Birthday

Well today has been a day of trials and tribulations full of uncertainty for what may lay for the future. Driving home from class last night watching at the gas prices fall from municipality to the next, just dumb founded at how fast things are starting to become with our economy. I have always been the optimistic telling my self that this will never affect me and my family. Today this optimistic point of view may have just caught up with me. And it never ceases to amaze me that these hard times always fall on my children’s birthday. My daughter 2nd birthday was one to remember, that was day we lost our Hydro for 8 days because food was more important the heat. Today it my son’s 9th Birthday and layoffs were just announced were there father works. Today maybe the last day that he will work with this company.

Not that I am complaining about this, it has been a good run and this announcement was to be expected, but more towards Christmas. So now it is just a waiting game until I hear more news about this. But in the mean time…….

My son is having a great Birthday. He has been very excited about the idea that he has no school today, in his mind this best present ever. He did have the stress of parent/teacher interview and was told that he had to present for this one. He was nervous about this and so was I. Being the boy that he is, he has a hard time sitting still, he somewhat out spoken and he really loves his friends and as a result, he has had a lot of reminders about his performance. We thought that this was way he instructed to attend this conference. But as it may be – all the kids we told to come with their parents. Talk about relief. After the conference, his Birthday had just gotten better. The little guy got one C plus, five B’s and one A in math. There was letter grade missing and he feels that he is going to get an A in that class (Gym)….

His day is still not over, there is more to come….

So family member’s out place stay tuned.

I Have a Cat and His Name Will be Wisers

Well I should be doing homework and I should be doing house work, but I think I have had too much coffee so far today….I need talk about my newest addition to my family. After long conversations for the past couple of years over this one topic with my family members, I have gotten a cat. A very cute, stinky, keep me up in the middle of the night, cat. And we have decided that his name should be Wisers, yes that is right, named after Canadian Whisky. This name suits him because even thou he is a long domestic longhair Tabby, the colour of the Brown in him looks like the colour of whisky. So there you have it.

Wisers was found as a stray by my friends’ mother-in-law who works at our CASA building here in the village (downtown Sooke), this building is where Family Services is located and other wonderful organization to help families grow. She has noticed that the cat was hanging around for a couple of weeks and my friend (the daughter-in-law) had fallen in love with him. So she took him home. However, she as already has 5 other cats. She knew that I had wanted one and asked if we wanted him. So know I have a cat.

I took the cat to the vet and found out this cat is around 5-6 years old. He has been given a clean bill of health. As a precaution the cat has been vaccinated for the feline HIV and other stuff, but he still needs to have the Rabbeis and Dysfunction? (I believe it is called.) He was already neutered so that’s a bonus. I had the kids with me this morning before taking the older one to school and the vet decided to give the cat a Birthday for the children, so the cats B-day is March 1, 2002.

Also a little other tid bit about the name, my friends son has named the cat BudWeiser after his dad’s favorite Beer. I liked the name before I met the cat, but as soon as I have seen him….Wisers was the perfect name.

He Lives!!!!!!

I am really happy to announce that the 70 year old man LIVES!!!!!!!!

It was not a body bag that I have seen go into the back of the ambulance, (Thank God) it was a very bundled up poor soul who was in such a state of shock that he could not feel his broken Tibia and Fibula (the leg bones below the knee). Because he could not feel the broken bones the ambulance personal did not feel that it was necessary to go with lights and sirens. That is why they had took so long leaving the scene.

However, we do have a case of Hit and Run. My class mate who is a Paramedic who works out here in Sooke has told me that emotions are running high on this one. R.C.M.P figures that whoever hit this man lives on this road. From what I understand it was a car and there is significant damage to the front of it. I have a feeling that who ever owns this car will not be using it anytime soon. Sooke is such a small community that somebody will notice the damage. I just hope that this person turns him self in and count his/her lucky stars that they did not kill the pour soul.

The Fog Was Thick Last Night......

Before I can continue my Activities of Daily Living, cleaning up everyone’s used epidermis’s (dust) and fingerprints off of my T.V. and fish tank I really need to get a few things of my chest. Last night was one of those nights where I wish I went go to school. But however, because of my daughter not being 100% health wise I ended up spending two hours in the walk in clinic in Langford (a ½ hour drive from Sooke) for a prescription for her ailment. It is amazing what children pick up!

Deciding to go shopping well I was in town for a few odds and ends, I didn’t realize just how foggy it became as our afternoon turned into evening. After paying for my stuff, I walked out of the store and it was hard to see the parking lot. The street lights looked ghostly in the fog and the cars driving under the streetlights looked like shadows. I almost needed a butter knife to cut through the fog just to find my car. Under these conditions heading back into Sooke would be a long and careful drive. Because of the fog and it almost seems to be the rule of thumb in my area that the fog will spell disaster and some poor family will suffer a tragedy. And sure enough tragedy did strike - five minutes before my house.

Carefully driving along the last road to my house, I was greeted with an R.C.M.P cruiser with lights flashing. A half of kilometer after that cruiser was an ambulance, more cruisers and rescue personal scattered all over the road. (The lights flashing in the night with the dense Fog reminded me of a night club blasting its fog machine) However, oddly enough there was no Fire Trucks. This told me that this was involved a pedestrian. I was the third car from the scene. I was greeted with an officer who explained to me that they would be letting cars go through in about five minutes. Unfortunately those five minutes turned into 45 minutes. The ambulance was in no rush to go anywhere and after a while of waiting I decided to turn off the car and go out side for a cigarette; I ended up watching the rescue personal put what looked like a body bag into the back of the ambulance, and sadly enough the rescue truck that holds the huge Halogen Flood lights came and was set up so the light could shine down on the scene and officers could get the tape to measure the skid marks on the road. From what I understand this is done after a death. What a tragedy! I really do hope with all of my heart that it wasn't a bodybag that I have seen going into the back of the ambulance. I really, really hope that it wasn't.

I had learned well I was waiting from another person (who had a good sorce within the R.C.M.P) who was also waiting to go through the chaos that it was a 70 year old man and it was a hit and run. There are several old men that live where I live and I wonder which one it was. My heart goes out to the family.

For me, this is a grave reminder to all who walk the roads in rural areas to wear the proper reflective clothing so drivers can see you out there. I had a long to talk with my son about this this morning when I drove him school. I just hope that he would remember my words. Of course I would remind him and buy what he needs to be safe, I just hope my words will sink home!

The School Gods Were Smiling!

I would never would of believed it if some one would walk up to me two years ago and tell me that I would have a favorite wall. I am not talking about the wall that I use as a shrine for my childrens art work, but the kind of wall that would make me feel nervous, scared, laugh and releived all at the same time. This wall has the name of the "The grade Wall." And this wall is the most popular wall in the Continuing Care Building. It is amazing how this wall will turn the most rounded person into a bowl of jelly. All who view this Great Wall will either hang thier heads down in shame or their backs against the wall with the look of asperation and thinking to them selves, thank God that is over and done with, NEXT!"

In order to get to my class room, I have to walk past this Wall. There is no avoiding this Wall. I don't want to walk past it and I do wish that the classroom is on the other side of the building or even on the first flour. This would make me so happy. But no, my class room is located infront of 'the wall.' I walk out of the classroom the wall greats me every single time.

Last night I walked past the Wall. I kept my head down avoiding eye contact with the wall. I did not want to see my student number on the wall. Because there will be the most dreaded number in the world marked beside my student number. I walked into the class room and I look at my class mates. Do theylook Happy? Do they look disappoined?

Has the marks been posted? I am sure I will find out. The teacher walks in the greating us with her famous Nurse smile. She has a peace of paper in her hands. Oh God, the marks!

