THIS blonde laughs last!!!

A blond walks into a bank in New York City and asks for the loan
officer. She says she's going to Europe on business for two weeks and needs to borrow $5,000. The bank officer says the bank will need some kind of security for the loan, so the blond hands over the keys to a new Rolls Royce. The car is parked on the street in front of the bank, she has the title and everything checks out. The bank agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan.

The bank's president and its officers all enjoy a good laugh at the blond for using a $250,000 Rolls as collateral against a $5,000 loan. An employee of the bank then proceeds to drive the Rolls into the bank's underground garage and parks it there.

Two weeks later, the blond returns, repays the $5,000 and the interest, which comes to $15.41. The loan officer says, "Miss, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are a multi-millionaire. What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow $5,000?"

The blond replies....."Where else in New York City can I park my car for two weeks for only $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return!"

hmmm... society at large... wow!

I didn't realize the ultimate importance of being a Mom until after being one for awhile. Here's a quote that really hammers that importance home!


"The first and best school of politeness, as of character, is always the home, where woman is the teacher. The manners of society at large are but the reflexes of our collective homes, neither better nor worse."

J.L. Nichols

Wow!! that's so profound.... Let's not forget the importance of our 'job' of mothering!

My saturday night

I'm sitting here in a quiet kitchen waiting for the chocolate chip cookies to finish baking. The two youngest girls are in bed and everyone else is out/away. The two older girls have been working a youth group fund raiser the last two nights. They're selling fresh cookies during intermission at a local dance recital. Apparently this year is the most successful thus far. So much so that they called and asked me to make some cookies for tomorrow's session! So here I sit smelling chocolate chip cookies... and not allowed to taste them --ha! I'm telling myself that I'm better off this way anyhow!! I'm not sure it's working!!(I need every last one I can squeeze out of this recipe as I ran out of sugar and can't make more cookies!) I made the recipe on the Chipits bag which uses 2 cups of flour and is supposed to make 4 dozen cookies. I got 15 cookies out of it!! Okay so they're 3 inches across... :oD
Randal is out doing a local wine tour with the bus... he enjoys this as he is your typical boy that loves big trucks, buses, etc!! lol.. He just does this on the side.... usually works out to about every other weekend... we miss having him here when he's away doing this but I guess every bit helps. His been shuttling people around town off and on all day today and should be getting home tonight at about 1 am. That makes for a long day for him.
Tomorrow is Sunday and I'm on the worship team, which means that we leave the house at 8:30 am... ouch! I guess that's not really that early.. just is for a Sunday. The girls have their fundraiser again tomorrow afternoon and then we have our small group meeting at 5. It's looking like a busy day again tomorrow..
I've been working pretty much every day for the last couple of weeks. It's great exercise doing yardwork. I've been out enjoying the sun and fresh air. And all that fresh air sure makes me sleep well.
I hope you're all having a great weekend. Take care.

UPDATE:
They made about $600 over Friday and Saturday night and Sunday afternoon... Not bad when they didn't have any expenses to cover for it! Who'd have thought one could make that much selling COOKIES!?!?! This goes to help them fund events that some kids would miss out on because of family financial situations and sometimes the youth will put something together for a needy family in town.

And what about you........?

You Are Periwinkle

You're very intuitive and sensitive. You often know other people better than they know themselves. You're also quite optimistic, and you think well of yourself and others. You know your dreams will come true.

What Color Blue Are You?

crochet project

My daughter Lindsay needed some shoes so last night her and Courtenay and I headed over to Walmart to get some for her. She picked out some kinda golden/bronze coloured runners.

While we were there I decided to pick up some wool and a pattern for a poncho for Janelle. I enjoy having something to sit and do to relax, since I don't watch t.v. I'll post some pics of the wool so you can see the pretty colours. I can hardly wait to get started!! Gotta run get at some paperwork and supervise some homework for Janelle. Then I can get my new wool out and get started....yippee!
Take care

Want to make a SUPER EASY supper??

