The Voyage Home- a little late.. but here it is!

Here's a visual record of our trip back from Manitoba. It's not in order, as I find posting pictures on here to be a big pain in the ASS! I also had more pics I wanted to add, but our computer completed crapped out and Jason just got us back on the board today!! Way to go, babe! Mwah!

Fiona & Kieran with a lovely bison at a Tourist Info Centre in The Battlefords, SK.

Jason's reassuring Fiona that the bees are in fact more interested in that tree than her!

The travel bug Jason picked up at our first cache of the day... he's hitching a ride across the prairies!

We found it!! First cache of the day at a Tourist Info centre near the MB/SK border.

It was very windy throughout the day- everywhere it seemed!!

A geocache in rural Saskatchewan a the Condie Nature Refuge... family picture!

Fiona & Kieran near a beaver-chomped log!

Lake Manitou, Sask.

The hotel we stayed at... Very big disappointment! It's called a Mineral Spa Hotel.. nothing Spa about it! The service was crap, and the heat was on full blast when it was 25C outside! We were not impressed. The staff didn't seem to care, so I reviewed the hotel online!!

Fiona & Kieran playing in the salt water of Lake Manitou!

The burger joint, where you can buy a hamburger for a steal at $8! Rip off! We opted for Mennonite home cooking down the road!

The science behind the lake...

The view from our room...

Somewhere between Lloydminster and Vermillion! Geocaching, of course!

Same cache as above...

Watrous, Saskatchewan at sunset- the main drag!! lol

Sunset on Manitou Beach. The view was like nothing I've seen- massive rays busting from the horizon!!

Our van posing with the sign for Manitou Beach!!

Super Soakers!!

May Long Weekend

For most of the weekend, we laid low, since arriving home from Manitoba... However, we were glad to visit with the Clyde's on Monday!! The kids had a blast playing with the super-soakers! Dakota volunteered herself as a "free sample"-- meaning everyone could use her for target practice! What a friend!!! lol Here's some out-takes from the adventure!

Coldplay- Fix You

Love. Love. Love this song. I've got my fingers crossed to see them live here in Edmonton in July!

Easy on the eyes, too ;) *swoons*

The Cure - The Only One

I'm ashamed to admit that my friend, Erin informed me TODAY that The Cure had a new album... Frack me!! I am out of touch! I'm so old-- but clearly not as old as these guys are getting! LOL Robert Smith 1985 is the era of Bob that I find so HOT! lol

This song would be a great wedding tune for the unconventional... just listen to the words!! lol


Oh I love, Oh I love, Oh I love
What you do to my head
When you pull me upstairs
And you push me to bed
I love what you do to my head
It’s a mess up there!

Oh I love, oh I love, oh I love
What you do to my heart
When you push me back down
And it pulls me apart
I love what you do to my heart
It’s the best, oh yeah!

Oh I love, oh I love, oh I love
What you do to my lips
When you shut? me inside
And you blow me a kiss
I love what you do to my lips
It’s so sweet in there

Oh I love, love, love, love
What you do to my hips
When you blow? me outside
And then suck? me like this
I love what you do to my hips
It’s the ???, oh yeah!

You’re the only one I’d cry for
The only one I’d try to please
You’re the only one I’d sigh for
The only one I’d die to squeeze
And it gets better everyday, I play
With you it’s such a scream
Yeah it gets better everyday, I say
and with you it’s so extreme
Yeah it gets wetter everyday, I say
With you it’s like a dream

Oh I love, Oh I love, Oh I love
What you do to my skin
Please slip me on
And slide me in
I love what you do to my skin
It’s a ????? oh yeah

Oh I love, love, love, love
What you do to my bones
When you slide me up
And slip me home
I love what you do to my bones
It’s the ??? oh yeah

You’re the only one I’d cry for
The only one I’d try to please
You’re the only one I’d sigh for
The only one I’d die to squeeze
And it gets hazier anyway, I sway
With you it’s such a scream
Yeah it gets mazier every play, I say
With you it’s so extreme
Yeah it gets crazier everyday, I say
With you it’s like a dream

Oh I love, Oh I love, I love
What you do to me

For Aunt Nicole

Taken at the hotel room in Winnipeg, the weekend of Christy and John's wedding! :)

City and Colour - Comin' Home

I really like City and Colour- headed by Dallas Green (hence the title)! I found this song stuck in my head today after such a long drive across 3 provinces... 1,200 kms...

