May 30, 2008

Waterfowl...






Blue Winged Teal Duck

Greater Scaup

Ruddy Duck

Spotted Sandpiper

And anyone know what this last duck is? It has red above its bill so it doesn't match any of the ducks in my Alberta book of birds.....

Red Winged Blackbird






Lloyd and I were supposed to go kayaking for datenight on Wednesday but with the children sick and both of us not feeling well either, we didn't want to risk it, so we just went for a drive instead and took the camera out. We drove over to the wetlands on 225 and took some pictures of the waterfowl there.....and we took some pictures of the redwinged blackbirds that so many of you like. We thought maybe we'd buy some of the plants they love so much..the rushes...and see if we can attract them to our pond next year........

My Thursday...

.......started at 3am when I started dreaming about a spider on my arm...I kept brushing it off only to awake realizing t wasn't a spider but a mosquito that had been feasting on my arm and I had FOUR nasty bites on my arm!!! BIG ones!!! It had also bitten Lloyd twice on his back! It was then swollen and on the ceiling so I woke Lloyd up and he squished it and it was FULL of blood YUCK!!!

Get up early and dye my hair and shower it off and then atruck pulls up when I am NAKED!!!! Rush to get some clothes on and go down stairs and the carpet layer is here WHAT?????? he is not due for three weeks!!!! He hasn't even confirmed a date with Lloyd - he said he would phone Lloyd and confirm a date ut that it would not be for at LEAST three weeks as he is fully booked up!!!!!

So he comes to the door and I go downstairs brushing my hair as I go (which is wet as I just got out the shower). He has opened the mudroom door and sees that Lloyd has not done the prep work on the mudroom floor for the linoleum (obviously as it is like cheap plywood and the kids will get splinters so we are not doing it until like two days before they are coming to do the linoleum and he said NOT FOR THREE WEEKS MINIMUM so Lloyd has not done it yet - so this guy is NOT happy and he comes to the door all agitated and says why ahs the floor not been done and they are here to do the floors and it was all booked and my husband knew it was today and he has spoken to my husband several times and it was on the board at work to come today and why was it on the board if it was not today and why did I not know it was today and he starts ranting and starts acting all weird and looks ready to start throwing things and OH MY GAWD!!!!!!!!

The young guy he was with was so calm and looks so used to this behavious and was just watching my hummingbirds at the feeder and was obviously used to this guy getting it wrong and losing it lol!

There was no way Lloyd got it wrong and I explained that he had not phoned Lloyd back the way he had promised he would and he had not confirmed a date with Lloyd and I had no idea why our address was on the board at work but even if they ahd suggested today we would not have agreed as I already had plans for the 29th (I was supposed to have breakfast with Val and her Daughter today which was planned WEEKS ago and had the children not been sick I would have been there but I don't want to give Vals Grandson their germs) . Anyway the younger guy agreed that it was the older guys mistake and that they could take the linoleum back the warehouse and rebook! The older guy didn't back down and admit that it was his fault at ALL but a couple of hours later he left a message on Lloyds machine saying ther was a 'mistake' on the board at work and that he would rebook for two weeks time!!!! But what pisses me off is he did NOT apologise!!! Yet he was so aggressive and he was rude about lloyd and blamed Lloyd for it all yet it was HIS mistake!!!! He should apologise not least for his behavious yesterday and how rude he was - I am so glad that young guy will be here when they are here! I think I will be out while they are here in two weeks time as I do NOT want to be here while they are here! I am so glad we can lock the house and they can only access the mudroom and not the house so I can go out and leave the mudroom open for them.

So that was the start of my wonderful day!

Then Lloyd came home and we had to take Rosie to the vets so Lloyd dropped me and the children in town at the track meet so we watched Laurie in his race while he went to the vets to drop Rosie. After the race we went to the mall as I had to get some birthday gifts for parties the kids are going to the next few days. Then Lloyd had not eaten at all so we went to get something to eat but just as we were about to order, all the lights went off in the mall and the fire alarms started going off. Within seconds all the stores stared to lock their doors and the mall had to close quickly and we all had to leave the mall! Turns out the power grid in Sherwood park had gone off! No idea how or why. But all the fast food places in the north end of Sherwood Park had to close and all the traffic lights stopped working so it was chaotic everywhere ad emergency vehicles started rushing off to some place....

So we ended up having to drive down to Wye Road to Dairy Queen to get Lloyd something to eat.

