adrienne's blog

2012-01-23T21:17:00.011-06:00

a little tour of the lower two levels of the new house, shall we?

the view from the stairs. straight ahead is a bedroom with a 5 ft closet. to the left is the tv room and to the right is the 4 pc + laundry. you can see the plumbing rough ins for the toilet and the tub.

the view of the 4 pc + laundry from the living room. tub and toilet on the left, vanity and laundry on the right. that window is getting boarded up. i am 85% sad and 15% happy about this. it's a design thing, it's a logistics thing, it's a time/energy thing. it's a sad thing is what it is to see a bathroom window disappear entirely. but the decision has been made, and really, it's a minor compromise.

the tv room.

the view from the far wall in the tv room. the space straight ahead will either be a family desk space or a space for the piano (yes, we have a piano! well, we don't have it yet. it's still in my friends' house. we are taking it off their hands until their university aged children grow up and want it back. and it just happens to be the one that i took lessons on when i was a kid, so that's extra cool.)

the view from the top of the stairs on your way to the lowest level. living area on the right, furnace and 5th bedroom on the left.

the furnace room and bedroom from the living area.

that's a very, very pretty furnace.

that's a very, very ugly drainage pipe.

there is now a (big, beautiful) closet built around this, so while that's kind of a hassle, i think i'll survive.

other things have progressed since these pictures were taken ... the kitchen level has been worked on quite a bit, the bathtub is in the house. it's not installed, but it has physically arrived in it's spot, which was sort of an ordeal in itself because it's a one piece and the house is essentially being built around it. (have fun cutting it out of house when you want to replace it in 30 years future owners! at least it's white, and not red, orange, green or yellow like the one piece tubs that were installed in houses 30 years ago were. so, you're welcome!)

ok, that's about it for now. all the electrical is next, and that's a huge, huge step in the process.

and can we just take a minute for my husband right now? he is doing all of this and the progress is amazing to watch. when i came over to see the new walls up, i actually screamed and danced in delight. the work it took to get to this point is staggering. the man is a god for all that he does and all that he takes on and i absolutely worship him.

2012-01-17T15:37:00.003-06:00

without being asked, she just does her homework right after school. when you are in pre school and your parents are geeks, it's about as cute as it gets.

2012-01-16T17:15:00.001-06:00

honestly, i was a little disappointed when i opened this. i even had my child care arranged.

2012-01-13T12:03:00.004-06:00

these are so cool. i couldn't resist getting these for mike for christmas.

one day my pallet might be mature enough to sip whiskey or scotch on the rocks, but i'm nowhere near that. so for now these are for the husband and company. they feel neat in your hand, they are perfectly smooth, and they have a good weight to them. when they come out of the freezer they are freakishly cold. and they do their job, and they do it well.

just don't rattle your glass too hard when you are asking for another.

and i got mine online at cookworks.ca ... but i've seen them in a few different specialty shops.

2012-01-11T09:58:00.002-06:00

even though i am well aware i live in the middle of no where and everyone (including us) eats a lot of wild game, this little box of treasures still caught me off guard.

2012-01-08T19:15:00.003-06:00

we were killing time between game #2 and game #3 when we stumbled upon this absolute gem of a sunset.

it was stunning and breathtaking and stopped me dead in my tracks for several minutes. and can you believe my phone took that picture?

2012-01-06T14:57:00.003-06:00

the tile is here! it will be the flooring in 2 of the bathrooms and the 2 entrances.... i have no idea what the rest of the flooring is going to be like ... well, i have an idea, we just haven't even come close to picking it out.

it's hard to imagine where we will be in six months, but this is exciting!

2012-01-05T13:58:00.002-06:00

there are plenty of things to update you about when it comes to the house renovations - mike continues to put in an unprecedented amount of hours of work each week. everything is progressing nicely - no snags to report - except the timeline for the federal eco grant inspection was moved up a full 9 months.... so some things have been re-prioritized because of that. some more exterior work will have to be done ahead of the interior renovations as march 31st, 2012 is the new deadline.

oh well, we should save quite a bit of money if the exterior gets re-insulated and all of the windows are installed before the inspection. mike says it will only push the move in date back a few weeks - he's still aiming for early summer 2012. i think that's an ambitious timeline, but he feels confident it's all down hill for him once the wiring gets done.

matthew is looking at the hole that mike jack hammered up on the raised basement level of the house. this is where the laundry and four piece bath is going to be. the old pipes weren't where we wanted the plumbing fixtures, so the floor (which happened to be cement) had to be torn up.

directly next to this bathroom/laundry room is the guest room. now i'm not thrilled about this. it is not my ideal place for laundry, but i think it was the best place. here is my reasoning;

there was absolutely no room for laundry facilities of any kind (cramped or elaborate) on the bedroom level. so that was out. we could have made space for some sort of laundry-closet in the kitchen/dining/entrance level, which would make the laundry facility only a few steps from the bedrooms... but i was very hesitant to devote any square footage to that for a few reasons.... mostly because i do not want to be limited when it comes to our porch or pantry space. boots and jackets and toques and book bags and cereal boxes need their space and i don't want that stuff mingling with our inevitable piles of half done laundry.

so really the only other place would be the 3rd level, the raised basement. we combined the bathroom and laundry because there is less than 700 sq ft to go around and we want a guest room and a nice sized living room on this level as well.

mike had fun pouring the new cement. he didn't carve anything cool into the drying cement - which i though was really lame of him.

(mike took these photos. )

can you picture a toilet and tub on the left and a washer/dryer and vanity on the right?

this sub floor is now down and walls are going up!

and the tile is ordered! it came on sale and we had about 24hrs to decide if it was for us or not. the steep price drop really, really sweetened the deal. the dark tile (top right hand corner) will cover about 500 sq ft in the house, including the two entrances, the main floor 2 piece bath and the 3rd floor full bath/laundry room.

....ok that's it for now even though so much has already happened since these pictures ... oh ya, i ordered my DREAM couch. i have my eye on some particular furniture, i am a complete sucker for classic mid century design. this one piece i thought was completely out of my reach because it's retail price is thousands more than i would ever spend on a couch, came on sale for almost 90% off. i seriously almost cried. and i could not whip out my credit card fast enough.

AND i got up at 4:30am to go boxing day shopping for the house. i had my sights set on a bosch dishwasher and a tv for the new kitchen/sitting area. the effort to make it to future shop super early paid off with mega bucks in savings.... and having a year to shop for this stuff is turning out to be really, really great.

2012-01-03T09:48:00.001-06:00

ah, yes, the christmas wrap up... let's start with this little story.

the kids and santa was an iffy thing this year. anna came home in october after meeting sparky the fire safety dog and declared that santa was not real either. we (including matthew) were all baffled by her declaration and quickly talked her out of it and then proceeded to change the subject. we hoped that by the time december rolled around she would have forgotten about it.

that did not happen.

leading up to the holidays, the cpr christmas train made a stop in our community. we hyped it up for the kids, told them there would be a fancy train with lights, a band singing carols and, of course, santa.

anna, running the scene through her head, looked at me from across the table, narrowed her eyes, and said, "the real santa, or just some guy in a costume?"

"the real santa!" i chirped, hoping she didn't catch the slight, absolutely minuscule hesitation in my delivery.

her eyes stayed narrow, trained on me, then suddenly popped open with glee... "yay!!' she squealed.

whew. bullet dodged.

we got bundled up and drove over to the train yard to greet the holiday train. once it arrived, we dashed from our warm vehicle and sprinted across the field to get a better look. we slowed our gait to a comfortable walk just as the giant, sparkling locomotive slowed to a stop. right in front of us, santa stepped off the platform, and the kids squealed happily. the big man in red began greeting the families and children that had gathered, and our kids ran up to catch a better glimpse and perhaps nab one of the candy canes he was offering.

it was then, right when anna grasped the candy cane from santa's white glove, that i saw her face crinkle up into a look of utter confusion. in a nano second, the confusion gave way to a look a sheer horror and she threw her head back and let out a wail.

"that's not the real santa! that's just a guy!" she hollered and cried. "santa's not real!"

at this (horrifying) moment in time we had two concerns. one, get her the hell away from the other kids that didn't need to hear about the illegitimacies of santa. and two, comfort (and straighten out) our four year old.

i grabbed her, hurled her over my shoulder, and marched to the back to of the crowd.

"you don't say something like that! why did you say that?" i scolded.

"that's just a guy in a costume! where's the real santa!?"

and there in her full on scream/cry she gave me my out. the real santa was so busy this time of year he couldn't possibly visit all of these small towns himself! he sends his helpers, i explained.

"really?" she took a breath.

"yes!" we implored. even the boy was helping us pitch our story. despite being older, he hadn't waivered on santa for a moment.

she was chewing on it, but would she swallow our bullshit story?

"oh, ok." she whimpered.

and with that, we had our answer. and we've been pushing that story over and over throughout the christmas break. she agrees santa is out there, but has yet to see him herself. she happily left him milk and cookies on christmas eve night, so that was a good sign. but we'll see what next year brings.

(ps, we had a lovely christmas!)

2011-12-19T11:00:00.001-06:00

a little trip down memory lane!

from september 2007 - the boy was about 18 months.

2011-12-11T11:31:00.002-06:00

must be the spirit of the season, they weren't even faking it.

2011-12-06T19:23:00.000-06:00

hockey.

#61 is my boy.

it is here and it is in full swing. both the boy and i have strapped the skates on this year. matthew is already having much more fun than last year. he is excited about going to practice, he LOVED his first game, and he wants to get himself dressed. he is skating so much better. it really was like a switch was flipped - he no longer runs while he skates - he finally started gliding. he's not exactly steady on his feet, but this season is already going better than i expected. he has a long way to go as far as learning the game, but he looks cute setting up for a face off!

some of the kids on matthew's team are really, really good. i cannot believe they are 5 and 6 year olds - there is such a range of abilities. some of those kids can spend hours on the ice, while matthew has always had enough around the 1 hour mark.

he was pretty funny during his first game. i didn't really give him much advice other than listen to the coaches and have fun. he set up properly for face offs and always went after the puck and tried to keep up with the play. but like i said, some of the players out there are just really good (on both teams) and inevitably break free of the beehive of boys forming around the puck and take off down the ice.

at one point in the last period matthew got tired of chasing the play around the ice, so he just stood near the other team's net, waiting for a pass. a total unabashed cherry picker. this was apparently ok by his coaches since there is no offside in IP hockey. his strategy eventually paid off, sorta, because he did get a goal. i'd love to describe it to you, but i didn't see it. there was some kind of scrum in front of the goal at the other end of the ice, and before we knew what happened he was credited with an unassisted goal.

i made sure to get a copy of the game sheet.

they defeated rose valley 13-9.

