All About Socks

My finished sock. I finished it 2 weeks ago but I have not shown it to you yet. I understand the addiction to knitting socks, I am hooked on them. I would love to start the match to this one but I need to make some progress on a certain baby blanket. I have a schedule to keep on that project. The sock was fun to knit, but when I knit the next pair I will try a different pattern. This one is a little loose on me, it had no shaping for the ankle so it bags a bit in that area, thank goodness my ankle is smaller than my calf or my legs would strongly resemble tree trunks.

I have been wearing just one sock around the house today, I love the knitted goodness that much. I think I will try The Sock Calculator for my next pair of socks. You put in your measurements and it generates a pattern for you. I can't wait to try it.

Mom did you know there is a similar site for Custom Dog Sweater ? Imagine a dog sweater to fit a Newfi! I can't get the image out of my head. Perhaps it would be a good sweater for Darryl to try? Knit out of Newfi fur?



A patient of mine brought me this fiber treat when she came in and got adjusted today. Last month when she came to see me we compared notes on available sock yarn, it is not the lack of yarn itself, but the lack of color. (No good sock yarn and no good buttons, what kind of town is this????) See the color I knitted my first sock from, that is the brightest most exciting color I could find, everything is grey or denim blue, all the colors you find are very muted. Gaile makes special trips to the yarn shop in Vernon occasionally and this time she bought some sock yarn for both of us. She is one thoughtful lady. She does tons of knitting, she knits children's hats, blankets and scarfs and sends them all over the world to children who need a warm hug. Last year she sent more than 30 items. People like Gaile make the world a better place.

In Sickness...

It seems that every year around this time the whole family gets sick. Yuck.

Mary was sick for 2 days, she had the flu and spent most of her time in the washroom, I don't think she even ate anything for 2 days. She is better now and has gone to school the past two days.

Sebastian is sick today with a fever, he has slept on the couch most of the day. PJ would not go to school, I thought she was feeling better and did not want to go to school without Sebastian, she surprised me by sleeping all morning and waking up to have a small lunch and going back to bed around 1:30 for another nap.

Quentin made it through the morning using an entire box Kleenex on his snotty nose. He went right to bed when I asked him to take a nap.

I am not feeling well either. It seems like everyone in the house has something different, some of us have a cold and others have the flu. I had an upset stomach, but now I have a cold. If I could get a good nights sleep I am sure I would feel better, but the kids have not slept well for two weeks. I am getting a bit frustrated with the whole thing.

Paul is feeling well, I kind of hate to mention it, I don't want to jinx him. I am taking Cold FX, it is a homeopathic that is supposed to work well. I wanted to try Airborne, but it is a US Product and I can't get it here.

In Button News, I went ahead and made the button holes today. I don't really want to send an unfinished shirt and I don't really want to send any work for mom. I have not been able to get out of the house today to find any buttons.

I have a lot of wonderful Thanksgiving photos to share, I will post a few at a time just keep things interesting.



A good photo of Debbles and I.



A cute photo of Paul and Quentin snuggling. Quentin was a bit overwhelmed by all the people and he spent a lot of time with Paul and I until he got more comfortable.



Mary is decorating some turkeys made out of rice crispy treats that Carolyn made for the kids.



Here is The Giggle Queen supervising as Filet slices and dices for us.

The Button Debate

Here is the shirt I made (am making) for Darryl for Christmas. Not to shabby, cut out on Sunday and almost done by Tuesday.

Almost. Here is where I need your help. I have looked in both of the stores in Kamloops that carry buttons and I can't find any I like. That is not entirely true, I found some really nice green buttons that I like and they match Darryl's eyes, I bought all 4 of them. Does anyone know how to turn 4 buttons into 10?

I thought the shirt would look cool with some leather buttons. Kamloops has cows, but no leather, go figure. Here are my ideas:

1. Find 10 buttons that I can live with do the button holes and sew on the buttons.

2. Do the button holes and send the shirt to mom to see if she can find some cool buttons in Buttonland to sew on the shirt when it arrives in California.

3. Mail shirt as is in case the buttons mom finds are not 1/2" and my button holes may be the wrong size.

Who knew buttons could cause so much trouble? I will call Fabricland and see they if they received "the button shipment" and maybe that will solve my troubles. I don't really want to drive all over town for buttons, we have had a lot of snow the past few days and I don't like to drive more that I have to on the roads. The roads should be better in a day or two.

Turkey for Me and Turkey for You...

Happy Thanksgiving. It is one of my favorite holidays. I realize that Canadian Thanksgiving has come and gone, but here at the Ouimet house we celebrate both of them (why not have turkey twice!).

Canadians don't do Thanksgiving as well as Americans do, so I have taken it upon myself to teach all the Canadians I know how it is done. I don't mean to upset any Canadians out there, Thanksgiving is just bigger in the States than here in Canada, no harm no foul (hehe). So we have for the second year in a row invited tons of friends and family to our house and asked them all to bring a dish. I am cooking 2 turkeys, 1 ham, 1 cheese cake, 2 apple pies, I also make the stuffing and the mashed potatoes.