I have no appetite any more so I can't eat much so I ended up eating just the fudge lumps out of a small Georgia Mud Fudge Blizzard - I can't even eat half a blizzard any more....a small one - just the lumps is about all I can manage lol - last year I could easily eat a whole medium one lol! YUM!!!

Raced back to pick up Laurence. Raced back to the mall which was finally re opened. Got the presents. Raced home. Laurie showered after his trackmeet. Packed Chris's camping stuff up. Fed the kids. Picked Chris's friend up from South Cooking Lake. Drove out to Miquelon Lake and got them settled at the campground. Drove home and got the dog crate. Drove into Sherwood Park and got Rosie from the vets. Drove home and watered all the plants outside. Can't believe that it rained by our mail box and in South Cooking Lake yesterday but NOT at our house!!!!. Exercised the dogs and saw to everything outside. Bathed Sam. I soaked in the bath.

Bed.

Still not herself...


Abigail still isn't herself.....today she is whining constantly....driving me crazy...yesterday she had no choice but to go wherever we went and because we had to go out here there and everywhere all day because of the way the day evolved, she just had to come along....but as you can see, she wasn't quite herself. Luckily Lloyd came home from work mid way through the morning so I had help to get everything done.

Brothers and friends..

Knights of Columbus





Yesterday Laurence ran in a trackmeet in town against oter schools in the Catholic school division. He was in the 'throw in' and and the 200 metres. Yesterday was such a bad day for us that we weren't able to stay and watch both of his of his events but while Lloyd was dropping Rosie at the vets, we were able to stay and watch the 200 metres. Laurie ran really well but there was tough competition and despite running as fast as he could, he came 4th. Abigail raced over to the side of the track to give her brother some kind words of support!

Beetle


This beetle was climbing around my honeysuckle yesterday so I caught it while it was looking at me on the frame the honeysuckle is attached to!

Go home mom!


Last night we dropped Chris at the campgrounds at Miquelon Lake - he's camping there with his grade 9 class as part of their Farewell Festivities and graduation. It looked so much fun! I snapped this shot as we were driving off and it was funny! I was teasing him and blowing kisses and the girls were laughing and Chris was telling me to go and telling his friends 'Don't encourage her'!!! :) They have all kinds of activities planned from fishing at a trout farm to orienteering, swimming, learning to light fires, games, soccer etc, ghost stories and hikes etc etc but mainly just making memories!!!

Next week we have the graduation and farewell dinner and Chris is the MC :) Considering he only arrive at the school last February he hasn't done badly :) I am very proud of my little guy :) Although I shouldn't call him that any more as he isn't little any more is he??? :) although saying that - aren't girls tall these days????? :) geez I felt so small next to them all hahahahaha!!!!!

Poor Rosie Posie....




Poor Rosie met a porcupine on her walk late Wednesday night. We managed to get quite a few of them out of her but as the top picture shows (after Lloyd had got most of them out) several were still left in, so yesterday morning she went in to the vets to have the rest removed under anaesthetic.

When we picked her up last night, she was still quite sleepy and groggy, but looked much more comfortable and happy. She has two staples in her nose as she had one embedded in her nose - she has to go back next week to have her staples removed.

Amber was so happy to see her Sister back again! They are so used to being together that she was lost without Rosie with her all day!

May 28, 2008

Learn to love your dandelions!


No sense in weeding our lawn huh???? lol!
Good job pollinators love them!! Dandelion honey anyone????? ;)

Flowers for Mommy


Sam gave me a bouquet of flowers today so we brought them home and put them in a 'vase'. As you can see, he was just so proud :)

May 27, 2008

Bertha leaving.....


Bertha leaving on the truck yesterday.....

Dad - she has gone back to have something attached to her underneath - it was supposed to be attached before we got her, but they forgot, so we knew we were getting a belly mower in the Spring so we told them to leave it until then, so they said they'd come get her for free and and do it all now - so we are getting the belly mower and a tiller and they are doing the belly attachment bit......then bringing her back for us :) So no, she isn't sick thankfully! We're getting a rough cut mower and a belly mower - the rough cut mower is for all the prickly stuff like bushes etc so we can cut all the back fields etc that have thorny stuff and not just grass growing in them....the belly mower will be for the lawns.

Coyote...


