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Mom's Birthday

So we got together as a whole clan to celebrate my mom's 70th birthday.

yes, this grand lady is 70 years young. :) Turned that way at the beginning of the month.

We celebrated late because we had hoped that my brother and this family from Ottawa could get out here to help, but that was not to be be.

Ate out at Crossroads restaurant in Elmira. They have a decent buffet. Jim's mom joined us, which was so nice. As mom says "you're family too!"

Justin was good, even ate a bit.

Afterwards we stopped at mom and dad's place for coffee and conversation. Good times had by all. Sierra rode back with us. Justin likes his 7 year old cousin. She's "fun" even if she does tease him by stealing his "tagu" (also known as tiger)

We'll all be getting together again this coming Saturday to celebrate Justin's 2nd b-day. What fun. A boy turns 2!

We've been rated

Our anniversary

If you all want to know how our anniversary went, go here.

Talked with Mom and Dad who wished us a happy anniversary. Nice to chat with them for a bit.

Received these greetings from brother Fred

Happy Anniversary to you and Jim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hey, it's been 5 years already! Think about the changes God has brought into your life in the last 5 years, both the joys and the sorrows! All opportunities for growth and being better able to love those around us. We pray God will guide and sustain the 3 of you with wisdom and understanding as you begin yet another year together!

Okay, so it was fun

So... Mom reminded me that I hadn't talk you all how the shopping trip went.

IT WAS FUN!

Yes, I, Annette, had fun shopping for clothes with my mother! Don't all fall over in shock now. :)

First we headed to the tile place so we could pick out good tile and carpet for their new place. It was actually quite funny. We had narrowed down the tile selections to five of them. We stood there looking at them, and simultaneously, with no planning, mom and I touched the same one with "I like this one best" on our lips. We laughed. It made the choice so very easy. :)

Carpet was a fore-gone conclusion. Mom knew what she liked. Had kinda picked it out at home. Looked fine to me so hey... it's works. :)

Justin had fun running around the store. We made sure he didn't hurt himself while doing so.

Then off to pick up lunch and to drop Justin off at Eva's.

Mom and I sent clothes shopping. First off for sandals since mine had broken the week before and my pinkies were "unacceptable" to mom. :) We found some decent ones on sale at marks' work wear house.

I felt spoiled by my mother. But it was fun. I even learned the brown is NOT a bad colour for me. Go figure. Something to keep in mind for the fall.

What did we end up getting?
dress pants - navy blue, they feel really nice on.
blue jean shorts, navy blue shorts - way better than some current clothing
Three no sleeved shirts - red, multi-coloured tank that will go with Sunday skirt, orangey sweater type - no I don't know what it is officially called, to me it's a shirt, very soft and comfortable.
one pair blue jean capris'
oh.. almost forgot, one very nice light light green sorta dressy no sleeve shirt/blouse. very pretty and different than what I would normally look for.

My mom has good taste.

So, it was a nice, very fun day out. Mom and I talked and laughed alot.
She spoiled me and it was good.

Justin had a good day at gramma's too.

We were all tired by the end of the day.

He said Pee! :)

So I know, no huge biggie for folks.

But I"m a first time mom. I can be thrilled when my boy, at 23 months, pulls at his diaper and says pee AND THEN holds it until we have said diaper off and he sits on the potty.

Good Boy! :)

Shopping

I have to admit, I am NOT a person who enjoys shopping for clothes. I"m not. I'll wear whatever fits until the cows come home.

BUT my mom is coming up today.

We're going shopping together. She'd like me to have some new clothes.

I have to admit, I'm actually looking forward to it.

Justin is coming in the morning. He'll help Oma and I pick out new tiles/carpeting for the new house Oma and Papa are building. We'll have lunch and then Justin will go to Grandma's for a nap in the afternoon. And mom and I will hang out together.

Should be a nice day.

News for this week

One of our girl mice had a litter of 8 babies. hard to tell which momma as they all seem to huddle around the babies and bothering mice with a new litter isn't always the wisest of things to do.

We have a new rabbit. Very tame. Justin says "bun-bun". So we might stick with that name. We got him from a lady in London who just didn't have time for him anymore.

It was funny. I went to the doc yesterday to find out why certain things in life were uncomfortable. Discovered I have a bladder infection --- and no, that's not the funny part. Anyways, a couple weekends ago, I had a lot of fun at the AAC Regionals and I had seen the doc there. So we spent as much time talking agility as we did actually discussing my health. I"m going to email her with some trainers as she has an active Border Collie she wants to train further. So that was a lot of fun just chatting. Anyways, you can read how that weekend went here.

Day Two of Jim being gone

Plan was to have a relaxing day after being busy, so busy yesterday with doctor's appointment, visiting, gramma over and mommy going out. That was our plan.

We walked the dogs, discovered that it was better if Brutis came over for a visit rather than us walking him. So he came over. That meant a short walk, instead of leisurely, and a quick removal of bunnies from backyard as Brutis (Boo) likes to chase and kill living things.

Once Boo settled down Justin and I headed out to Rona to see about getting some quick crete for the front bed. Gabby was on, gave us a 10% discount on the materials. Since I only had the car, Gabby offered ever so graciously to bring them to my place on his lunch break. :) Thanks Gabby! :)

Home.. realized that all the branches the deacons cut down were piled on top of the composter so thought I would clean that up. Took a while with a little boy helping. Cut what I could up for firewood, put the rest into a pile for later burning in our hopefully soon to be built fire pit.

Started to clean out the trailer. Justin decided it was a good time to go back into the house and wanted/asked/no demanded that mommy come with him. So that task ended.

Ended up watching Thomas the train for a while. Had lunch while watching Berenstain bears (it was a hit!). Justin laid down for a nap, I finished up the tree branches, did some weeding, moved the bunnies around, and then Jim called and we chatted for a bit. When he left to go to his meeting, I attempted to pump up tire on wheelbarrow. 15 minutes later I realized that wasn't working! ARGH!!!!! Chatted with Audrey for a moment about it all.

Can't work on front garden!!!! I'm frustrated just a tad.

So worked on computer a bit.

Did something else.. oh..hung out the sleeping bags on the line. :)

When Justin got up we took Sassy for a walk. Stopped at the park to play a while. Justin was hesitant about coming home, but came along well enough when he saw mommy had a bottle of juice for him. Half way home I hear "supper, supper" coming out of his mouth... think he was getting hungry?

YES! he ate pork roast (slow-cooked) and applesauce and peas and french fries. He then had LOADS of fun helping mommy do the dishes. He was just too cute.

I gave him a dish to wash. He scrubbed it diligently. Would pick it up look at it, I would ask him if it was clean "mope" would be the response and he would plunge it back into the water and diligently scrub it again. Our dishes have never been so clean! :) Mind you..that's only our light weight plastics that I gave him. I'm not silly enough to give him glass (well..not anymore!) :)

he went to bed late... 1015! ARGH! not my idea of fun, but he had a great snack before bed so hopefully will sleep well and not be starving in the morning. :) Anyways, time for me to head off as well.

My boy

Today Justin and I took his height and weight.

He is at 33 lbs and 35.5 inches tall.

He seems to keep growing! :)

Oh, What to Update?

