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. :)

Driving Instructors

FIRE!!!

Well, we had a little excitement this morning. I had just woken, and was still in that half asleep state that is common upon waking up. I heard the smoke detector go off downstairs, but I knew Annette was up, and figured she was cooking bacon or something else that commonly triggers the detector. Well, it kept going and going. Then I heard a yell from downstairs, "JIM HELP!" I got up and went down and upon looking into the basement saw a lot of smoke. Ran the rest of the way down to see Annette dumping water from the tap on a small fire among our laundry. Apparently a pile of laundry fell over against the furnace and go set on fire. Thankfully, Annette came in from caring for the rabbits, heard the alarm and went to see what was up. All that was damaged was various items of clothing, towels, sheets and the like.

Annette burned her hand when she grabbed what she thought was a towel, but which turned out to be a melted plastic laundry basket. So after we got the fire out, we called a member of our congregation who could take care of Justin (Thank-you Margaret M.), and after dropping off Justin headed to the ER.

Even though there really were no other people there, they took their time treating Annette. Partly I think to see how bad the burn was. But after some Toradol, Tylenol 3 and some liquid from the Novacain family that numbed the worst injured parts of her hand, they tried to clean the plastic residue off, with no success. The doctor said it shouldn't cause an infection problems and should come off as the skin sloughs off in the next while. The put an antibiotic cream over the hand and wrapped it in gauze, and we headed home.

Due to Annette only having one hand to work with we asked if her parents could take care of Justin for a couple of days, and my mom can to help with the clean up. Hopefully tomorrow when she goes in to the ER again to have her dressings changed and see how things are healing, we will find that all is healing well.

That about updates our fire adventure. I'm sure Annette will add to it when she can type again.

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. :)

Building with a boy child

My boy and I worked hard today.

He hammered,

I hammered.

Together we got those nails into the wood.
I thought I was making a new rabbit cage.
He said, "we making crib for kitties!"I could not change his mind. :)
(can you see his Sparks and then Tagu in the train?
Giant Cosmos and baby Cosmos and little cat are there too really!)

Did we get finished?
Not today, 7 p.m. came much too fast.

He even learned today that thirsty, hard-working people
can drink juice right out the jug!

And one tired boy had a nice fun bath and crawled into bed.
Ah...but did we have fun. :)

For the Video of this, go here.

Justin's Current Favorite

Today Justin kept asking me for Diesel 10 on 'puter. I kept searching youtube, but had to google Diesel Ten to find out what episodes he was in. I found he was in the movie "Calling All Engines." This is now Justin's favorite.

Travis on my bum?

see these? Justin's are somewhat different, but you understand the concept. :)

Justin LOVES THEM!!! I have underwear I don't have a struggle putting or keeping on him! (so I guess I love 'em too!)

He made me laugh today.
I put on the Travis undies him. Justin was fascinated. "travis on my bum?"
"wanna see him, travis on my bum, mirror mom mirror? travis on my bum see him?".

here I had to lift him up so that he could see travis on his bum in the mirror. :)
I laughed.
I told him, yes, see, there is travis on your bum.
his response "wanna see travis gain!"

But by then my back was saying "Stupid woman, put that boy child down!" so I did. :)

My Back

If anyone reads this blog and feels inclined to pray.

I shoveled snow on Saturday...heavy stuff at the end of the driveway. I must have done something wrong since my back did not appreciate my effort. By the end of the day I was not in good shape. Not good, but I will survive. makes me thankful for days when my back isn't spasming as much. :)

and to think ...I've shovelled oodles of snow this winter without a problem....

Ah well...God plans things out differently than I would, but grants also the grace to deal with it.

March 4, Ear Check-up

Today Justin had his 6 month check up at Dr. Raymond's office in Strathroy.

His ears are good.
His tubes are still intact.

His tonsils are big but not infected. If they get too big they will be removed or if get white spots on them he'll be put on an antibiotic. They will need to be monitored. I can see his tonsils very clearly if he sticks out his tongue at me. To me they look HUGE! :)

He doesn't have a lot of wax in his ears which is a good thing.

From an ENT perspective he's in good shape.

Yesterday Visit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's been a Spell

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

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

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

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

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

Enough of that. :)

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

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

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

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

Update on my bunnies

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

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

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

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

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

Some of Justin's favourite on-line places

As an aid to my hubby

some favourite pages of Justin's

colouring pages

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

Activity Sites

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

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

Challie's Contest

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

Three prizes will be awarded as follows:

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

Yesterday Out of Town

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

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

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

Gramma chose to spoil him.