2011-12-05T09:37:00.002-06:00

the pole dancing video i told my 4 year old daughter to hurry up and come watch.

whoa. she's strong.

2011-11-28T17:59:00.005-06:00

now there are two back doors!

before.

now!

eventually, the original door will be boarded up and dry walled over.

from this vantage, to the left of the new door there will be a 2 piece bathroom. and to the right of the new door, running along the wall to the corner of the room, there will be the pantry, fridge and then the counter and over head cabinets begin.

can you picture it?

it's going to be a similar layout to my sister's kitchen. (if that means anything to you)

the new door also has one of those mini blinds insert, you know, inside the glass. it's nice and simple - just what i wanted for the back.

one inch at a time it is getting done!

2011-11-25T10:11:00.003-06:00

2011-11-23T09:18:00.009-06:00

saturday night in toronto. look how well behaved we look!
(and were!)

since hotwire threw us in middle of yorkville, i didn't know what to do but wander down cumberland.

and i didn't know where else to go!

and i didn't know what else to order!

and the star of the show (besides allison, who by the way, is for sure my favourite person to photograph on nights like these. i came home with over 100 keepers from these nights in ontario, and 75 of them are gems of al.) aaanyway, the star of this show would be the unagi pizza right there in the middle.

one of my favourites from the whole night, love the walkway behind us.

there were 2 themes from this night... 1. movember. it was very well represented everywhere we went.

and 2. utterly, utterly ridiculous cab rides. this photo was a highlight from one of them. at this point of the night.... what were we thinking, al?

but we did make it, and then we entered this time warp.

thanks for coming down to meet us, trev!

thanks for understanding my need to hyper-document, eric! he snapped a lot of really good pictures for me this night but most of them are not blog appropriate.

it really wasn't long at the bedford until we were headed for the danforth. ... isn't that the traditional migration of hipsters and yuppies? annex/yorkville to the danforth? (haha!) either way, the danforth could very well be toronto's greatest neighbourhood.... and while this trip was only the fourth time i've been to the neighbourhood, and i was either in a cab inching through the busy street, or quickly walking to avoid the chill - i can honestly say i am in total love with it.

2011-11-22T11:32:00.002-06:00

i was in the bedroom with anna, waiting for my oven to pre-heat, when i heard an "uh-oh" from the kitchen.

2011-11-22T08:39:00.002-06:00

we had our first game of the year - it was at home vs viscount. and we lost, 5-3. there really aren't that many times where i will take full responsibility for a loss, but this is one of those times. three of those goals should not have gone in. if i had played just a smidge better, we would have won. but there's nothing i can do about that now - all i can do is wait for saskatoon to get to town on sunday and then take it out on them.

2011-11-20T10:14:00.001-06:00

stratford! who knew you were cultural and clever?

my sister humoured me and we did the touristy stratford tour. well, it wasn't that touristy, theatre season had been over for a while.

hard to believe she's lived in the area for so long and i've never made the trek to this side of perth county before.

not like it needs my endorsement, but it's beautiful here - a must stop on any southern ontario tour.

i believe the caption for this one is, "hurry up and take that picture because the light just turned green."

theatre season may have been over, but shopping season was well underway. i'll be back stratford!

2011-11-16T08:42:00.005-06:00

i probably shouldn't be blogging this, it was after all an illegal activity - but the security guard was the one who opened the door for me, so does that still count as trespassing?

when i was planning my trip to my sister's place, i figured, as usual, 24 hours in toronto was a must. when i'm traveling solo, i usually just crash at a friend's place, but this time i decided to see what kind of a deal hotwire could find me. i love (nice) hotels so i jumped at the chance to get a 4 star in downtown for more than half price.

my heart lept into my throat when i hit the confirm button on hotwire and they revealed just which 4 star i had paid for.

the marriott at yonge and bloor.

that may not mean much to you, but it means everything to this queen of nostalgia. if i were to cherry pick any hotel in the whole city, it would have been this one. you see, the first place mike and i ever lived together was at yonge and bloor. and not just anywhere at yonge and bloor, but our condo building's entrance was about 10 steps from the marriott. the same marriott that hotwire had just nailed down for me for an absolute bargain.

cue the hyperventilating.

here's the old haunt.... our building is the one peeking out in between the rbc tower and the bay tower.

it was brand new construction when we moved it - we were the first ones to live in our condo.

lame, i know - but i had to. we were on 37 of 38 floors and looooved it. i was texting mike like crazy at this point, walking him through where i was and what i was doing and how everything was exactly the same as it was 8 years ago. and he was all, "are you gonna knock on our old door?"

"NO!" i texted back, i felt creepy enough just stalking the common areas.

and with that, i high tailed it out of there... people were on their way over and i needed to pick up mix and snacks and our old rabba was calling my name. it was just too cool to be on that block all over again.

sunset down bloor.

thank you toronto, and thank you nice security guard who let me in! you have no idea how happy it made me to see those sights again!

2011-11-14T11:28:00.006-06:00

i am home from my little vacation out east and back to reality. if you could call what i do reality - a 4 and a 5 year old is a dream compared to the busyness of a 9 week old and a 2 year old. my sister and her husband, now those two are totally entrenched in reality. but their children are gorgeous and occasionally nap at the same time, so there's always that.

little miss emily is something else, let me tell you. we are a family of strong female personalities and this little girl is no exception. she's brilliant, hilarious and thoughtful.

and little baby sam is perfect. as we popped in and out of stores in lovely stratford, ontario it seemed like every woman had to stop and ask about the beautiful baby boy strapped to my sister's chest. he garnered attention from everyone. it's true, he's a looker and his mamma's milk has made him very strong for just two months old.

sam and i got to snuggle a lot, he had no problem letting me rock him to sleep on several occasions. and when rae went out on friday night, he took a bottle from me and settled into his crib at his usual bedtime. but there were moments during the week when no one but mom would do.

emily warmed up to me instantly. she was curious about practically everything i did and asked me a million questions along the way. but my favourite was when she would wait for me outside of the bathroom and chirp, "have a good pee, aunty?" when i emerged. she let me put her to bed on friday night, but after a few minutes there was a little whining from her room and she really wanted her daddy (who was still home) to tuck her in.

it was such a good visit, and i feel so much better now that i got in some quality time with my sister's family. it was so heartbreaking to know we missed sam's birth by less than a day last time we were in ontario. i'll never forget that phone call from rae ... we had only been in the house for a few hours, the phone rings, and she says "how was your flight?" and i can hear a newborn's cry in the background.

2011-11-08T20:31:00.001-06:00

sunrise at 38000 ft. never gets old.

2011-11-06T10:52:00.002-06:00

mother nature - she ain't effing around today. play safe out there people.

2011-11-01T09:17:00.007-06:00

ok, halloween with a 4 and 5 year old is really fun. i don't want to call the last several years of halloween tedious, but dressing up your 1-2-3 year old and taking them from house to house is more for the adults than it is for the kids. yes it was fun showing off my super cute kiddies to the relatives, but given the choice, the kids would have rather stayed at home.

this year we finally participated in the full halloween experience. we went to the elementary school halloween social, we took them to the haunted house, we let them go door to door by themselves (for a total of 12 houses and i was standing at the edge of the yard watching them.) this year it was finally about them, and their experience. we still hauled them around in the van to several obligatory houses after supper, but we didn't ration the candy when we settled down at the end of the night.

this year's halloween was fantastic.... but first a little walk down memory lane. cause those 1-2-3 year olds dressed up is waaaay too cute.

2007

2008

2009

2009

2010

2010

ok! now for this year. pay close attention, there were a few costume changes!

2011

anna had several days that she needed to dress up for .... pre school party on the 27th, halloween social on the 28th, birthday party on the 29th, costume day at dance class on the 30th and of course the official day of trick or treating on the 31st.

we have a tickle trunk FULL of dress up clothes, so i was hoping she would just dive right into those choices. and she did! she was a witch, tinkerbell (didn't get that picture!), or a mummy depending on her mood throughout the weekend. we only needed to figure out the mummy thing, which was as easy as ripping up a sheet and wrapping her up. we did zero make up because most lotions, even sensitive skin ones, irritate her. there was no way cheap halloween make up was going anywhere near her.

the boy on the other hand....

he wanted to be a zombie. how pop culture of him. there was no denying his costume request - pretty easy to rip up his old dress shirt and throw on a little make up.

by the time we were ready to hit the streets monday after school, the zombie make up was worn off and the mummy wraps were rapidly falling apart. oh well, this was day five of dressing up and we were done fiddling with the details at that point.

my little niece and nephew stopped in! they were perfect, little, cute chickens!

then we had to skype with nana and poppa - they are too funny.

the kids loved this creepy pumpkin that popped up on the screen first. very well done g'rents!

and with that we were off to get our friends and family in on the experience. as per usual we left our candy on the front step, relying on the honour system if any trick or treaters came around. and as per usual, not a single piece of candy was taken.... sigh.

2011-10-30T23:40:00.002-06:00

i might complain about the lack of fast food joints open at 11pm on a sunday night, but i <3 rural saskatchewan.

2011-10-27T16:47:00.002-06:00

mike says he's coming straight home from work today.

no work at the other house.

he wants the day off.

but i just broke the light fixture in our bedroom. and there's already a new one in the closet ready to be installed.

so..... perhaps not a night off after all. sorry.

2011-10-24T10:14:00.002-06:00

when people ask about the house, and they aren't sure what we're up to, my response is this; we are completely gutting it. inside and out. and here's the proof.

there is a grain truck under that pile, somewhere.

for the last several months i have been entirely embarrassed by the ever growing pile of crap that has been located between the house and garage. there wasn't a day that we didn't wish we could have gotten rid of it sooner - but we couldn't get the right equipment lined up and we kept adding to it.

but finally the stars aligned, the house is done being stripped (except for the main floor 1/2 bath, but we need to keep that standing so it can be used during construction) and we were ready to finally haul it all away. it was a BIG job, six loads worth. and that was after the grain truck had left.

a tight fit, but mike didn't wreck anything he wasn't supposed to!

don't worry, the boy didn't actually stand there the whole time. and look at the pretty new garage door on the right! it let's light in! and it closes! and latches! and locks! who knew the basic functions of a door could be so exciting?

goodbye garbage pile! looking forward to never, ever seeing you again!

2011-10-21T10:34:00.005-06:00

"no mom, i only like pictures of vegetables, not real vegetables. geez!"