I have been through the rockies, and I HAVE seen Saskatoon... We took hwy 1 home. Very fitting.

These guys are Canadian, Julie! :)

Manitoba Roadtrip so far... Mostly Killarney visiting Uncle Clint & Aunt Nicole...

Here are a few pictures of our trip in Manitoba, so far... We have spent most of this week visiting Jason's brother, Clint & his wife Nicole. These pictures were taken during our time in Killarney and Boissevain, Manitoba!

Hiking along the PRFA (Prairie Farmer's Rehabilitation Assoc.) trail... whew... that's a mouthful! Jason later planted a night cache with Clint once the kids were in bed... Poor Clint forgot his gun and missed out on getting himself a nice big turkey!! Seriously. This is Manitoba.

Fiona showing us her freaky moves with the skipping rope!!

Fiona LOVED riding the horse at Uncle Clint & Aunt Nicole's house!!

Kieran on the horse

Rosheen riding the horse at Uncle Clint's

The Blixhavn cabin outside of Killarney, MB (about a mile from the US border)

The pretend snowmobile!

Kieran peeking across the US/Canada border! Jason and Kieran continued on the hike searching for the survey markers...

My little beaver...

Turtle's Back Trail at the lookout tower... muscling with Uncle Clint!

Me, Fiona & Kieran... Rosheen was napping in the van!

Self explanatory!

Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) Heaven On Their Minds (2)

Very nostalgic for me. I LOVE the original Jesus Christ Superstar musical. I'm a creature of habit, but I think the voices are better than the newer version. I've listened to this on vinyl hundreds of times, to be sure!!

Bertie Higgins - Key Largo

Strollin' down memory lane tonight...
My dad played this record (yes, vinyl) more often than I cared to hear it!! However, it does bring back some good memories! ;)

Tacky video, though!! lol

Our backyard last night...

Our backyard tonight.... We got up to 15C today!! YES! Please spring... we're waiting for you!!

Off topic...

I took a picture of my ENTIRE kitchen. I'm looking for sympathy. I hate my kitchen with a passion. No one has ever endured such a small kitchen (except the other people in our condo complex)-- I'm certain... Julie... would you not just lose your mind if you had to cook in this thing everyday!? lol Argh.

The 11th Hour Trailer

CRAP! I knew it!

Thursday night... I'm driving to the supermarket only to see that gas prices have shot up almost .10/L in the last few hours!! I knew I should have filled up the van earlier! I thought "maybe they'll come back down", since they had already jumped from $1.07 to $1.14 over the past week. Now we are sitting at $1.23/L, pretty much throughout the entire city of Edmonton. I did the math for my American friend, Julie... that works out to about $4.65 a gallon!! Abosolutely rediculous, considering Alberta is loaded with oil. We have the largest oil deposits after Saudi Arabia! So why are we paying so much for gas?? Simple. Canada is a light-weight. I'm told years ago, the government decided that refineries were costing too much money to run. So now we send our oil to the USA and buy it back from them after it's been refined. I don't consider myself to be mathematically superior in any way... but the numbers make no sense. Why are we cutting ourselves off at the knees?! Why does this country keep selling itself short?-- literally.

I wouldn't be so annoyed to pay so much for gas if I knew it was environmentally friendly.... if we could run our vehicles on something less damaging to the earth. When I think about it-- I mean REALLY think about it... I see a visual of human-kind scraping out the insides of a tooth-- giving this earth a huge cavity. I would not drive a minivan if I could fit 3 kids into an Echo. I hate having to drive such a gas-pig. I wish environmentally sound choices were more affordable.

I'm on a tangent.... I just wanted to vent about gas prices... but it's such a big web, isn't it??

Ani Difranco Self Evident

I've always really liked this poem. I think that everytime I listen to it, I learn something new... it forces me to think in a different way. Intelligent. I love the controversy- some things need to be said.