We are expecting about 40 people, the same as we had last year. Keep in mind that at least 10 of those are children the oldest being 7 years old. We are going to have a wonderful time. I will be thinking of my family in California and here and Canada and keeping in mind how blessed I am and how much I have to be thankful for.



I took the turkey photos when the kids had the farm field trip, I have been saving them for you.

Emotional

Debbles is helping me with my dirty work today. I will pause a minute here to let any male readers get rid of the image of Deb and I having a pillow fight in our lingerie. Debbles has been on the phone for me for a good portion of the last hour.

She has called 2 travel agents and the broker who the tickets were purchased from. She is getting more answers than I have along the way. She is cool, professional and won't take no for answer. I am so emotional about the tickets I can hardly listen to her side of the phone conversation without screaming in frustration or crying my eyes my out. It is a true friend that is willing to take on the entire travel industry for me.

Quote of the week: "We have received terrible service from a travel agent here in Kamloops and quite frankly this situation is just unacceptable."

Debauchery

We had a great time this weekend, the rotary vacation draw was a good time. We did not win anything but we did have a blast. We brought our staff along with us and made it our employee Christmas party, of course we had Mary with us and Linfields joined us as well. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy. I did not any photos of Paul in his suit, but he did look hot.



Here is Filet showing a little nipple (hehe, now you can reach my blog by googling 'little nipple')
I know he was drinking Gin and Tonic, I also know that he even if he was drinking water all night long we would be likely to have this same photo of him.



Who is behind the mask? That is Carolyn, our massage therapist. She is a gifted healer with a wonderful sense of humour, can you tell? She danced all night she is a hoot.



That is me in the black in pink dress, Carolyn and the lovely lady in the blue dress is our resident girl with tiny sharp needles: Rebecca, who is our accupucturist.



I could not help but post this photo for you. I think those are Paul's fingers as he attempts to take some pictures.



Mary with her date, she picked him up there at the party and danced the night away with him. If you look carefully in the photo you will see Roxanne with her date, Roxanne is on exchange from Belgium. I believe there is a conspiracy to send only the most beautiful women on exchange, it is how they keep the travel industry in business, don't you all want to go to Brazil and Belgium now? Bonnie is in France making an entire nation of French men want to come to Canada for all the lovely Canadian women. It's a good system.



I took this picture of Paul and I and for some reason the camera flash did not work properly, but I love the photo.

Friday Fatigue

I am feeling tired today, I think it is just the end of the week fatigue setting in. The kids have not been sleeping well for some reason and that of course directly effects the sleep of the adults in the house.

Last night I woke up because I was to hot, well it took me at least 5 minutes to realize I was to hot because there was an extra body in my bed. Sebastian had crawled in and I did not even know it. I was going to get up and move him to his own bed but I drifted off to sleep again, only to wake up an hour later because I had no room. This time when I had a look around I realized there 4 people in our Queen sized bed: Paul, Sebastian, PJ and myself. Add Mary and Quentin and we would have had the whole family in there!

I really loved the comments regarding the wheel, even from the testosterone corner where they think they are not spiritual. Sit down with a beer, a cigar, and good friends and I bet I could make a liars out of the both of you, we all take care of our spirits in different ways.

I am most interesting in the healing aspects of the program, but I intend to work hard to get the most out of it. I will let you all know how it goes.

It is 9:00 and I think I am ready for bed. Tomorrow is a busy day and we have that Rotary function that night, so it will be a late one. A good nights sleep will do me some good. Wait until you see the suit Paul bought, we had it tailored to fit him just right and he looks hot in it. I will get photos I promise.

I will also post photos of one happy foot, I finished my first sock. It took 2 phone calls to mom for some knitting help but it was fun to do. I will start the next after some progress on the baby blanket, I have to keep that thing on schedule and I am a few rows behind due to sock love. (Really, I just needed to finish something and the sock was the best choice)

I feel like I am rambling, it is my tired brain. Good night!

The Medicine Wheel

"The Medicine Wheel is a fourfold path to knowledge and power. It is a path of personal transformation and beauty, dedicated to the healing service of the Pachamama (Mother Earth), of Great spirit, and all of their children.

I begin my journey of the Sacred Medicine Wheel December 9, 10, and 11th. It is a journey through the four directions (it will be 4 weekends, each 5 months apart). We start with the Fire of the South which is the direction of the past. I see it as an opportunity to let go of issues or baggage from the past, to allow my spirit to move into the present.

Here is a link that will tell you about Incan Shamanism, all of the directions and what they represent. I have linked you to lengthy page, but if you can get through it you will have a great idea of what I will be up to. Click Here if you want more information

I feel like I have already started on my journey. I feel like the universe has thrown up road block after road block to test me, to see if I indeed have the strength and the level commitment I need for this path. The plane tickets are the most obvious example of this, the tickets booked by Paul as a 'surprise' for me, booked carefully around the dates of the Wheel, only to have the dates of the Wheel change to the same date as the trip to California. I don't think I need to tell you again how the tickets continue to test me.