"I have done marking your exams, would you like to know the range of the marks before I put them up on the wall? Of course we all want to know the Range!!! 19 to 30. I thnk to my self that 19 is mine. I know I needed to get 21 to pass. Dread fills up in in side. We all follow her with our eyes as she goes to the wall and hangs the paper with a thumbtack. We all watch her walk back into the class room. She gives us a look and smiles at us all and says quite happley "Do you want to know how you all did?" We all jump out of our chairs and make our way to the wall. We are all shoving and pushing each other like small school children to found our most secreat number. I find mine, I close my eyes and then open them. My back is aganst the wall. and I think to my self "Thank God, I am glad that is over and done with. NEXT!" I past my test with flying colours.

6th Foot Found on Beach!!!!

I really don’t get to read the paper that much anymore since I started my course, but when I do, I get a kick out of some of the stuff that I read. I found out last night that someone has found another shoe with the foot still in side it washed up on a beach. Wow, 6 feet all together, in what a year? A year and a half? Strange! This is a mystery indeed.

One of the things that I get a kick out when reading stories such as this, is the comments section and for this one there was lots; just to let you know I read my paper online. It is amazing how people like to speculate what had happened to these pour souls who have lost their feet. My favorite theory is about a boat that had sunk somewhere and a bunch of illegal immigrants were on board. This accident was never reported because the boat was never to be in our waters to begin with. Anyways, read the article and read the comments. Some of them are interesting. Some of them are down right stupid, but I must worn you, there is a lot police bashing.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=3d3ff931-97ab-4dda-8d54-278d56f55b1b

Part 2 - Being a Tad Stressed!!

So here is the continuation to my car key Saga. Yesterday was a brand new day and to my relief everything was open. I was able to make up 4 keys for the car. One I have, one I gave to a friend for safe keeping and the other key is located with the truck keys. And get this. I have already misplaced the 4th one. My daughter had a mild temper tantrum in the parking lot of the Nissan Dealer ship and that key went flying somewhere, could be in the car, I just don’t know. But that is all right. At least I have the other 3 keys and the key code to the car for when (and it is a matter of when) those keys go missing.

My car did not get towed and to a great deal of relief, the only horrible thing that happened as a result was I got a 20.00 ticket from the parking company in charge of the parking lot for failing to produce. Get this…. I was issued the ticket 15 minutes before I arrived to pick up the car. Could that be a higher power telling me something?

As a joke, I was given a key rope for the only key that I have for the car. If I was to be somewhat offended by this friendly joke, (construction worker mentality) I don’t know, but I was more then grateful for the gift, because it is a wonderful idea. And yes, yesterday I did wear my keys around my neck and this made me feel very reassured to the fact that I could fell them on my body. After going through what I did…I am sure you would to.

But as a result from all the stress (being yelled at) that came with losing my keys and the horrible sleep I got the night before (children not wanting to sleep until 2 a.m.). It would be somewhat of a miracle if I barely passed my exam yesterday for module 155. It was a very strange feeling to look at the questions and know that I know the answer but can’t quite formulate my thought process to think of the best way to answer it because I was to damn tired to concentrate.

So let this be a HUGE Lesson for me.

If I do poorly on this exam, I now that I better work real hard for the next one to keep my marks up.

Can You Say, Just a Tad Stressed!

When people are stressed out they do some dumb things such as, lets see here, forget important dates such as anniversaries, unable to sleep; I am sure you get the idea. When I get stressed out, I loose things, not just any type of thing, just only one thing and that thing just happens to be my keys. I have been doing this since for as long as I have been on my own, fresh from the home nest. Over the years I have learnt the importants of having spar keys of every kind. I have even learnt that the best for me is have a separate key ring for the house and a separate key ring for the car, this way I don’t loose both at the same time. But what happens when you loose the last set of keys that you have for the car. While I just found out.

As I was doing the 5 minute dash from parking lot to classroom I had dropped my car keys somewhere along the way. I didn’t realize until I got to the classroom that my keys were gone. During my first class, I was unable set still. I went through my pockets and my school bag. Looked in the women’s washroom countless of times. Heck, I even done the gross, I dug through garbage bins looking for my keys in the women’s washroom. (Big washroom - 7 stalls, 5 garbage bins) I have talked with campus security, campus general services and the library. No keys. Second class, I realized that my keys are gone; gone where all lost keys go to live out the rest of their key lives, never to be seen again.

It is after my second class (my last class for the night) things get interesting. After calling home and finding out the Nissan dealer ship phone number for my area (they have someone in the office after hours for road side assistance) I was told that I would have to wait until tomorrow and someone from parts would call back in the morning. Perfect I thought, Deal with everything then. Get a good night sleep and everything will work out. So with some peace of mind, I locate a bus schedule and slowly make my way back to Sooke – 3 bus transfers and 2 hours later.

Well today is tomorrow and today just happens to be a holiday. Everything is closed. No phone call from the dealer ship. Can’t get a hold of the parking lot company to let them know why the car is still there. The only thing that I can do today is talk with Nissan international and find out how I can get keys made with out a set available to me or parts. I was told I need to speak with the original dealership - located in Calgary and ask for the Key code.

And from there the Saga continues………….

D Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow is test day – After cramming Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of basic human needs and studying each need in-depth through human development physically, socially, emotionally, cognitively and spiritually and taking a close look of the Continuity Theory for understanding aging in all aspects of one self and, Good God, can’t forget the importance of Asepsis in the work/home environment, my head feels like it is going to explode. After saying this sentence out load, I am out of breath.

But to let you know I feel good about this test. I will most likely not get a 100% in this test but I know I will get at least a high 80% or low 90% and I really need to remind my self that this test is only 20% out of my module 151 course. So it is not that bad. It is the other two tests that I need to worry about the most. There both at 30% for the over all mark. There are some assignments but the mark criteria are small.

I know my family can’t wait until after Friday, I am sure they want the house back to its normal state and I discovered that T.V is the best babysitter for my daughter. I know some of you will think differently about but when you have to hit the books and it’s is just the two of you. You do what you got to do.

Well back to the books I go for my last day of studying.

Pre Test Jitters

I have my first big test out of a hundred big tests coming up this Friday, and am I nervous about it, you bet I am. It is not the actual test that bothers me, it's the anxiety leading up to the test that is stressful. In order to pass this test I need a B or higher. As with the whole course, I need a B or higher to graduate and obtain my certificate or it's money poorly spent.

Living out in Sooke has it draw backs with this whole college thing. Tonight there is a study group downtown Victoria and I can’t go because of my family obligations. And I also hate driving in the torrential rain that seems to be the worse in between Sooke and Langford, so I am just going to have to make due with me, my self and I. I am sure we will do fine; it is just the pre-test jitters.

Well back to the books I go.

October is gone....

October is gone and so is Halloween and that is fine by me. At least there will be another Halloween next year and the year after that, and the year after that and so on and so forth. I missed out on Trick or Treating, but I got to hear fantastic stories about the festivities. I was told that the Haunted House at the Sooke fire Hall was spectacular. The staff there had out done themselves as usual. I heard about a man hanging in a tree beside his house trying to scare everyone. From what I understand the individual was hanging for two hours. What people do for the fun of Halloween?

I my self didn’t see any thing eye catching, just people walking down town in the everyday clothing. Oh wait, I lied, I seen a very tall tin man walking down the road I live on. That was neat.

My drive home was uneventful. I was expecting to at least pass through 3 road blocks on my home from school, and I didn’t even see one police car. So ether we had a very quite Halloween and every one was good (likely not) or I was just in the wrong spots and the wrong times. I didn’t even see a fire cracker….Strange….

What ever the case may be, I survived last night.

It is Halloween!!!!!!!!!

