Why a Sore Throat

Here I am after a few dreary days off where I hid from the rain as much as possible and now that I am headed back to work what do I get? A sore throat. I don't look sick.. I don't sound overly sick but I can barely swallow. The question..suck it up and head into work or play the pansy and stay home. Now generally I'm all for staying home if you are sick as I work in a field where nobody wants to share your cold and you earn hate points for spreading it around to the masses. Today however I just can't justify not going in..I just don't feel sick. At least as long as I don't eat or drink or talk. Oh wait...I do a LOT of that at work. hrmmmm

Well I went in anyways. Possibly not the smartest decision in life but it was one of the girls on my watch's last day with us before the watch change so I wanted to be there. I wanted more junk food. Here is the fun part: With a pocket full of Halls and Chloraseptic I headed in. I have never used Chloraseptic before and if you are the same I gotta say right now.. I Heart Chloraseptic spray. Instant relief from a sore throat pain. The only side affect is not being able to feel your tongue either haha.

I bumbled my way through another day of work and now I'm at home trying not to talk and wondering if this potential cold is going to go away and come at me with the vengeance only a bad cold can instate.

I hardly feel that a cold at any time of year is great but one in the spring is just plain mean. Here's a picture of some of the mountains around the area in our chilly and wet spring so far.

Change is Change

Today is a sad day and a great day all wrapped into one. There is a bit of a shake up at work and some of the people who work with me are moving to a different watch a couple new people are joining my crew. The sad part loosing two of my "gang" who love to torment each other at every turn and the freedom that comes knowing they won't be offended by pretty much anything you say. A crew where we feel free to talk about everything from leg waxing to the crazy things our kids get up to what the latest tv show or movie we watched is.

The great part.. the amazing Barbeque we threw together for lunch. We had BBQ hotdogs with all the fixings, BBQ potato, yam and carrots cooked in butter in tinfoil packets, potato skins, an asian salad, ice cream sandwhiches, peanut butter cookies and banana berry muffins, chips and then, as if my waist wasn't already expanding exponentially as it was, we had cake. The cake was a double layer cake with one chocolate layer and whi layer.. icing with a super yummy jam in the middle and Nutella on top... mmmmmmm Nutella. What's better than Chocolate that you can pretend is a healthy breakfast spread.. it's still chocolate!

I rolled my way out of work today and was almost horrified to hear that my four year old wanted a speacial treat for dinner. That special treat turned out to be McDonalds. I almost said no but hey whats an extra five pounds gained in a single day so why not! I'd like to admit I used a touch of restraint and had a happy meal instead of a full size meal however it wasn't restraint at all. I just wanted a second Shrek toy for my kid.

Since no one should have to see a photo of me filling my face I decided instead to post a picture of something much cuter that was having a snack.

Camera Club

It's pouring rain again. I think the weather is purposely conspiring to keep me in the house which is slowly driving me insane. The good news is there is Camera Club tonight. I love getting out of the house and just rubbing elbows with other people who know what they are doing as I try to glean information off of them. I love trying to experiment with things that they teach.

One such lesson that we recently had was distorted reflections with mylar.. check out the results.

Weeds

Today my husband and I went outside to clear the weeds from the flower garden. After watching him in action I now understand why so many of my flowers didn't come up this year. I'm afraid that my loving husband needs a class in botany. That or he just doesn't believe that anything except tulips are flowers and in that tone he has now removed everything that didn't look like a tulip from the flower garden. Goodbye Peony bushes I'll miss you and goodness knows what else was sacrificed to his efficiency..

Baking

My son and I did some baking today. He asked to make cupcakes.. I said sure..then looked in the fridge..no eggs. Note to self check ingredients before agreeing next time. Not one to break his heart I explained that Mommy had run out of eggs so before we could bake the cupcakes we had to run to the grocery store. With all the logic of a four year old he advised me that he didn't want to go grocery shopping, he wanted to make cupcakes. Insert long conversation about how ingredients make things and so we need them BEFORE we can make the cupcakes.

I haul my lazy butt out of the chair I had planned to spend most of my day sitting in and get ready to go downtown with him. Now the ultimate choice.. which grocery store to go to.. the one with the racecar cart or the one with the rocketship cart because when you have to convince the four year old to go it's best to go to one he's going to like. Turns out he had a hankering for dodging Meteors so it's off to the store with the Rocketship cart today.

