Big City Living

Well, I am on day 4 in the big city. According to the people who are use to living in a city, Kelly and Frank live very close together. But to drive from one house to the other, it takes over 15 minutes (at 10pm when there is no traffic) double that time during the day. Its amazing how big a city Ottawa is. One thing about this city.... there isn't a ugly part of it. Not that I've seen yet, anyway. And so much to look at.... Amazing houses, with awesome landscaping...big and small properties... fun pathways.... there are so many cool businesses along each road...."Ottawa Reptiles"....Missy's Executive Pet Grooming"... "Newfie Pub"...."Couples Passion Shop".... Every kind of restaraunts....Lebonese...Italian...Vietamese....Greek.....oh my...the choices. These are all within walking distance to where we are staying.
I start my morning with an hour long walk threw the streets surrounding my in-laws. My first day of walking I stayed on the main streets.... Montreal Rd, Carson...Den Hagg.... but how boring... so I started walking through residential streets and there was so much to look at... I could walk for hours just looking. Also, I was quite amazed that when I met other people along the sidewalks, that no body looks you in the eye, at all.. It was quite unnerving. No greetings, no glancing, no nods.... The second day, I didn't look or nod, or glance, but as I got walking I thought to myself... how fast the city thought process takes over. So.... on the third day... I purposely looked at all my passersby and said hello. How fun..... older people.... looked back and said hello....maybe remembering how things use to be when life was a bit more simple. My age people where 100% responsive.... some nodded, some answered my greeting as an afterthought and others at least looked at me. Anyone younger, which was quite a few simply looked through me or past me. Hopefully they don't think I was a lunatic, but simple someone who isn't totally terrified to say a simple HELLO.
Yesterday... we took a day trip to Renfrew with the whole gang. Two car loads.... to visit an old family friend who has a wonderfully simple home and existence. He lives with the land, and putters all day with gardens, wood, and the nature around him. A lovely way of live. It was a great day and a fun trip with my two little nieces and sister in law. We sang silly songs, place abc games and a fun memory game.
Thats it so far.... we are on stolen wireless...... so I best go for now

Silence...

Stephanie finished at 3:30, then re read the last 100 pages, just to make sure. Now its Michelle and Scott. No one is talking. Michelle is boohooing.... and they are talking in riddles and hints.... so I had to leave the room!!!!

Harry Potter is here... at my house...

Long anticipated..... anxiously awaited. Family decisions....who reads it first. It was agreed that Stephanie would be first. (Arriving home last night, in time for the release). It is 1:05, and she is on page 229. She started at 11:00am. She has also done 2 loads of laundry. Michelle and Scott, sat for over an hour watching her face as she read. When I came in, she announced that it will be a hard book for me to read!!!!! I wasn't sure what she meant, but under further questioning (to the sounds of Michelle going LALALALALALALALALALA) she told me it was pretty sad so far. Michelle had to work at 12:30, which was one of the factors in the decision to let Stephanie read first. Scott and I are fairly slow readers, and therefore, Michelle is second on the reading list. soooooo.......... Scott drove Michelle to work 35 minutes ago, and arrive back 15 minutes ago, with his own copy. Ugh. Michelle accused him of letting the "only child" syndrome take over, because he just can't stand waiting to read it!!!!!! So, he is planted on the chair in his room, on page 15.

It will be a very quiet afternoon!

While you were out!

What a fun few days. I went to the big city of Fredericton on Tuesday... stopping by Sandra's in Moncton for supper and tea. Then early, early Wednesday morning, my sister, Gail, and I intruded on Stephanie's and Sean's apt... to come up with a plan. Stephanie had a vision of "coffee shop" colors. Paint the whole room... or one wall.. or a part of a wall... we rolled around some ideas..and then went to Home Depot... the paint department. A whole wall of color samples, a ton of booklets of ideas. We came up with an idea... and picked a ton of color samples.

Back to the apt, and Sean went to work, Gail went to an apt, and Stephanie and I went to work. We unpacked boxes, sorted clothes, made piles for garbage, piles to give away, we talked the whole time and came up with cool ideas for placements, chairs, boxes, etc. Stephanie and Sean had homework...just like on trading spaces. They had to pick colors... and make a pattern, measure and tape it off. No easy feat, especially with 12 foot ceilings.

