rocket power Space Cadet!

Susannah attended a workshop at the library yesterday called 'Space Cadets' and part of it involved building rockets and firing them using alka seltzer tablets and water, so we got her to show us at home :)

Great job Susie!!! :)

In the evening sun......

Sand cakes

Yummy :)

Samantha

My friend Samantha has spent this Summer travelling across Europe with her two Sons. I got a postcard from her this week that was written on the beach in the South of France just before she headed into Italy :) the corner of the postcard was wet from the Med Sea, there was a bit of sand tucked under the address label and she had drawn the sun on the postcard too :) How cool :)

They've been popping into cyber cafe's and blogging their journey as they backpack through Europe which has been fun to read too :)

Looks like they've been making some wonderful memories before her boys head off to college etc They will soon head back to England to spend some time with their family before flying back to Edmonton.

How wonderful :)

Davidson...and Charlie!!!

Last night we spent the evening out by the firepit as Lloyd wanted to burn a lot of the old fence posts we had piled up by the workshop. While we were out there the piggies were out there 'socialising' with us!

They have been spending more and more time together over the last few days. They still ignore each other for the most part. Davidson is far too energetic for Charlie - Charlie is so lazy and spends much of her time asleep in the sun!

The only time Charlie seems to lose her temper with Davidson is when food is involved and then she shows Davidson who is boss! So we feed Charlie first and make sure she has plenty of food and then all is well!

Davidson is still happy to have all this space and goes off to play and explore in the trees and loves to curl up in the space where the Peony was which is like a little hole of mud so we fill it with water and he cools off in that - and has sadly flattened my sunflowers that were growing in there....sigh...but he is happy :)

I wonder what the workmen thinnk now we have two piggies :)

As you can see, Davidson is a playful little thing whereas Charlie likes to just have her tummy rubbed - anything that can be done that means she doesn't have to get up! Lazy fat pig lol!

Beautiful roses :)

Lloyd brought me home some beautiful roses today:) He finished work early today and had to stop off to grab some bread on his way home. Every so often he will surprise me with flowers for no other reason than just because he likes to :) And today was one of those days :)

I let Susannah open them today and she was so excited - she's going to keep one of the stems in her bedroom - aren't they the prettiest rose? Pink with a cream edge to the petal....Susie gasped when she opened them :) I always nudge my boys and tell them that I hope they surprise their wives like this when they're older :) I hope they see how appreciated things like this are and how special they make me feel - and how Susie, Abby and I love them!

Thank you Lloyd - they're gorgeous!!!! I love you :)

Baseball with the siblings

My first radishes this year..

I picked my first radishes from the garden tonight....Susie and Chris helped me eat them :) YUM!

In the closet...

Grayson hiding in my closet from the children for some peace and quiet today!

Fingerprinting!!

It was raining this morning so we took the opportunity to do something indoors!
I had a fingerprinting kit so we used it to take A and S's fingerprints just like criminals!!!

Finger printing!!!!

Today we took the childrens finger prints :) You can see Abigails over on her homeschooling blog :) But here are Little Criminal Sams :)

Grayson...

My boy :)

Grayson has settled in really well now and is totally at home here :) Durng the day he likes to sleep in my closet on the floor in the corner behind my keepsake box (hiding!!!) or on my writing table in the window. If he's downstairs he likes to lounge on my oversized chair or he will sit on my desk by the computer.

He's scratched the leather sofa a bit but that can be replaced (lol) it's just a leather sofa ;)

he's very cuddly and lazy and sleeps a LOT :)

Abigail has PANDAS!!!

OMG!!! A lady just posted on LP about a condition her Son has called PANDAS and I'm reading it and it screams out at me ABIGAIL!!!!! This is ABIGAIL!!!!

So I go to a website all about it and it IS Abigail!!! This is what Abigail has been doing for the last year - so I read more and more and the more I read the more I realise this is what Abigail has - and it all makes sense now!

And when you read what kind of child gets PANDAS and what kind of parents these children have!!! Well it just totally makes sense. Poor Abby Banana! But it feels so much better to have a label and know there are things we can do to help her get better and so tomorrow I can phone the health centre and make an appointment for her and get her some help!

If you'd like to read more about PANDAS you can go to:

intramural.nimh.nih.gov/pdn/web.htm


www.webpediatrics.com/pandasclinicalcases.html

Abby's main symptoms are physical - opening her mouth wide constantly and uncontrollably is her main one now and I know she finds this difficult. She also licks the corner of her mouth until it's sore, but it started last year with screwing up her nose tight. She also shakes quite badly a lot of the time - her hands - I thought this was inherited from my Mom but perhaps not after all! Perhaps this is part of the PANDAS

Physical symptoms of PANDAS frequently include tics and a significant deterioration in fine motor skills. Tics can be isolated or may come in multiples and in bursts. They can be especially noticeable when child is tired, irritated, or left alone. Common tics include eye blinking, tapping, facial grimacing (motor tics), or coughing, throat clearing, uttering words for no apparent reason (vocal tics). Less frequently child can have unexplainable purposeless motions with all four extremities that look like a weird dance (St. Vitus dance was an early description of this symptom). Interestingly enough, despite of obvious shaking of hands child is able to use fork and spoon without spilling food. One of the hallmark symptoms is obvious deterioration in writing and drawing.

