Pinkedness

I spent the night at Cenobyte's place, and when I woke up this morning I had a terrible headache and pink hair. See?






Really the pictures don't do the level of pink justice. The light in here is pretty awful. You'll have to take my word when I say that against the white white snow, in the sun....my hair is almost blindingly pink. It's so pink, it glows.


I stopped at McDonalds for cheeseburgers to bring home to Ian and Mary as a peace offering for disappearing for a full day. The girl at the drive thru who took my order looked at me, and her eyes got wider and wider. Finally she said "That....that's some pink hair, you've got there. Didja loose a bet?" I said "Yes. Yes it is, and no, I just like pink." The girl nodded seriously and quietly, and finally, as she was handing me my change said "Well...you have a...really...you just have a nice day." I'm absolutely positive that if she had been able, she would have backed slowly away from me.

Mary, however, approves of the pink hair. She keeps looking at me with this amazed, admiring expression on her face. When I ask her what she's looking at she sighs and says "Mama. Your hair is pink. SO pink." I have a little dye left, and I may give her a couple of pink streaks of her own tonight.

GiST #2

Look at me go! Two days in a row, right?

1. Paranoid Android
2. Tragically Hip
3. The silence that comes after the children go to bed.
4. The busy noise that fills the house before the children go to bed.
5. Being introduced to new music by a friend in the wee hours of the morning.

Visit Grace in Small Things

GiST #1

Because I am a follower, and because I've been getting overwhelmed by the negative lately, I've decided to try this whole Grace in Small Things. The basic idea as I understand it is to post 5 small things for which I am grateful every day for a year. Now, I'm not sure I'll be able to do this every day, but I'm certainly going to do my best to do it every week at the very least.

Here we go.

1) The sound of my cats purring.
2) A cold nose in the morning, when the rest of my body is cozy and warm under the covers.
3) The smell of onions frying.
4) Miss Vickies potato chips.
5) Guy Gavriel Kay.

Nihilist Mary

Tonight, while I was washing the dishes, Mary sang a song for me, and I've written it down to share it with you.

Nothing
(Sung to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)

Twinkle twinkle little nothing,
How I wonder why you are
Up above the world so high
Like a nothing in the sky.
(At this point the singer should wander away, mumbling nonsense)


I think that it's really quite deep.


Sorry I haven't been blogging lately. I'll get better, I promise.

February hasn't been great. I lost two cats at the beginning of the month, and I've been drinking far too much.

On the plus side, I spent the last couple of days in Lumsden enjoying the company of wonderful people and drinking too much. Also, I now have a ring made out of a spoon.

February

I missed a whole month!

It's February. If something bad is going to happen to my family, it will be in February. Life, or whatever, takes the time in February to kick us in the teeth. Every February. This February is no different. My house reeks of spoiled meat. Several hundred dollars worth of spoiled meat. A deep freeze full of spoiled meat.

This is only the first day. What other treasures are in store for us?

I think I might skip February all together this year.

Four

She's four years old today. My table is covered in Princess gift bags, Princess wrapping paper, Princess clothes, Princess shoes, Princess movies. She keeps saying "It's wonderful, Mummy! Just wonderful! It's gorgeous!"

What happened to the baby, or the toddler? Where have the last four years gone?

Also, I just finished making a Black Forest Cake for Mary's birthday, and it looks not half bad.




When did we get from this:




To this?

Not So Merry

I just spent the morning in the city. Frances is still sick. Sicker, really. She's had a fever hovering just below 40 degrees celsius (104 Fahrenheit) since yesterday afternoon. She's not eating, she's lethargic and very obviously in pain somewhere. We took her to the doctor, got her checked out, went for bloodwork, got some new antibiotics and are now home. The Dr. said that if her temperature stays as high as it is, that tonight we should take her to the hospital. Being a natural worrier, I tend to jump to WORST CASE SCENARIO MADE FOR TV!!! conclusions when things go poorly, especially with my children. The fact that Frances also has several scary and oddly unexplainable bruises is wigging me out just a little bit. I am trying not to freak out. I'm trying to stay calm and rational, and on the outside, I'm succeeding pretty well I think. Inside though, I am a quivering mass of worry and panic.

Anyways, Merry Christmas to you all. May your holidays be better than mine.

Sick

It's been a while, eh?

The last month has disappeared in a haze of germs and coughing. Frances, Mary and I have all been sick pretty for pretty much the whole month. Fun fun. Today we took the girls for a recheck, the Dr. took one listen to Frannies chest and sent her off for x-rays. Turns out Miss Fran has pneumonia. I feel like a stellar parent.

