happy summer holidays!

well, today is the first official day for the boy's summer holidays. and i'm off to work, so just a quick post...

have been running 6 ways from sunday this week, and looking forward to having 2 days off in a row. i have a busy day ahead today as well - a stop in chestermere, then an interview, then 3 more calls and stop and pick up the patio set i found the other day. then home. hopefully it won't be too long a day.

the boys have their day planned out as well. its supposed to be a hot one today, so they'll head off to the pool this afternoon after lounging the morning away. funny how getting b up for school in the morning is like pulling teeth, yet today, not having to go, he's up earlier than when i try to get him up for school. LOL

have a happy friday!

grade 6 celebration!

Last night was the farewell and awards ceremony for the grade 6's at Jonah's school. He did very well, finishing at the top of his class. Yes, he's a nerd, but we love him all the same! He got the award for the top Social Studies mark in his grade, and was congratulated all around.

These two fantastic ladies have been a huge part of his life for the last year. Kudos to them for helping him grow and learn and have fun while doing it all!


This is one of the men in his life that I know he'll remember for the rest of his life. The school principal. He has been an amazing role model to all the kids in the school. And this was his last year, he is retired after Friday! I know that he'll be missed!
And man, has my little Donut boy grown. He is more than a head taller than the rest of the kids in his grade, he is even taller than me now!

Congrats to my grade 6 grad!

busy weekend...

well, its been a weekend. i worked most of the day yesterday, and came home after picking up some awesome steaks for dinner. unfortunately, the weather wasn't wanting to co-operate. so rene suggested we head back into the city for vietnamese for dinner. i drove through that storm on my way home, and saw some spectacular lightening on the way. there were even a few times that it hit the ground! thankfully it was a good distance away.

during the trip back in i had a little nap, and well needed. it had been a late night before, and getting up early, then a good busy day of hefting boxes around almost made that quick nap a necessity at that point!

while we were in the city, we noticed the sky was just black looking eastwards to home. it was quite the storm going on, but we weren't too concerned. arriving home, there was hail everywhere! a few of my perennials in the back by the pond have taken a beating, but all in all, not as much damage as there could have been.

i got a good sleep in this morning, and after messing around on the computer for a bit, i got the carpets cleaned in the living room and hallway. amazing what comes out of that carpet. just gross!!

from there i had a shower, then cut both the boys hair, got most of a layout done, a thank you card done, tidied up the kitchen, got dinner organized and had a quick trip over to walmart just to get out of the house for a bit.

jonah's managed to find himself a couple of lawn-cutting jobs for the summer, so he did one this afternoon, and he'll have a few more to do by the end of the week. he's quite excited about the prospect of earning some decent money this summer. awesome for an 11 year old! he's already planning on saving for a new bike, as well as having spending money for holidays in august.

tonight another crazy storm just missed us. on the weather website, it was reporting nickle sized hail and severe thunder and lightening. it was interesting looking out the front side of the house and seeing blue sky and sunshine, and looking out the back at a threatening sky and hearing the thunder booming. bizarre weather!

some new music tonight - bare naked ladies. easy. that's what i'm looking forward to for the summer. a little bit of easy. enjoy!

friday friday friday

crazy busy day today. and tomorrow's about the same.

but i'm home now, and its gorgeous outside for the b-man's tent-out tonight.

he's pumped.

i'm not.

let's just say that some freakin' asshole opened my gate. i think its the neighbour's kids - they have nothing better to do with their time than piss me off. then they usually call and complain our dog is out. thanks a lot.

the same ones who figure they can park 10 cars out front of their house daily and not leave anywhere for anyone else to park. today i just about went over there to give them my 2 cents worth. but then the gate was open and i left it at that - had to go see if i could find the dog (and i can't) don't know where the heck he's gone.

the same ones that figure weeds that are 6 feet tall in the front yard is acceptable landscaping.

the same ones that never mowed their lawn (till this year)

the same ones that have a field of dandelions out front as well.

