gorgeousness

Every spring I am taken aback by the beauty that starts popping up around me. The winter months are so long and dreary, that one can soon forget how beautiful the Island really is when she starts blossoming and showing her true colours. Yesterday we spent nearly 8 hours outdoors .. first out in the back hills looking for what else? .. a cache or two. Then we came back to town to bask in the beauty of the seawall, and later a little rendevous in a local park where THE most beautiful rhododendrons grow. It really is a feast for any photographer to encounter .. and because I'm much an amatuer and still getting used to my new camera and all it's itty bitty wonders, I had such fun playing.

Here's just a little bit of what I saw yesterday...

*the only thing I'd change about the photos of the girls .. remove the shoes!

robin glory

We have this piece of frayed string knotted around a post on the fence and until yesterday, nothing has bothered it and I have no idea why I haven't cut it off .. but it's there and seemed to be quite the attraction for a certain little Mr Robin. (or was it a Mrs?)

First he landed on the fence, looked around and made sure it was safe enough to emerge himself into this activity. Once he realized all neighbourhood cats were busy elsewhere, he started tugging and twitching, feathers a flapping, head a shaking. Realizing this wasn't going to work .. he fluttered off, and I was disappointed I didn't get more pictures. But then he returned. Birds must think alot like women.

It's hard to leave something you've put so much energy into, undone. So again he went at it. Tugging, fluttering, shaking his wee head.
To the right, to the left, and FINALLY...

Success!

wild imaginations

One thing I always admire and enjoy, is watching the girls let their imaginations roam. They have such interesting things they come up with, and it's such fun to unbeknownst to them, listen in to their conversations and play. Sometimes I hear my own words spewing forth from their mouths by way of their barbies. Other times they're re-enacting something they've seen on TV or something Daddy or I have done with them. This time, two branches happened to look like fishing poles bent tight when a large fish is struggling on the other end. As we continued to walk .. we came across this little makeshift bridge across a tiny stream .. and those branches they had picked up earlier just seemed to fit perfectly into the next kind of play .. fishing. We didn't let them play this to long before we prodded them to continue on along the path, but during the few moments they DID have .. they each caught an imaginary fish. Tho if I had been blind, or turned my back, I would have sworn they had real fish on the end of those imaginary lines.

meme time

Pam tagged me for this one, so here goes.

Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to blog about their seven things and post the rules as well. At the end of your post, choose 7 people to tag and list their names. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog! OK, here goes...

1) I have to start out each day with at least one cup of coffee .. preferably a Tim Hortons (home brewed tho, thanks to them selling the grounds)
2) I am one of nine children (5 boys and 4 girls) and although I love having come from a big family .. I knew just two of my own was the limit.
3) I'm in a 'mood' today. *sigh*
4) I can't wait for summer to come. I just want to sit on the beach and soak up some sun and play in the sand.
5) I just cleaned my kitchen/dining floor the old fashioned way (on hands and knees) today, because the lino's in such poor condition that it seems that's the only way to get it decently clean. I can thank my landlord for the crappy carpet and lino. Argh
6) I like having the TV remote to myself.
7) It's Karate night.

Alright .. so for the seven people I'm tagging. Lets go with Arlene, Karmyn, Cori and Lael. Sorry, that's all I can come up with on such short notice. :P

eye opener

Over the weekend, I had some heart fibulations that were slightly worse and occurred more frequently then I had become used to. It's something that runs in the family, and I've never had it checked out. But then I added it to some other symptoms I've also grown accustomed to and I figured it was high time I dragged myself to the doctor. I'm fortunate (read this with much sarcasm) to come from a family with multiple health issues. Along with the heart problems, there's the diabetes. Both my parents are diabetics on insulin, and I have four siblings with diabetes as well .. one on insulin, the other three on pills. There's high blood pressure, and worst of all, or maybe something that's a huge contributor to these diseases, is that 1/2 of us siblings (there's nine of us, in case you're wondering) are mildly to heavily over weight.
So when I informed my doctor of all this .. he right away issued me papers to have blood work done, and strictly told me that if I don't do something about my weight .. my destiny will be growing old, a diabetic. I'm also getting colestrol checked, and an ECG done, and promptly going to wake up from this life long fog of yo-yo'ing and work myself down at least 80-95lbs. I've fallen off the 'diet wagon' far to many times, but today's appt was an eye opener. I want to live to see my grandbabies, and that means I need to care more about my own health.

