6th edition of the Canadian Home Educator's Carnival

I'm a bit late posting this - okay, quite late LOL - but better late than never....

Go check out the sixth edition of the new Canadian Home Educator's Carnival ...and if you're Canadian and want to submit something for the seventh edition, the details are here!

The security team

Had to add this... these are our five, carefully watching the little black fella when he was prowling in the backyard the other day. ;-)

( From left to right: Claire, Max, Toby, Moly, Angel )

Meow

Another one! I tell ya, they know where to come. :-P

An update to the previous unknown-cat post - he did indeed have a home, a few streets away... he's back with his owners. :-)

Now, this little guy turned up, meowing outside my door and trying to get in! Nobody recognizes him from our neighbourhood... he's only about 6 or 7 months old (very kittenish and young looking & acting), male, not fixed... and has no 'outdoor sense' whatsoever. He either snuck out on someone or...he was dumped here. This is no outdoor cat - it's obvious in his lack of 'street smarts' .... he's so young, as well.

(This is a prime area for someone to 'dump' an unwanted cat - with so many families all close together, people figure they'll get a home. *sigh* )

I've put his photo on several ad websites for our area, called both vet offices and given them descriptions, along with the pound and the radio stations...if he has an owner, I hope we find him or her... meanwhile, he's in my bathroom. No worries, it's fairly big in there - he has his own litterbox, food dish, water dish, toys, and a big window to sit in... I just can't let him run around with the others right now - they're not too happy about him and he's NOT fixed, so he could decide to start spraying and trying to mark *his* territory. Lots of space in the bathroom though, and we're in an out constantly, giving him attention. (He's SOOOOO affectionate!)

He's just a little guy - this photo is a bit deceiving, as he looks bigger than he is...he's smaller than all mine and weighs maybe 5 lbs or so.. not very old at all.

A lady got in touch and said that if I don't find his owner, she could maybe give him a home - I'll keep her in mind, because as much as I wouldn't mind another cat... there's not exactly room... and Blair would disown me. *grin*

He's such a little doll though.. so affectionate and constantly purring. <3

Tagged

I've been tagged :-)

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.

Each player answers the questions about themselves.

At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.


a) What was I doing 10 years ago?

That would have been May of 1998... I was working at the old Zellers here in town, as part of the two-person "maintenance crew" ... the other half of that was my cousin Norm (who is also my best friend and just like a brother to me)...we were roomates, sharing a few different places ( I wasn't with Blair yet - we've been together for 8 years) - and getting bored with stuff here... 4 months later we quit our jobs, sold off most of what we owned, bought an old Dodge van that looked a lot like this (except ours was dark red) and spent some time living in it, zig-zagging all over Canada and finally ending up in Edmonton for a while. (We came back the next year - this is *home*!)


b) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today:

1. 'school' (of course)
2. Take Miss Cinders to the pool
3. Mop the kitchen & living room floor
4. Call the human society to see if anyone has reported a little black cat missing (a post about that later)
5. laundry




c) Snacks I enjoy:

I'm not much of a sweet-eater --- I mean, I like some.. but I'd rather have a salty or savoury type of snack. Sea salt & vinegar chips, Dulse, vegetable crackers, baked dill chips, that sorta stuff.

d) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

The very first thing I would do is split the winnings (I assume this would come from a lottery LOL) with my above-mentioned cousin & his commonlaw wife. We've always split lottery stuff and said that if either of us ever wins big, the other is also rich. Once that was done, we'd still be rich - we're talking BILLIONS here!- LOL, so it's present time for everyone! There is nothing I enjoy more than giving presents, so I could have a lot of fun with this! (of course, we'd buy our house in the country and Blair could retire immediately & forever LOL ...but my fave part would be the present giving! One of those 'presents' would be to make sure that my mom and my mother in law both had the homes they dream of living in and never have to work again!)

