My Life as a Rock Star!

Sometimes you just can't share with the Facebook "world" what a great day you had and what you accomplished.  But you?  You are my special people and you love it when I have an awesome day.

I had a great day today, in a summer that felt like Ecclesiastes...but that's another story for another day.

Today was so much fun!


I did a quick job at work and will go and do the real work tomorrow.   Got home and started some laundry...and really wanted to go and make cards...but knew some work needed to be finished before I could relax and enjoy that.

It all started when I had lunch with my friend Nancy, earlier this week,  and we went thrifting!   I found a great little 4 tier 9" x 37" metal shelf for $4.95.  Perfect for shoes!   Perfect!!   So this morning I took all the shoes off the yucky black one in the laundry room, move the semi-functional one to the laundry room...moved the dehumidifier into the cubby where IT used to sit and put the new shelf where the de-hummer was.   Perfect.    The yucky black one is now in the garage and has the grass-cutting shoes and rubber boots on it.    Good bye to constantly tracking grass up AND down the stairs.

We don't need less shoes.  Don't even think about it! (THAT is a pair of wedding "klompen" to celebrate our Dutch heritage :)

Then I sewed with my youngest  for the afternoon.  He is 15 and very resourceful.   He came to me with an old strap and an old back pack and asked for a shoulder holster for an air-soft pistol.  Last winter he fabricated bindings for an old skateboard and made his own snow board....and then Santa brought a real snow board  found at a thrift store.    First he made a holster prototype, then we looked at images online, decided on the best model with the materials we had at hand, and made a pattern.   We used the buckles, a snap hook, and fabric from the backpack, some Velcro, and some elastic from an old hockey strap and voila!    A very happy lad.

Around supper time I was struck by a sudden craving for a sweet Mexican bean salad, similar to one I had at work yesterday.  Checked my cookbooks, Googled and decided on ingredients.   Beans (chick-peas and regular rinsed brown beans), olive oil, red wine vinegar, sugar, garlic, cilantro, onion, tomato, green pepper, fresh ground sea salt and black pepper, and some cumin.   It was delish!  Even my honey-baby, who is not a bean salad fan, liked it a lot.

So today? ....I am a Rock Star!

Making The Most Of Summer

 We have been trying to squeeze in a few more outings as summer is winding down.  Baseball is finished for the season and usually that marks the beginning of the end.   The evenings of August are nice and cool again when compared to July.  And it seems as if school routines are just around the corner.  Over the last week we  went to East Park for a day of mini golf, gokarting, and then pizza and a matinee (The Rise of The Planet of the Apes) and I rounded out my day with a board meeting.    (I know how to have a good time!)  As much as we try to keep a firm grip on the lazy days of summer, we know that the fall is coming.   Going to my first meeting of the season reminded me of what I enjoy about everyone going back to school.    It's good to feel productive.   I love that feeling.    The key is find the balance.    But it's very Biblical to enjoy summer rest and togetherness.   There is a time for everything under the sun.   

 The Wonderland trip was a lot of fun.   I discovered that I am a big fan of roller coasters!!  Skyrider. Vortex.  Windseeker.  Behemoth.

Ray...not so much.  

A Night at Delaware Speedway

Cars 64 and 39 ended up coming in 1st and 2nd....camaros of course.

First heat, turn 4.

Pace car...er, truck....

This car was parked up the street from us for a few weeks.

NOTE:  T shirt canons.

...heading into turn two.

Team 22 waiting for the next heat.

Setting up an obstacle for the Chaos cars...just a little bump.

Chaos cars: the barrel-turn in turn one....

oops....a roll over!

The only train entered for the train races that night...became an obstacle in the Chaos car race....

The sun sets on another night of racing....

We try to get out to the stock car races at least once or twice every summer.   Our favourite?  Enduro races.

Good Times

It has really felt like birthday week this week!  So much fun and we were looking forward to this outing to Toronto.  Everyone had different things that they wanted to see and we managed to find time to do ALL those things.  Even a wild goose chase!

We toured Chinatown, visited Europe Bound (across from MEC), the Eaton Centre, the PUMA "store", and we took in a Jays game.

There are always interesting sights and sounds.  Ray loves the buskers, some of them are really good!  Joe loved haggling with the street vendors and such. Craig enjoyed the masses of people and the Eaton Centre.  People watching is always neat.  At one point we were told that we looked like tourists.   After pondering that for a moment, we realized that one sees very few families in downtown Toronto.

I enjoyed being with my own 3 people.   Watching them with each other, enjoying the game and the adventure....and the food; as a people, we are the happiest when our tummies are full.   

Highlights?  Chinatown and its markets and shops, Freshslice Pizza, and Brett Lawrie's grand slam.

Ever So Slightly Infatuated

I think I may have a thing for butterflies.  I was at Up The Street today and picked up a punch I had ordered....and then I spent some of my birthday money.   That's so much fun!! 

Monday again

Sunday kind of got skipped and we're straight into a holiday Monday.  Walmart was open and after a little consolidating I had a memory stick with photos ready to go!    Such fun to cut them out and put them in my pages.   A few layouts to go and then it's done!

I'm glad I sorted my photos each during WITL..
I was thankful for the journaling sheets.
I really loved the photo ideas gleaned from seeing other people's blogs.

I loved opening the envelope of photos!!!  My photos are my most expensive item and I splurged with one hour processing.   I am planning to use items from my stash for my album.