Family Facts & Foibles 2011

The Ziemer Family Facts & Foibles 2011 - as spammed to everyone on my contact list.

Ahh! December. That time of year to spend enormous amounts of time and money lavishing your family with completely unnecessary gifts and gluttonous amounts of food. This extravagant behaviour can’t help but cause one to reflect on the abundant blessings and love our Heavenly Father lavishes on his children – beginning with His plan to provide a Saviour. Thank you Jesus for being willing to participate.

As is my annual custom at this time of year, I like to take stock of some of the blessings, make sense of the comings-and-goings, and just generally revel in the amazingness that is my family. And if I’m gonna take two hours to put pen to paper, so to speak, I see no reason not to assault your email with my ramblings.

Thank you Jesus



[What we’ve been up to...]



While it seems on a daily level, there is never a dull moment in the Ziemer house, 2011 as whole was relatively calm and smooth sailing. You could interpret that as boring, but I’ll take it.

Albert, as usual, keeps busy with reno projects – whether for us, or someone else. This year he built a roof covering half of our very large back deck. With our rainy summer this year, it was a fantastic way to allow for some outdoor dry living. We hope to host many a backyard party such as our 2011 Lobster Fest in which we celebrated the Vancouver Canucks making it to the Stanley Cup Finals.

While we were disappointed they didn’t hoist the cup this year, we are far more disappointed in the handful of troublemakers who embarrassed our province and country with their destructive behaviour after the final round.

We managed to get a week of great weather for a bike trip out to Prince Rupert in August. What a beautiful ride and great refreshing little break.

This year, my talented husband has added to his skills by taking drum lessons. This means we have a full set of drums set up in our small living room. I think he was hoping the looming drum set would encourage me to find the money to get a small electric set. I’ll live crowded.

Amongst the reno projects, I got my longed-for art studio set up in a corner of the basement. While I still manage to spread my crap throughout the house, it does help to contain it a bit.

I’m still dabbling in watercolour and painted over 200 greeting cards as a fund raiser for Relay For Life. I took a short art class at the art gallery this fall and was quite intrigued with the mixed media projects. I’m taking another watercolour/mixed media online course in January which I am quite excited about.

All this focus on art has meant that my blog has been completely abandoned. Life goes on, as they say.

October marked three years cancer free for me. Woot woot!

Jed had his lung check-up in August and, while the lower lobe of his lung is still “dead,” he has managed to ward off any pneumonia or complications so the doctors have decided to delay removing it. He will have further testing in February.

Lobster Fest in May

Rockin’ the maracas at church

Granny’s Art Cards

Techno Cowboy playing iPhone

X helps PaPa build a playroom

[The Kids....]

Thailand Adventures

Brandi and Kore spent most of February exploring the country of Thailand and came home with lots of great stories of adventure.

In August they took over the Trestain Pryce Denture Clinic in Kamloops, both the business and the building, so travel will probably be limited for a while now. While this increases their responsibilities and work load, they are up for the challenge and we are very proud of their achievements and success.

Xander takes a family photo

In July, we got news from Ken and Jade that they will be parents again next March – just two weeks after Xander’s third birthday. This is so exciting. The ultrasound technician suspects it is a girl and we are thrilled. However, Xander has brought us such joy and love that we will be equally thrilled if the wee one turns out to be a little brother.

Brilliant and creative little brain developing inside a very beautiful face that we anxiously await meeting

Xander really does bring joy into the lives of everyone around him. I’m marginally biased, but he is the cutest, smartest and most well behaved two-year-old you can imagine. He is potty trained, loves all things music, loves books and puzzles, knows all his letters and numbers and even does simple math. He can find his way around an iPhone as good as anyone and can successfully find “Cars2” videos on You Tube. We are proud of the fantastic job of parenting that Ken and Jade are doing.







Jed is still working with the SPCA on Saturdays and he is the locker room attendant for the PG Cougars during their practice sessions. He loves the hockey players and management and is proud of his role with the team. We are thankful for their acceptance of him and the community inclusion he feels.