mix match

I wanted to share this layout, because the photo really makes me giggle. Washing cars are fun, the hose can be such an interesting weapon and toy .. imagine the girls surprise when they discovered what filling up the box of the truck, adding some suds and using their bodys to wash the floor was out of this world fun!. Don't let the sun fool you into believing it was a warm day, in fact it was rather chilly, and when wet .. it was like the temps fell below zero. But oh the fun!

And while we're talking about the girls (I know this blog has turned into a huge bragfest, and I apologize for that but how else am I to document all these amazing things so I have instant journaling for all the pages I'm destined to make?) I made chicken nuggets for supper tonight (really healthy hey? at least they're baked not deepfried!) and Hailey's nose picked up on the scent of them cooking. I played a little with her .. telling her she was wrong. She went into this tyraid about her nose lying to her, etc. Then I couldn't help but come clean and tell her I was just kidding. Almost without taking a breath, she went into the narrative like so ...

"the girl took another sniff .. her nose called her to the oven to peek inside, and there she saw the very yummy and very hot nuggets looking back at her"

I looked at her, my brows furrowed and my mind racing, wondering where she had picked up something so creative such as speaking in third person (which annoys me to no end when an adult does it, but this is my kid who can do no wrong). So instead of continueing to wonder, I asked her. Her reply? "I'm practicing to be an author"

Wow!

*yawn* .. Monday

Stop teeth! Please stop falling out of Alissa's wee mouth! She's lost 5 now (three within the last two weeks), and her pretty little mouth needs some time to recover. It's not fair her gums are tender and swollen, and have bled their share of blood. Relax, let her new teeth grow in, and let her enjoy the pure delight of biting into an apple WITHOUT the worries of losing a tooth within it's yummy crispness. But most of all, please let her parents recover from playing the Tooth Fairy and having to scrounge for change to replace her tooth with.
(another photo disclaimer .. my ham of a daughter canNOT sit still long enough to have a decent picture taken .. lil punk!)



Despite what you may think, that's not the only thing that's been going on around here. I got to scrap my little heart out over the weekend, like I previously mentioned .. and digi scrapping was part of my fun.


Here's a new digi layout made from a sketch template by Pam on 123-scrap, and April '06 kit by Rhona Farrer. I love this photo of Alissa .. but you'll have to excuse her owie (what looks like food) from her mishap with the scooter.

Thank you for your feedback on 'the new look'. I didn't realize how horrid that blue was on the eyes, so I've changed the font to black and hope that's more readable.

under construction

my little space is currently under construction. Yes, I love me some pink and brown .. but looking at it for months on end was driving me just a wee bit batty. And since everyone loves a new coat of paint to freshen things up a little bit, I'm going to do just that. Bare with me as I slowly change over to colours I like. However .. this nice stark white background is very appealing to me at the mo.

rainy sunday

It's raining, and very much an indoor day, at least for us whimps (aka: the girls and I). D's off galavanting the countryside on his motorbike with friends. He'll likely come home soaked and smelling of gas exhaust, but with a perma grin .. no doubt.

I scrapped a little (a gift card set of four) and may pull out some photos .. but my current read is sounding rather tempting too!

google animates

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I just stumbled upon Gickr .. another one of Googles amazing inventions. I thought I'd play around with a few photo's from today's geocaching excursion. Fun!

they're falling out!