2011-10-20T21:08:00.004-06:00

photographic evidence that i am, in fact, getting better at baking.

i wouldn't call this the most delicious pie with the flakiest crust i've ever had, but i would call it good.

i googled the most efficient way to do this lattice. i chose the wrong approach ... don't do it on parchment paper and then transfer it like i did. just start right on top of the filled pie shell. i had to re-do so much after the botched transfer that i may as well have started there in the first place.

it was my first try making pie crust from scratch in years. my grandma has always pre-made dough for me and i've just kept it in the freezer. it's really a good deal i've got going with her. i profess my inability to produce a quality pie crust, and she rolls her eyes and neatly packs up some of her home made, pre-portioned, frozen pie dough for me to take home.

but this time i took my grandma's pie plate (the pie plate she got from her mother-in-law's kitchen 50 years ago), and rouxbe's recipe and instructions and figured it out.

it turned out alright. next time it will be lighter and prettier and i will have more patience and chill it even more before rolling it out.

but i wonder how many pies has been baked in his 60 year old pie plate?

2011-10-19T10:21:00.007-06:00

the one question that everyone asks (and that i am more than happy to answer) is, how is the house?

in a short answer, the house is great. mike puts in as many hours as he can/feels like after his day job and slowly but surely progress is being made. the pace of it all can be a little torturous at time, but we have to keep reminding ourselves that our schedule is fine, so far, everything is (kinda) going to plan.

there are too many things to blog about at once, so let's start with what i am currently most excited about, the upstairs bathrooms.

here's the initial sketch i did of the bathrooms - slightly embarrassing how amateurish they are. i am so not good at this stuff. but it needed to be done.

the initial en suite was just a 2 piece - and i knew right from the first walk through that would change to a 3 piece. we had several factors that worked in our favour for this expansion. first the chimney was no longer needed (we're installing a new furnace that's vented differently) so it could be taken out of the hallway bath. i was also willing to sacrifice the bathtub in the kids' bathroom. it will be their main bathroom, but they've preferred to shower for months now and a tub is going in on the third level in bathroom #4. plus mike and i are strictly shower people, so choosing a nice big tiled shower for us over an average sized tub for them was a no brainer.

a few before shots. the kids' bath from the hallway.

i have sacrificed this very practical closet, and i am sure i will miss it. but there is another good sized one in the hallway, so this one was reluctantly axed.

there was no reluctance when axing this vanity.

and now the en suite bath...

and then the destruction....

this was about half way done, that bathtub was the most challenging part of the entire house's tear down. and matthew single-handedly took out that wall between the two bathrooms.

done!

that box on the floor is a bulk head for the stairs we are going to have to work around. that's where the sink the kids' bath will now go.

we are left with one giant room that will be divided like this:

(i wish i could say my drafting skills have come this far, but i did not draw this.)

the new en suite will have almost 9 feet of vanity and a 3 x 5 shower.... kinda incredible considering what it used to look like. the kids' will still have a nice sized shower at 3 x 4. some things may be tweaked a little bit for this design... the toilet and vanity will probably be switched in the kids' bath because of that bulk head. and right now the vanity in the en suite is drawn in at 24'' wide and it might need to be narrowed to 20 or 18'' for more circulation space (just learned that term) and i don't know if i need or even want 2 sinks in the en suite.

i'm going to tape this out and make sure it's not too cramped, but i think this is our best option for what we want.... then mike is ready to start building the new walls!

2011-10-14T21:39:00.004-06:00

did the guy from bhp billiton just say they've invested over a BILLION dollars in the new mine just down the road from here?

He said BHP is taking a long-term approach to investment. The company expects to make a final decision on whether to proceed with its multi-billion dollar mine east of Saskatoon near Janzen.
Kloppers lauded the stability and generally favourable investment climate in Saskatchewan.
“The very good investment climate we’ve had here in Saskatchewan has prompted us to spend over a billion dollars so far in working on this new mine,” Kloppers told reporters Friday.
the rest of the story.

wow. i guess so.

2011-10-12T10:12:00.002-06:00

2011-10-11T10:01:00.004-06:00

although i live deep in the heart of rider nation, there is a true ti-cat fan in my house. it's not his fault, he was born and raised there. his parents were born and raised there. his grandmother even has season tickets.

i just want to go on the record and say, the official ti-cat store has the best costumer service i have pretty much ever dealt with.

wrong size? we'll cover the shipping!

you bought it 4 months ago? no problem!

and here's a lovely follow up letter, just to make sure!

2011-10-03T08:50:00.008-06:00

this was my garden in the first week of august. the peas were done, but everything else (corn, turnips, beets, early potatoes, beans, and carrots) was in full form. i got a lot of good veggies out of my little plot this year, but not nearly enough herbs. it was a wet spring, but the summer progressed fabulously and it's now october 3rd and my tomatoes are still on the vine. i've only had to cover them 3 times for frost - and that was weeks ago!

that long plant stretched out on the lawn is a volunteer zucchini i had to cull. at least i think it was a zucchini. i let it get as big as i could before it was going to take over more than just a few carrots. it had meandered past the carrots and into my beans and was growing with such ferocious speed that it would be total vegicide in my garden if i let it run amok while we were in ontario in august. plus it wasn't actually producing any vegetables. it was a lone male with nothing to share pollen with. so while it had gorgeous blossoms, it wasn't worth losing even one bean plant over.

next year i will own a deep fryer and we'll dispose of these guys the right way.

i picked up some strawberry plants this year. i will eventually transplant them at the new house, but for this summer we just enjoyed them out of the hanging basket. that is if we got to them before the birds did.

my beans and carrots produced like crazy this year. absolutely perfect!

not quite perfect, but entertaining.

i'd say this was the best carrot of the season.

my machete makes gardening fun.

the first tomatoes picked of the season - worth documenting.
(in my demented world, anyway.)

the first big tomato harvest. such a bounty from 6 plants! those larger tomatoes in the crate are big beefsteaks - so you can appreciate just how epic those carrots are.

there were plenty of mutant tomatoes too.

total mutant.

heart shaped - it looked so good i didn't want to eat it.

so far i haven't canned any tomatoes. we've been inhaling as many raw ones as we can on a daily bases. and i just continue to make tomato-centric dishes as more ripen. today i'm making some salsa to keep in the fridge. so we'll see how many i've got left after that - probably not enough to justify canning.

i can never grow enough beans.

the corn looked pretty - but it was over ripe. lesson learned the hard way on that one.

next year's garden is totally up in the air. how long into 2012 will we live in this house? probably not long enough to harvest anything. since the current garden at the new house must be relocated, where will i put all of the vegetables i want to grow? the majority must be right beside the house. i have a lot questions, a few ideas, but still no for sure answers.

2011-09-30T11:28:00.011-06:00

a super long love letter to the kings of leon,

(if you don't like swearing or music fans rambling on and on about their favourite band, then stop reading right now and move along.)

my relationship with the kings of leon is almost as long and as sordid as their own rich band history. even though i was extremely late to the kings of leon party (i only bought my first KOL album 2 years ago) my first interactions with the band go back to the fall of 2003 when their debut album was released.

i was working at a independent music store in toronto at bloor and bathurst, two doors down from the iconic lee's palace. the only thing between me and the graffiti walls of lee's was a tim horton's and an alley way that was the permanent residence of a man who claimed he had once been abducted by aliens. he spit his whole life story out as fast as he could every time i walked by (which was many times a day because the bathroom facilities in the store were not female friendly).....

aaaanyway, as a complete music lover, being immersed in the record store was a whirlwind of new music on daily basis. like kids on christmas, every box we opened for new release tuesday made us giddy. i specifically remember the day youth and young manhood hit the shelves. my co-worker was a guy in his mid twenties who's first love was his own band, a punk rock mash up that now magazine once called toronto's best live band.

he played the new kings of leon album that tuesday morning and all i could do was hate it and him for it.

sounds dramatic, i know, but it was my morning to choose our playlist (a big deal in our/any record store) and i was currently obsessed with this little winnipeg band called the weakerthans at the time. i was just getting into their then 4 album deep catalogue and that monday night, the very night before the release of KOL's youth and young manhood album, i had a run in with the weakerthan's drummer out on bloor st. it was a brief exchange with a current hero that left my knees shaking, but it did confirm their status as one of the greatest canadian bands of all time.

so, my relationship with KOL started with my weakerthan's playlist being hijacked by my co-worker and his new LOVE for this band and their debut cd. i was not impressed and because of that moment i came to loathe anything kings of leon.... it was a shallow response and that i regret, a million times over. (remember, i had JUST ran into the drummer of my new favourite band the night before and my co-worker was all 'fuck that guy' listen to this!)

as the years went on, i eventually stopped paying attention to mainstream music all together. i was so offended by the britney and co. super invasion and i just couldn't tolerate top 40 music anymore. i cancelled my subscription to rolling stone and among other things, moved back to the prairies to grow a veggie garden a raise my babies. that was about the time kings of leon hit it huge - and now they represented 2 things that disagreed with me, the way my now ex co-worker strong armed the store's cd player and top 40.

hints of greatness from the kings of leon crept into my life from time to time, but i never gave them an ounce of attention - they were already so mainstream i wanted nothing to do with them. but then things changed a few years ago when i heard the song, crawl. it was on the radio in some random store in the city and i was forced to listen to it from beginning to end - and it floored me. i wanted to hear it again and again. when i got home later that night i bought the album and it took about 2 hours before i was damned near hyperventilating with glee (no pun intended). it was a sea change for me - i had a new favourite band, a new super favourite band.

i love music so much that there are barely a handful of minutes in a day where i am not listening to something. be it motown, metallica, or mozart - it's always something.

anyway, the point to all of this is, i have spent the last 2 years playing catch up with the kings of leon. i have been listening to them non-stop, i have fully immersed myself in their entire catalogue. they are, without a doubt, one of THE greatest rock and roll bands in american history.

their story is a quintessential rock one. 3 brothers and a cousin from the deep south. father is a traveling preacher, and the youngest boy (at 16!) gets recruited for the band's demo and he's never even touched a bass before? what the fuck is that? and the craziest thing about it all? their first album, that album that used to make me scowl for so many years, youth and young manhood, is ONE OF THE GREATEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME. and it's their rookie attempt! it's unreal and the album's circumstances make it LEGENDARY. and their top 40 song crawl that sparked my interest? it doesn't even crack my top 25 from the band. the bucket, joe's head, fans, ragoo, wasting time, manhattan, black thumbnail, pick up truck, mary, revelry, KNOCKED UP ... these songs are incendiary. impossible to believe they are all from the same 4 guys. albums like because of the times, tick along perfectly with song after song of infectious melodies and guitar licks that never become obnoxious. their roots are embraced with country and western influenced masterpieces like back down south, day old blues, and talihina sky.

many people have criticized KOL's evolution throughout the years. some total hipsters say anything produced after youth and young manhood isn't worth their effort. i cannot scoff loud enough at this assertion and only have to point to the band's 2007 effort because of the times. when all the dust settles, that album will eclipse youth and young manhood's greatness.

you must listen to their albums. you have put their overplayed singles aside and listen to the entire albums chronologically. together they represent one of the greatest catalogues in american rock music history. song after song is catchy and worthy of repeat. together, the songs on any given album ebb and flow with the pure passion of genius. albums are punctuated with sparks of punk and the occasional country and western flare. they are a raw and organic expression of their musical influences - the clash, the rolling stones, baptist choirs and the city of nashville.

haters cite the band's somewhat diva portrayal in the media and dismiss their music cause it is played relentlessly on top 40 radio. all i have to say about that is this; i don't want my favourite musicians to be regular day to day joes. i mean you've got be off your rocker and just a little misunderstood to live the lifestyle of a musician (successful or not). i'm thinking a little mental imbalance (bi polar, addiction, whatever) goes a long way when it comes to the creative process. the occasional cancelled tour date does not phase me. and i definitely want my rock stars married to models. you just know that shit is unstable and nothing but good music comes from that. (it's not that i like my favourite musicians unhealthy, of course not! it's just that i don't care about their personal lives, at all. i just want them to keep cranking out the music. oh jeez, now it sounds like is assume the members of KOL are really unhealthy and mentally imbalanced.... that's not what i mean! they've just recently had some highly publicized problems and the lead singer just married a super model, and i'm ok with that. )

so, in three sleeps i get to experience my first KOL concert. we have front row-ish tickets and access to the vip area. i plan on going insane when the band takes the stage. i will try not to scream along to every word (nobody likes that) but i will dance my ass off.

