June's Wedding Day

We drove to Airdrie to attend June and Barry's wedding this past weekend. The weather was beautiful, but too hot for my liking! June went to Honduras with Jason way back in the day, with Canada World Youth. She's in a suburb of Calgary, called Airdrie. It's about 3 hrs to drive there from Edmonton, so it made for a long day for us and the kids. We didn't attend the reception, unfortunately, as it would have been too hard on the kids since it didn't start until 7pm. We really couldn't afford a hotel and eating out, so we opted to attend the wedding and support the bride and groom.








Fiona and Jason even managed to geocache on our way back from Calgary... a dress and fancy shoes didn't stop Fiona as you will see.... She found it before Jason made it into the wooded area! Smart girl, that Fiona!!!

More Lyrics

Here's a song by Ani Difranco (surprise, surprise!)... it's called Animal, and I really like what it has to say...

animal

more and more there is this animal
looking out through my eyes
at all the traffic on the road to nowhere
at all the shiny stuff around to buy
at all the wires in the air
at all the people shopping
for the same blank stare
at america the drastic
that isolated geographic
that's become infested with millionaires

when you grow up surrounded
by willful ignorance
you have to believe
mercy has its own country
and that it's round and borderless
and then you have to grow wings
and rise above it all
like there
where that hawk is circling
above that strip mall

more and more there is this animal
looking out through my eyes
seeing that animals only take from this world
what they need to survive
but she is prowling through all the religions of men
seeing that time and time and time again
their gods have made them
special and above
nature's law
and the respect thereof

and i think when you grow up surrounded
by willful ignorance
you have to believe that mercy has its own country
and that it's round and borderless
and then you just grow wings
and rise above it all
like there where that hawk is circling
above that strip mall

ask any eco-system
harm here is harm there
and there and there
and aggression begets aggression
it's a very simple lesson
that long preceded any king of heaven
and there's this brutal imperial power
that my passport says i represent
but it will never represent where my heart lives
only vaguely where it went

cuz i know when you grow up surrounded
by willful ignorance
you learn that mercy has its own country
and that it's round and borderless
and then you just grow wings
and rise above it all
like there
where that hawk is circling
above that strip mall

ANI ROCKED!!!!

I just got home from seeing Ani Difranco... Man, it was awesome! She had 2 other musicians there with her- one playing bass fiddle, and the other playing xylophone/percussion. Just the way I like it... simple and very acoustic! She did a few of her old songs like Napoleon & Shameless, and a bunch off her new album, Reprieve, which isn't available until August 8 :( I was hoping she would be selling copies at the show, but no such luck! It's really interesting to see how much she's changed and grown up, really, over the past 16 years... No dreads. No green or purple hair. No big crazy boots or mis-matched clothes. Just a girl wearing cargo pants and a army green polo shirt....

I did buy a few bootleg cds she had released, as they were only $13 a piece! I was really disappointed with the t-shirt selection...moreso with the sizing! The "girlie" t-shirt was CRAZY ASS small, and looked like it would fit Fiona in the next year or two! I don't get it... Isn't Ani an anti-media mold girl, who supports women being natural and normal, rather than anorexic fashionistas??! *sigh* Needless to say, I am not a girls size 6x and didn't get a t-shirt. I did get 2 bumper stickers for my new van :) Mum's new van, that is! lol The picture at the top is one of them...

I must give thanks to Ken and Lisa who watched the kids for us tonight, so we could have an adult evening out!! Thanks so much! It was greatly appreciated....

We got a van!

We have reached the epitome of family life! We hadn't actually planned on getting a minivan until after buying a house sometime this fall, as it would have been a big financial burden on top of trying to get approved for a mortgage. So, we put it aside. Darren called us the other night, telling us about a van he looked at near his Dad's house, which was for sale. He thought it was in great shape, and since it had a new transmission, it would last a while yet. The mileage is high at 195,000 kms, but we wouldn't have given it a second thought if it didn't have the new transmission. The asking price was $1900, but we got it for $1800... not much of a drop, but a fair price, we thought. Only one family has owned this van, and it seems to have been well maintained. Anyways, I'm just happy to have a van since 3 kids will necessitate this vehicle... not to mention having a vehicle through the day while Jason's at work! We'll be keeping both cars on the road, since we don't have huge payments to make, and the insurance was a good rate.