“Trick or Treat, give me something sweet to eat
Not to big, not to small
Just the size of Montreal”



I love Halloween; I have been Trick or Treating as far as long as I can remember. I don’t even think I have missed a year of trick or treating for as long as I have been old enough to go out on my own. I have been fairies, garbage bags, dressed up as man quite a few times. Come to think of it, I have been a pillow once or maybe twice. I have been that 15 year old that showed up on the door step saying “My sister is sick; I am Trick-or Treating for her.” Got a lot of looks for that one and a couple of “You are so sweet for doing that for you sister, here, have some candy for you too!” And then my friends started having babies – my lowest point ever with this chocolate crazy event, yes, I have borrowed other people’s children for my own greed. And then I had my own children…….Life is sweet as chocolate.

This Halloween will be the first Halloween that I can ever remember missing and yes this makes me very sad. I don’t eat chocolate that much any more, but I love watching the children go door to door, and I have been that person who gives out the candy a couple of times and to tell you right now I do make them sing and dance for the sugary treat. I am passing the torch on the father of my children for this one and only time. To make sure the kids are worn out and gobble up as much candy as they can before going to bed. Yes he would also need to enforce the five minute scrub of the teeth. And he would need to follow my number one rule of Trick or Treating, “Always check the candy before giving the candy to the kids”. It is a good thing that my friend is going with him for he would most likely be needed to be reminded about that rule. After all Halloween has and will always be my department. Russians don’t do Halloween.

It has been a while scince Halloween has fallen on Friday, so their are going to be a lot of drunk people out there goofing off and being idiots (as my brother likes to say) and a lot of them will be behind the wheel. I will be driving two hours tonight and I don’t drink and drive, I am totally against this. So for all of you out their celebrating the night we get to dress up and be somebody or something else – please, for the safety of our children and the safety for the rest of us who can’t celebrate because of classes and other obligations. Don’t Drink and Drive!!! It would mean a lot to rest of us that we all be safe on the roads tonight.

Have a safe Halloween.

College Student Now........

Wow!!!!

I almost forgot what my Blog looked liked. After being away from it for two and half weeks and just coming back to it now, I love my pumpkins more then ever. It is too bad that I am going to have to find a new skin somewhere to replace them in the next couple of days. (I guess I am going to have to fight with the kids for computer time)

I would like to say sorry for not posting an entry but my weeks have been very busy with School, family and other obligations that I have and it is just now that I my self and my family have found a good routine regarding the new changes around the house. The big change is that I am now a part time student at Camuson College. 3 nights a week I am at school. My classes start 3:30 in the afternoon and do not end until 9:30 at night. It takes me about 45 minutes to commute both ways from home to school.

My son is starting to get used to being by him self after school for an hour after gets off the school bus and my daughter getting used to the baby sitter, and my husband is getting a ride to work and back from one of his bosses. Small “D” my son, is still finding weird that when he comes home from school on the days that I don’t go, I am doing homework. So as you can see some big changes in my house.

Just to remind people what I am taking at college; I am doing the H/RCA course and will not be done with that until June of next year. Other words, I am going to be a Nurses Aid. After I am done my course, I am strongly considering doing the bridge course from H/RCA to LPN, but before I can do the jump from one course to another, I need to log 850 hours as a RCA or HCA.

OH!!!!! An interesting tid-bit that I have learnt from school, the age classification of what a young adult is in the health field has changed to 19 – 35 years of age. (Middle age is 35 – 65 years of age, the golden years is 65 and up) So you see I am still a young adult and therefore forgiven for being a late bloomer when it comes to postsecondary education. (A big smiley face here!!!!!!)

NO MORE OF NO POWER BC HYDRO

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving week-end. Turkey Dinner at friend’s place where I got to meet some wonderfully funny people, having beers around a bond fire on a cold, crisp autumn night – should I mention most of those beers were birthday beers. Happy Birthday to two wonderful people – You know who you are. Cheers. A side from being sick with a hacking cough and a fever yesterday and today, my long weekend was a good..... **sniff - sniff**

The only problem that I have had so far with my long weekend was the power outages. BC Hydro all I have to say to you is @#$#$!! &^%%&!! And @#$#!! I have had 5 power outages in the last 9 days. It wouldn’t be so bad if I was out of power for an hour or less, but I am talking about outages that last for four to five hours at the most. And what gets me is none of the outages are storm related. My house hold woke up 5:30 this morning with no power. Made the call to BC Hydro and they were not aware of us having no power. Needless to say after waking up with no power, I fell a sleep on the couch and missed waking up my son to get him ready for the school bus. He missed the bus and I am sure he is thanking BC Hydro for NO POWER as I write this entry. Saturday over 300,000 people went with out power during their turkey dinner and countless other times before the long weekend with NO POWER! I am tired of NO POWER. I had an enough of NO POWER. I am up to eyes with NO POWER. I am tired of buying candles and tealites and more candles and tealites. No more of NO POWER!!!
**sniff** **cough**sniff**sniff***

I have vented and now I feel better. I am going back to my couch and have my tea with cough medicine and countless of other cold remedies to make my self feel better and count how many days it will be before the next power outage. I put my money in four days for the next one. What would you think? **sniff - sniff**

[Sorry Folks, I mean Sunday over 200,000. with out power while eating turkey dinner]

***sniff***cough**sniff**cough**cough**sniff**

Should I also say I am tired of being sick.

To Cute! I Had To Share...

Secret Knowledge of Grown-ups

The Rule: don't leave your choths lying around.

The Adult reason for the rule: They will never get washed.

The Truth: The creature hiding in your bed will eat your cloths! You see, he gets hungry lying there, so some day he'll come when your sleeping! That's not snoring that you hear by your mom or dad! It's the creature eating your sock! Infact human's don't snore at all!

Written by a student at my son's school. This won a spot on the biweekly news letter sent home today. LOL - had to share.

A Man's Heart

There is a saying: “A way to a man's heart is through his stomach,” and I couldn’t agree more. One of the interesting aspects of my relationship with my partner is that we are what you would call an inter-racial mix. I am Canadian and he is Russian. And believe it or not our two cultures are very different from one another; everything from Religion to food. Every now and again he and I have to improvise with one another to make our relationship work and blend our two cultures. So as a result we celebrate two Christmases, New years and a couple of holidays. And as for food, I do go way out of my way to give him a taste of home. Yesterday was one of those days.

I prepared a dish called “Perminee.” It is like a Perogee, but with out Potatoes. This dish has a meat mix inside. Perminee is a very tasty dish to eat, but very time consuming to make. I made 130 Perminee and it took me 4 hours to do it. Plus I had to walk to the nearest store to pick up milk, so add an extra hour.

When I came home from the store, I noticed that he had called twice on his lunch hour. I called him back and he asked what I was doing, (he was bored) I told him that I was getting the kitchen ready to make some Perminee’s. He said “Ya-right, you are now.” Kind of like I need to see it to believe it. Any ways time moves on and I have flour every where in the kitchen, all over me and my daughter had destroyed my house. My son came home from school, he help make a couple Perminee and before I knew it, it was Supper time and I had just finished up with the last of the Perminee.

The phone rings. It’s the Russian. “What are doing?” he asks. I tell him that I am getting ready to eat Perminee. “You made Perminee!” I tell him that I had told him earlier that I was going to make some. “You made Perminee!” he asks again and the next thing I heard was “I love you!” So you see, it is true, the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Happy Friday!

Baby Formula

5 days a week I wake up before my son, put his cloths for the day into the dryer to warm them up for him, make him a warm breakfast, make a warm lunch and send him off to school on the school bus. After he is gone, I make my self an extra strong Americano and enjoy my first cigarette of the day. (I know, nasty habit) After that I sit down on the couch, pick up my laptop and read my news on the Time’s Colonist web site. After I read the news I make another Americano and reflect about what I have read.