He chose an Emily (with her two green coaches)






And a Sir Handel with his two red coaches.








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

he apparently ate like a horse for gramma.

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

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

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

Sold Bunnies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Two mixed breeds.

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

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

My Dog and My Boy

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

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

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

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

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

Things I like Doing with My boy

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

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

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

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

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

He's a good boy. :)

"throw you out the window"

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

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

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

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

Radical Alteration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NOT what I had in mind for the day.

A Good Couple of Days

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

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

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

Justin & Annette Celebrate the Birth of Our Lord

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



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

Snowblower AAARRG!

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

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

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

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


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

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

Watch it 'Gain!

A Justin Moment

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

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

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

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

His response..... because it noisy!

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

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

My Family Christmas Gathering

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

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

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

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

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

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

Life was good.

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

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

Merry Christmas to all

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

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

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

You all have a Merry Christmas now! :)

Justin wanted me to post this one!

and this one too!

This is YouTube Just for Justin

This Most Recent Weekend

So, This weekend was a busy one.... and yet a bit slower than expected.

Friday night...our open house. Boy was it ever fun! Lots of people showed up. Conversation, laughter, a couple of small presents for Justin, bundles of coats and lines of shoes on the floor. The fact that the cat was unimpressed being locked in the office, and the dog got cold locked in the garage were small prices to pay for such a nice evening. And next year I get to do it again! Oh what fun! :) People seemed to enjoy the baking that I had done, the house was nice and clean (thanks Jim's mom for helping!), and it was just very nice. :)

Saturday afternoon we headed up to visit Mom and Dad overnight because Jim had a classical appointment to preach in their church. The biggest snowstorm to hit Canada this December thought it would take the opportunity to hit us HARD! When I walked Sassy in town for her morning walk I thought hmm....the weather is drivable, but I wouldn't want to go too far. When I arrived home I learned that there were many road closures due to poor driving conditions. So we stayed put. We had hoped to go home later in the afternoon, but the roads didn't reopen until 630 pm. and having a boy that didn't nap, not having things packed to go, made returning home in the dark an undesired option. So we stayed over another night.

It was nice staying over. We played a couple of games. Ate some good food (my mom is great cook). Jim got mom's email straightened out a bit. Justin had fun playing trucks. It was odd not getting out to church, but safer to stay home. Most church services were canceled as well. Boy did we ever get a lot of snow!

Justin had a good nights sleep, we left around 930 Monday morning. got home 1114. Parked on the road because boy oh boy did we ever get a lot of snow. Justin and I waited until Daddy got a path blown out for us. I got the boy into the house, got some food out for him to nibble on while Jim got the driveway cleaned out, and blew out some paths in the backyard for Sassy dog and me to the composter and shed. Then I cared for the critters...boy where they hungry! But they all survived the storm and cold. My baby bunnies have grown and are getting hair. :) And the wee mice are old enough now to start exploring their surroundings. So they will be ready to ship out in another couple of weeks. :)

Once that was all cared for Jim wanted to head to London as per usual for Mondays. We surprised mom. She willingly cared for Justin though since he was all happy to see Grandma. Jim and I finished our Christmas shopping. :) We did make it an early return though. I was beat, Jim was sore from shoveling, and I thought it best not to overextend our welcome at gramma's. Justin fell asleep on the way home, so he went to bed right away. I walked Sassy, did my finances and then did my exercises while relaxing with Jim downstairs.

Overall a good weekend.

Open House Tomorrow Night

So our open house is on tomorrow night. Haven't gotten quite all the baking done that I intended, hopefully can rectify that today. Most of the house is cleaned and put together. Jim isn't happy with the tree yet. Some things we can't put up until the party because of a toddler lad. :)

Justin is feeling better. Jim was very achy starting Tuesday night and through yesterday. Hopefully he'll be feeling good today.

Yesterday Kathy called me up in the morning, wanted me to help her get a Turkey, so I told her to call Hayters and then we could run errands together. It was a fun time.

What else?