Went out for supper last night with a couple who are involved with the video ministry from another church. Boy...did we ever have a good time. Good food, good conversation and laughter. Justin ate meat! :) What can I say, he's not a huge meat eater so I like it when he does that. Lida is a good cook. (well, except for pie which she says never turns out for her so she buys it) We had apple pie for dessert, roast beef, potatoes, broccoli, salad and carrots. Good meal. So it was a good time out. Anyways, Lida reminded me that I haven't updated the View for a bit so... here I am updating. :)

Afterwards Jim had a meeting, and then Justin and I took the dogs for a walk to the park. Justin now knows how to open the front door by himself. NOT REAL THRILLED by this. We live on a busy street. So we'll have to keep the screen door locked I think for the next while until he learns to be a bit safer. Scares a mother's heart to hear the front door slam while hearing "Park, Park". Fortunately I also heard "stoller, stoller" as he ran to the garage to try to get his stroller out. yeah for strollers! :) Justin had a lot of fun at the park, we actually went to the school playground as the rec. centre play ground was jam packed with children from the baseball families. Anyways, he had fun playing with a little boy Griffin. 3.5 years, wanting to play with Justin's trains, but Justin doesn't know how to share yet (he's still at the MINE-stage) But they had fun together going down the slide and playing trains.

What else.... had a great yard sale on May 19th. Mom and Dad came up from Teviotdale to help out. Mom brought a few things with her to sell as well. Jim's mom was here, she was going to help with the sale as well, but Justin wanted to play in the sandbox so she helped him with that instead. Proved to be a huge help! :) It was SO much fun. Chatting with family, chatting with people who stopped by, making wheeling and dealing. Ah I LOVE IT! :)

Then I got to clean up and I actually like that too.... the picking and choosing about what to give away at the curb, deciding what to bring to which thrift place, deciding what I should keep (Jim's mom is having a garage in August so I'm giving her a few things to sell). Anyways, it was fun. :) Someday I get to do this again! OH.. made over $300. Some of which was spoken for, 30$ (approx) to Cheryl for rabbits, 50$ to pay Jim back for Sassy's clippers, 30$ devoted for dog food (from sale of rabbits) and the rest is mine to play with!

I'll use the change to outfit (hopefully) Justin this weekend at the Hensall town-wide garage sale. Hopefully for the rest of the year, depends if people had boy children born the year before Justin or not. We'll have to wait and see.

Had some of my joy stolen away from me Sunday morning by unkind comments made. I need to deal with at some point this week. Just have to figure out a good time and so forth.

What else, oh.. finished the front bed and ended up redoing the back corner bed. Nancy gave me so many plants from her garden so she's been a real boon to me in this. Got some plants I don't have which is always nice. I've managed to finish planting my veggie gardens, will have to replant my cucumbers as the hard frost we had this week seemed to hit them. All I have left to do of the hard spring work is weeding and digging out a bit the privacy fence/window garden. The creeping charlie is having a field day there.

Oh.. Sassy definitely has herding breed in her somewhere. I have 4 bunnies leftover that I haven't sold yet. ONE of them (littlest white) has learned if he wiggles when I want him to waggle he can get away from me. Hopping bunnies are hard to catch. SASSY HERDS him back to me. It's quite a distinctive herding behaviour. Much different than her WILD BUNNY must CHASE attitude. This is a "I'm bringing this critter back to where it belongs" behaviour. Very helpful. Makes me think she's a very smart dog. Certainly saves me a lot of leg work. I need to figure out a more fool proof way of moving these bunnies about.

Mother's Day

So yesterday was Mother's Day.

Jim's mom joined us for the day. She arrived shortly before the morning service and stayed until just after the evening service.

As it was mother's day, all the ladies in the church received a flower. Justin thought he should try to beat mine up. :)

He was too excited yesterday to stay in church very long. He went to the nursery by the time of the second song which is a bit unusual for him lately.

We had a nice day.

Found out after church that a young lady from church is looking for a new male rabbit for her herd of rabbits so told her she could have our bun-bun. We had gotten a rabbit this week that was destined for the dog food pot but Justin and Jim well....they fell in love with him. Anyways, he is a bit too "friendly" shall we say, so I couldn't let Justin play with him. So Cheryl will take bun-bun and I will get some young bunnies from Cheryl. I will try to sell some of these wee bunnies at my upcoming garage sale and the rest will stick around for a wee while. :) If we get enough of them, hopefully neither Jim or Justin will like them too much. :)

We had mac and cheese goulash for lunch, followed by mom's lovely lemon pie. :)

Justin was having a hard time containing his excitement at "mamer" being over and was SO tired that we took a nice walk so that he could settle down and have a nap. That gave Jim time to relax for a while as well as he did not join us for a walk.

So Justin napped in the stroller while mom and I visited outside for a while. Mom thinks I did a good job on my big window garden too! YEAH! :)

We now have three baby birds in our nest. Two more to hatch!

Justin was so unhappy that gramma and daddy had to go to church, that I took him for a walk outside. We ended up at the neighbours house where Nancy's boy Owen was jumping on the trampoline. Justin naturally had to join him. :) Then Justin discovered that Owen has a tractor! wow!!!!! it moves fast when you stand on the pedals! WOW!!!! what fun for a wee boy. I think I know where this wee boyo will like visiting!

Anyways, that was our day in the life of "mother's day".

Justin and Grape hyacinth's

Would you never believe this boyo of mine.

He is just a bad, bad boy. Makes me smile though cause he's so cute when he does it.

Yes I know, bad mommy.

He goes into my flower garden looking for ONE thing only....a grape hyacinth to destroy. He plucks off the whole flower and then ever so carefully takes all the individual flowers off. He tends puts them in a nice, neat little circle in front of him.

Then he smiles this little smile of his as he looks for another one to decimate.

I know...sheer silliness

So.. Eric and Danielle won the amazing race. This was actually the amazing race all stars. Viewing it was a weekly event for Jim and I. Now that it's done...whatever shall we watch as we relax on Sunday evenings? :)

I have to admit, of the final three teams... These are the ones I wanted to win. They became a better couple as the race progressed. Both "grew up" a little. Danielle showed her grit. Eric actually seemed to really appreciate her. So ...it's good

I would have liked the "little person" and her cousin (Charla and Mirna) to have come in second just because I didn't much like the blondes, but that's neither here nor there.

But Eric and Danielle won.

Wouldn't it be totally cool if they would turn to the Lord and use that million dollars for good? :)

Well, it's built :)

So our new form of income and dog food has now been housed a bit more properly and they are OUTSIDE! Yes! No more male mice smell in our house! YEAH!!!! :)

I built a pen! yes me! Jim helped a bit with some cutting and suggestions and drilled holes, but for the most part I built it my own self! :) It's not perfect, but that's okay.

Wooden box for our mice to live in, in the great outdoors. Protected all around with metal to prevent errant chewing and escaping. Three houses in one box. They may eventually chew their way between houses, but I'll cross that bridge when (and if) I get there.

The only thing I forgot to do was add handles, that I'm not to sure how to add. So for now moving it will be a bit of a challenge. Since it's only 3 feet long and 15 inches wide, it isn't too heavy to just lug about though.