For the Past month and a little bit I have been keeping my eye on the milk products recall in China, waiting for the recall to effect Canada. And sure enough a recall took place yesterday. And all I can do is shake my head in wonder that anything like this could ever happened. For all of you who don’t know what has happened, China’s baby formula makers have been adding Melamine, a harmful substance that had killed 5 babies, and made thousands of other children sick with kidney ailments. And from what I understand this has been going on for a very long time until somebody noticed that it was the baby’s formula that was making them sick. As the Chinese officials investigated further into the matter, they found Melamine was added into chocolate products and imported around the world.

Two years ago my family had traveled to Far East Russia to visit family who lives a half hour away from the Chinese Border. My Son at the time was going into grade two and my daughter was 4 ½ months old. Because I made the choice on not breast feeding for the trip; my daughter was depended on formula. One of the things that we looked into was bringing our own formula or buying formula for her in Russia. If we bought formula in Russia we would have a lot of room in our luggage for other personal belongings. We made the phone call to Russia and asked about the Baby formula and were told that to bring our own. We did. Later we had learned that the babies in Far East Russia were becoming sick and the local people were looking at China. There was a rumor that there was counterfeit formula being imported into Russia from China. So as you can see this story hits home to me, because my daughter could have consumed Melamine in Russia if we never bothered to call Russia. The sad thing is this had taken more then two years for this come into the open. Our family members and friends who live in Far East Russia were right. It was the Baby formula.

To learn more about the latest recall www.http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=8a952bd5-01cd-4819-86de-275421f24f3e

Food and Books....

Is it my imagination or has food prices actually gone up again? As I was doing my normal biweekly food shopping (for a family of four), I could not help but notice that the cost of food has gone up again. I was quite surprised to see that NN brand concentrate juice (a family pack of nine) had gone from being $ 6.48 to $6.99 to $7.39. There were a few other brands of juice that has gone up as well; Soy Milk has gone up as well, from $3.49 to $4.49 – or close to, but that happened awhile ago. There are a few other things that I have notice that changed price again; I just can’t remember what those items are at the moment. But has anyone noticed? Noticed at all?

Well today was a good day. My other half didn’t go to work again, so I had the car to myself. I scrambled enough money together to buy one Module for my course thinking that it was going to cost $150.00. Before I hopped in the car to drive into down town Victoria, I thought best that maybe it was a good idea to call ahead to the college book store to make sure that the book was available and as it turns out it was. All three books were available and I bought all three together for the price of $59.99. Curse that typo on course info that said the books were a $150.00 each. So I am set for Modules for this term. Couldn’t be happier then a kid in a candy store right now.

Still Waiting For The Wood Guy

Look at me two postings in one day....

I am still waiting for the wood guy to come and give us wood and take our money. So needless to say I am quite bored at the moment. So to occupy my spare time, I decided that I am going to play with my blog and look what I discovered I could do. I found a bunch of free templates on the Internet. I came across some Halloween backgrounds that I wouldn't mind trying out. So don't be sirprised if my blog changes quite abit in the next 3 1/2 weeks.

see ya

Ya Hoo! No Power

As I wait for the fire wood guy to come and collect his money for 2 cords of wood, I minus well share with you my Friday night (yesterday). Every Friday in my house is what we call “Happy Friday” Happy it is. Friday is the day we let loose from all the stress of the other unhappy days and be thankful that they have come and gone. Friday is the day that I like to drink 1.5L of wine, anything over 1.5L is a waste of alcohol. My other half drinks what ever he wants. And we have a good time. We let the kids run loose and stay up late because it is their “Happy Friday” too.

Yesterday was a good night with a twist, we had company come over with their two kids and the power went out. Power outages in my nick of the woods are common like the common cold. We have so many trees around us that BC Hydro can’t keep up with the trimming of the branches to keep them off the power lines. We also live on a high crash road, especially when it is raining; having a car miss a turn and run into power poll is common, but more like the flu virus.

Our power outage last night was caused by an accident (I hope no one was hurt badly). But let me say this, the kids had a blast, running around with flash lights from one dark room the next. We sat around the fire place watching the fire, I had tealite’s going through out the house, and we had my other half play the piano to entertain us. Last night was truly a "Happy Friday" and will be remembered.

“Happy Friday”

Note: 11 days until school starts and next Friday will be my last "Happy Friday". I guess I should change it to "Happy Saturday"?

12 Days To Go....

Today is exactly 12 days before my academic life starts. October 15 is my first day of college. And I am happy to announce that I almost have all my ducks in a row with payments schedules, class schedules and what not. Of course their a few loose ends that need to be tied up, but that would happen with time, I am sure. The only thing left that I really need to do is make my way to the college book store and buy the 3 modules that I need for this term. After making inquiries I found out that each module: HSRC 151 Heath and Healing, HSRC 155 Work Role, and HSRC 180 Lifestyle and Choices, are going to cost $150.00 each. Ouch!! But that is the price one must make for a higher education and a fatter pay cheque.

So for the next 12 days, I am just going kick back and relax at home and enjoy life before school starts. And take it day by day.

I Am We.....

Being that the rainy season here on the Island has officially started today; I decided that it was a good day to tackle the forever growing pile of paper that lives beside my phone and other little piles that mushroomed up though out my house. Some of it important stuff that has to do with my school, bills that have been paid but never made there way to the shredder machine; but the majority of the paper is from my son’s school. I can always tell by the pretty colors that they use, pink, blue, light yellow, and for some reason mustard yellow has been the favorite choice so far.

As I systematically weeded through the pile papers, putting each topic in to its designated new pile, I came across sheets of paper that belongs to my son. I decided that I was going to take a small rest and see just what he had put on the paper. Most of it was drawings, mock spelling test that he and I have done together, but there was one that really caught my eye. It was folded up into quarters and well wrinkled. On the front it said “Circle yes or no if you like it” in my sons writing. Just to let you know right now that the yes was circled and in some other kids writing was the word “funny.” Being very interested in what was so funny I decided to open the paper. This was what was inside.

Say:
I Am We Todd It.
Sofa King We Todd It.

It took me a couple tries to figure it out - call me slow, and then it hit me like a bag of bricks! His father pulled the same joke on me awhile ago and my son must have been around to hear me say those words out load.

I am not up-set with my son for that; trust me it could have been much worse. But it just goes to show just how much children learn from the home.

The Bug Zoo

Yesterday was a good day for a day trip into down town Victoria with my 2 ½ old daughter. The sky was blue with clouds here and there, with a high of 25, most likely one of the last days of summer like weather before the onset of fall/winter weather – Rain.

Every once and while I like to walk to the nearest bus stop (35 minute walk from my house) and ride all the way to Victoria (55 minutes). Just to see what the city dwellers are doing. I walk around and sight see, have a Star Bucks coffee, buy a few nick knacks that I really don’t need and meet up with my better half for a ride home. My son loves it when I do one of my little day trips because he gets the whole house to him self for an hour after school; uninterrupted cartoon viewing.

But yesterday was somewhat special for my 2 ½ old because this day started off for her 2 weeks ago with my last day trip to the city. As we waited for the bus to Victoria, there were a couple other people waiting with us, a man and a woman. The man and the women were in heavy conversation but every now and then the man would look and my daughter and smile. Of course my daughter, the socialite, would smile and wave back. As the man got ready to leave the bus stop, he looked at us and walked over. He told me that I have a very beautiful daughter and I should be proud of her. He put his hand into his pocket and pulled out $20.00. He explained that his daughters are all grown up and would give anything to have the baby years back. My daughter reminded him of his girls. He instructed me to take her out and have fun. I was caught off guard with his kind gesture and didn’t want to offend him by saying no, so I took the money. And for two weeks this $20.00 bill has been in my wallet.

