plug my ears and sing lalalalalala

I woke up this morning, felt a bit of a chill. The grey clouds hung low and threatened to release the rain. And my first thought was,"Ymmmm, I'm going to make some stew."

Stew? Stew! Stew is fall time talk.....Not yet.

This always happens...my mind flips a switch when August is approaching. I know that it is still summer...but I know it like a dying man who knows he only has a few weeks left to live. Only a few more weeks to savour and soak up the memories of fun that you pocket and pull out when the winter day blahs come over you.

So, excuse me, while I stick my fingers in my ears and sing and pretend not hear the wind blowing or the looming approach of August 1st.

Lalalalalala!

Sneaky thief!

Miss Lolo B was kind enough to drive out to our place and spend the day with us. It was full of our children's laughter as we had a picnic beside the river, went swimming in the pool and headed out to show them the local historical sites.

Lois had mentioned going to the museum and said, "I'll take my girls. You've been there four times already, I'm sure you are tired of paying the entrance fee."

"Lois, there's no entrance fee. We'll go together."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I've been 4 times already. There's no entrance fee."

As we plodded along down the sidewalk heading towards the Musical Horse Ride, we laughed as our girls pretended to be horses while the two younger ones whined from the heat. As we approached the door to enter, Lois pointed at a sign: ADMISSION FEES.

My eyes nearly bugged out of my head..."Admission fees!" I croaked.

Lois just started laughing. "I'll pay," she said, knowing that I left my wallet behind because we obviously wouldn't need any money to get in.

So...apparently, my family has been stealing from our community by somehow getting into the museum and not paying.

After we got into the museum, I wondered several times, "How did we get into the museum? How did we think it was free? We've been here 4 times!"

Lois just kept laughing and saying, "I knew there would be a fee."

After stopping at the stables, enjoying the horse show, going through a few historic buildings, I once again found myself saying, "I just can't believe this. I feel terrible."

And then Lois cheered me up the way all great women and mother cheer up friends and children. She smiled and said, "Let's go for ice cream!"

Almost free gas for me

I, officially, live in a small town.
I stepped up to the counter to pay for gas. The teenager behind the counter smiles at me as he tries to process my debit card (checking card for you Americans). Suddenly there is a flurry of button clicking sounds as he tries to process my order.
“Dude,” he says to his buddy behind the counter. “What did you do to get the board going again?”
‘Dude’ comes over and hits some keys...which does nothing to proceed things. Instead, he shrugs and says, “Looks like you’re screwed, man.”
“Dude,” ‘man’ says, “can you get me the old keyboard?”
“Man, it’s not gonna do anything.” But he still goes and gets it.
It would seem that Dude is prophetic because it does not do a thing.He picks up the phone to call “the Boss.”
Enter Cranky old guy.
“Pump one isn’t working. Are your pumps not working?”
“No,” Man says, “I just haven’t authorized it.”
Old Cranky Guy wearing a look that says, “Why the hell not?” asks, “ What does that mean? Does that mean the pumps aren’t working?”
“No, the keyboard’s broken. I have to hit a key to authorize it.”
“Ah, I see. The pumps are not working.”
Exit Cranky old guy.
Dude hangs up the phone and gives an update to the now growing line of sweaty patrons in the cramped gasoline booth. “I’m gonna go put out the pylons, man. Take cash for orders.”
Enter pregnant lady amused by lack of problem solving skills the staff have. “And what do you do if you only have debit and no cash.”
Man and Dude look at each other for a moment.
Dude, clearly the leader in the group, tilts his head to the side and says, “Do you happen to live close by?”
“mhmmm.”
Sigh of relief from both boys.
“Great! Could you just write down your phone number and address. When the pumps are up again we’ll call you.”
“Ok” says pregnant lady. “I’m good for it.”
After leaving my number and address, I push open the door seeing huge line ups of cars, vans and trucks.
One lady keeps saying to Dude. “I think something is wrong with your pump. Are the pumps broken?”
Men, women and children all have their heads sticking out the window listening attentively as Dude addresses the crowd and says, “Yeah, pumps are closed, guys. Keyboard problems.”
I walked toward my vehicle at pump 5, and hear a family in the car say, “No gas here. Looks like the pumps are broken.”
I’m half-tempted to say, “No, it’s a keyboard problem.” But I keep my mouth shut. I just walk towards my vehicle as pandemonium among the townsfolk bursts forth repeating the small town news: “The pumps are broken.”

