Schools Out for Summer!!!

Yeah! No school for 2 months. I'm really ready for this break.
In the last weeks of school we went to the zoo and had a great time. The kids really love seeing all the animals. It's amazing how protective the adult elephants were towards the baby.Many peacocks wander freely throughout the zoo.There was a baby giraffe as well, but I couldn't get a good picture.It's hard to see but there is a baby gorilla that is only 2 weeks old.

It was a very special end of year for us this year. We had a student graduate and go on to Junior High and one boy move up to a higher level class. A great accomplishment for autistic kids.
The flowers in my yard are finally starting to look pretty good. We had so much rain and very little sunshine in the last month or so that everything was late. Finally we have some really nice weather (high 20's, low 30's C so far). With all that rain our hedge was so overgrown, it took a couple of hours to trim it this morning. It looks really nice when trimmed but it doesn't take long before it needs trimming again. I'm now at the point of thinking about having it taken out. It serves no real purpose, it's just along the side of our driveway.
My BFF gave me some lilies last fall from her yard and this is the first that came up this year.This is a blueberry bush I bought. I would love to have blueberries every year. Hopefully it will survive the winter.

Bye for now.

Procrastinating!!

I think if I procrastinate much longer I'll forget I have a blog!! I can't believe it's been a month since I posted. I think my main problem is that I spend so much time reading other people's blogs I never have time to post anything on my own blog. Plus it has been raining so much that I don't have any pictures either.

We've had a few nice days and I did manage to get some yard work done. Managed to dig out a bunch of tiger lilies. They are worse than weeds for spreading. I took a chance and planted a blueberry bush. It said it was zone 3 so hopefully it will survive. Finally got all my tomato plants put in, forgot to put one in my upside down planter though. All my pots are planted but everything seems to be at a stand still because it's been so wet with little sun. Got to work this morning and half the parking lot was flooded from the rain on the weekend!!!

I had a beautiful big bunch of red tulips at the side of my driveway but we had an early morning visit from a couple of deer who decided they should eat half of them for breakfast. Not impressed. Eat my grass, eat my weeds, but leave my flowers alone!!! Actually it's really unusual to have deer on our street. We live in the burbs but we are a few kilometers from deer country.

I work for the school board and am part of support staff. Well, we are having rotating strikes. We walked out for 2 days last week and we will be out for the next 2 days this week. I don't know how much good this is doing but I hope something happens soon. We will have lost 4 days pay after this week which is not easy especially with the summer break coming up. We don't get paid over the summer so this strike on top of that is not good.

I've read a few books since my last post but I'll save that for another day.

Bye for now.

Time Flies!

Where does the time go? It's been ages since I posted anything. We have had the weirdest Spring ever. One day it is snowing the next it is really nice. Last night we were supposed to get 10-20cm of snow but we only got about 5cm. Most of it was gone by this afternoon and once again it was really nice. We are supposed to be at about 20 degrees C by the middle of next week. I hope we have seen the last of the snow.

We went to see GD#1 in her baton twirling competition on the weekend. It was the provincials so it was quite important. She did really well. She got 3 firsts, 2 seconds and 1 fourth. This is all leading up to going to the world championships in Ireland in August. We are all very excited for her.

We really haven't been doing much around here. I think it's about 7 more weeks of school left before summer break. I know I'm really looking forward to that. Nothing major planned as of yet, just looking forward to the break.

Son #4's kids came over on Sunday for a sleepover. GD is 7 and GS is 4. They were so good, had lots of fun playing and went to bed with no fuss. DH had them all day the next day while I went to work. They had lots of fun at the park.

This is what they brought me when they came over. Two little vases of beautiful crocuses that they had picked on a hill near their house.

I've been playing around with the macro setting on my camera. Some pictures turned out really well, but others were very blurred. I need a lot more practice.
We got a lovely bunch of tulips at work last week for support staff day.
The knitting I had on the needles last post is finished. It's been finished for a couple of weeks but it has been sitting in my laundry room waiting to be blocked since then. So it will probably be a while before it is camera ready. I hate the blocking and sewing together part. I love the knitting part though.
Hopefully I will get my act together and post again fairly soon. I have read a few more books I want to post about.
Bye for now.

Spring? Winter?

