A burster

Yesterday Justin made a lego "burster".

A burster when shot at someone turns them mean, and then he uses a zapper to make them nice again. :)

Wish I had pics.

We had fun playing together while doing our canning.

Uncle Bill

Today Justin's Uncle Bill came up for a visit.

Justin at first was shy and then remembered that Unca Bill is okay. They played, we chatted. We went for a walk, Justin disappointed we didn't go to the park (missy's park), but had a good lunch.

It was nice to visit and to learn more about what's up with him lately.

Too much fun for a tired little boy (late to bed, up early) so now the buggy is napping and I'm getting a few things down about the place.

More Backyard Fun

these were a fascination for a while

buried by mom!

He likes his fort. it's a good place for 'bob' to hide from 'spud'

Rolling down a hill

Justin is a good helper

we have a stool that well...is rather tippy for Justin.

So yesterday when Jim and I were out bipping around we found a different stool for Justin. One that we needed to put together ourselves, but it looked less tippy than the one he has currently.

While Jim was reading, Justin and I got busy putting it together.

Justin was a good helper putting on the thingey's that hide the screws. :)

Crafts with a boy Child

We were out at the Dollarama a bit back, I discovered they have wooden crafts that one can make. Costs a dollar. Gives a lad and his mom something to make together. They are very simple, just glue and let dry. Justin likes putting the wheels together, I like having him figure out which piece goes where based on the picture in the front of the box. Makes him think.


Yesterday afternoon we added a train and a plane to that line up.

the rabbit that you see out front? that's another craft we did...it's from Jan Brett's website, the author of one of Justin's favourite books "the Mitten"

and the truck....well...it is stuffed to the gills with 'tiles' or 'mail'....depends entirely on the day. Sometimes those tiles make huge accidents on rail lines, other times the mail trucks are kept busy all day long, and sometimes they just make fine cargo for train trucks to carry around.

Lots of fun little squares of construction can be.

Who would a thunk it? I like doing crafts with my boy child! :)

Mommy I.....

There are several things Mommy like to hear...

Mommy I can help!
Mommy Look what I did.
Mommy, help me with?
Mommy I learneded this......

Mommy's often don't like to hear....

Mommy I helpeded you wash the floor! Muck helpeded too! He's a big helper!

this after one has put away mop and pail....
then comes into kitchen to see sponges littering the kitchen floor with cold water well....EVERYWHERE!

yes, he helped.
yes, I didn't get angry.... I suppressed that with oh Justin, what a big help you were! Let's go find some towels now eh? let's dry up the floor! wow...isn't it all clean!

NO! We're not washing the floor again. It has to dry now.

Beginning of February

So it's the second day of February...ground hog day I think. (do I really care???) :)

Spent most of the night sleeping last night, interspersed with the noise of Justin coughing (to me is seemed like coughing his lungs out). Don't like the cough, but overall he doesn't seem rattlely in his breathing so I'm not too concerned yet...but if he's still coughing really hard by mid-week I'll probably take him to the doctor just for a once over.

Jim is getting a sore throat...here's praying that it doesn't become a full-blown cold. he's been running a bit short on sleep lately so we're letting him sleep in a bit this morning.

Justin's been enjoying watching LOTS of movies lately. Mostly on Thomas the train. :) he likes Thomas that boy does. :)

we watched ratatouille the other night...that was fun. Nice movie. We'll need to watch Wall-E this morning because it has to go back to the video store this afternoon and there's no point in renting a movie without watching it!

Lots of fun yesterday afternoon playing out in the snow. we even dug out the sand-box since Justin needed a truck to carry snow with. it was SO nice out. :)

Jesse came over with his doe Bailey to get her bred to Baskin. That was an experience in itself! He was willing..she was a bit more....reticient shall we say. BUT he got the job done. I had a disappointment this week with losing a litter of baby rabbits. Hopefully won't have that happen again.

Anyways, I think that's about it. Talk more another time.

This weekend Past

This past weekend Justin went to visit his gramma.
She offered to have him as she didn't have to work on Monday this week so could have him for an extended period of time.

