Christopher with his class friends on HIS night!!! As well as a picture of the school cafeteria which was quite literally TRANSFORMED into a lovely dining room for us for the evening!!! The theme for the night was 'Small town BIG dreams' and was just wonderful for our little community :) Each table had two students and their parents as well as one teacher. As Chris was MC, we were sat at the head table and had the Homeroom teacher Mr Mac. (Mr Macdonald) who is married to a British lady so we are used to chatting with him easily...and the other couples daughter is fun and the Mom has tattoos so we were chatting about those and about bands that play in Edmonton etc so the conversation was flowing easily and we weren't with anyone very religious or stuffy which was so nice and refreshing :) They were just very nice and friendly :)
Chris did so great as MC and at the end there were huge cheers and applauses and yells of WE LOVE YOU CHRISTIE (yes they ALL call him Christie (as in Chris T - eve the teachers call him Christie and say Mr Christie you make good cookies or whatever lol)
So last night was Christophers Farewell Celebration as he graduated from Junior High School. I think he will be very sad to leave this school behind with all the wonderful friends he has made - they really are very close to each other and they are such a GREAT group of kids who really look out for each other. I'm not sure if thats because it's such a small school or if it's because it's a Catholic school...if it's down to the teachers...or the families....whatever has created the community at this school. It's a wonderful thing to see! This has been a great class and I know Chris has made some wonderful friends there! We had such a lovely evening - even Lloyd really enjoyed it! It actually made me really sad that Chris hadn't been in this school much longer!
I made it an extra hour! This time I woke up at 3am! And lay awake mulling things over.....thinking things through....going over things....and making a list of questions.....
Heard that dawn chorus again......I'd really rather not hear it tomorrow thank you very much!!!!
Tonight I have to step out of my comfort zones.....It is Chris's Farewell Celebration at school. He graduates from Junior High today. The celebration begins with a Liturgy at the big Catholic Church in town and Chris has been chosen to do a reading there. So tonight not only do I have to wear a dress, but I also have to go to Church. Me. An Atheist. In a Catholic Church! For most of the service I will be on my own as Lloyd won't be back from work - he will arrive mid way through the service.
I know nothing about Catholic services apart from the fact they tend to be long and they do different things to the services I grew up with. Do I need to take money with me? Do they give donations during these services? How much? Is it notes or change? I haven't been in a Church in a VERY long time......Chris was probably a baby and it was probably Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve with my Mom. I don't think my Sisters wedding counts. Or my friends Daughters Christening......
After the Liturgy we are going to the Farewell dinner which is a catered dinner at the school which is being decorated beautifully I hear. Chris has been chosen to be the MC and I have helped him write his speech! I am so proud! he's only been at the school just over a year and he's been chosen to MC the farewell dinner! Last night he was texting all his friends asking them for memories from the last few years - and people they wanted to thank for certain things.
I think we've managed to mention everyone! We wrote everyones names down so no one would be forgotten and we got a memory about everyone in there but they are said throughout the evening so the speech is broken up into bits.
After the dinner tonight, Lloyd and I get to come home, but Chris is off to a Luau - a party at Birch Bay Ranch with all his friends - in Hawaiian costume :) - handy when your friends parents own Summer Camps huh????? :) That ends at 1am :)
Then tomorrow he is off to another party that is a sleepover - so his weekend is just one long celebration but luckily school is over for him apart for exams so he gets to sleep in a lot now (and I get my babysitter home a lot - Val lets do breakfast - I can go kiddy free a lot woohoo!!!!)
So I am excited and proud about tonight but also very nervous about being out of my comfort zone for a while. I will be taking my camera to embarrass my Son with but hopefully to capture many memories for him with - he'll thank me one day I'm sure!
I know the school are very proud of him - they certainly seem to pick him for a lot of things! I just hope he does equally as well at his next school :)
So I had my hair don today.....and what an experience THAT was!!! Lol! Sat in the chair and I asked the girl if she was enjoying Summer......only for her to say...in tears....that she was sorry if she wasn't chatty but she had just had a phone call to say her boyfriends Dad was dying of cancer!!!! OMG!!!!! I mean.....what do you say to THAT!!!!!!????? Not quite what you expect to hear from your hairdresser is it?????? See! This kind of thing happens to me all the time - this is why I hate going to the hairdressers just like I hate going to the dentist!