ANOTHER tooth (4th) was lost last night as Alissa got ready for bed. She didn't want to give it up to the TF just yet, so she's held on to it until tonight, so Daddy could see it. And it won't be long before she loses the other top front one either .. it's extremely loose as well. The sad thing about her mouth is, that the new teeth start growing in either behind the loose tooth, or immediatly after the baby one has fallen out. So it doesn't give much time for her to look like she's got a gaping space.making silly faces in the mirror

Hailey's doing so well with her kata in Karate that I thought I'd take the camera along last night, to take pictures and film. She's really dedicated to this, and it thrills me to see her passion for something. It's not like any other sport, but now I can see why parents are so proud when their children score a goal in soccer, or hit the ball in t-ball or baseball. When Hailey got those turns in her kata downpat, my heart swelled!

Go Canucks!

We're rooting for the Canucks, as they play their fifth game against the Dallas Stars. I'm not much of a hockey fan, unless I'm watching it in real life, cold, sweat and glove dropping fights .. but somehow I can't contain my excitement for tonight's game. It Survivor night too, so I'll be flipping back and forth, and I'm being supportive by dressing my children in their Canuck jersey/t-shirt today.

*photo disclaimer: When I NEED to photograph them, they never cooperated. Argh!

sunny dayz and other things

It has been one crazy day, weather wise .. cool and overcast with sun breakthroughs and the odd downpour. Currently the sun has hidden and the girls have just come in from decorating the parking lot with little chalk illustrations. This one, I'm told, is there to greet Daddy when he comes home tonight after work. I'm hoping his headlights catch the detail, because by morning the rain will have surely washed it away.

Ahhh .. I love the sun, barefoot weather, sidewalk chalk and the idle chatter I hear come through the open doorway when the girls play outside. That's not saying it's actually warm enough to do those things, but they've braved the ice cold cement and frigid puddles of water just for the first experience of the year. And warm baths are a wonderful thing too!
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Okay .. who's voting for Sanjaya on American Idol? Stop! He's gone further then he should have, and I'm sick of hearing him, seeing his hair and overly huge grin. People, for all that is good and holy .. PLEASE STOP VOTING FOR HIM! kaythankyoumuchly :)
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I just want to give a big shout out to my brother in law (who doesn't read this blog) but I'm so very proud that after more then 3 years of waiting, training, having his eyes lazer'd, volunteering and the whole 9 yards .. he's finally getting his dream career. He's heading to bootcamp for four months, and when he's done .. he'll officially be a provincial police! They'll be moving to a larger (then what they're near now) town and settling into a new home, school and job. I'm so proud of him, and of my sister and their children for being the model supportive family.
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And by the time I finished typing this (got sidetracked with kids in tub, and cooking supper), it began to rain and wash the beautiful artwork away. Good thing I took pictures because Daddy won't miss it's beauty.

serve yourself

I'm considering making this photo into a sign. Think those that cast their eyes upon it will take a hint? :P

mmmmmmm

M&M anyone? If you want to make an M&M in the image of thyself, go here. I seriously wish I looked this cute .. tho I'm rather modest and clothes would be nice. hee!

snake tamer

Somedays I swear she's a tomboy .. she loves her bugs, reptiles, insects and the like .. and after finding this snake, playing with it and then being forced to let it go .. we didn't hear the end of it. "IwantAsnake, IwantAsnake, IwantAsnake" was all we heard echo through the woods as we hiked back home.

This snake is a red racer that doesn't bite and isn't smelly. The second snake we found later in the day was the same size, not the same kind and smelled and threatened to nip at noses that ventured to close.

waaaaay back

Three things occured that made me want to post this photo and story. Firstly, my girls happened upon this photo that had somehow slipped through the cracks in my 'photo drawer' down below to their 'craft cupboard', and promptly wanted me to know they had discovered it. They always giggle when they see their Daddy with hair (he's been shaving his head since before Hailey was born), and their Mommy with waist length BIG hair (or bangs in this case).
Secondly, my recent post about my love for Dirty Dancing and the 80's erra. And thirdly, my friend Cori, blogged a photo of her man and her from WAY back, so since I already had the picture, I figured I'd follow suit and post one too.

