Party!

We celebrated birthdays from Jan- Mar today at Rustle. It was quite a fun service, but also serious as we prayed over the people who had recently had birthdays. A nice balance.
Sam and Jacob were just over to play ball hockey with James. Sam had to shovel a lot of snow and ice to make a place to play! James is now in the back playing on his own.
Tonight we'll have turkey. I haven't decided on the sides.
I bought girl guide cookies from Jess and was pretty surprised at the level of transfat. Apparently the girl guides are not as health conscious as I thought they were!

Spring

I have to admit that I was a bit depressed about the lack of spring in my earlier post. Thanks Bob for trying to cheer me up. I did go out after lunch to take out the compost and I ended up staying out for an hour as it was so beautiful (but cold) out. There were some sure signs of spring (other than Bob and his laundry) in my daffodil and tulip buds were poking through the snow and the red wing blackbirds returned from the south. I spent the hour listening to the blackbirds and watching James play snow football. Then I came in, made pizza dough for dinner then went out to Shari's art exhibit. It was really breathtaking. Her work is amazing.
Tonight is Hockey night in Canada and Earth Hour. I'm not sure the two are compatible! We'll shut down the computer and turn out the lights, but hockey night? I think it will still go on.

The week

The week started off with snow.

On Tuesday the ice had started to break up on the lake

By Friday almost all the ice was gone. It's still supposed to be chilly this weekend but I am hopeful that March will go out like a lamb and I will be able to hang laundry out soon! Last year, I was hanging laundry out in March. If global warming is occuring, shouldn't I be getting some benefits? Like it being WARMER?
My work at Queen's is pretty much down to sorting out marks, which would be ok but one of the TAs never replies to my emails.
On Tuesday, I found out that my status at RMC was in question. My contract is with Queen's but I work at RMC. At first RMC security said that was fine as long as I had an email from my dept. head at Queen's. I got that last week. On Tues. the dept. head called my boss up and said that it was not ok. That I needed a contract at RMC to stay at RMC. My boss couldn't help me as he didn't have an open account at RMC as his funds were coming through Queen's, but my old boss had some money left over and saved my status. But it was a crazy week dealing with it all!
Especially on top of what the week regulary brought- writing my copycheck report and other craziness.
Today I am looking forward to seeing Shari's art show in the afternoon.
I am trying to catch up on laundry and dishes this morning.

Flat out

Monday felt like a week, Tuesday felt like a week, Wednesday felt like a week. Today was supposed to be busy too but I have not received some results that I am waiting for to work on, so far not so bad. It has been really exhausting but once I get this last load of work done, most of my Queen's work will be out of the way for the term!

Globetrotting

I wore my snowpants today because I thought I'd spend a lot of time walking in snow. But it was clear as I walked to RMC and then from RMC to Queen's. It looks like the walk home will be in the snow though.

Myron (and James) want to go to the Globetrotters next week. I tried to order the tickets online but the surcharges were huge. For tickets worth $44 they wanted over $60. I went by the boxoffice today instead and picked them up for $48.

Time for me to globetrot home. Tomorrow is a big day- classes at 8:30, 12:30 and 2:30 but life should be a bit better next week.

On baby animals being mutilated in Church

The walk to Church
We had a wonderful breakfast at Church for Easter. At the start of the service Al showed Battle at Kruger which is an eyewitness video about a fight between lions, crocodiles and buffalo in Kruger National Park in South Africa. The lions attack the buffalo and knock a baby buffalo into the water. They then have to fight with the crocodiles for the baby buffalo. They win against the crocs and drag the baby back to land. (at which point I am thinking AL: THE CHILDREN!!!! and trying to figure out if I should cover James' eyes as I don't want him to see a baby animal mutilated!, but I need not have feared...) Incredibly, the buffalo group together and one buffalo is seen TOSSING a lion in the air. You would think the baby would be dead, but no, he staggers away from the lions and into the large herd of buffalo that envelop him.
It really is an incredible look at the animal world. And how does it fit into the Easter story? Well, at Easter, Jesus could be the baby buffalo- it looked pretty bad, it looked like he was a goner, but he overcame against all the odds.
James did say the video was a bit scary!

