This is Sam

DOH. Uhhh, I'm getting a new bike cause my other bike broke. ummm, but we are going to sue my bike. Eyeball is really rude. So is Trash Can. And Zits. And Sam. Sam is very rude. Sam isn't really rude. Sam is a really polite clean good name. Get rid of Pepsie Cret, meaning my little pooplet. It's French. Giggle. More Giggle. Mom I love you. Mom can you buy me a treat? Giggle. This is the end of my blog.

Bye Mum.

Anyway that was Sam blogging his heart out. Most of the time he was giggling and he got really annoyed with me because I would write everything he said. Even when he didn't want it on the blog. So here is sam's blog with the big stuff

Dan let me write my own blog

Dan: No

Sam: DOH!

and so on. This blog would be lightyears long if he hadn't cracked open my coconut.

This part of the blog is for sam. I will write a number of things that will make Sam giggle hysterrrrrrrrriclllllllllyyyy. And Matt too.

I was going onto an upside down coconut tree. When I fell off. I would have died if i hadn't tied a purple onion to my neck. This red onion was not eatable. It tasted good. Even though it was eatable. Then I had a purple green. It didn't look tasty. But it wasn't. hahahaha. I drove a robot. But it crashed. I won the race. I like my ear. Van gough didn't like his. I like it when Katelyn falls down the stairs. Just kidding I like it when she falls up the stairs. Snort Snort.

That is it for all. This blog was sponsored by © The sumo sam company I feel brown.


Bi
BYYY DAAN NO Don'ok ok. Get rid of these letters. write where did my peanuts go??? henorkin.bye TELL THE TRUTH GEFA Needs more GEFAGEFA Henorkin

BY Mom

Okay that was more of sam wanting to write

By

Mum's coming back!!!!!!!

Le Harper is in Halifax today. Preaching - errrrrrrrr - campaigning at the nicest hotel in the city. He's not expected to have too many supporters.

I should really have a politics blog. I would call it Politicks Moste Evile (and other stuff) because a blog only about one thing is pretty constrictive. Mostly about politics though.

Did I mention he was wearing sunglasses the whole time?

Before Mom left, she took all us kids to the grocery store to pick up some groceries. Then, she left us in the van. She doesn't like the little kids grabbing for candy. While we were sitting in the van, listening to music, a car drove up beside us. Inside, was an older couple - a man and his wife. The wife hopped out of the car and headed over to the store for some groceries. Us kids sat a little longer in the van, listening to music. Then, one of us - I think it was Dan - exclaimed "Look at that guy!" We all looked. The guy was putting a cigar in his mouth. "You don't see people smoking cigars that often," I said. But wait! This man wasn't smoking a cigar per se, he was eating it!! Chewing and chewing and chewing and chewing. So we decided it must actually be chewing tabacco. The man chewed off about 1/3 or his chewing tabacco, then opened his jacket, and deposited the remainder into his lapel. Then: he just sat there. And chewed. And chewed. And chewed. Every time he brought his teeth down, his chin expanded with air just like a frog. After about 3 minutes of steady chewing, the kids and I were wondering if he spit of swallered. (We have been reading too many wild west stories.) Then, finally, he opened his car door and spit. But then he kept chewing. After another few minutes, this man took his sunglasses off. While still chewing, he rummaged around in his car and found a clean rag. Then he LICKED his finger, and started cleaning his glasses!!! His tabacco spit! Yuck! YUCK! YUCK! YUCK!

Finally, his wife came back with the groceries, and we were all spared.

Um I have reached the part of my life where I like to cook is it ok if I ask you for some recipes. my favorite is baking and desserts (this is dan wrighting for me).
cake is my (sarah will write this) speshelty.

got to go guys

What's a separatist?

Well Karen, your question threw me. Of course...I can't blame you because you are not Canadian.

So here is your answer.

A Canadian separatist is a man or woman who would like the predominately french-speaking province of Quebec to seperate from Canada and become it's own country. Or that's what I meant anyway. Usually that's what people mean. Supposedly there are people in Alberta and Newfoundland who would like their provinces to separate too.

Insulting my leaders

A smug look perhaps? That's is Paul Martin in the foreground, and Stephen Harper is the man in the background.

To tell you the truth, I didn't follow the non-confidence vote yesterday. We had people over, and I actually forgot to listen. So: a recap of what I've learned: Steven Harper and his Conservative party along with the Bloc Quebecois and the New Democratic Party put through a vote of non confidence in our minority government. The government fell, and the election campaign that has been going on unofficially for some time is now officially underway. The election is scheduled for January 23, and soon the signs on people's lawns will be up. I looked on the Globe and Mail to see if there was anything interesting. As far as articles went, NO, but as far as commentators...

' I am so disgusted and exhausted with the miserable politics of the past year. If I were interviewing 3 candidates for a job I would not hire any of them if they tried to prove themselves by telling me how incompetent the others were. I am especially interested in what Stephen Harper has to say. From what I've dug up on his past views, which is an atrocious necessity given that our otherwise laudatory media has apparently been able to provide us with this, he is for: dropping taxes below american rates, war in Iraq, continental energy policy, continental economic policy, no kyoto, canada is a second-rate country, atlantic provinces have defeatist culture, privatization of health care and labeling belinda as a whore.' ~ Alex Downey from Toronto

This guy seems to like Belinda Stronach maybe a bit too much, and he seems to like the liberals..but he has a point. The politicians (with the exception of Gilles Duceppe, who is in my private opinion the most intelligent party leader out there - unfortunately he's a separatist) are all effectively building themselves up by tearing the others down! But really all it does is make them all look like they are having this conversation:

The parents have decided to let one of the kids go on a special trip with them. But the kids have to be EXTRA good.

8 year old boy to his sister: I should go because I'm older
Sister: I should go because I do more chores
Brother: I should go because boys are more reponsible and better
Sister: Are not
Brother: Are too
Sister: Are not
Brother Are too
Sister: I'm Telling!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The same conversation in parliament - only this time it's Canadians that pick who gets to go on this 'trip':

Stephen Harper: It's obvious that the liberal party is corrupt and should be taken down - then I'll go on the 'trip'
Paul Martin: *dither dither* But what about all the good stuff we do for canadians?
SH: Too bad bub, Canadians want ME to run their country
PM: I'm under the impression that you're too right-wing for many Canadians - besides you don't do anything about softwood lumber and you want to get rid of Quebec!
Belinda Stronach: (enters) Oh lalalala, I'm rich and blonde and I like wearing cocktail dresses and pretending to be a public servant and be concerned about national unity while hoisting myself farther up the corporate ladder(exits)
SH: Am not!
PM: Are too
SH: I'll show you!!! I'm going to dissolve parliament *MWAHAHAHAHahahahaha!!*
Jack Layton: I'm not going to get to go on this trip, but I'll help Stephen because the Liberals won't do what I want
Gilles Duceppe: Everyting in my MASTEUR plan is going a-ead perfect-ly!!!! Hehehehehe
PM: I'm telling!!!!

Mum is flying tomorrow. She has made so many meals that they are having trouble fitting all that delish stuff in the freezer so I hope that Mel and Nate have enough food in their freezer to stuff a constipated eskimo. I feel real wierd. Like there was a pocket of air where mum used to be. I can't wait until she comes home. I really hopw she is having a really good time. i hopw Melanie's head will be fine. Ok ok, sorry about the emotional blogs but she's coming back soon so this will probably be the last blog.

Anyway. We went to the orthodontist today and my retainer got shaved a little bit to let the new tooth in.


Gotta go for lunch!!

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At least it was not on MY grass!!

Mr. Mom blogging from headquarters (my office with the door locked and the dresser up against it to foist any invasion attempts). Phew, taking care of 5 kids is a lot of work. I misplaced Sam today for a bit and then he returned home from outside. He later said, "Dad, when I was outside I had to go pee so I went on the grass. But not your grass." You can imagine how relieved I was!

Katelyn is being a huge help. If I ever invent a homemaking droid (that works) I am going to name it the Katelyn 2000. I suppose if it does not work I can name it the Dan 4 (get it, Dan 4, Done 4)! To be truthful, though Dan may not be gifted in household chores he still takes care of a lot AND keeps Matt and Sam very entertained. He is the perfect brother. Sarah is looking out for me in other ways. At the Santa parade she made sure that I had a chair to sit in (at her expense) and is very watchful to make sure I get food before the other kids devour everything, even sacrificing her own if necessary.

Well - I'm going to bed - I'm beat.

