Yesterday Visit

So yesterday Justin and I headed up to Mom and Dad's for a visit.

The whole way down Justin kept up this litany.
Where we going mom?
To Oma and Papa's house?
What do there mom?
I don't know Justin, visit I think, what do you want to do there?
Play with TOYS! was the delighted response.

Granted, after 10 minutes of this the conversation was getting rather old for me...but hey...what do you do when it's just the two of you in a car? You point out trucks and silos and farms and tractors. And manage to intersperse those into the conversation, and when all else fails... get "tagu" to help you drive the car (and be scared off all the transports on the road). That's what you do! :)

Anyways, had a lovely visit with my parents.
Helped mom with a computer problem.
Justin played and played and played some more.

We left a bit later than expected because the first attempt at downloading a thing that mom needed failed, and I wanted to get it all installed for her as well.

Justin fell asleep soon after we left.
Slept when I brought him into the house.
Slept even after Jim tried to wake him up.
Slept after I got him up.
Finally I held him in my lap so he could watch Thomas on my computer. That helped him get going again. If he'd gone to bed for good at 430 he would have been up WAY to early for me.
We had a BAD supper...pizza, but it fit for a end to a tiring day.

To read up on how I got him into bed at the close of the day, go here.

It's been a Spell

So it's been a spell since I've updated everyone. Not a whole lot to say either!

Okay...let's think here.....
This past weekend Jim and I headed out of town so that we could go to a teaching conference. We stayed at another Pastor's house as they were very close by. it was nice to stay with them and get to know them a bit more. Jim knows Doug better than I do, but the family seems quite nice and Doug is just this sweetie of a man. :)

This teaching conference was hosted by the Discipleship Committee of the RCA, Ontario Classis. The conference was put together to explain Vantage Point 3 and LOH (which official name escapes me at the moment). Anyways, LOH is based on Vantage Point 3 which is an adult discipleship/leadership training course. It lasts for three years, costs mega-bucks to be part of, but the classis is willing to reimburse some of that cost. LOH is directed toward youth, cost is more reasonable and includes a yearly retreat. Both sound good, but I have to admit I have some hesitancy toward it.

My hesitancy toward Vantage point 3 stems a lot from my irritation in the morning session where the Speaker used a lot of pop-psychology language where I ended up thinking...so what exactly is he trying to say here? Can't you just find a normal way of talking rather than using all these stupid catch phrases that don't mean anything.

My hesitancy toward LOH comes from
1. why should we pay for a conference that we might not be able to attend? Why should that cost be built in? Does it (and I never got this answered) include the price of accommodations (the standard answer to such like questions was "depends a lot on the churches and the region involved). Tells me nothing, even if it is true.
2. Most churches, if they put a bit of work into it, could develop a similar program for a lot less financial outlay on the whole. $100 per student per year (for 2-3 years)translates into a lot of cash. Cobbling something else together could quite effectively do just as good a job. Granted, means a bit of work on the part of the church, but that's what we're in ministry for...to do the best job we can with the resources God has granted us, to further the kingdom of God.

Enough of that. :)

Justin, while we were gone, had LOTS of fun with his grammer (Jim's mom). Tunnels, trains, tents, snow, popcorn and laughter all round. :)

I've posted my bunnies for sale. Have 12 to sell. I'll give kijiji a couple of weeks to do it's thing and then I'll just bring those I don't want to the market in London and sell them there. I potentially have two of them sold already. YEAH!!! :)

This coming weekend Jim is off to the Classis meeting in Welland, Justin and I might go to the Market in London and we're visiting my folks on Thursday (Justin and I, Jim has to work).

What else? Can't think of anything off the top of my head so I'll just close off then.

Update on my bunnies

So, all my young bunnies are sold! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most I sold for $10 a piece, two for $8 each, most went to decent homes as far as I know, and three I sold at market for not as much as I wanted, but ah well... at least I didn't have to feed them and I didn't want to risk being stuck with them either. :)

One lady came out at 11 p.m. to get her bunny she was so eager. Dragged her boyfriend along for the ride. Came out from London.

Sent one off yesterday to a lady who is hoping to start breeding her own bunnies. Had a lovely chat with her and her two little ones.

We're left with the two that I really wanted to keep as replacement girls so life is good. :) Oh...and the one non-grower that I still have no clue what I want to do with. Not sure that I can leave her with the piggies indefinitely.....