I can think of more examples: how about the registration form? Do you know how many times I 'lost' it? How many times I took it to the office to write a check for it and forgot to bring it home. How long it traveled in my bag before I finally sat down and got the check in the mail?

I have no idea what hurdle I will have to jump next, but the check has cleared and I am committed, even if we have to eat the cost of the plane tickets. (Corinne had a great idea that I have not followed through on, she asked if we paid for the tickets with our visa and we did, I am going to call the Visa company and see if they can help me, perhaps I have traveler's insurance with them?)

Winter Wonderland

It appears as if winter has arrived. What happened to Fall?

Keeefer I am sure these pictures will help you with your winter withdrawal issues, you may want to put on your parka and get a hot toddy.



Marrianna (Mary) has already seen snow twice since living in Kamloops, but both times it had snowed at night, she had yet to see it falling out of the sky. Well, we ordered up some snow for her. Here she is playing in it while it comes down for her on Sunday evening. She had great time playing it while I BBQ'd steaks for dinner.



You can't get the Brazilian foot wear off of the girl, even in the snow. She did slip my boots once her feet got cold enough. Of course I wear a size 10 and she is a size 7 1/2. I will ask Debbles when she gets home (She is in Mexico for our first snowfall, just to smart that one!) if she has an extra pair she is a 7 1/2 too!



Trampoline: not just for summer fun.



I took this picture today on my way home from the grocery store. It started snowing early this morning and it has not stopped since. This the intersection of Pacific Way and Hugh Allen Drive, right at the bottom of the hill, we live at the top just 5 minutes up the road.

Today was my first time driving the van in the snow. Paul had snow tires put on it, but I was worried about how it would handle in the snow. It was just fine, I took my time and went at my own pace. Everyone was driving with caution the roads were not salted and graveled yet and in spots there is ice under the snow, I thought about staying home, but our cupboards were pretty bare. I am very pleased with the van at this point, it fits our needs well and is nice to drive. (I never in a million years thought I would be saying that!)



Sebastian helped me shovel the driveway. He sure knows how to make it fun!

Quote of the Week

Did you think I had forgotten? I thought I would slip this in with only a few hours of the week left.

This weeks quote is brought to you by Sebastian:

Sebastian: "Why?"
Sebastian: "Why?"
Me: "Sebastian, Do you ask why because you want to know the answer or because it drives me crazy?"
Sebastian: "Because it drives you crazy."

Thanks for stopping by, see you next week.

Sunday Fun

We took the kids skating today, you should see Sebastian skate now, he has improved so much. He spent the whole time playing hockey with some other kids. I see I am going to have to save up a hockey fund as well as a college fund.



Quentin and I having fun.



PJ is enjoying skating much more this year than last. Paul got her a little helper, I don't know what it is called but she holds on to it and pushes it in front of her while she skates. She just takes it out onto the ice and skates all around doing her own thing. As you can see she is having a wonderful time.





Here is a picture of Paul pushing some of the kids around with a hockey net. I don't know who is having more fun him or the kids. You can see Quentin, he is the little one on Paul's right and then PJ is one of the kids in the middle in the pink coat and blue helmet. I know the boy in the hockey gear is named Jaden and I don't know the other girls name. Sebastian is on the other end of the ice playing hockey.



Meet the newest member of our family the very brave and the very beautiful Marrianna. She is here all the way from Brazil through the Rotary Exchange program, and we are lucky enough to be hosting her for a few months. The beauty is obvious, but the bravery...This was her first time on ice skates, PJ helped her along. She did very well, you could see her confidence increase a little as spent more and more time on the ice. A few more laps around the rink and she will be a world class skater.

I am sure you will see much of her on the blog as we share in her new experiences. I am hoping that her family will stop by and have a peek at what we are all up too and perhaps even post some comments, I am sure Marrianna will be happy to translate the Portuguese for us.

Today was a day of firsts for her, she woke up this morning to the most snow she has ever seen in her life, what a treat to be a part of that. It was just a skiff and is all melted off now but there is more to come as we head into winter. Next time we get some snow I will get a photo of her huge smile and of the snow for you.

Google Earth

I am often the last to learn of the cool things, the fun and amazing things available to all of us on line for free. So you may have already checked this out. But do a search for Google earth and download the little program that pops up and then play around a bit.

Put your own address and see what happens. I found the resolution to be much better in large cities and better in the States than here in Canada. Try putting in places you always wanted to see: Paris, The Grand Canyon. I even tried the Twin Towers in NY. I had so much fun that the program is living on my desktop and I have played with it several times already.

Mom the view of your house is amazing, as is Dad's. Shannon I do not know your address but I did check out Dad's duplex where you once lived.

Here We Go Again

I am not sure what is going on, perhaps the moon in a phase that is just good for my techincal mojo, but can't seem to get any of my technogadits to work for me these days. You know the camera story already, you will remember the internet connection fiasco, yesterday's lost blogger post, to top all that off I can't seem to manage to put a new CD on my iPod. Perhaps I just need to go lie down and try all this again next month. Or I could give it try for you today...



