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.

bathroom blog - shhh, don't tell the anti-child labour activists...

Anyway, we gutted the bathroom. Tore out the floor, threw out the toilet and vanity and ripped open the walls. The shower will be ripped out when we are ready for that part of the job. Campbell undertook the job of pulling out the nails! He did an amazing job and then swept it all up afterwards. He is a hard worker and he works for peanuts, or ice cream.

bathroom blog begins - the before pics

Our downstairs bathroom, which is off of the kitchen, was probably the ugliest room in the whole house when we moved in.  And that says a lot, because there was a whole lot of ugly going on.  It was pink, which doesn't bother me in itself, but with only a very small shaded window and really tacky brass lighting and an egyptian themed border it was awful.  The "wood-like" vanity with the "faux marble" (read as ugly greenish plastic) was even wobbly.  The toilet, was so badly stained when we moved in and to top it off, it is a two-flush toilet.  It is true that it is amazing what a little paint can do, especially when it's a smooth buttery yellow, but after 11 years of waiting, this bathroom has earned a real renovation.  SOOOOO, without further ado, here's my bathroom: 

Notice the temporary drywall panel.  There used to be a clever door into the dining room.  Clever dieting trick I'm thinking.  Do I need to explain?  Anyway we finished the dining room side, but left this side unfinished so that we could put the new plumbing in behind it.

Notice the strategic placement of the sink, in FRONT of the door.

Not the prettiest vanity, but I am shocked at how much better this looked after 15 coats of white oil-based paint.

See my microshower?  I think it's about 13 inches wide and 13 inches deep.  When we first moved into this house, this was our only bathroom.  I have fond memories of being very pregnant with Patrick and trying to shave my legs in there.  I ran a serious risk of being wedged if I moved the wrong way.  I even bathed 2 large dogs in there.  (2 of them at once, since George could not let Maddie have the pleasure of a private shower)  Imagine, all 3 of us in there, and me pregnant!   Ah the memories.

Now for the good stuff... 

Slate tiles, held up against the lovely peel-n-stick tiles that have been there since we bought the house.  The previous owners were kind enough to leave 1/2 of a box of replacement tiles in the basement.  I'm umm pleased to say we never had to use them.   As much as I hate those tiles (which once blessed the front hall and the kitchen!!!ACK!!!!!)  I do have to give them credit for holding up for so long!  See how fair I am?

I just battened down my hatches

I'm getting ready for Hurricane Katrina's remnants which are expected to hit tonight or tomorrow. Damon and Campbell are in a bit of a panic. I give them honest answers about what could happen, but probably won't. I tell them that I am sure we will be okay, but that we need to make sure that nothing in our yard can hit our house and damage it. It's a learning experience for them.

Since I live in Ontario, Canada, we aren't often affected by hurricanes. The last time a big hurricane passed by us, it was Hurricane Opal which had been downgraded by then. I was pregnant with Patrick and a tree fell on Patrick's nursery! It didn't do a lot of damage, only about $3,000 to the eavestrough and the balcony above. Now the house is a lot more finished, including a brand new roof, so I really hope nothing gets damaged this time.

My heart and prayers go out to those who were hit by this hurricane. The damage and devastation is awful. Images of looting sickened me. I'm hoping for some more touching rescue photos to help me regain my faith in humanity.

Playing around

The world is a cruel place

Last night we had a temper tantrum because the smallest of the nesting dolls had the audacity to NOT open. "Mommy MAKE it open! Make it open NOW! WAAAAAH!" I was tempted to go and cut the thing in half just to prove my point.

Tonight it was one of her babies. The darned baby won't close her pretty blue eyes the way the other one does. This went on for about 15 minutes. Finally we flung the demon doll across the room and that seemed to solve the problem for now.

If you go out to the dump today...

...You're sure of a big surprise.
If you go out to the dump today
You'd better go in disguise.


For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the dump bears have their picnic.

Chorus:
Picnic time for dump bears,
The big black bears are having a lovely time today.
Watch them, catch them unawares,
And see them snacking on bags of decay.
See them gaily shove their snout.
Into things we've thrown out.
And never have any cares.
At six o'clock their mommies and daddies
Will take them home to bed
Because they're tired big black bears.


If you go out to the dump today,
You'd better not go alone.
It's rancid out at the dump today,
And safer to stay at home.