As I was walking around Victoria yesterday I found my self out side the Victoria Bug Zoo, and thought what a wonderful way to spend the $20.00 that was given to my daughter. She has been fascinated about bugs lately and I thought this would be something that she would enjoy. Oh man, did she love it. We spent a good 35 minutes looking at bugs. She was most impressed with the Ants. She got to pet a Millipede (the thing was 4 inches long!) and a Giant Walking Stick Bug. She ran from one display to another just looking at all the different bugs. After looking at the bugs we went to the gift store and she picked out an orange stuffed spider as a bug zoo souvenir. She named her spider “Spider.”

So to the stranger with the kind gesture, as to my promise to you on how to spend the $20.00, my daughter had a blast. Thank – you were ever you may be.

Micheal Moore......

Last night was one of those nights were we found our selves with out our satellite T.V. It is not because we don't pay our bills, it is more sinister then that, but for the sake of trying to explain why didn't have any T.V last night, we didn't pay our bill. As we waited for the "payment to go through," we decided that it was a good time to watch a DVD from our 'need to be watched pile' and next on up on the pile was Michael Moore's - Fahrenheit 9/11. I am sure you can see where I am going this.

You are most likely asking your self why we didn't watch it when it first came out, well that question is simple - we never been much into politics. But what a weird time to watch that documentary with the elections going on and the economic crisis taking place within the United States. All I can say is this - after watching Fahrenheit 9/11 I feel very enlightened and being Canadian, well I never been more proud of my nationality.

I decided that I was going to find out more about Micheal Moore and see if he has any websites or blogs and to my delite, he does. So it really saves me from ranting and raving about what I have watched last night.

To find out more about Micheal Moore go to http://www.michaelmoore.com/

He even has a little section for us Canadians.

After going through his website, it looks like he is in the process of creating an other documentary and it could about health care in the US of A v.s. our Canadian heath care or Katrina. When it does come out, I will be watching it.

It's Monday...

It's Monday, Do I need to say more?

The Lessons We Teach Our Children....

Every morning and every afternoon, my son needs to catch a school bus to and from school. For him to use the school bus cost us $60.00 a year. $60.00 is not that bad of price to pay for him to get ride. However, there have been a quiet a few times in the past were he had missed the bus. But back then it was never really an issue if he had missed the bus because at that time we were a two car family. But now we are down to one car and my son missing the bus is now a problem, and yesterday was a good day to teach him a valuable lesson in regards to the importance of being on time for the bus.

I got the phone call from school and knew what had happen before I even answered the phone. He missed the bus. The conversation went like this.

Me: Hello
School: Hi this so and so from l’ecole Poirier, DM has missed the bus and is asking for a ride home.
Me: I have no way to pick him up, my husband has the car. I don’t even have my wallet to pay for a cab.
School: oh!
Me: Here’s the scoop, I am going to teach him a lesson about missing the bus; he can walk home.
School: hold on
Muffled voices: DM your mom said for you to walk home!
DM in the background: WHAT! That would take me hours to get home.
I can hear him start to cry.
Me: Can I speak to him.
DM: I have to walk home! Can your friend pick me up?
Me: No
DM: Can Pa-pa’s friend pick me up?
Me: No, Pa-pa’s friend is at work.
Me: You want to miss the bus, you can walk home. I will see you soon.
DM: crying now, **sniff** **sniff** O.K **sniff**
The phone hangs up.

OMG! I felt so bad for doing that, and to be truthful about it all I was worried about him. After all he is only 8 years old, but an old 8 year old, he will be turning 9 in a couple of months. It took him an hour and ten minutes to walk home. What I thought was going to be good lesson for him, ended up being a big discovery about himself. He really liked walking home and had asked if he could do it again. I was very surprised about that request. He said that he had fun looking around. He saw cows, horses, llamas. He ate black berries along the way. He ran a little bit and walked a little bit. Then he told me that was longest he had ever had to walk. What was I to say to him, “Glad you had fun?”
So know I have to ask my-self this question, did he learn a lesson here? I will never know. But I am glad that he had fun, but I will never tell him that, after all it was to be his punishment. And maybe, just maybe if the weather is nice I will let him walk home again.

It Was So Hot In My House.....

Every morning my husband wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and is out the door by 6:10 a.m. for work, and this morning was no different with his morning routine; however, there was one small difference, it was raining out side and cold in our house. So being the good man that he is, he had decided that he was going make a fire and decided that this fire should be a very hot fire so that when the children and my self wake up, we would be nice and warm.

I got out of bed to start my morning off with a nice cup of Joe (I like to try to get up before the kids do to have some quite time to my self) and when I walked into my kitchen, I almost died. Our house was so HOT. I looked at the thermostat and it was showing 81 degrees. That man had that stoked the fire so hot that all you could see from the wood stove was bright orange. It remined me of, and don't ask me why, 'Night Mare on Elm Street.' Needless to say, I spent my quite time out on my porch to drink my coffee and I dreaded going back in side to wake up my son to get him ready for school.

Anyways, to make a long blog short, My husband had called me from work on his lunch hour and asked me if it was warm enough in the house for me and the kids. I could hear him laughing on the other end of the phone.

I will be posting photo's of our new wood stove here pretty quick. I need to wait for my son to get out school tomorrow because he likes to take the photo's and up load them onto the blog. He decided that that's his job. Cute I know. (Wishing I could

make a smiley face here.)

Up Yours Evil Hydro Man!!

I would like to take this time to say that my blog will not always be about ‘he said this’ or ‘she did that’ when comes to the people who live in my neighborhood. Hay, when you live in the middle of nowhere with 24 other families, it is sure bond to happen. But I must say it sure felt good venting about it! Just a small up-date with that situation, nothing changed.

Anyways, I have some good things going on with my life that I am very happy about and would love share. First off, I am no longer working at the grocery store in Langford. Yup, I am now unemployed. Second of all, I start school in two weeks! Thirdly, I have one month to come up with my tuition costs. And last but not least, I have friend, who has a friend, who works in a group home working with the mentally challenged, who can get me a job on an on call bases until my course is done. How exiting is that. But this is not what I want to talk about, all of that is for another time.

What I'am really, really excited about is that my house hold had said Up-yours to the Evil BC Hydro Man. Now we are not going to stop paying our hydro bill because it is way too high - we did so much better then that. We installed a wood burning stove! Yup that’s right, a nice beautiful money saving, heat generating, wood burning machine. The Hydro Mans worst enemy!

What lead up to this wood burning craziness one might ask? First off , I would like to thank the BC provincial government who 10 years ago had the wonderful idea of freezing hydro cost. Let’s forget about the possibility that our population in this province will grow in the next decade and let’s forget that our hydro infrastructure will age in the years to come. And all it took was a massive black out in the great city of Vancouver (our provinces largest city) that took our government out of its sleepy loll and woke it up to the fact that all is not good and look what happened, a serous black out caused by ageing wires that could have, should have been replaced by BC Hydro, but didn’t because there was no money to be had.

So now to fix our ageing hydro infrastructure BC hydro had introduced a new 2 tier billing system starting October 1, of this year. Now I am not sure how it will work, all I know is this - If you live in an apartment building your are safe from the Money Hungry Hydro Company and if you live in a stand alone house, no matter how old it will be, your wallet in your pocket is open to the Evil Hydro Man, who really, desperately wants your money. So up-yours BC Hydro – come and try to take my money! Say hello to my wood burning stove!!!!

A Whole New Low......

My neighbor and his wife had hit an all time low with concerns to our dispute regarding our pets. I would have never figure them of all people would be the kind of people who would go out of there way to steal an animal to prove a point. Well in this case, I should say they tried to take an animal. They tried to take my dog!