Oh yesterday afternoon we stopped into see Susan. She had surgery a while back and she's looking pretty good now. Her colour is good and she's able to do things more readily now. It was a nice visit. Justin had fun playing as well. It was fun watching him with the bird. they have a somewhat unfriendly cockatiel, Anyways,...this bird just LOVES children apparently. Justin had lots of fun talking with this bird, and having this bird sing back to him. Just fun. VERY loud, but fun. :)

That's it. Today I hope to get Justin to toddler time for an hour, then pick up some milk, sour cream and _____ Drawing a blank right now. And this afternoon I want to make some cookies, clean the book room a bit more and then say done with it! :) oh ...perhaps bring up some more tree decorations and tell my hubby to have at it. Perhaps the train too. :)

But right now, devotions sound good and then perhaps seeing if Justin wants to walk Sassy with me. So toodles for now! :)

He Made me Just hoot!

Okay, debated posting this, but I also don't want to forget it.

Yesterday, Justin feeling somewhat better, me feeling just whipped from whatever bug has been floating around our house.

Justin not really wanting to eat yet.
Me eating puffed rice because well...it's a comfort food, it's easy, and it keeps a tummy feeling happy.

Anyways, Justin sees me eating this.
He wants some because it's new and different.

The conversation went something like this:
"I eating head off" Justin showing me a puffed rice missing one pointy end.
me - "You are? Oh good boy, are you going to eat his tummy too?"
boy child carefully turning the puffed rice around and biting off other end "I eating penis!"

I cracked up. I just couldn't contain it. :)

Told Jim later.
his response.... I should have caught that on film...it would have be worth 10 grand through America's Funniest Videos. I cracked up again. :)

What can I say.....family humour. :)

December 5

Jim saw an Owl last night sitting on the window ledge outside the bathroom. Rather neat huh?

We have baby mice. I was shocked. Went out a bit more than a week ago, planning on killing the ladies as I was NOT going to bring them in the house for the winter. Anyways, they had babies! A whole whack of them. This morning I checked on them (as I do in the mornings to feed and water) and their eyes are opening. 10 days old they are now. :) Some very pretty ones in the mix too. not that is matters, ugly or pretty they bring in 75 cents each. But they are handling being outside just fine. So thinking I'll just keep the ladies and one male from the litter over the winter. In the spring I can get me a new male and keep babies from a litter or two and start all over again.

Bunnies are doing well over the winter too outside. They keep quite cozy. I'll breed them in February to hit the Easter crowd and that's good timing as they'll be able to go out on grass too in April so they won't get overcrowded.

What else...Sassy's old injury is bugging her again.

Jim had a couple of crazy busy week's but this week is a bit easier.
Justin got over one cold just to get another one. :( ah well..life of a toddler.
My foot is feeling a lot better, my back is stiff in the morning lately...not much I can do about that, just keep moving! :)

That's it!

Two Messes Cleaned

So Justin has been demonstrating interest in pouring 'water' out of my bleach containers and other such bottles so I thought I NEED to get them up and out of his reach. As in as soon as possible!

Therefore yesterday I undertook to clean out the walk in closet. Reorganized it a bit so that I could put the cleaners up high. Took a few things out, added a couple of things to help with storage. Then I put away the summer shoes, got out the winter boots and voila.. A safe area. :) Also a clean organized area. Won't drive me nuts anymore. :)

Then I thought...hmm...been wanting to tackle the linen closet, why don't I do that as well? Found the knee braces for my hubbie.....knew I had put them some place safe. :) Rearranged and fitted things around a bit better, today I'm hoping to get the rest of my table clothes in there as well.

So two big jobs done and in-between I played with the boy child, made supper, read for 1/2 hour, went to physio appointment, did up all the dishes, got 1/2 the table cleaned off and got all the laundry done. WooHoo! I had a productive day. :) Nice to have those days. :)

This Summer

Not sure if I ever posted these. Justin and I went to visit Teo and Sieka from church one day this summer. Jim was not with us, not sure anymore what he was doing. Anyways, Teo took these pictures of our boy child. Teo had sent these to me as a reminder of Justin on the lawn mower. :) Thanks again Teo! :)

His Sense of Humour is Developing

So last night I was doing dishes, Justin came in to "help". I asked him instead to let the dog in the house.

Off he toddled. I hear him at the back door (just like two steps away). Sassy coming? Sassy he yells. Then I hear the door open, then a giggle as the door shuts.
Sassy coming? He giggles. I hear the door open, I poke my head around the corner asking if he needs help only to see a boyo closing a door carefully just as Sassy tries to get in the house. He did this again. Sassy was being very patient.

I said "Justin are you teasing the dog?" He looked up at me and chortled.

