We’re taking a screen-free ten days with our children starting tomorrow. See you in ten days!

I just finished telling the Big Guy that there was a problem with my blog…it’s been reverting to a white screen because I waited too long to do my WordPress upgrade (again) and since I didn’t have any time to fix it I was just going to delete it. Since I have pretty much no commenters left since returning to work full time (unless I run a contest – then the emails fly in) it seems a waste to pay for my domain & hosting fees if nobody’s reading it. I sure wasn’t about to put any amount of time into it.

Came here to delete it and it’s back just fine.

Fate?

Primo is about to embark on his first trip to the USA. He’s been asking to go for a couple of years and we’re finally making good on the promise that yes, we’d take him one day. I think he’s planning to bring a flashcard with the letter Z on it just so he can ask people to say “zee.”

FYI, it’s “zed.”

Alice Cooper is kind of a dirt bag, but I’m thrilled that school really is out for summer!

We thoroughly enjoyed our family Canada Day festivities yesterday, and are now off to playdate two of three today.

Happy summer!

What Makes a Dad

God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle’s flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so,

He called it … Dad

~Author Unknown~

Our fucking basement is flooded.

Gah.

I am at home sick.
It will hit the high twenties.
Sick on the back deck?

We had a lovely Mother’s Day. The kids made me cute gifts – a tissue paper corsage from Primo and a flower in which the centre is her photo from Bella. This morning we met my mom, mother-in-law & her husband, brother & niece about half an hour out of town for brunch, came home for a quick rest and took a family nature hike in the coulees. After bathing the kids, making lunches & preparing the smoothie for tomorrow, we ate some cold takeout and are watching survivor from last week. I’m exhausted, but happy.

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone who’s a mother in any way to anyone!

1. Laundry sucks. I was caught up for about 3.4 minutes and now I can’t see the laundry room floor. Again.

2. My poor cat who is “dying of thyroid cancer” has gained weight and is eating & playing like a growing kitten.

3. Our dogs are a giant pain in my ass. Good thing they’re cute & cuddly.

4. Primo’s now in full time Montessori preschool and LOVES it. I hate the full time, but he is totally cool with it.

5. Poor Boston Rob. He should still be in contention.

6. I went shopping in my garage and got more than a full wardrobe for each child. Woo hoo!

7. I love shopping in advance and never having to pay full price. Thank goodness for Rubbermaid!

9. My school district had a snow day yesterday for the first time since 1958. It sucked getting to work 1/2 hour late after digging out of here, and then phoning parents to pick up kids & going home again, but it was awesome to have an unexpected afternoon with my family.

10. Heritage Makers? Utterly addicting.

For backups, I mean. Duh. (heh)

This? Is awesome, and free.

Check it.

It’s Earth Hour tonight. What’cha doin’?

My kids are in bed by then and I’ll have company here, so we’ll likely be watching a movie in the dark. I know we shouldn’t be watching a movie, but as long as we do it in the dark I feel like I’m doing my part since I try to protect the earth as much as possible all day – every day. Maybe we’ll play a board game instead. I’ll leave it up to my friends.

Five more sleeps until the Big Guy gets home. Eighteen days is a LONG time to have your best friend & partner away. If he was home and we didn’t have company, I can tell you what we’d be doing. Bow chicka bow bow.

This is my last weekend without him, so it’ll be full of cleaning, errands, playing & reading with kids, and eating with friends who are coming from out of town for an overnight visit. I love having company – I’m super excited! Sadly, they won’t be getting the usual host experience at our place. Usually I bake, cook & spoil our guests but I’m on a 3 week cooking hiatus so we’re ordering in and we’re delegating breakfast to the man in the morning so we can sit & drink lattes. They’re even going to let me go for a solo run & grocery shop before they leave! Now those are the kind of friends you want to have around.

Speaking of friends, I turned 34 on Wednesday while my husband was away and it had the potential to be an incredibly depressing day. Instead, my grade one teaching team surprised me in the morning with a fancy red velvet cupcake and a Starbucks gift card and brought all of their students in to my room to sing to me. My own students made me lovely gifts and interrupted our lessons all day with beautiful renditions of Happy Birthday. Then in the evening my friend who lives across the street brought over an ice cream cake and three other friends came over for tea and cake. It was just perfect. When the BG called he instructed me to go dig in his underwear drawer (heh) to find my gift and he had hidden an incredibly sweet card and a gift card for me to go shopping at one of my favourite stores to spoil myself. My sizes are changing so it’s great to be able to continue to have a decent professional wardrobe that fits along the way. Plus there’s this bright red coat there that I’ve been wanting…

My mom came the previous weekend to help me, which was FABULOUS, and now I’ve got some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket. On my list are iPhone (when my current contract expires), Roomba and food dehydrator. Which one would you get first?

Hope your weekend is fantabulous!

Beat Norway 8-0.
What a way to start the games!
Iggy rocks my world.

Back story: I ordered a black leather case for my Kindle 2 right after I received it for Christmas. A few weeks later, a case for the huge 9 inch screen Kindle arrived. (that Kindle wasn’t even available in Canada at that time, but the order was my mistake. I just assumed I had a 9″ screen and didn’t measure. Apparently mine is 6″.) I emailed the company to ask for an exchange and though they were painfully slow with their email and perhaps ESL, there was no problem making the exchange. They were going to ship me the correct one free of charge and I could return the old one in that packaging.

Scene: We’re at the mailbox on the way home from work. I check the mail and hop back into the van with the kids with some mail and a parcel.

Mommy: Look Bud! My new Kindle case is finally here!

Primo: That’s too big. It won’t fit. The whole package is too big for your Kindle.

Mommy: I dunno. They were supposed to send me a new one that fit this time so it should be smaller.

Primo: It’s not. It’s too big.

An hour or so passes. We get home, have snack, and I start unpacking our bags from the day. I spot the parcel in my bag so I open it.

Mommy: You were right! This is exactly the same wrong one that they sent me last time.

Primo: Well, Mom. I AM always correct.

Well, duh.

Welcome to Vancouver 2010.

Got kids? Have some fun with our mascots!

The young person who wrote this is a role model for her generation. I sincerely hope that my children feel the way that she does, and that I can inspire the students I teach to think differently as well.