Galaxy Land & Hotel Stay w/ Grandma and Grandpa!

Fiona has a blast this past week, as Bert & Bobbie (Jason's parents) were visiting from Manitoba! Fiona had it all planned out what she wanted to do while they were here! Of course, Galaxy Land was on her list!!! She was also very excited to spend 2 nights in a hotel w/ Grandma and Grandpa! This hotel had TWO very cool waterslides... no pictures of that, as everyone was swimming and in the water! Here are a bunch of pictures from those events of the visit... Another post will include pictures from the Royal Alberta Museum and around our house...








Kieran even got to ride on a few things this time around! He really enjoyed the helicopter as it had a steering wheel he could have his way with!! He also spotted a cool purple tank (which was coin operated), but Grandpa used his muscles to make it work w/o money!!! ;) Kieran went on a train ride through the amusement park and enjoyed a nice trip on the balloons!




Fiona wasn't too fond of the bumper cars, as she's not quite mastered how to manuevre the steering. She did well for the first bit, but decided to sit and park until the ride was done! That was her last ride for the day, so she wasn't too happy when the fun had to end ;(







In the hotel, Fiona played hide-and-seek for what seemed like an eternity, in the cupboard doors!

Daily Antics

This was the scene at our house this evening, once Jason got home from work... Yes, my kids are crazy and have lots of energy... but I wonder where they get it from?? LOL

Four caches tonight!!

Another Geocache Adventure for Jason & Fiona!

Fiona and Jason hit the road tonight, in search of more geocaches! Fiona loves getting out geocaching with Dad, and was proud to have found 2 of them all by herself! Her first cache was a dinosaur, and the last one (which was a huge ammo can), had a Dinosaur Hunter! A weird way of coming full circle perhaps? He's actually a travel bug, and looks like a 90's action figure. He does actually have the Jurrasic Park logo on his hat!

They went to Sherwood Park, which is just outside of Edmonton to the east. According to them, the mosquitoes were insane!! Jason said they were bouncing into eachother and hitting against their backs, the swarm was so thick! ICK! Glad I passed on this trek, and stayed home! Below, are the links to the caches that they found tonight. Jason got an unopened box of 3 Dukes of Hazard die-cast cars, which he may pass on to his little brother, Clint. Fiona got her dinosaur, & a yo-yo. All in all, a very production evening! Jason said that Fiona was great, and walked about 5 kms throughout the adventure. She found a nice little bridge area, and pretended it was her house for a while. After the last cache, she requested they go back there again... even though it meant doubling the trip back to the vehicle!!

SPNA #5 , Old Edmonton Trail, SPNA #3, Plmy's Cache

Little Update

Not much new for posting.. but thought I should add something on here! Kieran's restless and fighting his nap... Fiona's watching Bob the Builder... so I have a few mins to post! I'm going to add some random pictures at the end of my post just so there's something colourful on here! :)

We're anxiously awaiting Jason's parents, as they are coming from Manitoba to visit this weekend. They'll be here til the 27th. So far, it's in the plan to have a hotel with waterslides so Fiona can enjoy some waterplay. On Monday, the plan is to go to Drumheller to check out all the cool dinosaur bones and unique landscape. Fiona's still really into dinosaurs, and would love to go where they were proved to have roamed!! Kieran and I will stay home, as I don't think he'll get much out of the trip at his age... It's about 2 hours from Edmonton. I know Fiona's also got a trip to West Edmonton Mall's Galaxy Land amusement park while they're here, too! Poor girl's been excited for what seems like forever!!

We did get a double stroller a few weeks ago... It's great for getting out with both kids, but Fiona does have a habit of wanting in and out of it! It will be handy when we go on long walks or to parks far away, and get caught in the rain (like we have had happen 2 times prior to the purchase)! Toys R Us had one that actually matched our infant carrier, but wasn't in any of the stores I went to... figured they must have discontinued that or something... So I got this blue one at Sears. Yesterday, I was at TRU in the west end, and low and behold! The brown and black stroller was there! Ugh.. had to walk away! lol

I'm 12 weeks along now, and seem to be past most of the nauseous feelings. However, headaches seem to be what ails me now. I just feel tired all the time, and all I want to do is crawl under the sheets and slip into a coma!! My pants are feeling a little snug, but it's more the discomfort from the tightness that's bothersome! I don't think I felt this sore from ligment pain last time around, but I'm pretty sure that's what the aches are! I'll have to ask my Dr, b/c I don't think I should be feeling it ALL the time.. only when I get up or sit down... Weird.

