I'll love you forever...no matter what

As I have mentioned before, my brother-in-law has not been a constant part of our lives but that has not changed the fact that my children love him to pieces and the feeling is mutual.

Uncle Hammer taught the kids a culinary delight when he joined us the last time...

Roasted weiners with ripple chips smooshed into the bun with the hot dog.

The kids thought he was a genius!

They have applied this technique to everything they can think of.

I don't know if it's because it is actually good or because this tip came from their dear Uncle Hammer.

"Who we fightin'?"

We took the kids to 7-11 last night to pick up some small slurpees.  While Bug and I waited in the car, he saw the cage filled with 20 lb propane tanks.

"Mama? Are those bombs?"

"No, honey, they are propane tanks."

"Tanks!?!  Who we fightin'!?"

"No, dear, tanks for the bbq."

"We have to fight the bbq?"

"No..ah, never mind..."

"I'd like to make a report"

That is how Jellybean began her conversation with the manager of the restaurant we took B.D. to on Father's Day.

She went to the washroom and, at some point, I began to think she had been gone just a bit too long and went looking for her, wondering if she was feeling all right.

I found her standing at the doorway into another part of the restaurant searching for someone.

"What't the matter, baby?  You doin' ok?"

"Yes, mama but, I saw some swears on the bathroom stall wall and I have to make a report."

"To the manager?"

"Yes!"

"Do you know who you're looking for, honey?"

"Yes.  There she is. I have to make my report now, Mom."

So, I let her go off to speak with the manager to file her "report".

We asked her how it went once she got back to the table.

"Good. I told them there were swears on the wall and the manager, she said she would get it painted."

And she carried on eating her dinner like it was no big deal...

B is for Daddy

Yesterday Bug was practicing some of his writing and letter association.

He wrote an "F" telling me it was for "father" and an "M" for "mother".  "K" was for kids and then he wrote the first letter of each of his brothers' and sisters' names.

Bug then wrote a "B" and said, "That is for 'daddy'."

"Honey," I said to him, "Daddy starts with a 'd'."

"Um, yeah Mama, I know but I can't call him by his name; can I?"

You want to what?!?!?!

This beautiful girl

You know, the one who will be 10 years old at the end of November?

The cute one?

The one that goes by Jellybean on this blog and, a great deal of time, at home...?

Yeah! That one.

She wants me to teach her how to shave her legs when she has her next bath!

Um, hello! Wasn't it just last week we were working on how to say 'mama'?

No?

Longer ago than that?

Hmm!  Pretty sure that was last week...

Did you just hear that!?  The popping?

Yup, pretty sure I just heard another gray hair pop out of my head. 

Uh huh! There it is.  {sigh}

5 Question Friday

Wow, it's been a while since I have participated in MamaM's 5 Question Friday. I've been a little busy *ahem* unpacking and stuff.

But I shant dwell on the past any longer.  I will lift up my head and, without shame, guilt or other such condemnation, throw myself back into the swing of things. {grin - remember I am the drama writer at the skit,  I think over-acting may be my middle name}

Anywho, without further delay present to you my answers for 5QF.

1. What is your favorite thing about summertime?

Oooo, tough question.  Could we make the word "thing" plural?  Please? I have to answer plural.  There is no one "thing".  Water and camping and water fights and basking, boating and fishing and hiking and sunning.  These are a few of my favorite things...

Sorry, got carried away singing... {grin}

2. What is your ideal retirement location (if money didn't matter)?

Retire?  I don't know I will ever be able to retire. If I do, I want to travel...I want to go to so many places....

3. Do you live in the same town you grew up in?

I live VERY close to the same town I grew up in.  In fact, this is the closest town to the farming community I did live in.  I left here for a time (a few years) but it is home and I was drawn back.  You know, it's not quite as boring as it was when I was a teenager.  Huh!  Go figure.

4. What nervous habit did you have as a child that you kicked to the curb before becoming an adult?

You know, I can't think of any.  Which probably means I never kicked them, right?  All I know is I don't turn eleventy-hundred shades of red when I get asked to speak anymore!  Um, yes, eleventy-hundred is so a number!  Don't believe me?  Do we need to poll some of my elementary school classmates?  Huh? Huh? Huh?  Didn't think so!

