Day 237

Alex's room has never had a light. Because this house is so old, there really isn't any wiring in the ceilings etc...the only lighting was from a plugged in lamp that turned on and off by the light switch. Today I put a real ceiling light in Alex's room because I was tired of the inadequate lighting. It's not the prettiest, but with some added wire, it still plugs into the wall, and at least now the whole room is illuminated. We can see what we are doing!

Tonight's dinner was steamed baby spinach, Boursin cheese mashed potatoes, and steak with grilled mushrooms and peppers.

Day 236

Today I had permission to do some metal detecting on the grounds of Ryan's school. It has been around since the early 1900's so I was really hoping to find something nice and old to give to the school and have them display, something to represent it's heritage. Unfortunately all I found was a bunch of junk, and some change. The only good find was this silver ring and an older American penny from I think 1956. The date has corroded and is hard to read.

Day 235

Today we spent a few hours de-stickering Wally's van to get it ready for sale.

As we picked and peeled, Wally decided to let the boys play inside the van. Bad move. They started fighting over the window controls. Alex was pressing the button on one door to get the window to go down, and the Ryan was using the master controls on the drivers door to bring it back up. Suddenly the whole van shut down and Wally couldn't even get it started anymore. Not really what you want to happen the day before it goes up for sale. He was really pissed and kicked the kids out to their rooms. Ryan never really sees Wally mad so he was a bit worried as to how much trouble he was in. I went inside with them while Wally tried to fix the car and Ryan asked me with great worry "Am I going to jail?" I reassured him that he would not but that maybe he should do something nice for Dad to show him that he was sorry. So he ended up making him a card with an apology and a picture inside. Thankfully all the van needed was a boost and it was good to go again.

After all the drama, I was out around the yard when I almost stepped on this guy. He's a Tomato Hornworm Caterpillar, and he is huge!

Day 234

Today we decided to re-arrange Ryan's room yet again. I just wasn't happy with the way it was before and I think this time I finally got it right. Luckily I had Wally to help me out this time.

Day 233

The cabinet we put over the toilet is great, but I don't like the fact that you can see all my "lady products" inside. So off I went to the thrift store where I found a vintage fabric that I just loved right away. I did a little cutting, some sewing and then with some tacks, I mouthed it inside the doors. I love the way it looks now!

Day 232

The other day I managed to fall down the steps of the front porch. I have a fear of falling down stairs and here I have managed to do it twice in as many months. It swelled up right away and I noticed today that it is now a nice yellow greenish shade.

We also got some new inhabitants in our fish tank...a dozen ghost shrimp.

Day 231

The boys and I went to A&W with my mom for lunch today. While I was up at the counter getting our order and my mom was supposed to be watching the boys, a woman went to a table beside us with her food, and then just left (to go to the bathroom I suppose) Alex saw the food and went "Mmmm!", went over and grabbed himself an onion ring. My mom finally noticed what he was doing and while I stood in line I heard "Alex! No!" coming from behind me. As I turned around the woman came rushing over to her food. I apologised profusely and offered to buy her another order of rings, but she kept her back to me and icily replied "No, that's ok." I don't think she was very impressed with us.

Day 230

I was sitting here enjoying the peace and quiet today as the kids were at daycare playing with their friends, when I heard this tremendous buzzing noise outside. It sounded like some kind of model airplane was about to land on my roof, so I popped my head out the door, and saw this guy cruising by...

Bye dude! Have a nice trip!

Day 229

I was sitting in the yard when this freaky bug landed on the sunflower beside me. I have never seen anything like it. It folded up its wings and I swear it looked like a Transformer. It was totally weird.

Look at the choppers on this guy!

Day 227

Looks like I mixed up my days again. Day 227 wasn't too exciting. Our bathroom has been in disarray for 2 years now. Wally started renovating it, and never finished. We have all the new cabinets, paint etc.. in storage, its just getting on the new floor and walls that is holding us up. We have been living out of boxes the last 2 years and I was tired of the disorganization. I made him go get 2 of the the storage cabinets and put them up. The bathroom still looks like crap, but at least I can find my stuff now. He has a week of vacation coming up and I swear I'm gonna lock him in there until it's done!

Day 228

Today I got to meet my friends new baby cow, Miss Moo. She is so adorable!

Then later in the evening, I looked into the fish tank and saw a little baby fish! I took a look around and saw our female balloon molly pooping out babies all over the tank. Ryan got to see it too and he thought it was so cool. Unfortunately, while some of the babies were hiding in the gravel, some of the other fish came along and ate a few. I have no idea how many we had or how many are left.

Day 226

We had planned a little outing with the boys, but the weather rained us out, so we decided to just go grocery shopping instead.

When we got home, we found the cats had discovered the aquarium.

Day 225

Today's freaky garden bug is this caterpillar. I have no idea what kind it is, but do you see that white tic-tac looking thing on it? That means it was impregnated by a wasp, so there is a wasp larvae living inside it and feeding off of it. Basically the larvae controls the caterpillar, and the caterpillar is now a mindless zombiepillar. Once the caterpillar forms it's chrysalis, the wasp larvae transforms inside, will chew it's way out leaving an empty chrysalis shell behind.

