BOYS!

Yesterday I'm sitting at my computer uploading pictures when I faintly hear Jevan, "MAMA!" I could tell it was a panic cry and I jumped from my chair, scrambling to find him. I thought he was outside but the closer I got to the back door the more faint he got. I quickly turned back and starting hollering "WHERE ARE YOU??" I'm now in a panic trying to find him as his cries for help are getting more frantic!

I scream through the laundry room, on my way to my bedroom, and that's when I see his legs! I kick away three overturned laundry baskets that have been stacked in front of the washer, suspiciously looking like a stool. Looking inside I find him jammed, crammed, and severely stuck in my front load washer, sweat pouring from his brow and wedged in darn tight.

After the initial shock wears off, laughter sets in along with me desperately trying to get him out! I can see his head is jammed sideways under one of the fins, and the way his butt is plunked down inside, any which way I lift, pull, push, just makes things worse as the washer drum wants to rotate forward spinning him upside down. By this time Sydney has come in and I holler at her to get her Dad, QUICKLY!

Hubby comes ripping around the corner and, thankfully with more power than I, lifts his butt up and swiftly gets him out. I don't know whether to laugh or cry but Jevan is holding onto me tight, happy to be free of his claustrophobic prison. I kneel down and, through tears and laughter, ask him "Why in the heck did you crawl in there??"

Wiping tears from his eyes he replies "To see if I could fit."

In the meantime Hubby is telling him "The next time you do that I'm closing the door and turning it on!" I'm thinking I should cram him back in and go get my camera but decide against it! LOL

Lesson learned? I doubt it, the boy will quickly forget and all will be well in his world again :) Excuse me while I go grab some hair dye because my grey is really starting to show...

UPDATE: 1st runner up at DPS from 650+ entries!
Another assignment from over at DPS. This week it's B&W Portraits, and this was what I was uploading when the panic started. (This picture is best viewed large so if you can't see the whole thing click on it to view it in flickr.)




I had grabbed the step ladder and was up fairly high to get this shot because I didn't want to get my camera wet. Right now Sydney's hair is the perfect length to flip around in the pool and after quite a few shots I got the one I wanted :)

Pigs, Lord what's next?

Yesterday, when Hubby got home from work, we drove into town and picked up a couple of pigs. Yes, as if I didn't have enough beating hearts around here with the dogs, chickens, cat, & kids, he has now added two pigs to our flock.





We quickly got them into the barn so we could feed and water them. Today they'll be moved outside into an open pen.





Sydney has named one "Ham-let" but the other one has yet to be named. I've asked on Facebook and quite a few great names were suggested, "Baconator" being one of my favourites, but the decision is up to Sydney so for now it's "?."





This gal needs a name, any suggestions that I can run by Sydney? *See update below.





Blue quickly sniffed out the pigs and they didn't seem to mind him at all.





He checks them out while they check him out :)





I did suggest "Deep Freeze" but Sydney frowned at that.



UPDATE: We have names! Ham-let and Pork Chop :)

Will you help?

I've often talked about my Hubby's cousin, Gloria, and her Mom, Aunty Helen.  Less than two months ago Aunty Helen's husband Ben (Gloria's Dad), passed away, they had been together for over 50 years!  So with Ben's passing I'm sure Aunty Helen and Gloria have had enough on their plates... but God works in mysterious ways and has dealt them another blow.

Brandon is Gloria's nephew and Aunty Helen's grandson.  He was in a bad accident at a motorcycle raceway down the states and was hurt pretty bad.  It was his first race and he was practicing beforehand when the bike came down hard.  He has injured his spinal column and is currently in a wheelchair, unsure if he will ever walk again.  Brandon's been in the hospital for about two weeks and has already had a number of surgeries.  The state is picking up some of the medical bills but not everything, and this is where you can help.  Gloria and Aunty Helen don't have a whole lot and because Brandon is a distance away they are having to travel to see him.  Fuel is expensive and they are looking for donations... any amount, even $1.00 will do.  The money donated will help with expenses for them to travel to see Brandon and also help with medical bills that the state doesn't cover.  Whether you donate or not, prayers are always welcome, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart :)

To donate, and read about Brandon's accident, please visit the website that Gloria has put up: http://s1.webstarts.com/aspen33/ and please feel free to post the link on your own blog!

Family and friends keep Brandon in good spirits eleven days after his accident:

Coming up for air

When I don't blog for over a week it means one of two things; I'm extremely busy or sick... funny how those two things slammed right into each other last week. I thought the two weeks before the end of school was busy but that week slid right into the next. Another dentist appointment, another child to pick up from a field trip, blood work in Lillooet... yup busy week alright and it felt as if I lived in my truck. It didn't help that I finally had enough of a "football feeling in my throat" and panicking when I couldn't breath, then drove myself into the ER on Saturday afternoon.