He's apparently had a very good time. Playing out in the snow, going to her church (lots of children), playing with Thomas, watching TV, helping gramma work on her things and so forth. They've had a great deal of fun.

Jim and I went to a movie on Saturday afternoon...Inkheart. It was a good show. Have to admit, some things seemed silly to me...like what was the point of dressing the girl up in some old greyish dress? That just seemed odd. But overall, not a bad show. Good triumphs over evil.

Yesterday I found it very relaxing to just be able to go to church and LISTEN to a sermon. To not have to mind a toddler who either wiggles and makes noise (which gets people tsking) or that I need to take out to the quiet room (so we can have sunday school). Both make it difficult to heed the sermon. So that was rather nice.

January Updates

January has been A COLD month!

I am slowly getting better from the bug that inflicted me in one way or the other throughout December. Doctor tests revealed nothing. I find I still need to focus on blander foods lest my digestive system react negatively.

Jim is doing well.

Justin is starting to figure out the whole toileting thing at night. Sometimes he gets up and goes back to sleep, other times he's up at 230 and raring to go. Jim and I tend to disagree with him at those times and then it's just a matter of trying to keep him quiet enough that SOMEONE can get some sleep. :)

I've managed to sell most of our baby guinea pigs. Justin has requested that we keep one of the Rainbow ones, so we've done so. Just three left to sell, two are spoken for.

One of Jim's cichlids has a mouthful of babies. He caught her today and put her in a net holder for live bearers. She's unimpressed, but hopefully those babies will survive. :)

My guppies are starting to multiply well. My hope is to sell them, but if for some reason I cannot, they will make good supplemental food for the cichlids.

Hmm...now what else?
Not a whole lot. We're having snow tonight. Kinda pretty, but rather miserable to work in. :)

This Christmas Week

Snow, snow and more snow.

Sick boy child.

Two adults with head colds.

Snow, snow and more snow.

But hopefully selling another bunny today. :)

New Easter

New Easter was a rescue rabbit.
She was well-loved by Justin the whole week that we had her. We had to unfortunately bring her back to where we got her because we needed to exchange her for a different new easter.

The new rabbit is called....new new easter. :)

I want to remember Justin saying this ...

Upon being told to close his eyes and go to sleep.

But mom, I can't close my eyes or I can't see Tagu while I'm sleeping.

Can't fault his logic can you?
Made me laugh!


And this very tired boy at the Royal Winter Fair today.
he didn't listen at one point, and was giving me a bit of attitude....

I got him off the tractor and told him I can put him in time out here just as well as I can at home.

Got him into his stroller only to have him burst into tears.
"Mommy can't be mad at me!!!! I was just going to count! I'm not a bad boy!!"
Just crying his little heart out.
"ah buggy, you aren't a bad boy....you were just giving your mommy attitude and you can't do that. You're a good boy. Come on now, mommy is not mad at you, we're just both tired." the tears didn't stop quite so easily so I distracted him with a really cool toy barn....that we're going to talk with gramma about. :)

okay...It's November 10

My knee is starting to do pretty good.
LOTS of work to get done outside...we have snow coming this week and next.
BOY that knee of mine put a kibosh on things..

Anyways, part of life.

Now...what can I say for an update....not a whole lot!

Had fun at the Rockton Rabbit Show with Jesse this past Saturday. Stopped into visit with Judy for a little while as well. Justin had fun at Aunt Judy's until he bonked his head into her elbow. (that's straight from his mouth, then they both had oowies). :)

Jim's discovered rust of more of an issue on Jamie (the mazda) than he thought it was.
He's continuing to work on Benny (the sunrunner, he's looking for a new body for it instead he thinks).
Quinn (the van) needs new pins in the doors. Somehow he thinks I can help him with this. I think those doors will be awfully heavy. But we'll see. yes...I can be a supportive wife in this too..I THINK!

What else...I've sold a whack of bunnies lately. We need to find a big tarp to go over the tent and part of the shed. Will probably need to find some more bungee cords as well.

