OFF LEASH!

Marty and I took Scout to the off leash park (one of my favorite places) tonight, after supper. We usually walk down to the park and then, once inside the legal, "off leash" area, we let her off leash, give her a treat and tell her to "go play!" Scout normally takes off, down the well worn path like a shot, before turning back to see if we are still with her. Today, just after we let her off her leash, a young man came jogging by. Scout started to kind of chase him. I say "kinda" because she wasn't sure if she wanted to play with him, or if she wanted to run with him. The jogger looked intimidated and unsure of what Scout was doing, stopped jogging, looked at Marty and I nervously and started jogging again. Scout continued to run towards him, always stopping just short of his heels, but this time she started barking a playful bark. She figured this guy had come by to play with her. The jogger, worried, stopped again, looked annoyingly at Marty and I, who were just standing there, watching things unfold, and tried to run again. The jogger and Scout continued their awkward dance, him running a couple of steps, her nervously chasing, barking a little, him stopping, staring at us. After a while, Marty and I started calling to Scout, but she was mesmerized by the runner. Eventually, out of fear and frustration, he says, "Hey, get your dog on a leash!" Instantly annoyed, I answer with "we're in an OFF LEASH PARK!!!" The jogger's response took me off guard and I wish I would have come up with a good response before he ran off, but I didn't, figures. He actually comes back to my "we're in an off leash park" comment with, " Well your dog is attacking me!!" All I managed to muster before he was out of ear shot was: "Ummmm, what????" Brilliant, I know!



How could anyone be scared of a face like this????

BUSINESS!

You can usually tell when someone is going to be in the bathroom for a long time when you see them head towards the "can" with some kind of reading material in their hands. Most of us have taken the newspaper, a magazine or even the mail to the read on the "throne." Marty said it helps people relax, a state of mind required for perfect "elimination." Today, when the urge hit, I took my laptop with me. I sat there relaxing. I googled, I typed an assingment for my grade 6's and I emailed! It wasn't until I had to move the machine from my lap, to the sink so I could "finish things up," that I realized, I had actually brought my laptop into the bathroom with me, ewwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!! Don't worry, I didn't write this blog while I was in there, but did I send you an email???? Hee hee!

Oh, on an unrelated note, it snowed like crazy today, April 26th!! I posted pics of the snow and Scout because pics of me on the pot with my laptop is not something anyone wants to see!!!!!

SHEDDING!

I have been back from Hawaii for less than a week and already my golden, sun kissed skin is peeling like crazy!!! My shoulders and back are itchy and I have become obsessed with peeling layers of dead skin off my body. I get this weird elated feeling every time I manage to peel off a huge chunk of skin without ripping it, kind of the same feeling I get when I successfully remove the entire peel of an orange all in one piece!! Have you ever done that? Pulled the peel off an orange all in one piece and made it look like an elephant's head, you know with the ears and trunk? Hmmmm, wonder if I can do that with this flap of skin hanging off my clavical???????

SPRING BREAK IS OVER!!!

Ahhh, Spring Break is over!! Hard to believe that the week went by sooo quickly! Now, tonight, I can sit here and dread tomorrow morning, Monday, the day spring break is officially over, or I can sit here and live and relive the memories of all the Spring Break Excitement!!
First Nic and Troy climbed Cotopaxi, the whole thing + or - 79m!!!! I wasn't there to cheer them on, but I was there in spirit!
Then Aim and Shane got married on Kauai in Hawaii! I did get to be there for that, and it was beautiful!!
Next Mom rode in a Johnathan Fields horsemanship clinic. She got me a day pass so I could come watch. Not only did I learn alot, but I got to watch the amazing partnership between mom and Maverick flourish!!
Finally, Marty and I got to spend 7 days together celebrating the fact that we didn't have to work!!!!!!
I have posted pics so that the smiles of my family can be shared. The only current photos up here are of the wedding, but I posted one of mom and Maverick and one of Nic and Troy from my archives........

