Its Thursday!

This week seems to have been a week of making plans, changing plans, going back to original plans, remaking plans, going ahead with planned plans!

Even this morning I still didn't know what today would be about!

Chris slept over at his friends house last night...Laurie was supposed to but it got cancelled and they arranged to go to Millennium Place today instead...but then he got a phone call from another friend and I am so tired I'm not in the mood to go into town anyway so instead of going to MP he is going to his friends house just up the road from here......

Susannahs friends Mom arrived at 10am and picked up Hayley....so now I have no extra children for once and in fact one less than normal....the kids are watching cartoons on tv and I am pleased! It seems we haven't done enough of the flopping on the sofa watching tv lately....we have been so busy and even when we have been home we have been outside or been busy doing games or crafts or whatever...I think we all need some downtime today!

I heard from my BOSS!!! Yay! At last! I know how much I will get paid each day and I know when I start and I know I am covered insurance-wise and all in all I kind of know where I stand a little better! Yay! I even have cover for my holiday in October!

Run on over to Susans blogs for some great money saving ideas!!! 'Its My Blog' link to the right!

Susan...your DH's new hat is cool and now I have the VOICE in my head! When you are on the tube in London (subway) as the train pulls into the station and the doors open, a voice comes over the loud speaker that says 'Mind The Gap' its this toneless mans voice....its supposed to warn you that there is a bit of a gap between the platform and the train. Nota gap so big that you could fall through, but I guess you could easily drop something down there....the voice kind of drags out the word mind....'miiii-iiiind the gap'! I had forgotten that until I saw Scotts hat! Cool!

I can't believe you were at Miquelon yesterday...I wish I had seen you to say hi to - did you not see us? We were so loud lol! Ad Chris had his Union Jack swim trunks on! Yes it was waindy - all the food ended up filled with sand lol! It reminded me of a typical day at the beach back home!

So today...a quiet day at home......Lloyd will pick Chris up from his sleepover tonight on his way home.....I think I'm going to sit and read for much of the day...although I have 4 baskets of clean laundry to sort into piles too.....mostly I am going to enjoy not having other peoples children in the house - yesterday after our trip to the lake I ended up with a basement full of loud boys and also Susie and her friend who slept 2 nights...

It was a nice evening - the weather was gorgeous....just before the sun set I went for a walk with the children - we walked across Marys land to see the horses...fed the horses a little and the children had fun trying to climb the hay bales....we picked plenty of wild raspberries and when we got back we picked the strawberries, tomatoes and raspberries from our garden...they all got eaten fast. I also picked the first zucchini (courgette) yay!

After that the children played on the swingset and the trampoline while Lloyd and I sat on the porch for a while....it was such a nice evening...warm..not too hot :) I didn't have to cook either because Lloyd picked up pizza on the way home.....so after a tiring day at the lake it was a nice relaxing evening at home :)

A day at the lake......

WE spent today at Miquelon Lake.....Christie came with us and it was really good to catch up with her as I hadn't seen her in so long! The car was CRAMMED full with inflatables, picnic cooler bags, buckets and spades....beach ball...towels and blankets and hammocks!

There was hardly anyone there when we got there but by mid afternoon the beach was filling up.............but not as busy as the weekend.

Sam had so much fun in the water....I did too...yes I was swimming too :) had no choice really as Christie SOAKED me lol! Laurie was the first one in. Susies frined came wwith us and the girls were swimming and playing with the inflatables.....

WE had a picnic lunch - Christie laughed that it was such an English lunch because I made cheese and cucumber sandwiches :) by the time we ate most if it was filled with sand...

Both Chris and I got buried in sand.....they tried to turn Chris into a mermaid and then Christie and Laurie molded boobs and 'mens bits' so not sure what it was then lol! I will add the pics from my camera phone - I didn't take my camera with me.

It was a fun day :) I am exhausted and my face is a little red from the sun and the breeze....but I think everyone had a great time :)

Thanks for joining us Christie - it was great to catch up with you :)

Daisy!

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6921534.stm

Not sure whether this is the exact article I meant to post the other day....but its along the same lines...

I'm not racist but I do have strong feelings about how you should act if you move to another country...I may joke about Canadians putting cheese on everything but for the most part I feel its important to 'live like Canadians' and be proud of Canada sa our new home....we are lucky to live here.....I don't want to turn Canada into a little England....