This first project is my bathroom project. Strange that I have no sense of oddness typing the phrase 'bathroom project'. It is not what you think, I work on this one while Sebastian has a bath. He is old enough to bath on his own, but due to the great number of neighborhood bear sightings he is afraid to be in the bathroom by himself. So I supervise and chat with him while he gets clean and I knit on this mitten. You would be surprised how quickly a project moves along even if you knit on it only 15 minutes a day. I finished both PJ' s and Sebastian's winter hats using them as bathroom projects and they only took about a week for each one. Anyone want to order up a bathroom hat?



This project started out as my travel project, but it has a cable pattern I have not yet mastered so it is living on the kitchen counter now. I guess it has become my kitchen project, you know the one you pick up and knit a row on while the cookies are in the oven. I guess I need to bake more cookies, it is coming along very slowly.



This one is my traveling project, it lives in the bag I drag with me everywhere I go. I started it a week ago today at Paul's hockey game. It is my first my sock and has grown to be almost 7" in only a week of travel time. It has seen a lot of Kamloops in a week, it has been to a Blazer game, where it never came out of the bag, it went to the dentist with me and always comes along to pick the kids up at school. I understand why people knit socks, they knit up quickly and travel well.


This next project answers the question am I a process knitter or a product knitter? It is a sweater that is all done except for the seams. Only two seams and this lovely sweater is ready to wear, I keep thinking I will get to it when I get bored of one of my other projects. I guess this makes me a process kind of gal, maybe I enjoy learning new techniques better than I like the finishing things. How about if I commit right now to having this one seamed up by the end of the weekend? See how much you are helping me?



Ah, this lovely scarf, the Branching Out Scarf. I love the pattern, I enjoy making lace. I am not in love with yarn, it is to stiff for this project and needs to be ripped out and turned into something ealse. I would like to knit this up in a lighter weight yarn. I don't quite yet have the heart to rip back all that lace, I think this one will sit right where it is until spring makes me feel like lace. Right now I am happy with winter wools.



Here is my favorite of everything I have going on right now. I am enjoying the color work, I am learning new stuff with every row. It is a baby blanket and so it is on a schedule, as long as I knit 2 or three rows on it a day it will be ready in time for the baby. I am glad I decided to learn how to work with so much color. I no longer feel intimidated by color work projects.

Mom got me hooked on Sally Melville's books and I now have all of them. I use them more than any other knitting books I have for looking up how to do something. I recently bought book three on color and it had some great tips in it that have made the blanket go a bit faster.



This last picture is the baby blanket a few days ago. See the bend in the knitting needle. The blanket was in a basket and Quentin sat on it. That is a lovely size 3 Addi that he bent with his baby bum. He also managed to get about 50 stitches off the needles, it took some colorful swearing and little fortitude but I got things back on track.

Well thats all. I tried to spell check this but of course it is not working for me right now, so love me with all my typos.

I have been on and off the phone with the travel agent during this post. It seems the bar has been raised and it will now cost me $300. a ticket to change the dates on the plane tickets. And remember when Paul said it was a direct flight? Well it is not, there is a layover in Seattle I have one hour to get me and 3 young children to baggage claim and through customs. Yippie. I don't know what to do. I am in tears right now. These tickets are now up to about $3000.00.

Do I just forget about the wheel and go on the trip so I am not out so much money?

Damn it!

I just spent 40 minutes blogging about knitting with great pictures and now my post is gone. I don't have the patience to try again right now.

Baby it's Cold Outside

And other random thoughts.

Winter is here, Kamloops is crystal clear and cold. We even had a bit of snow.

I had some great pictures of Paul and Filet playing hockey for you. I also had some great knitting photos for a while post on knitting for your reading enjoyment. When I went to download the pictures the camera told me in no uncertain terms that there where no photos on it. Worse yet, the camera said this, "memory card failure".

I only had about a dozen pictures or so on the card, but as it turns out the card has indeed failed and I had to replace it. Apparently it is not all that uncommon. There was an upside, I bought a 512 card to replace my 256 card for about a quarter the price what the 256 card cost me a few years ago. Now I have more memory (if only it were that easy to grow my own brain power) and will try to get more hockey pictures of Paul for you.

I also promise a knitting post for you this week.

We went to the Blazer game on Saturday night. The kids had a great time and the Blazers ended a 4 game losing streak by beating the best team in the league. They one last night as well but we did not go to that game. (I am going somewhere with this, I promise.)

We came home from the hockey game to the first snow of the season. Just an inch or so but enough to keep the kids entertained almost all day Sunday.

Sunday Paul went up to lift evacuation at Harper mountain and I stayed home and played with the kids. We had a great time, we played in the snow and then had some breakfast. We followed that up with a long walk around the neighborhood, playing in more snow and skating on the frozen puddles in our snow boots. We followed all that fun up with eating cold apples in the hot tub. It was a great day of spending time together and just having a good time.