I find it funny when you go out in public with an exhuberant child. Most days my son is pretty mellow and so he doesn't draw a lot of attention but today he was in full on blasting mode making sure to save the earth from the dangerous meteors. Now I would say 95% of people hear him chattering about how he is going to blast the meteors and how he tells me to turn left or right so the meteor misses us and they laugh at how cute he is having fun. Invariably however there is always the one grumpy shopper. The one who doesn't understand kids and doesn't understand why people can't keep their kids under control.

To this person I state, I apologize that your can't find happiness in the innocence of childhood fun but that I'm not stopping my kid from having fun while he can. There will come a time in his life when this type of behaviour will no longer be "cool" when he'll be expected to be professional and until that time I hope he enjoys every moment of blissful innocence he can. I relish the days where his biggest problem in life is what to have for a snack granola bar or crackers and why the wing keeps falling off his dragon. And I hope that for that grumpy shopper out there they have a chance to feel like a kid again and remember what it feels like to be that happy.

After mixing the cupcakes and pouring them into the cupcake pan we put them in the oven to cook. Fifteen lifetimes later, or in adult time fifteen minutes, the timer goes off and we take the cupcakes out. Once again insert long conversation about why you can't decorate the cupcakes with icing and sprinkles right away. So begins the longest hour... the hour where icing and food colouring and sprinkles and icing pens wait to be used by deft little hands that..well lets face it aren't so deft. Every 5 minute increment being filled with several inquiries as to whether the cupcakes are cool or not yet. But eventually they are cool. Each cupcake gets it's own unique decoration job. After all that hard work and two cupcakes later his tummy is full and he's a happy boy, which makes me a happy mommy.

May Long Weekend

It's always sort of been an ongoing joke in my family that in the town that I was raised you always pack snowsuits and shorts on the May Long Weekend. Once again this year it's been proven that the old adage is true. My mom spoke with me today and told me that it has gone from Sunny and warm with them out camping to them having over a foot of snow in the last two days.

Needless to say the camping trip is off and they are back at home hoping the snowplows will find their way to their rural property soon.

Meanwhile here at home my son and I are singing along on Itunes to a bunch of kids music we have for him, classics like the farmer in the dell and B. I. N. G. O when he looks at me and says I need to turn the music off. I ask him why he calmly tells me he wants to hear the "Rain Song". Sure enough I look outside and it's pouring rain. I gave him permission and he opened the door and listened to the rain and the birds cheeping for a minute or two. What a kid.

At Home

Sitting at home with my kidlet and the sun came out for a while between rain storms. I thought I would try to take advantage of it since goodness knows how long it will be until I see that bright orb they call the Sun again. Not having the energy to actually travel or hike anywhere I decided to take advantage of what's in my own yard for once. As it turns out my roses are in bloom. I love my rose bushes but by far and away my favorite one is right by my front door. It's a tiny little thing only about 3 feet tall and 2 feet at it's widest point but the colour of the buds is gorgeous. A deep crimson red which I see rarely but when I do I always love.

Even as I finished taking the picture the sun once again retreated behind the clouds. No more attempts to get the picture I want for now.

Men and Facial Hair

My husband tells me he wants to grow a full beard. I tried to tell him he's crazy! A goatee yes, a mustache okay but a full beard? Don't get me wrong I think a man has to have the right to decide ones look the same way a woman does.. you just have to be willing to accept the consequences. I'm not sure he's completely weighed out the consequences based on the simple fact that the woman he loves.. and yes that's me...HATES full beards. Here's to hoping I can knock some sense into him.. or at least find a way to shave it off in his sleep.

Nothing Clever

Well here I sit with nothing clever to say. I wish I could say I did but alas nonetheless here I sit. Perhaps tomorrow inspiration with strike and I'll find something.

Nothing much happened today. Went to work to once again save the world one call at a time. Had to yell at someone which wasn't the highlight of my day but I think I got the point across that I would love to help providing they would stop talking long enough to listen to the solution. It amazes me why that is so hard and yet each day it's proven it is. Once again proving that a person can be smart but people are dumb.

Irony

I'm sitting here thinking about Irony... Irony in all it's glory. I see it every day and yet it always seems to sneak up on us. It's there in Hockey when a team that barely makes it to the playoffs has already eliminated two opponents that should have beat them instead. It's there in the Biggest Loser where a competitor eats his way to weight gain instead of weight loss.