At the end of the day, I left them alone and went to have a yummy supper with Gail and Mert. After a Snow Pea stir fry, sausage and rice... we hit Walmart for a few things that the kids are needing and then home again to make curtains for the new apt. The fabric was linen we found in Gail's sewing room and a couple of dollars worth of beads fancied the curtains up enough, and with a tieback, they will be easy to hang down for privacy, and up for light and air. We made the exact same ones for the bedroom but didn't hang those. Sean said he would do that tonight.

The best surprise for me was that Sandra called me last night and offered to come up today and help me with the painting. She was a GOD SEND.... truly... Stephanie and Sean both had to work, and Gail had an appointment in the afternoon... so I was basically solo with the "SS CAFE"paint job. When Sandra called I couldn't believe my ears. Sooooooo amazing.

Thursday morning started with a 8am meeting at READ's coffee shop (the best Cinnamon Coffee I have ever had) and a color presentation. S & S worked for a few hours, taping and bounced colors back and forth... and she left me with two choices. She just couldn't decide. So it was nice that I got some input. We went with a Disney colors scheme... Pluto, muddle something and haycorn brown. the red was RED RED WINE... fun. After buying paint, and a few supplies, I met up with Sandra by 9 and she helped me drag everything up the stairs. And we began!!! 3 coats of everything and by the end of the day... both Sandra and I had done enough climbing, balancing, plies, dives and dismounts that we feel we will be recruited by Circ du Soliel... truly.

First coat was gross but they got better as the afternoon worn on.

The best part of the day was taking the tape off and hanging curtains....

Sandra painted two of the six boxes and the kids will paint the others. they will look so nice in the room with the paint.

The curtains are hung, the crap is all out of the room and chairs moved back in. There is still lots to do, but we are done for the day. Thanks to Sandra for all your help...Gail for all your supervision, a yummy lunch and "passing of things" (that is a huge help when your up on a ladder or box and need a rag or color change)

Gotta love the colors and the beads. Stephanie's curtains match my "beadress" lamp in my dining room...with the cool beads.

Home tomorrow...with Stephanie in tow, with lots of projects for her to do while home....and a list for Sean to do while she is away!!!!

Backyard project

So, last summer... we worked almost all summer on our backyard renovations. Terry was busy the whole summer. This summer..... terry is not. Therefore he has decided to start creating. He would would to replace our deck over with an awning which will incorporate the whole deck, not just part of it. Why...... not sure......bored...... who knows. So last night he started the prototype. This is the canape that Terry would like to replace. On further questioning, he explained that the deck has lost at least 4 feet of usable space, the rain still gets the furniture and its starting to wear out, after 3 years in the weather.

This is the start of the prototype. It is not put together, just laid out. He acquired this pipe stuff from the dumpster at West Kings, and borrowed the pipe bender over night and did all the necessary bends a few days ago.
While I was outside with terry inspecting this newest project, we both made note of the big footprint in a small unplanted flowerbed in the yard. We chuckled at the fact that Mollie took a shortcut through the bed, when Terry noticed a little oddity. I said I did too, I notice a square hole in the dirt. He said no, look a little farther left...... can you see it?

I think the odd hole I found was the back or front door to a little toads home.. how fun.

Sunday Morning Entertainment!!!

Well, its not even 11 am and the morning has been a full day so far!!!! It started with a long walk with Mollie from home to Canadian Tire and around the path through the woods and home. We met a dog with his owner but the dog was running FREEEEEEEE. Now Mollie is usually a vicious ogre when she is on the leash, and a huge chicken when she is loose. But today, she was sort of scared but felt she needed to protect me... but as much as she tried to let the approaching dog know that she was wasn't scare of it, it was pretty obvious she was. She made herself as big as possible while she slowly backed up behind my legs..... anyway, it took only 2 seconds for them to make nose to nose contact and Mollie relaxed and enjoyed her new friend.

After our walk, I enjoyed our traditional Sunday morning breakfast (Dad and I) of poached eggs on toast... lots of pepper and a half banana... yum... Coffee with the family and then the wildlife entertainment started. This brave and determined squirrel edged along our canape over the deck for 5 minutes, a foot at a time, skittering back two feet, then ahead two feet..... he went down onto the deck and collected up on fallen seed from the feeder and flew back up to the canape. Then down again, a little faster... another seed.... back up to the post.