Anyways, other than being sick, and trying not to freeze (-46?? WTF??), we haven't been doing much. Preschool, dance and skating are taking up Mary's time when we are able to leave the house. Frances' vocabulary is developing in leaps and bounds. She is getting very good at making her desires known. She also knows some sign language, which she uses frequently.

Ian's Christmas party for work was last month, before the long stretch of sick. We had a wonderful childless weekend of party, shopping, fancy dinner and concert going. It was a wonderful refresher, and it served to remind me why I married Ian in the first place. I wish we could go out on child free dates more often that twice a year.

So, that's really all that's been happening. The next couple of weeks will be filled with Christmas preparations and baking, administering medication and fighting over toys.

If I don't update this again before the time comes, Merry Christmas to you all, and have a wonderful New Year!

Politics and Love

So, when it comes to Canadian politics, most of the players are...well...boring and old. It's no surprise to me that most Canadians paid more attention to the American elections than to our own. There's not a lot of charisma in Ottawa. Anyways, one politician that I have always loved is Justin Trudeau, the son of Pierre Trudeau - the closest thing Canada has ever had to a political Rock Star. I don't know much about Justin, save that he is super cute, extremely charismatic, and he lives in Quebec. Also, if my dreams lately have any truth to them, he is amazing in the sack. For the last week I have been fornicating in my sleep with Justin in all sorts of exciting ways that I won't go in too here. He has my vote.

(Better Justin Trudeau than Brad Wall, eh?)

My Favourite Quiz Result Thus Far.

Your result for Reincarnation Placement Exam...

The Pleasure Dome of Kublai Khan

34% Civilization, 74% Humanity, 44% Urbanization, 51% Danger, 70% Exoticness, 32% Chaos, 78% Hedonism.

You were a little difficult to place. You want a world that's exotic, but still very civilized and under control. And your answers indicate you don't give a fig for technology, education, urbanization and all the benefits thereof -- but you still have a great fondness for the human beings who tend to pursue these things.

Well, we have something for you that should be something of a treat. You won't get out much. But we don't think you'll mind.

In the Pleasure Dome of Kublai Khan, you are born and bred to serve pleasure all your days. Physically beautiful and mentally geared toward pure pleasure, you will spend your allotted days subjected to all manner of hedonistic play and sensual experimentation. You need never suffer a moment of pain, nor of sobriety. Cuddle up, honey, relax and enjoy yourself.

You kinky pervert.

Take Reincarnation Placement Exam at HelloQuizzy

Halloween

Hello there,

Things have been trucking along as usual here since my last post. Mary is getting busier and busier. She now has Preschool two mornings a week, Dancing one evening, and skating two afternoons a week. We had our first skating class this past Wednesday, and Mary seems to remember everything from last year. She is well on her way to being a better skater than I am. Her language is also developing apace now that her hearing is pretty much perfect. She's so smart, and she loves to learn. We have a picture book of animals that we got her last year for Christmas, and it is her bedtime favourite lately. Every night we sit with her, and she tells us every animal in the book. "That's a Bamboon! That's a 'Rangtang. That's a Bottle-Nose-Dolphin. That's a Red-Eyed Tree Frog. Look! A Wombat!" God it's cute.

Frances is also growing and turning into a neat little person. She's still annoying from time to time, but man she's adorable. She loves people now, and has whole conversations in her own special language. When Mary was this age the noises she made very guttural (now we know she couldn't hear, so it makes sense), so I used to joke about her speaking Klingon. Frances uses long, intricate sounds, her tone rises up and down like she's actually conversing. I believe she's speaking Elven. Frances is also at the age where one discovers the joy of the temper tantrum, and man, can she throw a tantrum to make my ears bleed. She flings herself to the ground, screams, and not content with just that, she also pounds her head on the floor in rage. It's really quite appalling.

Anyways, here are some halloween pictures for your enjoyment.

Happy Thanksgiving

Words are unnecessary.

Beautiful Princesses

Once again it looks as though I've neglected my blog. For a whole month this time! Jeez.