people are pissing me off today!

hump day giggles...

courtesy of my hubby:

New Words for 2007 * SALAD DODGER. An excellent phrase for an overweight person. * SWAMP-DONKEY A deeply unattractive person. * TESTICULATING. Waving your arms around and talking bollocks. * BLAMESTORMING. Sitting round in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible. * SEAGULL MANAGER. A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and Then leaves. * ASSMOSIS. The process by which people seem to absorb success and advancement by sucking up to the boss rather than working hard. * SALMON DAY. The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die. * CUBE FARM. An office filled with cubicles. * PRAIRIE DOGGING. When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on. (This also applies to applause for a promotion because there may be cake.) * SITCOMs. Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids or start a "home business". * SINBAD. Single working girls. Single income, no boyfriend and desperate. * AEROPLANE BLONDE. One who has bleached/dyed her hair but still has a 'black box'. * PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE. The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again. * ADMINISPHERE. The rarefied organisational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the "adminisphere" are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve. This is often affiliated with the dreaded "administrivia" - needless paperwork and processes. * GOING FOR A McSHIT. Entering a fast food restaurant with no intention of buying food, you're just going to the bog. If challenged by a pimply staff member, your declaration to them that you'll buy their food afterwards is known as a McShit with Lies. * 404. Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found" meaning that the requested document could not be located. * AUSSIE KISS. Similar to a French Kiss, but given down under. * OH - NO SECOND. That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just Made a BIG mistake (e.g. you've hit 'reply all'). * GREYHOUND. A very short skirt, only an inch from the hare. * JOHNNY-NO-STARS. A young man of substandard intelligence, the typical adolescent who works in a burger restaurant. The 'no-stars' comes from the badges displaying stars that staff at fast-food restaurants often wear to show their level of training. * MILLENNIUM DOMES. The contents of a Wonderbra, i.e. extremely impressive when viewed from The outside, but there's actually naught in there worth seeing. * MONKEY BATH. A bath so hot, that when lowering yourself in, you go: "Oo! Oo! Oo! Aa! Aa! Aa!". * MYSTERY BUS. The bus that arrives at the pub on Friday night while you're in the toilet after your 10th pint, and whisks away all the unattractive people so the pub is suddenly packed with stunners when you come back in. * MYSTERY TAXI. The taxi that arrives at your place on Saturday morning before you wake up, whisks away the stunner you slept with, and leaves a 10 Pinter in your bed instead. * BEER COAT. The invisible but warm coat worn when walking home after a booze cruise At 3:00am. * BEER COMPASS. The invisible device that ensures your safe arrival home after booze cruise, even though you're too drunk to remember where you live, how you got here, and where you've come from. * BREAKING THE SEAL. Your first pee in the pub, usually after 2 hours of drinking. After breaking the seal of your bladder, repeat visits to the toilet will be required every 10 or 15 minutes for the rest of the night. * TART FUEL. Bottled premixed spirits, regularly consumed by young women. * PICASSO BUM. A woman whose knickers are too small for her, so she looks like she's Got 4 buttocks.

and i forgot...

that i actually got some scrapping done this past weekend!

here's one of them, based on pencil lines sketch #36. took a pic because my scanner didn't like the lumpy bumpy bits of it, so it ended up with a big flash spot on it. but you get the idea. used old rob & bob papers from a past S! kit, along with the unmounted elsie fontwerks stamps. simple, but cute! i colored in the stamped letter with pencil crayon to match the papers. and pop-dotted the letters in various heights for the title. love the summery colors!

migraine monday

oh i hate migraines.

woke up with it, and thinking i wasn't working today, was quite happy to get myself showered and dressed and was planning on just taking it easy.

didn't work out that way - ended up spending the afternoon in the city working. the good thing was that at least being on the far west side of the city, and leaving there smack in the middle of rush hour, i was still home in an hour.