I think he knew he had entered into Cave Lion territory. No worries, both my cats were sound asleep in the front yard. After much bravado skittering, he decided he needed to go right to the source of the food..... What a hoot. He got quite brave and brazen actually. after about a half hour, Sonny(my 18 year old, stone deaf, hunter) sauntered up the stairs and settled himself down in a deck chair. Although he has no interest in this squirrel, and couldn't really move fast enough to catch him, the Squirrel was quite shaken by the intrusion and after 10 seconds of staring at the cat, he chose to leap to safety from the feeder to the canape... a span of 4 feet... and run to safety.

Then the phone rings..... Nova Alarms... the School Alarm is going off, and I am third on the contact list... on this quiet Sunday morning, so off I have to go to save the school from impending doom...... or a Sunday Morning Mouse Attack. I met the RCMP there, and they had no interest in going into the school to check for intruders, but I guilted them into it, when they saw me get out of my car and unlock the door. Anyway, as we all suspected, the school was clear. I took advantage of the time there and emptied the fax machine of the applications for Lynn's job and reloaded with paper. I listened to 17 phone messages... and then set the alarm and headed home. There was my Sunday Morning.... gone.!!!

Harry Potter!!!!!!

Finally got to see the "Order of the Phoenix" last night with Michelle, Scott and Terry. Terry came along as a "mild" Harry Potter fan, but the rest of us..... die hard fans.

The movie was fantastic.... dark..... action packed.... I enjoyed the sets.... Snapes office.... the jars on the walls. The Ministry..... oh, I can't wait to see it again.

The clear winner in funny parts ..... Luna Lovegood... She was pretty funny in a mostly dark movie...
Disappointed in how little we saw of Tonks... and quite a few things they couldn't fit into the movie. We were watching for clues.... the locket and odd trinkets in Serius's house (possible cruxs) ... Creature....(who was totally fantastic) The names on the family tree.... nothing that would confirm some of our theories... If they showed it in movie # 5, you know, if they felt it important enough to show it in "Order of the Phoenix" then it must be a clue to the last book ending... but we were disappointed and confused...

all in all... the movie was fantastic..... oh, the death eaters in the beginning....oh so creepy.... 7 days until book 7..... yipee

great website for viewing pictures of the movie :http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373889/

Purging is happening in the Peters house.... We got our first computer in 1982.... we have had one to two computers in our house ever since. Our children never knew a house without at least one computer, and for many years two. (we now have several, especially when the kids are home). We purged about 10 years ago, all the only floppy disk crap around... but it was time... to purge again... and it was hilarious to see some of the stuff we had... We are down to one bin of cds... (games, programs, archived stuff, pictures, fonts etc). we have over 50 empty jewel cases, and two bags of garbage, 3 CD racks (empty to get rid of), and 3 large "floppy" boxes (for the garbage). This is a box of just floppys and cds...... imagine!!!!

By the Dock of the Bay

Our first lunch out with staff... we visited the tiny but quaint cafe in Margartsville called "By the Dock of the Bay". the room is not as big as my office at school, but Amy and Sue managed to fit us in and get us all eating lunch with 45 minutes. I saw Quiches, salads, fish cakes, soup and plenty of desserts around the table. There were 14 of us today, and from how the summer plans of everyone sound, this will be our largest group. Paulette, Flora and Pat Casey were each sporting pictures of there brand new grand babies. Paulette's little "Hailey" is now 6 months old, and Flora's new grandson "Carson Jack" was born on July 5th, and Ms Patty Casey's little granddaughter "Dylan Alexis" was born on July 4th. How exciting is that. Everyone had congrats to Lynn with lots of questions about her new school... Kelly and Jaimee were there full of excitement over their new jobs (Kelly is at Kingston and Jaimee at Annapolis East) The rest were all sharing vacation plans, gardening stories.. and making plans for September already!!

The next School Lunch will be July 24 at Wheatons, but I will email next week towards the end of the week to get a feel for how many will be there. There are a few who just couldn't make it this week but will be there next time...

Summer Vacation

Oh..... its stupendous. Yesterday... my first day off. I have 44ish more to go..... I sat in the sun, did 4 loads of laundry.. while sitting in the sun. You know, we don't appreciate washing machines enough.... Imagine having to haul that laundry down to the river and beat it against the rocks... of course we would be sitting in the sun doing that too. Just not the same as stretching out on a lawn chair with a cup of tea, a book and a footstool. Ah...

