Mervyn

I just heard my FIL died from complications in surgery this morning.

Not sure how to sort this out in my brain. Feel like I have been slapped and not sure how to react or what to do.

Very weird.

Will write more later.

Yes! Go Oilers Go!!!

Woohoo, the Oilers are going to win this @#$^#@^$ - yay in overtime they scored!!!! Which means they are heading back to Rexall for another game against the 'Canes......and there is NO WAY we can let them win the cup in OUR town :)

My tiredness just got worse and worse through the day and this evening I feel horrid.....I've been curled up on the bed watching the hockey match. Lloyd brought me a cup of tea and a bar of Toblerone to make me feel better (love him so much!) but I still feel yucky. I have Susannahs cold now.....Laurie thinks he does too and poor Susie has gone through a box of tissues this evening! I hope we didn't give our germs to R and family! I think Sam is feeling ill too as he has been soooo miserable all day and hasn't slept at all!

We had a lovely afternoon. I took Laurie to the store to get soem cookies and treats for everyone. We saw two geese with their babies crossing the road.

Our local store is AWFUL.....it's a tiny country store......sells the basics at ridiculously high prices...so high that no one buys anything ...which means everything goes out of date...you HAVE to check every date on the things they sell.....They only had 5 packets of cookies (not 5 kinds but 5 packets!!!) and 4 of those were out of date!!!! Like March this year!! Lloyd picked up a packet fo cornflakes there a couple of months back dated summer 04!!!!!! Anyway, I spent $6 on a packet of grotty oatmeal cookies.....a brand I've never seen before...but they were the only ones not out of date.

R came over with her three children. We got the playdoh out, they made paper bag puppets and played on the trampoline, watched some of Chicken Little and just pottered about while R and I chatted and played playdoh :)

Laurie spent the day pottering in the workshop taking his bikes apart and building things.....Chris arranged his voluntary work at the museum......he also arranged his training program for his voluntary work at the library.

R and I were discussing whether you should buy hard backed books or paperbacks (paperbacks for fiction and hardbacks for non fiction OBVIOUSLY!!! lol!) and whether you should read magazines in the bath! (Yes!!!)

She also told me that her DD has been calling everyone 'Idiot'. I was thrilled to hear this!!! My child is NOT the only one after all :) Abigail spent last summer calling everyone an idiot.....we had a gate between our yard and our neighbours yard so that the girls could go backwards and forwards to play......but Abby would call their DD an idiot constantly so would get sent home.....she'd wait a while and go back but five minutes later get sent home again :)

She grew out of it thankfully....although now has just learnt to talk to people as if they are idiots rather than actually calling them idiots lol! She gets that from her oldest Brother I'm sure ;)

Well, Lloyd has finished driving the garbage down to the end of the driveway so I can go and collapse in bed for an early night hopefully......and please please let me get a GOOD LONG nights sleep!

Today I am thankful for:

1. The Oilers winning and getting another chance to bring the cup home!

2. The space ship S made for Sam!

3. A fun afternoon with our guests :)

4. A cooler day than the 27 they forecast this morning.....although we could have done without the grey skies!

5. The wonderful pile of magazines I was given today...can't wait to have time to curl up and read them all!

6. Tea and Toblerone in bed this evening :)

7. Not having to cook tonight :) Lloyd picked up a rotisserie chicken, some potato wedges and a bag of salad :)

8. Bedtime......I need sleep!

Rocket Man!

R's Daughter S brought a gift over for Sam today....a rocket ship!!!! She had made it out of a cardboard box!!! Sam thinks its very cool and has been playing in it a lot since! At first he got in backwards but I think he was a little nervous about flying into space so preferred not to look out of the windo and see all the planets!!!

Firey skies and white tailed deer.

The first week we lived here I got up and went to make coffee in the kitchen. As the kettle was boiling I looked out of the kitchen window and there on the grass outside, about 2 metres away, was a beautiful white-tailed deer.....it was chewing the grass and then slowly walked around the house and down the hill to the pond. It stopped for a drink in the pond and then walked off into our woods. It was wonderful! Lloyd was in a meeting so I couldn't call him - so I called Mum in England instead and she was as excited as me :)

The other pictures are of the amazing sunsets we get at the front of the house most evenings and also of one of the old gates that are dotted about our land.....I think they are lovely and when we take the fences down I will keep the gates and grow things over them.....