5. What is the most embarrassing thing that happened to you while on the job?
 
Working switchboard at the hospital.  We worked in a plexiglass enclosure, lovingly (or not so lovingly) dubbed the fishbowl.  Outside of the fishbowl was the flower "shop", a cooler, that we switchboard operators took care of as well as manning the kijillion phone calls (you're not going to doubt this one are you?).  I happened to be helping someone to get flowers out of the cooler when the phone rang so I sprinted off to answer the phone only to push against the door instead of pulling and ran right smack into it in front of all the people waiting to be seen in Emerg and, well, everyone in the foyer.
 
At least I did not need to become an E.R. patient that night.  I think that would have topped it off in the embarassment category...

If this keeps up I may quack

Seriously. 

There has been so much rain...

Rain...

Rain...

There are puddles EVERY where!!!

Not just little puddles!

Puddles that, when you go through them, blind you.

My wipers could not keep up.  They would clear the window for a brief second and then, BANG, blinded!

There has been so much rain here this spring that the water table is VERY high.  Great for next year's farm season.  This year?  Not so much.  It has also been great for lowering the number of forest fires we normally seem to have.

I am feeling soggy and wrinkly - you know, like I have spent way too much time in the bath tub or something.  {grin}

Summer?  Did you break up with us? Why the silent treatment?  Was it something we said?

Certainly hoping the weather in your area is much more favorable and, well, summer-like!

In order to catch up

in two of her classes, Jellybean will be doing some school work over the summer holiday (which begins this Saturday!)

We, meaning Jellybean, will be working on getting her Social Studies level up and doing some more Math.  Math is mainly so she keeps working at it over the summer, as it is not her favorite subject and I think she needs to "practice" instead of get Summer Vacay Brain.

C'mon, you all know what I mean.

So, we set some guidelines because Summer is still about fun and relaxing.  She can work on school work for about 45 minutes a day (while I am at work and she is at the sitter's which means 4 days a week).  She gets closer to her goals in school work but, we still have our time to enjoy each other or for her to simply be a kid.  Gotta love that.

Of course, any trouble she has will need to cut in on Summertime as I will need to help her.

Pulling out my times table sheet right now...

Seriously!

Have I stated before how much I hate the fact that B.D. insists on the children attending this ridiculous "church school"?  I feel it is doing them a huge disservice and I despise it coompletely.

Cake for Breakfast?

That has to cover the majority of the food groups.

Right...?

Right...?

C'mon, help a girl out.

People...

I don't mean to brag but...

I can still fit into the earrings I wore in high school...

Don't be hatin'...

{GRIN}

...'cuz that's about all I can still fit into...

Oh sweetness!

Or cheesiness...or whatever...

But Brandi is my tastebuds' new best friend and my hips' newest nemesis...

Click here to find out why

Chances Are

if you were here with me

→ we would be sitting at the kitchen table sipping on iced teas and listening to Jellybean and her friend, Cass, doing homework together.

→ we would have just finished eating a small tiger tiger ice cream cone and may have snacked on some tortilla chips and Avo-Hummus - a new deliscious item in our deli that is half guac and half hummus and is 100% delish!

→ we may just be discussing if we were going to do one of those home facial envelopy things you can buy at Walmart.

→ I may be sharing with you the few stories I have of my Uncle K who just passed away after struggling after having a stroke a few months ago. He was married to an Inuit lady and lived in a very, very northern part of Canada.  (yes, he has even had a polar bear break into his trailer!)


→ I could be telling you that it is getting a bit easier for me to be the "testimony lady" and my fear of speaking in front of people - something  was voluntold  had to do.

→ if we were sitting in my living room you may not even be able to tell that I am far from completing the unpacking process of our move.  All the boxes are nicely hidden in our basement...

in front of the numerous bags of my clothes (meaning, I have 4 outfits that I rotate until I can reach my clothes.)