Dad and I went out on an outing to the Doc's in Middleton and I had a nap around 4. I am still not sleeping at night, because of this cough. Nap was necessary!!

Debbie came over and we scrapped for an evening and got caught on family and school news. The evening was a "GRAND SLAM" evening as well, since Brian went out and bought us some Grand Slam chocolates to accompany us while we scrap. yum.

Terry's mom was down for a very short visit this weekend. Just a little over 24 hours, but we made the best of that time and did lots. We had two nice BBQ's in that time, went to frenchies, Den Hanns, the china shop in Middleton, had a nice fireside story-telling evening and a leisure Sunday Morning. Dad was in charge of the pea shucking!!!

Scott was the lion tamer. Thanks to Paula Gale who perfectly matched my wall color with the cats...And it's a rare moment I can get this sort of shot at the birdfeeder but I thought Sean might like to show his mom this one... She made this birdfeeder and its a HUGE hit in my yard. Even the woodpeckers go to it.

Congratulations Lynn

Well, I am over my shock..... and over my pout..... now I am onto revenge. I will miss you terribly, because you are my favorite person to harass, tease, irritate and most of all, laugh with. You have the best laugh, and you are the best to share a laugh with. I think you are well prepared to be a principal, and will be a great addition to Champlain School. You will show that staff what its like to have a "Good Time". I know you will be firm, and fun at the same time.

For your first day at work, I think you should be a little dressed up.... you know, in that nice outfit you wore for your 50th birthday!!!

Then once they get to know you better, you should go for the more casual look. And offer treats and snacks around to the gang (instead of hogging them all to yourself)

I love you Lynn, and I am so pleased for you. I will always be thankful that you never really repaid me for the all the irritating stuff I have done to you in the past, and actually, will continue to do, really. Cause I love ya. You are always beautiful to me.

Just don't feel like blogging......

I have so much to tell... but not feeling like sitting down to blog. Gotta cold, sore throat, no voice.....can't get rid of it... no energy... ugh.

I am now in the last few days of work..... getting the final things done for next school year. Just waiting for staffing. Should all be decided for the teachers, on Friday, and EA's on Monday. Unfortunately, I will be finished work on Friday, but will get all the updates for staff, and do all the last minute things..... floor plan, playground firedrill map, Emergency, Conference and Attendance cards (all with staff names), switch mailbox names, PA names, etc. That is our Friday work.... and then done.
Canada Day weekend.....
Terry & Scott headed up to Fredericton to help Stephanie and Sean move into their new, deeper in town, second floor apt. But along they way, they made a surprise visit to my cousis, Sandra's house with a little treat for their new house. Some deck chairs and pots of flowers for their VERY bare backyard deck. The "surprise visit" was the best part.

The move was successful, but no pictures. Hopefully Stephanie will send along pictures, or at least blog soon.

Meanwhile, back in Greenwood.... I was blessed with a visit from my sister, her hubby, and Emily. What a fun filled weekend we had. The highlight of the weekend was Oaklawn Farm and the "feeding of the bear". Emily was so excited to let her sister know that SHE FED the BEAR.
Some of the other events of the weekend were..... Upper Clements Park, Dollarama, People's Jewelers, A "Nova Scotia" tee shirt... Ratatouille (the movie), big airplanes and buying her sister some little presents to bring back with her.

Sunday morning, everyone was on the move. Emily and her grandparents left quite early, and Terry and Scott arrived home early afternoon, in plenty of time to watch the fireworks at 10pm. Ashley came for supper, and joined us for the fireworks. there isn't too many fireworks nights here in Greenwood that we don't spend with at least 1 of the Walker Clan.

GARDENS.... again?... sorry.... they are so fun

Baskets......

Mostly shade pots in my yard with the except of the two in the driveway.

Scarlett Runner Beans....... they have reached 7 ft....

June 7th- the beans are just starting to pop up, and its before the tomatoes are planted.

July 4th- the beans are 7 feet tall, the tomatoes have blooms, and the rhubarb is gigantic!!

This is my favorite little mystery plant in my garden. I planted it 5 years ago, it blooms every second year, and produces tons of little plants that are easy to transplant. When the blooms fall off the centers turn into pretty globes of red. And today it bloomed its first burst of color, and will bloom all summer.

Thats it.... all I have energy for......