Easter hunt

I made an Easter treasure hunt for James based on the scriptures from Mark about Easter. Like the part where it talks about Jesus being given the wine vinegar I send him to find the wine vinegar in our house. (A bit of a challenge as I'm sure he doesn't have a clue what wine vinegar is so I help a bit) eg. the clue says:
36 Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.
Look in the fridge where the wine vinegar is.

I'll get the hunt set up tonight so he can search first thing in the morning before hockey.

Happy Easter everyone!

Spring is peeking through

It is still pretty cold out but the sun was shining and a nice breeze so I hung the laundry out.

I could see some sprouts peeking out from the soil. It looks like the squirrels didn't eat all my tulip bulbs and I will see some this year (I planted them too late last year and they did not produce flowers last year.)

Yes, you can go to Isaac's

James: Isaac is ripsticking over
Me: oh, do his parent let him do that?
James: Yes, I am going outside to wait for him. How come you don't let me walk to Isaac's?
Me: I have no problem with you going to Isaac's. You are a big boy.
James: Ok then I'll walk and meet him
Me: Ok
(5 minutes later)
James comes back and asks me to watch him head down the road :O

He also sat on my lap this morning for about an hour. I had a lot to do but knew this was a rare moment!

rolling

Last night a raccoon knocked over the green bin at 3:30am. The night before James was up at 5am. So apparently Easter weekend is not going to be terribly restful!

Went to Loblaws at 7am and it was the busiest I have ever seen it that early. It was hopping. They had 4 lanes open (normally they have only 1 this early) and their bread was already baked. They are preparing for the onslaught!

I haven't figured out my plan for dinners for the next few days (I get my meat at John's not Loblaws)- I should do that. I cleaned out my can cupboard and I have about 4 cans of stuff I need to fit into a recipe in the next month before they hit their expiry date!

James' team was playing in the kids for kids tournament- they were playing up an age level (they are atom and were playing peewee). They did really well- they came in 5th out of 12 but were just shy of the playoffs!
It means a day of no hockey today. A rare day!

overload

The problem with a 4 day week is that I still need to do 5 days of work. So I ended up doing 8 hours of overtime. I left work last night so late that John's had closed- I had planned to pick up some meat. So tonight we'll be having pasta (meatless!)

James said he wanted to write a book like the hobbit so he got out a pad of paper. After he went to bed I transcribed it on his blog:)



At least because I did so much work on the last 4 days I get a bit of a break today. Cleaning and catching up!

Real

I was amused by this news story from the Standard
There are some bits that are hard to fill in. Did the two cars know each other? Otherwise why was there conversation? Good work for the OPP to pull over the car for a traffic offense but there is still so much missing from this story- how far did he go? Was he driving erratically because he had just committed an offense? Interesting that the second car was following him. Had he called the police?

A story that leaves with me more questions than answers.

Work is super busy but I did get out today for a short walk. Yesterday I went out for a lovely lunch with Joanne and we went to see Pearl in the hospital but she had already been sent home. The weather is slowly getting better!

Israel

Today Joanne was talking about Palm Sunday and she went over the route that Jesus would have taken and said she would like to do that walk if she went to Israel. I would like to do a whole list of them, were I to go! Not keen on airplanes though.

A pretty quiet day- this week will be busy as there are only 4 days! I'm having lunch with Joanne on Tuesday. Heaps to do tomorrow!

Preferring the end of winter

As it is "officially" spring (though the snow on the ground makes it look otherwise) I cleaned out the front cupboard and put away all the backup winter stuff. We have one set of winter things because I face reality enough to know they are needed but all the rest are boxed in the basement.

I plunged the sink, which is now working. Made quite a mess so cleaned the whole bathroom.

The fridge leaking is actually a sign of spring as there seems to be some sort of defrosting problem that only occurs in spring and summer. Not a huge concern.

The chickadees seem to think it is spring. Let's hope the weather agrees soon!

Mr. Grump

One day last week- maybe Tuesday I was walking James to school and he was soooo grumpy. I tried a couple of jokes to make him laugh and it did not help. Grumps abounded. So I started praying for him- out loud as we were walking down the street. It only took a couple of minutes and he talked about what was bothering him. He seemed to feel better after that. The next 2 mornings he came to see me at 6am just for a cuddle.