Abby will sometimes get obsessive fears over things like tornadoes - which used to annoy me but now I realise she has this condition I will take more time to be patient! I certainly didn't realise it was a part of her condition! Half the time I thought it was just attention seeking! Of course now I feel terrible! She really would get obsessive over them!

Obsessive-compulsive symptoms can vary greatly. Obsession with mechanical devices (i.e. fans), running in circles in a predictable manner, hoarding of trash or other useless objects, death thoughts, unusual fears (fear of natural disasters, fear of not being able to fall asleep, etc.), repetition of obscene words or phrases, repetition of certain physical (hand washing, clothing change, clicking lights certain number of times, etc.) or mental activities (incessant praying or repeating certain words or mantra), insistence on certain order of things, hair plucking, unfounded fears of enclosed spaces (agoraphobia), germs, being contaminated by body fluids (urine, saliva) are some of the common symptoms. Use of obscenities (within or out of the contest of discussion) is a common symptom. When asked why, children usually state that "something" is making them say these words.

(5) PANDAS is more likely to occur in certain "phenotype" of children:

In children with a history of early speech development, and who (usually) (prior to the illness) excel in school, particularly in math and sciences.
 In children who normally exhibit certain amount of obsessions with order, punctuality, preciseness, school work, etc., before the illness.
 Parents of children with PANDAS are more likely to be either highly educated or extremely enterprising. Even more likely is that the mother of a child with PANDAS is highly intelligent, has a history of being good in math and with computers (computer-savvy), and normally exhibits certain amount of obsession with punctuallity and order.

Landscape artist!

A. spent time in the Rockies recently watercolour painting on canvas. She painted lake scenes, mountains, as well as pictures of bees, dragonflies and butterflies.

Sam also painted while we we relaxed by the lakes :)

swimming like a fish

A has spent a lot of time swimming this Summer - she LOVES it!

New friends...

Meeting Pocket gophers in Banff National Park....

First fish!

A. with her first 'catch' in Spray Lakes Provincial Park. She had fun learning to fish with Daddy last week :)

Want to be my neighbour?

www.mls.ca

and then:

MLS number: E3154430

flower update....

The grass around my flower tubs needs cutting (remember this is where I sowed the new grass seed???) but Lloyd didn't like to cut it because the lilies that popped through were about to flower and a few little Shasta Daisies also popped through and he knows they are my favourites so he left them to flower :) He also noticed two Hostas popping up so he left them for me to move which I haven't gotten around to yet - so it looks messy around my tubs yes, but you can see the basic effect of the tubs and the apple tree (that has no apples this year lol). This is at the end of our driveway kind of and greets you as you turn into our acreage.

My papery sunshine...

I can't remember what this flower is apart from they labeled it as a type of false sunflower (there are many different kinds of flase sunflowers though) and I have fallen in love with this one! The flowers are gorgeous from beginning to end - the petals are papery and remind me of pineapples to begin with! then they slowly open to look like sunflowers and they last for AGES! And they bloom all summer long! Just gorgeous and it seems to do so well even when you forget to water ot for ages! STUNNING :) The different stages of flower look gorgeous together :)

Pink lily....

Sammy's Sunflower

Sam grew this sunflower from a seed with Lloyd in a pot. We replanted it in the front flower bed as soon as we could and it did really well until one storm when it split half way up the stem. It had a cane supporting it but the storm had been too much for the cane.

We thought it was going to die but we were so sad and we tried to keep it alive despite the damage to the stem - there was literally just threads of stem keeping it alive but the sunflower kept going and shockingly it kept going and it grew a head and flowered! It didn't get very tall and the flower didn't get very big - all the leaves died off but it STILL flowered and Sam is sooooooo happy :) He LOVES his flower - as sad and pathetic as it looks :)

I haven't dared touch any f the thistles or weeds around his sunflower lately for fear of knocking the poor thing and knocking the flower! None of our other sunflowers have flowered as early - they won't flower for at least another month yet!

Baseball with the siblings

Another movie clip by Chris

Thank you Val!

The rest of our afternoon was spent sunning ourselves on Vals porch, the children playing in their pool, chatting, laughing, eating, drinking and generally having a lovely afternoon! K (Vals DD) and I both agreed that Val is getting extremely spoiled in her old in her old age (lol at the old age)!!! AND senile (she has started going to home depot for FUN when she gets time to herself!!!!!!)

TOO FUNNY!

Anyway - we had a lovely afternoon so thank you Val and everyone over at the funny farm ;)

I'm still a little hurt that Abby likes your place better than mine!! ;)

Fun at the farm!!!

Laurie, Sam and Abby were really lucky and got to go and meet Vals animals this afternoon - she has two donkeys and two sheep. It's been ages since we've seen them - I'm not even sure if we've seen the donkeys - I know we've seen the sheep before though....my memory is hopeless!

The children got to feed the animals 'horse crunch' which they obviously LOVED and they kept coming back for more!!!

The black sheep 'pepper' or 'shadow' was more shy and stayed back a lot more - probably wise with my three around ;) I think my three were more nervous of gentle giant Zorro than they were of the other animals!