For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the dump bears have their picnic

TO CHORUS

Every dump bear, that's been good
Is sure of a treat today
There's lots of wonderful things to eat
And wonderful games to play

Beneath the trees, where nobody sees
They'll hide and seek as long as they please
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic


ANYWAY.That was one of the songs that the kids sang in the van. We went to the dump to look at bears. There were about 20 bears there during the time we were there! We were shocked to see people inside the dump, walking around. They offered to take our camera to get a closer shot, but as you can see it still doesn't look very close. So as they are taking pictures with our camera, Kookie's taxi pulls up. No joke, that's the local cab driver's name. She steps out and hitches up her pants, butts out her cigarette and she announces how stupid those people are, that dump bears are more dangerous than wild bears because they are used to people etc. We continue to discuss the lunacy of climbing through the fence to get closer to the bears, when the girl with our camera shouts out, "There's a bear behind you." We turned and looked and a HUGE bear was about 10 feet from us. Everybody flew to their cars, except for Damon who crouched down in front of FIL's car. He didn't want to miss this. When the bear saw that we saw him, he turned around and slowly walked up the road. It was great entertainment for the kids, but my MIL says that if the bear was any closer she would have fainted. Matt got the camera back and took a picture of him leaving.

I love summer

Ok now Ty has made ADHD hot

Adderall XR: Ty Pennington's Building Plans for Back to School Success Oh now I don't mind if Damon has ADHD, then he can be as hot and cool as Ty as long as he takes his Adderall XR. ;-)

A new man

He was thrilled once it was finally done.  He loves feeling the back and bragging to his brothers that he doesn't have to use a brush and they do, na na na na na.  Kira was chasing him around and laughing and Campbell suddenly got really mad at him because he didn't like his haircut.  Campbell's very opposed to change, unless it is a Campbell-approved change.  Patrick got a new haircut too, I cut it first and it looked to much like Willy Wonka, so I had to cut more off of the sides and by the time I was done I had taken off a lot more than I had planned.  Oh well, Patrick is happy with it.

Summer reading

Because you never can be too safe

This is the boy who flings himself in harm's way on a daily basis. As a toddler, he had a nasty habit of flinging off of playground equipment and staircases. He is always game for a good rollercoaster. He didn't even flinch when we were 10 feet from a bear (I'll save that story for another day). But he wears his life jacket for sandcastle building 30 feet from the water. Just in case.

May God bless him.

Dirty girl, hey go ahead, google that loser

I never could have imagined how cute dirt could be until I became Kira's mom.

Kira noticed that Daddy and Grandpa were cleaning out the chimney.  She's thinking "Hi Daddy, umm, Dad you're on the roof.  Uh Hi Grandpa.  Um, these are the guys who keep telling me not to stand on the table."

Oh I see...

Link spam - Wikipedia

Now I'm off to delete my blogspam...

This entry seems to have opened the floodgates of spam HELL. Thanks for the offers, but I am by NO means interested in Vacuum parts, on line poker, handwriting analysis, tramadol prescriptions, discount cialis, marketing my blog or anything remotely to do with pubic hair removal. But really, thanks for the offers.

Puck's Excellent Adventure

Puck was an excellent traveller (both ways). He was quiet, polite and didn't even smell bad, the whole way there.

He made many doggy friends in Wawa. I thought he did very well, he tried to play with every dog that he met, but he respected their body language and always came to me when he was called.




Puck enjoyed running on the rocky shore


And playing on the beach









He got to meet Aunt Sharon, he was pretty good with her considering that he is supposed to be a big goofy puppy.

Matt was blown away by how good this dog is. It was a bonding experience for man and dog.

Aside from some bad smells, Puck was very good on the trip home. Well, his presence did cause some problems. Let me explain. I had wisely bought the boys each a tennis ball sized jawbreaker to have on the trip home. I thought that it would mean hours of quiet driving. I thought wrong. Damon and Campbell couldn't even get them into their mouths, and Patrick's kept falling out of his mouth. First it landed on Puck's back, getting white sugary goop all over him. We had many tears, but I washed off the short brown hairs with bottled water and a napkin and he tried again. About 5 minutes later I hear, "Awwwww, I dropped it again." "It's okay, I can wash it off again." In a very grumpy voice, Patrick says, "No you can't, it landed on Puck's dink." The boys all made jokes about that for the rest of the drive home.

He is very loved and he knows it. So, what do you think, does this dog need his own blog? Maybe a blog day.