(This is one of those questions that is often hard to answer - I mean...billions. That's just insane LOL)


e) Places I have lived:

Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Alberta - mainly those three provinces, though multiple places in each one.


And who am I tagging?

I'll tag whoever wants to play along! :-)

Rambling...

Max has taken to sleeping on the cable box - I think he likes the heat that it gives off... (it runs constantly like a computer) ..

I fell off the edge of the earth for a bit - we've actually been searching for a different place to rent and in that, I've been running all over the island looking at houses...and finding nada. So far, everything that I've seen has either been waaaaay too expensive for us or falling apart. *sigh*

What we want is a little house out of town - we need three bedrooms and the landlord has to be fine with pets... I want something that is quiet & peaceful & not that hard to heat....little yard.... somewhere to plant flowers & veggies....and not on the main highway. Those don't seem like huge expectations - but it's rather hard to find...

(We can't buy - as much as we'd like to, we haven't got the credit for that. Maybe in a year or two. It has to be rent.)

I do have a potential line on a place, if the lady gets back to me.. it's a 3 bedroom house by the water, about 15 min from town here... it won't be available until September though - it's a year-round cottage and there's people booked in for a few weeks in the summer.. I've seen photos - it's cute.. two story, has a wood stove in it... I'm hoping to go see it sometime this week....

*************************




These are my mother's cats, Shawna (top) and Betsy. Shawna is 15 years old and can be a bit of a grouch - she's earned it with her age though LOL ... Betsy is - I'm not sure.. around 8 I think....

I just had to put them here - no particular reason, other than that I saw the photos on my card as I was digging around...




Miss Cinders is all smiles because she's the proud owner of a cd player that she bought for herself after saving her allowance for a while. She finally realised that there are better things to spend her money on than candy at the corner store. *grin*




She has only two swim sessions left - where'd the time go? yeesh. There are eight classes for each level, on Sat & Sun afternoons, and she was at her sixth the other day...this weekend, she finds out if she passes or not.. fingers crossed! :-)

(If you're wondering what a photo of her on a lawn tractor has to do with swimming - they have a stupid rule about no cameras in the pool area.. the tractor was out in the main entry, advertising for some lawn company...and attracting kids.)




Summer is just about here - well, I shouldn't say that yet..it's only the end of May.. watch it go and snow on me just for daring... Christopher is quite pleased, as he's not a fan of winter because it's cold and confusing - think about this: you can't see...so you rely a lot on your hearing & sense of touch...then, someone dresses you in a big thick winter coat, a fuzzy hat under a puffy hood, a scarf wrapped across your face, and big fluffy mittens cover your hands. Now what?) ...he loves summer - beaches and parks and picnics and bike rides....

Trucks & Whiskers

"Look Daddy - we have giant trucks too!" ;-)




This is "Buffy"....he's been hanging out in our neighbourhood for a couple of days now - the story as I've heard it is that he followed a couple of girls home from the down by the pool.... He's very friendly, pretty clean, not scrawny...doesn't really strike me as a stray or a barn cat (there's a horse racetrack & barns down near the pool and there's often cats around there)....I'm going to post his photo on a local website that has lost & found postings and see if I can't scare up his owner....Meanwhile, he's been joining us for mealtimes here and playing peekaboo with my cats in the kitchen window...I love his coat - such a pretty pattern!

If we can't find his owner...well, there's not much difference between five and six, right? *grin*

Splash

Miss Cinders started her swimming lessons this past weekend. She's never taken any formal lessons before because I didn't see much point in paying $75 for someone to teach her how to blow bubbles. :-P (The beginner levels are very very basic) ...That, along with the fact that she was always nervous at the pool and just was not ready to really swim until this past year...

We did jump in a bit too far ahead though - since she'd never been in lessons before, I wasn't sure what level to sign her up for...we chose Level 4, figured she might be able to pass that one. Umm, not yet. ;-) ..I didn't realise just how far along the level 4 kids are - she did one lesson with them and was struggling to keep up the whole time... these are kids who are already quite good at the front crawl, back crawl, treading water, etc. Well, she's still somewhat dog paddling and just learned to tread water the day before the lesson. Yeah, bit of a larger bite than we'd anticipated - so we moved her down to the level 3 class.