My favourite place to be.

This is Capeside. Our home for 8 months already...but it feels so much like home that I feel like we have been here forever.....it felt like home as soon as we walked through the doors....or even into the driveway! These are quite old pictures really...from the Fall and winter......

Our house from the road...through the Fall leaves.

A close up of our house taken last October.

Our house from the driveway in the Fall as the leaves started to turn...this slope is actually steep enough to be a pretty good sledding hill in winter!! At the bottom is our pond...we find coyote foot printes across the ice in winter and in summer it is filled with life....and noisy frogs :)

Our home in the snow......it was so pretty!

This black and white picture is one I named 'The Divide'.....its taken at the rear of our land and is the fence between our land and our neighbours land.

Too little sleep

I didn't sleep very much at all last night.....I can barely keep my eyes open this morning....I ache all over and feel about 80! I was so hot and couldn't get comfortable...my stomach hurt and my mind wouldn't switch off.......at 3am I was fed up so I was sat in the bedroom window looking out to see if Lloyds apple core had gone.....he threw an apple core out last night to see if it would be gone by this morning...

Lloyd has been emailing me throughout his meeting this morning...I love that he has his blackberry now and we can chat so much :)

Christopher stayed up late last night and finished Tuesdays with Morrie....he said it is a book that has changed him....which is a good thing....until he said he isn't interested in money any more....of course Laurie and I laughed - obviously the WRONG thing to do.....Chris is over tired and decided we are all horrible and mean to him....oops.....bed early tonight!!!! He's now watching the World Cup soccer matches on tv.

R is coming over this afternoon with her three children. S is around the same age as Susannah and they get on really well. The boys school friends have stayed in touch but Susies haven't so I know she needs new friendships to grow.......she likes S a lot.

I hope I wake up more before they arrive...when I'm this tired I'm a little brain dead and can't think what to say.....

CK magazine was good this month and has made me want to scrapbook again...maybe I will do some tomorrow. Maybe a trip to the scrapbook store is in order....it's been months!

It's supposed to get to 27c today but it's grey and cloudy right now as we are on the edge of storms to the south of us....maybe it will warm up later...we still haven't had a really good thunder storm yet this year......

Laurence has been in the workshop all morning taking apart his two bikes....switching tyres etc etc and taking apart the old video recorder...Lloyd said he could have anything in the barn and take it apart and build whatever he wants......

The girls are building things with Lego...elevators and penguins and various things.....they were out playing with the dogs earlier.....and heard coyotes so Abigail came in and drew a picture of a coyote.....she asked me how many legs they have and said she is bored with drawing animals that have four legs...so she gave the coyote 8 legs instead.......

I think I need breakfast. Most week days I have dry oatmeal (uncooked) mixed with two pots of apple sauce and 3 tablespoons of hemp hearts....I love it and it stops me getting hungry for ages........and the hemp hearts give you energy.....in fact maybe I will have an extra tablespoon today...I could do with some extra energy today ;)

Mom, Doctor or fish?

Abigail pushed the cart around Sobeys today (grocery store). She's 4. We didn't need much so she had one of the mini childrens carts to push around. She did a great job. On the way home she said:
"I was great at pushing the cart wasn't I mommy? I was so great at it that I think I should be a Mommy. When I'm big I'm going to be a Mommy because I'm good with carts."

She thought about this for a few moments and then said

"Or a Doctor....I might be a Doctor"

she thought again for a minute and then said

"Or maybe I'll be a fish. Like Nemo".

Tuesdays gratitude

Today has been such a great day. I am very thankful for:

1. Feeling so welcomed at the homeschool drop-in despite not getting there as often as I should!

2. My beautiful home and how much I love to have friends over...it's so nice seeing all the children play outside with so much space to run around.

3. Gorgeous sunny skies and warm temperatures again after a week of grey.

4. My new magazine subscriptions!

5. My great kids!!! They are all so much fun to be around!

6. Sobeys two-bite jam tarts mmmmmmmmmmm

7. Spending my life with my best friend....my childhood friend....the sweetest most romantic, most thoughtful, kindest man I have ever known.