Only one grouping of mice is not outside yet, but that is due to the litter they are currently rearing. They will go outside in about 4 weeks. :) Hopefully one of those wee ones will be a boy and we can use him as a breeder. Even if we sell the babies for $1 a piece they will help provision our dogs with food. More then they would provide themselves! YEAH! Wouldn't that be nice? :)

I'll be keeping the field mice for another couple of weeks yet to see if any of them get "with child" if they don't... then I'll kill them as I'll need the cage soon anyways to raise wee boyo's.

Just happened

We have six babies in our lives.

Just born in the last half hour.

Sugar had 6 babies. She's a slimmed down girlie now. :)

Hopefully they will all survive.

Dad's Birthday Party

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stupid computer..... Now I have the fun of doing this all over again!!!!!!!! Stupid computer crashing after I had just inputted the WHOLE DAY!!! ARGH!!!!

Okay, rant over now. :)

Did you know my dad is now 72 years old? Isn't that a great reason to have a b-day party? yes, he did. He invited all us local family members over for dinner and visit.

Our family had the audacity to arrive first!!! Can you believe it? We NEVER arrive first for family stuff ever! When we got there, we actually wondered if we somehow got the date wrong. :)

Anyways, turned out well, Justin had napped before we got there so he was alert and ran eagerly for the toy closet (funny how quick they learn where that is). Hauled out all the cars he could get his little hands on and was off having fun. We had a nice visit.

Fred and his girls arrived (Caroline at coffeebreak rally) around 1230ish, mom started dinner. We had roast beef, mashed taters, green beans, peas and slightly frozen applesauce (my fav). Bill arrived just as we were starting to eat (great timing). it was so easy making more room for him. It was good food! Justin had started a wee bit early which turned out nice for me, I got to eat MOST of meal while it was warm (instead of having to help him eat). I still had to help him, but not as fast. :) We all ate too much I think. :)

We had a fruit bowl for dessert.

After lunch we spread out a bit. Sierra and I went to the basement, played a rousing game of multi-puck air hockey. Then used the blackboard for a while. Justin joined us for a great scribbling contest. Sierra won! :)

Justin played with big trucks while I loaded the van with garage sale items from mom's basement.

Just as we were about to leave (due to tired Justin) Judy, son Shane and hubbie Henry arrived. So we visited outside with them for a while. Mom announced cake, icecream and strawberries just before we wanted to head off again, so.... we stayed a bit longer. Still think we all ate too much! BUT mmmm.....cake, ice cream.....Strawberries...YUM!

Nancy our newest neighbour, was outside when we got home so Justin and I visited for a bit. Turns out Owen (her son) is 9 years old now and was celebrating that achievement in life. She gave Justin a left over goodie bag. :)

Transferred garage sale stuff to basement, walked the boy and the dogs, and then relaxed with Thomas the train. Justin just LOVES thomas.... :) tain tain is a frequent cry in our household these days.

And that was our day. I'm tired, yes, I really should do those dishes...all 8 of them....but I'm really bagged and my bed is calling loudly to me. :) Good night!

Sunday Afternoon

So it's Sunday afternoon, I"m sitting here waiting for Justin to wake up and thought hmmm... should probably update the View! So here I am.

Our life for past week or so....

Easter Sunday we went up to visit Mom and Dad. We left right after church, Justin slept, Jim relaxed and I drove. We arrived, Justin stayed sleeping, Jim and I went in and enjoyed soup with my parents. We had a nice visit over our meal. After lunch I checked on Justin who had just woken up. So mom and dad were able to enjoy their grandson for a while too. :)

We needed to leave after a couple of hours because Ina was in hospital (lady from church). She was having some trouble breathing. We had a short visit with her. Then Justin and I left to stretch out little boy legs while Jim visited longer. Justin had a chance to talk with the nurses and enjoy a juice and cookie. Lucky boy! :)

Then this week Jim had a cold so our Monday day away became a Monday stay at home so he could rest up a bit. He was a bit better on Tuesday so we slipped up to London to run a couple of errands. Tuesday afternoon, and all day Wednesday I spent (with Justin) reorganizing the basement. Jim needed to get at the network thing and all my garage sale stuff was in the way, plus we were getting tired of having wood shavings all over the house, so the purchase of three inexpensive shelving units at Wal-mart went a long way to helping get things in better shape. Now Justin can play in the same room I am in while I do laundry or fuss around in the basement. Jim's weight stuff will be kept more sawdust free and therefore more useable. AND Jim can fiddle around with the network thingey to his hearts content.

Thursday afternoon I went fishing while Justin napped.

Friday morning Justin had book club. Boy..all the kids were wild! :) Made me think a storm was coming. I had book club as well. We read "The 100 Secret Senses" by Amy Tan. Some of us liked the book, some of us well....didn't. I read the start, a piece in the middle and the ending. I found it a hard book to get into, the end of the book though made me think I should have stuck it through. I might pick it up again one day.

oh I almost forgot. On Friday night we all had a lovely meal with the pastor from the CRC church in town. They hosted. It was fun and the food was good! :)

Saturday Justin and I left Jim at home and drove three ladies from Church to the RCW ladies conference. It was held at Drayton RCA this year. Mary Clark was the speaker. She heads up women's ministries within the RCA.

Her Topic was "God's hospitality". I found her hard to listen to, not because of her, but due to the fact that she had to keep pausing for the translator. I probably lost the first 10 minutes while I adapted to the listen, wait, listen, wait routine. Most of the women I talked with struggled with the same issue. Although I appreciated the need for a translator, I really wish that there hadn't needed to be one. Her topic was a one that women in our classis needed to hear and probably didn't really hear because of the whole listen and wait routine.

Mary's whole point was the use the gift of hospitality that God has given to each of us, and use it to advance the kingdom of God. Hospitality is the giving of ourselves to others. Once I understood that this was her definition of hospitality it all made sense...but it took me a while to get there.

You see MY definition of hospitality is someone who makes you feel comfortable from the moment you get in their door and who LOVES having people over for dinner or tea or whatever. I DO NOT see myself as having the gift of hospitality at all. NOT saying I don't like having people over but I find it a whole heap of work and I worry about this that and the other thing and AHH. Just fills me with horrors most of the time. What if I can't get the house clean enough or what if I serve the wrong food or what if the cat or the dog or the _____ does something it aught not to. and ... it just goes on and on.

AND THE BIGGEST THING???? What if my guest does something that freaks me out and makes my house feel unsafe to me.???? What if???? STUPID I know. After all...GOD LOVES ME! He won't let anything happen to me that I can't handle without his help. I can trust his promises. I can. See...it's taken me years to realize that! (sometimes slow on the uptake)

Anyways, back to Mary's talk. Hospitality...giving of ourselves to others. This doesn't mean as a church that we need to start new programs. What it means is us, as individual people, stopping to take 30 minutes there, 1.5 hours there just to sit and see the people around us. See what their needs are and just go out and meet those needs. Simple, straight-forward meeting the needs of people. Showing them Jesus through our actions. She kept telling us.. STOP. Think outside box. Think outside the walls of your church. Do it differently.