Jed gets pumped up for the Royal Wedding of Will & Kate

[And next year....]

July 2012, my parents Ed & Jean celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. While this is an enormous accomplishment in today’s world, in keeping with Dad and Mom’s not-so-enormous lifestyle we will celebrate in a low-key family fun sort of way.

We, their offspring, have booked campsites for the weekend of July 27-30 at Sheridan Lake Resort near Lone Butte. We welcome anyone to check it out and join us. Make your own reservations. They have serviced campsites as well as cabins, boat rentals and apparently the biggest fresh water fish. I’ll be there with a lawn chair and wine glass and perhaps a handful of Minute-to-win-it games.

Milestone Celebration

[Blah, blah, blah…]

If you’ve managed to skip-read long enough to make it this far in the 2011 facts and foibles, you are dedicated indeed. Either that or you need a little more excitement in your life.

Either way, I just want to say that we are blessed by and thankful for so many good friends and family members. We hope to share some “deck time” with each and every one of you in 2012.



Love Albert & Liana

Party Central

Merry Christmas! Blessings and love from the A&L Ziemer family

This sux

Ty Danny Ty

"Ty Danny, Ty." That's Xander-speak for "Try Granny Try."

And try I will.

For a week or so I've been feeling like I want to write a final blog. Yes final.

Now, I'm not so brazen as some (JesseMac, you know who you are) who will just delete the blog and cut you off cold turkey. No, I will say goodbye. And possibly I may come back on occasion and ramble on for old time's sake. But for now I am really feeling like I need to release myself from it.

I know that I've been sporadic in the past year or so. But that doesn't mean I don't think about the blog often. And feel guilty. It would be fine if no one was still hanging around, but I know that I can go more than 30 days without writing and I'm still getting an average of 20-30 viewers a day. (And yes, for the most part I know who the viewers are and I appreciate your dedication and commitment)

I made a comment to someone the other day that I was "currently cocooning." And the more I think about it, the more I love the term. Creatively and expressively I am still learning and evolving but I feel like I'm going through a quiet time - not that nothing is happening. Au contraire. I feel great changes are occurring within. And one day I will fly.

In the meantime, it is my intention to keep a digital developmental record of my most amazing and lovable grandson X and his unborn sibling Baby Y. While I wish I had started it back when X was born, I didn't. So I will just have to live with what I have.

If you wish to take a peek at my Baby X & Y site, feel free. I call it Try Granny Try.

Thank you for your past bloggerdom support - I truly do appreciate it.

Hey, we've met you before!

A few weeks ago I was digging through some stuff in the basement and came across three swords left over from centre pieces from Ken and Jade's wedding.

They looked pretty spectacular as a centre piece. (If you forget how fabulous this wedding was CLICK HERE)

While they looked great as centre pieces, thank God no one at the wedding discovered that they had flashing LED lights and made horrendously annoying sounds.

I put them in the outside toybox. Jade wasn't too excited about Xander having weapons as toys so I figured it was only a matter of time before they made their way into the trash bin.

As I was walking home from a little visit down the street with X and his parents tonight, I caught sight of three relatively-new-to-the-neighbourhood kids running out of my driveway and across the road to the park with the said LED lights and annoying noises waving wildly as they swung at each other in mock battle.

"Little buggers!" I thought while similtaneously thinking, "Yes! I hope their parents enjoy them."

I picked up the scattered toys on the back deck and mentally took casual inventory, noting that nothing else seemed to be missing. I swept off the deck and left the door open as I was returning the broom to the kitchen.

I could hear the children returning.

Rather than greet them at the top of the stairs to the deck, as a good neighbour would, I decided to stand behind a doorway in the back hall to eavesdrop.

Apparently they were returning the swords. Damn.

"Don't go in the house." I hear one of three warn the others.

"But the door is open."

"No one is here.... Helloooo?" They stepped foot inside.