The State That I Am In

{As usual... most of what I say has a musical reference. So does the title of this blog post}

So, I finally have hold of the computer. Free of whining and/or screaming kids... for as long as I wish... Assuming that I'm willing to (quite literally) lose sleep over it. You see, it's almost 11pm... scratch that. It IS 11pm. I hear Rosheen crying- Jason's upstairs, so hopefully that will suffice!

I'm at a loss for what to put on here. I wish my blog was fancy like Julie's. I'm afraid I don't have the skills or the time to make that happen for mine :( I had a hard enough time putting links on the side. Thank you, Julie. I just loaded your blog to get the address to link it... and noticed some movies you have watched. I'm in the process of acquiring "The Last King of Scotland" now! :)

Movies! That's it!

I recently saw Juno. Fabulous. Right away I thought CANADIAN! The Juno Awards, right? Well, sort of... not all the way Canadian. The director is from Canada, but had to go to the States to make it big. WTF is that? Some of the actors are Canadian... the main guy in Juno was also in Superbad (another hilarious film!) Anyway... The movie is great! Hilarious!! You laugh, you cry... Not to mention great soundtrack. Belle & Sebastian songs are always a good indicator of a good movie!!

I just watched The Kingdom, with Jamie Foxx. Not bad, but not great, either. The ending was interesting. Not a very thought provoking movie to say the least. Syriana was much better for that.

The Kite Runner was, of course, not as good as the book... but a great story nonetheless.

I watched The Assination of Jesse James. Honestly, other than the fact that I enjoy historical based stories... I watched this movie solely b/c it was filmed here in Edmonton and around Alberta! I loved recognizing backgrounds from Ft. Edmonton!! lol The movie was long and drawn out, but had a decent storyline.

A real favourite of mine that I mentioned on another post, was Into The Wild. It captivated me for weeks. I love the soundtrack (which is completely done by Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder). One thought that brought me to tears during and after the film, was thinking "what if one of my kids took off... and wanted nothing to do with me or anyone in our family?... just dropped of the map and disappeared???". Scary. Fabulous and amazing movie. I really, really recommend watching it.

I'm in the process of watching Little Miss Sunshine. So far, it's quite good! Hilarious, yet deep on some levels! I love independant films that surface at film festivals. Not a fan of the big Hollywood Blockbusters. Although, major movie/tv studios like Fox are catching on to this and have sub-group studios like Fox Searchlight. Seems most of my movies that I like are by them! Hmm. I'll have to look for movie acquisition ideas!! :)

After having said I am not into the blockbusters... I hate to admit that I really liked Die Hard 4!! LOL

Ok, it's now past 11:30pm... I need sleep. Today was a horribly long and arduous day. Kieran, bless his little heart, nearly drove me to the brink of insanity after breaking 3 glass shelves in a card store today!! He can't keep his hands off anything, and he got a bit too curious as to how those shelves attatched to the brackets.... Not so good. At least they were empty. That's another store I won't be returning to. Ever!

So... ta ta for now!! :) It's past my bedtime... Until next time mon amis!

Blasted SNOW!!!

Yes, these pictures were taken over the past 3 days!!! Insane. How can people think that Climate Change is a myth?! It's almost the end of April, people!!! I'm so fed up with snow I could spit nails!!


The winds are so strong, which makes driving even worse... Drifting snow is a whole different driving condition, if you've never lived in the prairies!!

This was how it looked out my front step THIS MORNING (after 3 days of constant snow and drift)... This was after Jason had already shoveled the stoop!

So maybe I have 3 competing with me for the computer....

Ok, so I lied...

I didn't really have a post ready to go... I had all kinds of good intentions on getting that done!! I swear! There's only a handful of people who read this blog anyway... That would be Katy, Julie, Christy & sometimes Lindsay... Thanks for your patronage!