Well, enough of that... Here are a few pics.


<--Fiona with her "Rainbow Travel Bug"



------>
Fiona fast asleep during her independant time....



<----Travel Bug skull

Glass House

GLASS HOUSE
from "Little Plastic Castle"

sitting in my glass house
while your ghost is sleeping down the hall
watching the little birds fly
kamikaze missions into the walls
think i'm going to stay in today
sit on the couch and watch them fall
life keeps getting harder
and it just keeps getting harder to hide
the darker it is around me
the easier it is to see inside
outside the glass
the whole world is magnified
and it's half an inch
from here to the other side
i guess that push has come to this
so i guess this must be shove
but before you throw those stones at me
tell me, what is your house made of?
and if you think you know what i'm doing wrong
you're gonna have to get in line
but for the purposes of this song
let's just say i'm doing fine
i guess i'm doing fine
trapped in my glass house
a crowd has been gathering outside since dawn
i make a pot of coffee
while catastrophe awaits me out on the lawn
think i'm going to stay in today
and pretend like i don't know what's going on
yeah, i guess that push has come to this
so i guess this must be shove
but before you throw those stones at me
tell me, what is your house made of?
and if you think you know what i'm doing wrong
you're gonna half to get in line
but for the purposes of this song
let's just say i'm doing fine
i think i'm doing fine

Subdivision

SUBDIVSION
from "Reckoning" 2001


White people are so scared of black people.
They bulldoze out to the country, and put up houses on little loop-d-loop streets.
And while America gets its heart cut right out of its chest
The Berlin wall still runs down main street separating east side from west.

And nothing is stirring, not even a mouse, in the boarded up stores and the broken down houses
So they hang colorful banners off all the street lamps
Just to prove they got no manners, no mercy, and no sense.
And I wonder then what it will take for my city to rise.
First we admit our mistakes and then we open our eyes.
The ghost of old buildings are haunting parking lots in the city of good neighbors that history forgot.

I remember the first time I saw someone lying on the cold street
I thought, "I can't just walk past you, this can't just be true."
But I learned by example to just keep moving my feet.
It's amazing the things that we all learn to do.

So we're led by denial like lambs to the slaughter
Serving empires of style and carbonated sugar water and the old farmroad's a four-lane
That leads to the mall and my dreams are all guillotines waiting to fall

And I wonder then what it will take for my country to rise.
First we admit our mistakes and then we open our eyes.
'til nation's last taker succumbs to one last dumb decision
And America the beautiful is just one big subdivision.

--Ani Difranco

Political Poem

This is a prose peom that Ani Difranco wrote after the World Trade Centre bombing. It's very political, as you'll read... and I'm sure some may find it offensive, but I find a lot of truth in it. So, here it is...

self evident

(inspired by the WTC disaster)

yes,
us people are just poems
we're 90% metaphor
with a leanness of meaning
approaching hyper-distillation
and once upon a time
we were moonshine
rushing down the throat of a giraffe
yes, rushing down the long hallway
despite what the p.a. announcement says
yes, rushing down the long stairs
with the whiskey of eternity
fermented and distilled
to eighteen minutes
burning down our throats
down the hall
down the stairs
in a building so tall
that it will always be there
yes, it's part of a pair
there on the bow of noah's ark
the most prestigious couple
just kickin back parked
against a perfectly blue sky
on a morning beatific
in its indian summer breeze
on the day that america
fell to its knees
after strutting around for a century
without saying thank you
or please

and the shock was subsonic
and the smoke was deafening
between the setup and the punch line
cuz we were all on time for work that day
we all boarded that plane for to fly
and then while the fires were raging
we all climbed up on the windowsill
and then we all held hands
and jumped into the sky