The year was 1992, it was my 19th birthday and we had been dating for one day short of a month. I guess we had covered what all our favourites were, because there are three roses sitting there in front of us. Three being my fave number, and roses being my second favourite flower. I look at this photo and I think .. wow, we look young. He looks skinny (I hadn't had the time to fatten him up yet), I look err .. chubby, and damn, I miss my parent's old house. We've been together for nearly 15 years (September 18th is the actual date for that) and married for nearly 12 (June 10'95). It's crazy you can be with someone so long that you hardly remember your life before them. We knew from the getgo that eachother was THE one tho, because we moved in together the next month (after the photo was taken), and when he proposed .. yes it was a surprise, but only because I didn't know exactly when the proposal was coming. I miss the heart skipping, stomach fluttering feeling I used to get back when this picture was taken .. but I'm not disappointed to replace it with the deeper love and amazing connection, trust, commitment, and desire we have now. And ocasionally those flutters and heart skips return, and it's even more endearing.

Eric Carmen - Hungry Eyes

I was listening to music on RealPlayer, set to random .. and this song came on. Have I ever mentioned how much I love, loVE, LOVE "Dirty Dancing" and thus LOVE the music from it. So I had to go find the video for the song and promptly post it. I could so go back to the 80's and live quite happily, minus the big hair and the fact I was a minor .. but you KWIM.

the ouch

After the girls got home yesterday, I played with my new camera and got this picture of Alissa watching Hailey play with a balloon. It captures her 'ouch' from the other day, and now you can see what I mean about it looking like she left her breakfast on her face. :P

I can't believe I haven't even taken my new camera out of it's case, today. Bad me! But I do have a very good reason. It's called a massive headache. It started yesterday afternoon and by the time I had tucked the girls into bed, I was wincing with pain and so happy to now have a peaceful and quiet home. I choked back a couple Advil and laid down with the TV on very low (couldn't miss my shows) and by the time Dave came home from work, I was already tucked into bed trying to fall asleep so I didn't have to feel the pain. This morning I woke up all foggy and still had a dull ache, but had to find a solution quick because I was tagging along with the K's to hear the town Youth Choir, and needed some relief before I boarded that bus full of kids. I got me some Sinutab and I feel better .. just hungover.
So now I know what it is. I put two and two together and figured I must have a mild form of allergies developing in my old age. lol Our vehicles have been covered in yucky yellow pollen from the big trees in our backyard, and this whole constant headache thing started about a month ago, when spring sprung. Just lovely!

Anyway .. back to the reason for the post. The Ouch .. I wonder if I can cover it up enough that it won't be noticeable for next week's portraits. Hmmm.

he rocks my socks

Wanna know why? My hubby is THE most thoughtful, THE most caring and wonderful man I know. And the reason why I'm singing his praises today is because after all the talk about us upgrading to a new model of the camera we already have .. he found out it was on sale and bought it for me. OH. MY. GAWD! I'm in love. With him AND with the camera.

In case you're wondering. It's a Canon S3 IS Power Shot. We had the S1 IS and I loved it and all it's features, but this one, WOW! Just take a look at that macro shot of a dandylion. Yum! I see alot of macro shots in my near future.

If anyone's looking for a Canon S1 Is Power Shot, I happen to have one for sale. *smile*

3rd

Finally .. after much wiggling, moving over so much that there was a gap, causing a slight lisp when she spoke, and drawing lots of attention from Mommy dearest .. the tooth decided today was the day Daddy would pull it out.
It amazes me how brave children are, to not only wiggle a tooth until it's readiness, (eww, the feeling and sound grossed me out) but to sit there and have the ultimate trust in the parent that wraps the tooth in tissue and yanks.

Here is her beautiful, new, temporary smile. See the new tooth peeking out already?