Hi there Friends! How are things with you all? We're busy here as per usual. It MUST be the time of year!! I had a winter of being very.. ummmm .. how do you say un-busy..??? lol Not a lot going on anyway! Yesterday I did yardwork again and came home with a new recipe from a friend. I decided to try it out on everyone... It was yummy. I think I didn't quite cook it long enough though... it was a little wet in the middle. I should have baked it until a knife inserted in centre came out clean... oh well, it still tasted yummy! One yummy sounding variation is to put tomato slices on top and sprinkle cheese over it. We didn't have any cottage cheese so I added feta cheese and that was good. You can use your imagination and add whatever you think would be good... it's more like a pizza flavour than a burger. Well hope you try it out... it's a 5 minute preparation meal if you have cooked ground beef stored in your freezer!

http://www.ecookbooks.com/products.html?ref=379861795&sid=42789120070517113845&action=det_32396
This is a link to an e-cookbook. It's free recipes that look super easy and really yummy. She's also got some good ideas on what to serve with what.
See what you think and I hope you all have an awesome week.
tata for now

HAMBURGER/CHEESE PIE
1/2c cottage cheese
1 lb. ground beef-cooked
1c mozza shredded
1/2ts salt
1/2ts oregano
6oz tom paste
Spread cottage cheese over bottom of pie plate
Mix remaining ingred., spread over cottage cheese
1c milk
2 eggs
1/2c bisquick
Mix together, pour over above
400*	37 min	pie plate

This Weeks Ramblings....

Well the week was a busy one. As I mentioned before, I've been doing yard work all week. Wednesday was the day I did the greeting cards at the dollar store. That was a treat!(sarcasm inserted here). Normally it's fine but this week they had just gotten all their summer stock of rubber flip flops, holey shoes, rubber balls, etc..... Well the smell of rubber in there was extremely strong. By the end of the day I had such a headache I had to leave early. I ended up with a migraine and all the lovely things that go with a migraine.... I won't gross you out with the details. As it ended up I had to get up at 6 or so the next morning to do the paperwork so I could get it faxed in on time. Then I had to go back to the store, which I never do... it's one day a week...and tidy up the last details.
Needless to say I started off the next day with a migraine pill before it took off again, and headed off to do more yard work!
I decided that Friday had to be a day off!!! Yaaaay!! Okay well sort of. We did a bit of yard work here at home... cleaned up some in the carport, planted some canna lillies, watered the garden, etc. Then Randal and I took his Aunt and Uncle that have their trailer parked in our back yard, out to lunch. We went to a really nice restaurant. I had the special... sweet and spicy chili chicken.... It wasn't great..... but the rest of the meal made up for the meat! It was delicious! It was just really nice to sit in a pretty and relaxing place, eat and have some conversation. Then it was time to fly again.
We picked up the girls from school and came home and Randal headed out to work for an evening shift.
Shortly after he left, we noticed a ton of black smoke from a couple of blocks away. I said "Come on girls lets jump in the van and go see what's going on!" We headed over to see....as we got closer it looked like a plane crash, as we live close to the airport. It was a long swath of flames, just like a plane crash would be. I started to pray...I felt sick to my stomach. As we got closer people said no it wasn't a crash, just a fire. We were so relieved. As it turned out it started at a log home building site. They assemble the homes there, then take them apart and put onto trucks and ship to the buyer. It was a gigantic fire - we could see the flames from a few blocks away. There was a big pile of logs it was burning through and the wind was very high, so the fire was moving fast. I guess they had some barrels of some kind of fuel on site. Wow did they ever make a loud boom and a huge fire ball! Boy was I disappointed that I didn't have a camera! So sorry no pictures for you... I may be able to find some later.... there were tons of photographers and news cameramen there.
In the path of the fire was a massive stack of lumber. On the other side of that lumber is a lumber mill, then past that is an acre or two of wrapped lumber waiting to be shipped. On the other side of all of this is a gas station!!! Yikes! We got there really soon after it started and within a few minutes after that two helicopters appeared with water buckets swinging underneath them. They weren't going to mess around with this... It was time to get serious!! Next to this fire is a river canal full of water, so the helicopters would hover over the canal and let their bucket sink into the water. They would lift them out and fly over to the fire and drop the water on the fire about one bucket per minute per machine. It was a beehive of activity. I'm sure they had every fire truck in town there and I know that all the ambulances were there and they called in one for backup from the next town.
You wouldn't believe the traffic. I decided to be responsible and park away from the action and walk. Not everyone was of the same mind. The police had a busy time of it keeping people moving. They would stop right on the highway to watch and the police would put their siren on and shoo them away. Janelle and I decided to walk over for a closer look. We sat on the bank of the canal, what I figured was a safe distance away, and watched the helicopters come in to fill up then swing around and dump their watery load on the head of the fire. It took them a long time to get it under control. We stayed for about two hours then headed home to make dinner. I drove by late that evening about 11 pm and they were still fighting it, but seemed to have it contained to a log pile. The wind had died down too, so that made things a lot easier for them. Earlier the wind had been driving the fire forward into the mill, lumber piles, etc.
Just to back up a bit...
While we were watching the action shortly after getting there, Amanda noticed a snake slithering across the gravel. So we ran over to see. It wasn't very long, only about 12 inches... so we tried to catch it with a stick. I did manage to pick it up with the stick... I just wanted to get a closer look. We decided it didn't have rattles so it was harmless. Well Lindsay decided to pick it up. She figured "behind the head" was anywhere back of the head. So she did this. Well the snake curled around and was trying to bite her fingers as I'm standing there screaming at her to drop it. I then explained that "behind the head" meant right at the base of the head or even on top of it's head. After we went home we checked out what kind of snake this was...Apparently it WAS a rattlesnake!!!! I just about had a heart attack when I realized this! The worst part of it is that baby rattlers are more venomous that full size adults! Oh my!.... I was very thankful at this point that she hadn't gotten bit! I've lived here for almost 18 years and have never seen a rattlesnake, so didn't really know what I was looking at...
The weekend looks like a fairly busy one. It started last night with dropping the two older girls off. They are going to a youth convention about 5 hours away from here.
Randal's brother, wife and two kids are coming up for the weekend so we can meet the new baby. They will be staying with his Mom ........ it will be nice to see them and finally get to meet the cute little guy!! He's 2 months old already! Tonight we'll be having them, grandma and the aunt and uncle all over for a BBQ.
So today will be spent in preparation for tonight
The menu is:
-Steaks which I'll soon put in to marinate.
-baked potatoes.
-german potato salad
-bean salad.
-oriental cabbage salad
-veggies and dip.
-fresh baked whole wheat buns..mmmm mmm mmm
-dessert
-rhubarb torte mmmm