and every borough looked up when it heard the first blast
and then every dumb action movie was summarily surpassed
and the exodus uptown by foot and motorcar
looked more like war than anything i've seen so far
so far
so far
so fierce and ingenious
a poetic specter so far gone
that every jackass newscaster was struck dumb and stumbling
over 'oh my god' and 'this is unbelievable' and on and on
and i'll tell you what, while we're at it
you can keep the pentagon
keep the propaganda
keep each and every tv
that's been trying to convince me
to participate
in some prep school punk's plan to perpetuate retribution
perpetuate retribution
even as the blue toxic smoke of our lesson in retribution
is still hanging in the air
and there's ash on our shoes
and there's ash in our hair
and there's a fine silt on every mantle
from hell's kitchen to brooklyn
and the streets are full of stories
sudden twists and near misses
and soon every open bar is crammed to the rafters
with tales of narrowly averted disasters
and the whiskey is flowin
like never before
as all over the country
folks just shake their heads
and pour

so here's a toast to all the folks who live in palestine
afghanistan
iraq

el salvador

here's a toast to the folks living on the pine ridge reservation
under the stone cold gaze of mt. rushmore

here's a toast to all those nurses and doctors
who daily provide women with a choice
who stand down a threat the size of oklahoma city
just to listen to a young woman's voice

here's a toast to all the folks on death row right now
awaiting the executioner's guillotine
who are shackled there with dread and can only escape into their heads
to find peace in the form of a dream

cuz take away our playstations
and we are a third world nation
under the thumb of some blue blood royal son
who stole the oval office and that phony election
i mean
it don't take a weatherman
to look around and see the weather
jeb said he'd deliver florida, folks
and boy did he ever

and we hold these truths to be self evident:
#1 george w. bush is not president
#2 america is not a true democracy
#3 the media is not fooling me
cuz i am a poem heeding hyper-distillation
i've got no room for a lie so verbose
i'm looking out over my whole human family
and i'm raising my glass in a toast

here's to our last drink of fossil fuels
let us vow to get off of this sauce
shoo away the swarms of commuter planes
and find that train ticket we lost
cuz once upon a time the line followed the river
and peeked into all the backyards
and the laundry was waving
the graffiti was teasing us
from brick walls and bridges
we were rolling over ridges
through valleys
under stars
i dream of touring like duke ellington
in my own railroad car
i dream of waiting on the tall blonde wooden benches
in a grand station aglow with grace
and then standing out on the platform
and feeling the air on my face

give back the night its distant whistle
give the darkness back its soul
give the big oil companies the finger finally
and relearn how to rock-n-roll
yes, the lessons are all around us and a change is waiting there
so it's time to pick through the rubble, clean the streets
and clear the air
get our government to pull its big dick out of the sand
of someone else's desert
put it back in its pants
and quit the hypocritical chants of
freedom forever

cuz when one lone phone rang
in two thousand and one
at ten after nine
on nine one one
which is the number we all called
when that lone phone rang right off the wall
right off our desk and down the long hall
down the long stairs
in a building so tall
that the whole world turned
just to watch it fall



and while we're at it
remember the first time around?
the bomb?
the ryder truck?
the parking garage?
the princess that didn't even feel the pea?
remember joking around in our apartment on avenue D?

can you imagine how many paper coffee cups would have to change their design
following a fantastical reversal of the new york skyline?!

it was a joke, of course
it was a joke
at the time
and that was just a few years ago
so let the record show
that the FBI was all over that case
that the plot was obvious and in everybody's face
and scoping that scene
religiously
the CIA
or is it KGB?
committing countless crimes against humanity
with this kind of eventuality
as its excuse
for abuse after expensive abuse
and it didn't have a clue
look, another window to see through
way up here
on the 104th floor
look
another key
another door
10% literal
90% metaphor
3000 some poems disguised as people
on an almost too perfect day
should be more than pawns
in some asshole's passion play
so now it's your job
and it's my job
to make it that way
to make sure they didn't die in vain
sshhhhhh....
baby listen
hear the train?

--Ani Difranco

Road Trip!

Yesterday morning, I awoke to breakfast ready at the table... I had heard Jason busying himself before I got up. I heard the screen door open and close several times. What was he up to? I knew he was planning to go into the University. He had changed his plans. After I had gone to bed the night before, Jason was plotting out our Saturday... He had loaded up the trunk, which I later found out was filled with the cooler, change of clothes for everyone, drinks/snacks, and child-carrying devices (such as the backpack and stroller)! We were taking it on the road....