2011-09-29T10:40:00.012-06:00

we did the terry fox run this year, like we do every year. the dude is my version of a saint and his memorial near thunder bay is a religious experience that i seek out every chance i get. this year matthew was participating through school for the first time, so he was pumped about that. earlier in the summer we happened upon a cupcake and iced tea stand being run by two little girls. they were raising money for our community's new arena project. (which i am volunteering for and am SUPER excited about) matthew was so impressed by this idea that he insisted over and over again that he needed to do something just like that. so we talked about his options, what he would sell, what he would use the money for, etc. but in the end, he was determined to copy the cupcake and iced tea stand idea because in his words, it was "BRILLIANT!" and i agreed because cake mixes were on sale that week at the co-op.

my niece and nephew (the twins!) spent the day with us - and we loved it!

we (anna helped every step of the way!) baked cupcakes and made a sign. they were out on the curb by 8:30am as the weather was spectacular. by the days end they had over $100 and when the money was due, a total of $135 had been collected. so high five to my kids - and anyone who donated!

the walk itself was lovely again this year - all four kids (ayden and mya included) had no trouble with the rather long trek.

we continue to be spoiled with an extra long summer. it is simply bliss out on the prairies right now!

2011-09-27T10:09:00.004-06:00

i tried to photograph these big fat rain drops that were falling on this sun drenched august afternoon in southern ontario. but by the time i snapped my first shot, they had stopped.

but i did get the rainbow.

i even ran out onto the neighbour's airstrip (he flies a plane, and he leaves from his backyard) to get this shot of the house. and before i could back up any further, it had faded completely. a for effort though, right?

2011-09-26T11:12:00.005-06:00

me and anna are driving home from grocery shopping, she is quietly lost in thought, but then perks up:

mom, did you know i have an imaginary friend named anna?

oh really?

ya, and she has a mommy named adrienne.

isn't that interesting...

she is the best mom in the whole world. no one is cooler than that mom named adrienne.

that's nice. anna sounds like a lucky girl.

she is mom. anna is so lucky because her mom - she lets her daughter eat all the candy she wants. even if it's before supper. she's the best mom - not like my mom.

all dressed up ready for her first dance class.

i didn't even hold back the laughter, i just laughed and laughed. this was obviously in reference to the no candy discussion we have right before every trip to the grocery store.

2011-09-22T15:36:00.004-06:00

of course i took pictures on the first day of school....

matthew's first day of kindergarten was exciting for everyone - he was so ready and not nervous at all. he had nothing to be nervous about - the pre-k class is literally next door to his new classroom, and he spent the last two years there.

i walked him to school, and told him i would pick him up on the playground at lunch. when the bell rang at noon, he sulked out of the porch and reluctantly made his way towards me. i asked him how his morning was and what was wrong, and he responded by saying, "you must write me a note so i can stay for lunch. you didn't tell me there would be kids staying for lunch."

i explained that since we live within a few hundred feet of the school, it would be silly for him to stay. and unless it was a special occasion, he was coming home for lunch every day.

he was just ok with that.

after he ate his lunch, he promptly headed back to the playground to play. i walked him back, but i only got as far as the edge of the school property before he broke away and took off in a full sprint. i didn't even have a chance to remind him where i would be at the end of the school day.

when the end of the day did come, i was greeted by another furrowed brow. he insisted he had a good day, but - and i quote, "mom! you don't need to walk me home every time! i know the way!"

i laughed and said i didn't care how close our house was to the school, he was going a new route, and every mother reserves the right to walk her child to and from school on the first day of kindergarten.

beyond me putting a cramp in his day - he had a great time. i am lucky because matthew is always ready to tell me about his day - maybe not right away, but he'll usually come find me and start chatting after he unwinds a little.

anna also had her first day of school - pre school. this was a long time coming because she has watched her brother attend for the last 2 years. she is not in the same program that matthew was enrolled in. hers is a private pre-school that is run buy a board of directors - which is just a handful of parent volunteers. and while the location isn't quite as amazing as the elementary school, it is nearly as good with only being a block away.

her program is 2 days a week for 2.5 hours each time. and with the boy's kindergarten schedule, it works out that i have about 12 hours of alone time each month.... it's not a lot, but it's some! and so far that number has been whittled down a little bit because of pre-school volunteer duties and elementary school early dismissal days. (one of these years i'm going to have to get a real job, but this isn't it.)

anna's first day of school went just as smoothly as we expected. we walked her there, found her coat rack area, her chair and helped her get settled. there was absolutely zero hesitation (from anyone) when we turned to leave. there were a group of kids playing and she was eager to join them. you could feel the pride swell inside of her as she soaked up her new surroundings. this is what she had been anticipating for so long - school.

she was rather excited to see me when i picked her up a few hours later, so that was nice to see. she has loved going back every day since - and as far as i can tell, is getting along just fine. she doesn't talk about her day like matthew does, but if i prompt her with the right questions, she's eager to give me the details.

2011-09-21T14:20:00.003-06:00

this is where we get our name from, stuff like this only happens around here.

2011-09-17T13:17:00.003-06:00

a few conversations that were worth jotting down... pictures brought to you by our latest trip out to the farm from which we get our eggs.

mom and anna are in the kitchen:

mom, can i have some more cereal?

no, you’ve had lots of cereal today. you will have to choose something else, variety is important.

i don’t like variety. variety is not a super food. bacon! i want some bacon! bacon is a super food.

matthew and i are eating lunch together:

do you think you want to play hockey this winter, bud?

mmmm maybe. but maybe i’ll wait until i’m 6.

oh? how come?

cause when i'm 6 i’ll start losing my teeth and then i’ll look like a real hockey player.

anna is set up with vintage mickey mouse and pluto cartoons on youtube while i hop into the shower:

mom! i need a new cartoon!

huh? what's wrong with mickey and pluto?

it's in spanish! i can't hear spanish, i can only hear canadaish.

2011-09-14T10:30:00.007-06:00

but the truth is, so many wonderful things happened this summer that i have to get it down. we were completely spoiled by the weather, by family and well, by life.

i have only been up to the georgian bay area a handful of times, but that place has permeated every inch of me and it is easily one of the greatest places on earth. i will be back year after year, it will be what my children remember about their summers growing up - they are, after all, the fifth generation (on my mother in law's side) to call this particular part of muskoka their home away from home. and we plan on doing everything possible to keep that tradition alive (short of actually purchasing property up there, cause oooh my it is quite the commitment in every sense of the word and we live 3000 km away.)

this is the first thing we did when we got there.

and just like an old pro (with a whole week's worth of experience that happened over a year ago) he was bating his hook and casting.

and the only injuries were dad's.

he knows what he is doing.

his fish count was at 21 this year - something he is still excited to tell you about if you ask him. this was his only keeper. not bad for a perch!

dad filleted the fish as best he could - but no one was hungry for it, so we stuck it in the fridge and forgot to eat it. but don't tell matthew that, he still thinks it was the best fish dad ever ate.

(this look brought to you by her veggie appetizer)

this year, paul brought his lovely girlfriend, heather, with him. we had met once before, but only briefly, so i was anxious to get to know her better. and good god do i love this woman. i could gush and go on and on about her but i'm not so sure she wants her life on the internet. so i'll just say this; she is entirely wonderful and i can't wait until we see her and paul again.

this year, we spent a lot more time out on the shoals. hauling picnics and anything else we could think of out there.

every conversation is a philosophical one when these two are around.

vacations are exhausting anna, i know.

2011-08-28T09:09:00.000-06:00

i am emerging from my post vacation hangover so i think it's definitely time to blog! i think i seriously had the blues for the first couple of days i was home because i was so not done with ontario this time around. it feels like we didn't get to see half of the people we had expected to, and i was THIRTEEN hours away from being in the province long enough to meet my new nephew!

here's a little from the trip. we've all done this enough to know i have 200 pictures to share.

last summer in ontario was very similar to this summer in ontario ... wonderful weather, wonder locations and wonderful people. and don't forget the food. norfolk country needs to be renamed the horn of plenty because it is just mind boggling how gorgeous and bountiful the local produce is. they can grow everything there.... and that's where you see fields of tomatoes and watermelons just like we see flax and canola (except on a smaller scale, you won't find a farmer with 1000 acres of watermelon, more like 30). it's amazing (to me) and i never tire of 12 minute drive to town passed all the farmer's fields. even the tobacco crops are interesting to see. last summer we had nearly 3 weeks to absorb it all and this year it was only 2 very quick weeks.

but we made the most of it. we're getting really good at that.

after a day of traveling (oh my god i hate the flight to calgary first, and then over to hamilton. i don't know how many more of those horrible detours i have left in me. direct to pearson is so much more civilized. ok, sorry, flying rant over) we had one full day at home before we made the near heroic trek from southeastern southern ontario to muskoka. that would be through the gta, on a friday, in august. we survived in good time and without incident. but the idea that people make that drive on a regular basis makes me want to throw up in my mouth ~~a lot~~ a little. you must be really, really dedicated to the cottage life to do that every weekend.

however, it is kind of a phenomenal place.

after a week of quintessential cottage life we toured back to the homestead - stopping for a little canadian history lesson along the way.

we spent one whole day with my sister and her family, which was a pathetically short amount of time. i wish we could have done more. but the kids did spend many hours playing together and we adults spent the whole day on the patio enjoying the yard and another hot, sunny day.

i just wanted to post a few shots, hopefully to get the blog gears going again....

and happy anniversary to me and the husband - seven years and the livin is easy. how lucky are we?