I'm looking forward to it... makes me hungry typing it out! You all have a wonderful weekend!
tata for now.

Google messed up!!! *LOL*

You've got to do this before someone at Google fixes it......
>>> 1. go to www.google.com
>>> 2. click on "maps"
>>> 3. click on "get directions"
>>> 4. type "New York" in the first box (the "from" box) 5. type
>>>"London" in the second box (the "to" box) 6. click "Get Directions"
>>>button 7. scroll down to step #24

Where are YOU from??

What American accent do you have? Created by Xavier on Memegen.net Canada. You probably get irritated when British people and Europeans think you're from the States, but over here we wouldn't make a mistake like that. Take this quiz now - it's easy! We're going to start with "cot" and "caught." When you say those words do they sound the same or different? Different Same Same, no wait I mean different, maybe, a little bit different... Wow I'm impressed!!! This thing knew I was Canadian!!! Woo hoooo! Give it a try and see if it can peg you!.... If you do it let me know so I can come have a look! I've worked every day this week so far... I think I'm going to take tomorrow off and get ready for a birthday party this weekend! We haven't had Janelle's friend's party yet!?? *blush* I know.... that's pretty bad... but making it conincide with payday as well as a day off for me is important!!! tata for now ps by the way.... we do have different "accents" for different parts of Canada.. people from Ontario tend to sound American.... and besides that we also have a French Province... just to mix things up a bit!!! By the way... there is something I've thought is kinda strange.... Why would a line on the map make a difference in how someone speaks??? I can tell when someone is from Washington State which is an hours drive from here!! Strange how that line changes how we all speak!?! pss Does anyone know how to center this quiz so that you can read the whole thing????