I was on the phone with my friend when I just happened to look out my living room window when I noticed my neighbor’s wife holding a make-shift leash. She was standing in front of my house, across the small lane that we all share to get in and out of the park, and she was looking into my yard at my dog. She was holding the make-shift leash in the way that a person would before they would put the leash on a dog. If my dog was not tied up and if she didn’t notice me watching her, she would of called him over out of my yard to her and take him. I know that she had seen me watching her because she looked right at me and scurried back to her place. She had a few words with her husband who was out side chopping wood at the time, and then went back in side her house.

I told all of this to my husband and we agreed that the next time they try to do that, I am to talk to them about this with the RCMP present and start a file. He feels that our neighbors may not know that our dog is registered, not only because it is the law, but because of his pedigree. We paid a lot of money for him. It would cost a lot of money to replace him.

I am not the kind of person who would go out of my way to steal an animal or hurt it in any way because it is bothering me or damaging my property. I am not that low. For the time being, I need to patient and wait for their cat to scratch my post and get the photo that I need to take them to small claims court and fix my post. Cat owners need to responsible for their animals too.

A cat has to scratch; a dog has to @#$%!

Wow, my first Blog entry in what? Two weeks? I was having some problems with my computer and the host for my Blog. I couldn’t sign in at all. But it looks like the problem is fixed, until next time.

So as you can imagine, I have lots to say. So here I go.

I am currently in a dispute with one of my neighbors and it is regarding our animals. It is about my dog and their cat. It all started during the week-end when DM, my husband was working out side in our yard cutting tiles for the hearth for our new wood stove.
Because he was in and out of the house all morning, it was not a surprise that our dog got out. Sometime during this time period our dog had made a “surprise” on our neighbor’s yard. It was not until the next morning our neighbor had notice the “gift” and decided that he was going to talk to my husband about it. The conversation had gone far and well beyond scoop of the problem. I am surprised that my husband had sat trough the verbal abuse.

Our neighbor had proclaim that the next time he finds a “gift”, (and he will be looking for them) he will leave the “gift” on our front porch. Fair enough. But then he stated: “it is easy to blame the dog but then take a look at the owner.” Ouch! And then he went on about responsibility. After that conversation took place, I found my neighbors wife and reminded her about the property damage that their cat has caused and still causing to my fence in the front of my yard. I had talked to her about it some time ago and she proclaimed that they have no money to fix my post that her fuzzy hairball has been using for its personal scratching delights. The difference here is that they found “Poo” and preached animal responsibility to us; their cat is causing actual property damage and they have not taken any responsibility to remedy the situation. Later that same day I had asked him to take a look and my fence. He told me that cat’s scratch, that’s what they do. So other words they will not take responsibility for their animal.

The moral of story is “a cats got to scratch; a dog has to @#$%! So know they won’t talk to us and I really don’t feel bad about it. But when the time comes to replace my post (because it is looking really bad with cat scratches) and possibly of one panel of cedar fencing, they will replace the cost. After all it was their animal that caused the damage.

September

I would like to let every one who passes by my blog to know that September is a bitter - sweet moment in my life. Every time this year, I have to except the reality that my son is growing up – one year older academically. This year he starts grade 4. Next will be grade 5 and then after grade 5; a brand new school and the cycle begins again. A cycle that I hope will continue well after grade 12.

All the preparations that I have taken to make September work with ease have so far paid off. I have bought every thing that my little-big boy needs for this school year. All of his school supplies, new school cloths. (One must look great for the first day of school), A brand name back-pack - this year we went with Roots, new lunch box – Columbia, and indoor shoes – Skechers. Did you know Skechers is the only brand name here in my part of Vancouver Island that does not go on sale? So in case you haven’t guest it yet, the cost of all of this is the bitter part of September, watching my boy walk on the School bus is the sweet part. It is too bad for him that he will be eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the next month, but at the end it is worth it.

I know some of you are wondering why the brand names. They were bought not to make him look good, I want him to look good, but more so for the fact that good quality brands last much longer then the cheap counter parts. I remember in grade one, I went through 3 pairs of running shoes, two back-packs, the list goes on. So at the end I have ended up spending the same amount of money from having to replace every thing. It just made more sence to spend my money on better quality. I know my pocket book will thank me latter.

My Garden

Yesterday was a wonderful day, the clouds were out, and the rain was falling. Fog flouting on the tree tops and in all the gloom of different shads of gray, high in the trees you can see hints of yellow, orange, red and brown. Summer is saying good-bye and autumn is saying hello.

Yesterday was wonderful not because of the weather, but because I looked at my little garden laying there in the rain, soaking up all the water that it can handle, looking more beautiful then ever before. My garden that had started its life as a bet with my husband had survived the wrath of my black thumb, and now that autumn is poking its little head around the corner, my garden is starting to die of natural causes and I am feeling pretty good about that

My garden is a sweet testament that I, JM, can plant a flower and not kill it.

So here are some photo’s

Summer Vacation? Over!

Wow, it is hard to believe that it is Friday today. This week had gone by soooooo fast. And I just realized that there is only one more week left of Summer Vacation. I cannot believe that summer is gone. This is it, gone forever. And When I look back at when summer vacation started. I was thinking to my self, that these 8 weeks are going to go by so slow because my house hold is down to one car and I live in the middle of nowhere. And now that I look back at it all, I SURVIVED summer. I cannot believe. Please, don’t mind me…I am in a state of Shock. I think I need to lie down. I will Blog another day

collections

Does this makes since?

I just got off the phone with a collection agency that I have been dealing with for about 4 months now and they just informed me that their client is now claiming that I owe them more money then what was agreed to when I started making payments to the collection agency. My dept with this agency was $361.60 and I have sent them postdated checks and they have been cashing them like all good agencies should. But according to their client and they claim that they have just been informed today, that my dept is $600.00 and something.

Now of course this collection agency would say, yes I agree with my client (and they did), A contract is a contract and you should contact them. But then I started thinking, the company that I have dealt with took my account to collections saying that I owe them the $300.00 and after a month frustrating mail from this collection agency that they had hired, I make contact and agree to make payments on what was told to me was my dept. And now they want more after an agreement was reached.

So after thinking about this, I got on the internet and I found the collection agency web site and I have down loaded their brochure and I was a little shocked at what I found. According to them, in 8 steps the can resolve an issue for their clients. It was the first step that took me for a surprise.

Step 1: Account is Assigned
An account can be submitted by fax, mail or email at any time of the day. Once we receive the account you will be sent a client acknowledgment form to verify all information is correct.

So this is saying that this company, who had hired them to go after me, was sent a verification form and I am sure that it was filled out with the amount of 361.60. So here is my problem. Do I pay the extra 300.00 that is claiming is owed or do I say look, We agreed on the first amount, this is what you told the collection agency was the amount owing, I have made all the steps on my part to deal with it, it is kind of to late to ask for more money?

What would you do?

Look Mom....No Hands!

Look Mom....No Hands!

Today is the day that I break the bottle habbit.

So far so good, she is very happy about drinking her milk from a "Big Persons" cup. Plastic of course.

I would like to take a moment to thank my 8 year old son for showing me how to down load the camera into the computer and sitting with me while I figure out how to up load the photos into this Blog. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t think I would ever have a photo of my self in the “profile” area and this cute photo to share with everyone of my 2 year old mastering the art of “hand-free bottle holding.”

Husband approved

I have great news regarding my career choice. My husband approved; however with one condition – must take the course AS SOON AS POSABLE!!!!

At his work site (commercial renovation/construction) he is estimating that he has about 6 months guaranteed work left before the work is completed, then after that there is the possibility of going back to the previous employer for less money. So if I want this course then I need to act now.

Now to clarify on what I would be doing is exactly this, I am planning to become a Resident Care Attendant. I am planning on taking the course part-time for 8 months. (Full time would be 6 months – not much difference time wise, same with tuition cost)
After getting the HS/RCA certificate and getting into the workplace, I would have more options open to me within the heath sector.