To day I was thinking what my blog like when I was small I think it was something like this hi gais at is a bad day I hav to go by and thaynks fur lisineng

Okay

So Mum is gone for a couple days, and I have to get through a Monday without Mum. With dad. I can't wait until I am done my homeschooling. What I think is, When you get your stairs done the rest is history. That's what I think, but the rest is pretty hard as well. I just can't wait until this is all done. Yawn. I hope Mooshi is having tons of fun with Melanie. I hope Melanie's head won't cause here any problems. That was a good blog Mel. I would have really liked to have that sign thing, but Constable Wallace needed it for something. Mum probably wouldn't be able to take it onto the plane anyway. They might see it as some sort of weapon. Wait. Oops I always thought that the sign might be put on CARRY ON. HAHAHA, I'm so stupid. It would be stupid to bring an "inconspicuous" top half of a sign on carry-on. My mistake. Hahaha. I hope Mum is having TTTONNNS of Fun.

Now, as for life over here. Sam came over with Katelyn's World record book and shows me a picture of a monster truck painted all over with the star spangled banner. And says: "LOOK DAN!!! A canadian MONSTER TRUCK!!!" really excited. Sam needs serious help. I say to him that it is actually american and sam goes: "Oh I love american monster trucks!" Once again we have another un-anti-american in the house mom Wink Wink Nudge Nudge.

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Jewishness

During World War 2, while the allied forces were occuping England, an English housewife decided to invite 6 allied soldiers over for dinner. She scribbled on the invitation "No Jews Please".
At that time, while there were blacks fighting in the American armies, they were still considered second class citizens, So when it came time for the dinner, the housewife heard a knock at her door. She opened her door, expecting to see the 6 blue blooded soldiers (or whatever) that she had invited over for dinner. She was surprised to see 6 BLACK soldiers standing on her stoop. She said "Oh Dear, I'm sure there must be some mistake!"
One of the black soldiers answered "Oh no ma'am, General Cohen never makes mistakes"








(I watched a film last night called Liberation. That's where I got the joke. Although I did find another variation of the joke on the internet, so as to which of them is true, I don't know. Or maybe neither. But still pretty funny. For those of you out there who don't get the joke, Cohen is a Jewish last name.
The film was good. It made me laugh and cry. It's unrated, but if I had to rate it, I would slap a PG-13 on it. If you want your kids to watch it PRE WATCH IT FIRST!! There are some pretty gory pictures.)

Carpe Denim

I have decided that I should take up poetry a la weird Al Yankovic. So here is my first piece. Hope you like it. It is dedicated to Marsha and Melanie as they spend a few days together:

Carpe Denim

Gather ye clothing while ye may
Closing Time is a-Coming;
And this pair that’s on sale today,
Tomorrow you won’t be buying.

The glorious place of heaven, the mall,
The fuller he's a-getting,
The sooner you check out that stall,
The nearer you’re to jetting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth provides some vigor;
But soon things go from bad to worst
And jeans just fail your figure.

Then be not lazy, but use your time;
And while ye may, go, hurry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.

My Kids Speak WWW

Dan put a funny message on our answering service several months ago. If you call while we are out you can hear it. Almost everyone likes it and we get a lot of interesting messages as a result.

The most recent message was left by our doctor. Dan, of course, was delighted that yet another person liked his message. He told us with great pride at the dinner table that, "That message of mine gets a lot of hits!"

Library BLACK OUT

The other day me and mom went to the library to get some books we went up stares and BLACK OUT. I want to ask mom if I can have a baking day every week so we can make things got to go ps mom if you see this blog consider it bye

Blah

I have NOT been getting enough sleep. Today I was sitting on Moms bed and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep with my eyes open.

Ok, so how I wash dishes while getting only one hand wet:

The first thing you should know is that is not strictly true. My left hand does get a little wet - I just don't put it in the dishwater. It is always a little damp, but there is never any soapy water on it.

Now, when I wash a dish, i dip my right hand in the water and extricate it. With my left hand I balance it - often with the tips of my fingers - and with my right hand I scrub it out. If it's a smaller item I take it all the way out of the water and leave a little water in it, but if it's a pot, I leave it half in the water so that the side I'm not scrubbing at the moment can be left to soak. Then I turn the pot over (with my left and right hands - only my right hand goes in the dishwater) and scrub the other side.

1) I am better than Mom at knowing what goes in the dishwasher and what you have to handwash
2)If something is stuck to the bottom (like really stuck) I let it soak overnight
3)I can fit more things on the dishrack than any other member of our family
4)We hardly EVER hand dry our dishes, and then it's only ever 1 or 2 dishes so that it will make room in the dishrack.

Questions

Melanie asked me what I was afraid of. Well. There are 2 questions in that question. What WAS I afraid of or What AM I afraid of? Well I'll answer both.

WAS: When I was 6 and 7 I was afraid of meteors hitting the house and volcanos growing in the backyard. I was also afraid of Satan.

AM: I still am afraid of Satan, more than I did, because I wasn't being told how scary and miserable he was. The story about the German cannibals makes me feel sick to my stomach. I felt really wierd when I heard it. I don't know if it's fear. (but in the words of the grandson) Maybe I was a little bit Concerned but that's not the same thing as fear.If you don't know who the grandson is you should see the movie The Princess Bride. It should answer you questions.

This little guy. I found this picture and I love it so much I just needed to put it on the blog.

On the right is a picture of him being pinched by his grandfather

Anyway, I gotta go

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I'm getting old

I've been washing the dishes nearly every night for the past 3 years, and I've been looking at my right hand lately and thinking "what are those weird cracks and wrinkles". Premature aging I suppose. My left hand (which I never put in the water when I wash dishes) looks as young as ever.
Previously I thought that your hand should only start looking like my right one when you move out, start living alone, have to wash the dishes every night, and have the constant friction of an engagement, wedding, or miscellaneous ring(s) on your finger(s). It looks especially weird (and it's not that noticable except on my index finger) because my hands don't look like adult hands. This is an adult hand:

A little bigger, a little chubbier than my hand. Maybe I just have small hands - I don't know. I can't find a picture that looks a lot like my hand on the internet. But as you can see, this person's hand is unwrinkled.

Anyway, since I haven't moved out yet, I'm a little young. Any advice? (to satisfy my vanity). I hate rubber gloves because they make me feel like I don't have full use of my hand. Especially when we put a cotton glove inside a rubber one (which we always do) so the rubber doesn't give me eczema.

Poll Results for now

Commando: 50%

Printed: 50%

Plain: 0%

Yes I am sorry. This NIC said that commando is the best way.

I forgot to tell you. I am going to do whatever the vote wins. Yes even commando. I wouldn't usually do this. Just because I said that doesn't mean you should vote commando so that I will do it. Be honest please. I don't WANT to go commando.

Ok, so I thought that I should leave stats about myself.

Ask a question and I will answer it.

No questions like: Do you have any crushes. or anything like that.

Just normal things you'd like to know about me.

Anyway don't have much to say.

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♪I'm Runnnnnnnnnnin' in the Rain♪

Today I put off going for a run until about an hour before it was going to get dark. I KNEW it was supossed to get rainier as the day wore on, so the real reason why I put it off? A few words - I didn't feel like it. Ok, so I know that's not a very good reason. In fact, I usually don't want to. But I always feel great afterwards, so I force myself. Today was no exception. It was about 15°C, and drizzling. It was a bit breezy too, so I took a sweater.

I started running. I was a little hot in my sweater, but I knew that the breeze would pick up, so I kept running. I ran all the way around the block twice before I got too hot in my sweater, took it off, and ran over to my house and threw it on the driveway. About a minute later, the wind picked up. And it started raining. I actually like running in the rain. It gives me a fresh alive sort of feeling. But I DON'T like running in the wind. It wasn't too bad though. I was enjoying my run, I didn't feel tired at all, and I had no reason to believe that it wouldn't stop soon.

I was wrong. 10 minutes later will find me, head bent against the wind, straining against all the powers of nature to run down a hill. My shirt is soaked and plastered to my body, my arms are turning splotchy red, and my trackpants are significantly heavier then when I started out. Oh, and the piece de resistance, water is sloshing around in the toes of my running shoes.
My shoes are very light, and they have mesh parts to keep them light, and make them breathable. Oh, and permeable. I feel like I've gained 8 pounds, and I remember how hard it was when I first started running. People are passing me in their cars and thinking "what on earth is she thinking?!". I am thinking "What on earth am I thinking?!"!. I could have stayed inside an done an exercise video (although I live in perpetual fear of all exercise instructors). But instead, I am out here, getting goosepimples, while people watch me from their windows and wonder how long she'll keep this up.

