calling for a day off?

when you look at this , does it not give you the itche for taking time off?

we're going to the zoo zoo zoo...

Today Maelie and I headed out for a nice visit to the Papanack Zoo. It took us 45 minutes to get there. Amazingly, we drove by Rockland where the gas was 93.5 ! Wow ! I was impressed. To get from the Quebec side to the Ontario side this time, we chose to avoid traffic and took the ferry in Masson-Angers. It is very very quick, you can hardly get out of the car, you have to get back in.



At the zoo, we actually got to pet and feed zebras. I didn't realize how tame they can get!



We visited the monkeys on Monkey Island and had our picnic lunch there. I tried to get the monkeys in the picture of Maelie eating her pic nic. We can kinda see one of them in the background.




On our way out, Maelie found a secluded area where she made friends with a cute little goat. They shared a snack, not bothered by the world around them.



Now this was a nice day....!

baby boy basket

A friend at work needed to give a Baby present to a neighbor and asked me to make chocolate basket of some sort. This is what I made. I think it turned out pretty good!

rain after the sun

Well we have a rainy day today, miraculously. It has been hot and sunny for a while now.

This morning, I told Maelie that i hoped that it would stop raining since our neighbor/friends are going camping.

"They will be in a camper, like at grand-maman's house"
"oh, but mom, does it have a roof?"
"yes the camper has a roof"
"then it doesn't matter if it is raining"

I guess she can't really imagine that a family of 4 stuck in a camper in a rain storm is not too pleasant.



Here is a pic of our busy week. If you can't see... Maelie is the one in being dunked by a bucket.




Many fun times with friends!



and relaxing time in the wading pool! Maelie loves the water so much , hence why there are a lot of water pictures in this blog this summer!

Now that it is raining, perhaps some of our rainy day plans will happen. We have so many things to do this summer, including indoor and outdoor activities... stay tuned !

tummy anger

Since Maelie's friends had a stomach bug the other day, she now has a tendency to tell me that her tummy is not feeling good.

"Mom, my tummy is not feeling well, i think you need to take my temperature"
"oh, Maelie your tummy is upset"
"About what?"

:)

Apparently we have a new neighbor

My child, the stalker

Maelie is infatuated with Marc André, our neighbor.

Here are a few pics as proof of her infatuation. Keep on mind that Maelie took these pictures and not me....

Mowing to the left, mowing to the right. If his wife ever needs proof that he mows the lawn, all she has to do is check out this blog!

Beach Day

Today was quite the beautiful day. My neighbor Jacinthe, her two kids and I headed off to the beach for a relaxing time. It's great to hang out with her because her kids are such good kids and they get along wonderfully. There was not ONE bickering session, not ONE argument, only smiles and fun..... oh and a lot of chit chatting. I am glad we have friends whom Maelie gets along so well with.

Do you really need proof that we had fun? Yes, we had TONS of sunscreen on...

quite the girly girl?

Maelie kind of has a fascintation for as many gross things as girly things. This morning she chose a mixture of Barbies and Goo as a toy. Not many girly girls that I know enjoy playing with goo.



Here is our family of chins. We have a complete set now and are no longer taking anymore in... i promise!!

once again, the end of a fun weekend

Today, Maelie woke up saying she dreamt she went to a fair and went on the ferris wheel. Who knew that driving out to Buckingham en fete, her dream would come true!

welcome Maelie the picture taker

Maelie decided a few weeks back that she wanted to take pictures. My dad, mom , grandma all gave Maelie their change in hopes that she would have enough to buy one! SO we rolled up all the dough, and then had the yard sale as well. I am proud to report that Maelie is now the proud owner of an HP digital camera all bought with her own money (given to her, but still her own)

She takes very useful pictures everywhere she goes. Self-portraits, daddy sleeping, mommy in her jammies, the neighbors feet, the neighbors tablecloth, the television during different scenes, the staircase, the picture frames, you get the idea...

