hairbrained schemes

A Most Untimely Demise.

Catty has left the building.

I was so proud of my boys and their nuturing natures.  Little Catty had attached himself to the side of his "habitat" (box) and started to cocoon.

That's when things started to go badly.

First of all, Lucas flicked him off the side of the box (he claims he thought Catty was dead). 

Then Jason told the boys to get rid of the body (well, to put the box and contents outside).

Then Jacob, in all his exuberance to carry out his father's wishes (ahem) ran over and stepped on Catty. 

And there you have it.

RIP Catty 2006-2006

I'm sorry you got mixed up with this family.

A Good Day.

Yesterday was a good day.

After my good friend bailed on me (just kidding, Dawn).  I called one of my other good friends and made plans to pick her up, hit the Farmer's Market, drink lots of strong coffee and generally just be away from my family for a few hours.

At the market, we noticed a new booth.  She has a really professional looking set up (especially by Farmer's Market standards).  And her jewelry is GORGEOUS.

Her website is here:  2 Dandy Designs but you have to see it in person. 

Seriously. 

And really, the website doesn't do her stuff justice. 

                                        Anyway, here's what I spoiled myself with

                                                             Cool huh? 

So I can now add that to my list of reasons to go to the market.

• food
• coffee
• jewelry
• getting away from my family for a few hours

Then last night we lined up a babysitter and took ourselves out for dinner.  We tried a little restaurant in Peachland on the water called The Blind Angler. 

Perry and Shannon picked us up in Perry's new demo truck. 

Good lord.

The backseat (south wing) of this beast was seriously as big as the bedroom of our first house. 

Jason, of course, was sold when he saw the GPS system.  Giddy like a schoolgirl.

Mom, you better hope dad doesn't get wind of this bad boy, because he'll be truck shopping (again).

Dinner was great.  Lots of laughs and good food (and no kids).

The Mazzei's came back to our place for a movie.  We watched Fight Club.  I forgot how seriously twisted that film is. 

And because it was pre-Angelina, I let myself thoroughly enjoy a shirtless Brad Pitt. 

I'm off to work in a bit, can't wait to finish up a couple of projects I started there (three months ago) and fondle the new stock.

I covered this little wooden box from Jysk ($2.99) the other day. I love that Chatterbox paper. 

Colour Me Happy.

It really is the little things in life.

Yesterday I picked up something I've been coveting for 2 years now. 

Look at all that paint chip goodness. 

The Benjamin Moore Colour Swatch Set is finally mine. 

I used the fact that we are going to be building a new house as my reason for spending $25 on paint chips.  I'm sure I'll save at least that much in gas and time (my time is worth something, no?).

So financially it really is a sound investment.

Also, check this link out:

Pottery Barn Colours 

The only downer is, that because the American and Canadian Benjamin Moore colours are slightly different, I couldn't find every single colour in my swatchbook.

But I still love it.

On the swimming front.

Today is our last day of lessons.

Yesterday, I actually had to pull Lucas out of his class and give him a time out. 

He pushed a little girl into the water. 

Nice. 

Later on (sobbing) he told me that she said she was stronger than him.  Obviously he felt totally justified.  I told him he may have to sit out and watch today. 

We'll see.

Oh and why can't I get good pictures at the swimming pool?  It drives me crazy. 

 

Those are the only two pictures that turned out from yesterday.  And yes, that's Lucas climbing where he shouldn't be climbing. 

Wish us luck today.

Spell Check.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Here is our yesterday afternoon summed up.

He wrote it half jokingly, but when I laughed, he got mad. 

And then he tried to run away while I was taking his picture.

See, he's kind of laughing. 

Good thing school starts soon. 

Mainly for the spelling.

No Insects Were Harmed in the Making of this Post.

After swimming lessons today we headed down to the beach for some Starbucks quality time with the boys and Bella. 

It seems that whenever Bella is not listening I call her Lucas by mistake.  I can't imagine how that would happen.  (Lucas, don't throw sticks where people are standing, Lucas, Lucas...LUCAS....Bella come.  Bella.  Bella.  BELLA! They are interchangeable, really.)

Just before we left Luke found a little caterpiller on the beach which he promptly named Catty (poor kid has my originality gene when it comes to naming pets obviously).  We decided to bring it home and make a home for it with high hopes that it would one day be a butterfly.

We liberated some shoe boxes of the boys' new back to school shoes and using a few of my scrapbook tools created a very nice home for Catty. 

Then the boys decided to get out their nets and try to catch some crickets.  Luke called his Cricky (sigh) and Jacob didn't feel like naming him so Lucas dubbed him Hopper (he's the big one).

     

Security Breach

Let me set the scene for you.

32 degree weather.

A car that I was too lazy and cheap to get the air conditioning fixed in.

Kelowna traffic.

Two whiney cranky little boys.

The Mall (note the capitalization, kind of like you would capitalize Hell).

Back to school shopping (which I TOTALLY forgot about until this morning).

To backtrack a little, we started our day at swimming lessons (see post: Right on Schedule).  I used my MC to pay for the next set of swimming lessons.  Stopped to get gas.

Headed into town and made these stops (using Mastercard):

Winners

Jysk

Sportcheck

Payless

and finally Please Mum.