It's late, and I'm super tired. I was checking up on blogs, and figured I should just add something to let you guys know I haven't forgotten about posting! I'm going to play the "I've got 3 kids" card, and I'll go one more by saying "2 of them compete for my time on the computer!"... I'm beginning to understand how my mum felt when we'd ask to use the car (for work or whatever), and leave her stranded w/ no vehicle... Even though it was hers, and she worked hard to keep it on the road. Come to think of it... I understand a great deal more about my mother, now that I've got 3 kids of my own (just like she did)!! I'm sorry mum. I was a rotten kid lots of the time, and I didn't cut you any slack or empathize! Too bad wisdom comes so late in the game...

Seriously. I'm off to bed. I'm exhausted. I really only came on here to send a quick email... Once again, I've gotten myself distracted with nonsense!

ani difranco 7-14-2007 All A This

In the meantime... enjoy this song!!!

Anticipate

I am going to post soon-- very soon... maybe a journal-type post... or a birthday wish list.... something!! Right now, and shitty diaper is calling my name. Joy.

Happy Naw Ruz!!!... and Easter!

Today is Naw Ruz (Baha'i New Year), as well as Good Friday... so we decided to do some egg dying with the kids this morning. Fiona and her friend Kylie, Kieran and Jason made some really interesting designs on their eggs using rubber bands, cooking oil, crayons and melted wax!!

Good Cookie Recipe

I actually got this off of a pkg of Western Family Butterscotch Chips! This is my way of sharing the recipe, and keeping it on file in case my empty bag goes missing! lol

3/4 c margarine
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 pkg butterscotch pudding
2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 c water
2 c quick oats
1 c butterscotch chocolate chips

* Cream together margarine & sugars until fluffy.
* sift flour and baking soda into separate bowl.
*Beat in eggs, vanilla and pudding.
*Mix flour mixture into cookie batter (using beaters).
*Beat in water.
Add oats and chips

Scoop into tsp size dollops on baking sheet. Bake 12 min @ 350F

A great substitute is using a different pudding and/or chips (ie. vanilla pudding and chocolate chips...) Next time, I'm going to try to use chocolate pudding, chips and orange extract instead of vanilla!!!

This Week's Culinary Efforts

The following meals were all prepared this week! I used KraftCanada.com constantly!! I'm a big fan of their recipes which use stuff that I usually have in my cupboards, and that don't have a lot of prep time!!!

This was my own creation... it was pasta with Cheddar Cheese soup and Cheese Whiz added. I put Stove-Top Stuffing on top and green onions. Sour cream mixed in with this casserole would have made it more moist.


This was from the Kraft Canada website. It's called Crustless Bacon & Cheese Quiche. I'm really trying to use up stuff that I have w/o having to do groceries. Budget cuts and all. So eggs are a good way of getting protein w/o having to cook meat! Although, there is bacon in there. Not the healthiest meal, but a good comfort food! It would be great for company at brunch or breakfast, too!


My own version of Kraft's Cheesy Volcano Meatballs. I didn't make it very Italian like the recipe. This is more my meatloaf that I make, but in muffin shapes. The kids like it b/c it's portion sized, and I call them "Jumbo Meatballs"! A big hit in our house! I use stuffing, egg, italian dressing, bbq sauce, onions, garlic.

I made this last night. It's called Easy Chinese Stirfry. It tasted good, but I's prefer a more peanutty sauce or something more gingery. The recipe calls for the Sweet Onion Vinaigrette. The kids liked it- sans legumes! lol

BLOG SPAMMERS... Virus links

If you get a comment from someone that seems unfamiliar, and all it says is "Warning! Click here"... it's an attempt to have you download a virus. The blog is bogus, that the poster comments from!!! DO NOT CLICK IT! Delete the post.

Katrina

Glorious Spring Weather and Geocaching

The kids with their caching finds, at the most Northern entrance into Edmonton!

Fiona and Kieran trailing behind Jason, looking for a cache in the uber muddy trail!! This was one of the Winter '08 Cache & Release (CAR08), caches. They are activated on geocaching.com at 6pm Friday evening, and the event ends Saturday (tonight) around 5pm, I think? All the cachers meet up, and get prizes for the most caches found, most FTF's (First to Find) etc.

The big puddle on the trail behind our house!! Kieran had a blast playing here for a very long time!! Jason took a great video, that is too big to post here. I'll have to put it on YouTube or Google Video...