Free Stuff

Have any of you been HERE??
I've ordered from them twice now and am thrilled
with what I've recieved! It's good quailty stuff and ya can't beat
the price! (You just have to pay s&h)

Good Tuesday to you all!
It's sunny and gorgeous here today. -1 but that will change!
I was busy yesterday washing windows and repairing
window screens. I washed the last of the dog snot off
the window and actually felt..sad,lol.
I rigged up a fix on Miss Thing's screen(quite proud of myself)
and just have to replace the screen on the big window and those
suckers are done. Woohoo. One step closer to move out condition!

I'm not doing much today..exercising,cleaning..stalking your blogs..see ya soon:)

What a weekend!

Can we say stress city??
My weekend involved the police,a government agency
and a vow of silence.
It looks like the rest of our time in this neighborhood is going
to involve a hate campaign and much back
watching. Nothing new there,lol
Good thing we're planning on moving;)

How was YOUR weekend?
We just got the truck insured so everyone's excited about that!
Camping..4 wheeling...dump runs..wohoo!
Somehow I went from saying we couldn't afford it,to volunteering
up money. That husband of mine...I don't know how he did it..but
he's gooood,lol.
They're out there now putting on the plates.

My Miss Thing looks to be getting sick.
She's got the rosy cheeks and is kinda listless..poor girl.
It's that time though,we always seem to get sick around
the same time every year. Hopefully I can dodge the bullet
I hate taking Buckley's never mind being sick,ugh

Have a Happy Monday Everyone!

Marriage Trouble

It tried to snow last night
but I melted it all with my death ray eyes
and it stopped. Don't mess with me Winter!
Haha,yes I'm a dork.

My husband and I are having "pillow wars"
Awhile back I switched pillows with him.
The trouble is I didn't tell him I was doing so
but as he didn't seem to notice so I kept them for
myself and slept in GREAT comfort on his pillows.
Of course my guilty conscious got the better of me
and I told him about my trick(I would NOT make
a good criminal). He said it didn't matter but I could
see it niggle away at him until the other night
when he tried to steal his pillows back. The nerve!
I snatched them back,gave him a wee lecture about
changing his mind and he relented....until the next night
when he stole them AGAIN! This time he didn't want to
give them up and I had to fix his wagon by standing over
him,trapping him in under the covers while I dumped my
water bottle on his head and stole them back!
Ha, that'll learn him;p
All was well until last night when he tried to do the old switcheroo
on ME! After much swearing and squabbling
(he vowed to go out and buy 4000 dollar pillows
just to spite me) we settled on a compromise and
each took one of the good ones( I tricked him again by telling him
the better of the two crappier ones was a pillow my old cat Wall
slept on. It wasn't....SUCKER!) so..now we're even.
Or are we?
NOPE because after I wash our sheets today,I'm
going to switch them back the way they should be
(with me getting BOTH good ones) but this time I'm
going to hide the old pillows I give to him in two
pillow cases(one facing one way,one facing the other)
and see if he notices. Hehehehee.
He's so gonna kick my ass,lol

Honesty

Is honesty always the best policy?
Are there times when it's better to say nothing at all,
leave the other person in the dark and avoid further
contact or tell them outright in a kind but frank way so they
aren't left wondering?

I have a new epal who isn't someone I wish to continue corresponding with.
She's chronically negative,shows no interest in people other than herself,
and seems to use emails as a way to ohh I don't know..sort things out for
herself. She monologues.
There is no give and take between the two of us,ya know?
No building of a friendship, just her emails about her life,my responses
and her emails about her life. It's like reading an essay,rather than a
friendly letter.
When we started to correspond she mentioned she wanted an epal who continued
to write past the first couple of days. Most people,she said, stopped after a couple..
Well gee I wonder WHY??
Anyways,I'm done and have an idea of what I'm going to say but wondered
what you guys would do in the same situation.
What do YOU feel is the best policy?

It's amazing how much a person can accomplish

when their ass isn't glued to a chair in front of
a computer all day!
Who knew?