Not a whole lot else I can think about.
Oh...Justin likes doing this at night before he goes to bed.
who loves you....oh let's see .. mommy loves you, daddy loves you, grammer loves you, oma and papa love you, your cousins love and your aunties and uncles love you and your church family loves you... but most of all...who loves you? GOD loves you.
He smiles. says it back to me with a grin on his face.
we say good night.
he falls asleep.
Life is quiet. :)

Oh...that comes from this book by Noel Piper. It's a nice book.

September is closing soon

Life in the past two weeks ....

Things of Justin I want to remember
1. there's a song that has a line Come sail away, come sail away with me. Come sail away come sail away with me.... I had that line running through my head the other day and was singing it. What do I hear Justin singing in the sandbox while he's moving dirt? Come dig away, come dig away wif me. Dig away, dig away. Just belting it out. :) Was fun. Made me and Jim laugh.

2. We were singing songs ... twinkle twinkle little star....and I changed the words to it "twinkle twinkle little bat, how i wonder where you're at". He listened and then looked at me quizzically... "Mom! That's not my favourite song! You're teasing me!"... then he started to sing "twinkle, twinkle little star." he got stuck and "mom, help!" so together we sang twinkle twinkle. :)

3. His emerging sense of humour..and he's got the strangest giggle. :) Reading books at night, he'll change the story on purpose and then laugh hysterically. So we make a game of it rather than getting frustrated with it. It's funny. Though....a bit repetitive at times. The other night he did it with the foot book from Dr. Seuss. Everytime it said foot, he'd say Head. and then giggle away. :) He's a silly boy.

he also just LOVES the duck feet book. Chortles away, makes up stories about it. And I have to be the mad mommy sending the duck foot boy away. :)

I've learned why he doesn't like me singing.... It's TOO loud. If I sing quietly, for the most part he doesn't mind. Or if I'm singing loudly when caring for the bunnies he's cool with that too. He's a boy who at this stage in his life, does not like loud noises.

Momma rabbits who die leaving 11 babies behind helps one develop a bit more patience. It also is funny how full of happiness a person can get when a baby bunny figures out the bottle and goes into a deep sucking mode of "GIVE ME THAT MILK NOW!". I can get, 9 of the eleven to suck the bottle, one to drink milk from a saucer lid, and one, well...it nibbles on the nipple and slowly get milk into it's tummy.

What else....Jim had a nasty cold last week. Wiped him out. Justin is almost over his cold. Yesterday I fought dizzy spells all day...who knows what was up with that. I think I have two more bunnies sold. My little quiet holland lops...if I had eight of them I could probably have them all sold and picking which one I'm keeping would be so very easy.

I've gotten one garden put to bed for the winter, another few zillion to go. :) I've learned that having a dedicated onion bed doesn't work for me and how I garden. So I"ll need to figure out how to do that better. My tomatoes have done well this year. Had a fellow coming by to purchase my yellow tomatoes from me. Nice to make some cash.

Oh...I've reorganized the book room and Justin's room. A great many of his toys are upstairs now, I'm moving his craft stuff upstairs which means I"ll be able to tidy the kitchen up more, and oh...it's all coming together. Slowly...but it's coming together. :) yeah!!!!!

End of July, our life continues

So Today Jim, Justin and I are running up to Trail's End Market to ship out some bunnies. Hoping to get there early so that we can get bunnies into early cages as opposed to late ones since I don't wish to be in London almost all day waiting for bunnies to sell.

To read up on our vacation go here.
To read up on what happened after our vacation go here.

Um what else......raccoons have been visiting the backyard. Scared one of the bunnies bad enough that it heart-attacked on me.

Sassy's been feeling spunky some evenings. When she's like that we chase balls in the backyard. :) Good to see her feeling spunky.

My squash plants are definitely well on their way to taking over the backyard. Wish they had stayed the bush plants they were supposed to be. ARGH!!!!! Makes it difficult to manage the gardens well when one has squash growing out everywhere.

Justin has learned he likes gooseberries. Raspberries I think are still his favourite. But gooseberries....they are good too.

Jim fixed the O2 sensor and the muffler on the car. YEAH!! my man is good! :)

That's it for now...gotta run.

It's into June

Okay, our family over the past three weeks or so.

Busy. :) That would be a good way to describe it.