A not great picture of a coyote that Chris snapped with my camera from the car window on our way home today....it was so close to us but by the time we got the camera ready and the right lens on and Chris had fiddled about with it, the coyote was running off across the field! This was in the field opposite our house...the one with the cows and llamas...

Growing potatoes in buckets

One bucket,larger the better, as you can grow more potatoes,put soil in about 8" deep, put in potatoes about 5" apart,put more soil on top and put more potatoes about 5" apart,and carry on until soil about 2"from top.You could mix fertiliser with the soil,or maybe some of Charlies manure.Keep soil damp,but not soaked,as potatoes like water,maybe drill some holes in base of bucket so to drain off excess water.Let me know how you get on.With all the soil you have you could use a dust bin.Hope you get on OK .I am now going to read the blogs,bye.


Which just goes to show I remembered it wrong! In fact completely wrong!!!! How??????

Thanks Dad!

Funny pictures :)

Head over to Tess's blog bradsmom06.blogspot.com/ and check out the fun pictures from our night out on Friday!!!!!

Oh and by the way Tess - I specifically remember taking a picture of you and Val!!!! so 'fess up girly - where is it????????

May 26, 2008

Full circle

Abigail now has what Sam had last week. She was up most of the night with her cough and fever and and bad dreams and not being well.

I was hoping she'd be ok to go to drama and I gave her the morning to see how she was, but by late morning she wasn't any better and we gave up and stayed home. It probably did Sam could to have another day to rest at home...his nose is still running like a tap anyway lol! He has preschool tomorrow although half of me wonders why we should bother....not sure he gets much from it....he's not bothered about going and the teachers aren't exactly 'stimulating' shall we say........

I have high ideals when it comes to preschool education lol...and not much lives up to them.....lets just say that my children learn a LOT more at home from me than they do at school and to be honest I don't think that 'socialisation' at that age is vital ;)

They are still keen for me to teach in the Fall here in SCL...and if I do then I can tell you something - my classes will be VERY different to the classes Sam has been attending recently!!

Abby stayed inside this afternoon while Sam and I went for a walk - we headed off into the woods which have grown like CRAZY this last week after all the rain we have had!! It was like a JUNGLE in there!!!

We went down to the beehives but they were quiet - maybe because of the temperature.

Apart from that I've done laundry, washed floors, cleaned the kitchen, the bathrooms, pottered about and checked emails and blogs etc etc and chatted on my bee forum!! Oh and they came and got Bertha!!! Sam enjoyed that! And I chatted via email to Tess!

Hopefully Abby will be better tomorrow and we can go out - Sam can go to preschool and Abby and I can head somewhere together.....no idea where. Weather is supposed to be good from now on so maybe the park or somewhere. Well Lloyd wants to head out for a walk so I am off out for a while. Byeeeeeee :)

Kayaking on the lake....



Yesterday we went kayaking on lake we live close to. A sat in the front with me and spent much of the time paddling for me. She did a great job and had a blast! We saw a lot of wildfowl out there including Sandpipers and Loons. It's one of the best places in the country for seeing Sandpipers.

Dad!!!

Can you send me your 'recipe' for growing potatoes in buckets please!! I was telling people about it today and I just want to be sure I have it exactly right!!!!!

Thank you :)

May 25, 2008

Susan!

Samantha is just soooo beautiful!!! And that dress is gorgeous on her!!! Just stunning!

I use my Sobeys bags everywhere I go - all the time in Safeway and they don't mind at all in there so go ahead and use your bag :)

I can't wait until June 1st so I can comment on your blog again :)

Head over to 'Its My Blog' to check out Susan's gorgeous li'l gal in her Summer dress :) So sweet :)

Just born....


One of our butterflies just 'hatched' from it's chrysalis.....note it's curly tongue! hop on over to our homeschool blog to check out our other pictures....

Full bloom

Lloyds little friend



Lloyd found a little friend on the Crab apple blossom yesterday. Cute huh? He named it Syd little. By the way Val and Tess - this friend is NOT a tosser ;) - and he is welcome to store his boat in my workshop all winter long ;) Oh AND he can come visit as often as he likes!!! Mind you HE isn't likely to ignore me completely, make offensive comments about breastfeeding or about women in general or just be a completely jerk!. Nope definitely NOT a tosser ;)

I love you Lloyd - even if your friends are dorky :)

Thought I should add that the reason for my rant is because after storing his boat and jetski all winter long for him, Lloyds charming friend (gggrrrr) came over to get it last week. I was watering the strawberries not 10 metres away....hard to miss lol....I smiled and waved.....he didn't even acknowledge me...no smile, no hello......no how are you Jane?....didn't even bother to look my way. I mean what the hell am I???? Hired help?????????? Its my house and workshop too you know......It was me that let him store his stuff for free all winter long too you know.....How rude and obnoxious is that??????