Dandelion jewellery and diamonds

Jewels have been a main theme of my day. Firstly, on the news this morning they said that Canada exported $1.6 billion in diamonds last year and that is set to double in the next two years. Wow.......so how come I'm not dripping in diamonds????????????????

In the car this morning Abigail was singing Michaels Bubles 'Can't Buy Me Love' but she was getting the words wrong and was singing "I don't care too much for Mommy, Cause Mommy's no diamond ring!" She asked if she had the words right. I said not quite but some may agree ;) lol!

It's been a busy day. We took our time getting going this morning and had no plans really....but then Chris offered to babysit Sam while I took the others to the homeschool drop-in group, so I decided to go. N had emailed me to ask if we would be there so I figured we'd go.

We got to the group around 10:30am and people seemed pleased to see us which is nice - I got a hug from L who had had her hair cut! Wow!! I didn't recognise her - thought it made her look so much younger! And she told me she had it done by the grade 12 students in town!!!

N had brought paper bag puppets for the kids to make and T had taken donuts for everyone...I just opted for the coffee though which is always good.

The kids had fun climbing trees and playing outside with their friends.....it was nice not having to keep an eye on Sam all the time. Next week is the Track and field day so we are staying for a picnic after the group. That should be fun!

N said she had the day free so I invited her back here after the group. I ran to Sobeys for a few things and then we came home...N was already here and the kids were on the trampoline.....

Basically the afternoon was spent outside...sitting on the porch, snacking, drinking and watching the children play. N got Chris to make a coffee and she also read his essay on why he wants to unschool next year.

The girls dressed up in all their different outfits and the boys pottered about playing......we took them to see the huge ant hill and N bravely put her hand in it to scoop some out, so we got to see all the tunnels inside and the ants all busy at work.

N decided to dress Sam up in Abby's cheerleading outfit - he thought it was funny - for a while!

Around 3pm we headed off for a walk over on M's land.....N taught the kids how to blow through grass to make a noise and how to make jewellery from dandelion stalks...which was pretty amazing!!!! You peel them like strong cheese and then place them in icy cold water and they curl up instantly! You can then thread them like beads!!!

My first issue of Live Free, Learn Free arrived today...haven't had a chance to read it all but what I have read is wonderful! Glad I subscribed!!!

Dinner this evening was a tuna salad with new potatoes. Light and easy. It's warm out......around 24c I think.....although the skies have just darkened so maybe it will thunder later - that would be nice!

This evening I plan to relax and read my new magazine. Lloyd (surprise surprise) is doing a bit of the coop. I do love him so much! Every morning he kisses me goodbye. If I'm awake and look out of the window to wave he flashes his hazard lights as a 'wave' good bye! Every morning I have a hot coffee left beside my bed in a thermol mug......this morning I found a little pink card he had made on the top - a little get well card saying he hoped I felt better this morning. He has always left me little notes and cards....I have quite a collection of them. I keep them all. Every few weeks there will be another one somewhere......sometimes they are post-it notes in cupboards or little pictures by my computer, or little cards somewhere to surprise me. I love it.
We still have 'I Love You' written in mascara on our bathroom mirror :) I woke up one night for the bathroom and thought I'd leave him a message for the morning :)

I don't know what I did to get so lucky :)

worms

It's funny that when you really relax about learning you notice learning taking place even more! The girls have been outside and have come back with a big box of worms they have dug up outside.....they are fascinated with them (Abby also brought in a little stick that she is adamant is actually a worm that froze in the winter!!!) so now they are studying the parts of the worms and have the bug books out and are studying their new pets.....

We just found a very cool website on worms too...
http://yucky.discovery.com/flash/worm/pg000102.html

Life is a rollercoaster!

Quite a day! This morning was nice. I got some chores done and then we all sat at the table and wrote to our penpals...each of the children has a few penpals....includinga few new ones. I wrote to my Nan and started a letter to Lianne. Abigail wrote to Isaac.

I was puzzled this morning. I lost my Avon foot file a couple of months ago...you know the kind of thing...you use it to rub off all the yucky skin on your feet...loooovely!!! Anyway it vanished ages ago...coudn't find it anywhere......so this morning I walk into the sitting room and there it is...on the sofa!!!!! Exactly where you expect to find a foot file!!!!! What on earth was it doing there????