Some of Justin's favourite on-line places

As an aid to my hubby

some favourite pages of Justin's

colouring pages

• Disney CARS colouring pages.
• bob the builder colouring pages ... same company with CARS
• blue clues :)
  

Activity Sites

• thomas the train
• bob the builder
• pbskids for caillou, berenstain bears, and clifford.

And then of course there's the ever popular YouTube with it's various thomas the tank engine clips. :)

Challie's Contest

You'll notice in the sidebar a link to Challies new Contest.
He is giving away this month the following:

Three prizes will be awarded as follows:

• First prize: Five Films Gift Pack: Still Standing: The Stonewall Jackson Story, Inherit the Land: Adventures on the Agrarian Journey, The Eden String Quartet: A Bountiful Blessing, A Journey Home, The Peasall Sisters: Family Harmony.
• Second prize: New Films Pack: Still Standing: The Stonewall Jackson Story, Inherit the Land: Adventures on the Agrarian Journey.
• Third Prize: Still Standing: The Stonewall Jackson Story.

Yesterday Out of Town

Yesterday the whole family took our normal Monday let's get out of town day.

We went to London where we stopped to pick up mom because of a little boy's persistent request that we take gramma to the Train store.

Once there he gleefully showed gramma the trains that he didn't have. He then winnowed it down the two that he just had to have. Hard choice for a wee lad.

Gramma chose to spoil him.

He chose an Emily (with her two green coaches)






And a Sir Handel with his two red coaches.








So we have one very happy little boy who refused to nap for gramma. he had new trains! gramma was too much fun!

he apparently ate like a horse for gramma.

Jim and I had a nice day out. We just hung out together. didn't have a lot of shopping to do so we just went willy-nilly here and there. Fun to do that once in a while.

I should add this since Jim found the answer to a query.... we passed a protest of some sort or other and wondered what FARC was all about. Jim found the answer here.

They were among hundreds of thousands estimated to have marched at the same time in 185 cities around the world to protest the actions of FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).

Sold Bunnies

So today we went to London, went for a couple of reasons.

1. sell bunnies
2. get some bouillon from Watkins at london market - used rabbit money to buy this! :)
3. pick up duckweed from mom's (that she picked up for us from a freecycle person) - made the fish happy when I stuck it in aquariums.

Sold Bunnies
3 mini rex to a pet store for $36
4 other bunnies at the Trail's End Market for less money than I wanted but it worked out over all.

For a grand total of about what I expected and less than what I hoped for. :)
In retrospect from a cost effective perspective would have been better to kill the older bunny that I brought in. Only got a bit for him, he probably weighed in at 6-7 lbs. So he would have given me more dog meat than what I got for him monetarily. BUT seeing as I liked this little boy, at least this way I can think that just maybe he's got a bit of life left in him, instead of thinking of him as dog food, a life I hope as a breeding buck in someone's rabbit program. :)

But of the three littles ... one had a bad eye so I consider anything I got would be a give-me. especially since originally I thought I had no choice but to keep her, but her eye was looking pretty good this morning, just a touch of cloudiness so I thought...she can leave! The others I just didn't want to feed up to a decent weight for butchering, so I got more than what they were worth weight wise. So that's good.

And the mini-rexes selling for $12 each...well..that's just way cool! :) As that's more than I think they were worth meat wise. So...Life is good. Was even able to pay Jim back for buying rabbit food. Good to surprise one's hubby once in a while. :)

I have left three bunnies that I want to sell. And if I don't sell them privately for $10 each then I will bring them to the market in 2-3 weeks. Bring them in early, hopefully have them at a better spot for selling (early sale better price from what I could observe).

One very curious mini rex. He weighs 1.25 lbs. Love this bunny, very tempted to keep him. He is such a curious soul. Always ready for the next adventure. He has pretty good form, not perfect, but he's young yet. I expect he'll mature into a solid buck. Part of me would like to keep him for my breeding program, and yet I wonder if I should or not. Have time to decide. Of course, if I get a solid cash offer for him he's gone. :)



Two mixed breeds.

• A tan and white female weighing at about 2 lbs. She's a nice young doe. Would keep her but she has a sister who looks almost the same with a slightly better temperament and is bigger than her by 2 oz. Doesn't seem like much, but when I want a larger meat rabbit, size matters.
  
• A tan male coming in at 1.5 lbs. --- this one Justin just really enjoys him. He is very placid and tolerates a little boy picking him up. Quiet and somewhat shy. Nice rabbit, if he'd been a female I'd want to keep him for his body build.
  