I wish I could post a great snow picture for you here but I don't have one, I replaced the camera's memory card, but there is not to much snow left for you to see. Don't worry there will be more.

Hockey Night in Canada

See the little guy in the red jersey? That is Sebastian playing hockey with the Kamloops Blazers he had a great time and his hockey is improving so quickly it just amazing to watch. He would skate into the net behind the Blazer knock a puck out of the net, skate to the puck and then hit it back into the net. He is very funny to watch as he does not have to duck or anything to skate right into the net, he short enough even on his skates to just scoot right in and retrieve the puck.

Tonight The Giggle Queen and I are going to watch the big boys play hockey. We are going to go sit in the stands and watch Filet and my DH go to hockey school. I promise to take the camera with me and have some pictures of the big boys playing hockey for tomorrow's post.

Catch Up

I am finally online again, I will spend today's post on catching you up a bit on the last week. Here is a photo of the crunched up van. As you can see the damage is minimal, but it still makes me mad. The bumper is all scraped up and the license plate is pretty much FUBAR, it lives on the floor of the front seat right now, I stomped it into shape, but it still wont hang on to the front bumper anymore.

I need to get a new one to cover the scratches in the front bumper. It sucks to buy a new vehicle and have it scraped up already. Okay enough negative energy.

Let me tell you why I was off line for so long. Our online service is paid for by the office and is automatically billed to our office credit card on a monthly basis. A few months ago Paul had misplaced his wallet, I told him to wait a day or two and see if it showed up and then to call in the cards as lost or stolen if he did not find is wallet by Monday. He jumped the gun and called everything in stolen and then found his wallet an hour later in the truck or in his shoe or something. I said, "I told you so better you erred on the side of caution honey."

Telus tried to bill the card that was reported stolen and of course it did not go through. Rather than contacting us they just disconnected our service. After 3 phone calls, 2 nights and 2 hours on the phone, we had things straightened out and I was online again.

Thursday night is Paul's hockey night, last Thursday after a night of hockey and trip to the Ballet (read strip bar) where he stopped for, "the best burger in town and a beer." He came phone and could not find his wallet.

Friday morning the phone rings bright and early, it is Scotia bank, "Have you lost your wallet?" I think that Scotia knew before Paul did that his wallet had gone missing again. In fact the RCMP knew before Paul did that his wallet had been stolen out his back pocket while he was oggleing the naked girls at the Ballet. He paid cash for his beer, his cash was in a different pocket. RCMP arrested a man for using Paul's credit card sometime on the same night that Paul's wallet went missing. Paul is no longer allowed to the Ballet without adult supervision and has a 10:30 curfew on hockey night.

Telus tried to automatically bill our credit card for our monthly fees and guess what? Scotia bank knew the card was stolen and refused the charges, Telus disconnects my service again. We seem to have things sorted out now, but all in all a pain in the @$$. It has resulted in Paul being teased unmercifully by me and all that have heard the storey. Karma.



Here are my sassy new glasses. I have been suffering from terrible headaches for a few months, a trip to the eye doctor, and I got 2 new pairs of glasses and new contacts and now TADA! No more headaches. I know I look a little freaky in the photo, that is because it is a self portrait and I am looking at Sebastian in the other room with the camera held out in front of me. I don't think I usually look so weird, but who knows. I notice my self image and what I actually look like don't always match up.

Not in a bad way. Here is an example: I remember being pregnant with PJ and walking by a bunch of windows while walking down Victoria street on a sunny day. Saw a woman in the reflection of the glass, and thought to myself, "Wow, look at that huge pregnant woman." Then I was shocked to realize the woman was me! I my own mind I was just not quite as big and pregnant and ripe as the woman I saw in the reflection. I did not feel as large and pregnant as I looked, see not a bad thing.



I think this is a cool photo, it is one of the kids dancing at a Halloween party. Here are few more for you.





PJ was a princess, Sebastian was Spiderman, Layne was a mermaid, and Quentin was dressed in a very cool tiger costume that Shannon made, but he got to hot and would not wear it. He did wear it to trick or treat in, but we did not det a photo of it. PJ was so excited to trick or treat that she left the house with no shoes on. Paul did not realize she had no shoes until she complained that her feet were cold!

Paul's Pocket

I only have a minute in between patients again. The long and the short of it is, I still have no internet service, Paul had his pocket picked (we think) at the Ballet and all our credit cards have been cancelled so we have no account number for out internet service to bill for new service until we get new credit cards.

Chaos, I will share the whole story when I have more time.

The quote of the week is brought to you by Sebastian: "Mom, why do grown ups sleep naked?"

Internet Connection-NOT!

I have had no internet connection at work and that is why there is a lack of blogging going on. I have been keeping lists of all that needs to be blogged. I promise I will get right on it as soon as Paul gets me up and running again.

Speaking of running I ran a person best last night on a 5K run...24:22. I was very happy with that, it takes a minute and 5 seconds of my last one. I am not even sore today, very unusual for such hard running.

I only have a few minutes to update you on what I can, I am at the office and I am blogging in between patients.