I finished the run. I came inside, and dripped ALL over the carpet. I took off my shoes, and squeezed out my socks. My shoes are due for an appointment with the hairdryer later on. My socks have about 1 lb of water in them. I make wet tracks across the tiled floor, into the basement towards the shower.

Now I have that really awesome feeling you get when you're really cold, and then you get really warm. You still feel a little cold, but in a comfterable 'i'm warm now' sort of way. And I think I'll sleep well tonight too.

SHUT UP DAN

Dan that is personal not a good subject for the blog so SHUT UP DO NOT LISIN TO HIM.
Umm lets see what has hapend to me to day I tot the smoll kids haw to make hats.
Got to go

Sarah, underwear and laundry

Okay. So I want some help here. I felt problems. Ok ok I'll start from the beginning.

This bit of the post isn't for young mature legitimate women. They can read it if they want but they won't live very long

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A couple months ago my underwear was small. No kidding it was really small. I couldn't walk very well. And when I ran the stairs for thirty minutes I had a sore crotch for an hour afterwards. It didn't take X-ray mother to notice this problem. She went to the clothes shop and bought me a couple Men's small underwear. YIKES!!! I felt like I was going commando

This is where Sarah comes in. She does the laundry and she mixes up DAD's Underwear and MINE!! AHHHHHHHHH. Thus began me thinking up ways to make it clear to Sarah the difference between Men's small and Men's medium.

#1. Write my name on the underwear.

Pro's: Sarah can read

Con's: It would be might embarrassing if a stranger noticed it

#2 Have them washed apart from the other clothes.

Pro's: It would work

Con's: Waste of water, Sarah might still make a mistake.

Anyway. Mom bought new underwear. They fit perfectly but they have dumb illustrations on them. One pair is covered in little spiders. Sheesh.

I need a vote

Who likes illustrated underwear and who likes just normal one colour underwear.

(Beah you might be interested in this)

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coffee and tea

I don't like sweeteners in my tea. Mom drinks Green Tea because it's good for her. She always adds a teaspoonful of honey to it. She doesn't really like the taste.

I, on the other hand, love the taste of green tea. And hate it sweeted. In fact, this seems to be the case with all tea that I drink - if it's herbal it doesn't need sweetening, and if it's black or green it doesn't need sweetining either.

The one thing I haven't been able to drink is coffee. It's too bitter when I drink it black, and too sickly sweet when I add just a little sugar. This is a great disappointment to me, because I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooove the smell of coffee, but I seem to be incapable of drinking it.* Oh well. I'm not addicted like some people and that's probably a good thing.

It's raining again today - 15˚C again!!!!!!!! I can't believe it.


*To all of you concerned adults out there, I've stopped growing already, so there is no need to worry about my growth being stunted.

fast I have less then 30 minits to finish my work I have a lot to do sorry for the bad blog
got to go

So Sorry

I really have not a thing to say. I will edit this blog if anything happens

I love you when you are obedient to me

At some point in the night Sam came and slept in our bed. On MY side. He always sleeps on MY side. One time Ron & I actually switched sides. It didn't take him long to switch sides. But I digress. So sometime after daylight Sam said, "Mom can you give me some covers". I made sure the covers were on him & I said sorry. He turned over & hugged me. "That's OK, Mom. I forgive you. I love you when you are obedient to me"

The War is Over

Matt speaking. I am tired of fighting with Burger King. They have been taking ideas from Deep Sea Chicken (though I haven't been doing many ideas lately). But I decided I would have to quit the war against Burger King. It is getting near Christmas so I need to pause the war to change the Deep Sea Chicken template. There isn't going to be a Deep Sea Chicken Army anymore - until the summer. My Christmas time Deep Sea Chicken Website will have the same template as Abarbablog.

Now what I am going to tell you next is a secret. Sammy doesn't read so if no one tells him he won't know that I put this on the blog. Can everyone keep a secret? At first I was going to get him 3 presents from the dollar store: a watch, an alarm clock & some batteries to power the alarm clock. Then I changed my mind to get him 4 mighty machine DVDs so he will have all the mighty machine DVDs. We own Volume 2 but we don't own the other 4 Volumes. Sam likes watching Mighty Machines.

Yesterday at church Sam was leading me down the stairs into the basement so I could go and see a craft of his that he'd made in sunday school. As he was leading me downstairs, he stumbled and I thought he was going to fall down the stairs. I pulled him back, and he righted his balance but meanwhile, while pulling him back I lost my balance. I started to fall down the stairs, and Sam was still holding onto my hand, so we both went sprawling all over the landing. I don't remember the last time I fell down the stairs. I definetely don't remember when I made Sam fall down the stairs. There's a story that I threw him down when he was a newborn, but it's a lie. My parents are always saying they have bad memories. It's nothing but a lie - don't listen to them. I would never throw a baby down the stairs. I would never throw anything living down the stairs. Maybe I dropped him. MAYBE. But probably not.

Bayers lake business park is booming. A Michaels is opening there, there is - yet another - furniture store opening there, and another store with homey things like tea-towels, and an Old Navy just opened.

Mom had to go to the Chapters there, so she offered to take me along so I could look at the stuff in Old Navy. So I went.

I walk into the old navy, and I am immediatly surrounded by bags screaming "SHOPPING IS FUN AGAIN". "Yeah right" I think "Shopping is almost never fun". But anyway, I'd heard that Old Navy stuff was good. I was getting progressivly more and more irritated with the music - first Lindsay Lohan, then Fifty Cent. Neither are people I want to listen too. I headed straight for the t-shirts, and decided I would make it short and sweet - take a size medium and a size large, and then just buy whatever colour of size fit me. I then found a pair of jeans in my size which were on sale (haha, for the extremely cheap price of twenty bucks) and a few other things and headed to the change rooms. I had a bit of trouble finding pants in my size, so I wondered - is size 8 such a common size that they buy the same amout as they buy size 1s, and then act surprised when people get mad? Who wears size 1 anyway? Babies? Actually, I saw a pair of jeans in size 0. I didn't know such a thing existed. Pants for people that don't exist:)

Anyway, by that time I was a bit irritated, and so I hightailed it to the changing rooms. The way it works is that there is a creepy guy who holds a key to all the change rooms. When you want a change room, you get him to unlock the door for you and he puts a sign on the other side that says "change room in use". He unlocked a change room for Mom, and then unlocked one for me. THERE WAS SOMEONE IN THERE!!!!!!!!!!! It didn't have a sign, so I could excuse the mistake if it was a girl attending the change rooms, but if you are a guy, and the predominate amount of people changing in your change rooms are girls, I would try the tried and tested 'knock' approach. Fortunately the girl was clothed.

Anyway, the next change room was changerless. I tried on the first top. It was too small on top, but really baggy on the bottom. I wondered why. I tried on the size large t-shirt. It fit perfectly. Unfortunatly, it was just the first size large that I'd found, so I didn't really like the colour. Fortunately Mom offered to give me the black large sized t-shirt she tried on. So that was good. The pants were good on my leg, but too tight on my bum.

So we go to the cash. Mom didn't realize that I didn't want the red shirt, so we were going to get two black ones for me. We looked down at the black one I had in my hand. It was the wrong size! Shoot. But anyway, we decided to go back to the t-shirts and just get me another one. Except there were none in my size!! I'm a pretty average sized girl. I'm not fat or overweight, but I'm athletic, so I'm not stick-thin either. I'm sort of stocky - I'm medium boned, and I don't have piano hands. Generally I fall into the "medium" category. Sometimes in the large. Anyway, I guess since I am average, everybody had already bought every single shirt in my size (except for in red and pink, and as some of you know, I am a red head, and that is not an option for me). So we went back to the changing rooms to see if we put it in the 'discard' pile. We asked the girl, she looked back breifly, and said 'uuuuuuuuh, no'. Thanks a lot. I didn't end up getting anything.

Then, Mom bought some underwear for Dan. They were 2 packages (of 3 undies each) for 12 dollars. The only problem was that one of the pairs was missing. After consulting with a girl with no eyebrows, who consulted with her boss, who in turn consulted with HER boss we finally got the underwear. Instead of doing what would come to my mind (or I think to the mind of any customer) of just charging us per pair. So 2 dollars per pair. I don't know what goes through the mind of retail people, but I think they are more interested in keeping their jobs than customer service. I guess I can't blame them tooo much, but it never fails to irritate me.