Living in the Old West

A re-enactment of a buffalo hunt

hanging out with Miss Inez

ah, there's nothing quite as handsome as man in uniform.

Sweet old lady from the WEst

These people were thrown in jail for pretending to be an officer of the law and a sweet old lady.

When this picture was taken, the photographer said, "You're in jail. You shouldn't be smiling."
And we said,"You would smile ,too, if you did what we did."

Trip Highlights

Since Happydoodler Holly begged so nicely...I'm back. I got back a while ago. But the day after I returned I felt compelled to move into our new house...and so I have finally plugged in my computer, caught up on youtube's version of So You Think You Can Dance and have downloaded some pictures of our trip.

A blurry pic of the City of Fountains-Kansas City, MO

Kansas at night in the Light and Power district

The only WW1 Memorial in all of USA

Downtown

Another fountain--at night this has a flame that burns on top

Best part of the trip: time alone with my man!

culprits got caught!

yay! the dudes who stole my wallet got caught. Hooray.

I pray that this changes their lives in the best way possible.

For those who don't know, my wallet was stolen from our van (smashed the window to do it). I still can't believe I was too busy to grab my purse that day. A whole day of filing police reports, finding out my card was maxed and cancelling it, notifying a bunch of places would have been avoided if I had just grabbed it. errrr.

Anyway, the blessing was that, even though they took my wallet and maxed out my credit card, they returned my wallet and left it sitting on the drivers seat. No id taken, none of my kids id taken, our health cards still intact and oddly enough, only my Airmiles card taken.

I'm thankful for our local police who did a great job and caught these guys in less than a month. It was a robbery for a drug debt that these two guys owed.

I hope that God uses this to turn their lives around.

Thank you Jesus for good policeman, for strangers who return things they stole and for insurance policies that cover damage to vehicles.

If only summer was my excuse...

So, it's raining. It's pouring. Old men...you know...they snore.

Anyway, if only my lack of communication on my blog could be blamed on the fact that I'm out skipping in the sunshine and completing my summer list! No, no. I'm inside, watching the rain for the tenth day straight. Shaking my fist at the grey skies and sighing a sigh of boredom as the rain pelts the windows.

It's left me trapped inside...trapped and facing the inevitable: PACKING.

Yes, I'm back to brown boxing it. Stuffing all my stuff into boxes so that in a few days I can take them out of boxes and put them into a--hopefully--permanent home.

Ahh, rain...it's God's way of gently nudging me into a task I'd love to procrastinate over.

Self esteem and the old bag of bones

My kids are so great for my self-esteem.

Today SuperGirl and Missie-Moo played a fun game that made me feel like a queen...er, a humble queen.

It started when SuperGirl said, "Mama, you're the beautifulest."

Missie-Moo added, "Mommy, you're so cute."

SuperGirl reminded me, "Mom, you're the best hugger ever."

Missie-Moo giggled,"Mommy, you're just so wonderful."

SuperGirl said, most thoughtfully, "Mama, you are just so great."

And Missie-Moo , being two and trying to be thoughtful like her sister, put her head to the side and let the wheels turn. Eyes brightening, she said, "Mommy, you're so...so...heavy!"

We all burst out laughing and Missie-Moo said, "Mommy, you are such a big girl!"

Indeed.

Easy to get on a pedestal.

Easy to get off.

Finally, Yahoo news can get on with life!

I am so grateful that the US Democratic Party has finally chosen their leader.
 Why?

Because finally, maybe the news can get on with pointing out some actual news.
 I can't even say how bored I have become by the whole thing. For months we've seen blazing photos of both Hillary and Barak. This thing has dragged out longer then Victor Newman's return from the dead on the Young and the Restless .

What I would really love to see is the US just try and do campaigning Canuck style. Canadians have 58 days--that's it!--58 days of campaigning. For less than two months we hear talk and promises, we hear flaws pointed out and we get to hear a good little rant by CBC funny man journalist Rick Mercer. But that's it.

We vote. We got on with business.

How grateful I am that this is over? Very, very grateful.

But now...the long and never ending story part deux happens as the campaigning for President starts. Oh, that I had a US political news filter on my computer.

And in a stunning and shocking twist of events...

Guess who's moving? Again.