Saturday, June 27, 2009

mmmmm.... Strawberries





All these berries and I didn't even get to pick any of them... XOXoo

This Week in the Garden

A bush is getting moved to this spot.
I'll update you when it settles in.


My lettuce and spinach is looking yummy! I planted it soooo late, but it's going to be OK.


A new blue hydrangea went into this spot. I was going to go buy one, and my sister- in-law said, "Do you want this blue hydrangea, it just isn't happy here?" Uh, duh, what kind of question is that to ask me? Thanks Tracy.
Cherries, need I say more. It's a bumper crop! The yard will be buzzing with ladders and pails and friends (come on over) in about 10 days!
OK I need some serious help with my photo taking. I think I'll ask the resident expert. It's so over-green and I can't fix it.

OK here's the same flower with a different setting on my camera! Help me. It's a bit better, but I'll ask Kevin to take a photo of the same photo and we'll compare. That should be fun and make him look amazing. I'm glad there are creative people in the world.


This one looks slightly more like I imagined it.

The grapes are "vining", I can use that as a verb can't I?

Ain't she Purdy?

Erin got her hair all curled for the last day of school. She is looking so grown up! She still hates getting her photo taken. Like my soft focus? It kind of blurs out the dirty sink.


We're so proud of her, she won the grade 8 math award. Beat out all those boys who usually get the math and science awards. She didn't want to attend the award night because she hates walking up in front of a crowd or getting recognition.
She is her father's daughter!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Father's Day Photo Shoot

Kevin did a photo shoot for a friend of ours and her sister. They wanted some photos for their husbands and their Dad (and what Gramma is going to turn these down?) for Father's Day. So off we went on Friday night with looming rain clouds. Not much time for editting after, but I still think they're amazing! The boys were much more into skateboarding and scootering than smiling and posing, but Kevin got a bunch of great shots!!

Finley(isn't that a cute name?) and his Mama
You might recognize her, she's an actress and we see her often on CLR and cleaning product ads.


This one knows how to work the camera when he wants to- Mr. future NHL player

Some serious brotherly love



Sweet, pretty Mama

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Surprise Mail


Someone was as happy about celebrating our anniversary as we were. We had a surprise arrive today in the mail. How sweet!! Thanks you know who! I displayed our little treats in my NEW kitchen window- tile yet to be grouted and ledge still needing paint, but almost done. Canada Post and it's timing comes through again....

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

15 Years!

Fall 1994 - hanging out with a dinosaur

Today is the day we got married 15 years ago, and we're celebrating! And we have a whole day with kids in school to do whatever we want. Our first date was October 18th of 1993. Within about 2 weeks we were discussing getting married because it just felt right from the start. My Dad died Nov. 23rd and that threw us into a whole new realm of relationship. There is no pretense or pretending or figuring out who each other are (is? oh my grammar) when that kind of thing happens. Kevin was my rock and I knew I wanted him forever. We were engaged March 5th, and married exactly 8 months after our first date. It was an emotional time trying to figure out the grief feelings and the falling madly in love feelings at the same time. The up and the down, but he hung around and saw me through.

Kevin is a wonderful , loving and considerate husband, a great Dad, a loyal son, and a committed, rational thinking, question asking believer in Jesus. But most of all my best friend, my buddy. I can't wait for many more years together!

Goodness, there weren't digital photos back then, so we don't have nearly as many. Here we are on our 15th anniversary trip back in January. Our romantico ocean cruise... Good thing we went and spent the cash before the job thing ended and we might have had to change our minds.

Lovin' this Photo


I stole it right off his blog, but he still loves me anyways, he has to.
I think it's going up in the bathroom! Isn't it the perfect bathroom photo?

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Surfing

I haven't sat down and browsed through blogs just clicking to see where they take me for months! I sort of stopped doing it because it made me feel like I was just not doing much with my life and all these amazing people out there just had so much going on. Plus when did these people have time to do all this crafting and baking and writing and stuff. Maybe I have issues, but I like to read people that mostly I know, well except for Pioneer Woman, but I think I know her. There are so many great ideas out there, but my mind isn't in that space- maybe it has something to do with a husband at home, working more than I'm used to and wanting be outside in summer. Anyways, this morning(after the events of the last post) I decided to not jump to the job list and came across this post on maxi pads that will make you howl!!

Counting Down

The days are soooo long..... when will it ever be done? My poor boy, he just doesn't know if he can make it to the end. I'm not so sure myself. Dear sweet Jesus, give us all strength. The nights are getting later with the light evenings, and the mornings are getting grumpier and grumpier. He doesn't do so well without his beauty sleep. This morning Jacob woke up early to a nose bleed, then as we were leaving, he hit himself in the nose starting it all up again. Then Kevin loads him up to take him to school and he's covered in blood and looks like he's gotten into a fight on the way to school, and everyone is grumpy. We're on the verge of a major melt down here any day. We might need a stay at home mental health day just to make to next THURSDAY! NEXT THURSDAY!!! What is the point??? They aren't doing a thing!! Erin has only 2 more days, so certainly that does not help things. But we're trying to teach commitment and finishing to the end.