Here is on of her pics taken today:



This first pic is Chichi, our newest addition. His hair is a bit knotted on the top, we are working at making it soft like Chinchins. He is a very quiet chin. Extremely laid back, gets out of his cage just for a small jog around the playroom, then right back into his cage. He and Mayhem still don't care for each other much, but ChiChi does tolerate having Chinchin visit for a bit. He smells her. I wonder if he is thinking how she smells so good! :) hehehehe



As you may see in this picture... I sense trouble. Electrical outlet + Chin don't mix. Good thing Maelie caught this evidence on camera! I will place that shelf somewhere else. Chins have this way of making you see your whole house a completely different way!

I am glad to say that Mayhem and Chichi now have their new cages. They are three stories high and so they have lots of room to run when I don't have time to let them out. I could actually almost see a smile on their face earlier today!! They were kinda stuck in smaller rabbit cages when we got them. I found a great deal on bigger ones which I couldnt pass up! Having known there was such a good deal out there, I would have got one for Chinchin when we got her initially. Now she looks like she has a dinky cage! I think I am out to save the chinchilla world. LOL. Someone is needing to get rid of their little girl chin and i am SO tempted to adopt her. I feel bad knowing there are animals out there suffering....
I will post a pic of our new basement tomorrow. You will see how I am getting obsessed with my chins. :)

new family members

Well yesterday, Maelie and I went to see 2 chins who the owner needed to get rid of (has too many!) How could we resist?! My first thought when I saw them was "wow!! they are teeeny tiny!!" compared to our chin chin. they were too cute to resist though. So we had to take them home. and i figured that our chin may need the company as she loves getting in trouble, i think out of boredom. So now that my basement is clear, i will set up a little play area for the chins!

We brought home the 2 other cages and set them beside chin chin. One of the other chins, a boy called Mayhem, was SO excited. he was trying to smell chin chin. Chin chin was excited and a bit surprised i think. so they spent the whole evening smelling each other through the cages and kissing a bit. Mayhem is 3 months old. Chi chi is another boy. He is 3 yrs old and SO laid back i couldn't believe it. he didn't really pay attention to the two other much. Once they get used to our place, we will take them out a bit.

I will post pics as soon as i take some! :)

by popular demand, update on sale

Ok, so my 2 readers asked for an update on the yard sale.
I had somewhat given a brief update in the 3rd post below.

The sale went VERY well. we got rid of most of our stuff, mainly bulky stuff. you couldn't BELIEVE what my basement looks like now! BARE! yes... uncluttered. amazing.

Maelie took her role very seriously with customers and she loved it. I have all kinds of stories about people who just are ridiculous bargainers. I was barely asking 25$ for a kitchen table with 4 chairs. I think it had a small scratch and marker stain on top. But 25$ was cheap. One man inspects it and asks if i will take 15$ for the whole set. I said nope. He says "well you know, i'd have to refinish it all, and do this and that and this and that". I just looked at him and said i wasn,t going lower. like what the?? i don't care if he has to redo it all. We were just an hour in the sale, i could surely find someone else who wanted it! and i did... :) I don't mind a BIT of bargaining, but my stuff was cheap cheap cheap! for good quality stuff too! i let go of so many things i would never have been able to part with before. I feel really good about it though. it makes me realize i have WAY too many things and hold on to too many of them!

I still have just a few things left, plus other things i never managed to even take out as it was so busy! a friend may be doing a yard sale at the end of summer so i may just join her for my leftovers!

New hair

I haven't yet posted a pic of myself on this blog. but i thought i would and show you my new hair. It's pretty short. and the pic is a bit fuzzy, but you get the idea. Last week when I got it cut, I was a bit disappointed. Too short, not what I wanted. but this week, i am feeling better about it. I actualyl enjoy having it really short and not having to spend any time fixing it up. this will last for about a week. max.

Quite enjoyable having a picture session for the mirror & camera at 5:30 in the morning!

sick sick sick

Bill is home sick all week this week. He developed an infection following some kind of rash/allergic reaction. He is now covered with this on his body:




Most of it you cannot see because those parts are the ones that he scratched so much they opened up. The rest are like pimples or bumps under the skin. It is very itchy. The doctor said it was a bacterial infection and it could be contagious so he is not allowed to touch Maelie at all.

If there is an infection to catch, Bill is the man for it. He catches them all.

sick husbands = whiny husbands

keep your husbands healthy.

3 days to get over it!

Well what a weekend. In case some of you were sitting by yoru computer refreshing the screen every 3 minutes waiting for the announcement that YES the sky DID clear up for the gyard sale, I apologize I am a few days late.