JERK.

My weekend

My weekend catch-up!! Friday turned out to be so much fun! Well, it started out to be hellish! Sam wasn't well Friday morning. He screamed ALL morning! About ants! Normally he loves bugs of all kinds. He catches them, cares for them. Watches them. But after he hallucinated about them the other night, he hasn't liked them at all. So Friday morning he saw an ant in the kitchen and started freaking out. Refused to walk on the floors. Refused to sit at the table. Refused to go anywhere. Cried and screamed. Wanted to be carried EVERYWHERE. Would not let me leave him alone. Even had Abby carrying him. Just screamed constantly.

In the end I had to just leave him on the bed crying for a few minutes while I had a break for a shower. I just needed a break. By lunchtime I managed to get him to come outside. He refused to get dressed but he did ut some shoes on and come outside. By 2pm he was willing to come and look at the ant hills and by the time Lloyd came home he was fine and back down by the hives with me and had forgotten his fears thank GAWD!!!!!

I was exhausted by then though!!! Definitely needed a night out!!!

And what a night out it was lol!!!!

Val picked me up at 5pm and we headed in to town. Met Tess at 5:45pm at the scrapbook store and we headed to the big yard sale at Clover Bar Ranch. All our plans had changed because we had found out that day that the yard sale was a week earlier than normal. It's normally the last weekend in May! Oh well -w e all wanted to go so that was fine! We got there just after 6pm and didn't leave until 9pm!!! It's a whole subdivision (new housing estate) of garage sales (like car boot sales but out of their garages) and you walk from one to the other all evening.

It wasn't as good as normal as not many houses had sales but we still managed to find bargains and had so much fun chatting and looking. I think Tess thinks I'm a little bit crazy - she laughed at one point and said she was a little bit scared to see me drunk!!! Hahahaha! Thankfully Val is used to my wacky sense of humour and just tends to roll her eyes ;)

I got plenty of books (at least enough to annoy Lloyd with). I also found a lovely white rocking chair for the front porch ($10!!!!) and a dish thing for strawberries....not sure what you'd call it - but it is shaped like a basket but its china and it has strawberries in a design around it. Val says its very me :) and that was 50c :)

After the yard sale we went to East Side Marios and had dinner and Bellini's it was a lovely evening! I had such a fun evening - so lovely to spend the evening with Val and Tess! Thanks so much both of you for coming out! And thank you for sharing the funnel cake with me - that was amazingly delicious!!!! YUM!!!! :)

We have to do it again soon! Charlynn!! Cori!!! Sharon!!! And anyone else Everyone else!!! You should all come and join us :)

Off to have dinner and then I'll write about Saturday!!! :)

Taking it home....



This is a bit of a dig at a certain post on LP...but yet another reason I'm glad we have the Expedition! I think the kayak would look a bit silly on a little car!!! And with the amount of junk and dirty paddles and everything else we cart back in the back of this vehicle, it gets a LOT of use :) Some people just don't have a clue!

By the way I though 'luv to scrap' meant 'luv to scrapbook' duh at me!!!! It obviously means 'luvs to scrap ie fight!!!!

Kayaking






This afternoon we took the kayak out on to South Cooking Lake. It took a bit of persuading to get Lloyd to go out as he thought it was going to rain or be too cold, but it was lovely out there - the kids had a blast and so did we :) We'll probably ache tomorrow but it will be worth it :)

May 24, 2008

Boo!


Thought this scary bee face was funny!!!!

Our first butterfly!






Today our first butterfly made it's appearance from it's chrysalis! We were very surprised at the bloody mess it left behind!!! First of all the chrysalis goes black and then not long after, the butterfly makes its appearance! Isn't it beautiful?

We have 5 more chrysalises that will hopefully turn into butterflies....and we also have four moths to watch too! Now to get some orange Gatorade to feed them with!

May 23, 2008

Home again!