Then some brave souls answered Al's difficult questions. Here are JAMES' answers:

Ashes to Easter: 6 in 40

1.If you had to bet everything you have on whether there is a God or whether there isn’t, which side would get your money and why? THERE IS A GOD, BECAUSE I LOVE HIM.

2.When you look at yourself in the mirror, what do you see in it that you most like and what do you see in it that you most deplore? LIKE MOST:WHEN I WIGGLE MY LOOSE TOOTH, DISLIKE MOST: NOTHING

3.If you had only one last message to leave to the handful of people who are most important to you, what would it be in twenty-five words or less? NO MESSAGE

4.Of all the things you have done in your life, which is the one you would most like to undo?NOTHING (HASN'T LIVED ENOUGH YET) Which is the one that makes you happiest to remember? HOCKEY

5.Is there any person in the world, or any cause, that. If circumstances called for it, you would be willing to die for? NO

6.If this were the last day of your life, what would you do with it? PLAY HOCKEY

Eliminating tomatoes

While I seem to be ok with small amounts of tomatoes, I have decided that I probably need to eliminate tomatoes from my diet. This is really difficult because so many things are tomato based! Pasta sauce/lasagne/all recipes with tomato sauce, etc. I can't think what to substitute for tomato sauce and tomato paste. Now, I won't be able to eliminate pizza sauce - that would be way too hard!!!
Tonight we are having the leftover turkey in wraps with a chocolate souffle for dessert (assuming it works out:)
I'm also planning on making apple chocolate chip muffins.
James is making a very long freight train. (he says)

Good Friday

It was good not to go to work :)
I didn't get to sleep in as James woke me at 7am telling me that it was 7am. Thank you.
I made the cookies and the turkey and I washed dishes 5 times (I was a little behind due to the busy week)
I posted our old tv on Kijii classifieds for $5 and had no takers. I posted it on Kingston freecycle today (for free!) and already had 3 people ask for it before I posted a Taken message. A guy whose son's tv shorted out last night will take it. (and if he doesn't I have 2 other emails to contact) I got the 3 emails within 2 hours of posting. Next I plan to clear out 3 unused monitors and lots of keyboards.
James spent the day playing trains, hockey on the floor and golf.
Myron spent the day setting up a new stereo that he bought from Al as they were moving Henri's dad's stuff out (Al was going to sell it at the store) but it doesn't work. Hee. (Al will know why I am laughing) I hope I clear out more stuff than Myron brings in.
The weather looked lovely outside, but was still very cold.

Snap

I bought James some cute Thomas jeans a long time ago and they finally fit him.(pictured above) But they had a snap that was a bit tricky, so we had to teach him how to do it up because I was worried he'd get frustrated at school. It took a while but he got it. Then just before we left for school, I had him go to the bathroom. When he came out, I asked him how it went with the snap. He just looked at me odd and said he didn't undo it! He just pulled the jeans up and down. My worrying was for naught :)

I am so glad it is the end of the week because I'm very tired out from the long days that I've had.

Plans for this weekend:
-more baking of Sandy's cookies
-slow cooker turkey for dinner tomorrow
-breakfast at Rustle on Sunday 9am
-playdate with Aaron on Sunday afternoon (well, James is going to play with Aaron not me!)
-I am back to work on Monday but the daycare is closed so James will hang with Myron that day

Argument

Last night I left RMC and headed over in the snow to Queen's for my night course. This week is normally the easy week in the course. They normally finish pretty quick with not much hassle. But no. I had students late and missing and unhappy. But at least they were pretty good at the equations. I had one student argue with me for 30 mins over why his grade was a C instead of a B! It's draining to argue!

When I got home Myron told me that I would need to apologize to my mom. Apparently she called and James was talking to her and while she and he were talking Myron BROKE one of James' hockey sticks. So James was probably pretty upset! Sorry Mom!

Tonight, there's prayer at Rustle. I am soo looking forward to it!