So...if my readers live close by and want a bunny...well... let me know, I'd be happy to help you out. :)

My Dog and My Boy

It was fun yesterday....After a day doing onions (I had gotten 20 pounds of onions cheap three weeks ago and finally had time to do them up - dehydrated some and chopped others up for the freezer) and taking breaks to play with the boy. Justin had slept in late so didn't have a nap, at 4ish he was starting to get pretty tired, so I thought to myself... I need to get out and do something with him. We don't need each other getting frustrated and mad so.....off we went to the park with Sassy.

Sassy LOVES the park. :) So does the boy child. :)
I had neglected to bring gloves for myself so we didn't go for a walk. That idea just seemed perfect to freeze my hands off! Instead we went to the snow-covered playground equipment and had fun on it. There I could keep my hands in my pockets or tucked up into my sleeves and stay warm for the most part. Justin wasn't allowed on the big children's section since it looked too slippery for my taste with a little lad. Proved to be a good choice as the wee children's section had plenty of zip for him.

Justin and Sassy had races down the slides. :) Who was first? Who was second? (they have two slides side by side...first was one side, second was the other). Who could do ready set go first? Could Sassy wait for Justin? Could Justin wait for Sassy? Who could get to the bottom, get themselves upright and get to the stairs for another go round? We had a blast for 20 minutes. Then with wet bottoms and cold hands we went home again.

I also thought it fun hearing comments from passers by. "Look! that doggie is sliding mommy?" "Yes, she is being a silly dog isn't she." "Look mommy boy playing with doggie!" :) Made me grin watching those smiles and hearing those comments. :)

We got there just in time for Daddy to take the car and head off for his meeting. He would normally have taken the van but flat tire and broken bolt nixed that plan!

Things I like Doing with My boy

I love listening to my boy child play. Hearing his conversations with his Tagu, watching him play out the scenes from his Thomas videos (particularly all the crashes), seeing him get creative with the toys that he has - sometimes using them in ways I hadn't thought of before.

He sometimes will draw me into his play time. "mommy, come sit on floor" and then I'm given a toy and we play. :) But I have to mind that I don't have the wrong toy. :)

But what I love most right now is when he comes and helps me with stuff. From cooking supper last night when he helped me put the sour cream into the stroganoff. One ever so small (to me) scoop at a time and I mix it in. When he tries ever so hard to help and he spilled the hamburger on the counter and I hear an "oh oh...mommy clean it?"

When I was organizing/tidying my rooms upstairs on Tuesday, he totally refused to go to bed, Mommy was doing stuff and he could help! (at least I think that was part of his refusal). All the things he could help me move and discoveries that could be made. fun fun for a little boy.

When he's helping me with stuff he is ever such a helpful, obedient little lad. Not like when he is seriously playing and then I need him (or rather would like him) to do something....oh my....that's just asking for trouble. But we're learning and growing together in that.

He's a good boy. :)

"throw you out the window"

When I first had Justin I had some significant postpartum stuff that I needed to deal with. I survived and so did Justin, though I have to admit there were some pretty scary times between the two of us. One of the things I said at the time and occasionally meant was "I'll throw you out the window". I learned to turn that into a fun thing. (YEAH!)

Anyways, it became one the things I say to Justin on a regular basis "I can throw you out the window" or more recently "I can throw you into the snow bank!". :) Justin says no and giggles. :)

As far as I remember this is how the latest episode went: The other night I was doing something, heard Jim laugh and then came when he called me. He said "listen to Justin". Here's my boy playing with his beloved Tagu saying "Justin mad at you" "Justin throw you out the window" (as he tosses Tagu over the back of the big lazy boy) and then go rescue him. he did this over and over. I laughed. :)

Did make me very much aware of how much this little boy sees AND hears what I am saying.
Oh...that I end up being a good example of Christ to him (despite my threats to throw him out the window)....which I would never do. :)

Radical Alteration

My plans for the day: have my devotions, walk Sassy, care for bunnies, get the boy up, make breakfast, go to Toddler Time, come back for lunch, Justin to bed, work on more organizing.

My actual day thus far: had my devotions, walked the dog, get home to ..... water on the floor. Oh...what's this? Discover the guppy fish tank has sprung a leak and had done so when I took Sassy for a walk...how do I know this? The floor was dry when I crossed the same spot earlier. Just a mere 45 minutes earlier! Good thing I came in the house first instead of going right to bunny care. :) Wasn't God good?