For instance... we could see a struggling young mom and offer to help her do her shopping. We could do someone's laundry for them. We could offer a cup of tea. Different needs, different ways of helping. We just need to stop and look for those ways of helping/showing/teaching.

Overall, it was a good message.

In the afternoon we watched a skit "what kind of tater are you". one of the ladies from Drayton put on a skit about different types of taters "agi-tator" "peace-tator" "spec-tator" and so forth. It was not bad at all. it was actually fun to watch these ladies be different taters. :)

There were quilts hung all over the church. Made more than one woman wonder out loud what was with all the quilts. Turns out Drayton church, for the Mennonite Central Committee, makes quilts. These quilts are distributed world wide to people in need of well.. quilts to keep warm. They gave them out in Equador, Africa, and other places. Wherever there has been a disaster (God or Human made) and there are people in need. That was way cool to see. This year Drayton made 63 quilts over the winter. Good to see that in action.

I enjoyed the fact that there was a babysit. Justin had a blast. He even napped! :) He ate a bit, didn't drink as much as I'd like, but he had fun. He had a good sleep last night. He was a happy boy, well, at least until he learned that no, he couldn't bring that lovely airplane home with him. :)

I enjoyed the book table. Even picked up a couple of things. One a book that I think will be helpful with homeschooling in the future, some scrapbooking stuff and something else that I can't recall right now. Spent less than $25. (I had a personal limit of 40 so I did well).

So what didn't I like?
1. The agenda pushing... we have a women's conference coming up in Chicago... boy was attendance at this event being pushed. yes, I would like to go. Will I go? No... not at 149$ hotel bill per night and paying daily parking PLUS $350 (about that) for the conference itself. Cannot afford it. WILL NOT ask my church to foot the bill for it. A conference like this should be able to be held elsewhere for a lot less. Also many of the topics seem like "fluff" to me. Denomination wide conferences I do believe should offer more than "fluff".
2. the "tolerance" stuff. We have to tolerate. I agree that we have to tolerate people over things like building structure, clothing, taste in music and such like. Over such things, the overwhelming concern should be .... how do we reach people for Christ and teach them well. I do not agree that we should tolerate bad doctrine. I don't think that evangelism outside the church is more important then having people that will hold to the truth of the gospel. There must be room for both. I think that once bad doctrine is allowed a strong foothold, what is to stop it from becoming more prevalent?

so how does one resist this?

Justin's been learning new words lately.
Today he surprised me with Here it is (when I asked him to get his boots). Eat! at breakfast (when he wouldn't eat.... I think I was supposed to or something).

And then here we are at wal-mart....needed to get something there... anyways, walking through the toy section just to see if there are any good deals (sometimes we find amazing deals there). not today though...but what do I hear from my boyo toys! toys! (very excited commentary from this 21 month old lad). followed by a mournful toys...toys... as we move further away from said toys (6 six trucks in a box). Daddy distracted him with a push toy which was kinda interesting but not a keeper (but got us away from the trucks).

Then came tain tain! Tain tain!

Thomas the train caught his eye...

How does one shut out mournful tain tain noises from a boy child?

One realizes that thomas the train sells for outrageous amounts of money is how! :)
Doesn't make it any easier though..... such a mournful little voice.....

We settled for a couple of dinky cars on sale for 82 cents a piece...way better than one TAIN TAIN for 7.49 a piece! Even if one has to deal with a mad boy throwing a truck because it's not a tain tain!

He is VERY happy with the truck now though. :)

The week before Easter

Snow...that's what I can say... SNOW! We have in excess of five inches of snow on the ground.

It's supposed to be spring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice thing about our walk this morning, I could just let Sassy run because no one else was up. Somehow fresh snow brings out the lagging behind abilities in Riley so we didn't quite make as good a time as I wanted, ah well, snow can be fun! We broke a fresh trail for almost the whole walk. We did meet a lovely Kelpie/Cattle Dog on the way back. She had a most excellent recall! I complimented her owners on that. And then we talked a bit about a raw food diet. They seem interested.

What has this past week been like?
Justin has a cold and is breaking two molars in at the back (I'm fairly sure) hard to check since he likes to bite down and those teeth of his are sharp!

Jim had a crazy week with meetings almost all day Tuesday, Bible study on Wednesday and so he had Thursday to try to get a sermon done for Friday, plus two more due for Sunday. He worked hard and got them done.

As for me, I had Coffee-break on Wednesday, it was a weird meeting to me. Started off sloppy but ended up with some good discussion where you could tell that people were thinking. Rather neat that part. I did dislike that they forewent the prayer share time in order to start the lesson after a lengthy announcement time. So that didn't help my feelings of dissatisfaction when the study commenced, so my guess is that the start of the study may not have been sloppy but more that I needed to get my head in the right frame of mind.

Justin and I had fun at toddler time on Thursday even though we got there late. :)

Good Friday sermon was well-done. People seemed to like it. Justin napped in the nursery (shocked me to hear that). Jim's mom came up for the service and for lunch.

Oh, and I got my order in to William Dam for seeds. So nice that they have their on-line ordering all set up now. VERY convenient, and saves a stamp too! I just ordered a bunch of different veggies.

March 29, day away

Yesterday Justin and I spent the day away from home.

First we stopped off at Jo-Anne's house. She's a cousin, Justin is learning to call her Aunt Jo-Anne though since Jo and I go way back and it somehow seems wrong to me for him to call her just Jo-Anne, so... anyways, we had a nice visit. She's in the middle of year end stuff for work and has oodles of reports to get done, life is a bit hectic for her a the moment. We'll stop in again for a visit again I think. :)

Then we went to the market to check things out there. Picked up some Maple Syrup. Used $20 of the money I got for selling the golf clubs.

Off then to see "kat" about some chicken she promised us for the dogs. She did a no show. Rather frustrating that. Ah well....

Visited with Jacky for a short while at her job as well. Brought her the puzzle that I found for her oh.... too long ago. So glad that she liked it! Justin almost lost his favourite "Ta-gu" (also known to the rest of the speaking world as "tiger" to Jacky's tablemate, but Jacky rescued him for Justin. :)

Had a short visit with Barry at his job. Totally surprised him! :) Didn't stay too long as Justin found everything there just fascinating, he was tired, I was tired, and well... Barry had to work!

Stopped in at Wal-mart on the way home and actually found some rubber boots for Justin to wear. Only one pair fit him (other than some yellow ones that Justin wouldn't put on) so he has some "cars" rain boots. They should stay on him a bit better than the other ones even though these are still a bit big for him. Needs growing room though.

Then home. Thought about surprising MaryLou but since Justin was so tired I thought that might not be the best idea, so we just headed home. Justin fell asleep just before we got home so I kept driving since that way I knew he could get a 45 minute nap in.

Tried to go out for Dinner with Jim at the Malibu but service was very off tonight. Justin ended up losing it so we left. We ended up having dinner at McD's. Quite the let down after thinking.... Pickerel dinner with salad bar, but hey...what do you do?

So that was our day. Jim's day wasn't quite as productive, but he did okay. Today on the other hand, he'll be gone all day to London. First for a meeting with another pastor, then to work at mom's until he can visit with some parishoners later in the day. Justin and I will go to the Library, he'll have a nap this afternoon and I'll find something to do around the house (other than read a book). Probably clean the upstairs of the house. :)

Today's jobs done!