Roaming

I left at 11:30 to go and meet the boys at the train station. The bus gets in to the Kingston Center at 11:45 and then I have to wait 15 mins for my connection. I thought the 15 mins would be boring, but no. A gal came up and starting talking to me when I arrived. She was probably in her early 20s and probably had a bit of a mental handicap. We talked about buses and the Hardy Boys. She was supposed to catch the 12. The 12 is normally there when my bus gets there. It is supposed to leave at 11:45. At 11:45 the 12 had not yet arrived. All the other buses left. I told her not to worry- it's probably a few minutes late. After waiting a while she decides to call Kingston Transit. She calls the # and I can hear both sides of the conversation as her phone is very loud. She gets a computerized voice asking her which service she would like (must have been the city of kingston computer switchboard)
She says: Kingston Transit
It says: something about delays due to construction. Now transferring you. Utilities Kingston.
She says: No. Kingston transit
It repeats what it says before and again transfers her to Utilities Kingston. After a number of times around she actually gets to talk to a Transit person. She asks about the #12. They don't seem to know. Maybe they are looking. Then #12 shows up at 11:55. She hangs up the phone (without telling the person that #12 had arrived!) and gets on her bus. The 12 pulls out just as the 12:00 buses are pulling in.

I get on my bus and as we drive to the Via station I enjoy looking out and being thankful for the houses and praying for the people in the neighbourhoods we go through.

I arrive at Via and the boys are right on time. There's not a lot of people that get off, so it's easy to find my boys. James looks rather shell shocked as he comes off the train. I gave him a hug, but it wasn't until we got in the terminal that he got excited and gave me a hug. There weren't many people picking up baggage so as the boys went to the bathroom, I got the luggage that had been checked. Then we scampered onto the 2 bus and got to chat a bit as the bus went to the Knigston Center. There James and Myron got off to wait 15 minutes for the C bus and I stayed on the 2 to head into work.

When I got home we had the taco meatloaf and James showed me a wax impression of his hands that he had done. (I'll have to take a picture) While he was in Moncton he went swimming, sliding and played mini golf. He also played a lot with his cousins. So I think that would count as a good trip :)

Today I took James to the bus for school then headed in to RMC and have my class at Queen's tonight, so I won't get home until James is asleep! He was very cuddly this morning though :)

Hmmm

Yesterday afternoon I had a brief nap, but unfortunately that messed up my good sleep schedule that I had while the boys were gone and I didn't get to be until after 1am. So now I'm pretty tired.

I'm also on hold with Via while I type this! I've been on hold for 15 minutes. Hopefully, they answer within a 1/2 hour before I have to leave! Good thing I called early considering they say they are experiencing delays with their phone service. (Just got through- the train should be on time!)

So last night I watched Big Brother, Cold Case and my tear jerker 3 hour movie Kal Ho Na Ho. It is such a good movie but so sad (and long!). This time I started crying at the start because I knew what would happen at the end. It really is a beautiful movie about strength in love.

Shine

The sun is shining now and some of the snow seems to be melting but the temperature is supposed to dip back down soon :( -12 tonight.

I actually got 8 hours of sleep last night and was pretty pleased with that. I've slept pretty well with the boys gone:)

I bleached the bathroom this morning and the whole house reeks of bleach now:(

Tonight, I'm planning on mixing leftover mashed potatos with cooked turkey sausages and peppers. We'll see how it goes!

Tomorrow morning I need to get the taco meatloaf in the slow cooker. At 11:15 I'll call Via and make sure the boys train is on time. If it is I'll head out at 11:30 to try to meat them. Their train is supposed to get in at 12:30. I have to be on the bus out of the train station by 1:15 in order to make it to my class, so everything has to be running well for this to work!

Cookies

I made these beauties from a recipe from Sandy G. this morning. Note the lovely placement on my new pampered chef airing rack!

Here's the recipe (I'm thinking of you Jordin!)
Mix
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. brown suger
1/2 c. white sugar
1 egg
1 T. of water
1/2 t. vanilla
Add (sifted together is probably better, but I didn't bother)
3/4 c. flour
1/2 t. baking soda (I used 1/4 t.)
1/2 t. salt (I used 1/4 t.)
mix in
1 + 1/2 c. oats (Sandy says use large flake or 3 minute for best results, never 1 minute ones, but all I had was the 1 minute ones, so in they went :)
then 1 + 1/4 c. choc. chips

Put on lightly greased cookie sheet in 375 degree oven for 10 minutes. The don't LOOK baked after this time, but they are and once they've cooled they should be chewy!