We went to a great party on Saturday night, it was at the Vikes house, it was a running party, complete with a car rally all over Kamloops. Don't worry the car rally (read scavenger hunt)was in the first hour of the party before anyone had a chance to drink. The party was in celebration of the people who ran the Kelowna and Victoria half and full marathons a few weeks ago.

Let me tell you runner's apparently are good drinkers. There was drunkeness at the party that would have done a sailor proud. It is funny to see a group of people you only see at 6:00 am, when they just roll out of bed and put on their running gear all cleaned up for party. It is a great group of people and they clean up nicely. Paul had a wonderful time meeting all the people I run with and being my designated driver.

There was some bad news. Some idiot hit the van while we were having a wonderful time. I was parked on a street between two driveways and someone (not a party goer, but a resident in the neighbor the party was in) pulled out of their driveway and scraped up the front of the van, ripped off my license plate and scratched the front bumper. Whoever did it, did not leave a note or anything. Paul went by the next morning and there is broken glass on the street, whoever did it did far more damage to their car than to the van. I think it is awful that they did not take any responsibility for what they did. I will post a photo for you when I (read Paul) gets the internet up and running at the house.

I am sorry for the hasty un-edited blogging, I have a patient waiting and I have to go!

Running

I am trying to pick some dates to come to California with kids. Paul will stay home to work, and I promise I will leave him a very long honey do list to keep him out of trouble. I was thinking of arriving in CA on Saturday April 29th and coming home on May 6th or 7th. How does that sound to everyone? If those dates are good then I will call the travel agent and have the dates on the tickets changed. I am feeling a little homesick and getting those tickets straightened out will help me to feel better.

I have been feeling a little down for the past few months. I need to pull up my boot straps and do something about it. Here is my plan: (nothing like a plan to make you feel better)

1. More exercise: I have only been running 2-3 times a week and I think I will feel better if I can find the energy to get running 4-5 times a week. I always feel better when I exercise.

2. Better diet: I eat pretty good, but I do go on sugar kicks every once in a while. I feel tired if I eat to much sugar. I don't have much appetite so I will try to pay better attention to the food I am putting in my body.

3. Attitude: I am striving to have a good attitude, I think if you act like you are feeling wonderful you eventually begin to believe it and then the next thing you know you are feeling wonderful.

4. (Don't laugh at number 4) More sex: Did you all just hear Paul whoop for joy? No? That is because he does not read my blog. Sex just makes you feel better, releases endorphins and all that good stuff.

5. I am out of ideas...Do you have any suggestions? What makes you feel better when are feeling down?

Quotes and Dates and Bears, Oh My!

Today's Quote is brought to you by Paul, I think it went something like this (he may kill me for this one)

"Sebastian keep your floaties on the top of the toy box, I don't think the neighbors will appreciate seeing me bent over your toy box digging around for your floaties with my bare bum hanging out." Said in preparation for a trip to the hot tub with the kids.

Dates: Stupid tickets.

It sounds like we can not change the destination of tickets in question. I was thinking I would come with the kids in May or in July. Does anyone have any special requests. Please let me know in today's comments so I can pay the big bucks and have this whole thing settled.

Bears:
The bears are trying to fatten up for the winter here in the Loops. This time of year we are careful to keep our garbage in the garage and all the stinky stuff locked up safely. Last Friday one of our neighbors must of left their garbage out.

Paul and I were out on a date and about 8:30 in the evening my cell phone rings. It is the babysitter. I can hear the kids crying in the background. I ask her what is going on, she calmly states: "There is a bear on your front lawn rolling in someone's garbage, and he is very big." A little stunned, I reply with "Are the doors locked?" (Because we all know bears can open doors, right?) She said, "Yes, I already went down and locked the front door." She was cool as a cucumber. I asked if I could talk to Sebastian, (I can hear him freaking out in the background). Sebastian gets on the phone and tells me about the bear.

I told Sebastian I wish I was there to watch the bear with him and that he should just sit in the upstairs window and watch. He calms down and I tell him that there is nothing to be afraid of the bear can't come in the locked house and he is safe. I ask him if wants me to come home. He said he would be all right.

From what I understand not long after I got off the phone with the kids a car drove by and honked it's horn at the bear at the bear chasing it off. I am not surprised by the bear, we have seen them in the neighborhood before. I was surprised that he was out at 8:30 in the evening, when people are still out and about walking their dogs, going to get their mail and that sort of thing. I would not want to walk up and see bear like that.

The bears seem more aggressive this year. I have heard several stories about bear attacks, not in Kamloops but in other areas. I have been a little nervous about my early morning running. I have not been in the trails in about 3 weeks and I am sticking to the roads, or sleeping in until 7:30 and skipping my morning run. When it gets a little colder all the bears will go to bed and I can breathe a little easier on my morning runs. I am sure I am safe, but they do make nervous.

Lackadaisical

lackadaisical, that is how I am feeling today, it also happens to be the word of the day on my favorite dictionary web site. How fitting.