Things here have been interesting. I spent a week away from home, all by myself, and it really was quite fantastic. I flew to Abbotsford (Vancouver), picked up a rented car, and the next day drove my mother and her cats to their new home in Edmonton. Things went mostly smoothly with only one or two little bumps. The drive was wonderful, it was a perfect day to go through the mountains. My mothers new appartment is really quite fabulous, and in a perfect area for her. A walk away from downtown, a walk away from the grocery store, and less than a block away from major bus routes. I'm awfully happy for her, and I can't wait to visit again. I also got to do some visiting in Edmonton which was nice. I spent a few days in Edmonton, and then I hitched a ride to Saskatoon with Rico and his roommate. There was a Firefly game in S'toon, which was fantastic and most of the Edmonton crowd was there. I also ran into and caught up with an old friend who I haven't seen in about 15 years.

Mary started preschool while I was away, and she seems to be really enjoying it. She goes every tuesday and thursday morning for two hours. It's nice to get a break from her and spend some time alone with Frances, and it seems to be doing wonders for Mary. She also started dance class this week, every tuesday evening at 5:30. Once skating starts on mondays and wednesdays she is going to be a very busy little girl. She can't remember anyones name though, so she's told me that her dance instructor, her preschool teacher and three kids in her class are all named Sarah. I got suspicious pretty quick - there can't be that many people named Sarah in a town of 500...

Frances started walking while I was away, and now she is rarely not on her feet. Ian calls it a "zombie lurch" more than a walk, but she's working on it and she gets smoother every day. She still isn't sleeping through the night.

Mary is still crazy about Princesses. I really have no idea how I managed to raise such a girly little thing, but rather than resist I've decided to run with it. For the last few weeks Mary has been asking me to paint her fingers - I assumed she meant her fingernails. So, today I did it, I painted my 3 year olds fingernails. She was very careful and didn't move her hands at all while the polish dried, and she is so darned proud of her "beautiful princess fingers" that she can hardly contain herself. I couldn't get a very good picture of her hands, but here are a couple of the best -





She's still walking around with her fingers spread like that right now, about 90 minutes later.

Employment

Wow, it's been a while, eh? Hopefully someone still reads this and I'm not just talking to myself.

Things have been good, I guess. Finances are still tough, but I have a job interview for a position which I will likely be the most qualified by a mile. It's working at a veterinary supply store in Regina, and it's really kind of perfect, as long as it pays well enough to justify the gas and daycare costs. It's a monday to friday gig, 9 - 5:30, which, like I said, is pretty much perfect. I'm nervous about the interview, I'm nervous about working again (it's been an awfully long time), but the more I think about it, the more excited I get. It'll be nice to get out of the house, to be able to afford new clothing, Christmas gifts, maybe even an evening class (I'm thinking bellydancing or Tribal).

I've been meeting more people - in the city of course. I have pretty much written off Milestone as a lost cause. I'm kinda sick of being ignored, and watching my daughter be ignored too. I won't go into specifics now, because you've heard it all before, but living in a small town blows hairy goats.

My mother is officially moving to Edmonton, she has a job and an apartment. I'm flying out to BC on October 1st so I can drive her and the cats to their new home. I'm pretty excited about having her so much closer to us, it will be so much easier for us to visit with her on this side of the mountains. I'm also giddy excited about getting to see my E-Town friends after getting Mum moved in. I am trying very hard not to be bitter about the fact that if she had gotten her shit together and moved back eighteen months ago, we would not have left Edmonton. I am a little concerned that my time helping Mum move will make it harder for me to get a job, but the plane ticket has been bought, and I'm not going to leave my mother in the lurch...so...

We are expecting frost tonight, so here is a picture from our summer vacation in the Okanagan, one with me in it, and one that I don't hate too terribly much. I'm not fond of the hot hot heat of summertime, but there are certainly some lovely memories made when the sun is shining brightly.

Pessimism

Those of you who know me well may have figured out that I am an eternal pessimist. I try not to be, but I often get wrapped up in my vision of the worst, and can't imagine anything but that vision happening. That's where I am right now.

I have to get a job. A full time job, probably in the city. Being a one income family is not working anymore, and we are more than broke. Our bills and groceries in a month add up to more than we bring in. It sucks. So, I'm going to get a job. We talked about me getting a job here in town, most likely at the gas station. I have decided though, that if I am going to get a job, I want it to be a decent one. So, I am looking at clerical type positions in the city. I type quickly and well, and I have lots of customer service experience, so I should be able to find something in time. The problem is, I really, REALLY don't want to work. It's not that I'm lazy, it's that the thought of someone else raising my daughters makes me physically ill. The things I will miss out on, the fact that I'll only be with them two days a week while someone else gets to be with them the rest of the time, the fact that I won't be around for Mary's first day of school, for the day that Frannie decides to actually walk on her feet, I'll miss all the funny conversations, the fights, the fun. It really upsets me. I couldn't sleep last night, this morning I keep crying...I'm a mess, and so far I've only applied for three jobs. I hate it, I don't want it, and I don't have a choice. Blargh.