Melt

The temperature is above 0, but we still have lots of snow. Better than it was though. I'm really itching to hang laundry outside again!

Last night I washed everything that was in the mouse drawer with the spatula, but I'm kind of leery to put it back in case he returns. I can only hope he ate some of the poison along with the spatula and won't come back! But that may only be a dream :)

Set up

My mom sent a email saying she hoped I wasn't lonely with the boys gone. Lonely? With all these mice? Not a chance!

My work is very busy. March is generally a very busy month. Sept./ Oct. are the very busiest and then Jan. March follows closely on the heels in business. The boys get home on Mon. and on Tues I work from 7am-10pm! So I won't see them much even when they are back!

I did not tackle the kitchen last night. I'll do that tonight. Last night I watched Survivor. I tried to go to sleep early because I knew I had to be up early to go to work today.

I slept well. This mouse seems different from the last infestation. He doesn't wake me up at night and he has no interest in the mouse poison blocks. The last infestation was always running over my head (ceiling) at night and loved the blocks and died quickly and didn't eat my spatulas!!!!

The mouse vs. the spatula

The spatula lost.

I got home from work today to hear a lovely message from Carolyn inviting me to dinner. But I got home too late to go over, so I went to make my own dinner and found that the spatula had been mauled sometime in the last 24 hours! I never knew mice liked spatulas so much!

James and Myron called to say they got in safe, though the train was late because it had to take a different route or something. They ate pizza tonight for dinner and fast food last night in Montreal. Hopefully, their diet will improve! They are going swimming tomorrow with Myron's brother Mike and family. They had to go and buy swimming trunks when they arrived.

I have a long day at RMC tomorrow as I took Tues off to hang with James.

In charge

James and I had a great day together yesterday. We went to the Cat Center and he got some cars for his trip, a golf set and 'Mouse trap' game that I had when I was a girl. We also went by the train station and picked up their tickets for today. James was very lovey yesterday with lots of hugs and I love you's. He was very excited about the trip and did not even want to go out and play with another little boy, when asked.

Kim also stayed with us mon. night as her car had broken down.

I had to leave for work at 3:40 yesterday as I had booked a lab in for 4:30 as I thought the boys were leaving on Tues. By the time I got home, James was already asleep.

This morning, I had an early class and was worried that he wouldn't be up before I left! He got up at 1am and crawled in to bed with me. I let him stay because I knew that his schedule was going to be all screwed up anyway in the next few days. So I got to cuddle with him most of the night. I got up at 6:30am to have my shower and he was just waking up at 7:30am. I said something like I love you buddy and he replied that I need to make sure to tape Hockey night in Canada (on Sat.)

So, they should now be on the night train to Moncton. Hopefully they have a really good time!

Clearing out

Before I sell these items, I thought I would offer them to my blog readers in Kingston free. I have had these items unused for a long time and Myron finally has agreed they can go:
1 small TV
3 computer monitors
7 (yes 7) keyboards
and some computer mice (I think)
Let me know if you want any of them!

Little old lady

I was walking down Princess St. on my way on to work and I saw a familiar lope ahead of me. I caught up to Stan and was chatting with him on my way down when across the street a little old lady (who I will refer to as LOL, because I can!) slipped and fell down. As I move a tad faster than Stan, I got to her first and tried to help her up. But really, I couldn't. Luckily, Stan made it and we both heaved with all our might and managed to right her!

Bob, was there any brandy in that story?