She's happy about it - she was *so* tired after the hour long level 4 class... but I told her I was really proud of her because she followed those kids and gave it her best shot, doing things she had never ever done before...they all went into a back crawl and she looks over at me, shrugs, and jumps in to try...arms fly around, legs kick in every direction, and she actually made it to the other end - where she pretty much collapsed in a fit of exhaustion. I knew right then that we'd be moving her to level 3. ;-)

She had her first level 3 class the next day - shorter class, 1/2 hour instead of a full hour - and she had a great time...she's now with kids who are much more on the same level and I think she'll likely pass this one. :-)

Boy meets Dog

This is Cruz - he belongs to my 19 year old cousin and Christopher met him for the first time the other day....it's all he's talked about since! He isn't normally keen on animals, and while he didn't spend much time actually 'touching' Cruz, he loved his name. Christopher gets attached to certain words and we'll hear them over and over again for months - right now, it's "Cruz" and things like "Cruz get down!" and "Cruz, stop it!" ....words that were spoken by 14 year old sister of the owner, as Cruz was running and jumping all over the place.

Isn't he cute?? He's *very* strong - nothing but muscle on this fella.

Homeschool Mentors

The fourth edition of the Canadian Home Educator's Carnival has a theme suggested - Homeschooling Mothers or Mentors. (The theme is optional - if people want to submit other posts, the guidelines say that this is fine too) In the post, Jacqueline asks:

Do you have a mentor or someone that encouraged or inspired you to begin to home school, or someone that is inspiring or encouraging you to continue in your homeschooling?

When I read the post, I thought immediately of a wonderful lady who has chatted with me many times this year, giving me not only advice & suggestions, but wonderful moments of laughter and inspiration - the lovely Ganeida.

Ganeida is a homeschooling mother living on a beautiful island half a world away from me and she's truly been a blessing. I've yapped the poor lady's ears off on many occasions (hmm, with it being via emails, blogs and forum pm's, perhaps I should say 'eyes'? ) asking questions and prattling on like a fussy hen; not once has she told me to run off a wharf. *grin* ...She's been patient and kind, sharing her homeschooling experience and digging up resources when I went ACK! KINESTHETIC LEARNER! - ha, actually...I went more like: ACK! MEXICAN JUMPING BEAN WITH THE ATTENTION SPAN OF A FLEA! ... she named it for me. *grin*


I'm hoping I won't embarrass her with this post - *ducks* - but as soon as I saw the theme title for this edition, I knew a shout out was in order.

Thank you, Ganeida - not just for your patience and kindness and sharing of experiences, but for being a friend.

Snack?

Some cats are not quite as....bright.....as others.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day Everyone!

Little update to the rant

Friday, I decided to poke into the school for a moment and let the principal know what had occurred - I thought that maybe she (principal) could give the mother a call and bring up the concern.... Guess I had high hopes, because she didn't seem overly concerned. She said she'd "look into it" and rushed away. I didn't see the girl at pickup time, nor on the drive home, so I thought maybe the mother had been contacted - turned out that she apparently *was* up in our neighbourhood again, but as it wasn't raining, she 'hung out' with other kids outside and didn't come near our place. That's what Cindy and a couple of others told me, anyway. *Sigh*

Bit of a rant

What would possess a mother to tell a ten year old child to just 'go hang out' in a neighbourhood for two and a half hours when they child had no idea whose house they'd end up at - and it was pouring rain???