I could contain myself no longer. I stepped into the back hallway, "Hi!" I said slightly loud and forceful, secretly hoping to scare the bejezus out of them.

"Hello," they replied as if I had been expecting them to arrive. They handed me the swords. "These are yours."

I resisted saying, "No shit!"

Instead, I calmly instructed them that they shouldn't be going in people's yards when they aren't home. Borrowing toys without permission is the same as stealing. I really wanted to go into a rant about the police coming to arrest them but they cut me off with, "Can we go down the green slide?" while pointing to the very cool slide that goes from the deck to the back yard.

"Sure." I answered.

"How many times?"

"You can use it a few times. But you shouldn't be using it if no one is home." My nagging trailed off while they ran off to play in the neighbour's (who weren't home) yard.

I noticed they left a trigger style garden hose nozzle laying in my back yard.

Forty five minutes later I could hear them playing in my front yard. "Here. Hold these branches back to make a doorway to the secret cave...."

I knew they were playing under my weeping birch. I can't say I blame them. It's a pretty cool place. I've even been known to crawl under there myself on occasion.

I went to the front door, "Come out from under the tree, please!" (I think I said "please". Perhaps I didn't.)

"I think it's time for you kids to go home and play in your own yard."

"But... we've met you before!" the eldest, approximately six-year-old, exclaims.

"Yes. Yes, I know you have." I said, and finished the sentence in my head, "Just because you've previously trespassed doesn't give you the right to take my toys home and destroy my trees."

But off they toddled to the yard of the neighbour two doors down and climbed their small tree and played there for another half hour till one of them got hurt and they scurried across the road towards home.

To their credit they returned a handful of toys to my next door neighbour before leaving.

Word of the day: wrinkly

Finally! Summer arrived along with the month of August. Today is the 4th and it's the first time this year we have been able to fill the kiddie pool so Xander could go swimming.

He swam until his hands got wrinkly then tried to "wash" his hands in the water to get the wrinkly off. I explained that the wrinkly came from the water. So he picked up his pool and dumped it - there will be no more wrinkly!

After sitting wrapped in towel eating a snack for a while X held out his hands to me and said "The wrinkly is all gone!"

I replied, "Thank you Jesus for bringing Xander's hands back to normal."

Xander's little eyes darted to the left. Then to the right. Then he looked inquiringly at me, "Where is him?"

Word of the day: noise bylaw

About 1 o'clock in the morning after sitting in the marvelous apres-hot-tub summer air, while sippin' red  and listening to some good music coming from somewhere off to the left for an hour or so, I turned to my husband and said, "I wonder who's still partying out there. Their music is great but I can't think who, in that direction, would be still rockin' at this time of night."

It was quite dark so I couldn' really see, but I felt his look of disbelief as he responded, "Uhhhh... that's coming out of our bedroom window where I put the TV on the Gold Rock Galaxie station about an hour ago."

Geesh! Good thing I'm not the kind of person who calls the cops on the neighbours when they're noisy - I'da had myself arrested.

Word of the day: Y

Baby Y is now 7 weeks into development and is approximately the size of a Tic Tac and the weight of an eyelash - while this is extremely teeny-tiny it is approximately 10,000 times larger than it was at conception. Heck, even Granny isn't gaining weight at that rate!

Baby Y will remain "it" until early in October when Mommy and Daddy are hoping an ultrasound will determine the sex. Baby X did not have his sex discovered until birth but Mommy wanted a boy so badly, we just assumed Baby X was a "he".

This time Mommy's "sexual preference" is not so emphatic, but she would prefer if Baby Y is a girl. She has voiced this a few times - obviously within earshot of Baby X, because 2-year-old Xander woke in the night with a nightmare. When Mommy went in to comfort him he cried in his semi-comatose state, "No! I don't want to be a girl! I want to be a boy!"
 