Yesterday we drove to Kamlo0ps for lunch. It's a big city
south east of here.
We wandered around the city and went for a nice walk
along the river before driving back home to winter.
It was SO sunny and warm in the 'L00p. I was reminded once
again of what life's like in the south..sigh..it was a fun day:)
Today we're not doing anything too amazing,shopping..a walk..
cleaning up...
Can you believe it's the middle of March! This month has flown by
don't you think?

School Report

Nothing too exciting is going on with Devon other than the fact
that he's growing waaay taller than me,every day!
When I see him out there playing with his friends he looks
like an adult. It's kinda funny to see this big gronk acting like the kid
he still is. He even fools the neighbors!

Our neighbor D was out there talking with him about..oh trucks or something
and he offered Devon a BEER! Dev says "Yeah...that'd be slightly illegal" and
D says "What? You're of age now,aren't you??" Devon laughs and says "I'm 13!!"
much to D's HORROR,Bwaahaahaa! There was much apologizing but no harm done!
When Dev came and told me I was impressed that he didn't take D up on his offer.
*I* wouldn't have been so honest at that age,heheh.
After though,when I'd given the matter more thought I was struck with a major
laugh attack because Devon,the supposed adult,still plays with trucks,other KIDS,
gets called in for dinner by his Mum AND has to be in before dark. Didn't D notice this
before he offered him a beer?? If he did he must have thought Devon
was THE dorkiest adult ever. Ohh it was funny....I couldn't stop laughing...an adult who
plays with trucks and makes car noises.... BWAH!

So other than not getting drunk with the neighbors,Dev's been taking it easy.
I'm waiting on a new math book for him but he's been drawing
pictures of trucks,(he's becoming a GREAT artist) keeping up his website
(truck related,of course) and reading late into the night. He's reading that
book on that grizzly bear man(the one who was eaten)..

The kids have been having fun planning lemonade stands for the summer.
They're going to compete against either and there's been much smack talk
and one upping going on. All in fun! Ciari isn't the best writer but that didn't stop
her from creating a picture to get her point across.
It reads To Poo(our affectionate name for one another) Love Ciarán
Then there's a picture of two people. One is Devon,standing beside a one dollar
bill,looking very sad. The other person is Ciarán standing with a big grin,beside
a giant 100 dollar bill. LOL,Gee what's she trying to say??
I love her style!

She surprised me yesterday when we were doing math.
She uses pennies to do her work in a grade one math basics book.
They help her count,but also help her concentrate and sloooow
down the race car brain a bit. She's been using them since we started
this book a while ago and showed no signs of giving them up even after
I told her how to add in her head,and gave her some number tricks to
make things go faster. She wasn't ready for that,so I finally shut up
and let her do things the way she was comfortable. Well....
Yesterday,out of the blue it seemed, she was able to add numbers up to 20
...IN HER HEAD!
I was shocked and totally elated! I don't think I could do that until grade 5,heh.
It's funny because even though I encourage her to work at her own pace,and
outwardly say NOTHING about her being a bit behind her peers(she's supposed
to be in grade 3) I do worry about it a bit. I can't help it,lol.
So to see her just pick this up and figure it out as she goes along( "if 7+7=14 then
7+8 must + 15!!") fills my heart with pure joy and pride.
It's moments like this that remind me why I love homeschooling!

What are you up to this weekend? Durell is getting stuff done to the truck
(tires,emissions wiring) and I'm sure we'll be out test driving the thing all
over the place. We've insured it for the weekend and the kids are excited to
be able to finally go for a ride:)
Have a great Friday and an even better weekend!

My body clock is slowly getting in tune with the changing season.
I've been waking up at 6am every morning,all rested and content!
We've even had birds singing to us,how wonderful is that???
It's weird to listen to them,knowing there's still feet of snow on
the ground,lol but I'll take their songs to me in the mornings anyways.