Anyway...here are some piccies of me with my hair do - including some silly ones....and some of susie with her do too ;) Chris threw a towel at me in the last picture ;) There were some hilarious pictures too but I won't add those.....
Here are the ATC's I received in the 'Hottie' swap I took part in recently at Scrappers Haven!
This was such a fun swap to take part in :) Aren't they cool? Mine is the Matt Goss card. Tess did the Keith Urban card. Kendra did Trevor Linden. Glenda (who is interviewed in a double page spread in the Summer issue of Canadian Scrapbooker magazine and also has a page in the new CK book about 50 most important pages to scrapbook or something or other lol by the way - oh Glenda you Star you lol!!!) did the David Beckham card. Tina did the Jon Bon Jovi card (we all think she's a bit of a stalker lol hahahaha!! Anyway - GREAT cards and my ATC tin is FULL of some fab artwork :) Just in time for Scrappers Haven to close :(
Still awake at 4am when the dawn chorus started! Beautiful!
Still awake at 4:40am when the dawn chorus just suddenly ended!!!! And the birds began their day!
Finally drifted off after waking Lloyd u to get rid of a mosquito that was screaming as it buzzed around. He killed it after it flew behind the curtain into the window.
Was woken up at 7:20am and checked the kids were up - only Susie! She said Laurie wasn't well and not going to school. What? Again??? No way!!! I am too tired and stressed today! So I told him to get up and take a tablet and go to school! He has been off too much. If he feels no better later to call! So he dragged himself out of bed. She also said she had woken Chris up but he wouldn't get out of bed so I yelled at him to get out of bed then I went back to bed and fell asleep again.
Was woken up at 7:45am by Chris banging on my door telling me the trucks had arrived and the workmen were here!!!! OMG so I crawled out of bed bleary eyes and threw on some clothes figuring I'd have to grab a shower later....Abby came in moaning that the banging from the workmen had woken her up and it was too early and couldn't they be quieter?
I need some sleep :(
So I am so tired and my lack of sleep and the thunder storms expected again later...I have a feeling that tonight I am going to get a big migraine :( so please just let it wait until AFTER my hair appointment!
Today I plan to do very little! Rest relax and sit here. Abby and Sam are playing. Abby did her school work early which is good. Sam is happy to watch the workmen and they have also been out on the swings and climbing frame - they are happy to just 'be' and leave me in peace thank goodness! So I may not win the Mommy of the year award today but thats ok - my head needs as little stress as possible!
So last night I went to the movies with Tess, Charlynn and Samantha! It was a fun night! I met Tess at the scrapbook store and we did a little shopping.....well, I did a little shopping! Tess did a LOT of shopping and I eventually had to DRAG her from the store kicking and SCREAMING and foaming at the mouth :)
I think Tess likes my favourite scrapbook store hahahaha! I didn't get much - a chipboard album from the sale table and some bee stickers - but it was double stamp day so I really should have spent more money lol!
Andrea phoned to say she couldn't make it (this is becoming a habit Andrea and now I am paranoid lol - you know this right???????? If you keep not showing up I'm gonna think you don't like me!!!!!! Lol ok ok I'll tell everyone you had a valid reason and you sent me a lovely email this morning but STILL.....lol j/k !!!!)
Then as soon as Andrea hung up the phone rang again and it was Samantha who arranged to meet us at the mall. So we headed off there and got something to eat and met Sam and ate and then went to the cinema and got our seats nice and early but not early enough because everyone else had the same idea and the only decent place with 4 seats together was the very back row!!! So thats where we sat!
Then I ran out to meet Charlynn (so nice to see you again Charlynn) and we got in line for some snacks and Tess comes out to find us and joins us for some snacks (that was so much fun lol) and we thought we were late for the movie...we raced in only to find we weren't late at all! Then Charlynn started throwing popcorn around.....(how childish is THAT???? Of course me being all mature threatened to call security...I mean she was trying to throw it down our tops...... OMG!!!!!! So funny :) Then Samantha who was wearing a top too high to get popcorn down actually lowers her top so we can get better aim!!!!!!