so it's almost 10:30pm, and its still there. i took my meds like i needed to this morning, but it hasn't gotten any better. off to bed here shortly, and hopefully it will be better in the morning. i need to be bright eyed and bushy tailed - need to be out the door by 7:30 for work. the good thing is i'll be home by lunchtime, and should be able to hang out in the sunshine that we're finally getting again!

fabulous friday!

happy friday to all my friends :)

had a busy/productive day at work today. worked with a couple of the summer student to get an entire cracker section moved at one of the Co-op's today. the impressive thing was that it took us a whopping 4 hours to get it all done. the rep was quite surprised, she figured it would take us the majority of the day. woot!

then i headed off to a couple other stores to get a few odds and ends done, and now home. and a decent time for a busy friday at that.

dinner tonight is an easy one - big ass homemade subs. looking forward to that!

hoping to get in a walk tonight, it looks like it could rain, if it felt like it (LOL) not like its unusual for june - it seems to be the rainiest month here. but the grass and flower beds are looking awesome! our backyard grass is somewhat trashed - with having two big-ish dogs running laps back there it's not as happy as it could be. can't wait until we get our pathways in.

happy friday!

that didn't last long!

the chair that is!

it was gone when i went in to work today. odd. maybe someone remembered they left it by the roadside! LOL

some interesting tidbits from my day:

had a phone interview with a company (yes, i'm out kicking tires at the moment - just feeling restless and un-challenged) for a supervisory position for alberta. would be looking after about 20 merchandisers province-wide, something i would be good at, given the amount of merchandising experience i have and the variety of products i've worked with.

then, about 6pm, got a phone call for another job with some company (who? i have no idea!! didn't catch it when he called) for another merchandising position with them. who knows. i guess i applied with them last year sometime, so it could be anybody. anyways, i should be hearing from the regional co-ordinator in the next day or two to set up a face to face interview with him. the fellow i spoke with said that he was calling me back (apparently again?) after reviewing my resume now that they are actively looking to fill a position right now.

hmmmm... looking like i have a few options again. who knows. or maybe i'll stay where i'm at. it all depends on what is offered to me and where i can go with it all.

went to get the boy's SIN numbers today. now that is an exercise in patience. i got there about 3:30, and there was a large amount of people sitting there waiting. and waiting. and waiting. in the first 45 minutes i was waiting, not one single person, count them ZERO, were called in to talk to one of the people. i tell ya, i need a government job. maybe they were all on coffee. (sorry to any of my civil servent friends!!) but what a mess. and then there was the guy next to me, giving off one of those hmph/sigh noises every minute or so. like come on. i could pick my nose if you'd like and you could watch. maybe that would give you enough interesting things to look at instead of those crazy noises that the rest of us could also make. maybe like some weird demented sigh band or something.

blah.

raining again today, and it's not looking good for the weekend either. esp for dh - he was planning on getting our decks/porch stained this weekend. its long overdue, and he even ordered the stain for it. talk about being ahead of the game. but it'll be nice on monday. maybe that will become my project if i'm home.

well, that's it for today. dh is running behind as he needed to get the stereo replaced in his car - its crapped out on him. works once in a while. good thing it's on warranty still. the good thing about it being 7pm and not having dinner yet? he's bringing home vietnamese for dinner. yum.
and then we'll be watching pirate master. good show.

buh-bye!

have a seat...

and enjoy the view!

LOL spotted this on the side of the highway this morning on my way to work. on my way back just had to stop and take a picture. i'm guessing someone is missing a piece of their living room set now!

is it over already?

it's sunday night, and it's been a wonderful weekend for us. (did ya miss me?? LOL)

dh's birthday was on friday, and they let him leave early as we went camping for the weekend.

we didn't go too far - just off to the mini-lake 12 minutes from home. it is a good place to go for us to just get away, so don't laugh too hard! i had to work for a bit on friday morning, and the kids had the day off, so i toted them along with me, then off to costco to stock up and then back home again. dh got home just before 2pm, and i wasn't too much ahead of him - only arrived back at home about 1:30. we were packed and out the door without too many left behind necessities, the kids and the dogs by 3:45.