Thanks everyone for the great conversation yesterday about bullie dogs!
I have a funny story about our neighborhood pitbull...yesterday she was
visiting G.(the other neighbor who takes the dogs in) He was doing
something on the computer and Annie was wandering around his house,
unattended. Something for the record, I never let her do because,I know
she's a brat and don't trust her like that!
ANYways:
G heard water gushing,saw Annie race out of his room soaking wet,ran in
to discover she'd either ripped or bit a hole in his water bed!
(Poody you were right about the jaws of steel,lol. )Those mattresses are
thick! She must have worked pretty hard on it get it to burst open like that.
I didn't think people still owned water beds,hehehehehe...
His bedroom was flooded and he had to go out and buy another bed. Ooooh I'd
have been so MAD! But not G,no no,he later told the kids " If she keeps it up,I
may not let her in the house anymore" Um??? Wouldn't that be reason enough??
It's nice to see I'm not as big a suck as I thought I was,heh.

Bean's Day

For this month's installment I bring you a great organization
HugABull a wonderful,local(to me) advocacy and rescue society.
They rescue pitbulls and educate people
(including other animal shelter workers)
about the most misunderstood breed. Their tag line is
"Hard Bodies Wet Tongues Soft Hearts" and I know any of you
fellow pit bulls owners can all attest to that!
Ok fine I don't actually own Annie,but she's here enough for
me to bear witness;)
ANYways,I LOVE these people. LOVE them with all my heart.
They do great work and advocate a Ban the Deed not the Breed
philosophy that I completely agree with.
Their site is informative and thought provoking and filled with
information and well..love. Lots of great big love for these funny,goofy
dogs. They believe they can change people's thoughts and fears about
pitties by being good,informed dog owners themselves,and require
the same from people who adopt the dogs. I love this group so
much I think I may marry them,ha.
There's lots to see and do,so click the link and give them a visit!

Durell and I have decided to adopt our next dog from them.
Dur said and I quote" When we move,we'll get one"
Hee Hee Hee
Wait don't get your hopes up...I said no.
I really did! The thought of renting,in a housing market with a 4% vacancy
rate,while owning a pitbull fills my heart with dread.
I said no...ugh..but it's the right thing to do.
As soon as we own our own house,we'll start the procedure to adopt our
own through HugABull.
Speaking of dogs,my two have been visiting us a lot more.
Frankie,with his Collie stare.... He's smart. I told him to go find Annie and he watched for her from the door
for a bit before looking under the porch,walking to to look under the other porch,
then walking off to G's to look for her there. I've never seen either of them under
my porch before so I wonder if they sleep there some nights??? I know they
visit in the night because, they steal stuff out of the Share Shed bag I leave out
sometimes,brats that they are. They have a thing for stuffed animals,lol

Annie having a snooze with my hubby.
She does not appreciate have her picture taken. She freaks out and gets

all weird so I rarely get good shots of her. That and she never sits still.

She made friends with a stray dog yesterday,and raced off into the woods

to play. She loves to play. Kids, other dogs...it's all the same to her!

PS. If any of you were visited by a Conky something or other,that was me.

My kid had himself signed in and I didnt't notice. Grrrrr!!!

Free Cat

to anyone who likes being kept up ALL night listening to incessant meowing
and racing around,up and down the hall.
You must also like it when cat corners other pets(in my case an elder cat) in the bathroom
for midnight rumbles,then flies into the door,shutting it and trapping them both in.
Hopefully you'll have a son up late reading who's able to open the door after much
panic and yowling.

Rotten cat

Anybody??? Anybody?

Aww ok,I'd never give him up but I sure can complain about the little ass!

Later that same night,Corny stood outside my bedroom door(which is right by

my head) and pushed it open,trilled then let the door shut. Over and over again,

until I hucked my slipper at him.

If you thought he was done for the night you'd be wrong.

Then the little ass ran around to the other door,racing into my room

to scratch,SCRATCH on the corner of my new mattress,not once but twice!

I finally gave up and got up at 6am on a Sunday morning,all the while cursing

the day I ever adopted him.