I opened the door and let the dog in. :)

Told Jim about it. His response... He must have learned it from his mommy who likes teasing her animals too. :)

Our vacation - November 2007

Plain and simple.... we had fun.

We stayed with Jen and Mark. I got to know these people when I started to work with their son Matt. Matt is a great young man who has Cerebral Palsy and is confined to a wheelchair. Anyways, they moved off to the Greater Toronto Area, I got married and life somewhat changed. Anyways, Jen is one of my friends where it is easy to just pick up where we left off. Nice to have that.

Anyways, they were gracious enough to let us use their home as "home base". They have this HUGE dog named Bear (appropriately enough). Their daughter is off at University, and both boys are still at home. We arrived Monday night and just had a nice visit.

Tuesday and Wednesday we were off to the Royal Winter Fair. Justin slept in a bit late on the Tuesday so we got there a bit late. I had forgotten to pack his stroller so first off we picked up a cheapie one at Zellers. We made Tuesday Justin's day to just explore and play. We went through the various Children's exhibits -- the animals, the crafts, and the Hands on stuff. Justin had a blast. He saw pigs, chickens, lambs, cattle, goats, llamas and so forth. He tried very hard to climb into various exhibits.


I can climb up! Really I can!


Jim and I both thought it cute that Justin wanted to introduce his beloved Tagu to the various animals that he met.

The colouring was a huge hit as well. :) He had such fun organizing the crayons and markers and then choosing just the right picture to colour. The area that they did this in had all sorts of really nice posters that we could bring home as well. We spent a fair bit of time here. In the back part of this exhibit they had children painting horses. Justin wasn't quite old enough to do this and he probably would have wanted to just take everyone else's horses anyways. So we kept him away from that. :)

And then it was off to see some exhibits. Booths with food, free samples, interesting items and people. Just stuff to look at and sample, or in Justin's case...to play in. :) Here he's playing with farm equipment in a sandbox of canola seeds. While he played, Jim wandered booths and I chatted with the sales rep. Nice man, farms canola out in Alberta and is an elder in a Baptist church out there. He started to get tired 530 ish so we headed off 'home' again. It was a nice family day.

Day two. We got there fairly early in the day. Spent the morning walking through booths since we didn't see most of them the day before. Justin started off his day convincing his mommy that he really, really needed her to buy "Bertie". it was a bus at a british display....looked much like Bertie the bus from the Thomas the train show. A good day long amusement for a little boy.

I started getting a bit tired so we went over to the horse arena hoping to catch a show. We did! Justin enjoyed the horses...watched carefully until being a toddler caught up to him. He got away from me at one point -- crawled an entire row of seats and out the other end. I made people smile when I walked around the seats saying "looking for a toddler" and here he was little head grinning at me from under a seat. :) I took him up around the top so he had a good chance to run around like a crazy boy. Fun fun! we made four big loops until he started to walk a bit drunk like. So back down to our seats where I cuddled him in my lap and he promptly fell asleep. He had a good 2 hour nap.
And I got to watch a horse show in relative peace and quiet. :) We saw jumping, big horses pulling carriages, and carriage derby practice and much much more. Lots of fun.

Overall a very good day.

Home again, we all crashed after a visit with Jen and Mark.

Thursday we went to IKEA in the morning. had lunch there as well. Justin ate well, I was quite pleased. Home to our home to just relax a spell.

Friday off to London so Justin could visit gramma. We first stopped at the doctor because Justin's been saying owiee and crying and I wanted to know what was up with that. Plugged ears (too much ear wax) was the diagnosis. Not fun. So oil drops and see if it comes out. He missed our weekly gramma time so this was important to him. He had fun. Jim and I went out for a really nice dinner. Gramma brought Justin home for us so we could just take our time.

Saturday we had a nice supper at Judy and Henry's. Judy, my sister, is a good cook. Meatloaf with boiled egg in the middle, potatoes and various veggies. Becky was there but soon headed off with a friend to go shopping, and Shane had a friend over. Justin played with trucks and various small animals. A nice visit for all.

Sunday morning Justin was TIRED. He had a cold, and there was no way I was getting him out of the house. No, stay home day, stay home day? Was his plaintive request. So Daddy went to church. Mommy and Justin stayed home.

As An Aid to my Hubby

Jim told me that if he doesn't read and write it down he won't remember what Justin's chores are around the house.