 

Baby Y at 7 weeks development.
The brain is growing at a rate of 100 cells per minute and Granny's prayer, as it was for baby X,  is that Jesus will develop the characteristics of this wee one to be healthy, kind and smart. (and cute will be accepted as a bonus)

 

Word of the day: pretty flower

I am just loving the extra living space the new roof over half the deck is giving us. Even with this record rainy summer, we spend quite a bit of time outside on the deck. I actually like rain (did I say that out loud??) I find it very refreshing to sit outside and hear and smell the rain without getting wet.

There are two locking gates leading to the driveway and back yard. Xander has rubber boots that are not for mud and puddles, but only for deck use.  The expanded play space is great - he can play outside in the rain without an adult having to get wet with him.

Ken and Jade and I were sitting talking about their failed weekend of camping after Albert left for work tonight. After 5 minutes or so of relative silence Jade asked where Xander was.

"Oh just playing in his bedroom," I responded, but headed towards the room to check on him. As I turned the corner I was met by a slightly wet 2 year old in bare feet holding out a chubby fist clenching a flower from the back yard. "Here's a pretty flower, Danny."

Ooops. Guess the gate got left open.

Thank God he only ventured into the yard to pick flowers - in the few minutes he was gone he could have just as easily made it in the rain in his bare feet and shirt sleeves to the park across the street or wandered home, six doors down before we came looking for him.

Word of the day: employer

Today marked the last day in the lives of Kore and Brandi that they would be employees.


When they wake up Monday morning they are the owner/operators and employers of the Trestain Pryce Denture Clinic in Kamloops.

I'm pretty excited and proud of them for the hard work they have put into this so far --- with much more to come, I'm sure.

Trestain has been gone for years and Pryce just retired and sold to my kids, but their names are well established as a reputable business and will remain on the clinic, at least for now. But I have no doubt that "doctor" Connolly and his trusty assistant Brandi will establish their own highly esteemed reputations in no time.

Yay B&K!



Word of the day: math

As you may or may not be aware, my grandson is not only extremely high on the cuteness scale.

He is also extremely high on the intelligence scale. Now, I'm not sure if there is actually an IQ chart for 2-year-olds, but he'd top it if there was. Just sayin'...

The other day we were reading a new book together. Look And Learn Numbers.
Xander pointed to a picture and said, "Danny [that's how you say Granny in Xander language] there are 2 orange pencils and 3 green pencils so there are 5 all together."

 I know it doesn't sound like rocket science, however that is grade one math this two year old was stating so matter of factly.

Am I proud? uh.. maybe. just a little.

Continuing on with our math theme, someone asked me today how many ziemer grandchildren and great grandchildren there are. I thought I'd share the convoluted answer with you:


Ernie and Grace have 186 offspring. 

There are 86 grandchildren, this includes 48 blood children, 27 spouses, 5 common-law spouses, 5 step grandchildren and 1 living in heaven.

There are 74 great grandchildren. This includes 4 unborn and 3 living in heaven.

The first great grandchild is set to get married next year and the multiplication process begins all over again...


PS - yes, I could name every one of them.

Word of the day: ark

After all the rain we've had, it seemed only appropriate we hang out at Noah's Ark for the day. I've known about the local farm/petting zoo for years but had never been there.

The 5 dollar price of admission was worth it for the ball pit alone. Xander and Linden had a fabulous time playing. It was fun to watch X try to keep up and imitate Linden, who is about a year and a half older and definitely a boy-boy.

Prior to visiting the ark we took Xander and Linden for a bike ride to the park.

Linden literally rode circles around Xander on his two-wheeler, but it really encouraged X to ride his "wobbly bike" that he hasn't been too keen on. He did so great riding about 6 blocks or so to the park. Linden is the most amazing two-wheeler rider I've ever seen for a 3-yr-old.

Word of the day: ----

I've been sitting here for 15 minutes staring at my screen trying to think of a word for today. Got nuttin'.

And that's all I got to say 'bout that.