Laurie made orange jello hoping it would be ready for lunch but learnt you have to be patient with jello...so they had it for dessert tonight instead!

After lunch we drove into town as the boys had homeschool gym class. I took the others to the thrift store which was so much fun!!! I love that my girls get excited over the 'hunt' for bargains at the thrift store!!!! They couldn't care less about designer labels etc...they know what they like!!! Susannah found a TON of new clothes there.....and Abigail found some fab purple sunglass that matched her outfit......I got a few books (no surprise there) and some things for the boys...oh including a great wall sticker kit of Garfield for Laurie!

After we picked the boys up we headed to the homeschool office......where they preceded to give Chris someone elses exam results - DETAILED exam results.....they are so lax about confidentiality there.....Still, one more week and we are DONE with that schoolboard yay!!! :) They are so ignorant of homeschooling issues...and don't even know anything about other homeschool boards and what is available...you'd think they would be interested in knowing about their 'competition'.........they know NOTHING about getting into college as a homeschooled child either......they seem to think you HAVE to have a diploma!!! Duh!!!!

I am excited about beginning with EU instead.

After that we ran to the Kinsmen to pick up CHris's application for the training course he is taking this summer. He is doing a Leaders in Training course with three levels...basically it will teach him how to run summer camps for kids...even teaches child psychology...he has to put in 70 hours of voluntary work and attend training nights.....I htink he will enjoy it!

On the way home we stopped off at Tims as I owed Laurie a large Iced Capp for his latest book review. Chris got a coffee as did I. Then home finally.

I made grilled beef with savoury brown rice. I added some diced new potatos to the rice which was really nice......

I didn't each much though as my throat started to hurt in town and has since become much worse...it hurts to swallow and hurts right up into my ears.......I am sooo hoping I don't have a cold coming. I haven't had a cold in so long!

The Oilers are playing atm. So far it's 1-1 which isn't good. Go Oilers Go!!!!!!

The kids were so much fun today.......I love how much our relationship has improved since they stopped school. They are really great company.

The girls took the dogs for a walk just after dinner....they like to go on their 'adventures' each day around our land. More often than not they come back with doodles and sketches in their notebooks. Sometimes Susie takes the camera with her to picture their adventure!

They are outside playing hopscotch now, Laurie is helping Lloyd dig the trench for the chicken run and Chris is watching hockey. Sam is out with Lloyd too......he loves being outside.

I was chatting to a someone in ONtario this morning....she is going to the UK on holiday soon and staying in Wells of all places!!!! She asked if I knew Somerset....Ha!!! I grew up there...all my family are there!!!!! Such a small world :) So I suggested a few places they might like to visit. I am so jealous of them going over!!!! Hope they have a great time though.....so many people go to the UK and just do London but the South West is so beautiful and so rich in history!!

Please please don't let me wake up full of a cold tomorrow! Let this sore throat turn out to be nothing!!!!!

Blooming Marvellous

More flowers and plants from our garden. This is our first summer here and it's fascinating to see all teh new plants and flowers popping up....learning what it all is and where everything is.....it still amazes me how delicate flowers like violas can survive such harsh winters and thrive!

When we first saw and fell in love with this house last year, it was surrounded by hundreds of the large daisies...so many that our first thought was to call this house Daisy Cottage.

Like the line in You've Got Mail...."Daisies are such friendly flowers, don't you think they're just the friendliest flower"?

Pirates, bookcases and 16 children

Today I am grateful for:

1. The rain we have had the last week.....although it would be nice to have the Alberta blue skies back again thank you very much :)

2. All the flower buds on the Irises...they are going to be stunning when they flower!!

3. My delightful afternoon out with just Abigail. On the drive to the birthday party we talked and talked. She was asking if I knew any pirates. I said that Aunty Clare had said that Uncle Jack might have been a pirate as he was always on boats. Abby said that Uncle Jack was old and then asked if he was going to die soon...we started talking about growing old and about dying and she told me that she doesn't want to get old!

4. My beautiful home and the wonderful feeling I get when I turn into our driveway each time. It is always so good to come home. I love driving out of the city and towards home.