I DO

A couple got married on the beach today
The bride and groom, each wore a flower lei.
The venue was the open air by the ocean, on the sand
There, on the shore they stood, hand in hand.
The love between them, you couldn't help but see,
Everything was perfect like it was meant to be!
In the wind, the bride's hair and dress did romantically ,blow
Behind the mountain there even appeared a rainbow!
The ceremony was beautiful, perfect for the pair
I couldn't help but stand and stare.
The officiant blessed the couple "Island style"
While the photographer captured every tear, every smile.
I watched as the groom kissed his bride
Then followed them as they walked through the sand side by side
I smiled knowing that for them a new journey had begun
one that would last long after the wedding day was done!

Congrats Aim and Shane!
PS: I didn't post any wedding photos as Aim and Shane are still on vacation and I want Aim to be the first one to share her photos. One pic is of the bride and groom to be and the bride and me!!!!

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!!

This photo has nothing to do with Easter, the topic of my blog, but hey, blogs are more fun with photos right?
Easter Holidays begin tomorrow with Good Friday, but this Easter I will not be at mom's celebrating with an Easter Basket. (Yes, mom still lets the Easter Bunny visit her house and fill Easter Baskets for us.) Instead, this year, I will be celebrating in Kauai with Marty, Aim and Shane. It will be weird not to be home, in mom's living room sucking the center out of Easter Cream Eggs, but we'll all be together in spirit! Easter used to include blow up bunnies, chocolate egg hunts and sunrise church service. On Easter Eve, I guess that's what you'd call it, we'd get our blow up bunnies, our Easter baskets and our egg decorating kits out of the attick. Dad would blow up each bunny one at a time, only to have the first one deflate before the third one was filled with air. Every year, same problem, the bunnies had leaks and every year, dad would put them in the bathtub, squeeze them and attempt to find the leak, every year, he'd put some kind of patch on the leaks and pray the patch would hold until the next morning. The process was painful, why he didn't just get us new bunnies, I'll never know. For years, he'd blow up my purple 3 foot easter bunny three or four times before locating and patching the leaks. We'd stand our bunnies in the living room with the Easter baskets placed at their feet. Each basket was filled colorful Easter grass and a large carrot in anticipation of the Easter Bunny's arrival. The great chocolate egg hunt was the event that signified the beginning of each Easter morning as three happy, excited little girls jumped out of bed and trotted around the house in our feet pyjamas searching every inch of the place for chocolate eggs and jelly beans! The hunt was exciting and often we'd find very well hidden jelly beans months after Easter! After the Egg Hunt, we'd race to our Bunnies to check out our Easter Baskets. More often then not, the bunnies would be crumpled on the floor, completely deflated, but the baskets would be brimming with chocolate and other yummy Easter treats. Always the stub of a half eaten carrot could be found burried in the Easter grass, proof that the Easter Bunny had indeed enjoyed his healthy snack.
We got older, but no one, not us kids, not mom and Dad and not even the Easter Bunny could give up the thrill of a "treasure hunt." We stopped searching for chocolate and started following clues that led us to less digestable, but still desirable treasures. One year we all got bikes, another time lawn chairs and still to this day, there is always something left at mom's for us, by the Easter Bunny! Mom still goes to the Sunrise service in a field near the church on Easter morning. There was a time when all three of us girls would join her and the rest of the congregation as they sang and prayed every frosty early Easter morning. Though we are all rarely together Easter morning anymore, those are all happy, happy memories, but my all time favorite Easter tradition is one that started because two kids, who love to sing (by sing, I mean yell really loud, kind of in tune with the music that is playing) came home after one of those church services one Easter morning, feeling particularily inspired. They (me and Nic) came home, put Dolly Parton "He's Alive" on the stereo, blasted it as loud as it would go and sang at the top of our lungs with a passion matched only by Dolly herself, "...he's alive and he is risen, heaven's gates are open wide....he's alive, he's alive!!!!" Every Easter morning, since that one super inspired time, we have blasted that song and sang along. We never play it any other time of year, just Easter and I can no longer picture Easter without that loud, musical moment! So, Nic, this link has been attached especially for you, but I hope everyone will check it out and who knows, maybe you'll be compelled to sing a long too!!!!!! www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbRPWUHM80M -
(if you speed it up to 3:45 you will hear the part Nic and I sing....)