1. Helps feed the fish ... does this twice a week or sometimes more often
2. Helps feed the baby bunnies
3. Helps to wash the cups (especially HIS sippy cups) while Mommy washes the dishes (or while he's playing in the sink)

So now my sweetheart has a ready and able list to go by. :)

Challies Contest

Jim, Camping with the Men

So Jim is an active part of the Pop Up Explorer group. Each year a bunch of men go camping up at Algonquin park the first weekend in November. A bunch of Canadians and Americans. They drink beer, burn Tiki huts, have conversations, and I'm assuming perhaps do some walking about.

Jim calls at least once a day to just say how things are going.
He's been rather disappointed by the "vileness" of some of the campers this year. Finds it discouraging. He's still having fun talking with some of the more "grown-up" of the men, and some of those men he is really enjoying getting to know better, but some of the rest overrides a bit. He is looking forward to coming home. :)

Our days are mostly outlined here and here and here. Go check them out if you desire.

What else did we do this week that I failed to mention?

1. Dug up my "not hardy for winter" bulbs. Planted daffodil bulbs leftover from Jim's mom.
2. Got the composter all dug out and our new garden all filled in.
3. Brought the baby bunnies inside to get tamed up a bit.
4. Cleaned the house, seemed like umpteen times, especially with a boy child following after..... I would like this house clean before we leave next week.
5. called Jen (a friend in Ontario), we can stay with her and the family next week. They are in Oakville which will make a daily drive into T.O. a bit shorter.

Basically managed to keep fairly busy. Good thing that.

Today I'm not sure where I"m going to church. Mom and Dad's anniversary as well. Have to pick up Justin. Part of me just wants to go to London now, find a church, then wait for Justin and Mom to come back from Woodstock and then come home, let Justin nap and wait for Jim to come home. But that doesn't seem efficient to me somehow ...and tempts me too much to do stuff on Sunday that I don't need to be doing. Anyways, first I have a dog to walk.

Boy.... is this house ever quiet...........

Rainy Day

So... our life.

1. We miss our Riley dog, but it's getting better. Justin noticed today. he walked around the house today saying "an riley too? riley hidin?" What do you say to that? All I could say was "No buddy, Riley is all gone now."

2. Jim was away at Classis all day. Left at 530, arrived back at 5 p.m. He's tired. Says it was a good meeting.

3. Our van, the bearings need to be replaced.

4. Jim leaves to go up north probably next Tuesday. He will be missed. He is not sure yet if he is taking Sassy with him or not. Pros and Cons both ways. He's going camping in the cold with a bunch of men.

5. Harry's boys will take care of our critters the week that we're away. I'll pay them $10 for their trouble. They are just old enough to do it now. :) Peter is excited about taking care of the mice. :)

6. Mom and Dad are moving. I go up Monday to help. Jim is hoping the van will be done early in the a.m so it's done and out of the way. Kinda needs it fixed so that he can take it up north.

7. Justin is for the most part, potty trained at home during the day, as long as he isn't wearing pants. Going away is harder, and we're still figuring that one out. Good thing as his cloth diapers don't fit very good anymore and we've kinda given up on them.

8. Justin's room has been "fall-cleaned". All reorganized. He was a bit scared to go to bed tonight as it all looked so different. I lay down with him for one minute talking about his room and how his crib is the same, and mommy sleeps in her own room and he's just fine in his room. and such like. He settled down nicely after that.

9. Justin struggles with me going to work on Fridays. Yesterday and today he kept asking...Mommy home now? Mommy stay home now? AH!!!!! Makes me wonder how women do it all the time. How can they leave their little ones behind to go to work? I don't figure it too well. These two days make me want to just chuck the job. But I won't. I know he's fine. He is with his father. Life is good. :) Helps me pay off my credit cards, helps me get stuff that we as a family need. But ah....just tugs at me old heart strings it does....

Anyways, that's it. I have a dog to amble. Rabbits to catch and dishes to get done. Tomorrow is Sunday! YEAH!!! We get to worship God as a corporate body. :) Life is good.

And he stopped crying

all I had to do was find this:

Canadian Thanksgiving

Much to the consternation of my American Friends, The Canadian Thanksgiving weekend comes early... and it's often a reminder to me to get Christmas cards ready to mail. I used to send them out too early until one day, one of them wrote and said HEY, stop sending the cards too early, we just got done OUR thanksgiving! So, I hesitate just a bit longer now. Still get them ready, but just don't send them. :)

Anyways, yesterday we had Thanksgiving with my side of the family.
It would figure on a day when we had to drive a fair piece, Justin would decide, on a rainy morning to sleep in. So we arrived at mom's, instead of the hour early for lunch that we had planned, just in time for the meal to start. :) Ah well, what can one do?