So today was such a nice sunny day outside..... I couldn't stay inside for the life of me. Fortunately, my boyo agreed with me.

So...after breakfast I did the dishes, had a shower, got a load of laundry in, and then off to the dentist. Justin stayed with Daddy. On the way home I stopped and purchased some postage stamps.

When I got home Justin said ENOUGH WITH BEING INSIDE. he wanted to go "side". So...out we went. I learned quickly that cleaning out the old stinky pool was a really good idea! Boy fell in. Ooh...what a stink! Took his shirt off, and then cleaned the pool. Took him inside (a battle) to get cleaned up a bit and redressed.

After he finished getting mad at me for not letting him make a complete mess of the bathroom with Daddy having a nice bath! We went outside to do some flower bed cleanup. Justin also was good at helping me take a break by helping him climb Sassy's aframe. I also took breaks by working Sassy on her agility.

YEAH FOR SASSY...she's finally figured out how to go around something and still get the right entrance to the weaves! YEAH!!!!

Suddenly I realized I had a red-cheeked boy AND it was 1 p.m.! Boy where did the time fly???

So inside for lunch. Justin wasn't terribly hungry but a banana got downed quickly.

Off to bed with bottle (he was SO TIRED). and yes, I know..not a good practice but hey... sometimes yah gotta do what yah gotta do.

While he napped first got another load of laundry in then..... I got the meat done for the dogs. Seemed to take forever to get done. I got enough meals made for 45 days...which usually turns into bit more since occasionally I don't feed the dogs a meal. Woohoo! I won't have to do dog food next month at all! YEAH!!!!

Did some more laundry, opened the boy's door up, got louder in the house as I really wanted him to start waking up as it was 500 p.m. afterall!

While waiting for him to wake up I cleaned out the guinea pigs.

Justin up for 515, we sat and read a while, then out to walk the dogs at 530ish. Jim came with! yeah! We like daddy coming with us.

Justin ate supper while we walked, I had supper when we got back, Jim wasn't crazy about what was on the menu so he had soup later in the evening.

After our walk Justin and I were outside again. He was VERY insistent upon this. So I raked and took "over the aframe" breaks with Justin (I think he thinks it's a slide). Once again, Sassy worked for her ball. :) Justin is trying to figure out how to convince Sassy to take a ball that he throws. Sassy won't though....looks at me, and then runs to get a "safe" ball. :) A good thing I think at this moment for the two of them. It is good though to see Justin trying, and for Sassy to double-check with me. It's what I want from them.

In house, Justin had a cup of yogurt, a bottle of milk and then he grabbed "Ralph" and brought him upstairs. Put Ralph to bed and wanted to go to bed himself. Got mad when I had to "get him" ready for bed. Ah wee ones! :) He settled quickly though.

I got the dishes done. Got my bed remade and then sat and watch "house" with Jim.

it was a good productive day. Tomorrow I will finish the laundry and have another hopefully "outside" day with Justin. I want to start turning over my gardens.......

Sister's Birthday

This is a picture of my sister when we went shopping for a day with Tante Annie from Holland.

So Judy, my younger sister, is 40 years old... just so you know... I was nice and didn't pull a lot of 40 year old jokes on her. I tried very hard to be nice to her.

Anyways, she celebrated it yesterday by having an open house at her place. We got there just as my parents were leaving so our timing was perfect. Caroline had neglected I think to tell mom and dad that we were bringing stuff there for Marisa. Anyways, Marisa (they weren't there due to her illness), now has, or is at least close to having, my keepsakes from my summer in Haiti. This will help her with her project.

It was funny. Mom and Dad said that the house was filled with young people. I went in expecting to see hordes of teens, and it was mostly people my own age. It was funny. :) Differences in ages I suppose. :)

Anyways, Judy, as usual, had a nice feast laid out for us. All types of goodies, a nice looking house, and a bunch of people enjoying each other's company. Sometimes she amazes me, makes it all look so effortless. Justin had fun playing with cars, Jim had a nice visit with Henry, and I chatted with Becky (when she got home from work) and a couple other folks. We were only there for an hour as Jim needed to get back for preaching the evening service.

I'm glad we went. :)

Our weekend

So this past weekend Jim had a pastoral assignment in Kingsville for preaching. We thought to save time so we headed up to Mom's for the weekend. It saved us an additional 40 minutes driving and meant that Justin could sleep longer in the morning.

Justin spent Sunday with Mom while Jim and I drove the 2.5 hours to the other church.

Jim preached the same sermon he did the Sunday before and I found it just as interesting the second time around. He can really change sermons! :)

We had a lovely visit at Flo and George's house. Flo did this really nice cave painting that I told her if she ever wanted to do another...she was more than welcome to give it to me. They served PECAN pie!!!! boy...what a nice way to make my man smile! :) AND they had almond fingers which I really like as well...hmm.....think someone told them our favourites? Buns and cheese for lunch and then we headed back to London.

Monday we brought in some of our old books to used book stores. Gained around $80 in cash and trade-in value. Can't complain too much about that! One store even took books I didn't expect them to, and thought I would have a hard time selling so that was just bonus. :)

Did our shopping, visited with Mom and then headed home.

Was a good weekend (other than Tanse dying that is).

Tansy Died

We lost our Tansy this weekend.

We picked her up at an over-crowded pet store. VERY fortunate that as a wee young one that she wasn't pregnant at the time. She needed some growing and maturing time.

She was never a strong pig, but she was gentle. VERY timid, but a nice little pig. Long-haired. Had a funny head....more pointy than our other ladies.

She absolutely LOVED green peppers....it's the only time we would find her standing up for herself. Anything else was ...ah... whatever...but green peppers...she would push to the front of the pack every time. :)

She had one litter, almost died from it, of the six born, one survived, who became a lovely boar. Her health demanded that she never be bred again.

She caught a cold about 10 days ago. Not sure how, just kinda crept up on her. We thought she rallied on us, and well....she didn't.

She was a good pig in her own quiet way.

Toronto Sportsmen Show

We had fun. This is where we went.

We met a couple people from church while we were there, chatted just long enough to say hi.

Lots of good booths, lots of friendly people, many booth people were happy to rock the stroller for Justin while Jim and I filled out ballots.

Fascinating some of the pictures of fishing resorts. Also saw some of the biggest fish (sturgeons) and people catching them. Wow... big fish. Can't imagine bringing them in.

Seeing things with the eyes of a toddler. BO! he said very excited as he saw the taxidermy birds. MOO! to the moose.

And boy oh boy.... the fun of climbing on ATV's, boats, canoes and so on. The life for a wee boyo. Fun Fun!

We had hoped that Justin would fall asleep early afternoon, but although he was very tired that didn't happen until later on. Made for lots of slow walking and quiet areas as we tried to help him sleep so he could cope with the rest of the day.