So...conclusions:

a) I don't like the atmosphere/music
b) They don't seem to have priority on average sizes
c) Their size 8 didn't fit an size 8 butt:)
d) Their staff weren't extremely helpful and didn't engage you
e) They hire creepy guys to oversee the changerooms. And why don't they just have normal locks anyway??!
f) I don't think I'll be shopping there again.

A pathetic plea for comments

Yes, I realize I may be being a tad hypocritial (ie I closet read a bazillion blogs and don't comment), but I'm insanely jealous of Melanie, who just got 9 - I said 9 - comments on a post. Not just little comments like "good post" or "look at my fake rolex watch site" (hahaha, just kidding), but nice long notes about how profoundly wonderful her cardmaking prowess is. And I think that if you are going to comment for Melanie, you should comment for me and my family as well. Even though I don't know diddly squat about cards.

As all of you guys know (or at least ones who blog), comments are very motivating. If you want somebody to keep blogging, for pete's sake comment!

I promise to maybe start commenting some more too....

Mom is sweet enough to send people chocolate and a note sometimes, but lately, the chronic eczema on her hands has gotten really bad. So she told me that she though it was because she was eating chocolate (in more than moderation) and I should keep her chocolate bars to send to people in my room so that she can't get at them.

Well
She can't keep out of my room!!! So far I have found several chocolate bars missing, and twice seen a half-eaten one near her hangouts (her office, and her room) So tonight when she asked me for 3 chocolate bars, I said "Show me the notes of the people you will send it too." So it turns out that she wanted 2 to send to someone, and 1 for herself. I only let her have 2. She was a little ticked off. She needs to know it's for her own good. Maybe I should make her up some forms to fill out and some ration cards.

A quick week

This Week went by quite quickly. I didn't know weeks could go by this quickly. Anyway, We went to the discovery centre two days again. A lot of the exhibits are really fun, like build your own arch bridge and a build your own arch with small blocks. There is one where you race a line of lightbulbs that light up down the turf, so you can race different speeds. You can race a race horse, a wheelchair sprinter and Donovan Bailey the fastest sprinter of this time. Of course, You can't beat him because you need to accelerate. I've beaten the other two though. Anyway, its a really fun place and we have a year there for free. It was given to us by our friendly neighbors. Anyway, I gotta go!

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thats cool mel I like swiming to uum.
I do not know what to say its a bad day oh well got to go

My Grandma

My Grandma died peacefully on Monday at the age of 97. I grew up next door to her so I saw her every day. She was quite a lady - not grandmotherly really but someone I deeply admired. My dad told us that when her sons (she had 5) were going to a dance, she would put raw garlic in the salad. As far as I know she didn't tell them not to be kissing girls. She took care of things in her own way. I think it was when she was in her 80's that she and a friend decided to have a beer at a hotel in a nearby town. The bar manager tried to convince them they didn't want to go in there. But they persisted, only to find out - too late - that it was a strip bar.
I never remember eating anything fancy at Grandma's house, but the food was always good & comforting. I always make her "Cream of Celery Soup" recipe, which she was delighted to share. There were usually cookies in the cookie jar and she didn't mind if we helped ourselves.
When we were young she used to take us on "Senior Citizen's trips". This seems kind of funny now but I was glad to climb up into that fancy bus full of ladies with white hair & head off to the Royal Winter Fair or Alexander Graham Bell Museum. She didn't have to take us - I appreciated her thoughtfulness to include me.
In some ways Grandma was ahead of her time. She was into fitness & nutrition 20 years before most Canadians. She was a world-traveler when most people, at least in her little town, rarely left Ontario. She was a journalist when most women her age didn't work outside the home. She loved keeping up with things & seemed to have equal allegiance to the local Country Station & CBC. When she visited me in Halifax she told my daughter Katelyn that when soldiers returned from World War I they brought Spanish Influenza with them. She was a young girl then & her family used to cook food, leave it at the door & run away. I thought I'd heard all her stories . this was a new one to me.
Grandma took delight in the big and small things of life. She was happy to sell some raspberries, to go on a trip, to have a visit from a grandchild or go out for a meal. My Aunt told me that recently she was heading uptown because the Rotary was celebrating an anniversary by giving out free cups of coffee at any coffee shop. She wanted to take part. When I was a child there were many phone calls about people dieing. The conversation would go something like this, "Hello, Mrs. Harry Legg died. She lived up on 4th street in the old Dobie place, you know beside the Mathesons". And then she would hang up, often without saying goodbye. Did she have a long list of people to inform? I'll never know.
A few years ago I got a little package in the mail from her. Inside were some mittens & hats for my kids. The knitting was up to her usual standard (she never worried about dropping a stitch) & they had that distinctive "Grandma's House Smell" (who can forget it?) It was completely unexpected, a little quirky and thoughtful. That was Grandma.

15˚C, Breezy, Cloudy and Raining

I'm actually writing this on the 17th, but I thought that Mom's post about her grandma should remain in the foreground for a while.

My teacher in grade 2 would make us journal the weather every day. We would look at the thermometer hanging outside our window, look out the window to see if the tops of the trees were moving or not, see if it was cloudy, a mix of sun and cloud, or sunny, and say if it was raining or snowing.

It floors me that we are still having 2-3 days a week where it's 14 or 15 degrees. The rest of the time, it's like -2˚. It hasn't snowed yet, but maybe it has in the night while I am asleep. In any case, the rain washes it away. It makes me happy though, because when I go running I am not freezing cold. Yesterday I went in track pants and a t-shirt, and I wish I'd gone in shorts.

Hey guys.I am wondering what is the funest thing you ever did.
and what was the most daring thing you ever did.
I have to go now good bye

Today Matt and I made the second cookie recipe we've got. Actually we got the first one (for chocolate chip cookies) off the internet, and it came out beautifully. When we get enough recipes that we've tested and came out well, we will start the Cookie Making Madness blog that Matt wants. He asks me every day if I can create it for him. When we make it, we will have stuff on the sidebar like

Sweet cookies

Chocolate chip
Marshmallow

Chewy Cookies

Chocolate chip

Crunchy cookies

Ginger Snaps

Chocolate Cookies

Chocolate Chip

Healthy cookies

(All recipes:)

This morning Matt woke me up because he wanted to make chocolate marshmallow cookies. So we did. They are no bake cookies, and the preliminary tastes I took seemed very very sweet, and fruity too, because we used colored marshmallows (blech). So they will probably be under Fruity cookies, and Chocolate Cookies, Too Sweet Cookies, and No Bake Cookies

Whistly Challenged

I can't whistle. It must have something to do with my teeth. I don't know. I can make breezy sounds, but I can't get the tunes. I hum instead. I am not a very good hummer either, although i would love to ride in a hummer. Haha. I wonder if playing the piano is like typing. Look at the instructions and start tappin away. I mean I like typing but is learning the piano like learning French or learning soccer? I have learned soccer. I love soccer as a sport. It isn't a very fair game. You can't yourself get the ball up the field without somebody taking it away from you. You feel like you let somebody down , but you didn't, because the person you got the ball from you will experience the same thing very soon, sooner than you did, so with the help of you, you have gotten the ball a ways up the field and the whole thing starts over again. Then there is shooting goals on yourself by mistake. For about thirty seconds after shooting an own goal everybody on your team gets really mad at you and you feel like you want to melt into a puddle, but after a couple of seconds, it doesn't matter, they all say it's okay. And you have to look on the bright side, you got the ball halfway up the field. I won bronze once. We were winning 2-1 and I scored an own goal. So the score was 2 all. Then Malcolm shoots the ball from 2 thirds up the field and scores a goal. So we won bronze with a score of 3-1. Then there was the year where we went the whole year undefeated except with a team of overage players, that won 1-nil. One parent said if we went the whole year undefeated, he would take the whole team out to pizza hut. We lost one game against a team called, "the athletics", 1-nil. But he knew that they were overage, so he took us all to mcdonalds (this was before supersize me). We won the last game where i scored the last goal. It's funny, I scored the first goal our team ever scored and the last in the non-competitive league. Cool.

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My great-gramma died last night. She was 97. She still lived at home, and she still drove. When we had her come to visit a few years ago she told me all about the spanish flu epidemic in 1918. She is the second great-grandmother of mine to die in the last 2 months. Now I only have 1 great-grandmother left.

I can't wait for the Christmas season to start. I actually hate Christmas mostly. The busy grocery store, everybody saying 'merry Christmas' instead of goodbye on the phone, and people trying to sell you stuff. And also, creating the 'magic' usually results in Mom being in a bad mood. But I can't wait, because with Christmas comes Noel Nog!! Or as Mom and I call it, Sog Nog. Hahahaha, it actually tastes pretty good, and I love the stuff. Mom and I will drink about 1.5 cartons a day between us.
Recently Mom has shifted her loyalties to Chocolate Almond milk - so I don't know how much she will be drinking this year, but - though chocolate almond milk is good - sog nog is so much better. And more nutritious too.