2011-08-05T08:23:00.002-06:00

our town (the chicken capital of canada) hosts
these chicken chariot races every year.

what is a chicken chariot race, you ask?

well, you hook some chickens up to homemade chariots - and you race em.

and hundreds of people come out to watch.

half the time the chickens don't even cross the finish line - but hootin and hollering trying to get them to just GO already! is most of the fun.

but the chariot has to stay attached or it doesn't count.

i guess our chicken never got that memo.

it's only seems slightly cruel that we use these chickens for entertainment... peta has yet to show up.

we did not win, but there's always next year!

2011-08-02T09:10:00.007-06:00

turkey dinner in july!

had to, grandma rosie and co. were in town all the way from pittsburgh.

i didn't make my cabbage rolls ahead of time like i was supposed to and then before i know it my mom is calling me and saying, just so you know, there will be about 12 adults and 4 children at supper tonight. and we're eating at 6. and i went, tonight??? uh-oh, i'm not prepared. it'll have to be something else because it's 2pm and 30 degrees, i just cut the grass and i don't really feel like standing over boiling cabbage and then running my oven for the next 2 hours... i'm going to have to bail on those classic cabbage rolls.

i brought corn, buns from the bakery, and pound of butter instead. the corn was rather tasty, but i'm still a little sad i screwed up the cabbage rolls. i looove those, and i really don't make them enough - they're rosie's recipe and everyone's favourite.

my step sister megan made the trip up with rosie and john and brought a friend along with her. those girls loved it here, begging to stay longer. but being teenagers and 3000 miles from home made me wonder about that. however, their motivations became crystal clear when i overheard them describing the souvenir they wanted mom to keep an eye out for. a canadian hoodie. more specifically a canadian hoodie that stated, "i love canadian boys."

haha, love it.

2011-07-31T14:38:00.013-06:00

my little girl turned four a few weeks ago. we had our usual family party for her, then she had one with little people.

i stained my deck black. i don't regret it, yet. i initially went with a more conventional colour, but once i got the first coat of walnut on, i didn't like the two tone brown that was going on between the deck and the fence... so i had to go really neutral.... and there was no where to go but black. believe me, that brown fence isn't my favourite colour, but we had little choice because of the huge deal we got on these discontinued composite boards. i just could not say no.

anyway, back to the birthday party.

presents!

and cousins!

these two are too cute.

ice cream cake, decorated to her specifications.
(plain with hearts and sparkly thingies you light on fire and a big four). it was perfect for the hot july night.

for supper i put together a fajita bar. i had a spicy beef and a pineapple pepper pork for meat to choose from with loads of toppings like corn, avacado, tomatoes, red onions, roasted asparagus and banana peppers. i also bbq'd whole bell peppers stuffed with a veggie fried rice. it was a really simple, make ahead meal that was a crowd pleaser. i just bbq's my meat early in the day, then sliced it up, and put it in tin foil packs to re-heat when the peppers were ready to bbq right before dinner. and the toppings were easily prepped early in the day... i will certainly do it again and i am really bummed i didn't take pictures.

after dinner there was ladder golf and a campfire.
and all generations had a lot of fun.

my grandpa was really into it, i think he was having the most fun.

he was even talking smack to the other team.

it was a great, we played game after game and me and grandpa went undefeated. the adults definitely had the most fun on this night!

a few days later we planned the little people party for the paddling pool. it was supposed to be two hours of carnival type games geared towards 3 and 4 year olds. but it rained. so we re-organized the games as best we could and moved it to the garage (at the new house).

i hired the cake out for this party - we've got this woman in town who is massively talented at this stuff. i'd be a fool not to. anna's brand new music box was the inspiration.

towards the end of the party, the sun did shine so we scooted down the street to the park to soak it up.

happy birthday anna banana! we love you!

2011-07-20T13:33:00.000-06:00

mmmmmm......summer in a bowl.

2011-07-15T08:49:00.000-06:00

mom! come quick! come quick! i rescued a bird!

oh no, i thought as i walked purposely towards to the kids hunched over the big blue cooler in the yard.

after shooing it back into the cooler a few times, i convinced the kids to let it hop out and take off on it's own. i explained that it was just a fledgling learning to fly. and you hear that screeching coming from that bird up there? that's it's mom and she wants you to leave it alone.

i know mom! the boy insisted. it's just a baby and we're rescuing it! max was trying to eat it!

ooooh, i see.

judging the by the drool already deposited on the birds back, and the fact that max was snapping at the air all around the bird, that yes, the kids did actually save the bird from becoming a mid afternoon snack.

oh the massacre that would have been. right in front of the kids, no less.

we let them interact for a few more minutes, having to call max back several times when her drooly chompers got a little close.

and when the little robin made it clear it wanted out of here, we accommodated.

see ya later little guy, that was fun! next time find a backyard that doesn't have a cat and a dog that eat baby robins like popcorn to fall in to.

2011-07-08T22:37:00.004-06:00

the light streaming in through every window was yellow. it was 8pm and it was not sunlight yellow, but storm yellow. tornado yellow.

pick any window to look out of and you could see funky clouds rolling and heaving with the wind. blue sky in one patch, but the darkest of grey cloud in the next - and yellow, now almost green light bathing the entire yard in a warm and ominous glow.

i considered jumping in my vehicle to go take pictures, but i had retired to bed to flip through anna's birthday pictures and really wasn't in the mood to go anywhere.

the sunset kept painting the already animated clouds in these dramatic yellow and orange hues and i kept wishing i was getting at least one good photo of the events unfolding twenty thousand feet above me.

i'm sure the view from the fourth street grid is unbelievable. i think i'm going to go take a few shots, i called down to mike.

he encouraged me to take off right away, i but i hummed and hawed for a few more minutes. i finally grabbed my camera and headed out of town only to find the best light had faded, but i did get to see some interesting weather.

the rest of the photos are here. including a lightning strike i didn't even intend to capture.

2011-07-06T09:46:00.005-06:00

it is so summer around here it's ridiculous.

we've had nicer weather already this summer than we have the last 2 combined. yes, that's how wonderful it's been, and yes, that's how shitty it was in '09 and '10.

we spent at least five hours at the pool yesterday.

buns from scratch, baked that afternoon.

it's going to be at least 27 degrees here today, so we just might be going back.

scant amounts of butter and mayo. then tomato.

so my garden is growing! a lot! and so is the grass.

carmelized onions and banana peppers.

technically, i'm having no problem maintaining two yards.

garden lettuce. a gift from the early garden gods.

but technically, i'm not doing any work inside on the days i work outside.

the perfect marriage of cow and pig.

the laundry is a either clean and in a pile, or slightly damp and in a pile.

havarti then ketchup and dijon.

the dishwasher still hasn't been emptied from yesterday, and the laundry is still just sitting there, i've been meaning to pick up milk since sunday and i haven't cleaned the bathrooms since company left on monday.

the greatest flavour explosion ever. ever, ever.

but technically, i don't care. cause it's so summer around here it's ridiculous.

2011-06-29T19:46:00.006-06:00

get it out of yer system now, cause i have soffit, fascia and shingles going up at the new house tomorrow!

the best of best friends from ontario flies in tonight and he just happens to run his own roofing company.... good timing, eh?

everything is all set for the tear off in the morning, i just have to hurry up and pick a shingle colour. i still don't know ... and there aren't any houses around here that have the colour i think i like.... but how do i know for sure?

dual black or harvard slate? dual black or harvard slate? dual black or harvard slate?

2011-06-28T09:14:00.004-06:00

uh, we've had a little rain lately. the good news, both of our basements are dry - although my dehumidifier would like a break.

my garden doesn't look like this right now, but everything is so saturated that it wouldn't take much for my potatoes and beans to be swimming again.

i've been working on learning more and more about my camera lately - it's a steep learning curve that i am tackling one random urge at a time. luckily, i bought a dslr that's for beginners so when i'm tired of fiddling with the settings and i really just want to get the shot, i can switch back to auto.

i loooove micro photography but i'm limited with what i can do based on the lens that i have. the other day i was in the city and looked into a new lens.... i figure a micro lens is where i want to start. until i saw the price tag. almost five hundred dollars for a good lens. nothing spectacular, just your basic micro lens that will take good photos.

(note, these are not good photos, but they will look a little nicer if you click on them and appreciate them a little larger.)

i stifled my gasp and admitted i hadn't done much homework on camera equipment. i settled on a (very necessary) tripod and said i'd be back with a more attainable goal after doing a little research... turns out the next lens on my list is a quarter of the price. whew.

so until i save up a decent chunk of change for a new lens, i'm going to have to keep practicing with this one. every time i have tried to take a picture of a bee, i struggle to shift the focus from the flower to the bee without the bee flying away... so i have a long way to go before i get a fancy lens anyway.

fewer things in life give me greater pleasure than watching my peas plants reach for their trellis.

well, not really. but you know what i mean. they look so cool.

2011-06-21T09:26:00.000-06:00

the boy went school swimming.

i think he enjoyed it.

this is what he calls going under water.

we're all pretty excited for lessons in july!

2011-06-17T09:07:00.005-06:00

the musical ride was in town when my inlaws were visiting - so of course we went.

and of course i took pictures.

it's impressive, no doubt, and we enjoyed it.

the kids really enjoyed it.

the members were very kind and generous with their time. they had the stables open to the public all weekend.

a little positive pr probably goes a long way.

2011-06-14T13:51:00.001-06:00

(the pictures are from downtown pittsburgh.)

there always seems to be a break in blogging when i am actually busy.

and by busy i mean that my inlaws were visiting for just over a week.

i am one of the fortunate few that can say they absolutely adore their spouse's family. and while they spoiled my children with all of their classic grandparent ways (toys, candy, trips to the park) i got to spoil them by cooking all week. there was fresh pasta and bread and mussels and king crab and prime rib and blts and eggs benedict ... not all in one day, of course.

so while mike worked, matthew went to school, i cooked, and nana hung out with anna - papa worked on the house. not the new house, but the current home. last year mike started the crown molding in the dining room and kitchen. growing frustrated with the steep learning curve that is perfecting crown molding the first time you try it, mike took a breather from that particular home improvement project. and now his (more experienced and much more patient) father was here to ~~re-do~~ finish the job.

it goes without saying he rick did a wonderful job and it looks amazing! i'll show those pictures when i show off the rest of rick's work, because when he was here he also installed the custom made stained glass cupboard doors (that he made) for my kitchen cabinet. we are just waiting for the hardware then i will be blogging those beauties.

we came up with the idea for the stained glass many moons before we thought about buying a new house. my father in law was able to make a simplified version of the original plans because we still plan on being in this house for at least another year.... and i LOVE LOVE LOVE them.

i am extremely lucky to have both a husband and a father in law capable of my ridiculous demands. built in shelves! crown molding! stained glass doors!

we bid the grandparents goodbye on sunday afternoon. we absolutely love when they come visit and we CANNOT wait until we get to invade their home in august!