I enjoyed the Golden Whistle Retriever trials. Was unable to see them all due to a very busy boy running ALL over the place (even while wearing a harness) who suddenly decided he had had enough! (the trials were the last event of the day that we were staying for). So he had enough, I had enough and so we left. :) But we did see dogs hesitate at the water pond. One dog did everything it could NOT to get wet... rather funny that. I don't think the handler ever got it to go into the water. One older (looked female from the build) dog that did a wonderful job on a blind send. Straight through the water and back. Nice line just like you want to see. We also saw a fake duck take out a fake goose. That was funny. AND one fake duck tried hard to take out one of the black labs.....dodged quickly that dog did! :)

Justin was TIRED! Long day for a 20 month old. He fell asleep on the way home, I took a wee bit of shut eye and Jim got us home safely. :)

Got home at 11 p.m. to a very poopy kitchen. OLD DOGS>>> ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

March 14, update

Okay... I've recently realized I haven't updated you all on our lives recently.

The dogs - Riley continues to age, sometimes poorly, sometimes not. He slips and slides on the ice. Occasionally has diarrhea, is starting to smell "old dog", but still is soft mild-mannered dog, who tries to be good. he really tries. he enjoys treats for running away from Justin. :) Loves to go for long walks along the river.
- Sassy...become "FAT DOG" over the winter. She is currently under a lose weight regime, sorta like the other female in the house. :) Winter was hard on us that way. Hoping to get her into an agility trial in May.

The cat! LOVES Jim. Loves to sleep with Jim. Loves to run away from the boy (not that I blame him, I wouldn't appreciate a tail grabber either). Remains a nice cat.

The piggies - the four we have left are good pigs. Tanse had a cold recently, seems to be getting better though. Topper enjoys the stuffed fish he has for a cage mate. Helps him eat. Tasha and Itch continue to be good pigs though their dominance roles appear to be switching. Itch gets first dibs on everything lately.

Justin... ear surgery was a success. he talks more, and more clearly. Has more words to his vocabulary. He can sign please, more and milk- though not always appropriately. Goes through spells of favourite words, one week it was HAT. hat this, hat that. On hat, off hat. Has our coming in the house routines down pat. Coat off. Boots off. and will come after us if we leave any of the fore-a-mentioned on.

Jim. These past two weeks have had their challenges for him. Sometimes it's hard to be pastor. But it's had its good moments to. He had a lovely visit in Whitby with a pastor friend and his wife. He learned stuff at a workshop (he likes that!). He got a tool so he can properly fix the brake lines on his Sunrunner.

Me... well..life continues! I had a good visit this week with one of our shut-in ladies. Made a new meal that Justin and I like. The house is not looking like a tornado recently passed through, but does need a bit of work done. I had a good visit with my parents last week, and then good shopping and visiting in Kitchener. The weather is warmer so I'm able to get out more with Justin. AND my sprained foot is for the most part, feeling pretty good.

My brother-in-law Paul continues to heal from his recurrent illness, which helps my sister be less worried. Last word was that he wasn't better yet.

My dad is back to puzzling. their basement has been all fixed up. Looks pretty good. He still has pain, hates being shut in during the winter. They are looking to sell the farm this summer and move somewhere in town.

My neice from my middle brother is doing a project on Haiti that I can help her with IF I manage to get my Haiti stuff up to her before it is due. Kinda neat that I went to Haiti and therefore have some things she can use. :)

So I think that's about it. talk more next week! :)

Getting expensive.....

There was a preacher whose wife was expecting a baby so he went before the congregation and asked for a raise.

After much discussion, they passed a rule that whenever the preacher's family expanded, so would his paycheck.

After 6 children, this started to get expensive and the Congregation decided to hold another meeting to discuss the preacher's salary.

There was much yelling and bickering about how much the clergyman's additional children were costing the church.

Finally, the Preacher got up and spoke to the crowd, "Children are a gift from God," he said. Silence fell on the congregation.

In the back pew, a little old lady stood up and in her frail voice said, "Rain is also a gift from God, but when we get too much of it, we wear rubbers."

And the congregation said, "Amen."

A Little Old Lady

LITTLE OLD LADY
>
A little old lady is walking down the street, dragging two plastic garbage bags with her, one in each hand. There's a hole in one of the bags, and every once in a while a $20 bill is flying out of it onto the pavement.
>
Noticing this, a policeman stops her.... "Ma'am, there are $20 bills falling out of that bag."
>

"Damn!" says the little old lady....."I'd better go back and see if I can still find them. Thanks for the warning!"
>
"Well, now, not so fast," says the cop. "How did you get all that money? Did you steal it?"
>
"Oh, no", says the little old lady. "You see, my back yard backs up to the parking lot of the football stadium. Each time there's a game a lot of fans come and pee in the bushes, right into my flower beds!
>
So, I go and stand behind the bushes with a big hedge clipper, and each time someone sticks his little winkie through the bushes, I say, $20 or off it comes!"
>
"Hey, not a bad idea!" laughs the cop. "OK, good luck! By the way, what's in the other bag?"
>
"Well", says the little old lady, "Some of them don't believe me."

Headlines

THE YEAR'S BEST (actual) HEADLINES OF 2006

Most of the year's gone by, but they are pretty neat,so...enjoy!

Crack Found on Governor's Daughter
Imagine that!


Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says
No, really?



Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
Now that's taking things a bit far!



Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over
What a guy!


Miners Refuse to Work after Death
No-good-for-nothing' lazy so-and-sos!



Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant
See if that works any better than a fair trial!


War Dims Hope for Peace
I can see where it might have that effect!



If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile
You think?!



Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures
Who would have thought!


Enfield Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide
They may be on to something!


Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges
You mean there's something stronger than duct tape?!


Man Struck By Lightning: Faces Battery Charge
He probably IS the battery charge!


New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
Weren't they fat enough?!


Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft
That's what he gets for eating those beans!

Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
Taste like chicken?


Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half
Chainsaw Massacre all over again!


Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors
Boy, are they tall!


And the winner is....

Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead
Did I read that right?

Blondes and Snow in Michigan

This just made me laugh! :)

One winter morning a husband and wife in northern Michigan were listening to the radio during breakfast. They heard the announcer say, "We are going to have 8 to 10 inches of snow today. You must park your car on the even-numbered side of the street, so the snowplows can get through." So the good wife went out and moved her car. A week later while they are eating breakfast again, the radio announcer said, "We are expecting 10 to 12 inches of snow today. You must park your car on the odd-numbered side of the street, so the snowplows can get through." The good wife went out and moved her car again. The next week they are again having breakfast, when the radio announcer says, "We are expecting 12 to 14 inches of snow today. You must park..." Then the electric power went out. The good wife was very upset, and with a worried look on her face she said, "Honey, I don't know what to do. Which side of the street do I need to park on so the snowplows can get through? "With the love and understanding in his voice that all men who are married to Blondes exhibit, the husband replied, "Why don't you just leave it in the garage this time?"

Life this week

Life has been....shall I say a challenge this week in our household.

Monday.. I see lights dancing, everything is blurry, I get dizzy, VERY freaking when one is driving a car on London roads. Pull over. AH safe. Go into pharmacy, watch self closely so don't fall over. Get back into car, Jim drives. YEAH!

MASSIVE HEADACHE! BLURRY VISION. I am NOT a happy camper.

I even take something because pain is bad. (I hate taking stuff)

Make doctor's appointment, go in Tuesday evening. Jim at meeting, Eva comes down to care for Justin.