we had a great spot this time, it was a spot we hadn't had before. it didn't have anyone behind us, there was only green space, and then the "lake" itself. very nice if i do say so myself. we didn't have to contend with too many people coasting through our space or ogling either. (the one thing i hate about most campgrounds!) our friends joanne and lyle joined us later that evening (they both had to work their regular hours) so we hung out and started a fire, only to get rained on (not to mention the crazy thunder and lightening show!!) but we did sit outside under the awning until about midnight.

saturday was a fairly lazy day, b and i made the quick trek home to pick up his forgotten inhaler, and i snuck in a quick shower. then back out, and i got to have a bit of a nap.
steak for dinner, marshmallow s'mores for dessert, and it was a beautiful night.

today we managed to get pack and home by 12:30, then unpacked and laundry started, then some puttering in the yard and cleaned up the kitchen to fix the whirlwind that had occured in there. my parents and grandmother came out for dinner tonight, dh got his birthday cake, and we had a great visit. dh did a great job of getting most of the laundry in today as well, so i'll get the rest of the job done tomorrow - there is one heck of alot of folding to be done!

something we did learn this weekend - kikanue does NOT like little dogs. she sure wanted joanne's doggie for dinner. and it was not a good scene. i felt absolutely mortified. something we just need to keep in mind for future reference!!

and some cool "town" stuff - a dollarama opened up here this last week. the kids and i popped in there on our way home on friday. awesome. and a REAL dollar store in that things really are $1 or less. not often that you find that anymore. the only annoying thing is that they only take cash. what the heck is that? oh well. maybe we'll just spend less that way then!

and we're getting a sobey's here as well. which is way cool in my opinion. we have an IGA already, but i'm sure they'll be closing with the sobey's opening. they haven't broken ground for it yet, but i'm sure it will be started soon. the thing i really find lacking here is a good deli counter. the IGA used to be decent when we first moved here, but seriously went downhill when extra foods opened. the sobey's in the city have amazing deli departments, and the bakery department can't be beat. we're not so small town anymore, but that's fine with me. don't get me wrong, i do love the small town bit, but sometimes it can be frustrating!

boy i'm yappy tonight. lots to say i guess!

changed up my music on here again tonight. this song is just awesome, and i didn't know who it was by. now i do. wow. i used to listen to country all the time when i was younger, but not so much anymore. i do love this song though. happy music for the ears!

i hope you all have had a great weekend as well, summer is just too darn short, and the more weekends like this one, the better!

updated blog list!

just quickly updated the blogs/websites i visit regularly. if you don't see yourself on there - let me know!!

have a happy wednesday!

terrific tuesday!

well, its been a great day to be outside! i mucked around in my pond today and got a bunch of things repotted and happy :) things are starting to come along, even a couple of things i wasn't sure about (namely my $20 a pop water lilies - they're sprouting now!!) beautiful day out today, and just heard a few thunder booms, so i'm sure we're in for a bit of rain in the next little bit! the yard can use it, so i won't complain too loudly! gotta love the hot and sunny weather when we get it - summers are just too darn short for my liking!


here's a quickie of the rat pack:
aren't they just too cute! my two big guys and niece and nephew. the little one isn't in this one, i don't think my sister would have liked us too much if we had a 2 week old rolling around in the grass with the rest of them! LOL

hope you're having a terrific tuesday as well in your neck of the woods!

happy birthday b-man

to my b-man:

9 years old yesterday!

happy birthday buddy - you are one of a kind. a free spirit. a little bit of wild. insightful. growing up. the baby still of our family.

you make us crazy. we love you dearly. you still cry at the drop of a hat. you want to grow up, yet you still want to be little. you are the one that keeps us on our toes. always thinking, always coming up with new things to make us laugh.

you love your archie comics. you love your computer games. you love to laugh.

happy birthday b!

(sorry mom's a little late - i think we just had an all-round busy/great weekend!)