The course starts in October 2008 and ends June 2009, Before October, however, I need to get my Food Safe Level One Certificate, Current Standard First Aid and Level B and C CPR, so right now I am scrambling to find these courses. But good news from the college, for $150.00 plus the one time registration fee I would get my seat.

OMG!!!!

Holy Smokes…

As it turns out this course is going to cost $2100.00…..OMG!!!!! The $525.00 was for out side costs such as Course Modules – $125.00, Nurse Uniform and shoes - $200.00, Nurse Watch with second hand - $50.00; the list goes on…..

And Student Society Fee and Levies……Outrageous!!!! Out of this $2100.00, $320.00 of it will go to the Student Society. So all-and-all with everything in total; this course is going to cost $2265.00. ($2100.00 plus the $525.00) I wonder? Would I have to pay PST and GST on top of it all?

I will talk to the husband and see what he would have to say about this………..

Have I found a Career? Maybe..........

As I was driving home from work last night thinking about my job at the grocery store stocking shelves with light bulbs and toys, when it really hit me that this is what I would be doing for the rest of my adult life; needless to say that this made me feel…what is a good word here…..

For a few months now, one of my neighbors here at home has been on my case that I should do something with my self. And that I should look into providing health care. [I guess now is the time I should inform everyone that my neighbor is an RN (Registered Nurse) so I guess that you can say he is a recruiter of sorts.] He has informed me to the highest degree that there is a shortage here on Vancouver Island and that I should strongly consider doing looking into it. Anyways to make a long story short, he feels that I have a good disposition to provide this kind of work. So for some time I have been ‘kind of mulling’ this over.

So it would seem maybe by chance that the same time I have been thinking about how crappy my stupid part time job is and just thinking THAT maybe I should kind of look into what my wonderful neighbor has been telling me, when out of the blue on the car radio an add for Registered Home Care/Long Term Care Providers urgently needed… “For more info go to such and such a place brought to you from the government of British Columbia.” Isn’t that a coincidence or what?

I put the pedal to the metal and I did just that, I looked it up and I just found out that the course that my neighbor has been kind of pushing me towards is right in my price range. $525.00 for 28 weeks!!!! I was shocked!!!! I couldn’t believe it!!!! I was always under the impression that I would have to pay and least a couple of thousand for this kind of course. And to make things even better about this, the part-time hours at one of collages in Victoria fit my schedule – How about that!!!! I have scholarship that I have earned 4 ½ years ago that would pay for the majority of this course.

So I guess the only thing that I have to do now is to talk to the husband and children about this and convince them that MOMMY cannot be a “Stay at Home Mom” forever, and ever, and ever, and ever….. And that it is high time that MOMMY found a career.

BLOGS

Last night after the husband and the children went to bed, I found some good MOMMY time alone to do some surfing on the Web. And I have come to the conclusion that I may be becoming addicted to BLOGS. Yup, you heard me, I am a BLOG ADDICT. For the past week or so, I have been searching the web for BLOGS to read. And I have come across a few that I like. So I am going to case them out before I add them to my BLOG ROLL just make sure that this stranger has the same interest as I do.

So what am I looking for in a BLOG?

A) Must have children to talk about (The four legged kind will do to)
B) Must have something interesting write about
C) I don’t what to read anything regarding other people peeing, puking or crapping themselves on a night out. I am just way too old for that now.
D) I am not into nudity, racial slurs or anything in this nature.

Is this to much ask for? I don’t think so. So the other thing that I was wondering about is this. What are the appropriate steps of adding one to ones own BLOG ROLL? Do I give them a comment that I am going to do so and ask them to look at my BLOG to make sure that we are a match? OMG!!! What if they don’t like me!!!!

Sooke Pot Holes - Camping

We made it back safe and sound and another camping trip under our belts. We went to the Sooke Potholes camp ground for the week-end and our experience there was not what I thought it would be. The major complaint that I have with this campground was that people were camping on top of each other. The camp sites, I kid you not, were less then 3 feet apart. So if you want privacy here, you can forget it. The campground did have some good stuff about it to, such as cell phones don’t work, no reception what so ever. I thought my husband would go into with droll, but he survived. The other good point with this camp ground is the rules are strict; you cannot pass the campground gate if you are not camping. You must put friends on the guest list if you want visitors and quiet time is enforced with off duty RCMP officers and firefighters’ volunteers. How about that!

We were lucky that our camping neighbors were not that bad. They tried hard to ignore us and we did the same. The other site next to us was a no show, most likely because of the rain and did it ever rain. (Rain is our camping curse; it rains when ever we camp) But more about our camping neighbors. We were so close to them that we could not help but notice that the insurance decal on their license plate had expired almost a year ago on their camper, October 28, 2007, to be exact. There was some small talk with them, such as they are from Langford, their kids’ age, stuff like that. However, we were not too happy with how close they were to us. So when Sunday came around, my husband and I decided that we were going to pay for an extra night so we can stay in the campground longer to burn the rest of the fire wood that we had bought and let the kids run loose. We went to A&W for breakfast, went home for a shower and then went back to the campground. We were a little disappointed with our camping neighbor; he was still there. Now the one thing that Sooke is good for is Road Blocks. We have them every Friday and almost every Sunday on Sooke River road, the road that one must take to get to the potholes. They start from about 2:00 in the afternoon and end about 6:00 in the evening. My husband and I are Sooke natives and we know this but our camping neighbors don’t. So when our camping neighbor made an appearance, I walked up to him and told him that they should be careful when they leave and pointed to the plates. The guy looked at me and said “I noticed that to, I have the papers in my glove compartment; just forgot to put the decal on!” I just looked at him said “Sooke has two Road Blocks, one on Friday and the other on Sunday – just for the Potholes.” His face went white, he herded up his children and wife, got into his camper and peeled out of there so fast, he made dust clouds, and he didn’t even let the camper warm up!! It was funny. My husband looked at me and asked what I said to him. I looked at my husband and just said “Road Blocks.” We just started laughing.

But you know what, after our neighbor had left, we were the only ones left in the campground and it was just pure heaven.

Again, I forgot my camera!

My Long Weekend

I just finished looking at the long term weather forecast for the Sooke aria, and all I can say that it is going to be HOT. Yesterday was 26, today is 28 and tomorrow it is going to be a whopping 30!!!! I am going to melt…….

I am going camping this weekend, and all of my hopes for a campfire are slowly slipping away. It looks like we are going to bring our ‘not so little’ butane heater for artificial fire and some warmth. Darn!!!

Now that the weather is out of the way and my droning about my foreseen lackage of campfire is over and done with, let’s continue on with my long weekend.

I had a good long weekend. My children and I got to spend 2 days in row with their father. Now why am I making a big deal about this, because this hardly ever happens! He is a work-a-holic. His favorite saying is “If I am working, I am not spending money” And this true with him – the man loves to shop!!! So we spend our two days doing repairs around the house and spent our afternoons at the river with the kids. And I have almost forgotten what a big kid my husband is. It was great. I am just sorry that these two days had gone by so fast.

Death of a DVD

Today is sad day. My “Finding Nemo” DVD has gone to DVD heaven. It is scratched and smudged beyond recognition, and my only regret is that I never made a back-up copy for this unforeseeable tragedy. My daughter is horrified that her beloved Orange Fishy is broken and my son is jumping with joy with the knowledge that he will never have to watch “Finding Nemo” again. I have never seen him so happy to see the fish dead. What am I to do!!!

Don’t get me wrong here, the “Finding Nemo” DVD, had a long and fruitful life in my house hold. I bought the DVD in 2003 when it first came out and it was a great investment. For 6 years Finding Nemo had always found it self in my DVD player entertaining my children. First with my son when he was small, he played it over and over and over again. Other people’s children, long car rides with our travel DVD player. And now for my 2 year old, who doesn’t understand that she may never see “Finding Nemo” again. Other DVD’s came and went but “Finding Nemo” had always came back. It will be missed.