Jim's had LOTS of meetings. I"m looking forward to summer when he has a few less meetings. It'll be like having my hubby back!

Justin's been growing and learning lots. He made me laugh and cry tonight.
Laughter amidst frustration. He decided he would make a nice bunny nest tonight. Guess what he used???? laundry...both clean and dirty AND all the clothes from his room...every single last piece that he could find and reach. MY laundry..of the drawers he could open. Ditto with Daddies..... oh my.......NOT fun trying to put it all away again. Though by the time it was bed time Justin was eager to help mommy get his clothes back where they belonged. :)

We had a bit of a visit at Nancy's tonight (next door neighbour). She's back in school full-time to become an office administrator. Her son and niece were playing out front so Justin thought he'd join them. I invited Nancy to have me help her garden anytime she needed help.

Justin helped me plant the crab potatoes. yes...you read that right. I had some stuff not come up on the garden, and thought...oh right, I hadn't planted potatoes why not plant some? I had some potatoes growing 'eyes' so I asked Justin if he'd help me plant them. Well..those crab potatoes were all tired and they had to go to bed and sleep under the ground. They were hiding! :) it was fun listening to all his little boy talk with those crab potatoes. :) he then helped me replant my beans. Next week I may replant some lettuce and transplant my ground cherries to where I want them growing.

We've had mice and baby bunnies born. I always like new life.

My niece Ange got married. Monty seems like solid rock of a guy. He's a tattoo artist from Alaska. I got called a crackpot at the wedding because I'm daring to home-school Justin. :) I was quite taken aback at first and then I figured....older lady, not "up" with the times. We chatted a bit afterwards and she amended her crackpot statement to "those who home-school are rather different". I thanked her for that compliment. :)

My main man Jim....he's a handy man. He's almost done building this really cool workbench in the garage. :) YEAH!!!!! Looks good thus far. Hopefully it will prove to be as functional as it looks. :) I'm rather proud of his abilities.

Oh.. that reminds me. I was talking with one of the ladies at work today and not sure how we got on the topic but I mentioned that I trusted Jim implicitly (not to have an affair). She was shocked. She said...you do realize that we live in Huron county right? I said so? I wasn't raised here, neither was my man, and I trust him implicitly. She was just confounded and so very intrigued by the notion. I find that rather sad. Probably should have found a way to bring God into the conversation, but I didn't, and it was a short conversation.

as to me...I've been working on spring cleaning the house. One room per week is my goal. This week I got the main bedroom cleaned. Got the back yard tidied up as well. I've managed to get a few other things done this week as well but you all don't need to hear all about that. :)

Anyways, it's getting late. I'm tired and going to bed. Keep well all.

Life Does Not Always Go as Planned

Yesterday I had planned to be out and about with Justin in the morning. Garage-saleing, pop in at the Agility sale in London and so forth.

BUT that changed when Justin mentioned that penis hurt and hard to pee. Checked him out, he had an "owie" down there. Took him to the doctor. Doc says either a yeast or a bacterial infection, probably yeast. Need to treat it with Monistat Derm for a week. IF that doesn't clear it up, then he gave me a sample of some other stuff to apply.

Justin is NOT pleased! I hate making my little boy cry twice a day. I just hate it! Not on my list of things I enjoy at all.

I hope the monistat clears it up soon, I really, really do!

Though I have to admit, Justin made me laugh yesterday. I asked the doc what causes this. He mentioned it was quite common in little boys learning how to pee and keep themselves clean, and that circumcised boys don't get this. We just need to continue to encourage Justin to keep himself clean down there.

When Justin and I got back to the car he asked "want go see circumcise mommy? Go now mommy?" I laughed! :) Told him Oh buddy, we can't go see circumcise, we just can't do that. :) So how would YOU have answered that one?

On a different note. A lady called me up from Windsor yesterday, asked me a lot about my bunnies, mentioned how she just wanted a pet bunny and she likes how the coats turn out on the lop-rex crosses. Said she was going to come up around four to get one. She never showed up to my knowledge, but later in the day I noted one of my youngsters was missing. I have to ask myself, did she show and was really quiet about it and helped herself OR did a bunny get out and get cat-nabbed? I really don't know. I'd rather it be curious bunny escaping than to think that someone could have slipped into our backyard without me noticing (or Sassy either). That idea just doesn't sit well with me.