Word of the day: doctor

doctor doc·tor (dŏk'tər)


n.
1.A person, especially a physician, dentist, or veterinarian, trained in the healing arts and licensed to practice.
2.To repair, especially in a makeshift manner; rig


Jade's family doctor, whom she had since birth, moved to Kamloops two years ago just after Xander was born. His practice was bought out by a group of female doctors. Female doctors who don't do birthing and babies.

She had an appointment last week to confirm her pregnancy, get started on her prenatal vitamins and get referred to another physician who does do babies.

During this appointment her doctor gave her stern advice: distance yourself from Xander. No more picking him up or holding him. Let him play alone.

Double-you Tee Eff??!! Doctor? Trained in the healing arts?

Word of the day: rain

...and it's quite likely tomorrow's word of the day will be ark.

Word of the day: poop

Ever since Xander was born, Jade has been saying she wants him potty trained before she has another baby. He is doing quite well. She is not the kind of mother who says, "Here's a potty, poop in it," and leaves it at that. And X is far too inquisitive to realize that something like poop can come from his body without him wanting to know all the hows and whys of the process.

He knows all about having a skeleton and how his skin holds in his bones and muscles and veins. He knows the purpose of a stomach and can point out, with more success than I, where his kidneys, liver and lungs are.

One day as he sat at his little table eating a cheese whiz sandwhich for lunch, he turned to his mother and said as he took a big bite, "Mommy, I'm turning my sandwhich into poop."

I assume Xander's parents feel he has a good enough grasp on the potty training business for them to take the next step. This weekend they informed us that Xander's little sibling, who is currently the size of a sesame seed, is projected to arrive sometime around March 17, 2012. Two weeks after X's 3rd birthday.

Woot woot! Let the shopping begin!

Word of the day: poisonous

I took Xander to the park across the street last week.

He got about half way up the log ramp which leads up to the slide while I walked along on the ground beside him. He stopped and gave the logs, which had seen better days, a good inspection.

"Granny these logs are poisonous!" he declared.

"No, Xander. They are rotten, not poisonous."

Pretty observant and vocabularily advanced for a 28 month old I think.

Word of the day

I think I'll try something new for while to see if I can kick start a period of blogging again. I'll call this current marathon "Word of the Day" and will use a particular word to prompt an entry. I may even resort to Merriam-Webster or dictionary.com's word of the day on occasion.

This idea was borne from a little incident that my husband informed me of last week.

While at church, pastor Peter got up and in a effort to encourage interaction, asked the general congregation "So, what's the word of the week?"

My son Jed jumped to his feet, raised and hand and shouted out, "Faggot!"

And while everyone in the room was trying to process whether or not they just heard what they thought they heard, he added, "My mom called me a faggot."

I mighta died had I been there.

However, in my defence, I shall tell you the real story.

Jed and I were shopping at Value Village and while I was trying on a couple of shirts he went about gathering a collection of t-shirts and scrubs that he "just had to have."

And so, as is our usual routine in VV, I sort through his treasures one-by-one and tell him the reasons we are not buying them. "This is way too small" "You have one exactly like this already" "It's twelve dollars! That's insane!" etc etc.

One of the scrubs shirts he had in the cart was all gathered and frilly at the back. My response, I realize, was inappropriate, "You can't wear that. It'll looky faggy."

Inappropriate yes, but I did not yell out "You are a faggot!" to my son.

Who's Yer Daddy?

Xander still continues to brighten my every day.

Jade was playing with him in the playroom the other day and held a plastic trumpet backwards to her mouth and says in her best Darth Vader voice, "I (pause) am your Father." Xander didn't really pay a lot of attention to her but a few minutes later when Ken walked in the room he grabbed the trumpet, held it backwards to his mouth and says, "I (pause) am your Daddy."

Guilty!

Twenty five days. It's been twenty five days since I last blogged. I hang my head in shame. And even more so when I check my stat counter. Twenty five days with nary a word written and I'm still getting between 20 and 30 visits to the site every day.

C'mon people - get off my back!

Just kidding, I do appreciate the loyalty even though I'm neglectful.