Rain, Rain, Rain...stay for awhile.

It is raining out side and I love it. You never know how much you miss something until it has been gone for awhile. All the side walk chalk is being washed away, making space for more artwork to be created. I love the sound of raindrops hitting the window and I feel worm and snug under my couch throw. I could not ask for a better day. Yup, this makes up for the day I had yesterday. It is raining and I love it.

Mmmmm, I need more tea.

Baby Blues

What a day today….

I woke up with a sore, stuff nick and I have a constant headache as a result. And boy, I feel like that I could use a few more hours of sleep. The sun is out and I am missing out on a spectacular day.

My husband had put our 2 year old to bed in only her diaper and during the night the poor thing had caught a chill. I wrapped her up in one of her favorite blankets’ and we watched some T.V. together. (I Love Lucy) When I thought she was ready, I put her back to bed; in pajama’s of course, and not even 10 minutes later she was up screaming. This continued until 4 o’clock in the morning. By this time, she found her way into my bedroom, commandeering my side of the bed and leaving me to sleep on our old lumpy couch. The things mothers do for their children.

I am truly, hoping that my little bundle of joy is going to show signs of wanting to have a nap some time soon, before I bite the bullet and have an energy drink.
Yawn.

Camping, Camping, Camping

We just came back yesterday from our first camping trip this summer, and my family had a blast!!! With careful planning we did not forget that much stuff, however, I did forget knives, my daughter’s running shoes, and extra t-shirts for my son. (I didn’t expect him to jump into the ocean.) Other then those few things, we were on top of our camping list.

We went to a campground a 25 minutes North from Sooke called French Beach. At French Beach it was only $15.00 a night. Not to bad for camping rates. Some places around here a person can pay up to $25.00 a night. This site was large, so we had more then enough room for our gear and lots of space for the 4 of us. And the best part was we were lucky to have a fire. Most of the Island is on a fire ban. The fire was the best part of this camping trip. So we took advantage this and ate lots of wieners and marshmallows.

There is a walking trail to the ocean that we took advantage of too. The walk was only 10 minutes, but it took you to a beach were dogs were aloud to be off the leash, a playground for the kids and open fields to play Soccer, and enough bushes to have a game of Hide-and-Go Seek. It was a great couple of days. I only wish I didn’t forget my camera.

We are going camping again on our next payday and we are going to the Sooke Potholes, a 5 minute drive from our house. We made our reservations a month ago, and were told the camping there is supposed to really good. I will find out. This time I will remember the camera. I can’t wait.

Summer Invasion; GOT TO LOVE IT:-)

It has been almost a week since I made an entry, (not that anyone has been reading), but I have been somewhat busy these past few days. One of the things that summer brings along here in our sleepy little park is the influx of part time children belonging to part time fathers. 3 boys and 1 girl in my sons’ age group (8 – 12 years of age), so as one can imagine, this makes my children very happy and keeps me on my toes.

The one thing that a person needs to keep in mind about my nick of the wood is that my park is in the woods. And for the sake of the children we are on constant Cougar, and Bear watch. We do have a local Bear that we have nick named the Trail Bear, because he lives in somewhere within The Galloping Goose Trail. (Vancouver Island Regional Trail System for Recreation, our back yard!), the children are very mindful that he is around. It is the Cougar’s that we have to keep constant watch over. We had a sighting a two weeks ago at our local watering hole. But from the looks of things this big cat didn’t hang around. A good thing!

So we parents take turns with the kids. For example, the group of kids would have sleepover at one persons’ house, have breakfast at another house, the other house hold would take the kids the river for a swim. And we all take turns. If we parents are very lucky one the older kids will take our little swarm to the river and give us parents a break. However this is once in a blue moon and money is sometimes involved.

It is quite now; all the part time kids have gone home with promises of coming back. I can have nice quite break and prepare for the next invasion part-time kids. With this in mind, My family has decided that we are going to camping.

I just hope that sometime soon I can find time to complete my profile, and add some photo's to my Blog.

Canadian Poop

I was driving to work a couple days ago, when I heard interesting news broadcasted on our local rodeo channel. It was regarding Canadian Poop washing up on American beaches. I was so interested with what the news had to say about this that I had turn up the volume so I could drown out outside noises to hear better.

As it turns out some guy in the San Juan County, Washington, is running for mayor in some town and one of his promises to the people is to clean up the beaches in his area. His plan, if elected, is to press on Victoria, British Columbia, to stop pumping raw sewage into the ocean. This person had claimed to have a photo of Canadian Poop on an American beach.

Now my question is…How does he know that this washed up poop is Canadian? Did it have a Made in Canada stamp imprinted on it? Did come with a note From Canada to America with love? Why in gods name would anyone to take a photo of Poop to begin with!

But for the most part, it is true; Canadians are dirty people as a whole. We do pump raw sewage into the ocean. And we Canadians are slowly trying to stop that. Here in Sooke, we are building, I believe, Vancouver Islands’ first raw sewage treatment plant. It should be up and running in a couple of years. And the good news is to all of you fed up American’s is that there are talks of more treatment plants to come here in the Victoria area. So clap your hands and celebrate. It least I am. It is about time.

I went for a cyber space stroll.....

I decided that I was going to take a stroll through Cyber Space and visit other Bloggers with in my realm, to see what other people are doing with their Blogs. And I must say there are a lot of interesting Blogs to visit. I found Blogs about cooking, travel and believe it or not, people blogging about work. But what I was really looking for was decorating ideas and what could be done with Blogger.com.

I guess you can say I was looking for inspiration, and yes, motivation with what I could possibly do with my little space on the Great Wide Web. I did come across some neat ideas, but way out of my computer capabilities. But what really caught my eye was the dedication people were putting into their Blogs. Making a point of making an entry every day regardless of how small it was, and the time and effort they put into making their Internet Home welcoming. WOW!

I know that I would not be able to make an entry every day. And I know that it will take me awhile to make my space interesting for other people to visit. After all I must confess that I need my 8 year old son to show me how to up load photo’s onto the family computer. Yes, I put my head down in shame. I think this will be a great learning experience.

Hello there……

I guess you can call me new to the blog scene. Even though I have tried to start one a few years ago, I never really got into it. So here I go again.

Why am I doing this again, well to put it simply, I am bored and I really, really, really need something to do, so why not. Share my thoughts with the rest of the world

I started thinking about what kind of things I am going to write about, such as short stories, share recipes and stuff like that, but who am I kidding that kind of stuff is boring. So, I am going to write about me.

So the question is….Who is me. Me is kind of complicated. I live in a very, very small town that is spread out called Sooke. Sooke is located on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. To live in Sooke you need a form of transportation called a vehicle. I Kid you not. This is something that I lack at the present moment. (we have one, but my husband has it for work) What about a Bike, you say! I have one, but it does not cut it, at least here in Sooke.

I am Thirty something and I have a couple children, a husband, a dog and some fish. My children are cute and adorable. My Husband can be an ASS at times, but I love him anyways. The family Dog loves new people and there socks, (don’t ask) and my fish are the best pets ever, they don’t make noise.

Yep, I do have a job. I work in a grocery store in Langford; 25 minute drive from Sooke.

I live in a Mobile home, in a Mobile home park, that I share with 24 other families. Some of my neighbors I like, other neighbors not so much and the rest I simply ignore. Life in this park as whole can be very interesting. My neighbors at times can be very interesting people in there own right.

The best thing about this Park is that we have our own peace of paradise on the Sooke River, our own private beach. The children love to swim there. We also have the galloping Goose trail behind our home, another cool feature about were I live.

Anyways got to go, the children are hungry. And the husband is on his way home.