Tuesday

I've always liked Tuesdays

Sundays: I spend a whole morning in a church.

Mondays: You know very well why i hate them!

Tuesdays: Just right

Wednesday: Very center of the week. I always feel bored on Wednesdays.

Thursdays: If you ask me, Thursday wants to be like Tuesday and it drives me nuts!

Fridays: I always feel yucky on Fridays

Saturdays: I feel like a couch potato on Saturdays, although it is my second favorite

When I was younger, mom told me to do some research on snakes. I looked at the papers just now and i need you to see it.

Dan’s report on Australia’s Snakes
Western Taipan

Venom: Neurotoxic

Location: Western Qld

Length: To 2m

Prey: Long haired rat, and House mouse

Status: Common on ashy downs

Breeding: The hatchlings are about 40cm

Coastal Taipan

Venom: neurotoxic

Location: western Australia, and in the Northern territory

Length: 2.9m

Prey: small rodents

Status: common in some areas

Breeding: The hatchlings are about 31cm

Tiger snake

Venom: Haemotoxic and Neurotoxic

Location: Southeastern Qld.

Length: To 1.5m

Prey: Frogs, reptiles, birds, and mammals

Status: Common in patchy places

Breeding: The hatchlings are about 19cm

Eastern brown snake

Venom: Neurotoxic and Heamotoxic

Location: Most of Qld

Length: To 2m

Prey: Frogs, reptiles, birds, and mammals

Status: Common

Breeding: The hatchlings are 19cm long

Mulga Snake

Venom: Haemotoxic

Location: Almost all of Australia

Length: To 3m

Prey: Reptiles, reptile eggs, mammals, frogs, and birds

Status: Found near coastal areas

Breeding: The hatchlings are about 25cm

Papuan black snake

Venom: Neurotoxic and Haemotoxic

Location: Southern Papua New Guinea

Length: To 2m

Prey: Frogs, small mammals and lizards

Status: uncommon

Breeding: egg-layer

Common Death Adder

Venom: Neourotoxic

Location: Eastern Australia

Length: To 75cm

Prey: Frogs, Cane toads, small reptiles, birds and mammals

Status: Rare

Breeding: The hatchlings are about 12cm

Northern Death Adder

Venom: Neurotoxic

Location: Northern Australia

Length: To 60cm

Prey: Frogs, Cane toads, small reptiles, birds and mammals

Status: Common locally; believed to be declining

Breeding: The hatchlings are 12-13cm

Hawke’s Death Adder

Venom: Haemotoxic, and maybe Neurotoxic

Location: Northern Territory and Qld

Length: To 75cm

Prey: Same things of other Death Adders

Status: Poorly-known species

Breeding: The hatchlings snout vent is about 19-21cm

Desert Death Adder

Venom: Neurotoxic and maybe Haemotoxic

Location: Almost all over Qld exept Victoria

Length: To 75cm

Prey: Lizards, Especially dragons

Status: Commom

Breeding: Live-bearer (10-13 young)

Western brown snake

Venom: Neurotoxic and Haemotoxic

Location: Most of Mainland Australia.

Length: To 1.5m

Prey: Reptiles and Mammals

Status: Common

Breeding: Egg-layer (11-14)

Collett’s Black Snake

Venom: Myotoxic and Cardiotoxic

Location: Central Western Qld

Length: To 1.5m

Prey: Mammals and Frogs

Status: Probably Common

Breeding: Egg-layer (7-13)

Red-bellied black snake

Venom: Haemotoxic and Cytotoxic

Location: Big Tableland to Mt Elliot

Length: To 2m

Prey: Fish frogs Cane toads other snakes and differint reptiles, and small mammals

Status: Common

Breeding: Live bearer (5-18)

Blue-bellied Black Snake

Venom: Neurotoxic, Haemotoxic and Cytotoxic

Location: Southeastern Qld

Length: To 1.5m
Prey: Frogs, Lizards, Snakes and small mammals

Status: Common

Breeding: Egg-layer (7-13)

Small-eyed Snake

Venom: Myotoxic

Location: Eastern Australia

Length: To 1.0m

Prey: Small Skinks, Dragons, Snakes and sometimes Frogs

Status: Common

Breeding: Live-Bearer (2-4)

Rough-Scaled Snake

Venom: Neurotoxic

Location: Northeastern Qld

Length: To 1.0m

Prey: Frogs, Lizards, Small Snakes and Birds

Status: Common

Breeding: Live-Bearer (6-12)

Speckled Brown Snake

Venom: Maybe Neurotoxic

Location: Central Qld and Eastern NT
Length: To 0.8m

Prey: Frogs, Reptiles and small Mammals.

Status: Common

Breeding: Egg-Layer (Up to 6)

Papuan Whip Snake

Venom: Probably neurotoxic

Location: Far Northeastern WA

Length: To 1.5m

Prey: Probably frogs and skinks

Status: Common

Breeding: egg-layer (up to 20)

Stephens’ Banded Snake

Venom: Strongly coagulant

Location: Southeastern Qld

Length: To 75cm

Prey: Frogs reptiles and mammals

Status: Rare or insufficiently known

Breeding: Live-bearer (up to 6)

Pale-headed Snake

Venom: Poorly known haemotoxic
Location: Central eastern Australia

Length: To 0.75cm

Prey: Frogs Reptiles and mammals

Status: Common

Breeding: Live-bearer (5-10)

Thank you for reading the report!!!
If you want to know more about Australian animals go to http://www.qmuseum.qld.gov.au/

Cookie Making Madness

This is Matt. I am going to make a new blog where the title is "Cookie Making Madness". I have decided to be a Madly wonderful cookie maker. But I need your help. What is your favourite recipe for cookies? And what are your tips so that the cookies don't get burned. (They always get burned at our house). You can post your best recipes in our guestbook. If we get too many recipes we'll have to take some & write them down & put them in our recipe box. So get sending .... Matt

Hey guys my head hurts oh well. I am reading kirsten books I like them. I have a bad cold.
in ways I like home schooling and in ways I
dont
go to go
sarah

Mythbusters

Mom spent a lot of money on getting the first season of the mythbusters. We watched one on Saturday. Where it had 3 myths. Barrel of Bricks, Peeing on the third rail, and something about bad credit cards and electric eels.

Barrel of Bricks: This myth was of a man who was holding on a rope attached to a pulley that was attached to a barrel of bricks. The barrel of bricks fell down and pulled the man up. Then as the barrel hit the ground it broke and the bricks spilled out, and the man came down and the empty barrel went up. Then as the man hit the ground he let go of the rope and the barrel fell on top of him. So the mythbusters did this with the dummy and, man it was so funny. It worked perfectly. So the narrator said. If once was funny, than twice was just hilarious. So the did it again. And they broke the dummy. They ruined him.

Peeing on the third rail: They made another dummy but this one was a skeleton. They thought that if you peed on the third rail of the track, The electrifyed one the electricity would climb up the the pee and electrocute you. so they made a dummy with a small exit. But when the pee hit the rail it was in drops. So Adam said showing the small tube: "This is what we used, this is what we are going to use", and he brought up a quite larger tube and they had the sound of a horse neighing. It was so funny. They brought the electrified piece of rail closer to the dummy and put the dummy's hands on the rail. It worked. The dummy was thrown off balance. So then they turned it off and adam put his hands on the rail and said: "oh i think i'm gonna pee". We just were howling with laughter. I laughed harder because i thought he said puke. Don't pee on the third rail. But DO NOT puke on the third rail. Hahaha.

The other one was quite boring.

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Yesterday we went to a different church than usual so Dad could speak. While I was there, Mom met one of her homeschooling friends - I didn't meet her kids, but the oldest is the same age as me and is doing 2 levels higher school than I am. We're doing the same reading materials, but she's doing 2 levels up in math and science. I don't know what else she's doing. Her Mom plans to send her to University when she's 16, and then she will (hopefully) get into med school when she's 20.

I've never heard of a 20 year old getting into med school, but good luck anyway.

Actually, I'm jealous. I don't want to start University when I'm 16, and I DON'T want to go to medical school. But it does make me feel dumb. Why can't I do the hard math? Why is it that I suck at science?

I'll graduate when I'm 17. I blog almost every day. I want to be a journalist. (It would be fun to write articles for The National Enquirer, but I think I'll be a little more serious than that). My writing has to improve I guess. But I still won't have done all the school that this girl has done. And it makes me jealous.