How's your week so far?

So what are you doing this week? My friends dad has hired me to do some yardwork this week. I started yesterday.... Wow!! That's hard work!! I was shoveling bark mulch, digging up and moving bamboo.....weeding, etc. I couldn't have asked for a nicer day to do it on though. It was a sunny warm day with a slightly cool breeze to keep one cool.
So if you're checking to see what I've been blogging and there's not much here... the yardwork is why.
Actually there are some other things going on as well. Our Aunt and Uncle have their trailer parked in our back yard for a few days.. probably the week. This has been nice.
Yesterday was also my oldest daughter's 15th birthday!! How could this be!??!? I'm not old enough to have a 15 yr old!!! (wink wink!)
Well gotta go get the kids up and off to school and me off to do more yard work.....moooaaan....
You all take care and have an awesome week. I'll have to do some catching up with all of you soon.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND!

As you can see... I'm not feeling inspired right now. So this is what you get... a cop out of writing today!! Well I hope you all give it a try... these are alway interesting little quizzes.. most of these are fairly accurate about me... there are a couple of things that seem a bit off base, but not too many.. And to all you moms-- HAPPY MOM'S DAY!!! You Are 9: The Peacemaker

You are emotionally stable and willing to find common ground with others. Your friends and family often look to you to be the mediator when there is conflict. You are easy going and accepting. You take things as they come. Avoiding conflict at all costs, you're content when things are calm. At Your Best: You feel connected, trusting, and fulfilled. You feel at peace with your place in the world. At Your Worst: You compromise your values to make sure peace is maintained. You give in to bullies. Your Fixation: Harmony Your Primary Fear: Causing conflict Your Primary Desire: To preserve things as they are Other Number 9's: Marge Simpson, Ronald Reagan, Audrey Hepburn, Jerry Seinfeld, and Abraham Lincoln.

What Number Are You?

What Your Soul Really Looks Like

You are a warm hearted and open minded person. It's easy for you to forgive and forget. You are a grounded person, but you also leave room for imagination and dreams. You feet may be on the ground, but you're head is in the clouds. You believe that people see you as larger than life and important. While this is true, they also think you're a bit full of yourself. Your near future is still unknown, and a little scary. You'll get through wild times - and you'll textually enjoy it. For you, love is all about caring and comfort. You couldn't fall in love with someone you didn't trust.

Inside the Room of Your Soul

okay okay....3 in one day?!? I know this is getting excessive

I know, I've already posted twice today... but I just had to do one more!
Yesterday I started working on the pool. What a mess!! It's SO green! The Mallard ducks think it's a pond. I was worried about adding chemicals for fear of burning their little legs off! But I got over it!
Yesterday I added a gallon of algaecide. It didn't do much other than turn it a different shade of green. I went on the internet to see what we could do and found some pretty scary pool stories. This pushed me to get my butt over to the pool store. The guy just kinda chuckled.
I told him we were "saving money" last fall by not having a professional shut the pool down...OOPS!! Not a good idea when one has never done this before!! He said the ducks are there because of the green algae..... So anyway, he gave me some super strong shock stuff. I just poured it in a little while ago and stirred it up. That's the other thing. We can't turn the pump on until we get this algae killed, otherwise we'll just circulate it through the pump and filter--more problems. So now I wait a few days and let the algaecide and shock do their job... hopefully it works!
I'll post some before and after pictures soon....Well I sure hope it's soon... I don't want this to take forever to clear up!!!


PS
HERE ARE THE BEFORE PICS!!! YAY! I managed to get the pictures downloaded off the camera fairly quickly so decided to just add them to this post.
The pool is a huge mess. You can see the piles of leaves around the pool that I've scooped out. They are all sitting on the bottom getting slimey. There are even little wiggly worms in those leaves! YUCK!! Have you ever had 'ring around the bath tub'? Well how about 'ring around the swimming pool?!?!?! I've never done this before so it's all a wonderful surprise to me!!!

painting update

Well we finally got the second coat done in the living room! Yay....? No not yay! The second coat is a second bucket and it's a whole lot lighter! NNNOOOO! Now I have to do a third coat because it's not the colour I want.... And you can see areas where the darker 'underneath' colour is showing! *groan* Well I guess we start again! This is my "oh by the way" second post of the day... so scroll down and see my 'real' post for the day.