The plan was to get a few geocaches on the way to Camrose. None of us had been there before. It's about an hour outside of Edmonton. We stopped at a cemetery in a small town called Sarepta. This cache was called "End of the Road"... appropriately so! We drove down a grass-road until the mowed path came to an end.... From there, we ventured through tall grass, thistles and trees. Fiona found the cache instantly! Her height is definitely an advantage! The tube was nestled in the base of a multi-trunk tree!

From there, we went to Camrose. It's a much bigger place than I expected. They actually have Wal-Mart, Staples, East Side Mario's, and everything you'd need. Immediately, we start thinking "wonder how much houses cost here?"... I'm sure they're booming, as the city seems to be growing! We stopped at a park, where another cache was hidden. This was called "NY Backyard". It was a tourist info centre, but a park used by locals w/ a nice path around the pond. Fiona instantly made friends there, and had a great time playing!! We picnicked and ate lunch. Jason has prepared sandwiches and brought fruits etc.... Smart boy! Fiona found this cache too! She picked out some wind-chimes and we placed a pod-caching cd in it's place! We drove through Camrose, with the intention of stopping at a coffee shop called "Fiona's Coffee". We had heard about this place (and it was the inspiration for the trip), from another cache Jason found. He got a wooden nickel w/ a free coffee coupon from this shop. We kept the nickel, but did get some coffee!

It's now well into the early part of the afternoon.... Jason's got a few more caches in mind!! He wants to stop in Millet... Millet? Where's that?! lol Small town, where most of the streets in an upscale neighbourhood are called Pipeline... Pipeline Cres., Pipeline Rd., Pipeline Manor, Pipeline Lane... Geez!! Crazy. Jason got us to drop him at a path and pick him up in 10 mins... Well, he ran the whole way- did find the cache and ran back... It took him about 20 mins! The directions on that cache were not so great. According to Jason, there were tons of prickers and thorns!! Glad he did that one solo! Kieran was also sleeping, so I cruised around the many cul-de-sacs to keep air moving. It was a hot day!

Next stop: Beaumont. This is a small town/community, SE of Edmonton. It's mostly new development and loaded with huge over-the-top houses, SUV's, minivans, RV's. How do people live in such excess?? I'd just like a house, thanks! A side-thought... these huge houses usually have one couple living in it, perhaps with 1 kid. Families with 2+ children live in smaller homes, but could really use that space in those larger homes! Anyway... we're trying to find this great waterpark with sprayers and sprinklers! The directions for where to park for this cache are also horrible! It doesn't help that it's all new subdivisions, so the maps are not in our GPS! We took the LOOOOONG way. We parked at an RV parking lot and walked about a km and a half... not sure what we'd find, if anything at all! Well, we did find the park... Fiona had a great time... so did the rest of us! :) Fiona met a little girl, named Matea (ma-tay-a), and they played wonderfully together! After this, we found another cache at this park... once again, amongst MANY thistles! Jason got it :)

IT was a long day... After this stop, we drove back into Edmonton... got some supper and ate it in the backyard. The kids were tuckered out, and so were we! I had a massive headache, so I went to bed early....

Cookie Jar, by Jack Johnson

I would turn on the TV
but it's so embarrassing
to see all the other people
I don't know what they mean
and it was magic at first
when they spoke without sound
but now this world is gonna hurt
you better turn that thing down
Turn it around

Well it wasn't me says the boy with the gun
sure i pulled the trigger but it needed to be done
because life's been killin' me ever since it begun
you cant blame me cause i'm too young

You cant blame me, sure the killer was my son
but I didn't teach him to pull the trigger of the gun
It's the killing on his TV screen
You can't blame me, it's those images he sees

Well, You can't blame me says the media man
Well I wasn't the one that came up with the plan
and I just point my camera what the people wanna see
man it's a two way mirror and you can't blame me

You can't blame me says the singer of the song
or the maker of the movie which he based his life on
It's only entertainment and as anyone can see
it's smoke machines and make-up, man, you can't fool me

It was you
it was me
it was every man
We all got the blood on our hands
we only receive what we demand
And if we want hell then hell is what well have

And I would turn on the TV
but it's so embarrassing
to see all the other people
don't even know what they mean
and it was magic at first
but let every one down
Now this world is gonna hurt
You better turn it around
turn it around

--Jack Johnson
Cookie Jar, from "On & On"

Tonight's Sky

Here are some pictures I took tonight around sunset... I was at Superstore and it was an amazing view!