Doc hems and haws. Threatens to send me to UH because wonders if I have brain bleed. But is not sure because some of my symptoms indicate migraine. Ends up making me promise that I will take myself in if I don't get better, or if I get worse, said he was 75-85% sure that it was a migraine, but a somewhat odd one.

The next day it's a wee bit better but I feel like I've been beaten over a head with a brick. Thursday I was just TIRED. Like just massively tired. Today (Friday) I'm fine. :)

Well...except for the fact that I tripped over a child gate and now have a badly sprained left foot. NOT FUN! Went to emerg...not broken, badly sprained, stay off it and elevate it. Take pain stuff if I need it.

And through it all, my hubbie, my sweet, generally patient hubbie, is fighting um...what shall I say here.... lack of being able to write sermons. It's Friday night, he's been working hard all week and has NOTHING (Well four pages) but basically nothing! FRUSTRATING!!!!! So not quite as patient.....

Makes him tired.
Makes me want to help and I generally end up not helping, and somehow I end up thinking that I make things worse.... ARGH!

And the old dog Riley has been battling diarrhea this week. Almost hit me with it this morning. I was unimpressed --- BUT very glad that I was smart enough to move quickly. :) he walks all sad and old looking. ARGH!!!! Now I can worry about the old dog too!

Do I sound like a whiney child yet? :)

So on a positive note
1. I made a brand new recipe for a meatloaf that Jim really likes! he does! it's too spicy for my taste...but he likes it! YEAH!!!! I like making him happy! :)
2. Justin ate good today!
3. I got the fridge cleaned out, the counter well cleaned
4. the boy was well-read too, fed, cleaned, pajama-ed, and bedded. :)
5. the dogs were walked...by Jim this afternoon (they had a good walk this morning).

So life isn't completely bad...just been a bit rough this week.....

Ear tubes in Place

So Justin's surgery went well.

He has tubes in his ears now.

He did have yet another ear infection so is on antibiotics again.

We have to watch for bleeding and such like. And he's not to play soccer or engage in other active behaviours for about a week (not that at 19 months he's into soccer). :)

Eva came up to assist since we're all rather bagged.

Thank you for your prayers.

Justin's surgery

So our boy Justin has his pre-admittance tests on February 12 at 215 p.m.

He then is booked for surgery on February 16, 2007 at 1115 a.m. This time line might change as they do the children in order of age. Youngest first and then up the line from there.

Night at the Museum

Jim and I saw this movie, Night at the Museum, yesterdaynafternoon. We were two of about 8 people in the theatre.

What a fun movie. It's been a while since we've done a movie together, so it was nice to just sit and watch a good movie together. Good laughs, not a whole lot of nasty stuff in it. I didn't even get scared... a wee bit alarmed perhaps first with the dinasour, but nothing too bad. :) Something I could see renting when Justin hits about 8 or so. :) Ben Stiller did a good job.

For other reviews of this movie, feel free to check out these here.

Update on Our Boy

My wife posted on her blog the following update:

The scoop so far

Okay,
on Tuesday our boy had another appointment with the ENT. We had thought
that perhaps he had another ear infection, turns out he didn't AND his
perforated ear is no longer perforated!!!!



Found out that they
have developed a new plan for doing the ear tube surgery, where if we
get everything done for pre-op, our boy might not have to wait until
March for his surgery, but could have it in as little as two weeks.
Pretty cool huh?!?!?!



So he had his physical today at the doctor's office.



His
lungs are clear, so we're not sure why the cough remains. Doctor says
he's looking pretty good other than his ears being fairly messy. So now
all we have to do is go through all the pre-admittance stuff which
hopefully will be next week and then we wait!



Hopefully it will happen quickly.

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Our Dogs

 

Our dogs

Going through some picture

As I was going through some pictures I stumbled upon this video of our boy eating pasta. As you can see, he likes his pasta a lot.



Here is a picture of what the results of this rather unorthodox way of eating pasta.


And here is an even better one.

Timeron has "crossed the bridge" that is "He died"

Yes, I know...I don't believe that animals cross a rainbow bridge... but it is a somewhat nice euphamism....unless of course you see different connotations in the whole "rainbow" part of the bridge...which apparently some people do. Weird.

Anyways, blogger was being stupid and not letting me post a pic so... let's try this from photobucket, not sure how it will work..but giving it a shot anyways. okay...that picture was just WAY too huge to share here... BUT my hubbie darling helped me out AND I learned something new....now to remember it! :)



Today my sweet old pig (correction --- our sweet old guinea pig) died.

He had turned from a sweet old pig into a rather crotchey old man with "issues".

He died just after lunch today, the boy was in bed.

Timeron was a good pig....sired several good looking youngsters. Brought us in some needed cash. :) He liked to nibble fingers ... not to hurt, just to check you out. Was calm for nail clippings. Liked to swim -- has a daughter the same way. He was for most of his life a good solid well-behaved pig.

I'm glad he lasted until after Christmas. :)

Nothing to look at here

A shocker t'is

Our boy owns this book.

It's a simple little book. Man wants an apple on April fool's day, man gets an apple from a man who wants to play an aprils fools joke on him, and the joke ends up being turned back on the original joker. It's actually quite intriguing to follow the story of what happens with this apple.

Anyways, our boy loves to look at this book while he's sitting on the potty. He'll sit there for 10 minutes just 'reading' away quite contented.

I was quite shocked when I went looking for a picture of this book so I could blog on it. The lowest price I found for it, and that was used, average quality, was $42. The highest was $70 and that was brand new. I"m SHOCKED!

We got this book free at a garage sale. No one wanted it and the lady just wanted it gone.

It's a simple little book. Technically a bit too advanced for his age level.

Written by an individual named Jan Loof. (scandanvian perhaps??)

As I told my hubbie, now I feel really bad that our boyo ripped a page in the book tonight as he was a bit too aggressive in finding the exact page that he wanted (where the apple falls on an old woman's head) Just loves that page for some reason. :)

So... a dilemma.... do I continue to let our boy look at this book over and over and over again, knowing that he might totally destroy it (or might not)? OR do I monitor his actions closely while letting him look at it, knowing that it might make him more pushy with it? OR do I hide it on him and see if I can sell it for $40?? :)

This Pastor Has Guts! - email mostly true

Here's the email that I received today.

This Pastor has guts!!

Thought you might enjoy this interesting prayer given in Kansas at the opening session of their Senate.

It seems prayer still upsets some people. When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:

"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable . We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem . We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition . We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!"

The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest!

In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa and Korea.

Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, "The Rest of the Story," and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.

With the Lord's help , may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called "one nation under God."

Here's is the link for the Truth of this tale.

This particular email isn't all that far from the total truth.

As the website says: one person did walk out, Paul Harvey did air it, and it was controversial. The prayer as written above does not appear to be same that was given. Please check out the website to learn more of the whole story.

He sits on the big toilet too!

So I must say, I am kinda enjoying this...the not having to change as many wet/dirty diapers deal.

He still wears them, but that's because mommy isn't always quick enough on the uptake to read his body language properly. Or mommy lets him get distracted when he's signalled he wants to go potty but decides that "thus and such along the way" is infinitely more attractive at the moment. Or we're going for a walk, or a car ride, or whatever where doing the quick bathroom break isn't an option.