After about a 20 minute wait the dr. asked me all kinds of questions, prodding, and poking me and then diagnosing me with "sub acute thyroiditis." Well now I had a diagnoses and a reason why I got it (from the flu four weeks ago!) ... but he couldn't really do anything for me except assure me that I wouldn't suffocate, and I felt better knowing that. I won't bore you with all the details and now I'm waiting for blood tests I had last Monday to come back and tell me if I have a hypo or a hyper thyroid... still no word and it's been a week, I think I'm going to have to call.


Just before all this happened Hubby got a week off work. In that time our skidder went out on a lowbed, spent the night just outside of Lytton, and then came back. The company that hired it was able to get their own machine from the Gold Bridge fire so ours wasn't needed and came back home.


Here's Hubby loading it onto the bed.





Gee if I would have stood in the same place the next day I would have had a picture of it coming in the driveway :)





Numerous trips into Lytton and road construction only added to the time I spent in the truck. I'm not complaining because it's nice to see Highway 12 actually being worked on.





The graduation and awards day went well. Jevan graduated from Kindergarten! You might notice in the picture the HUGE dirt mark on his pants... I've been without a washer for almost two weeks :( Dallas was doing a load when it stopped pumping and started to make some noise. After the laundry room flooded, then the water ran under the wall into the bathroom, I was fit to be tied. We don't have any laundromats in Lillooet or Lytton so I was making due until Sears shows up... well that didn't last for long...



Last Friday Hubby and I drove into town and picked up the cheapest washer we could find so when my big one is fixed I'll have a backup (I got tired of finding our "cleanest dirty clothes" to wear.) The Sunday before last Hubby tried rigging up an old wringer washer on my back porch... and I would have used it if the agitator wasn't broken! Even the new cheap washer was hooked up to a garden hose on the porch until Hubby just HAD to borrow the hose to water the lawn... I then dragged the washer across the back room into our bathroom and it now shares the hoses and drain from the washer in the laundry room which is behind the wall... us girls gotta do what we gotta do to have clean towels, sheets, panties!! :)


Miss Veenstra and Mrs Bayda, and Jevan with his diploma. (I would have cloned out the dirt but hey I'm a "tell all kinda gal.")





Both kids received school attendance awards, something new this year because normally they only give them out for 100% attendance, Sydney had 99% (she missed one day, two total in two years) and Jevan 90%. Jevan also received a "curiousity and willingness to learn new things" award (quite a mouthful there!) and an award for completing all homework packages. Sydney received a second attendance award for her class as well as the Royal ROAR award for social responsibility. If you're wondering about the spelling of "curiousity" (curiosity) this is how it's spelled on the award and it looks like someone might have had trouble with it because it's actually printed over white-out. Maybe it should have been called the "inquisitive and willingness to learn new things" award?

Mr. White and Sydney, with Mrs O'Conner (the principal) looking over. Mrs O'Conner has been one of the best principal's I've ever had to deal with and does wonders for LES. It will be sad for Sydney come grade 6 because Mr. White has been her teacher for the last three years but won't be teaching grade 6 for her next school year. :(
(Oh, by the way Mr. White, I had a talk with your Mom at the Mcbeth play and we both think you should shave)... I have no idea if he reads my blog but I really did have that chat with her LOL.





Well now you know where last week was spent... please Lord let this week be a calm one, even though Hubby gets Friday off, my Aunt and her granddaughter and great granddaughter are coming on Tuesday for a night (I love you tho' AB!!), the Sears repairman will be here tomorrow, and the person that buys up my eggs always shows up tomorrow as well ;)


Oh before I leave you... I submitted a picture for the weekly DPS assignment. This week it was "F/16," you had to set the aperture on your camera to F/16 and snap a pic. Here's my submission. It sort of calms me when I look at it, I hope it does the same for you :)

Red Chair

This week's assignment over at DPS is "Chair." First thing I thought was "How do I make a chair interesting?" All week visions of chairs danced through my head until I had one of those "aha" moments. I tossed around a few ideas and finally came up with what I wanted.


I had to wait until Hubby came home from work on Friday to implement my plan and said to him "What do you think of putting one of our red leather chairs in the field with Sydney sitting in it holding her guitar wearing a cowboy hat? Oh, and by the way, I'd like the cows to be in the background."


I almost fell out of my chair when he simply said "Sure." He lugged the big heavy chair out to the upper horse pasture, weaving in and out of a temporary fence I'd put up near the pool, eventually setting it down with the curious cows quickly surrounding it. All the while I'm thinking "he must really love me." It was either that or the fact that I hadn't cooked supper yet ;)


After taking 120 pictures I finally weeded them down to two. Then settled on one.




The other picture was this one but I think it lacks focus on the chair.



Which one do you like better?