And just after I took this photo (well .. a series of photos really because I'm a scrapper and canNOT limit myself to just one photo of any particular event), we walked to school but Alissa insisted on scooting, and what happened during that scoot to school has changed her face for the next week or so. She fell on the end of the handle, and now has a nasty scrape/mark in the shape of a circle next to her mouth. And school pictures are next week. *sob*

I won't bore you...

by showing you yet more pictures of coloured eggs and Easter activities. We spent yesterday afternoon with Auntie S and Uncle J, hunting for foiled eggs, having lunch, playing a couple games, colouring eggs and having an egg war* and topping it off with a walk up to the neighbourhood school playground for a swing.
Such fun!

On our way home, we swung by the movie store to pick up Charlotte's Web, but they were all out. :( We finally agreed on this really cute puppy movie, Chestnut: Hero of Central Park. A very sweet movie, and even had me tearing up .. and Alissa commenting on her "eyes just want to water". LOL The best part of it, that we discovered after while watching the 'behind the scenes' part of the disc .. is that most of it was filmed in Vancouver .. right in our glorious and most favourite park .. Stanley Park. The movie has them in Central Park, New York .. so they used some green screens so they could dub in NY backgrounds and such .. but apparently the bridge is very similar in both parks. I must find that bridge next time we cross the water to Vancouver! I'm on a mission now! lol

*in case you're not familiar with this game .. I tried googling it so I could link you up, but apparently it's not that well known. My SIL (Auntie S) is the one that introduced us to it a few years ago, and I'm not sure where she learned it, besides her parents. So, I'll just have to upload the little video clip of the girls warring. Check back for that.

more easter goodness

And today was our turn to colour eggs. We found this adorable dying kit that included little foam tops and other body parts to add to the already coloured and dry egg. Thing is .. legs or wings took a little talent to apply, and then they still caused a little breakage. Oh well .. the clan of animals are quite enjoying their new little nest.

This morning we headed out to the best little petting farm in the area, for a little hayride out to the back field where apparently the Easter Bunny had layed an uncountable amount of eggs. He (the EB) even made a quick appearance but only stayed long enough to grab one of the big juicy carrots laying about, and then back into the woods he disappeared only to trick us with his peek-a-booing from behind a tree. Thankfully the EB is not one of the cherades we've had to play up for the girls, so as I giggled and said it was cute to see him brave enough to come for the carrots with a field full of people, Hailey sophistically (is that a word?) told me "it's a person in there, Mom". Sheesh, I know .. I'm just having fun! And guess what .. all those memories and not a photo to show for it. :( I forgot it. Double :( :(

happy humpday and colourful things

Easter is in the air! One thing I love about it, is all the colours.
These are the eggs the girls got to colour with the neighbours adult daughters, yesterday. They loved the new technique of sponging on the colours versus dipping the eggs into dye mixtures. So I must look for the kits when out Easter shopping this afternoon.

I'm so glad today is Wednesday. Tomorrow is the last day of school for four whole days, and although Dave plans on being gone two of those days (I'll explain and show why in another post hopefully next week), I'm looking forward to the family events and things we have planned.

the jokes on us

We had an unintended April Fool's joke played on us this morning.

Ya see, we have an alarm clock/radio that has DST built into it. I forgot about watching for it to change three weeks after the REAL DST that came early this year, and so this morning when I woke up and glanced over at the clock and it read 7:45am, I was impressed I was able to sleep in that late. And not only sleep that late, but also have a really good, deep sleep all night. (not that that's any problem with me usually, but with DH being up all night being sick, I didn't even move a muscle) Dave woke and glanced over at the DVD player's clock and it read 6:45am. We bantered why the two clocks would differ from each other, and then it came to me. Oh yeah! Our clock was the only thing messed up with the different DST. So, it boiled down to me having slept in only 45 mins instead of the extra hour I had originally thought.

On a scrapbooking related note .. I scrapped that photo I posted yesterday. Despite the phantom black eye and funky other eye, I just love the photo and think Hailey looks so soft and pretty in it. I know. I'm biased because she's the fruit of my loins. :P

Paper and flower borders .. DawnNSkip (http://www.dawnnskip.typepad.com )
Template .. Cherpea Designs