Perhaps I can get on track a little more regular now that my art classes are finished, I didn't sign up for the Spring writing class, Homeshow season is over and the Canucks are set to hoist the cup and take the summer off.

As well, Relay For Life is over and I've caught up on all my greeting cards. Thank you so much to all my supporters who had me hand painting approximately 300 watercolour cards. Fundraising was down quite a bit this year, not only for our team but all across the board. We can collect money until August and I'd really like to see our Pink Panter team to scrape together another $1200 by then so we can ensure our track-side tent location for another year. I think I'll take the opportunity to clean out the basement, shed and garage and have a big yard sale one of these weeks. Anyone wanna buy my crap?

I shaved my arm pits for this!??

May 2011. Time for my 2 1/2 year cancer-free check-up. I had my diagnostic mammogram last week and booked an appointment for follow up with my doctor. For the first 24 months, my follow-ups and monitoring were done through the cancer unit, but now I've graduated to having my family doctor follow up.

This is good in the sense that "Yay, God! I have graduated in my survivorship" however my doctor is a f'idiot, and I am not particularly thrilled with more reasons to have to visit. That being said, my apponitment was booked for 9AM. Whatever was I thinking to book for 9AM.

****
I open eyes and roll over. It's 8:28. Eight twenty eight!! Arrrrgh! I have to be out of the house by 8:50.

There is no way I can go to this appointment without having a shower and shaving my armpits. I don't hate my doctor that much. But I don't have time to do my hair. I throw a towel on my head to keep my hair from getting wet and still in half asleep mode, grab my razor and jump into the shower.

I manage to cut myself and blood is running down my side as I lather and rinse. My hands run down one of my legs and the feel of winter's fur coat still on my calf causes me to think, "It's been about 18 months since my hysterectomy. The doctor is probably going insist I have a PAP done - I'd better shave my legs." I nicked my kneecap and more blood ran.

I can practically hear the clock ticking off the minutes. I hate being late for things.

For my doctor's comfort, I opt not to put deodorant on. I get dressed and throw my unwashed hair in ponytail (yes, it's getting that long!) and race out the door. 

It's 9:06 when I reach the receptionist's desk.

"Sorry I'm late. I wanna blame it on the parking..."

"Oh, I know," she replied. "It's terrible out there."

"But the truth is, I simply slept in. Sorry."

She takes me right into the examination room.

The doctor comes in and glances through my file. "Everything looks really good with the mammogram. You should be having a clinical exam every six months, how long has it been since you had one?"

"It'll be a year in July."
"Oh. Well you should be getting one every six months."
"Yes, I know. I thought that's what I was here for today."
"Come back and see me sometime. You should be getting it done every six months," he says as he flips his hand in the air as if to wave it off and heads towards the door.

WTF???

And that was my two-and-a-half-year cancer check. Exactly 45 seconds.

By this point I am so irritated with him, I do not insist he do an exam, because about the only physical contact I am willing to have with him, is to perhaps knee him in the groin.

Silly me - shaving my arm pits and my legs, thinking my doctor was there for my health or something.

And so, I assume, without much doctor confirmation, that I remain cancer-free. Yay me!



My real doctor retired two years ago and this guy, fresh off the boat, took over the office. Because of the shortage of doctors in this area, if you currently have a family doctor you will not even be considered by another doctor. I'm considering finding a naturopath to be my primary caregiver and would welcome any input.

Royal Wedding Hype

I'm not an obsessed Royal Watcher. I will not be staying up all night long to watch the wedding. (although I seem to recall losing some sleep back in 1981 when William's parents were married) But I do have my PVR set to tape the regal proceedings and I'll indulge in the festivities at my leisure.

I kind of avoided discussing the wedding too much with Jed cuz I don't want him staying up all night - I'm having a hard enough time controlling his 3AM Blackberry and Facebook use as it is.