My stove issue has not yet been resolved. My fridge is leaking and the bathroom sink seems to be more plugged than not. But other than these minor irritations things seem to be going well. The weeks are full. Only 2 more weeks of classes. So much to do before then!

glimpse

I wore my boots to work today because there was snow forecast but I made it home before it started. Definitely boots for tomorrow!

I got a pile of work done today but did not tend to my email. Someone at work snickered as they had over 100 emails in their inbox. I snickered inwardly as I have over 2000. I was hoping to take a day off this week to look at ovens but I am not sure that is going to happen. Just keeping planning meals carefully. Tomorrow roast in the slow cooker.

I've developed a bit of a stye in my eye. Have rubbed some gold on it. Hope it helps!

anti winter

Dalek dress:


For new moms:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/beth-woolsey/new-moms_b_2195308.html

How do you lose inmates by helicopter?

advertising success

The next few weeks we are hiring project managers for our first year projects for next year. I did a bit more advertising this year than last and we got double the applications. This means more work for me sorting through them all but gives us a lot more selection so overall I'm happy even though I had to spend all Saturday morning entering the data.

4:30am a woman (I suspect an inebriated one) was banging on a neighbours door and yelling to let her in. I suspect she knew the person but had to wake them up as it was 4:30am. She was loud though- likely woke up the whole neighbourhood.

7:30am I go out to get groceries. It looks nice out so I didn't wear my gloves. Mistake as it was -10 or -12, so rather cold. Loblaws was pretty busy even for that time of the morning as they were having a no tax event.

lacking spring

The other day I walked in to work as big fluffy snow fell. But it cleared up quickly and I was able to walk home for the first time this year in my shoes (instead of boots!) But today it was quite chilly again and the reminder of spring seems to be fading.

Work has been busy. No time for lunch today. Tomorrow we have a workshop most of the day so I expect the work to pile up!

This evening James has a friend over. When the friend arrived, he shook my hand. I was pretty blown away!

Rain that washes away

I love listening to and smelling the rain that washes the snow away. I know it will get cold again before winter is really over but this feel refreshing.



The Monday wasn't as bad as far as Mondays go. Especially since I had Friday off. Goal tomorrow is to take a lunch. We'll see how that goes!

A good visit

These two are my winners:


James took some selfies:


We had a good time. Probably wore Oma right out. James suggested that maybe Oma and Grandad could move to Kingston?

I got my marking done.

James is ready for hockey camp next week. March break means getting up earlier as he needs to be at the rink by 8am (School on the other hand starts at 9:05am). With the savings time he actually is at the rink by 7am last week's time!

We're staying up to watch BB Canada. It is cornier in a way than the US version- eg. the talking moose. It also seems more laid back and Canadian. Fun anyway!

The chicken tikka in the slow cooker seemed to work out and I made a beef stew that I was pretty impressed with so the meals with my mom got a thumbs up.

When shopping I had to keep reminding myself not to buy things because I haven't got an oven. I haven't figured out what I want to do yet. When I bought the house the stove came with it and I wasn't a big fan and knew it would be replaced sooner or later. But how do I offload a 1/2 working stove?

the arrival

James is a happy boy to have his Oma to play with. Her bus was early so I had to scuttle to pick her up. I didn't expect that on a Friday afternoon!

We had a lovely chicken tikka- made in the slowcooker as the oven was not an option!

Then we took a walk to the dollar store and SDM.

I bought some seeds for beans and carrots as I love home grown veggies. We'll have to see if my veggie patch will produce this year! Last year I was too busy to plant anything.

When we got back James and Oma have been playing and reading!

excitement in the air

James is very excited that my mother is coming to visit tonight! He woke up with "When is Oma getting here?" on his lips and asked it a dozen times before school.
He has set up "stations" downstairs for her to play with him at. A lego station, a monopoly station, a Wii station, etc. She's going to be a busy lady!

1000 lines later

I powered through the timetabling spreadsheet today. Over a thousand lines of data. Of course it wouldn't print properly and I was way too tired to figure it out by the time I got finished. But I worked something else out for the meeting tomorrow.

BB Can is getting even sillier to have a talking Moose. I think it is a lighter version of the American BB. BB Lite.

