We think it looks great.  Matt and Kira are washing away the excess grout.  (oops, more child-labour)

See!  Isn't it pretty?  I love the natural variation in colours and oooooh that will hide dirt so well!  It's not that I don't want to wash these floors, I just don't want to HAVE to wash them because they look dirty.  I will still be mopping once a week, but the dirt will be hidden in between.

And after a little discussion with me, Matt picked the colour he likes.  I think it is a shade too dark, it matches the slate well, but really closes the bathroom in.  It is okay, but it ain't no buttery yellow. :-(  Matt changed his mind after finishing the first coat, and he's going to go get more paint in the shade lighter.  Oh and we put up our vanity light.

The next part is the expensive stuff, the toilet and the vanity, then on to the shower.

bathroom blog - wires and pipes

oooooh and ahhhhh all you want.  Those pipes and wires are mine, all mine. 

Plumbing and electrical rough-ins - check.  Now onto the floor.