About 10 o'clock tonight, Jed and I hugged, said goodnight, and he headed home. I did a bit of tidying up, sat down to facebook for a bit and was just getting ready to head to bed. (It's homeshow weekend and I work 5 long days in a row! Normal for most, I know, but I live a pampered life.)

Knock, knock!

I open the door to Jed's place and there stands my son, whom I assumed was downstairs getting ready for bed.

"I'm ready for the wedding, Mom."

Breaking news out of Italy....

Researchers have begun a hunt to find the remains of the woman who modelled for Leonardo da Vinci for his famous Mona Lisa masterpiece. They know the whereabouts of the remains of her two daughters and they will use 21st century technology to compare DNA samples to ensure they dig up the correct corpse.

Once they disturb a number of dead bodies, who've been resting in peace for nearly 500 years, they will use computer enhancement, in conjuction with her skull bones, to reconstruct her face.

Forgive me for being simple minded, but, I'm wondering if they thought about just looking at the painting??

Atoning for his sins

About three weeks ago I discovered some ball point pen ink scribbles on one of my red leather chairs

I didn't catch Xander in the act, but I took him to the chair and explained how I was not happy and I could not get it to wash off. I blabbed on about how he knows he is supposed to colour on paper or his easel blah blah blah. And that was the end of it.

We had a fabulous Easter Weekend with Aunty Bee and Uncle Kore here. On Sunday they hid a dozen plastic eggs filled with playdough (a much better idea than candy). Xander loved looking for them and talked for the rest of the day about all the places he found the eggs. He used the playdough to make trumpets, tubas and trucks. It was great fun.

Monday, X brought his mommy over in the morning so they could have one last little play session and say goodbye to Aunty Bee and Uncle Kore.

By 10am they drove away, PaPa went to drum lessons, Uncle Jed took off on his bike somewhere and mommy went to the grocery store. Xander and I sat and quietly rehashed the weekend and read some books.

He wanted to show something to PaPa. I reminded him PaPa went for his drum lesson. He responded, "Is PaPa teaching Jesus how to sing?" I'm not quite sure where that came from, but I thought it was cute.

I was tidying up the kitchen while Xander played with his eggs full of playdough. He came and grabbed my hand, "Tum with me, Danny." (He can't say the GR yet, so calls me Danny) He led me to the red chair in the living room and proudly announced, "I fixed your chair, Danny!"

Yup! He'd covered up all the pen marks with yellow playdough. Such a creative little one!

Two goin' on Four

I've actually had a number of cute, funny or heartwarming "little incidences" in the last couple of weeks that I could easily have made blog posts of. I just didn't do it. No excuses. Just didn't.

I have to say that I am having a most fabulous Easter Weekend. Brandi and Kore are up for 4 days. The weather is fabulous. I have a week off work. My tulips are up, crocuses are blooming and cotton wood tree is full of buds. More than that, it's a weekend of reminder that my Lord has conquered death and I am going to heaven! Even if the Canucks are freakin' me out and I eat too much chocolate.

Today, while sitting on the back deck soaking up my first sun-kissed colour of the year and all my children and hubby around me, the window to the playroom was open and the TV was pumping out some music of the 70's. As often happens when Bob Seger comes across the airwaves, Alb says "Bobby!" But it sounds more like "Bah-Beee!" And it's about 2 octaves lower than he normally speaks. Xander repeated in the same deep voice, "Bah-Beee!"

Of course, every one of us laughed hysterically. Xander turns to Albert and asks, "PaPa, what's a bahbee?"

Last night while he played among the adults who were in conversation, he turned to his mom and asked, "Mommy, what's a 'piss'?"

I know it was funny and cute and all that. And I'm a little bit infatuated with this kid. But he just turned 2 last month. Isn't he a bit young to be asking the explanation of every word he hears. It seems to me this is more of a four-year-old thing.

Hi

Hi, my name is Liana. I thought I'd better post something before Google deletes my account.

Outta the mouths of babes

I often take Xander to church with me.

Yesterday I was standing chit-chatting in the foyer before the service while Xander ran around scoping everything out. He came up to me, tapped me on the leg and said, "Granny, I'm gonna trip everybody."