2011-06-03T15:21:00.004-06:00

this is so badass.

she knew it would major news and she new she'd be asked for a statement.

and here it is:

Harper’s agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation. We have to stop him from wasting billions on fighter jets, military bases, and corporate tax cuts while cutting social programs and destroying the climate. Most people in this country know what we need are green jobs, better medicare, and a healthy environment for future generations.

Contrary to Harper's rhetoric, Conservative values are not in fact Canadian values. How could they be when 3 out of 4 eligible voters didn’t even give their support to the Conservatives? But we will only be able to stop Harper's agenda if people of all ages and from all walks of life engage in creative actions and civil disobedience.

This country needs a Canadian version of an Arab Spring, a flowering of popular movements that demonstrate that real power to change things lies not with Harper but in the hands of the people, when we act together in our streets, neighbourhoods and workplaces.

high five to her, but civil disobedience, really? i wonder what will happen to her. charges? fines? just a swift kick in ass on the way out?

updated: A little note to the CBC’s Evan Solomon. (which i completely agree with)

Respecting institutions does not trump the right to dissent. Disagree with what DePape did, fine, but don’t intimate that her right to dissent ends when she walks into the chamber, even if she’s a Page. From what I understand, you don’t sign away your Charter Rights when you become a Page, so the fact of the matter is that, like it or not, she dissented against the government in a place that exists to ensure that she has that right. If there is a better place that you can think of for a protected right of all Canadians to be displayed, I’m all ears.

She might be green, but that photograph alone has eclipsed the Thrown Speech. So it would seem that, despite the hue and cry of Parliamentary dinosaurs that can’t find their asses with two hands and a flashlight most of the time, it worked.

2011-06-02T14:12:00.001-06:00

hard not to be psyched after watching this.

2011-05-31T15:43:00.004-06:00

the geriatrics in the crowd might want to mute the death metal.

a few random thoughts on the house.

- we still have most of the bathrooms, the rest of the kitchen cabinets, and that one six foot kitchen wall left to rip out. the cabinets will being dissembled in a controlled fashion because they are going in the garage.

- we high fived when we found out that the chimney behind the upstairs bathroom wall was not encased in brick. which we were totally expecting. whew times ten. hello bathroom extension!

- the new floor plans (almost decided on) and the plumping are going hand in hand so that has the hubby doing cartwheels.

- so far, i am not having any anxiety over making the big decisions (flooring, cabinets, hardware) that i thought i would. (oh these first world problems.)

- and, even a few new decisions have me doing cartwheels. example:

i have no idea if this sink is in my budget, but it might have to be. i am absolutely shocked at how much i want this sink (but maybe not that faucet). i gasp in delight every time i pull this picture up.

2011-05-27T09:16:00.001-06:00

after walking around station square and across and around the bridge for a while, i needed to find a restaurant. i had researched for good places to eat in advance, but they were all far, far away from where i was staying and i never did pin point a specific place that i absolutely had to go to, even though there were about half a dozen places in the pittsburgh area that had been featured on diner, drive ins, and dives. i had googled the hell out of those places, and the reviews were consistently average for every location, so i didn't bother.

i wandered into my hotel lobby and asked the concierge about either an oyster bar or sea food place, preferably an oyster bar. he hummed and hawed for a moment and regretted that there was nothing within a twenty minute cab ride.

nothing? i prodded.

nothing like that, he sighed.

but. he continued. there is a rather nice place at the end of the block, the grand concourse. it's got a few seafood dishes on the menu and it is quite good food. and if you take my card and tell them i sent you, you'll get a free appetizer or dessert - your choice.

i nodded and took his card. i had already walked past - and taken several pictures of the place he had suggested, and it did look nice from the outside. so why not, i thought.

i hoofed it down the block and i found my way into the old train station that had been converted into a restaurant.

oooh, score! i thought. the food should be pretty good, right? i mean they have white linens on the table.

ooooh and a piano, with a guy twinkling away even though i was probably one of seven people in the whole ginormous place.

then, i look to my left and what to do i see?

an oyster bar.

for real.

in kind of a shock, i turn to the hostess and, as if she knows the context of my thoughts, say, is that an actual oyster bar? (i can't imagine how dumb that would have sounded.)

she chuckled out a yes and asked me where i wanted to sit.

i was on my own, so requested the bar. and i was glad that i did because there was a couple out on date that sat a few chairs down from me. the woman was very animated and kept drawing me into the conversation even though i was quietly keeping my conversation between me and the bartender. turns out neither of the two on the date were supposed to be out doing what they were doing and she had way too much fun slipping me these one liners about her 'brother' she was out with and that her husband was too busy to know she wasn't even at home. her jokes lasted cocktail after cocktail and it was very entertaining.

i went a little crazy and ordered a salad and the calamari to go with my 6 malapeque's and goat cheese bruscetta. boring choices, i know, but the calamari was not your regular deep fried/tzatziki sauce combo. it was breaded and fried, but then it was tossed in this light, sweet, spicy, bell pepper, white wine reduction. it was the best calamari i've ever had. no exception. and i did not take a picture of it. : (

i wonder if this floor was original.

after pushing my way through as much of those four appetizers as possible, i finished my last drink and meandered back to the hotel. i was very glad i didn't stop at the kitchy, touristy, italian place with all the blaring neon lights that was halfway between my hotel and the oyster bar, because i had considered it.

and i never did see that concierge again so i could tell him just how my experience was. ha.

2011-05-24T13:10:00.005-06:00

ok, a round up of the last few weeks. (my camera cord turned up after nearly being gone for two weeks, and i always use that as an excuse to skip blogging.)

we went to elton john. and he was amazing. i have seen him before but the crew that we toured up with had not (including mike). we sang and we danced to elton all night. levon took my breath away - it was one of those rare concert experiences when the weight of the person, performance and moment descend on your chest all at once and damn near knock you over. that's how good that song was.

the boy has started learn-to-play ball. he had a shaky first couple of practices (re: it was cold and his mother under dressed him, he took two balls in the face, and he was tired enough the one day he could have gone to bed before ball even started) but he looooves it now. he was even ticked off that it was cancelled yesterday - 6 degrees, over cast and wind do not make for happy little campers on the ball field.

all of my veggies are in! the usual veggie plot and tomato patch in our back yard is planted. and i've also done a fairly good sized plot with a couple of friends over at the new house. all just in time for it to frost tonight. for real.

and speaking of the new house, we have new garage doors!

not very exciting, i know, but this house is getting done one inch at a time.

i also learned that those deer on our new front lawn are worth a pretty penny. the set would go for over A GRAND if you were to buy them new. looks like they might be getting a paint job and sold on kijiji for that kind of money. i bet i could finance a whole bathroom with what they might go for now.

aaaaaand we also started (and practically finished) the official demo of the house. we threw a party and smashed the place. literally. we got so much more accomplished than we thought.

the momentary water leak was not funny at the time. mike sprints past me mumbling, "that's not supposed to be happening" and his buddy just laughs in the background.

after two good stints of ~~chipping~~ chainsawing away (the last one ending somewhere around midnight, sorry neighbours! one time only thing, i promise!) we hauled almost everything out of that house.

the complete shock of it all is still resonating. thank you, thank you, thank you to those who worked their tails off that night. the scent of chainsaw exhaust was still lingering in the air 12 hours later and shoulders, backs and arms were sore for days. it was epic and we are well on our way.

2011-05-12T09:03:00.000-06:00

when hotwire told me what hotel i was staying at, i was instantly excited. station square is a touristy little spot across the river from downtown pittsburgh. i had been there before (to the hard rock cafe more specifically, for a finger eleven concert over ten years ago) so i knew what i was expecting.

i knew i would be killing a few hours at whatever hotel i was staying at, so i was glad that i was, at the very least, going to be in such a photogenic area.

i went over and over the memory of that concert in my head because i thought it couldn't have been ten years ago. ten years was only first year university, and that was before the husband, and i remember that concert like it was yesterday, so surely it wasn't really ten years ago was it? i went over the math and the events again and again, and yep, ten years. i am old.

i can't say i know the bridges of pittsburgh all that intimately, but i think this one is my favourite.

sooo greeeeeeeeeen. well, in comparison to the tundra like conditions where we live, anyway.

2011-05-10T07:11:00.009-06:00

i spent last weekend in the city of bridges. the only thing is that this wasn't in saskatchewan, it was in pennsylvania.

my mom was graduating from robert morris university with her ph d in nursing practice - so it was off to pittsburgh to celebrate.

i got in thursday afternoon, and headed downtown to site see while my mom wrapped up her responsibilities at the university.

they just kind of like their sports around these parts.

even though i booked my hotel through hotwire (i'm 3/3 with hotwire now, love it.) i still called ahead and request a room with a view. always call ahead and ask about the view.

the next day were the ceremonies, and my sister and her beautiful family came, too!

here's the blurb from the program:

Rosanna is the program coordinator and nurse practitioner for Johns Hopkins Medicine, where she provides comprehensive care for employees in an occupational health setting. She holds a B.S.N. (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) from the University of Saskatchewan and an M.H.S. (Masters of Health Studies) from Athabasca University. Her capstone project, Stretching to Prevent Work-Related Musculoskeletal Injuries: An Approach to Workplace Wellness, was supervised was Judith Kaufman, Dr.P.H.

officially dr. rosie!

the boys couldn't make it because they were seeding, but saskatchewan was strongly represented. it was a great weekend! congratulations mom!

2011-05-02T09:03:00.004-06:00

go vote today! can't wait to see those numbers tonight! i can say with 99% certainty that the incumbent in my riding has this thing locked down - so i while my vote is still necessary, it isn't very exciting.

and in additional ways, history continues to unfold right before our eyes, but perhaps this is on a more impressive scale than the ndp surge. here's one more historical event that just begging to be turned into a movie.

and i want to know who were those 4 or 5 (or more) guys that were on foot inside the compound. how are those guys feeling today? and when do we get to know who they were? and which one is matt damon going to play?

an excerpt from a cnn article:

The mission ordered Friday by Obama encountered outer walls up to 18 feet tall topped with barbed wire, with two security gates and a series of internal walls that sectioned off different portions of the compound, the senior administration officials said. The main structure was a three-story building with few windows facing the outside of the compound, and a third-floor terrace had a seven-foot privacy wall, they said.