We sat and ate of course!

Justin ate well of pork and beef and applesauce with just a sprinkling of corn. The Jello and Ice cream went down really well too.

Mom cooked us up a nice feast. :) Thanks MOM! :)

We had good conversation around the table. Then Justin took off for the great outdoors and played on the swing with cousin Sierra for a while. It was hot outside so we soon headed back indoors. Justin played trucks (what else? :) ), and the rest of us sat and chatted while cousin Becky took a much needed nap.

Good time had. We all left for home again around 430 p.m.

Today Jim's mom for sure is coming up lunch. We're having turkey and other stuff (I haven't figured out all the "other stuff" yet. :) Which reminds me, I'd best get at it!

Oh... my folks and brother Bill were invited to come down spur of the moment. So we'll have to see what comes of that! :)

Nice surprise

So...that was a really nice surprise.

Tante Corrie (my dad's oldest sister) came up to church today. She arrived a bit late since she had a hard time finding our church, but she enjoyed the service.

She had brought a sandwich along, so we had a nice lunch together. I learned that uncle Dick is in hospital, will be there for a couple of weeks.

Her family is doing well.

AND that it bugs her when parents are so busy with their own lives that they can't care for their children themselves. Since it's an issue that bugs me too, we were able to have a friendly discussion about it.

Crowing a bit About Sassy

I need to crow a bit about my dog Sassy for a minute. :)

This past weekend, I went to an agility trial at Jumping for Joy in Maryhill with Jim and Sassy. We camped over Friday night in the trailer. We've in the past brought Riley with us as he's such a calm dog that nothing bothers him that it keeps Sassy all chilled out to. Like me, she's easily made tense. :) Funny how our dogs mimic who we are at times.

Anyways, Riley was NOT up to traveling. He was really, really not feeling well. Eva came over to care for Justin and Riley.

That left the problem of how do we make sure this trial is a GOOD thing for Sassy dog. Our problem-solving resulted in: making sure she ate her food...took me 20 minutes of coaxing with her favourite..CHICKEN! Found a ball for a toy (which ended up not needing too much as there were apple trees around and Sassy loves chasing apples and then eating them. During the day instead of tethering her out, she stayed inside with Jim as he did his work. She only came out for her runs and for exercise.

First run.... standard run. Contains all the different obstacles: tire, jumps, a-frame, teeter (seesaw), weave poles, tunnels and so forth. The run looked do-able. But since Sassy hasn't trialled in such a long time I thought she was capable of just doing a no-brainer and not listen OR choosing to grin at me and then do her own course or listen really well and do everything great. Forgot to factor in her handler...me... Run went great until we got the table were we had to stop for a five count. My back said OW... my brain went left-field somewhere and we got a two count refusal for the weave poles. Blanked out completely. So in this run it was "great dog, pity about the handler". :)

Second run: team. Team is HARD to get. You depend on two dogs and two handlers both being in good form on the same day on the right course. WE DID IT!!!!! Little old Dexter and middle-aged Sassy pulled it off. Two estactic handlers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Neither of which believed we had done it until we saw it on paper. WE DID IT!!!!!!!! Sassy and Dexter "q'd" ah...what a wonder. :) so pleased with both dogs listening and doing their stuff so very well.

Third run: Gamblers. This one I didn't worry about at all. Okay...wee bit of a lie, got nervous which I always do, but chilled out once we started running. I saw what the main gamble was and said to myself... Sassy can do this. She's done this type of gamble before in practice...about two years ago. This... she can do. So I thought I'd play around a bit with the stuff beforehand just to see what she would do. i.e. could she do the mini gamble? Could she do the big point obstacles despite my back just killing me by this point? She could!!!!! she could!!!!! WE WON THE CLASS!!! Totally cool! :) We beat out the competition by 2 points we did!!!!!!