Quickly I rescued what fish I could find. We had...four males, four females, two middling youngsters, and about 8 babies. We now have four females, two males, two middling youngsters and I was able to find at least 5 babies, two of which I know are still living. :)

I heard "I need milk" call from Justin so he got that. Then I finished setting up the new aquarium. They are now housed in a 5 gallon aquarium. Quite the difference for them from a 35 gallon. But they are swimming.

Then I emptied the gravel out of old aquarium...boy...quite the significant hole in the seal!
Justin made the job a bit harder as he "helped", but hey...at least he wanted to help!

We'll set that somewhere to dry. Jim plans to do some research to see if it is fixable, and then we'll try again. :)

Got some food out for Justin to eat, and put a movie on for him. Then I cared for the bunnies, ate a small bowl of cereal to hold me over and will see what I can figure for the rest of the day.

There won't be any toddler time this morning. I am disappointed about that, but God decided that I needed to do something else this morning. :)

NOT what I had in mind for the day.

A Good Couple of Days

There I was Tuesday, reflecting over the day and realized that even though I didn't feel very productive over the course of the day I actually was. I managed to, despite having a dentist appointment in the morning, managed to complete all the laundry, make a supper, and do some work in the upstairs rec. room. Didn't get as much done as I wanted to, but I didn't expect the freezing to hurt like a son of gun when it came out either (so I read until it was finished coming out). Jim had an executive meeting that took most of the afternoon/evening to handle.

Then Wednesday came around...I managed to have a great sleep on Tuesday night! YEAH!!!!! I don't get many of those. Anyways, got all the paperwork sorted out from the masses of piles upstairs, got that done in the morning. Got tons of dog food made (Sassy is set probably for the next three months), the dishes done, a nice supper made, played with the boy child and even had time to relax with my sweetie. I even ate healthy almost all day long! What can I say...the boy child's goldfish crackers were a bit too much of a temptation. :) Jim got some visiting done and some work on his sermons...not as much as planned because he unfortunately didn't sleep so well on Tuesday night.

Today I plan (I hope) to finish the rest of the upstairs rec room. Clean out the piggies for sure and the rabbits if the weather cooperates (needs to be mild enough mid-morning). Play outside with Justin for a bit. What else....Make supper of some sort...oh...bacon cheeseburger pasta. :) And just generally keep myself busy...I'm pretty good at that. :) I assume Jim plans to work on sermons today...probably won't see him too much here at home.

Justin & Annette Celebrate the Birth of Our Lord

One of the things that Annette has done from before we got married, was through the season of Advent up into Christmas, she would do daily Advent meditations and light Advent Candles. This year she used a book that has various pull out pieces that will form a Christmas scene, one per day of Advent. Justin enjoyed this a great deal, and so we thought we would capture it on video. This was done a little different than they would usually do it because all the characters had fallen over.



This second video is the same thing, but more in keeping with how they would do it each day through Advent. It also shows the thing the Justin enjoyed above everything else, blowing out the candles.

Snowblower AAARRG!

I finally got the snowblower back together today. The problems started back on the 17th of December. I had to shovel some snow out at the end of my in-laws driveway so we could go home. In doing so I injured my back. When we got home there was about 18" of snow in the driveway, so I waded through it and started up the snowblower. All went well until the very end when the one handle mount snapped. That made it impossible to run or control the snowblower, so I dragged it back to the garage and figured I would fix it later.

First I got a welder, and once my back felt a little better welded on the mount again. After that my back hurt more, so I couldn't continue.

When my back felt better (several days later) I cleaned up where I welded and primed and painted it. Doing this caused my back to hurt more again, and I had to wait to continue.

When my back felt better (several days later [do you see a pattern developing]) I started to bolt things back together, got the handle on, and all the controls connected, only to realize I needed to flip the blower up on its front end to get at two of the mounting bolts for the handle which are inside the area occupied by the drive assembly. The bolting of what I could get to re-aggravated my back, so I couldn't continue.


When my back felt better . . . I put the blower up so I could remove the access panel, tighened up the other two bolts that hold the handle, and replaced the access panel. Amazingly enough, this didn't bother my back too much. With everything back together I started up the blower and at first everything seemed to work, until I realized the front augers and the blower were running even though the control handle was not depressed. Weirdly enough when I pressed down the control, the auger and blower stopped. Somehow things got reversed. I took it out and using the reverse controls blew some snow to make sure everything was working. Now to figure out what made the one control work in reverse.