Also, we ate meat that has since been recalled. I'm not thrilled about that either. I am a bit of a hypochondriac (though not as much as I used to be), and when Mary had some gastrointestinal upset this morning the first thing that went through my brain was "OMG! It's listeriosis! We're all going to DIE!" I quickly calmed myself, but I'm still a little worried. I suspect her tummy problems had more to do with McDonalds for lunch yesterday and the stinking heat, but I'm still watching her like a hawk. Symptoms of Listeria poisoning can show up anywhere from 2 to 90 days, so I have a lot of time to worry. Of course, when I'm working, I guess the babysitter'll have to watch out for that, eh?

Arranged Marriages

I have a friend in town who has two little boys. Her older guy, P, is a year older than Mary, and her younger is about 6 months younger than Frannie-Lou-Who. Mary and P have played together a few times and they seem to get along pretty well. P's Mother's name is not Charlie, but that's what we call her for some odd reason. I keep telling Mary, "Her name is R___," and Mary says "Yes! Charlie IS a Beautiful Princess Mama!" So, we call her Charlie. Anyways, Charlie shared a couple of conversations she had with P, and I would like to share them with you.

P's Musings on Relationships and Marriage.

P - Mom (Charlie is a Mom, unlike me, I am a Mum), so, when you were kids, Dad was your brother, right?
Charlie - Ah, no. No, Dad was never my brother.
P - Oh. So, dad was your brother?
Charlie - No. Let's not spread that rumour around town. Dad was NEVER my brother.
P - Oh, okay. So you and dad were friends when you were little?
Charlie - Yes, that's right. Daddy and I were friends when we were younger, before we got married.
P - So, you were Daddy's girlfriend when before you were married?
Charlie - Yup.
P - Oh! Just like Mary is my girlfriend, right?
Charlie - Uh. I guess so, yeah.
P - That's great! When Mary and I grow up we are going to get married, just like you and Dad!
Charlie - Really?
P - Yup!


P's Further Musings on Relationships, Age, and Why a Knowledge of Geography is Important when Considering Marriage.

P - Hey Mom, was Dad older than you when you were kids?
Charlie - Well, is Dad older than me now?
P - Yeah.
Charlie - Well, what do you think?
P - Mom, I don't know. Was he?
Charlie - Yes, Dad was older than me when we were little, just like he is now.
P - Huh. So, I'll always be a year older than Mary, right?
Charlie - Yes, you will always be older than Mary.
P - That's Great!
Charlie - Why is that great?
P - Because when Mary and I get older, we are going to get married! But only if she knows where Regina is.
Charlie - Why does she need to know where Regina is to marry you?
P - (Rolls eyes) Mom! Because Regina is where you go. When you want to get married you have to go to Regina.


So, there you have it. So long as Mary can find Regina, she's got a husband in waiting.

Things are going well this week in spite of the miserable heat. On Saturday evening the Prairie Players had a gathering at the farm of one of the members. It was a grand old time, though I'm thinking that I am far too old to consume as much coconut rum as I did that night. Poor Mary and Frances did not have a fully attentive mother on Sunday.

Potty training is going Very Well. We still have occasional accidents, but puddles are rarer and rarer these days, and Mary is more and more willing to go on the toilet. Yay! Our garbage in the last two weeks has been cut pretty much in half now that we are not using diapers for Mary, though she still wears a pull up at night. She is becoming even more fiercely independent now that she uses the potty, which is a blessing and a curse.

I have decided on a Project to keep me busy, but I'm not sure how it will work. I got a book full of recipe's for artisan sourdough breads, and I thought I might take a page from Goody's book and work my way through the book, baking one bread a week. My problem is that these breads require 5 different sourdough starters, and all sorts of fancy flours, not to mention some equipment that I don't have. I wouldn't have a problem with the starters if I had someone else who would like to take what I don't use and bake their own bread, but the closest sourdough baker I know is Goody, and Nebraska is a long way to ship fermenting flour, you know? Anyways, once I get a baking stone for my oven I will get more organized, I can't do much without one of those anyways.

Not much else is going on. I'm going to apply for a part time job at the local grocery store, if I can figure out how to write a resume when I haven't had a job in four years. If anyone out there can give me some advice, it'd sure be appreciated!