5. For Lloyd - for the man he is, strong and reliable and dependable and loving and yet able to show so much concern for a tiny bird in our yard...happy to head out into the long grass to search for a nest and possible other babies.

6. My new bookcase......and having somewhere to put more books, family pictures and special keepsakes.

7. Sitting and watching another show about the Duggar family. How wonderful to have such a large family. Abigail thought it was a great idea too...and wants to know if we can go to a homeschool conference like the Duggars did :)

Dark skies looming

Some pictures of the dark skies around our home last night....we watched them approaching and sat on the porch until the strong winds and rain hit......

A picture of my gorgeous Daughters that I took of them in the dandelions before they were cut down......and my beautiful girl Amber.

And life goes on......

I was chatting with a friend today......I don't know her too well but she seems really nice. She was explaining that her and her DH have separated...she's hoping they can get back together and work things out but she isn't sure......I was surprised to hear her news.....it's sad...but I wanted her to know that life goes on. I explained about my situation and how it can be rough at the time but you get through it, life goes on, it changes but the world doesn't stop...that you just have to face it like a new adventure......that she'll be ok.....

I don't know if it helped but I wanted her to know I'd been there.....

The end of a marriage can be tough.....to all involved...it changes so much. But I know for me it was for the best and I wouldn't change my life for anything now.......my divorce was just a blot on the landscape....look how far I've come since!!!!!!

And there are wonderful, loving, kind and generous men out there like Lloyd.....men who don't see children as an inconvenience...men who happily accept your children as their own.....

Lloyd and I drove into town this morning to collect Laurie - he slept over at the twins house last night....most weekends he stays there and loves it......their parents work and it seems they always have 'cool' babysitters and lots of people going in and out of the house.....we stopped off for coffee and croissants too.

This afternoon I took Abby to N's birthday party.....she had fun there...I learnt what a Peony is and now want to buy some to plant around here...although I'm wondering if the big plant at the front with the biy buds ready to burst is actually a dark pink peony. They smell beautiful.

I was chatting to a lady at the party who is from Guyana...she seemed surprised I knew where it was ;) She moved to the NWT from Guyana...wow what a difference in climate!

N's Grandma was at the party.....her voice was shaky and reminded me exactly of Nanny Collison (except for the slight Canadian accent).....it was amazing listening to her talk and took me back 25 years to when I would go to my Nans house.....they years go by so fast, she died 16 years ago. Where does the time go?

When I got home Lloyd had been cutting the grass in the front paddock...sadly he had run over a little bird hiding in the long grasses....we think it was a song sparrow.....we have hunted and hunted for it's nest but can't see anything. Lloyd was feeling terrible for hurting it. We wanted to cut all the long grass back but now aren't sure what to do....maybe wait a month until all the nestlings have flown just in case!

Lloyd is now making the new cheery bookcase for the sitting room. Apart from the sofas and crown molding, that room is now finished...we just want to find some nice paintings for the walls.

Yesterday was nice. Lloyd and I took Sam and went to Costco and bought the bookcase. After that we took Sam home and went back into town to take Laurie to his sleepover and we sat in Starbucks in Chapters for ages over coffee (I had a strawberries and cream frapuccino - yum!!!! We got some snacks for the evening and then headed home. We cut some more grass and tidied up outside....Chris's friend left around 3pm. We lit a fire in the firebowl and the kids had hotdogs cooked on the fire.....then Lloyd lit a big fire to burn some hay bales. He had poured gasoline on the fire to get it started and wow what a bang when he lit it - silly fool!!! He thought it was cool of course (groooooan) as did Chris who was on the trampoline.

The sky darkened so much and it looked as though a storm was coming. We sat on the porch and watched clouds come closer and then the wind hit us and the rain and it was wonderful!

We came in around 9:30pm and Lloyd and I curled up to watch 'The Perfect Man' a movie with Heather Locklear and Big from Sex and the City. It was quite a sweet movie really.

So Sunday evening is here yet again...another weekend is over...Lloyd goes back to work tomorrow. The boys have homeschool gym in the afternoon......the dogs will need walking, the laundry will need to be done and the dandelions will have grown another inch or two......

.......life goes on ;)