I wasn't really paying attention to him, and sort of thought he said "trick" until I saw him go up to two men who were standing talking, not paying any attention to him at all. He crouched down on all fours and curled into a little ball right behind Owen's legs and he giggled while waiting for him to step back and trip over him!
(isn't this a trick for 14-year-old pranksters, not a baby who just turned two!)

I have no idea where he learned something like that - his little sense of humour is already very apparent.

As it was time to start the service we headed in to take our usual seats. The couple who sits behind us (sad how we all become so habitual in our seating) were already sitting in their spots. They had missed a few Sundays in recent months and I don't always take Xander, so it had been a while since they saw him.

Ed, a very large man, said, "Good morning Xander. You are getting so big!"

Xander looks him up and down and responds, "I'm litt-oh. You're big!"

Thankfully Ed is a fabulous guy and laughed saying, "Yes. Yes I am."

It was pretty funny.

A-Ha!

A lightbulb moment. That used to mean a brilliant idea or a moment of great enlightenment. Now it means a dim expensive mercury-filled twisted idea.

I hate curly light bulbs, but it's becoming increasingly more difficult to find the standard style ones, and in fact they will be illegal to sell by 2012. So I am starting a light bulb collection.

I was reading an article about hydro rates in Canada increasing by over 50% in the next eight years. It blah-blah-blahed about how/why the rates are going up. The final sentence in the article read "Switching to compact flourescent and LED bulbs can save money."  Yeah, whatever.

Sure you might pay $8 to light a standard bulb for a thousand hours compared to $2 for a useless curly bulb, but the old bulbs themselves are 50 cents instead of 5 bucks for a curly one - which you need to burn three of to get enough light to read by. Alternatively, you can buy the new LED style bulbs - Superstore had 'em for $25 each. I'm not particularly a math wizard, but somehow it's not adding up to over all savings in my head.

Not to mention you are supposed to call in a haz-mat team to clean your house if you break a curly bulb. And God forbid if you dispose of one in the garbage.

Currently my hydro meter is whirring like a helicopter blade because I have a hot tub on my deck, an electric washer and dryer washing clothes in electrically heated water, an oven baking chicken, a dishwasher cleaning dishes (in Jed's suite- I don't have one. Yet.) I blow dry my hair every day, have 4 flat screen TVs in the house, a toaster, kettle and crock pot.....  Forgive me for looking like an idiot, but somehow I just don't see my 50 cent light source being the evil culprit here.

Geesh!

My fantastic blogging record in 2011 sure went for a big poop didn't it.

I want your money.

Alrighty then....

Production is well under way, I think I'm ready to start the distribution side of things.

As I alluded to in a previous post, I want your money. As part of my annual fundraising for Relay For Life, this year I am offering original watercolour blank greeting cards. These are the original paintings, not prints.

I have posted a sampling here but have more images posted in a Facebook Album. The cards cost $4 each (which includes the cost of a stamp for me to mail it to you) or you can purchase a 6-pack for $20.

Alternatively, you can sponsor me through my Relay for Life web page for a minimum of $25 and you will get a tax receipt and I will send you a random 3-pack of cards. But please feel free to not limit your donation to $25  :) I'll send you the correct number of cards to correlate with your donation amount.

As far as sending payment, you can email me the money to elzie @ telus.net (if you are techno savvy living in the 21st century) or you can email, comment here or msg   me on Facebook to make alternative arrangements. Or .... you could meet me for coffee... now there's a cool concept.

If this is successful, or if I fail to stay on top of things (which is the more likely story) I will check into setting up an Ebay or Etsy account ... but we'll worry about that when we have to.

Please remember that 100% of your money will go to the Canadian Cancer Society - my costs and time are my portion of the donation. Cancer sucks! And it affects each and every family in Canada.

(The Famous Pink Panter Quilt Raffle is now underway as well and I'll blog about that in a later post)