So in lieu of any sort of planned, organized event which no one can handle any more of, we skipped church this weekend and went hiking down by the creek. Communing with nature and seeing how big of a stick Ditto really can fetch out of the stream. It was so peaceful... the dog whom we all love and cherish, has a bit of extreme love for water. Now, he's not really a barking dog, but as soon as he figured where we were going, he would not shut up! He went into ballistic attacks of excitement. The problem is, he loves to swim more than anything, but he won't even get out and he's shivering and going into hypothermia. The run-off is making the water pretty cold! The kids didn't even want to wade much.

He found a twin to swim with, but they definitely figured out whose stick belonged to who.


Ditto does this thing when he's fetching a stick that we all think is so cute. When he's bounding through tall grass or whatever, the last jump before he lands on the stick, is this lingering in the air jump with his ears cocked up just so. We tried about 10 times to get it on video, but he stopped doing it. This is the closest thing:


Saturday, June 13, 2009

Peeping Kevin

I came home from work yesterday to a hole in my house, literally. And a creeping, peeping Tom, I mean Kevin. I'm getting a new kitchen window :) I wish it could be even bigger but that would involve losing cupboards and we all know how precious that space is. So this is the max! Ignore the dirty dishes in the sink. Erin made mac and cheese. To her credit she found it a little hard to clean it up with all the tools that had been on the counter.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

This Week in the Garden


Well, a lot has been happening in the garden this week. Yesterday was a full 8 hour day of yard work and things are shaping up around here. We had 5 yards of topsoil delivered last week and have been busy moving dirt around. I have my vegetable garden back!! Last year we put the pool on top of it, but it didn't receive enough sun to warm it up, so it has been moved and my veggies are back. They seem to get enough sun there, except I do plant my tomatoes elsewhere because they love some more heat. The cedars have been pruned (all 104 of them), the seeds planted, the container pots dug out of the shed and filled with blooms (only 2 pots this year due to budgetary constraints), the beds weeded, a bush dug out, the pool filled, and a new flower bed dug in the front-- still in process--- later-- I'll get some photos...





So this is what happens around 3:30 at my house: ding dong, door bell rings, some small or medium sized boy is at the door. He is in shorts of some sort and casually has a towel slung over his shoulder or tucked under his arm.
"Is Jacob home?"
Hmmm.... Why yes he is.
"Can he come out and play?"
Well sure I'll ask him.
Within minutes I hear, "Mom, can you take the cover off the pool?"
And the chaos begins. No wonder our neighbors without children hate us and those with children love us! I have been asked, "What are you running a day care over there?" Some of our neighbors have issues, OK just the ones next door, OK just the man next door. But he also got completely drunk, drove home and proceeded to break into another neighbors house and then have an all out screaming swearing match with a different neighbor by the Stop sign with 7 kids standing by with their mouths hung open in disbelief! Great role modelling. While all this was taking place, I went over to talk to the woman and her 20 year old daughter next door, who confided in me that she was pregnant (and yes excited). Ahh the joy of rubbing shoulders with people. She was so embarrasssed by the actions of her Dad. And so we pray.



FYI.. the pool has already reached temperatures of 25 Celsius that is, and it's only June. I think our top temp. last summer was 22. Got to say, that's the best $400 I ever spent.

Oh ya, this post is about the garden, I digress. We have these new bins for garbage. We only get to put out 1 bin of yard waste every 2 weeks. I have a problem: this ain't gonna fit in the bin. I know a photo of my garbage, really? But there's a cost to beauty and this is it. I have a lot of purple bearded iris tubers that are going, going, gone if anyone is interested.....

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

A Scattered Mind

Life has been moving at a pretty decent pace here. I would like it to slow down a little. Jacob is counting 12 more days til school is out. Erin has fewer, but we don't remind him of that. Are we done? Oh yes, the brains are slowing melting and losing focus. I worked 3 night shifts this week and it kind of messed with my mind. They weren't all in a row either, so it sort of is like they took up 5 days of the week just to do them and then recover. Yet God is faithful and looking after us. I got called and pre-booked for enough shifts until the end of July, so we don't have to wonder and worry, and we can also know ahead of time what our schedule is going to be. And NO nights! It doesn't matter now if I work weekends because it's not like I'll miss seeing Kevin. So we have some weekdays stretches off that are better for short little camping trips or whatever. That I really like, I am such a planner and like to know what my week is looking like on Monday. Kevin remains at home picking up so much of the slack around here and chipping away at the long TO DO list that seems to never quite get finished year after year. I guess that's what happens when you live in one house - coming up on 10 years! Maybe it's time to move so it forces that garage clean out that might be on today's agenda after we walk and both have our computer time- except he's doing banking not blogging.

Here's a cute pic. of the boys at the track meet.

The birthday girl "riding" her saddle stand that Daddy made her.


14!!!! When did that happen??
Erin had 2 girls over for a pool party on Sunday and it rained, seems reminiscent of last year when it was also too cool to pool and the girls ran down the street in pouring rain... hmmm... So we changed plans last minute and went out to the new wave pool in town. Both the other girls had been already, but none of our family had and it was a good time. It was a good day to celebrate Erin.


Monday, June 8, 2009

California Days

Still enjoying the memories and photos from the weekend away.




Wednesday, June 3, 2009

What a Honey - part 2

Courtesy of the real photographer in the family....


LOVE LOVE LOVE this one! The green ribbon on the tail, means it's a green horse- new, young, or newly being trained and therefore possibly unpredictable, so stay back.

Nice shirt Gramma and her sewing genius!