The Potty Balloon

Well hello there! I was going to name this post "Panties!" but I figured that might draw an internet icky or two here to leer at pictures of my children. There are Websites!! Targeting YOUR CHILDREN!!!!!! OMFG!!!!! (That was for you, Goody).

Ahem. Anyhoo. Potty training is going...well, it's going, and that's a good thing, right? I have stuck to my guns and Mary wears panties during the day, except when we go shopping in the city. We have good days and we have bad days, but on average she gets to the potty about 50% of the time. Not so bad. As long as I remind her to sit, she will now use the potty, but if I'm not on her, we have messes. Today was a very good day, only 2 accidents. Yesterday was a very, VERY bad day. At about four in the afternoon, I walked into my terrifyingly silent hallway and found Frances sitting in the middle of a giant puddle of warm urine, splashing happily. All the books say not to get angry or yell, but GAWD is it hard sometimes.

Ian is working a lot these days, which is kind of crummy because Christ am I lonely, but is a good thing because...well, you know how lonely I am? We are more broke right now than I am lonely. Which is a lot. The mortgage payment this month is going to bounce, we owe the town $2500 in property taxes and $300 for water and sewage. Amazing, where is this money going to come from? I have been considering getting a job, but because I am a big, dumb, uneducated schmoo, any job I get will pay next to nothing, and not be worth it after subtracting daycare and gas to get me into the city. Besides which, if I get a job, hate it, and quit, we won't have the write off for taxes come spring, even if I only work one day. I may apply for a job at a book store though, I think I would like that. If I'm going to be torn away from my darling children (who I have not yet sold to the gypsies, tempting as the thought may be), I want to have a job that I don't hate, you know?

To be honest, I'm not THAT lonely, I guess. I mean, I'm miserable, and I wish we had never left Edmonton (biggest mistake I've made in a long time, that was), but things are getting better. The girls and I spent saturday afternoon at Cenobyte's place in Lumsden, and it was extremely pleasant. Mary and her littlest guy, E, got along like they have been buddies for years, and I had a nice time chatting with Ceno and her adorable husband. It's possible that this whole working two days a week thing might actually be good for me. I may meet people. Adult people. Adult people who will be my friends, possibly even people with whom I have something in common. That'd be nice, real nice.

Subconscious

I had a bizarre dream last night. Well, maybe not too terribly bizarre if you take into consideration the amount of times I have watched Dr. Horrible's SIng Along Blog in the last week or so. Anyways, I dreamed that I was at a....thing... an award show perhaps. All I know is that it was televised, and there were lots of famous people. I had fantastic seats, but I was there on my own because Ian was at home watching the girls. At one point Nathan Fillion walked past, and no one but me knew who he was. I jumped up and yelled "that's Nathan Fillion!" and waved. He smiled and waved back to me, but no one else noticed. Then, Neil Patrick Harris walked past, looked up at me, and said "Hi there Jenn!" Then NPH walked over to Nathan and said "I need to talk to this fan." NPH came back to me and struck up a conversation like we had been best friends all our lives. Then things got odd, and I was making out with NPH. I remember I kept saying that Ian was watching on TV, but NPH told me that he would never notice. Then I told him that I thought he was gay, and he said that he had said he was gay as a cover, but really he wasn't. Then more stuff happened that I can't really remember, and I ended up marrying him and having his baby via invetrofertalization because he really was gay, and while he enjoyed kissing me he didn't want to have sex.

Odd, I know. Of course, NPH is the first famous boy I ever had naughty dreams about in my life. I adored Doogie Howser M.D. when I was in my early teens, and had a raging crush on NPH then. Dr. Horrible has just reminded me of how much I adore him, I guess.

Anyways, back to the real world. We took the girls to Buffalo Days, Regina's annual summer fair. It went far better than we expected for many reasons, one of the largest being the fact that we showed up Sunday morning when they don't charge admission. Yay! That was twenty dollars in our pockets. The girls were amazingly well behaved, Mary had a blast and was absolutely fearless on the rides, and us adults enjoyed ourselves too.

Ian has a lot of time off right now, the long weekend has worked out nicely with his summer schedule. We have thrown caution to the wind and put Mary into real panties now, no more diapers and pull ups. So far we have had no luck whatsoever, and lots of messes. She still refuses to use the toilet, and while I hate to sound like a broken record here, I'm at my wits end. Nothing at all has worked, we've tried every suggestion in the book. Now I guess all we can do is be consistent, keep at her and try my hardest not to loose my temper.