This wonderful rainbow was hanging out across the street this afternoon. There were two of them, one sitting on top of the other and we could see both rainbows from end to end. They were bright and beautiful in an otherwise grey weather day.

The rest of the photos I am posting today are of the field trip the kids took on Wednesday. We took them to Thistle farms, it is a local organic farm. The kids had a great time but I can't say as they learned much. The people running the place did not really know how to talk to kids and they did not even tell the kids that the farm was organic, let alone teach them what organic means. The teachers hopefully did that before the field trip.

This photo is of Debbles enjoying the farm, she on the phone more often than not. She runs her own business and much of it is done over the phone.


Here are the kids enjoying a fire they had going. It was a fun day, nice Fall weather not to cold but fresh and crisp out. No rain. Notice PJ's hat? That is the one I finished for her sometime last week. I love it and so does she.



This next one is of PJ helping Quentin husk his corn so he can eat it.



I love this one of the tree, welcome to fall in Kamloops.



tramping through the corn fields, that is Sebastian leading the pack and eating corn.



Quentin giving us his best snarl smile.



And one more of a scarecrow and some pumpkins. You can see how much fun we all had. The kids picked out their pumpkins for Halloween while we were there. You can see that we all had a wonderful time. They had hot coffee for the moms and dads and snacks and apple juice for the kids, it was a wonderful way to spend a fall morning.

Quote of the Week

This weeks quote is brought to you a day late because I was I was sucked into a good book yesterday and I just could not put it down and make it to the computer. I know you all understand.

This weeks quote is brought to you by PJ:

"Mom, girls are better than boys, aren't they?"

I thought of so many answers for her:

"PJ, it is so astute of you to realize this so early in life."
"Of course they are!"
"Do you really need to ask?"
"Duh"

But of course I said none of those things, or the 10 others that came to mind. I told her, "No honey, girls are not any better than boys nor are boys better than girls, we are just different."


APL: Turkey is the main course for a traditional Canadian Thanksgiving, but then it's served with things like cabbage rolls, brussel sprouts are a very common side dish as well, these two are not 'traditional' dishes to me, but seem to be around here.

Mom, what a great idea, I think it would be great if you could come and join us in Las Vegas like Judy and George made the trip to your house last year. I am not sure if we are able to change the tickets yet, Paul is still looking into that. Maybe Dad would be interested in coming too.

Insanity

The picture is a little washed out, I took it last night and lighting was poor, but I think you get the idea. I am insane, this needs to be a baby blanket by February.

I finished PJ's hat and my sweater still needs to be seamed. I will get there.

We are heading out of town this weekend. Off to Kewlona for Thanksgiving weekend. Thanksgiving is on Monday and in October. This is one thing I can't get used to in Canada, it was to early.

We are going to go visit with Paul's family and I may run a race while we are there. I have not decided yet. I hope to blog from there for you but if I don't get to chance over the next few days then you know where I am. I am eating turkey and playing with the kids, and knitting.

I am going to bring a couple of small projects to work on, the baby blanket is not very travel friendly so I will bring Sebastian's hat and a little something else to keep me busy.

Speaking of traveling, Paul has come up with a way to deal with those pesky tickets, but we are still not sure what to do yet. He has suggested that we change the tickets to Christmas and move the destination to Las Vegas and we go and spend Christmas there. We spent last Christmas in California and I think it would fair to spend one in Vegas too. His sister Jodie might go to Vegas for Christmas and it has been well over a year, closer to two since we have seen Jodie.

I told Paul this would be okay with me under the condition that we plan something cool with my family this summer. What I would like to do is rent a cabin on a lake somewhere on Oregon and everyone can meet us there. I have been doing a little research, check out this web site www.culuslakeresort.com (Mom please note that owners are Harley people). I am thinking that we could pick the dates fairly soon and book the trip. Mom and Darryl could ride the bike up and Shannon, Will and the kids drive. I think it would great fun. Paul is really excited about the idea and so am I. Let me know what you all think, APL you of course will join us if we get this thing together?

I think we should invite the George, Judy and Jodie to Oregon and we should be sure to extend the invite to Diana and Roy, Dad and Corinne and anyone else you think would like to join us. I have been wanting to do something like this for a long time. If we love it we could make it an annual summer trip.

Paul is being quite the planner these days (be forewarned) he is also thinking that we could all vacation together in Disneyland in 2007, we are thinking October when it is a little slower there but still warm. I will start feeding the children growth hormone now, so they will be tall enough for all the rides.

What do you all think?

Knitting Time!

Every once in a while I like to surprise you all with a knitting post on this knitting blog.

PJ's hat is two rows from being done, I just picked up the stitches for the trim and now I have to knit two rows and bind off. I will post of photo of it on PJ when I am done. Shannon this is the same hat you knit for Taylor, in the same colors. PJ picked the pink, is it genetic?

My sweater is all done but the seaming. It blocked out beautifully, even after being walked on by Quentin and rolled over by toy trucks. I will seam it when I need a break from the Baby Blanket I am working on.