Months of intelligence work determined that the compound was custom-built to hide a high-value terrorism suspect, almost certainly bin Laden. The officials noted there was no telephone or internet service at the dwelling, which was valued at more than $1 million, and its occupants burned their trash rather than leave it out for collection as other area residents did.

Calling the U.S. operation a surgical raid, officials said it was conducted by a small team and designed to minimize collateral damage. Upon landing, the team encountered resistance from bin Laden and three other men that resulted in a firefight.

In the end, all four of the combatants in the compound were dead, along with a woman whom one of the men used as a human shield, the officials said. Sources said bin Laden was shot in the head.
At some point, one of the assaulting helicopters crashed due to a mechanical failure, according to the officials. It was destroyed as the U.S. team flew away, they said.

Obama and the senior administration officials said no U.S. forces were harmed in the operation, which took place very early Monday morning Pakistan time.

2011-04-30T11:28:00.009-06:00

inspired by the success that i've been having with bun making (see here. i made those again yesterday and had them with borscht for lunch and then i had the leftovers today and it is one of the greatest pairings of food in the history of mankind. garden borscht and dill cheese buns for everyone.) ...anyway, inspired by the success i've been having with bun making, i've ventured out into more yeast breads. and it's been about a month of non-stop baguettes around here.

hey, ya gotta start somewhere. i am (was?) a terrible baker.

since practice makes perfect, i've been turning them out for meals that don't necessarily match well with a baguette.

but no one would ever complain.

but i did pair a homemade baguette with the perfect meal the other night. we picked up a couple of pounds of mussels from pacific fresh fish in regina (another big groupon score) and i made a simple spicy tomato sauce for them.

only to pair that combo with fresh linguini i made from that day's delivery of eggs.

it's knowing how make meals like this that make living in the middle of no where that much more bearable. we have so many luxuries out here, but food like this, is not one of them. so it's a wonderful thing that i love ~~spending all day~~ whipping something like this up.

oh my. so delicious. we need a repeat of this night asap.

you bring the mussels and i'll cook the food.

2011-04-28T08:54:00.003-06:00

we took a drive the other night, i was hoping to see some evidence of the wet spring, and just to see what the roads looked like leading up to big quill lake. mike had said the dump road was worth a look. something about a washed out culvert.

sigh. i love saskatchewan.

hello spring flooding!

i have never seen a washed up culvert this size before.

would have been interesting to watch this thing get torn up.

oh ya, hubby got a new truck. not a new, new truck - but a new to him truck. apparently he needs it to start work on the house. i'm calling it his wage for spending the next year working like a dog on our new house. good deal for me, i'd say. but now i have to sell my car. and that, i'm not all that ok with.

we really didn't have to go far before that was the end of it.

hello big quill lake!

this one is my favourite. and it's straight out of the camera. and it looks so much better on flickr.

2011-04-26T19:22:00.001-06:00

a few weeks ago, we headed into regina to celebrate mike's birthday. the kids had a sleep over at the farm - and i scored a really cool groupon that i knew would make an awesome birthday gift for mike.

a few months ago there was a groupon (50% off) for planet scuba's introductory scuba course. this was perfect. it was unique and unexpected and mike would love a chance for a scuba introduction, and i would never, ever do it with him at a resort when we were away some where. i can't ever see myself comfortable with learning scuba at a tropical resort, which is where in all likely hood we would ever have a chance to do it.

i have way too many issues with places that sharks live, and salt water and doing activities that fill me with anxiety while on vacation.

but i figured i could probably get a hold of any of my scuba anxieties in the shallow end of the Y.

but first, sushi! we picked a popular chain in regina, and we were a little disappointed. the interior was interesting (in a good way) but the food was just ok. it was nothing to write home about. maybe it's because we usually save our sushi excursions for sushiro in saskatoon who have concentrated their passion into this perfect little spot and who quite obviously use the best ingredients possible.

at least it it looked cool. and the tempura appy was delish.

after sushi, it was scuba time. we went to planet scuba on albert and they had us watch an instructional video on the basics of scuba, then they set us up with our own gear. after that we were told to meet at the Y for pool time.

we got geared up and got into the pool. even though there were at least a dozen people there to scuba, there was just one guy instructing three of us, so that was really nice. we reviewed all the basics and practiced several procedures including a couple of emergency situations. after that we were given free range of the facility and told to go have a good time getting to know the equipment. we spent an hour just fluttering around between the deep and shallow end. and once i got comfortable with the breathing aparatus, i loved every minute of it - despite the lack of tropical landscape that is the usual scuba diving reward.

it was the absolute perfect introduction to scuba and i would highly recommend planet scuba to anyone else interested in checking it out. the whole staff (even if we weren't sure who was staff and who was just regular scuba enthusiasts there to practice) were really friendly and accommodating to us. a real community atmosphere where everyone wants everyone to get the most out of their time in the pool - that much was obvious.

after we maxed out our time scuba diving we booked it back to the hotel to get ready to hit the casino. we have never had a night out in a casino together before, and we both enjoy gambling, so we were excited! and thankyouverymuch delta regina for having such a reasonable stay and play rate.

i love staying up high - we did live on the 37th floor in a condo building for a year - the view was nice to have but if we stay here again i think i'll request a room on the other side. i liked checking out the casino right below us, and the expanse of the city lights were beautiful, but just out of my camera range the view is mostly industrial. and i imagine the south view would be spectacular because of the legislature grounds and wascana park.

the bartender.

don't worry, i made him button up his shirt. and then we got to the casino, and remembered we were in regina, and felt extremely over dressed. i was, after all, rocking these stilettos. we had a really great time together in the casino - and we only donated a little bit of money to them. we even managed to stay out until almost 3. which is like, as late as possible for us.

we woke to a fresh blanket of snow. it was gross. but only in that it's the middle of april and oh my god just eff off with the snow already kind of way.

what's up with these old cabooses? do they just sit around and take up space now?

i wish i was more organized and had a specific place picked out for breakfast. when deciding, we just shrugged and went with the delta's restaurant. it was ok, but who do i gotta talk to about getting a garnish around here? i mean 13 bucks should get me an orange slice and a sprinkle of parsley, no?

sorry, food rant over.

after breaky we picked up groceries and headed home. there was plenty to look at what with all the spring flooding and all. and i loooove this valley.

thanks for posing, mr. cow. can't say i've ever seen the qu'appelle valley like this before. it was a fabulous night away - mike was very much spoiled. he deserved, and loved, every bit of it.

2011-04-23T09:44:00.001-06:00

so, we bought a new house. i wanted to blog about it weeks ago, but it didn't feel right until all the financial paper work was taken care of. now our lawyers just have to do their lawyer thing and we have bought a new house.

we weren't shopping for a new family home, it just sort of happened, so it was pretty fun calling up our family and friends to say hey, guess what!? we bought a new house!

what happened was this; we've been keeping our eye on the real estate market because a lot of good things are happening in this area. housing is short, and real estate may not be a bad investment right now, so we've been considering it for a while. but not anything that we would move into, i love my current home, maybe something to fix up and then flip.

i'm not really sure why we went to look at this property together, but we did. it had been listed for a few weeks, and i had been aware of it for a while. it was too big and out the price range of what we wanted in an investment property, so i can't quite place what motivated us to ask the realtor about it the day that we did. in fact, the agent had suggested we look at it a few weeks prior, but we had declined, citing our initial reasoning.

so i'm not sure how we found ourselves going to check this place out, but we did. and when we first walked through the door it didn't take long for mike and i to make eye contact and communicate everything we needed to.

say goodbye to everything. cupboards, walls, doors, you name it, it's gone!

no doubt this place needed to be updated before anyone could move in, but as the potential of the property swept over us, no words were spoken, we just knew. this house was ours. (re: ensuite, double garage, corner lot, huge kitchen potential, originally built by one of mike's favourite contractors in town.) it is also a nelson home that was built with premium canadian douglas fir. and these things matter when your husband is in lumber. it was actually the property appraiser who told us all these interesting tid bits about the particular quality of nelson homes built in the 70s and 80s, and even more specifically this nelson home.

but like i said, the place is very, very dated. it was built in 1973 and everything - everything! - is original. right up to the layered, floor length, chiffon and green velvet swag window treatment that spans the entire length of the largest wall. i'm sure those curtains cost several thousand dollars at the time and weigh half a million pounds, but oh my. and we can't forget about the carpeted bathrooms (RIGHT up to the toilet!) and the wood paneled basement.

whoa.

but beyond those vintage touches, the house is amazing. it's a four split over approximately 2400 sq feet. three bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs. kitchen, bathroom, dining and living area on the main floor. a bedroom, laundry and living room on the third level (raised basement) and an unfinished basement (with windows) on the fourth level.

we plan on completely gutting the entire house, and even starting from scratch with brand new floor plans on 3 of the 4 levels. it will be a 5 bedroom, 4 bath when we are through. the only level that will keep it's original walls is the bedroom level. however, we do plan on extensive renovations for both of the bathrooms on that level.

so in two weeks, the fun begins. we are going to do as much of it ourselves as possible, but we already have some of it contracted out - the kitchen island, and kitchen cupboards, for starters. i am overjoyed, excited, anxious, nervous, and THRILLED.

everything is original. and a funny thing? i actually like that yellow light fixture.

it still feels quite surreal. i have been settling down and making this current home my permanent place for some time now. i mean, is my new kitchen sink even a month old?? and that new privacy fence built from composite? it was major bucks and we haven't even had a single summer to enjoy it!

but we are going to take our time - it might be up to year before the new place is 100% ready for our family. and i'm not moving in until every. last. detail. is completed. on the inside anyway. the outside is a whole 'nother year's project.

here are the rest of the pictures, and a little blurb about the expected renos. she's a beaut.

2011-04-17T08:32:00.001-06:00

we finally got around to taking the kids to the dentist. i was only a month or two late making our appointment this year.

it turns out 4 is the magic age for our children to cooperate with the dentist. anna is no longer an anti-dentite. after a slight hesitation in the beginning of the appointment, she settled in and let the dental assistant/hygienist people do their jobs.

yay, anna!

somethings are not easy for her. and letting a stranger, no matter how qualified they look, poke and prod and brush around the inside of her mouth, is one of those things. hard to blame her, really.

matthew was so independent and confident is was mind blowing. he enthusiastically offered to go first, "just to show anna that it doesn't hurt" he said. and he also stopped me from coming with him. as i stood up to follow him, he turned, and with an outstretched arm he said "no, mom. i can go by myself." even the dental assistant had to stifle a laugh over that one.

mike grabbed an incredibly cute video interview with matthew after his appointment using our new HD video camera we got from nana and poppa. we have loved playing with our new camera but i haven't found an efficient way of getting the huge files on the internet. i know our high speed internet is anything but fast, but a 20 hour upload time for one small video? there has got to be a better way, so i've got some learnin' to do.

and yes, i will finally blog about our new house next time!