My Hummingbirds are home for the Summer :) Last night at 9:30pm Lloyd phoned from Safeway and while he was on the phone, one flew onto the feeder on the porch for the first time. There was a break in the rain. I've been watching the feeders so carefully :)

I thought I had heard a Hummingbird a couple of days ago before the rains started. Now I'm pretty sure I did! I'm so happy to see my little friends back again!

The year before last we had two Hummingirds here. Last year we had five. This year I have 6 feeders hanging. I wonder how many birds we will get.

The pictures are not good. I didn't use my flash as I didn't want to scare the little lady off on her first evening here. The light was poor from the grey skies and I was taking the picture through a window. I'm assuming it was a lady anyway - the light was so poor I couldn't even see clearly to see if it had a Ruby throat! And we had to get Jasper inside at one point because he was hiding beneath the barbecue ready to pounce lol!

At one stage the little Hummer flew down to my flower bed and had a look at my Irises!!! Hopefully I can get some better pictures today now that the rain has stopped and the sun is out again :)

Anyone new to my blog - if you do a search in the top left box for hummingbirds you will find all the pictures I have taken in the last two years of hummingbirds visiting my porch.

May 22, 2008

Summer visitors




For much of this Summer I won't get to watch the birds from the kitchen window....the diggers arrive next week to dig out the basement, and my view from this window will change for a few months. But for now the birds are still visiting. The male woodpecker was here for much of the day, but this female stopped by and looked at me as if to say 'what do you think you're looking at'?????

Thursday ramblings...

Sam is still sick, so I have spent much of my day doing laundry, pottering about in my bedroom while he lays flopped on the bed listlessly, occasionally throwing up. It's still from the cough...all phlegmy - sorry - you really wanted to know that didn't you???? Poor little guy has no energy.

I spent some time going through Abigails homeschooling paperwork.....checking what we have done this year, what, if anything we need to work on before the end of the year etc etc. I sorted out some parcels to go in the mail.

Abby worked on maps today and story starters as well. She also sat on the bed and read some stories to Sam.

Linda phoned about the camping trip next for Chris' class. It's Thursday and Friday night at the lake and I may or may not be staying Thursday night. I already said I can't make it Friday night as I have plans (lol Val - YOU know why I cant make it the Friday night!!!!It's THE Friday night of the YEAR!!!!!) But the camping trip is sounding good and I am so so pleased they are going - they're using our tent as one of the tents which is fine - in fact they may use both our tents if our old tent still works - we'll try it this weekend and maybe I will camp out with the kids. If the ground dries out.

It's STILL raining - but thats good really as it means the ground is getting SUCH a great soaking and the pond level was soooooo low this year - we didn't get the big flood we normally get this year - normally when the snow melts we get this big flood and the pond overflows but that didn't happen this year and the pond level is really low so hopefully this will help a little. The fire bans in Edmonton have been lifted already so thats good.

Tonight Chris has the dentist - some quick work before his orthodontist appointment. Lloyd is taking him so I can stay home with Sam in the warm.

Last night Lloyd and I ran into town to get some dog food and grabbed a coffee. I picked upa new book to read. 'Me to We by Karl and Marc Kielburger. You can read more about it at:

www.metowe.org/


The book that’s showing the world that one person can make a difference is now a New York Times Best Seller! Me to We is a philosophy, a manual, a manifesto and a movement. It's about finding meaning in our lives and our world by reaching out to others.

Chris has a leadership meeting at school right now so I have to go pick him up in a few minutes...he's organizing the leaving party for when they graduate Junior High in a few weeks. He was chosen to run leadership a couple of weeks ago when the teacher who was running it left to have a baby.

Laurie came home to say a boy in Chris's class was expelled from school today - so I will be interested to hear what happened and if thats true - as its not a boy who is normally in trouble! In fact this is a boy who was Chris's swap partner for Christmas gifts last year and came to our door on Christmas morning with a gift for Christopher!!!

Lloyd is on his way home from work :)

I hope Sam is better tomorrow - Abigail has requested to go somewhere specific and I am supposed to be out for dinner with Val in the evening. We were supposed to be going to Smiles10101010101010101 (lol I don't know her real name lol) party in the evening but its postponed because Tina's little guy is in hospital, so we are going to go out anyway.......after Sam being ill I am soooo looking forward to it :) Not that I wasn't anyway but...well you know what I mean :) I just hope Sam is well enough that he isn't clingy! Mind you he normally clings to Lloyd and not me anyway lol!

funfair fun



A at the fair....
Related Posts with Thumbnails