I need lots of breaks from the baby blanket, it is color work and takes a bit of brain power. I have to pay attention to what I am doing. Bleh, I need some mindless knitting.

I have not taken any knitting pictures lately but I will see if I can find something for you to look at, I don't want to bore with just words.

Quote of the Week

This week's quote is brought to you by Sebastian. Let me take a moment to set this up for you.

It has been raining for the past few days here in Kamloops. This morning dawned bright and cold and beautiful with the sun shining down on the Loops, it is crisp and clean and lovely out today.

After picking the kids up a school I did what any mother would do, I kicked them all out to the backyard and told them they could not come in until lunch was ready. There was much whining and complaining, but I explained to them in no uncertain terms that there would be soon be snow outside and they needed to go out and get some fresh air before winter gets here and it is to cold. They grudgingly went out.

I watched them playing in the rock pit while I did the dishes and got ready to make lunch. I see Sebastian and Layne playing swords with the umbrellas. I put a stop to this before someone loses and eye or breaks an umbrella. More whining and complaining from Sebastian and Layne. But they did give me the umbrellas.

Then Sebastian strikes gold, "Hey Layne, we could this as a weapon!" The excitement in his voice enough to arouse any mom's suspicion. I look outside just in time to see Sebastian waving a rusty child's snow shovel in the air.

I did what any mother would do, I went calmly outside and said, "Hey what a great idea Sebastian, who wants to go to the hospital for stitches and a tetanus shot?" (for the record Quentin was the only one who raised his hand to volunteer for the job) the other kids laughed and put the shovel away where it belongs.

Note to self: See if I can find plastic snow shovels for the children this year.

Say Cheese!

Today was picture day. I should know better by now, I should know how to handle picture day. This is Sebastian's third picture day and PJ's second. I should have learned something along the way.

Sebastian is not a problem for picture day. I asked him if he knew what to wear, he said, "Yes mom." I said, "What have you picked out?" He said, "Jeans and a t-shirt and a shirt that buttons." I said, "Perfect Sebastian, will you go get yourself dressed?" And he did, all was right with the world.

Then PJ finished breakfast. I have been preparing PJ for picture day for a week now. I thought we had it under control. I was wrong.

We have been practicing. I have been putting PJ up on a stool and having her smile for the stranger behind the camera. We have talked about what she would like to wear for her pictures. I thought we had it all together.

Last year she was so shy for her pictures she would not even look at the photographer. She made sour faces and hid her face in her shoulder. She had to have re-takes because the first ones were pictures of the side of her head, her face buried in her hair and shoulder. I had to go with her and hold her hand for re-takes.

This year she even had her wardrobe all picked out. PJ likes to wear what she wants when she wants. I normally respect this. She is a princess with a splash of diva thrown in for good measure. She insists on wearing a dress everyday, and "pretty shoes to match" Never mind that it is -10C and the matching shoes are pink flip-flops, she can be convinced to wear a pair of green socks with them, but not to wear "sensible shoes" She rarely matches, but she is always happy and that is what counts.

Today she first picked out a dress that had stains on the front of it. It is one of her favorites, that's why it is stained. When I told her we should wash it first she willingly picked another dress. Her second choice was a lovely (read ratty) spaghetti strap little number, washed a hundred times with the flowers printed on the cotton so worn you can't even tell what they are. A dress I have tried to get rid of, but I just can't because PJ "loves it and wants to keep it forever and ever." Great for wearing around the house, for going bike riding in, but not for school pictures.

This veto, of the second dress, does PJ in. She is crying her eyes out, screaming and just generally being difficult. To the point that I send Paul to school with Sebastian for picture day and figure I will I drop PJ off in a bit when she has cooled off.

Finally bribed by a ride in the mini and told that she would be wearing a "beautiful princess dress just like Laynes." I sent PJ to school in her Sleeping Beauty dress up dress with her crown and magic wand, in the mini (thank you Debbles) This by the way was the original plan, the dress I had been preparing her to wear all week. The dress we had agreed on for quite sometime.

I know where I went wrong. Next year I will wait until the night before photos, and after PJ has fallen asleep I will go into her closet and remove all the play dresses and leave her with only the good dresses hanging in the closet. Then she wont have any paint covered, chocolate dipped dresses to choose from.

For the record she did sit on the stool and smile at the photographer. So I did get something right. I do respect that the girl knows her mind and what she wants, she is miles ahead of many I know and she is only 3. I don't know how she go t so stubborn.

Stuff I did not want to forget:

APL- PJ has decided she would like to starting growing her hair out around Christmas time, and tells me it will take "a very very very very very very very very long time" The girl is wise beyond her years.

Word Up- I really don't want to apply work verification on my blog. I think it is a pain in the bootie, it may be that it is a necessary evil. I am still debating.

I think I am going to have to eat $800.00 on those stupid tickets. As long as I am spending the $$ I can choose anytime I want to go. I was wondering if you all thought I should come in May or if I should wait until the kids are out of school for the summer. I could not decide and I am open to any help from your end.