Miraculously, the sky cleared on Saturday at about 5:30 AM. I still cannot believe it. It cleared, in fact it was excessively sunny for a few hours. I was able to sell a TON of stuff until 1:00 pm. Then is started raining again, but I only had to drag in a few boxes, which was wonderful! I didn't take pictures of Maelie and her muffin, apple and iced tea table. It was adorable. Any 55+ year old person that came by bought something from her or donated a few pennies. She uses her charm pretty good!

After the sale however, I was half dead. My muscles ached and they are JUST getting better today. But it was all worth it. Oyr play room is now empty. very very empty. and I get this awesome feeling when I go down there and see it so empty, it just cries out to me : "You don't have to clean this room!" and that is quite a feeling.

Our neighbors also were having their sale. In fact, I think 7 families on the street joined us. There has never been so much traffic on our street. EVER.

Maelie has also developed a crush on our neighbor across the street. They have 2 kids. Raphael is 4 and Koryn is 7. Maelie enjoys playing with them, but she gets the MOST excited when their dad, Marc-André, is there. She insists on us getting her roller blades so she can go roller blading ALONE with Marc-André. LOL When she sees him outside, she runs to the side of the road and jumps up and down and chats him up. If we are somewhere, for example we were at Costco on Sunday, and she saw a book about the Senators. She said " mom, we should get this for Marc-André. He would be so happy!"

ah.... childhood crushes are so adorable.

pics to come soon....

Odds

What are the odds that it will magically STOP raining?

I went out to put up an extra sign or two this morning. I also went to get a coffee at Tims as that is part of my yearly yard sale routine.

Maelie's muffins are ready to sell (25 cents a piece) and she made her little sign (menu). I will post pics later.

So I drove around from 4:45-5:20 AM and it was not raining. Just now, I could hear a spitter spatter. The clouds are very heavy and grey. But I am still hopeful. I still have 2 hours and 11 minutes to the actual yard sale opening. the sun could come out by then no? My house is a complete mess full of yard sale items to be put out. I don't think I can handle waiting another week! Plus most normal people will be out of town next weekend as it is the beginning of Construction weeks out here. For those who don't know what that is, it's the 2 weeks every summer where you should NOT take holidays as everypne else in the province is. Roads will be LOADED with angry motorists lugging their fifth wheels and canoes and boats. To me, it's the perfect time to just go to work.

Not that anyone would be reading this post at this time of day, well unless Lisa is... considering it is later on in the evening in Japan. But the point is... please pray for the rain to STOP! :)

Thank goodness I can look out the window

Today is our annual garage sale. My neighbor and I planned to do it together with a bunch of people to attract more clients! So of course, a day ahead of time, i worry about the weather. Like that is going to help change it.

So this morning I am up at the crack of dawn, oh wait, dawn is still sleeping and is not going to crack for another hour. So what do I do? I rely on ever weather page search. Since Environment Canada has not update our forecast since 3:00 yesterday, and Lord knows the weather HAS changed since yesterday, I have to rely on other weather sources.

I began to question the issue when I can upon Find Local Weather . The fact that it says we just had snow got me wondering about its accuracy....!!

So I think I will use the most scientific means possible right now, and just look at out the window. until Dawn gets here.

Secret

Well I have a secret to share. I am not proud of it by any means! But about once every 3-4 months or so, if I get up too early in the morning and have a few minutes to spare, I go to the Celebrity Baby Blog site and look at the pics of the celebrities babies. I know, i know... i am pathetic!! But you have to admit, Suri Cruise is the absolute cutest celebrity baby!

Maybe I should learn to sleep in past 4:30... i know i know.

What a weekend!

Maelie and I had an extra long weekend. Just the way I like them. To me, taking a 4 day weekend feels like I have 2 weeks off. Just like that. So needless to say thats how I am going to spend my summer. Having 2 weeks off every 2 weeks.

We went to my moms on Thursday evening. Friday for lunch, we visited my aunt Helene.


Maelie did extremely fun things all weekend! We visited family.



Went on the "4 roues"



Fed the mama racoon



Caught a 10 foot frog



and had a great time at Omega Park.





Can you tell one little girl is worn out?