"I lift up my eyes to the hills....."

This morning after dropping the girls off at school, I took a detour through the industrial area. (To Tim Hortons!) I was following a smelly diesel vehicle. That smell coupled with the not so pretty buildings made me start to think about the people that live here in this beautiful area and find themselves depressed and suicidal.. and obviously there are some that follow through on that. Anyway I started to kinda feel that heaviness when the thought came to my mind... they must not look up .... at this point I glanced up and in front of me. My view was of low mountains/hills. Instantly the next thought that flowed through my mind was the scripture; "I lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, the maker of Heaven and Earth." It choked me right up.... If we can just remember that He is where our help is found... for goodness sakes.... He made all this incredible beauty... do we not think that He can help with our little problems... although they may seem huge to us. Well I guess sometimes they are huge but in the scheme of all that, it's pretty itty bitty and this LOVING Maker of ours is so full of grace AND mercy. An incredibly tender and loving Daddy that wants the best for his kids! I think if we can just grasp even a tiny bit how much He loves us - it would really change how we think and how we do! There's a scripture that says something like this; You know how much you (we) love your (our) kids and you (we) are sinful. How much more does your (our) Father who is not sinful love you (us)!! If we could get this past our heads and into our hearts! It would change how we parent as well. I think we'd show alot more grace... not license to sin.. but grace that spurs our children towards holiness and not away from it as we are so afraid of doing. And then that causes us to parent out of fear of what they might do or turn out like.
Grace does not let one get out of resposibility! It doesn't cause us to lower our standards with our kids but it causes the standards to be raised! It encourages people to aim higher in their relationship with God. Anyway... I'm getting off on a tangent.
We are doing a small group study on Grace Based Parenting. It's very good. It's stuff we need to understand for all relationships, not just those with our children

I'm finished working other than the odd day now. HALLELUJAH!!! So I will have time to start posting again. I've been missing it.
So you all have an awesome week.

So... what best describes you??

I popped over for tea with Peter and found this on his site.... why not give it a try?? This accurately describes me. You Are Sunrise

You enjoy living a slow, fulfilling life. You enjoy living every moment, no matter how ordinary. You are a person of reflection and meditation. You start and end every day by looking inward. Caring and giving, you enjoy making people happy. You're often cooking for friends or buying them gifts. All in all, you know how to love life for what it is - not for how it should be.

What Time Of Day Are You?

May 2nd~My baby is 9 today!!!

Wow!!! It's incredible and sad how fast the time flies by! I can't believe she is 9 already. Janelle was born at 3:12 am after a 2 hour very good labor. Mind you , they were all short and not too difficult...okay, okay... yes... when is childbirth ever 'not too difficult'??? Well compared to most that I hear about, mine were pretty good. (o:




I'm working today and just wanted to do a quick post so people don't start thinking that I've quit. I've been working lots, so haven't really been doing much posting. Just a bit of reading blogs mainly. Thursday is supposed to be my last work day for this project, then a break for quite awhile. That will be so nice! My house has fallen apart with me working so much! I think the kids now realize that yes Mommy does do something while they're at school.

Anyway, I will try to find some baby pics of Janelle to do a proper birthday post when I get home from work tonight. I will have to look through boxes if you can believe that! We moved last July and still haven't unpacked those kind of boxes. Mostly because I've wanted to paint and didn't get at it until just recently... so hopefully soon those boxes will get emptied!
Have a great 'rest of the week'!

How does YOUR brain work???

This has got to be the easiest quiz (if you can call it that!) ever. So go ahead give it a try.... I picked it up from Rita over at the Jungle Hut. Your Brain's Pattern You have a tempered, reasonable way of thinking. You tend to take every new idea in, and meld it with your world view. For you, everything is always changing. Each moment is different. Your thinking process tends to be very natural - with no beginnings or endings. What Pattern Is Your Brain?