I guess I just found - living in a highly Asian-populated city in England, that many people moving to Britain refuse to become 'British'...they instead wish to turn England into a financially better version of their homeland...and the government is so scared of offending people that they agree with anything....and now there is very little Great about Great Britain...you can't even fly the flag without risking offending people.

So I don't think people need to act 'white' to feel British but I do really think people should try to be a little more 'British' if they have chosen to live there.....

If I moved to Quebec I would learn to speak French....but people who move to Britain often refuse to learn to speak English so you have entire cities where all the signs are written in Urdu......

Ok...getting off my soapbox! Its great to see you Daisy! How are you enjoying Summer? I miss our homeschooling Summer from last year......it seemed to go on forever....school summers are so short.....

Last nights sunset...

First page in months.....

Here is the scrapbook page I did on Sunday.....my first page ina long time! Its ok. I showed it to Lloyd and he said 'Wow I love the bling!!' I had to laugh...he knows the term bling from when I was in the Iron Chef Scrapbooking contest ;)

I took the picture in bad light and when the glue was still wet.....all that icky white glue can't be seen any more ;)

The end results........

Abigails cookie couldn't even be lifted off the table to be photographed lol.....but they had so much fun :)

Sugar cookie decorating......

I knocked up a batch of sugar cookies this afternoon for the children to decorate.....Susie has a friend sleeping over tonight and it kept them quiet for an hour this evening :)

Sam LOVES decorating cookies...he takes the whole activity VERY seriously..... ;)

Hero....

Charlie takes a break from being the chickens hero........

After the rain.......

Jasper makes some friends........

Stormy skies.....

A few pictures of the rainy skies over the last couple of days....the last two pictures are from this afternoon....

Hahaha! Guard pig.....

I just looked out of the kitchen window and there was Mr Fox......in his gorgeous red coat......skipping across the grass away from the chickens! Our free range chickens! He looked up at me through the window!! So I run to the back door and I see Charlie and the chickens racing after the fox!!!

Charlie is chasing the fox away......and the chickens are running beside Charlie as if to say 'hey Mr Fox....you met our bodyguard huh??????'

So funny! Good for Charlie - she loves her chickens!

It was a very beautiful Fox though!

Wonderful news!

Lloyd phoned with some GREAT news this morning...the other week we had the appraiser come round to value the property....he didn't ask any questions or have a good look round the property at all....and the value he came back with was shockingly low...we panicked! Could we really be THAT wrong about the value???? So we sent them some similar properties and also sent them a list of things we have done to the house (ie new well, new furnace, new air conditioning, new gas fireplace, new bedroom.....and a few other things...

They got back to us today to apologise - the apprasier was wrong about a LOT of things - including the fact that he said we had 5 acres! noot the 16+ acres we really have.....so basically they will be getting back to us on Friday with a new and improved appraisal :) we knew we couldn't be that wrong about the value of this place...it still needs a lot of work (new kitchen, new bathrooms...barn needs to be pulled down etc) but for the location, size of land and house we knew it had to be worth more than the amount that stupid guy said.......he was here about 10 minutes and didn't ask anything about the house at all! Duh! He was more interested in Jasper the kitten!

Our Tuesday...

WE got up early this morning and I drove the boys into town to the bus station....they have headed to West Ed Mall for the day to use up some free passes they had...Laurie won them at Christmas and they run out TOMORROW!!! Then we ran to Sobeys, grabbed a few things, ran to carmels to pick up some books and then headed home...tidied round a bit and then at lunchtime Susies friend arrived...her Mom and brother stayed for a while - met Charlie and the chickens......then we all came in for lunch.

Since then the children have all been playing...they are dressed up in ball gowns right now and wearing the tiaras that they just created from a craft kit I bought the other day....

I have been reading my Homeschooling Horizons magazine that arrived in the mail....

It rained this morning for a little bit....more in town than here at home...but its nice and cool because of it. Tomorrow will be hot again and we are heading to the lake...

Lloyd is picking up the boys from WEM after work..they phoned to say they had arrived there fine and were off to Galaxyland for some fun!

Not much planned for this evening......hanging out outside if it stays dry....relaxing inside if its rainy....the kids can bake some cookies and decorate them I guess......

PUSH!!!!!!!!

The children TRYING to push one of the hay bales on Marys land......not as easy as it looked hehehehehehe!