Wally brought home a little aquarium from the store yesterday that was no longer being used ,so we decided to set it up in our kitchen. We've had a few small beta tanks, but I missed having a real aquarium. I would have liked to have had a bigger tank, but this was free so I'm not complaining! I spent the day cleaning it and setting it up, waiting for the fish to come later when Wally came home from work. In the end it looked like this...The boys love it and so do I.

Our male fiddler crab

Day 224

Since the colder weather will be here soon, I had to move Ryan's furniture around so that his bed is no longer touching the heater. I spent 3 hours up in his room sweating my butt off cleaning and moving his stuff. I'm not sure I like the way it looks, especially where his bed is, but he thinks it's awesome, so we'll try it out for awhile.

Looking in. I don't like this corner, it's so "blah"

The closet. We never used the bottom half except to put some boxes with his winter clothes, so I decided to just shove his whole dresser in there. It fits perfectly, and now he has more floor space to play.

Day 223

A dragonfly takes a rest by my pond

One heck of an ugly spider snacking on an ant. I hate ants in the house, so this guy is doing me a favour.

Day 222

Mmmm...banana bars. I tried out this recipe last night and it's so yummy. The icing is awesome. I may, or may not have eaten 7 of them since last night.

Alex fell asleep in the cutest pose, I had to sneak in with my camera and take a picture. That's his bear Coco, which he got as a gift from a store Santa last year. He slept with him that night and hasn't missed a night without him. Thankfully he doesn't drag him everywhere like Ryan does with his bear, he just likes to cuddle with him when he falls asleep.

Day 221

Black Eyed Susans are one of my favourite flowers. This little guy had decided to make one of my flowers his home.

Day 220

I took Ryan out with me grocery shopping while Alex stayed home with Dad. On the way home, I noticed that the truck driving ahead of me ran over ( as in above, not squished) something and as I passed over it I saw something wiggling. I thought at first that it was a bird moving it's wing, but then I thought, wait, was that a turtle?

So, I turned around in the next driveway and went back to look. The speed of the truck had knocked the little guy over and what I saw was him trying to flip himself back right side up. Last week I had found a turtle on the road near the house, and his shell was cracked and crushed. He was bleeding everywhere. The poor thing was still alive and there was nothing I could do for him. I didn't want this guy to suffer the same fate, so I grabbed him and put him in my car. I didn't see any water around for him, so I just brought him home and put him in our pond.

He's a painted turtle

Ryan's first time holding a turtle. He was a bit scared at first.

Waiting for him to take the plunge into the pond

Day 219

Today is the first day that I don't have a picture. I carried my camera everywhere with me today, but it just really slipped my mind to take a picture of something today. So, I'll cheat and use two pictures from yesterday that I didn't post.

A busy bee in the garden

and the guinea pigs having some outdoor time

Day 218

Another beautiful day spent outside. Along with 2 snakes, I also spotted this spider in the garden.

I even let my old girl Chloe out so she could eat some grass and sit in the shade in the backyard.

I also decided it was high time to give the boys a hair cut, Ryan will be starting school soon and Alex's hair is so shaggy and he gets so sweaty. I buzzed off all of Alex's hair, much to his screaming protests, and when it was Ryan's turn, I asked him if he wanted me to keep a strip in the middle long because he likes to make his hair spikey sometimes. He said yes, and then I asked him if he wanted me to colour it for him, to which he also said yes. I got out my cake food dyes and he choose blue, he is now rocking a blue mohawk and says "I look like a rock star, mom!"

and the side view:

Day 217

It was such a gorgeous day today... sunny, cool, and a bit breezy. Perfect! I brought the kids to daycare so they could play with their friends, and I came home to open all the windows, and go nuts cleaning and fixing up things in the house.

This is the welcoming committee at the kids' daycare. They are always honking or hissing at me when I pull up.

"Look out, or I'll bite you in the butt!"

Once I was done cleaning, it was almost time to pick the boys up again. I decided to use the time by making the boys a huge mega train track up in Ryan's room with 2 tunnels that I made out of cereal boxes as a surprise for when they came home. It was so big, that I couldn't even fit the whole thing in the frame of the camera.

Da 216

This afternoon we had a thunderstorm and yet the sun was out at the same time. I took a stroll out to the road to look for a rainbow, but with the trees all around I couldn't find one. The sun made the drops of rain on the trees sparkle like diamonds, it was really pretty.

Day 215

This afternoon there was another big storm and once it passed there were tonnes of fire engines, police cars, and anything else with a siren, flying down our street. It's pretty quiet out here in the country, we don't often see much action, so we all wondered what the heck was going on. I left Alex with Wally, grabbed Ryan, and hopped into the car to see if we could find out where the action was happening. I was wondering if another tornado had passed through as there were sightings of one again the other day.

Once we drove down the road through our wooded area, we could already see a huge plum of smoke in the distance.

There were many fire engines and emergency vehicles all around. I wasn't able to pass as they had closed down the road.

When I was closer, I zoomed my camera in a bit and got this picture. From what I thought I heard of people passing by is that a barn was struck by lightening. I saw a reporter taking pictures, so I'm waiting for the free local paper to get delivered to read the whole story.