I guess I have to come to terms with the fact that there will always be people smarter than me. I just have to bite my tongue, and be happy that they are there to tell me when I'm wrong.

“I recommended to Stephen [Harper] once that to rise in his polls he should take a little Viagra, but the pill got stuck in his throat and all he got was a stiff neck” Liberal MP Belinda Stronach told comedian Cathy Jones of the CBC’s This Hour has 22 Minutes for a segment to be aired Friday night


Photo from The Globe And Mail

Lets see....

When you are a politician, your purpose is to try and make everybody happy (within reason). When people are rude and snarky to you, you bite your lip OR you come up with something witty subtle and viagraless that will make your people laugh and think about how witty and smart and capable of running their country you are. When people are not rude and snarky, you don't insult them.

I'm not a big fan of Stephen Harper, but I don't encourage dumb insults. It's like the 'my dad is stronger than your dad, and my dog is smarter than your dog' in the school yard.

Possibly she's given up all hope of getting voted back into her riding so she decided to retire or her ample income and try and make people laugh. Ha. Ha.

I'll be laughing when she quits politics.

Why did the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour?

Sarah asked me this morning, "Why did the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour?". I took a breath. I don't know! In retrospect it seems like a pretty stupid move. Did they want a large, powerful nation to declare war on their small nation? (This isn't meant to be disrespectful ~ I do love sushi) If anyone knows, please pass this on.

Curbside Consult Needed

Sarah has been complaining about pains in her bones - mostly her left hip. Ron diagnosed her with arthritis and said she must not do any exercise. This drove me to take her to the doctor for a second opinion. I suggested that Sarah make a chart of the pain. She made a great chart on yellow construction paper. Sarah had noticed the pain was worse on rainy days. So the chart showed, using pictures, what the weather was like. Then each picture had a full-body picture of Sarah with different looks on her face, depending on the pain level that day. She also drew a large arrow, pointing to the site of the pain. I thought this was quite brilliant. Our doctor isn't really sure what is wrong ... she didn't think it was arthritis, she considered Crohn's disease but there was no gastro-intestinal upset. She sent us to the hospital for many blood tests. But she hasn't called back so I assume there is nothing wrong. And the funny thing is Sarah has not had any more pain since that day. Could it be growing pains?

Bedtime Bedlam

Right after supper every night Sam comes over to my chair and says, "Mom, will you put me to bed?" Ron always argues that it is his turn to put Sam to bed. But Sam always says, "No. Mom gets to do it 5 times and then it is your turn." Ron asked him why he likes mom's bedtime routine better than dad's. Sam said, "Mom reads me more stories. You read me 2 stories. She reads me 5." So Ron won out last night & was snuggling with Sam. As Ron touched Sam's big cheeks he said, "Sam you have the softest skin." Sam touched his cheeks and said, "hey you are right I do have soft skin."

We don't eat at McDonald's

Ron's boss Roger was over. Dan says, "Roger, what is your favourite flavour of ice cream?" Roger said, "Hmm ... I'd have to say those twist ice creams at McDonald's. As a matter of fact that is giving me a craving. Tell you what. I'll take you to McDonald's and treat you to one." Dan turns to him, completely serious and says, "we won't eat anything from McDonald's". They saw the movie "Supersize me" & it just totally turned them off McDonald's. But you have got to wonder what is wrong with these kids. Shouldn't kids throw down their principles when someone offers them to treat them to McDonald's? But a compromise was reached. We drove Roger to our local ice cream stand & he treated them to hard ice cream instead.

A terrible day

It is a bad day. It is pouring like never before. And it makes me feel gloomy. Although it is the last school day for three days so I really want to get through it. Hmmm. I'm still quite bored. I can't wait until tomorrow when I can sit back and fell nothing but relaxation. Huhhh. I just heard a helicopter go by. I can actually hear it going around my head. Ok ok it's our new speaker system. It's surround sound and we had a program that makes all the cool sounds and there is one where it sounds like a helicopter is buzzing around the room. It's neat.

I can't wait until tomorrow. Blah.

I hope it's sunny where you are. I have a bad headache. I have recently made 7 new imaginary figures and enemies. Their names are Nicest Nicer Nice Bored Mean Meaner and Meanest. When I say "this day is number one!'' It means that Nicest is doin his work. Right now, I'm being attacked by Meaner. Yawn

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I'm a brat

{I was looking through my old (9 yo) journals today, and came across this. I remember Mom making me do this when I was angry.}

Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.

WHAT are the most important things in the world to me?

HOW would I feel if I was Danny?

WHAT would Jesus do?

HOW can things/the situation be made better?

{the above part is in my Mom's handwriting}
{the rest is in my handwriting}

Q. Who?
A. Dan and Sarah

Q. What?
A. My stuff

Q. When?
A. in the hospital and now {I think the kids had gotten into my stuff during the week and a half I was there}

Q. Where
A. Home

Q. Why?
A. Because they do not like to respect me

Q#1 {What are the most important things to me}

Love and respect

Q#2 {How would I feel if I was Danny}

Like I'd said something wrong

Q#3 {What would Jesus do?}

I don't know because he did go through the temple in a rage

Q#4 {How can things/the situation be made better}

If I give Dan and Sarah an piece of my mind!

{I meant it too}

Hairdresser Heaven

Yesterday at the hair salon I felt like I had finally come home. Limp hair is in! Straight hair is in! Hurrah ... finally people have seen the light. After the hairdresser finished cutting she said, "would you like me to blow it flat for you?" Huh? I don't really need any HELP getting my hair to go flat. For years I've been using "volumizer" mousse & drying my hair so it will have volume.

Now Melanie & I were discussing an interesting female phenomenon. It is very difficult to change hairdressers within a salon. Here is the issue: hairdresser flirting or two-timing is never allowed. If your hairdresser is completely booked up you can't go to another hairdresser because your hairdresser will see that & get ticked. (She won't make the connection that she is booked). If you happen to ONE TIME go on a day your hairdresser isn't there & you like the cut the new hairdresser gave you, you CAN'T go back to the new hairdresser unless you can figure out when your old hairdresser has her day off so she doesn't see you. So your only option is to go to a completely new salon & hope that you never EVER run into your old hairdresser. I tried to explain this to Ron but he just didn't get it. It is one of those "women rules" you just don't mess with.

Party Time

I have just made a phone call to Caro - her husband & Ron have a late night meeting tonight. So I've invited her to a last-minute dinner party. So that is my 5 kids, her 3 kids & maybe Randall - a university student that lives with them. Caro's boys ADORE Danny.

Sleepless in Seattle

Last night Ron couldn't sleep. He said to me, "I can't fall asleep". I said, "yeah, me too" - and then I went to the bathroom. Ron told me that I had been snoring just before he made his "I can't sleep statement". This made me giggle. I am SO insensitive - waking up out of a deep sleep to tell a sleepless person that I can't sleep either.

Leaf raking, and a policitically incorrect sentence about the First Nations of Canada

Had a nightmare that woke me up early. Am very tired.

Earlier in the week, Matt had asked Mom if he could rake the leaves. He set his own price - $1.00 a bag. The bags looked quite full when we first looked at all of them, but after sitting on our curb for a few days, lets just say, there was extra bag there that could be filled. Anyway, the garbagemen weren't picking them up (and whose to blame them...garbage day hadn't past yet) and so Sarah, Matt, Dan, and Sam ripped open all the bags and dumped the leaves into a big pile on our lawn to jump in. As well as creating a mess, there was a little wind, and so it blew some leaves onto our cranky neighbours lawn. So Dad got really mad at Matt (because he had ripped open the most bags) and told him to deduct $7.00 from his account - the amount he had made. Unfortunately, Matt had already spent the money. So Matt had to rake all the leaves back up again.

I was outside when he started watching Sam bike, and so I helped him out. I would rake the leaves into smaller and smaller piles, and he would stuff the leaves in the bag, and drag the bag around. The bag was considerably heavy. So we came up with an idea to fit all the leaves into ONE bag. This bag was bigger than the original 7 - maybe twice as big.

While I was raking, I spotted a feather. I raked it towards me, and held it out to Matt. Matt was wearing a baseball cap, and so I said "Matt, I now pronounce you 'wears one feather in his cap'." I put it in the back part of his cap. When I stood back to admire the effect, he took it out of his cap. 'Don't do that" I said "it makes you look like an indian" said he "No Kate, this bird might have had avian flu."

