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.