Rugby

Our computer had some issues so Myron worked on it most of the weekend. He has now deemed it 'issueless'. For now.
On Saturday the boys went to basketball by bus, as we again were heaped in snow. I went to Michelle's pampered chef party and Chantal gave me the mandolin I bought at the last one. When I got home James wanted to help use the mandolin to grate cheese for the pizza for dinner. We had to work at it a bit. There is some learning curve to this mandolin. But for large quantities of cheese it does seem quite useful.
Yesterday ev. the boys watched hockey night and I tried to get through lots of laundry and dishes. It feels like I spent a lot of time this weekend doing those two things!
This morning James and I waded through the snow to Rustle and it was so worth it to hear Shari talk about her trip to the Dominican. We waded back not so well as James was tired. Then in the afternoon James played his hockey games on the floor while I baked marshmallow chocolate brownies. They were very interesting. A bit overdone, but still pretty good. When they were done (or overdone as the case may be) James and I went out to shovel a bit. I only managed a walkway from the sidewalk to the front door. We had ham, mashed potatoes and broccoli for dinner. A fairly easy dinner compared to my plan of ham casserole!
James saw a commercial for some international rugby game that will be in Kingston June 11. He said he wanted to go. I said 'Do you know what Rugby is?' He said 'Yes, I saw them at Oma and Gadda's. They played Chelsea', which I took to be a no! Do you think he would like a rugby game seeing as he has no idea what it is? He'd probably like the pushing and shoving?

Dented

On the way home James was throwing chunks of ice. Being 5 and not having strong or good aim, I wasn't worried. However, I should have been worried for myself! I got clobbered by a piece that he was trying to throw in the opposite direction.

Wrong

Last night Myron said to me- do you realize that you booked the Wed. train for our march break trip. I said no I booked Tues. Looked at his ticket, it was Wed.! I called Via and apparently there is no train on Tues, so they bumped my booking to the next available day. So they get a bit shorter of a trip and as I work all day on Wed, I can't see them off at the train station. But it's too late to change the dates now! They'll just have to have an intense trip. Myron hasn't called him mom yet to tell her. I hope he tells her soon! (if there are any of y'all reading from Moncton, maybe you could tell her!)

I just got a new work website to update for a committee my boss is on. I love all the website work I got to do. Not that anyone reads them, but still.

I left the house this morning at 7am. James sat up in bed before I left and asked where I was going. I told him I was going to work and he lay back down to sleep. I hope he found the bag of muffins I left him for breakfast.

There's another winter storm watch on. Could we stop already? I think we've had quite enough winter, thank you.

Adrenaline

I ran on adrenaline yesterday. I left the house at 7am, worked at RMC for 8 hours, then headed over to Queen's for the night course I'm running, then by the A&P to get food so we can eat. I got home about 10pm, watched the tape of the evenings big brother, answered email and finally went to bed about midnight. Only to be up again thanks to my alarm at 6am. I left the house at 7:15. Arrived at Queen's at 7:50. And they cancelled classes at 8:15. Can you colour me upset? I ran the morning lab as we didn't get much warning but we will have a very complicated schedule for the weeks to come.

The thing I don't get was that I have come into Queen's in much worse weather and they never cancelled it before.

Anyway, I'm just finishing up the work that I can here. Then I'll pick James up early from the daycare and actually get to see him today. He needed a big cuddle this morning for missing me yesterday!

We have a prayer meeting at Rustle tonight.
My boss is going to California next week. I'm sure he won't miss this weather. Where's the global WARMing AL Gore?

Ear

Well, I was feeling better yesterday. I took James and AJ out to play because it was relatively-nice in a winter sort of way. Unfortunately, today the cold in my lungs seems worse and I seem to have an ear infection:(

On the plus side, I did find my glasses, but my muffin pan- which I though hard to loose in a small house!- is still missing. I used this disappearance to buy new silicon muffin cups (that work awesome and are easier to clean) so I am not really feeling the loss- I'm just perplexed as to how I managed to loose something that big!

James needs breakfast now...

Infinity and back

Chocolate chip marshmallow cookies I baked last night- amazing!

James got up at 3am last night claiming a bad dream. He snuggled in with me for the rest of the night as I was too sick to bring him back to his bed. When he woke up just before 7, he told me "I love you to infinity and back". Aww. Now that is nice to wake up to.

I didn't cough too much in the night- just one little fit around 5am. I Vicksed myself up pretty good before bed.

Today, I'll still try to keep it quiet. I did most of the laundry yesterday, so I have to clean the kitchen and bathroom today. AJ's coming over for a bit today (Annette's mom passed away Wed. night) The boys are at basketball right now. I haven't even had my shower yet.
My goals for the weekend are to find my glasses and my muffin pan. Now, my glasses blend in with stuff and are easy to loose. But a muffin pan? It's big and it has been gone for 3 weeks. Weird! So, not lofty goals :)