2011-04-14T13:28:00.002-06:00

the boy is five! it was matthew's birthday on tuesday, and we celebrated twice. once on sunday with family and once again on tuesday with his friends. both parties were great and our little man got rightfully spoiled.

we had 17 for supper (if you count the 4 little ones). i served chicken cacciatore and matthew designed and decorated the cake for the family party.

then fast forward a day or two and he woke up on his official birthday to his gift from us.

and birthday wishes from ontario.

and to whatever he wanted for breakfast.

we had cupcakes ready to go for pre-k. i didn't do it last year, but this year he asked. and as if that's even possible to say no to.

matthew had also requested a mario and luigi themed birthday. at first i said yes, but after doing some research, i told him he should think of something else. i couldn't find anything mario and luigi out there - just some plates and napkins that cost too much and took 3 weeks for shipping and we didn't have that much time. i urged him to pick something else, but his mind was made up. since he absolutely loves mario and donkey kong right now, and i had already told him yes, i decided to man up and just figure it out.

and i did! i hired out the cupcakes - there's a woman in town who has some seriously amazing cake decorating skills, so i left the burden of adding mario's face to the party up to her. and she did not disappoint!

i found some super mario bros trinkets while waiting in line at a best buy a few weeks ago. that was a completely random occurrence that i was thrilled about because, other than the packages of mario gummies i found, that's all the official merchandise i could get my hands on.

the kids came over (including the boy's girlfriend) and they played hot wheels until the scavenger hunt was ready to go.

mike planned the cutest scavenger hunt ever for the kids! he wrote out riddles that led the kids around the playground (conveniently located across the street) gathering up the mario trinkets. there was a prize for matthew and candies for everyone in 5 different hiding spots.

mike had the kids absolutely captivated - they were screaming and jumping up and down when they came in the house to tell me that bowser had tricked them and left them rotten potatoes instead of the candy treasure. it was a hilariously perfect moment.

best. dad. ever.

sliders and veggies and juice!

and cupcakes!

aren't they spectacular?? and they were delicious!

thanks dana - we're lucky to have someone like you around who can provide such a service!

and happy birthday to my favourite boy in the whole world. it's impossible to believe that this was FIVE years ago.

2011-04-06T12:59:00.000-06:00

the boy swiped the old camera the other day and snapped some shots.

i didn't noticed until i uploaded the card.

when i asked him about it, he giggled and blushed and apologized for touching it, but he said i knew i could be careful enough. and i was mom! i was! i even put it back!

riiight.

i let him off the hook with only a discussion on the importance of not touching the stuff he's not aloud to touch. although i may have undid all the discipline i was trying to accomplish when i told him that he took good photos.

2011-04-04T13:19:00.003-06:00

it's hard to believe, but i blogged a new recipe! and as usual, it's soooooo goooood.

and i took a thousand pictures with my new camera while i made them.

2011-03-29T20:53:00.003-06:00

here's the official winner, the new addition to the dining room seating area. it's going to be in heavenly charcoal (the bottom one) and delivery is still four weeks away.

i find shopping for a piece of furniture of this importance (my house is small and i spend 23 hours a day in it so i have to be sure i really really want this) absolutely agonizing, so please don't tell me you don't like it.

or do. i don't really mind, cause i already know i really really like it.

2011-03-22T16:23:00.006-06:00

i got a really nice gift from my husband - just because! well he said it wasn't just because, he said i needed it. he said my current kitchen sink was a piece of crap. it was ugly, shallow and the faucet was in desperate need of replacing.

ok, i said. who was i to argue?

(i think he just wanted an excuse to ~~play~~ use his tools. and again, who was i to argue?) (this time.)

there it is! it's 2.5 inches deeper and so much nicer. it was on sale and the labour was a bargain! and it's the little things (does a new kitchen sink qualify as a little thing?) in life that make this housewife a happy one.

it isn't very often that i'm excited - damn near giddy - to do dishes, but i was.

this is the only before photo i could find. we decided to get rid of the drinking water tap - it was rarely used and every inch of space is precious in this house.

now i just have to go buy a nice new soap dispenser to match. thank you so much husband! you are so very thoughtful and so very useful! and now that i've been using this sink, i realize how terrible my old one really was. the faucet no longer rotated from sink to sink without force, like brace your stance and flex your arm force, so the new faucet is a complete luxury.

i am so spoiled!

2011-03-21T10:28:00.004-06:00

i was just sitting there, flipping through pictures on my camera while waiting for my gas tank to be filled, when there was a little action on the highway.

it's like i always say, don't break two laws at once. if you have a trunk full of drugs, don't speed through a small town in a beamer. i watched two guys get put in the back of the cop truck, and it really looked as if they were in trouble. i found it all pretty entertaining.... except for the $75 gas bill.

2011-03-18T10:34:00.003-06:00

ok, sorry for the not posting. you know it's bad when people start stopping you in the grocery store and post office to tell you they are waiting for an update.

there has been a lot going on in the last few weeks. my husband was in a play. like a community theatre play. it was hilarious. he was amazing.

i'm still playing hockey - and a lot of it. last weekend i had 6 games... it was a long weekend. and i thank my husband for being very supportive and not caring that i was in and out of the house only to shower, kiss my children on their foreheads, and grab a few hours of sleep. my regular hockey team was supposed to go to foam lake for a 2 day tournament, but we didn't have enough players and we already had a game scheduled in town for sunday night. well, that's not entirely true. what really happened was foam lake didn't invite our team (at first) so a few of us committed to playing for another team, who wanted to go to the same tourny, but didn't have enough players. and then it wasn't until foam lake realized they didn't have enough teams interested, that they actually invited us, but we were way short on players for various reasons.

the tournament and ~~the debacle that is~~ the foam lake team deserves it's own post, even if i didn't take any pictures. i'm 99% sure i have to tell that story, even though it'll definitely get back to their team. after all the hockey was over, i was 6 - 0 and my average goals against was 0.8.

then on wednesday night we toured to indian head for a game. which is insane really, cause it's like an hour and half one way. i had never been to indian head before, so i was pleasantly surprised when we got to lebret only to have the grids lead us right past the summer camp i grew up attending. i spent 10 summers spending as much time as possible out there, and i hadn't been on those roads since i was a teenager - so it was very, very nostalgic seeing all those katepwa/monahan signs.

and speaking of nostalgia, i found our high school grad slide show on my external hard drive the other day. that's something else i hadn't seen since i was a teenager. i'm starting to get geared up for our 10 year reunion this summer. so crazy!

i grabbed a few screen shots - just looks at us!

i was five and a half here and i doubt i have to point myself out.

this would be carolyn's 7th (?) birthday. eight out of the nine girls in this picture started kindergarten and ended high school together. cool. and i'm second from the right.

oh high school soccer, i can't believe that was over 10 years ago. makes me think we should start up a soccer team once this hockey season is wrapped up.

2011-03-02T10:48:00.006-06:00

it might have been minus a million (ok, just -42) but i went the city anyway. the weather was clear, the roads were good and mike could take the day off.

i guess these are coming down this spring? the rider logos i mean, not the buildings.

and my patience for my ragged blue couch has finally run out. i've tried several different slip covers, even thinking i had finally hit the jackpot this last fall when i ordered 3 different ones off the internet at once. they all worked out the same; if i could tolerate the colour, the fit would be all wrong. oh these first world problems that torture me.

since i went to the city with a list of items that would take a lot of comparing and contrasting in several different stores (curtain rods, new couch, possibly a new chair for our bedroom, frames for specific art), there was no way i was taking the kids.

running through big box store parking lots when it's minus a million with two little kids in tow who are too big to carry but too little to scamper quickly enough was not going to happen. and how brutal would it have been dealing with ski pants, a 3 and 4 year old, and public washrooms all day? can someone please explain that to my husband? cause he still thinks i should have just sucked it up and taken the kids with me even though it was an 11 hour day.

anyway, i found a couch or three that i like ... i just have to for sure for sure decide on the style, then settle on a colour. there are about a hundred different fabric samples to choose from.

and i can order the couch from the furniture store in town. so everyone wins.

2011-03-01T21:21:00.001-06:00

it's just march 1st, no big deal.

2011-02-25T10:51:00.003-06:00

is it may yet?

cause look what came in the mail yesterday.

i got merlin beets because i know that's what deaner would have picked.

and guess who scored floor seats to elton john in saskatoon in may? do you think there will be a mosh pit?

2011-02-24T21:23:00.005-06:00

anna and i could only do so much water sliding. so while the boys made endless loops around the slide, we pulled out a deck of cards.

this is go fish (or go fissss if you're anna), but with a twist.

you ask for colours instead of numbers. and the colours aren't your average blue, purple, or yellow.

they're indigo, eggplant, and buttercup.

and jade.

and turquoise, hot pink and apricot. and more.

it's pretty cute when you're three year old asks you for chartreuse or cafe au lait and they know what they are talking about.

before i played this game, i couldn't have told you off the top of my head what the colour of chartreuse was.

(it's the green.)

2011-02-23T10:28:00.010-06:00

so we did family day it's justice this year. we wanted to take the kids water sliding and i was told that one of my favourite childhood haunts had recently been renovated, so we went!

i've stayed in this hotel a million times. but probably only once in the last fifteen years.

holy memories batman.

even though the they had completely overhauled the lobby, rooms, hallways, and restaurant, the pool area was pretty much the same.

i guess they had splashed some paint on the walls and added a very colourful (and well done) 3D mural. but other than that it was exactly the way i had remembered it. right down to the same size canada flag they use for a water slide marker.

i loved it.

(i wasn't the only one.)

and the people staying in the next room were people from our hometown. of course they were. saskatchewan is just one big small town. going 90 miles down the road will not guarantee that the person in the next hotel room isn't the family from a few streets down.

everyone had a great time. we were even able to enjoy ourselves after the kids passed out. i made sure we got a pool side room and we sat outside and played cards and watched the goings on.

it was so good. and we are so doing it again soon.

2011-02-21T20:12:00.010-06:00

i'm so bored.

i wish those boys would hurry up and be done with water sliding.

(she was actually talking to herself and i was 10 feet away in a patio chair.)

(she started humming and singing quietly to herself)

(then, this:)

yaaaaaa...

yaaaaaaaarrrr...

yaaaaarrrrrrr.

oh hi, mom.

were you just watchin' of all of that?