What makes this happen I don't know. Why in the world I am thinking about it is an even greater mystery. Perhaps it's the disappointment in the simple things like looking forward to a photo excursion and due to weather it happening when you can't attend.

Boy...how philosophical can a person get.

On that note I'll commence my nightly ritual of getting ready for bed and hope that irony chooses another house to sleep at this evening. Perhaps I may even find a way to bridge the gap that irony introduces and continue about my day tomorrow as expected. In that tone I've attached a photo of a big old iron bridge...okay it's neither old nor is it probably constructed from iron but I'll pretend it is for convienence sake.

Headed Home

Well we had a good visit with my inlaws in Oregon. Nobody strangled anyone else which let's admit is a successful weekend for most families. We drove back home today and while there wasn't a lot to take pictures of since what was already a long day would only get longer if we stopped, I did manage to sneak a couple pictures through the window of the vehicle while driving. Well while my husband was driving, even I'm not that crazy!

I am however exhausted now and so I will add my picture here and promptly get ready for bed.

Oregon Trails

Today we went out on one of the walking trails near my inlaws. It was quite pretty there beside the river and I took a couple pictures. What I'm trying to figure out why my sister in law and husband enjoy "argueing". I swear that they take the opposite side on every matter they discuss just so they can disagree. Let's just take for example that the sky is blue. I'd give details of the actual conversations but they include everything from religion to faith to what's for dinner but that would be sure to offend someone so we'll stick with the sky.
If one of them starts that conversation I'm sure the other would reply with... well actually it's not blue it's the reflection of the sun against the water particles in the air that give it a bluish cast..while the other would reply well actually I believe it's blue because of the pollution particles in the air and that the sun bounces off the sea and provides that blue appearance. Now as a disclaimer I don't actually believe that either of these arguements are valid and nor did they actually occur but I'm pretty sure that if it did that's how it would go down. It's enough to just make a person want to stand up and screech who cares! unless I'm wrong you are both agreeing that that sky is bloody blue! I swear over the weekend that I've heard them argue both sides of many arguements both ways depending on who starts it.
What's worse is that they are enjoying themselves and I'm trying to figure out why I'm here listening to it.

Our Trip

Well I haven't been on for a few days because I'm on holidays. That's right that illusive time we all cherish every year and can't seem to get enough of. That time when work is just a four letter word and relaxing is the name of the game. This time we took a couple days off at home and puttered around the area taking just a couple pictures and then headed down to Oregon in the United States to visit some family.

It's great to see our nephews who are growing so very fast. My son is loving the chance to run around and play like a boy with his cousin. The poor boy is normally surrounded by a pack of girl cousins who are the delicate and dainty flowers they should be.. Okay that's so not true but they still aren't the rough and tumble boy style of play he's enjoying now. And while he loves his girl cousins to bits and pieces I think he's revelling in the blaster shooting and dinosaur wars that he has found today.

The sun is out and we're foot loose and fancy free. My husband set me loose in a mall with an unlimited spending budget which meant the longer I was there the more scared he became. He was lucky however and I came home with one pair of shoes that cost less than fifteen dollars. Now for all my fellow shoe lovers you'll know and understand how restrained I was.

And for all the husbands out there you'll know how happy mine was!

Birthday Present

Went to a birthday party today and it turns out that although it wasn't my birthday I ended up getting a present too! A great opportunity to take pictures of an eagle thanks to the farmer behind the house tossing around the fresh cut hay that's been drying overnight with his tractor. Now I don't know much about farming but I'm assuming by moving it into lines for pick up by the hay bailers that this uncovers the critters hiding underneath. AKA prime food picking for the birds.. and prime photographic opportunities.

To the park

Took my son to a park in the neighborhood today. This particular park has a large pond or small lake depending on if you are a glass half full or half empty kinda person right smack dab in the middle of it. This leads to there being a lot of ducks and geese that have decided to call this home. Now if you can stomach walking over grass that is sometimes more poop than grass it can be a lot of fun.

Generally the geese in the park are there are the Canadian Geese but today we saw one that was different and being a newcomer he didn't fully understand our right to join him in the park. After hissing at my son he was dubbed the "Angry Goose" and we went our way to find a more receptive crowd.