This is what I saw out of our dining room window on Thursday morning! We set a new record-23cm snow in one day-Yahoo! - NOT

My drive to work is usually 12-15 minutes . Thursday morning it took 11/2 hours!!
If that isn't weird enough , this is what it was like out the window Friday morning.

Today is really nice - 17degrees C. It's a constant dilema - do we put the snow shovel/blower away and get the lawn mower out or what.
I received a lovely parcel from son#2. He'd been in London and brought me a few treats. I absolutely love malt loaf. We can't get it here . We can get Bisto gravy powder but not gravy granules. The granules are much better.

The knitting project is still on the needles. I really should have finished it by now but I've got a terrible cold - again and a friend gave me a huge pile of magazines she'd finished with so I've been browsing through them.
Bye for now.

How I Spent Spring Break

Spring Break is all over and done with. I went back to work today on a very chilly morning, -12 degrees C, and before you know it, it's like we were never gone! There were 3 or 4 mornings when I looked outside and the picture didn't look much different from the picture that is my header. We still have snow covering everything. No grass in sight.

Did I accomplish anything that I said I wanted to get done in my last post? Let's see.

"One project I hope to get done over the break is painting the upstairs bathroom, it's wallpapered at the moment. It is way overdue for a paint job.
I really need to get into my sewing room as well. It is a total disaster area at the moment. No exaggeration. I wouldn't dare show a picture." That's what I said in my last post.

Well, we spent all week working on the upstairs bathroom. After much debate we decided to wallpaper again. It took 21/2 days to strip the old paper. 12 hours straight to put up the new paper, and then 1/2 a day to put in baseboard and moulding and clean. Here are a few before and after pictures.

After all the work

Another job we did is put in these interlocking 22"x22" blocks in the laundry room. Couldn't leave the bare concrete now that we have the 'Pacific Blue' pair!! They are really comfortable to walk on, just like walking in crocs.

Unfortunately I didn't get into the sewing room except to go in and choose some yarn to make a little sweater. Still on the needles-pictures soon.

I did read a book over the break.

V
Very interesting. A mystery, suspense type. Basically, young teenage boys getting revenge on priests that 'took advantage' of them when they were younger. A very good read.

Bye for now.

4 more days!!!

4 more days and it's spring break-yahoo!! Can't wait. I'm sure ready for it. I don't know about spring. It snowed off and on yesterday and today. Fortunately it's not too cold (-11degrees) so it won't stick around very long. It looks like there was only about an inch accumulation.

I don't think there will be too much yard work done over the break though. The general rule of thumb in this part of the country is that you don't do any planting out (unless it's is a really hardy plant) before the May long weekend. That is Victoria day May 24th. We really do have a very short growing season, because by mid to the end of Sept. we can have frost. It seems crazy really. We all run out and spend a ton of money on bedding out plants etc. and they only last 3 months. Oh well, better than nothing I guess.

I have definitely been enjoying my new washing machine and dryer - I didn't think I'd ever say that about laundry!!! They are so quiet, I forget they are on. I'm sure the novelty will soon wear off, but I do love them. lol

Got new taps in my kitchen this last week and new lino in both the bathrooms. Much better. One project I hope to get done over the break is painting the upstairs bathroom, it's wallpapered at the moment. It is way overdue for a paint job.

I really need to get into my sewing room as well. It is a total disaster area at the moment. No exaggeration. I wouldn't dare show a picture. As my husband is always telling me it should have yellow tape around it saying 'condemned'. It's really bad. I go in every now and then and it's so overwhelming that I don't know where to start and so I just walk out again. I really can't keep on doing that for ever. I'll never get any sewing done!!! I have very good intentions, but we'll see what happens.

Finished another book. This isn't a book I would have bought myself. I'm not usually a fan of 'western' type books. A friend gave me the book and I was actually surprised. I didn't mind it at all. It's another one of those very predictable books that you know the ending after a few chapters, a very easy read.

Time to go and make supper. We're having lobster tails-very yummy!

Bye for now.

Pacific Blue

How d'ya like these babies!!! (Don't look at the crappy floor!) These were a huge surprise from son #2 for Christmas! I just want to get a chair and sit and admire them. The colour is Pacific Blue. The picture doesn't show the colour very well but it is very similar to Wedgewood blue. They have all the bells and whistles you can imagine. They were such a wonderful surprise, to say the least!

Son #2 is here to visit for a few days so this post is short and sweet!!

Bye for now