Anywho, we have a missing bunny and an unhappy boy (only when his mommy is administering stuff to him). Other than that, Life is very much blessed of God in our household.

Middle of April

I've just realized I haven't done a family update lately. :)

So.... what have we been up to lately?

about this lad of ours ---

• Justin's favourite word lately is NO. He's fairly straight forward, everything is NO! It's a bit frustrating at times. BUT overall he's still a pretty good lad.
  
• We've learned that right now water is absolutely fascinating...making rivers and waterfalls, sitting there and watching it. I've learned to watch him carefully with water because he'll dump it in places you really don't want it -- found him one day dumping loads of water into the mouse food container (it still had mouse food in it) I had to lay it all out on a sheet to get it all dried again. ARGH! Silly lad. :) AND he's learned the joy of throwing water at people. :) Fortunately he's fairly easy to out-run at this point in his life.
  
• He likes to be silly - he'll do something and I ask what he's doing...'Justin silly boy!' will be the response...and sometimes it is safe, harmless and silly, and other times it likes "no Justin, that's not silly, that's wrong...don't break the rabbits food bowls".
  
• He's learning to dance to music (just not mommy singing). BUT he likes to tell mommy what to sing so we often sing.
  
• He likes to go to Toddler Time, but he hates it when Missy sings the clean up song. Has a fit at home when I sing it too. Not sure if it's for the same reason though. :)
• Hoping to start swimming with him at the local pool soon. Should be fun to do that again.
• He's learning his abc's and 123's and colours. Fun to watch his mind at work. He just likes to KNOW stuff right now.

Jim

• wrenched his back/shoulder the other day not sure who, resulted in some pain and resultant lack of sleep. Found it difficult to do some things. Found he liked having a couple of back rubs through it all :)
• has sent off his paperwork to go to the Conference at the end of May. I'd drawing a blank right now as to what the conference is. But it's a pastor's conference.
  
• Continues to work hard at his job
• Is trying to get the front fender off of the Sunrunner so that he can learn how to fix the rust on it using sheet metal (or something like that). He also has plans to fix the brake lines on the Mazda as they are starting to rust up a bit. Anyways, he apparently has two more screws to get off and the penetrating oil is taking it's time to do it's thing.
• Disappointing....We got a plecko, added it to Jim's peacock aquarium, they promptly got ICK, Jim treated the tank, two fish died..and then Jim realized that he neglected to remove the carbon from the filter. Removed that, treated them again, the ICK cleared up. ARGH!!! Lost some good fish. Jim's hoping we can replace them today. So that was a disappointing thing over the past week.
  

Annette

• uh...my life...always the hardest to come to......
• My bunnies are fun! I like raising bunnies and selling the offspring. Fun work. I like seeing the different colours and personalities. Customers can be odd to deal with but I think that's pretty normal. Not bad money even if I sell the babies cheap. I've had people out from Missausaga, St.Thomas, Kitchener and of course London for them. Amazes me when people are willing to drive 1.5 hours (or more) for a bunny, but I sell to them. :)
  
• I'm starting to plant my gardens, my radishes are starting to come up already. :) I hope the spinach and lettuce come soon too. Justin is learning to stay out of the planted gardens --- I put a brick on them to help him remember.
• I've had fun learning to do build rabbit cages. :) I use old lumber and free stuff from the lumber yard. I'll have to I think buy one more piece of plywood, but other than that, should be done. I want to get the cages up off the ground but haven't figured out a cost effective way of doing that yet. Any thoughts...let me know. :)
  

Sassy, Sparks and various critters.