Aah, where have the days gone where you could pick up a feather and not be scared of impending disease? Stick it in your coat lapel, or your hat. Oh well, until bird flu - of the transmitable from human to human kind - appears in Canada, I will not be afraid of wearing a feather in my cap.

Hmmmm.

I feel wierd. It's like I don't know why I'm here. I feel like Why did I have to be Me?! Why couldn't I be something else??? I have something to say. Supposing there isn't a heaven. I will die and then my soul will become renued and that soul will enter the shape of another body that has just been born and life starts over again except you've forgotten everything from your past life. Life just starts over. But that's just something. If there were a heaven then that wouldn't be true. Anyway. Oh Man I am tired. It is freezing down here and Sammy is down here playing with me. I just hope that nobody gets hurt. If Sammy screams my head is going to explode. I have a terrible Headache

It is a typical chilly fall day. Matt was so nice as to dump out all the bags with leaves on the front lawn. He had to rake them all up in the end. Even though autumn is my favorite season I think that it can be pretty depressing sometimes. Hmmm

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Hmmmm.

Hey guys. I have a bad sour throat wich is preventing me from talking to much
I am glad that blogs are for writing not talking.
Got to go good bye

Mom, Sarah, and I went to the hairdressing school today to get our hair cut. Only 11.50, and then they give you a 'discount card' which makes it only 10.00. And most of the hairdressers there are going to work at the head shoppe (swanky salon that charges $40.00 per haircut). I got my hair cut, and they said it would look really good flat ironed. So I got it flat ironed too. It didn't look good flat ironed, but Oh well.

Actually I have a funny story about the flat ironing.
Sarah was sitting in the chair next to me getting her hair cut too. And so as I am giving them the ok to start flat-ironing my hair I look over at the person next to me and think "Oh, Sarah must be done, because this girl is blonde and has straight hair". And then I looked closer, and discovered that it actually was Sarah. So I am watching her while my hairdresser starts flat-ironing my hair, and Sarah's hair is getting flat ironed too. While she is flat ironing the first bit of my hair, there is a puff of smoke around Sarah's head!!! Ahahaha, I didn't feel so great about flat ironing the rest of it after that. But I did it anyway. Sarahs hair looks great, really long, and it brought out the blonde ends she has that usually curl under, mine looks a bit fried. More in frizzy straight kind of way - not anything that a little conditioner can't fix, and I like the bangs and the layers I got put in.

So....

I set my clock for 6:15. I don't know why I did it but I really want to get through the day quickly because some super-awesome things are going to happen today, some of which are top secret. Yesterday was a bad day. I got all my school done with 10 minutes to spare but i was really tired and now I am really really tired. Dad had a long talk with a guest that was over for a bible study last night and the chatted and chatted until like 10:45. I couldn't get to sleep. But i did in the end.

Now I feel very tired. Yawn

We just had an artistcome to our house and so we told him to draw a pig with wings. He drew it with ease. It looked amazing. Then we asked him to draw a toilet. Amazing and finally we told him to draw a chicken in a divers suit. He did and I think we should change the logo because the other one had a copyright.

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Hey guys I DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO SAY well um we have a bible study to night. Me mom and Dan did are bible study sorry my blog was not looooong
got to go bye

I had a wierd dream last night

I was in a chamber made of lead and i would be brought food every two hours and then i would have compressed air pushed into the tank so i could breath it. Then they set me free but i got blind because the sun got very brighter while i was locked away. Then i found a candle and burned off a dog's hair. Then i woke up

Chamber = A compression chamber from Myth Busters

Lead = Studying the table of elements with Dad

Two = 2 pages of math done

Compressed Air: From a documentry I saw on bridges

Blind = We had a blind student come to our house

Candle = From a book called Olivia and the missing toy

Dog = From going to the frogpond and finding a friendly pup who loved to jump up on people

Dogs: I love dogs I played with a dog at the frog pond and he jumped up on me. I could almost swear he was giving me a hug. He also licked my nose. He was a large puppy. I love pups

Cats are cool too.

I like cats.

Got 2 go

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Go ahead, flag me

So I just found out that Google wants to have every piece of information out there available on their search engine.
You can apply to have information removed. At the request of the Chinese Government, Google has severly restricted content from China (I'm assuming only patriotic people are allowed to have blogs in China). But there are confidential Womens Abuse Shelter addresses on the internet (don't ask me how they got there, but I googled them and there they were). Google was asked to remove them, and didn't. Other search engines did. So what's up here?

Also, Google wants to start digitizing books, in another effort to get EVERY DARN PIECE OF INFORMATION IN THE WORLD!!!! Sounds like a world domination scheme to me. There is currently a lawsuit going on about authors and publishers not wanting their books on Google. Fair enough - it's like Napster. If I was Google, I wouldn't bother people. I would only digitize books that a) I have permission to digitize, and b) Only books that you would need for research (older books - without copyrights - classics, and books such as "The Origin of Species" would fall into this category). 'Cause apparently that's their whole objective. Anyway, if I was an author, I would want compensation if my book was digitized. You'd think they would do a scheme like this through all the legal channels but NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo, they have to do it so as to attract a lawsuit. Sheesh.

It's all a MYTH!!

We received the first season of Myth Busters in the mail today and watched two episodes with the kids. If you have not seen one it is about two guys who test well known myths to see if they are true (for instance whether your cell phone can start a fire while you are filling up your car with gas - which by the way is not possible, but if you get in your car while filling up and then touch close enough to the nozzle you put yourself at great risk because you collect static in the car which can make the gas go boom).

Anyhow, as I was watching the two guys I felt a sense of sadness that I could not be in their shop with them. They had motors, flammable liquids, toxic substances, rifles, pressure tanks, bullet proof chambers and other cool stuff. It just seemed like a lot of fun.

I think I am going to bust a myth myself with the kids. Any myths out there that you've wondered about? Let us know and we will see what we can do. The more dangerous the better.

Here are some myths that we have already busted ... Accidentally:

1) If you leave a 2 year old boy with and 8 year old boy, the 8 year old will throw the 2 year old down the stairs ... for fun.

2) A three year old can learn to make themself breakfast but they cannot be taught to clean up.

3) You CAN forget how to ride a bike. If you learn early enough and then take a break over winter you will need to re-learn come summer.

4) Boy's disposition to playing with trucks, guns and explosives is as innate as girl's disposition to playing with dolls, crafts and clothes.

There are probably more, but these come to mind. Send us myths to bust or confirm. We will do our best.

Today we are having a bunch of people over for supper. I don't know about other people, but I always seem to eat a lot more than I should when we have people over. Maybe it's the ginormous amounts of food that are prepared, or the fact that I can drink juice (a when-guests-are-over-only treat) and I drink too much. Because I don't actually seem to eat any more food than normal.

In other news, I think I'm claustrophobic. Not VERY claustrophobic, but when I am in a room with a lot of people in it, I get pretty uncomfortable. I don't really have a problem with elevators, because you only have to stay in there for about 45 seconds, but if I have to stay in an overcrowded room for more than a few minutes then I don't enjoy it.

Today is our last day of homeschooling!!! A whole weekend to do whatever I want!!! Whooooooooohoooo!

Ok, so I have writers block again. When something interesting happens I promise to blog about it.

Probability

12 Typewriters 12 Monkeys and 1 room.

each Monkey gets one typewriter and told to start tappin away. Supposing that monkeys lived forever then how many years would it take before one monkey spelled out monkeybusiness on the typewriter. I will wait for an answer.

You may have to think a lot for the answer.

Some ways that scientists figure out answers:

Scientist: I have decided that 0! (or zero factorial) equals 1

Other Scientist: Why?

Sceintist: JUST BECAUSE IT DOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Other Scientist: Uhhh Fine By Me!!!!!

Although Isaac Newton once said:

"No great discovery is ever made without a bold guess"

I think some scientists like the zero factorial guy takes that phrase a bit too literally. Not most of them mind you. There are lots of extremely smart and neat scientists out there.

I just came back from saving it as a draft, so i just need to get into the zone.

We just had a hilarious conversation with a postman. It went something like this:

Postman: Sign here

Postman: Now hold onto that pen Marsha cause this ain't over yet

He spoke with an American accent. After we closed the door We all burst into uncontrollable laughter. I was wondering what was in the box. I asked if it was a computer . She said no and proved it by dropping it on the floor and stepping on it. There is always a way to prove something.

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ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

I just looked at the globe and mail, and I found out that Air Canada isn't going to give free meals anymore. Not that I care at all - airplane meals are supposedly so unhealthy that you should make 3 per year your ABSOLUTE limit. And Air Canada has just continued to cut back and cut back and cut back, so what did we expect?