Yeah for Sassy listening so well. For not getting all stressed out and only wanting to get her toy and to go home! Yeah for me holding my back together long enough to get through three runs!!!! yeah for Jim being patient and just sitting with her in the trailer when I had to do my volunteer stints. :)

It was just totally bonus today folks, just totally.
At the end of the day she got three first places for her class (specials). and two of the more important "q" ribbons for doing everything just the way she was supposed to in the time allowed for her to do it. Those two ribbons go toward a bigger title which hopefully we'll finish off next year. :)

And to think I went into this trial thinking we'd come home empty. thinking that after 8 months off she and I would be too rusty to get through anything well. HA! I say HA to that! My dog is TOO good for that! (imagine a very big grin) So yes... I think I can be proud of my girlie. Sometimes I do wonder what she'd have been like with a different, better handler ..... I think she'd be national/international quality I do! :)

Okay.... all done crowing now. :)

Weekly update - sept 20

Lifted the lawn mower wrong a couple of days agao..just a little thing. Sent my back into major spasm. VERY irritating. Just been a summer of irritation! :) develops character right? Side benefit though...JIM will wash the kitchen floor for me. I rather dislike our mop so I usually do a hands and knees thing, so the floor desperately needs a good cleaning so Jim has promised to give it a once over.

Jim thinks he has caught what Justin and I fought with over the weekend. Gave Justin a day of vomiting and diarrhea. me...If I ate I felt icky, but if I didn't I felt worse somehow. Jim has a general feeling of malise going on right now. Hopefully it will pass over him quickly. Changed his plans to go visiting an elderly lady of our church tonight. she's like... 98 or something like that. Lives in assisted living now. Just finished battling an illness so Jim's not real keen on helping her battle something else. :) Go figure eh! :)

Sassy is entering her first trial in almost 8 months this weekend. I've dropped her down a height level because I don't like how she won't do everything high that I ask, but otherwise seems fine. But she's full of zip again so I figure.. it's a small trial, let's see how she does. :)

What else.....I could just be really chatty and tell you EVERYTHING that I've done this week... do you want me to be that chatty though??? that's always the question. :)

Tuesday... laundry (ALL the laundry done!). Lawn mowed. Killed three bunnies to make into dog food. Rearranged all the critters to make fit the pens that we have constructed. Groomed Riley. Practiced agility with Sassy. Played with the boy child. Cooked three healthy meals! Even got most of the kitchen clean except for dishes..my back said enough is enough by the end of the day.

Yesterday... gardening. Have to admit, I asked Jim to help me with dig the potatoes loose. Justin helped me pull the onions. Learned a new thing... Had onions left from last year that had "hidden" themselves. Figured I'd just let them stay in the garden and see what happened with them over the course of the year. one... they flowered. SOME of them grew onions out of the flower head (like Egyptian walking onions do) Others just grew seeds out of the seed head, and some also grew babies like tulips do. Totally amazed me to see the differences in them as they were apparently all the same variety of red onion. Rather neat.

Also hmmm... Oh..processed all the free meat I got for the dogs off freecycle. Getting that ready to make my dog food next week sometime for them. it was funny. Had this HUGE roast that just daunted me to make into ever so many smaller pieces. Decided to whack it in half in give it to the dogs. Note... this was probably a 12 pound roast. VERY solid. Anyways, wanted to see if ever hungry Riley would still be hungry if he ate half of it. AND if Sassy could even manage to finish it. They both succeeded. Then they sate some ribs from a rib roast I could barely cut through. To make it meal sized would have required more work than I wanted to put into them. so Riley got two ribs, and Sassy got one and a bit. But Sassy... VERY rotund. No desire for supper. No desire for a walk...just let me sleep and digest please is her attitude. Riley.... Hey...where's supper now? Hey...food is good? Hey dumb human... I think you forgot something!!!!!!
Dumb irritating dog! You've had enough food for 2 days dog! actually enough for 4 days!!!! Ah well...he's old and semi-senile...what can one expect? Makes me laugh even if he is irritating. :)

Update on the dogs this morning: Sassy VERY eager and happy to go for a walk. Chased bunnies and squirrels, said hi to our regular morning walk people, with two normal poops. Riley, walked slowly, not a lot of interest in things, but walked nicely, one not so good poop which is normal for him if I change things on him. He's still hungry! Silly dog. no breakfast this morning for you! Your tummy is still full!

What else...not a whole lot. Justin went to bed well last night. Woke up during the night talking and playing, so now when I want to go to toddler time with him he's sleeping in! Silly lad. Jim slept fairly well last night and he isn't feeling as perky as he'd like, but better than last night. Hopefully he can do the visiting today that he wants to get done.