Again I dragged it back to the garage, but by now the gas was low enough I could flip it up on the front end, and I opened the access panel. All looked well in there, so I flipped it back down and opened up the shroud that covers the belts. Sure enough, somewhere in my working on the snowblower I had put the belt that drives the auger and blower on incorrectly. A quick change and replace the shroud. Flip it up and replace the access panel (only to notice on of the mounting points had rusted off--Oh well something else to weld in the future) and it is back together and functioning properly. Now to blow out a path to the church so I can work in my office over there in peace and quiet.

Watch it 'Gain!

A Justin Moment

Sometimes I think I should not ask my boy child questions.

The other day we were in the basement and he was playing with this large toy train of his. It's one that loudly plays music. he'll often say it's singing when it's doing so.

Anyways, he was playing with it and calling it a Mommy train. It mommy train mommy. He kept telling me this.

So...I foolishly opened my mouth and said.... Why is it a mommy train Justin?

His response..... because it noisy!

I have to admit...I laughed.
I have to admit....so did Jim when I told him.
I have to admit.... so did the entire family when Jim rather graciously told them too!

What??????? I don't talk and sing that much!!!!!!!! Really!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Family Christmas Gathering

So yesterday, Jim's mom joined us as we went to my family Christmas gathering.

For the most part, we had a LOT of fun.
I was a bit of a forgetful person and didn't bring a change of clothing and diaper for the boy child, so after he had a rather long nap he had soaked through what he had brought so he ended up saying these wet clothes are uncomfortable and ran around pants-less. Ah well...he is just a wee lad. Led to a bit of a battle at the end of the day....Caroline had a forgotten GIRLS pull-up in her car, Justin did NOT want to wear it, he wanted his CARS (boys) pull-up and this minnie mouse was just not going to cut it. With some sweet talking and quiet time with mommy and then a good distraction from his oma we managed to get them on for the car ride home (I insisted because he hadn't pooped yet! and that was a mess I didn't want to deal with in the car) Turned out to be a wisely won battle. :)

For food we had lasagna, taco casserole, and egg/meat casserole that I brought. Jim also brought the leftovers of salad he made for our at home dinner. Mom provided desserts and buns. Jim's mom also brought a couple of desserts. The food was good. :) Conversation around the dinner table was good.

We read the Christmas story, mom read an interesting piece that she found in the paper, and Jim read a story with a Christmas theme he had found for the Church program.

We also had a gift exchange: mom gave us our amaryllis. this is a yearly tradition and one that I very much look forward too. :) This year she gave money to the Christian Blind Mission (I think I have the right mission) on our behalf as well. Thought that was rather cool. Justin gave out his jars of candy that he helped make. Most everyone thought that was rather cute. I think I had chosen well with the small gifts that I chose for everyone. They seemed happy none-the-less and all I aim for is a smile on people's faces.

Mine sister Judy gave me some new figures for my village. Justin got a Mighty Machines DVD and a whack of cars/trucks. Boy....did he have fun playing with those. took them all to bed with him too! :) Took him a while to wind down from a busy day having ALL his family together and new trucks and cars to play with.

Life was good.

Oh....can't forget the bunnies. Brother Fred and his family gave us their rabbits. These bunnies were purchased for the girls but weren't being appreciated (aka played with) anymore so Fred had asked back in November (I think) if we wanted them. He told me they were small bunnies so I expected bunnies the size of what we have here at home. WRONG! They might not be big meat rabbits....but they are definitely bigger than what we have here at home. :) They are currently housed in the garage until I can figure out where to put them next. I'm thinking I might put them outside in the bigger cage (it's well wind protected though not warm) and put the three smallest bunnies in the garage in my big cage...they'll have more room that way. I'd have to build them bigger nesting boxes though...... but no rush on that.

Must admit though, I am looking forward to having a nice quiet day at home today. :)

Merry Christmas to all

Yesterday Jim's mom came over.
We had a lovely dinner, followed by opening presents and just having a nice time together. Justin hadn't napped during the day so he went to bed at 730 p.m. We stayed up and watched a old movie with Cary Grant. Wasn't too bad. I kept waiting for something bad to happen and when it did I wasn't surprised. Wasn't thrilled with the ending, but over all not a bad movie.

Today we have a Christmas morning service at Church and then we're off to visit with my parents. I'm bringing along the salad Jim made yesterday...it's good! And also a casserole that I haven't made before. We'll have to see how that goes over. :)

Anyways, that's it. Talk more another day.

You all have a Merry Christmas now! :)

Justin wanted me to post this one!

and this one too!

This is YouTube Just for Justin