Other than that, not much is going on. Today I made hamburger buns, my first attempt at buns, and they turned out perfectly. Tomorrow we are cleaning house, and possibly going to the swimming pool. Next week I'm going to try to convince Ian that we should go to Craven and buy some farm fresh veggies.

Did you know?

As of yesterday I have been married for four years. Huh. Crazy. I bought Ian Season one of Dexter (wow. What a show!), and he is buying me an exercise bike (I asked for it, so it's okay).

Ian's birthday is Monday, so for a joint anniversary/birthday par-tay we are going to see Batman tomorrow, followed by a steak and beer. Then I'm taking off on my own to go GAME!

Four years, a new province, two children and four cats. How time flies.

Summer

Well hello there! It's been a while, eh?

Summer is going okay so far. We had a wonderful time in the Okanagan at the beginning of July. The trip there was very long. We drove to Calgary on day one, which really isn't a bad drive at all. It turned out to be about nine hours because we did need to stop a few times for the girls (who were remarkably well behaved). The driving is pretty easy, prairie pretty much the whole way. We did drive through the highest point east of the Rocky Mountains which is, believe it or not, right here in Saskatchewan. We spent the night at Ian's aunts place and headed out in the morning. It was a nice visit with Aunt Sue, she's got a lovely little home and was a wonderful host. We ended up staying much later in the morning than we intended, so we didn't get the early start we had hoped for. The second day of driving was...well...hot. By time we got to Banff it was well over 30 degrees out, and the drive through the mountains was brutal. It got up to about 43 degrees, and our air conditioner does not work; the only time we had cool air was when we could coast downhill. We didn't get to my uncle's place in Peachland until almost 7 that evening, but thankfully they had just started supper, so we got to eat.

The time in Peachland was wonderful, though we now realize that vacationing as an adult is not the same as it was when we were kids. Our time was all about the girls, we worked very hard (and often didn't have a lot of fun) to make sure the girls had a good time. We did get to my favourite winery on the Naramata Bench as well as a beautiful lavender farm in Naramata. I know for a fact that we will do our best to get out again next year, and every year after that. We hope to find a relatively cheap tent trailer to make the trip even more fun (fun. right. camping with small children.) and affordable.

My uncles place is really amazing, indescribable really. The main house is huge and goregeous, there are a couple of guest houses as well as a trailer and ample camping space down at the beach. The property is beautiful, there are golf carts to get up and down the incredibly steep hill to the beach/park area, and the swimming pool...well...it's the nicest pool I have ever swum in. It's an infinity pool, saline (so no nasty chlorene smell/sting), it has a beach entry for the little guys to play in, and a "grotto," which is a little waterfall with a spot you can sit behind it and look out over the edge and down to the lake. I wish I had a better camera, and a better brain. I hardly took any pictures.

The trip home was rather eventful. Half way through our week in Peachland we got a panicked phone message from Ian's Aunt Sue. Something had come up and we couldn't stay with her on the way back, she wouldn't be home. Um. We were at a loss. We couldn't afford a hotel in Calgary, and even if we could, it was Stampede, there was no way we would be able to find a room. We finally decided that we would drive home through Edmonton instead. That meant a 13 hour day of driving through the mountains. Surprisingly, the drive was better than the one out - the weather was much better, and the highway was less busy and nicer all around. We spent a day in Edmonton, visited Ian's family there, and headed home. Boy was it nice to get to our house. The cats and house survived, and we were all happy to sleep in our own beds.

Since we got back we have done very little. Relaxed, avoided the rain and thunderstorms, straightened up the house, tried to get on top of the awful weed problem in the yard. Frances has started to walk, which is pretty impressive, though she does still prefer to crawl. She's so proud of herself when she takes a couple of steps it's hard not to laugh. She stands there, beaming and bouncing up and down, her little chest all puffed out. She is also learning words - she can say Hi, Mumma, Daddy, uh-oh and up. She's still pretty horrid to be around from time to time, but she's finally developing a real personality.

Anyways, here are some pictures of our holiday. The last three were taken by either my fabulous cousin Sarah, or her equally fabulous husband, Captain Fun.



We've done the trip to Alberta a hundred times, but for some reason we decided it needed to be doccumented this time.





My family at a rest stop in Banff National Park





Miss Mary on the patio by the pool.




The beach.




Dad and Frances.




The whole gang on Canada Day.




View from the patio, over the pool and beyond.