Last night I watched Herbie: Fully loaded. I had sworn to myself that I wouldn't watch it - but who can pass up a movie when you have it? Ok, so it was BAD!!! Bad acting mostly - and a very unrealistic plot. Granted, I haven't seen the other Herbie movies - so maybe I am missing something here, but this was a juvenile romance - not really about Herbie at all, mostly about Lindsay (the actor) and her boyfriend.

Writers block today - if I think of anything later to write about I'll make sure I blog.

Katelyn works at the Centre for Clinical Research

Katelyn worked in a lab today at Dalhousie University. It was one of those "take your kid to work things" but she has "been there, done that" with Ron. So I asked our friend Donalda if she could set up an experience for Katelyn. So Katelyn volunteered in a "clinical research" lab today. This is a whole fascinating world you may not know about. There is an entire community of people at Dalhousie who do research on diseases, develop drugs, do experimental drug trials, etc. We asked Katelyn what she did today but she said, "I signed a confidentiality agreement so I can't talk about it". I asked her if she talked about it if she would have to kill us later. She didn't answer. Hence, this may be my last blog. As Scooby-Doo says, "Be afwaid, very very afwaid". If you ask her, she might spill some of the "non-confidential" information tomorrow.

Hallowe'en Horrors

So I have to admit that I HATE Hallowe'en. But not for any Christian reason. I actually think that it is a good idea IN THEORY. It is a nice opportunity for community togetherness. Neighbours can visit, admire the costumes, etc. And that did happen for us. We went to "Trick or Treat" at our friend Donalda's house. We actually brought a treat to give to Donalda's husband, Jim. The kids hand-decorated 15 golf balls for Jim the golf enthusiast. We had a nice time there. Dan was dressed up as a geek. He was wearing dress pants, a dress shirt, an ugly tie, geek glasses held together with masking tape & his new retainer. Jim said he actually thought Dan looked nice & that he would fit right in at his office. Then a neighbour of Jim's saw Dan outside & asked if Dan had just raided Jim's closet. Much laughter, much fun. Back in our neighborhood the street is teaming with children. There are about 20 children that live on our street. There were 180 trick or treaters on our street. People come from all over to our neighborhood because the houses are tightly packed together & so you can get a good haul. In the Maritimes people take Hallowe'en very seriously. This actually bothered me a bit when we first moved here on Hallowe'en night 8 years ago. But now I've gotten used to gravestones on people's lawns that say "RIP" on them. I don't mind that one of our neighbours sets up her entire house as a "haunted house" & invites all the kids inside. She is a good neighbour, gives great treats & around 8 pm does a fireworks display in the park behind her house. But the life-sized goulish looking guy with a noose around his neck was too much for me. And the 2 guys dressed up as characters from Friday the 13th, with another guy popping up from a casket put me over the edge. I hussled Sam past this. He has enough trouble with the green/grey/purple imaginary monsters of his dreams.
And if these horrors are not enough there is the candy craziness. Poor Sammy just can't handle it. And they leave chip crumbs in my bedsheets, candy wrappers on the floor, discarded lollipops in corners, etc. I told the kids tonight, "all candy will be terminated on Friday morning". Call me a bad sport. I don't care. Three days of all you can eat candy & throwing the wrappers anywhere is quite enough for me. Please note that not ALL children have been "offenders". I think the older kids are trying to use garbage cans. And Matt ate some candy but handed the rest over to Dan today. He says he doesn't want to get fat.
This all sounds very negative. Let me say the weather has been beautiful here - very autumnish. I am incredibly thankful because I thought that we weren't going to have much of a fall. But the colours on the trees have been glorious. The fall sunlight is amazing. We've been going to this nature park called the "Frog Pond" & I just keep praising God for the glory of it all. Every time you turn the corner there is another breath-taking view.

Block play saves Sam from certain death in Coal Mine

I was 'doing school' with Matt & Sarah. Sarah sat on one side of me doing Math. Matt sat on the other side doing "Explode the Code" - a phonics reading program. Sam was playing on the floor at our feet. Matt was goofing around & I admit it. I got frustrated. I said, "you know what used to happen in the old days when kids didn't pay attention? Their parents would say, "if you aren't interested in book learning, you can go work in the coal mine". This had absolutely no impact on Matt. So I went on: "They would go to work before dawn, stay in the dark coal mines all day & then come back up the shaft after dark." Still no impact on Matt. But Sam's eyes were now big and round. He started asking all kinds of questions. When did they get to see their mommy? What kinds of jobs did they do in the coal mines? Then, in a great sombre sentence, "I better do a good job of playing with my blocks so I don't have to go work in the coal mines". I thought it was cute. Fast forward to the middle of the night. Shuffle, shuffle of little feet. Sam says:"Mom I'm scared of the coal mines". I mumble, "kids don't have to work in the coal mines anymore." Sam says "I'm still scared". I say, "there aren't any coal mines anymore. They shut them all down". Sam says, "Can I sleep with you?" I make him a bed on the floor at the bottom of our bed. But of course, as any parent reading this knows, at some point he sneaks up to sleep beside me.

My own ideas about national unity

I understand how hard it must be to be the leader of the most powerful country in the world.
I don't agree with his decision to go to war, but I understand that he is in a position of leadership, a lot of pressure was on him, and nomatter what he does some people are not going to support it.

I just couldn't resist though:


Their motto is "Wipe your tush with Bush"
Currently going on ebay for about $5.50 - search 'toilet paper bush'

Normally I would have found this only moderately funny. But now I think it is hilarious. How about - instead of promoting national unity by wasting millions of taxpayers dollars, you just make toilet paper like this.

Jean Chretien toilet paper?
Belinda Stronach toilet paper?
Chuck Guite toilet paper?

Maybe Jean Chretien would like some Justice John Gomery toilet paper.

It's sort of like revenge - to make us feel better even after our politicians turned out to be corrupt (or enough of them to make a difference - I'll try to be fair, we have some great public servants out there).

What a long weekend.

Here's how it works. I finished my bible verses so mum awarded me a day off. I picked Monday because it was Halloween. But it turned out that we were already taking Monday off anyway so I picked Tuesday instead. If we get all our work done for the week we get to take Friday off. The result? Friday Saturday Sunday Monday and Tuesday off. Then Wednesday and Thursday you have to work and then you get 3 days off again. WOO HOO!! I feel so well educated. Halloween was fun too. We decorated a bunch of golf balls and gave them to a friend of ours who loves golf. We don't really know that he's crazy about it but we assumed it because he flew all the way to Georgia just to watch a golf tournament. That sure means something.

I went running yesterday and now my legs are itching like crazy. And they are sore. AND I have to run today too.

Better get my French done.

Au Revior!!

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Happy Gomery Day!!! or I'm not voting age yet, so I just blog to convince people

Today the Canadian public gets to be enlightened about 'the corrupt ones' in their government.
We finally get Judge Gomery's report about who was in charge of the ad-scam. Millions of taxpayers dollars down the drain, all in the interests of promoting unity in Quebec, when in the end, it actually was more divisive.

But guess what?! Paul Martin got a preliminary look at it! It was so that he could consult with this advisors! WHAT?! You give him an extra 12 hours to think up a story to explain all this?

The Globe and Mail states that it doesn't red flag Paul Martin, but it does put the red flag on Jean Chretien, Chuck Guite, Alfonso Gagliano, Jacques Corriveau, and Jean Pellietier.

So Paul Martin is clean (or so they say).

No matter what they say, I'm still mad at him for accepting Belinda Stronach into his cabinet and then saying "oh no, it doesn't have anything to trying to keep my minority government standing".
I don't really care what makes you corrupt, but if you are, I'm going to try and convince as many people as I can Not to vote for you.
Of course, we'd be lying to ourselves if we just said that The Conservative Party isn't corrupt. I'm fairly sure that NO political party in the world does not have its corruption problems. But Man oh man, these Liberal guys need to be taught a lesson.

Newmarketers - start by taking that ditz Belinda Stronach off our hands by not voting for her.

(Was I being sexist there? The first interview I heard with her {when she was running for the leadership of the Conservative Party} The interviewer asked her what the difference between her and Paul Martin was. She giggled girlishly, and then said "What, you mean besides looking better in a cocktail dress?" Um no, Belinda, we meant what benificial things are you going to do in the lives of Canadians that should convince us to vote for you instead of Paul Martin should you become the leader of the Conservative Party. Thank God she didn't make it.)

Off to listen to the cabinet meeting on the CBC! (another post)