THE LAYOVER

You know you've spent to much time in the airport when you start taking photos of yourselves with very large stuffed animals!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

The last three weeks have provided opportunity to celebrate several birthdays. Mine was mid March and then Troy's was April first. He isn't in the country right now, but we celebrated anyway. April 2nd was Marty's. We celebrated that one all weekend and now, here we are THREE SLEEPS from Hawaii and we are bloated and full of all the good things that come with birthday celebrating!!!! We have THREE SLEEPS to soak up enough rest as we are THREE SLEEPS from more celbrating....Aimee is getting married in THREE SLEEPS!!!!!!!!!

THE DUMP

Just took our recycling to the recycle station. Calgary has an archaic recycling program and it makes me sick! We have no way to recycle yogurt containers and other plastic. Today I threw out a laundry detergent bottle, because the recycle station won't take it. I caught Marty trying to stuff a plastic salsa bottle into the milk jug slot. Do you know what the fine is for putting items that don't belong into the recycle slots? It's alot, that's all I know and though it pains me to throw that stuff out, we can't just shove it in the wrong hole or the truck won't take any of it at all! I don't mind recycling this way, it if is how I can do my part here in the city, but when I see what my mom's county does to recycle it makes me feel ashamed! Mom's county has provided each resident with an inhouse recycling station, EACH RESIDENT!!!! The "station" consists of waist high, stainless steel canisters, each with a seperate compartment for storing different recyclable materials, everything from plastic, to paper to carboard. Each resident was also given a "green box" for storing bio-degradable waste, a stinky, moldy, yet environmentally friendly idea! Throwing things out at Mom's house requires some thinking and remembering so as to get things in the right bin, but this extra effort is a small inconveniance in comparison to the difference they are making in their county. It wasn't always like this,over recycling, under recycling, there was a time when there was NO recycling! Those were simple days and I have good memories of them. Take the Dump, for example. Our family used to take all unburnable trash to the dump. Trips to the dump were adventures Aim, Nic and I looked forward to! On "dump day" we'd load up the blazer (the same faded yellow truck we used to pull the horse trailer,) with the trash, the stuff that fit into cans, and often stuff that didn't. Then the three of us girls would pile onto the front passenger seat together, dad would hop into the driver's seat, the am radio would get turned on, the windows would get rolled down and we'd leave the driveway chanting loud enough for mom to hear from the porch "to da dump, to da dump, to da dump, dump dump dump!" This was our time with Dad and we loved it. The fact that our quality time was spent en route to a dump didn't take away from the specialness of it at all!! Dad would back the blazer up to one of the huge holes in the ground at the dump and the three of us would jump out to help throw the trash off the truck, but not before investigating for treasures. That's right, the dump was one of the best places to treasure hunt. I can't remember leaving the dump one single time without taking something home with us from there. We all three got our first 2 wheel bikes from the dump. Dad retrieved each one from the bowels of the bins, a true testament to the fact that one man's junk is another man's treasure! We knew that by the time Dad was done with each bike, it would be perfect. Add some spokey dokes and streamers to each bike and sparkly yellow banana seats wrapped in duct tape, slightly bent frames and scratched paint suddenly become invisible! A few years back, I went with a friend to a dump near a lake community. This place was a jack pot and I couldn't help, but think about how much Dad would have loved this place! This dump was where all of the rich cottage owners threw out their trash. I got several planters from there and even a set of golf clubs, complete with the bag end a couple covers!! In those days, you could freely take whatever you desired from the dump, you didn't have to sign or even pay. You could just go, dump your stuff, take anything you wanted and leave. It was a simpler version of recycling, maybe not as effective, but definately simple! I've gone to the dump a few times with mom in her county and now, not only do you have to pay to dump stuff, but there's a dump nazi (that's what we call him) who makes you back up perfectly in front of a specified bin and ensures that you DO NOT take anything home from the dump!! Going to the dump with Dad just wouldn't have been the same had it been hindered by sooo many rules! I am glad for my happy dump memories, and I wonder if I will, one day, be able to make getting my kid's first bike as fun for him as dad made getting mine, for me? I guess the dump will be out, do ya think a garage sale will have the same feel?