But alas the fun has to end and the movie started....
Tess announces she is in love with Big...and Kieth Urban is in fact actually her number two guy....and Ryan her husband...well I'm not actually sure what number he is.....lol! Poor Ryan! Then when Big proposed (poorly the first time) we compared Ryans proposal with Lloyds proposal and were laughing a LOT because RYan and Lloyd are so similar - and both soooooooo CHEAP!!!!! They will get along so well :)
Oh and in case you don't know how Lloyd proposed to me, we were sat on the sofa in Scotland and he muttered to me 'So Whats the cheapest we can get married?'
Romantic huh??????? ;)
Well, it made Tess laugh :) I think she may well have spat out her cola ;)
The movie itself was wonderful - I laughed, I cried, I clapped out loud (omg I think I was the only one in the cinema that did (Lloyd would have cringed) and I REALLY cried at Charlottes crying angry face when she was hugging Carrie in the street after Carrie had hit him with the flowers....to me that just summed up their friendship totally - that whole thing about friends being there for one another through thick and thin.
The movie made me miss all my best friends from back home. It made me want to go and hug Lianne and have coffee at her house. To go have lunch at the garden centre with Lynne. To go out for dinner with Mandy or just go round to her house for a good natter. To spend the day with Faith just chatting about EVERYTHING and catching up over a bottle of wine. OMG to do the same with Kara over a bottle of plonk in Spain :)
Of course to spend time with Julie but she died and I know I can never have that time back with her.
All my closest closest friends like Sex and the City are so so far away and moving here has meant starting new friendships in a completely new culture. Over the last year or so several new people have come into my life and a few have become very special to me - and finally just recently I have learned and felt that a few of these might actually 'fit' :)
I have friends that I can cry with, laugh with and be me with. I wonder if any of them will be there when I blow out the candles on my 50th birthday cake.......
I had fun with Sam and Abby today blowing dandelion clocks....I love when little ones blow them because they always put them too close to their mouth and get the seeds stuck to their lips :)
I took this picture of a dandelion clock out by the rhubarb - click on it to see it bigger - I love how it came out considering it was taken outside by the garage!
My Peony has come back well and now we have to move it. This flower bed has to be dug up and flattened and turned back to lawn so the peony can't stay here. I know they don't like to be moved so I hope it does well. The flower bed is a mess because it is half dug up from me removing all the day lilies for Val! It's all being moved because I'm getting rid of the flower beds totally and we are redoing the front porch and not having flower beds there at all. Hence all the long grass and weeds!!
This peony seems to be pretty tough and it has survived Charlie chewing on it and moose chewing on it - it disappears to NOTHING every year and sprouts from the ground every year - a couple of weeks ago it was nowhere to be found and then it sprouted from the ground and SHOT up to what you can see now.....almost over night!!!! I tell you, the plants here in Alberta AMAZE me...and in just a few weeks the flowers will open and will be STUNNING. I love watching the ants eat open the flowers. Such a shame its not a bee friendly flower. This one has deep red double bloom flowers. I worry every year that it won't grow back but it does!
I only bought two this year but they should spread next year...bumble bees love these :) All the perennials I bought this year are bee friendly and spread :) My yellow daisies have already gone to seed for the most part and I collected the seeds and planted many of them throughout the flower bed so next year I should have a lovely selection throught the front flower bed. here's hoping!!!!! I want it to be a lovely wild and crazy flowery tangle of bee friendly colours!!!
Please can you keep Donna (from Scrappers Haven) and her family in your thoughts please.
Her Mom has been in hospital for a while now. She has COPD and needs to have a lung transplant. Last I heard, she wasn't doing too well. Her Mom is doing all she can to avoid going onto a ventilator as she is scared she will not come off of it again. I know this is worrying them all.
It's a very frightening time for this family. Please keep them in your thoughts. Donna I am thinking of you and your Mom and hope for some good news very soon.