→ I would probably mention how I was going through withdrawls from taking pictures as I don't know where my battery charger is or my "good" camera.  I would probably mention that I know there are loads of great pictures for me to share once I do get all the cables and gizzmos and gadgets located.

→ I would really appreciate our visit as my husband has been out of town all last week; this week has had a lot of work to do on some of the other units here (there's a deadline) and I am anticipating  the fact that he is going to be out of town again all next week too.  Three weeks doing all the work....


Time to go for that facial...and perhaps a nap...I will pretend it is a vacation.

What a blur

the last 4 days have been.

Late Thursday night, I received a call that we needed to grab the things we would need for a couple of days and we needed to relocate to another unit so that some dry wall flubs could be fixed.

I was sick Thursday... si-ick.  I had an incredibly high fever and I woke up Friday morning not knowing where I was or why I was there.  It did not take long to figure out that it was not a hospital and a few minutes of looking at the room, and I remembered what was going on.  I crawled out of bed, got my kids ready for and to school, and made my way back to bed for the remainder of the day.  Saturday I was up a bit but napped very periodically and the next day had lunch with great friends and did some work around the house.

Today I went to work, got groceries {including a new electronic gadget - a pocket-sized video camera that will come in very handy dandy}, had same friends over for supper and we have been working on painting our house, cleaning window sills, painting trim and getting our furniture moved back from the center of the room where it had been piled and protected with poly.

I have two more window sills to clean tomorrow after work and then I get to start unpacking a few more boxes before I get to go to our corporate prayer team teaching meeting.  I look so forward to those days; I adore learning about how to do things better, more effectively and in the prescribed way.

In all of this "gee, this sounds like she figures she is all that & a bag of chips, keeping so busy - a in't she special" {grin}, please let me be the first to point out to you that today is Monday.  My children have music lessons on Mondays.  Go two paragraphs up.  Yup.  I forgot to take my children to their lessons and we were moving last Monday so that is two weeks in a row that they have missed...

...Mom fail...

P.S.  I'M GONNA BE A GRANDMA!!!!!

Told you that all ready...?  *Blushes*  Oops!  My bad...
{grin}

Faces from the past

can show up in strange places...

Like in the midst of your living room garage sale, glancing through the things you don't have room to take with you.


I watched an old man struggle up my stairs and heard Jellybean say to him, "If you see something you like but you don't like the price, you just talk to my mama."  {insert image of Jellybaen rubbing her fingers together like money here}

He was enamored with her.  Most people are; she is a loveable, endearing child.

He asked her for a piece of paper, sat down at our table & began telling her a story about how his teacher would give him heck for scribbling but that he learned that scribbles can be beautiful.  He then began to scribble on the paper and produced a tree, then another and another.  An owl emerged, mountains, a pond and cattails and he signed it "Papa Allard".

"Are you related to the Allards from {insert the name of my small hometown here.}.

"How do you know that haywire clan," he says.

"Oh, they had a farm near ours."

"Well, I'll be...," he says.

Turns out this wonderful old man, full of all sorts of stories and fun jokes for the kids was indeed our neighbor down the road.

He never did buy anything but he left having given us a lot.

Once I unpack the picture, I will share it with you.

The post in which I jump up & down from excitement

So, um, there's no real cool, nonchalant way to say this so I am just going to let her rip...

I'm gonna be a grandma! 

For real!

P.B. and J. are having a baby!!!

Coming January to a hospital near us.

I will be 35 years old.

That part still feels kinda strange

But...

I am so uber excited!

All boxed in

Yes, we are all moved.

Had a floody yard sale on Saturday.  It rained and it rained and it rained.  We moved it into the living room of the old house.  Considering the weather, the outcome was not so bad.  $358 and some odd cents.

It was odd watching my stuff leave in someone else's hands but I will not be attached to things.

Told my husband we will never again have so much crap in our house!  EVER!!!

Circumstances beyond my control made it so I can't go see Rush two days in a row. She's mad at me - calling me a promise breaker. I really can't help it; my car broke down. I'm devastated and heart broken....

The boxes are piled up in my basement and in my kitchen.  They are slowly being managed and emptied.  It would make me happier if they would empty faster...

and on that note, I need to get back to work.