• Sassy is doing well. Her leg tends to bother her at times. She hasn't had an issue with Justin at all lately! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!! But the weather is so nice lately she can be outside alot, and we're outside a lot too, so it's not like she's been abandoned. :) Justin's getting older and realizing that rushing a dog is NOT acceptable. She goes for walks to the park with us, rides in the car to the store (Short trips), and plays ball a lot. :) She also ALWAYS gets a good morning walk, the evening walks vary as to what's going on in the house and with Jim.
• Sparks continues to be a nice Tom Cat. He has some annoying habits that we'd like to break, but not sure that we can. He's a cat, they can be fairly particular.
• The fish...the guppies are doing well, they are very colourful which is one reason why I like them. The Kribs are growing well, we have at least one female. They assist in keeping the guppy population under control :) Also hoping to get a breeding pair so I can sell any resultant babies. That would be nice. :)
• Jim's put some new light bulbs in the tank upstairs with the south americans cichlids so they show off their colours really nicely.
• Guinea pigs, we have four girls and one boy right now. the boy is new so going through a hold stage. He was a young girls pet who simply doesn't have enough time for him. We'll see if we get youngsters from them or not.
  

That's about it I think.

Feel free to leave a comment that you've been by. :) Always nice to get comments...just click on the little comments box. If you do anonymous (because you don't want to open a blogger account) that's okay...just sign your name please. :) have a great day!

Update on my Hand

So it's been 5 days.
My hand is getting a better. It still has moments of "ouch"....sometimes of my own doing when I forget it and try to push off something with it. NOT a good idea by the by.

The smallish blisters around the outside of my hand are going away.

The three-four large blisters haven't busted open which is good...gives the skin underneath a chance to heal.

The large area on my thumb doesn't ache constantly and actually looks pretty good. :)
The large area on my palm is still sore, but it's in a area where it feels every twinge of movement, it's healing more slowly but I'm okay with that, since it makes sense to me.

I'm not falling asleep for no apparent reason during the day anymore. and yesterday I had so much energy in me I could almost burst. I used that energy to do up the church newsletter and to start a webpage for my small critter business.

I see the Practical Nurse today at the Doctor's office. I'm imagining she'll give re-wrap it all up and then give me some more bandages for wrapping (or I'll have to buy something which is fine). I'm hoping to find a new pair of dress pants today to replace the ones damaged in the fire. Oh, and I'll need some pants for work as well....those I'm hoping to find at value village or a thrift store somewhere.

On a practical note - If I'm careful I can catch a jumping boy child (using my wrist instead of my hand). :) If I wrap my hand in plastic I can have a shower! :) I can't manage dishes yet. If I wrap my hand in a bag I can pick up baby bunnies to check on them :)

My parents were great with taking Justin for four days. He did really well with them. Was a happy boy and listened and slept when he aught to and so forth. Showed Oma his strong sense of determination at times, Her comment "he certainly knows his own mind doesn't he?" :) Oma learned that when he's a hungry boy child that he is definitely a hungry boy child. :) And that yes...he likes being tickled (as long as one doesn't overdo it). He plays really nicely by himself said Mom and Dad to me, more than once. So it was good to hear a good report back. It's like I know my boy is a good boy with strong determination....but it's good to hear the same from others. :)

Busy Weekend

So wow...was this weekend ever busy!

Friday...Good Friday. Had a service in the morning, then Jim had a funeral home visitation. I had work. Thank goodness for Eva being around...she was able to watch Justin while I was at work and while Jim was at the visitation. The Good Friday service was apparently really good....I had no chance to listen to it as Justin did not want to go to the nursery and there was no way he wanted to go into church. He was quite adamant that Grammer get out of Sunday clothes and play with him and Mommy was to go to work! He was 32 months of profound determination. :)

Saturday we had the funeral service. Really good service. Justin sat in service until the sermon started and then we took Marcus' boy with us down to the nursery. It was rather funny at one point....Christopher started to cry and Justin's response to that was "throw him out!" (in reference to my oft repeated threat of "I'll throw you out the window") Made me laugh, which made Justin laugh and become the helpful little boy I know him to be. :) He made Christopher stop crying by his playing antics. :)

Sunday, sonrise service, breakfast and morning service. Then off to see my Sister. We had a family gathering there to celebrate birthdays and Easter. We had a lovely time. Justin hunted for Easter eggs, and had a lot of fun playing with his cousins. Tired boy fell asleep on the way home and went straight into bed.

A good weekend, but rather exhausting. :)