I hand my card to the lady at Please Mum.  She brings it back with that embarrassed look (the you obviously are living outside of your means look) and tells me the card has been declined. 

I ask her to try again because I know for a fact that I can't be even near my limit.

She acquiesces but no go.

Now, I *know* the reason it isn't going through is because of the security thingy on the card that flags it when it decides that too many purchases have been made. (but just for a moment deep down inside I wonder if Jason has purchased something large without my knowledge again...houseboat? front end loader?  but I digress, and those are both seperate stories which deserve their very own post someday)

I whip out my AMEX, finish the purchase and drag the kids out to car, cursing Mastercard with every step. 

When we got home I called them (thankfully the traffic was slow and it took us almost 1/2 an hour to get home, which gave me the time to cool off - metaphorically that is, did I mention it is 32 degrees today?) and to Mastercard's credit, the two ladies who had to deal with me (ha!) we very nice and very helpful. 

And they claim that they have reset our security so this shouldn't happen again. 

I guess it's a good thing I don't really enjoy shopping. 

Remember that sad sack picture I posted of Lucas yesterday?  Well, I had to scrapbook it.  And by the way, he told me today that today was the Best Day of His Life.  Mainly because he got to play gameboy in the car on the way to The Mall.  So there you go.

Do Over.

I don't usually re-do my scrapbook pages.  If they aren't "my favourite" I usually just stuff them in the basket that I keep my finished stuff in (and then they sit there for a year or so before I get around to putting them in albums). 

The one I posted yesterday was totally bugging me so this morning I ripped it apart and did it over.  Now I'll be able to sleep at night.

Last night Lucas informed me (while sobbing in the bathtub).  That "today is the worst day of my life". 

Seriously. 

Let's recap, shall we?

At risk of sounding like the laziest mother ever, I'm going to confess that they played gameboy for almost 3 hours yesterday morning.

In bed. 

Wearing pajamas. (which by doing the math means they were in bed until 11 am).

They played.

They watched part of a movie with Jason and I.

We took them to the skateboard park (which they decided was too hot and boring).

We rented more movies.

Made nachos for dinner and watched The Pink Panther downstairs while we ate the nachos.

Sheesh.  I can see how that would be a horrible day for Lucas.  Poor little dude.

You can see how devastated he was at being forced to go to the skate park.  I sure hope no one calls CPS on us. 

We'll try harder next time, pal.

Bite Me.

So I'm up in my craftroom working on this

And I hear shrieks of pain/and or anger coming from the boys' bedroom.  I listen for a moment to verify if an intervention is needed.

It was. 

Go down there and my sweet son, who I had been looking at cute pictures of and thinking about what a cool kid he is, bit his brother. 

Right on the bum. 

Of course, Lucas' shrieks of anguish were exaggerated (as usual).

But still. 

I know how frustrating Lucas can be (oh, believe me, I know), but what the heck is an 8 year old kid doing BITING??? 

Anyway, I'm sure it was not unprovoked (according to Lucas he was just lying on his bed reading innocently and Jake bit him.  mmmmhmmmm....).  And the issue has been dealt with. 

So I'm going to let it go and post a picture of the Jacob I was thinking about this morning.

I always tease him about having his pants pulled up so high.  He came upstairs yesterday with 1/2 of his karate uniform on (glad it was the bottom half) with those bad boys hiked up halfway to the roof.

So here he is.

That funny, sometimes dorky, always imaginative sweet little boy of mine with a beautiful smile(and sharp teeth...who bites his brother sometimes).

Clever but Mean.

So after swimming lessons every day this week we've been hitting the dog beach.  This is a covert way of getting Starbucks every day without feeling too guilty.  I mean, the kids are really thirsty after all that hard work at the swimming pool.  (right?) 

And we're spending quality time together (right?) 

And Bella is getting exercise. (again with the assuaging of the guilt).

And on that note, I'd like to give a little shout out to Bella and her water skills.  She has gone from running in abject horror from the waves lapping up on the shore to actually swimming AND fetching stuff for us. 

Go Bella.

Yesterday morning, Lucas was in the lake and Jacob was playing "fort" in the huge willow trees down at Gellatly.  As the natural order of things go, when Lucas realized Jacob was having fun without him, he immediately wanted in on the fun.  So he crashed the fort.  And as the natural order of big brother things go, Jacob immediately wanted him out of the fort.  A small fight ensued.

I suggested to Jacob that he give Lucas a job in the fort, like maybe guarding the front.  He concedes and thinks for a moment.  And comes up with what he feels is an apt job for young Lucas. 

"Okay Luke, I'm going to give you a very important job.... 

Your job is to STAY OUT OF MY FORT". 

HA!!!  Clever but mean.  (I had to laugh).

I swear I could write a book just based on conversations I've heard between these two.

On the crafty front, here's a couple of things I did this morning.

I found this keychain the other day, it had a weird horoscopey thing in it which I popped out and replaced with Chatterbox paper and my initial. 

All Mine.

I was walking down the hallway the other day, camera in hand.  I passed Lucas and he insisted I take his picture.  This is his new "natural" smile.

Well, not that natural, but still kind of cute.