I need to sleep. Long day tomorrow but am hoping to take Friday off. My mother is coming to visit for the weekend! (don't expect any meals cooked in the oven! lol)

Liquidation world had some liquidation of the wall.

in which the boots follow the oven

So apparently my boots have been hanging out with my oven. The zipper in one of them no longer zips. I had to tape myself into my boots to get home. It worked ok, but clearly not ideal.

I stayed late at work to make it through my email in hopes that tomorrow I can dedicate everything to the timetabling file. I scheduled a meeting to review it Thurs am so it should be done by then! I'm not really sure how to make it through the day!

In which the oven went on strike

I turned on the over to make fries tonight. I checked back about 5 minutes later and it wasn't even warm. I tried switching the timer on and off. I tried hitting the "push to reset breaker" button. Nothing. So I made rice instead.

I didn't make it through my email today, so overall a pretty disappointing day. I tend to need to make it through the email to get a feeling of satisfaction of work completed. Mondays are always the most difficult day.

My coworker had a more difficult day as she was in a car accident and her car was totaled.

In which my neighbour may need remedial driving lessons

I was washing the dishes when I hear this odd screechy noise. I thought it was odd but not alarming and I couldn't tell what direction it had come from. I finished the dishes (I was almost done) and went and looked out the window and saw that our neighbour had driven out of their driveway and managed to miss the road entirely and had gone through the snowbank on the opposite side of the street and ended up in the front yard of another house. Luckily there weren't any pedestrians at that time and she was able to back the car out of the snowbank and carry on! It could have been a lot worse.

While I don't have my own Twitter account, there are a few accounts that I read from time to time. One being Al and one being the Kingston police. Al's kind of baffles me, but the police sometimes post when there are accidents, etc so nominally a bit more useful :) Anyway, a girl named Rebecca who happens to have lots of posts about going out to get drunk and may have some sort of alcohol problem retweeted one of the KP's posts- I suppose to be funny. But anyway this made the KP look at HER twitter feed and they retweeted one of her posts about getting drunk. Anyway she apparently can give it out but not take it as she is claiming that they have maligned her character. The lesson here is- don't put anything on social media that you don't want the world to see.

Another one that I read mainly out of concern for the girl is that of reality star jenelle. I've never seen the show she is on but I must have come across her somehow. The girl has a lot of drama in her life and pretty much all of it is public. She got married recently (maybe Dec?) but then had a very public fight with her husband and now he is on the run for charges that she filed on him. When she left him she went back to an ex-boyfriend and they were a team against her soon to be ex-husband. Then she went off to rehab and the ex-boyfriend went back to his ex-girlfriend so when she came out of rehab she was pretty mad and was being supported by her husband. Confused? And there is a dog that everyone fights about custody over. Oh, and she has a child with yet another guy from the past who I believe her mother is raising. And you thought my life was tiring!

Chip and dip

Chip and dip assault made me laugh.

After the big championship game they all went over to Jordans for a little party. I took a nap!

I did manage to clean the kitchen and the front room yesterday. James cleaned his room. I am going to clean the bathrooms now. James has hockey all morning.

A while back I made a purchase at Sears online. I had 2 gift cards (which was the reason I made the purchase) and I typed them in on the order, but when I got my bill they never came off. So I called them and they said they would look into it. I got the next bill and they still hadn't been taken off. So I called again and they said that the gift cards had never been added to the original order so I could still use them. So I asked if using the online ordering was not reliable. They suggested calling by phone.

Champions!

Waiting for the game to begin

The boys got a dramatic entrance with a spotlight and smoke

They were playing St. Joes and it was a tough battle.

But they prevailed!

changing batteries

And the cycle begins again. The offer letters for September are rolling to the post office.

Today went kind of as expected in that I never got to the timetabling file. For some reason I thought I might get out on time but that was not the case. 3 straight days when I did not get out for a walk.

It was a pretty big day- drop deadline day, discipline selection day, goodness knows what else day!



These are not the files you are looking for



Lots of cleaning to do as I got behind with marking the essays. I have a dozen or so late ones to mark and then should be done!

I watched the first episodes of BB Canada. To which James suggested that Canadians are nicer than Americans. However, this channel does not bleep the swearing so I notice that compared to the American version. It seems more noticeable anyway.

James' hockey championship is tomorrow!