Western Fair

Today Jim, Justin and I are are heading out to the Western Fair.

Not the biggest fair around, the CNE is larger. But a nice fair none-the-less. We go every year. :) I'm looking forward to watching dockdogs perform today at 3 or 6 p.m. Fun fun! :)

Justin will be coming with us for the first bit --- 1100 til just after 100 and then Jim's mom will come to get him. Justin will play and nap at gramma's for the afternoon.

Should be fun. I'll give an update later on.

All Okay

So Justin had his latest ear checkup.

Passed his hearing test with Flying colours.

His tubes are still in place.

I had my x-ray and CT scan done. Will go in next week to see if we have any results to that.
I didn't have to go head into the CT tube for which I am grateful, wasn't looking forward to that idea at all. All I had to do was wear rather unfashionable pants and lie very still for five minutes.

that's it!

Some Justin Videos

As Justin grows up, he does more and more silly things. Here are a couple of videos.

Monday At The Splash Pad

On Monday we headed to London to pick up some free stuff. After that we went looking for a park with a play area for Justin. I thought that Gibbon's Park might have something, so we headed there.

When we arrived we were happily surprised that not only is there are quite extensive play area, but there is also a splash pad. We did not have bathing suits, but enjoyed it none the less.

Here are some pictures:

Starting our Camping Vacation Updates

So.....the last two weeks have been busy for us. Just so you know. I will be dividing these vacation updates between between my two main blogs. This one and Fish and Cans. This is so that I don't overload one blog with too many pictures.

We've been away camping and doing day trips.

One of the things we chose to do before leaving was to pick up a special traveling toy for our son Justin.

What can I say? Take along Thomas was a HUGE hit. He played with it everyday. He took the trains to bed with him. He had so much fun it was worth it.

One of the other things that we were thrilled with was that Justin didn't need the playpen to sleep in anymore. A bed rail and drawn curtains kept him safely confined to bed.

We tended all to go to bed at the same time, and it was funny. Most nights we would hear "hi! hi!" emanating from behind the curtains. We would respond with "good night Justin, time for bed". Silence, rustling, you would think he had settled down then would come "hi! hi!" with an accompanying giggle. "night night" Justin we would say. This would repeat up to ten times before he would finally settle down.

Most nights he would sleep well until 730 a.m.

Naps were harder. He was having too much fun to settle for naps. We often ended up going for after lunch drives so that he could at sleep in the van. Then we could be guaranteed at least a one hour nap. Makes for a much happier boy.

Updates and Vacation Plans

For those wanting an update on my boyo's Birthday, well... go to my blog over here.

For those who might be curious about a rant, or a Meme well then follow those links over too. :)

Yes, I'm being a bit lazy in just referring you over, but it saves the copying and pasting and such like. :)

So we're off today to go camping.

Jim preaches in Kingsville this Sunday so we'll be at Weatherly (i think that's the right spelling) park for 3 nights, then home to London (Eva's place) for one night and camping at Fanshawe Conservation Area. Feel free to come and visit us there! :)

Friday - Sunday there is the folk festival in London that Jim would like to spend some time at. More information on that can be found here.

Hours of festival
Friday July 20 - 6-11 p.m.
Sat July 21 - 12 noon - 11 p.m.
Sunday July 22 - 12 noon - 10:30 p.m.

Children's Area
Saturday and Sunday 12 noon - 5 p.m.

Open Stage
Saturday and Sunday 12 noon - 5 p.m.

Home County Folk Festival 2007 Artist Roster

Andy Sheppard, Andrea Beaton & Troy McGillivray, Andrea Koziol, Blackie and The Rodeo Kings, Creaking Tree String Quartet, Dala, Duane Andrews, Dixie Flyers, Dennis Pendrith, Mike Ford, Mitch Lewis, Manitoba Hal, Mae Moore, Mark Reeves, Pete Denomme, Paul Langille, Paul Mills, Rezonators, Sara Burnell, Sam Turton, Sirens, Slugfest, Treasa Levasseur, Tanglefoot, Tannis Slimmon & Lewis Melville, Jackie Washington, Jowi Taylor and the Six String Nation Guitar, Twilight Hotel, Valdy, Youssouf Camera

ScienceHack

Here is a handy search engine for science videos.  They are all screened by scientists to verify accuracy, although if one disagrees with things such a intelligent design versus evolution, there may be some where that would be an issue.

Check out ScienceHack.

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.