Two hours later he went into Devon's room and broke the kid's

piggy bank.

What the hell??

This cat is almost 3 years old!

You'd think he'd be out of the kitten stage.

He's pretty cute though,isn't he?? Hee Hee

Right now he's playing with Jig. They're playing 'vet'.

Haa,I know some of you are thinking I should go rescue him

but he enjoys playing with her and willingly jumps into her baby

buggy and in this case,doll play pen. They are two of a kind...

Three Words Only

Taken from Cori and
Mackey

1. Where is your cell phone? in a cupboard
2. Boyfriend/girlfriend? have a husband
3. Hair? gray brown red
4. Your mother? dangerous evil woman
5. Your father? sad old man
6. Your favorite item(s)? computer jewels pets
7. Your dream last night? weird circus dream
8. Your favorite drink? coffee with cream
9. Your dream guy/girl? my wonderful hubby
10. The room you are in? corner of livingroom
11. Your fear? Dying too soon
12. What do you want to be in 10 years? some other place
13. Who did you hang out with last night? kids and pets
14. What are you not? cruel,bored,simple
15. Are you in love? I sure am
16. One of your wish list items? fancy travel trailer
17. What time is it? six twenty one
18. The last thing you did? read a book
19. What are you wearing? old lady clothes
20. Your favorite book? The Witching Hour
21. The last thing you ate? weird childhood dish
22. Your life? better than expected
23. Your mood? cheerful,animated,expectant
24. Your friends? quality over quantity
25. What are you thinking about right now? tonight's snack-popcorn
26. Your car? don't drive one
27. What are you doing at this moment? listening to newscast
28. Your summer? BC Alberta Tour
29. Your relationship status? married with kids
30. What is on your TV screen? cool eliptical trainer
31. When is the last time you laughed? few seconds ago
32. Last time you cried? cwatching Ryan Smith
33. School? almost every day

Ha! I did it!

Ok you spinach haters and parents of spinach haters,you don't
have to make yesterday's recipe with spinach. That what I meant
about the recipe being easy to vary. Use broccoli,(?)asparagus, ham
or whatever you like.
It's all about the cheese and bread anyhow,hee hee.

I'm going to the library today,and then I need to pick up some
school books and stuff to make flash cards.
Remember flash cards?? Do they still use them in school??
I think it'll be fun to make some up and hey may be I'll learn
something.
We're not doing much this weekend,although I am going to TRY
and get my husband to drive us out to the lookout to watch the full
moon in all it's moony glory. What are you up to??

21 Days til Spring!

Hello March! It's so good to see you!

I'm already planning our Solstice dinner.
We're having Spring Rolls(but of course!)
Chicken Satay and a Carrot Cake for dessert.
No really,I'm not THAT excited,heheh,not at ALL.
21 days til Spring..21 days til Sping....

Speaking of food,the Strata (stratta?)I mentioned the other day
turned out really,really good. Both kids had seconds!
It was really easy to make and there are so many ways you
could vary the recipe,should you ever want to.
Want the recipe?
Spinach and Cheese Strata
1 loaf stale crusty bread,cut into medium sized cubes.
It must be stale,I know that goes against everything you
believe in so just trust me!
2 onions,sliced
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 package frozen spinach,thawed drained and squeezed dry
8 eggs
2 cups milk
3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
nutmeg
salt
pepper
Grease a large casserole dish. Saute til soft,onions,garlic and spinach.
Spread half of mix in bottom of pan,cover with half the bread cubes.
Top with rest of veggie mix and bread,pressing down.
Mix eggs,milk,2 cups of the cheese and spices together. Pour over bread
and spinach. Press down firmly,cover and chill covered in foil for at least
four hours and up to 24 hours.
Preheat oven to 350. Bake covered for 30 min. Up heat to 400,take off foil
and let top get crisp. Top with remaining cheese,bake til cheese melts,then serve.
We had ours with just a wee bit of cheese on top and it was STILL good.