BUT it is nice.

And it is funny to see his excitement at sitting on his potty on the big boy toilet too! Oh my. It's just too much sometimes for a little boy. :) I don't know how long it will last....

Daddy's thinking he'll build a step stool for Justin soon.

Nasty side-effect though. He's decided that everything should go in the toilet now too. His stuffies (unless mommy is too quick), his small toys, the toilet paper rolls, you name it, he's tried it. Calls for some quick thinking on the part of mommy and daddy.

Snow! We have TONS of snow!

You would NEVER believe how much snow we have gotten in the past 24 hours. It is just unbelievable! It's also really, really cool!

Sassy rolled and rolled and rolled on our walk this morning.

Riley slipped and fell and looked old, and then started to look happy.

I slipped and fell, felt old and tired, then met people and chatted with them about the snow and all was well again.

Isn't snow fun! :)

Rather Unpleasant Past Month

Those of you who check in here regularly may have noticed that we have not posted anything for a fairly long time. The reason for that is that for the past 4 weeks or so, at least one of us (often more than one) has been ill. It all started at the start of the second week of November with a stomach ailment that first Justin got, then Annette and finally myself. That lasted for two to three weeks. Just as we got over that and were feeling more ourselves, I came down with something else that made me feel absolutely horrible. That only lasted several days, but during that time Justin got a cold. Annette got it as well and lost her voice. Now I have the cold with a wonderful congested chest that results in lots of coughing at night. That means little sleep for myself and Annette who I keep awake. That is where we are now. Thankfully, Justin seems to be getting over it, and Annette has her voice back for the most part. I am hoping that my cold will go quickly as well.

All this has made Annette wonder if we have a mold problem in our house. I guess it is possible. When I moved in 8 years back there was a smell in the house. As the years went by I started to get colds and respitory infections more frequently that lasted longer than normal. Eventually we traced the culprit to the sub-floor in the basement which when pulled up had mold covering the whole bottom of it.

Once that was removed things got much better, but lately it seems things are getting worse. Justin seems to have colds all the time, especially now that the windows are closed because of the cold winter weather, and neither Annette nor myself are feeling that good either. I'm not sure if the house is infected with mold or not, but if this continues we will have to find out.

Now you know why we haven't posted for a while on our blog.

He learns new things

Justin still just loves watching the fish. he thinks they are just so cool. He climb up to visit them. Sit and watch them for minutes at a time. So to keep him out of the fish tank, we've given him a new job. he feeds the fish. every other day at night. That way we can say, "Justin, it's not time to feed the fish, we'll feed them later". It works! he's learning to keep his hands OUT of the aquariums. :)

He also helps his mommy feed the guinea pigs. He loves holding that carrot and bringing to the piggies.

He "helps" mommy make suppers too. Though I must admit, it does make getting the meals a bit harder since I have to watch out for little hands.

He helps mommy to water the plants. This is teaching him to leave them alone except when he holds the pots still so the plants don't run away while mommy waters them. :) what can I say...parenthood is teaching me creative thinking. :)

He's learning to clean up his toys (but that's hard!).

He helps mommy get the mail. His favourite part of the mail is peering diligently into the slot to see if mommy left anything behind. I must admit, Sassy dislikes him helping as it means she doesn't get too!

He helps mommy to go to the library almost every week as well. :)

he helps mommy to walk the dogs in the afternoon. he is starting now to hold Sassy's leash. he finds Riley's is just TOO heavy for him.

He's a great little helper.

I HATE THE FLU!

I know...what we had was probably NOT the "flu". You know that really nasty virus that affects your respiratory system and makes you feel totally ick? But what we had was NOT fun at all!!!!!!

First Justin got sick. NOT FUN. Jim was gone for the weekend. I got stressed and tired and just hated this sickness thing.

Then I got sick. While in Toronto visiting friends. Not fun. Shortly thereafter Jim got sick... really not fun at all! We returned home. No vacation this week!

Justin stayed sick until Saturday afternoon. He still is completely better BUT for the most part he is back to being a happy, into everything, let's play with this and that and help mommy with this and that normal little boy who is NOT into cuddling. He is still a wee bit of a cuddle monster, but not as bad as he was.

I got better Saturday as well, which is really cool.

Jim on the other hand is still under the weather a fair bit. He was up most of Saturday night visiting the local bathroom. He is TIRED! understandably so!

We're really hoping no one else gets it. I learned in church (went to exeter CRC) that the pastor there had it, and a few others have had it in their church as well. So...we're not isolated...just not appreciative of this particular side-affect of sin in the world. BUT we are thankful that God sustained us through this all.

And very much aware of the blessing of a helpful mom (Jim's mom) through it all.

Golf Clubs for Sale

I filled in a survey.

By doing so I entered a contest.

I won! Yes, me, who rarely wins anything. I won! It's my big news for the week!

They are Northwestern Golf 835 TS Ladies Graphite Club Set. 11 clubs, came in a box with no bag.

Set Includes:

* 8 irons (PW-3)
* 3 woods (1, 3 & 5)

* Woods feature forgiving clubhead which allow you to easily get the ball down the middle of the fairway
* Irons have forgiving cavity back clubhead that make even your miss-hits land on the green
* Comes fitted with the Ultimate ProFlex 88 Ladies Flex low torque graphite shaft

Kinda cool huh?

Now to sell them since I don't golf. Anyone want them? I will sell them to someone who wants to give me what they are worth. They originally retailed for $350 in an Ontario on-line store. That doesn't mean I want $350, but I'd take it, but give me a reasonable offer and they will be yours complete with a happy smile. :)

Life while Jim was away

While Jim was away I was able to get a lot of cleaning done in the house. It was good to get that done.

I also took Justin to baby group on Thursday morning. He's the only one who showed up which meant... NO SHARING of toys needed. Justin liked that. Long nap in afternoon.

Friday we went to toddler time at the library which is story and craft time. He liked that too. He liked playing with the stuffed dinasour. Long nap in afternoon.

Saturday we popped in to Sola Scriptura to their book sale. Picked up a couple of books for me, and a few for Justin. None for Jim since I don't know what he needs yet. :)

Saturday Justin was fussy all day. learned why in the evening. He got the flu! (okay..as Jim would say...not the flu...just a tummy upset) No fever last night, that came Sunday morning. But he tossed his cookies quite a few times. Didn't settle to bed until midnight, up at 200 because was thirsty...gave him just a wee bit of warm water just to see if it would stay down. It did, so 20 minutes later I gave him more to drink. He sort of settled but not really, at 330 I gave him a bottle of tang and that seemed to do the trick. He slept until 930 a.m.

Had a wee bit for breakfast and back to bed at 1130. Tired boy. Running a fever today. Gave some advil to help settle his tummy. Called a lady from church to do me the immense favour of picking up some more advil for him. Not so nice to be a sick little boy.

My hubbie called!!!! Jim is on his way home. He had a wonderful time!

I have decided that I really, really, really strongly dislike Jim being away when Justin is sick. BUT I am thankful for helpful ladies in church and for Jim having a great time away. God is good.