This was the situation we ran into yesterday...Cindy and I went down to Christopher's school at 3pm to pick Kyla (neighbour's girl) and him up and on the way back we saw a girl that Cindy knows, walking up towards our neighbourhood - she *used to* live up here, but a few months back she moved to the other side of town, so she's normally a bus student going that way....I figured, "oh she must be going to someone's house up here" and pulled over to give her a ride....I asked her where she was going and she did indeed say our area...so I asked what house, figuring I'd pull right in the driveway of whatever one, so she didn't get any wetter, and she just said "oh it doesn't matter, wherever" .... Hmmm, I thought. As we got to our house, it comes out that her mother has "a brand new job" and apparently couldn't leave that job to pick her up - a problem that many parents are faced with right now with the buses off the road.....so the child was told to just go and hang around in our neighbourhood and that her mother would pick her up "near the old house" when she got off work. (No the girl doesn't know the people now living in her old house.)

Now, this is a fairly safe town, a fairly safe neighbourhood, yes... But she had nowhere specific to go, no specific friend's house to hang out at, no plans with anyone's parent to keep an eye on her - she's ten, in grade 4...and it was pouring rain.

Now, Cindy has had some problems with this young lady in the past - some bullying issues - and at one time, when the girl lived up here, I'd put my foot down and said they weren't to hang out together...but I wasn't about to leave this kid roaming the neighbourhood or sitting on someone's step to stay out of the rain, so I told her she could come in our house - but I did ask if she knew her mother's work number, thinking maybe this was a big mix up or something...she didn't know it, but she knew her mother's cell, so she called her....I was waiting for her to hand me the phone, figuring okay, she'll (mother) talk to me (she's never met me, by the way) ...but nope. The girl was on the phone for maybe 30 seconds, saying "I'm at Cindy's house" and "okay bye" ...I asked her what her mother said and the reply was just that she'd pick her up when she got off work "at 5" .... (it turned out to be 5:30)

Am I just old fashioned? Would YOU tell your ten year old to just 'go hang out' in a neighbourhood for several hours with no specific plans and nobody arranged to keep an eye on her? (and pouring rain at that!) ....She knows kids up here (the child) but...she's 10! Not 15.....

5pm rolled around and I opened the front door, expecting the mother to show up shortly and come pick up her child.....nothing, until 5:30 - then a car starts driving around the neighbourhood, looking like the driver is looking for someone, so I called the girl down and said "watch, is that your car?" ...yep. The mother didn't even know which house was "Cindy's house". The girl grabbed her stuff and ran outside, chasing her mother down.

After she left, Cindy told me that she said she was supposed to "do the same thing tomorrow" .... *headshake*

She's welcome to come here, but this is just all sorts of wrong to me.

Psssst...anybody wanna buy an earth?

Of course golden retrievers had to be included. ;-)

What a mess..

They pulled all 320-something school buses off the roads in our province - a sudden move yesterday that has taken parents all across the island by suprise. They pulled half (or so) of them earlier in the day and many public school kids were quite late getting home, having to take other buses, be doubled up, etc. I've heard from some angry parents as well that some kids whose buses weren't available were just let go, walking home along highways and such, others whose kids ended up on buses they'd never ridden and were dropped off in the wrong place.

Why? "Structural deficiencies" is what they're saying - apparently, the buses are corroded and full of rust.

According to the news, the schools will remain open but students have to find another way to get to school. Doesn't sound like that big of a deal until you consider this:

"Ninety per cent of the province's 21,000 students are eligible for busing."

Most of the island is rural - we're not talking students who walk a block to school...we're talking some students with a 30-40 min bus ride. Mix that up now with a parent who needs to be at work 45 min in *this* direction and a child who needs to be at school 45 min in *that* direction and you have some problems.

It's not a problem for us - we live fairly close to Christopher's school. I'll be driving him (with his disability, he's a very slow walker; we'd have to leave too early) and possibly a couple of neighbourhood kids, easy. Cindy doesn't have a bus issue - and she said yesterday that she was quite glad of that *grin*.

Obviously they did what they did because it's a safety issue - but boy has it ever created a mess. I wonder what percentage of kids will actually be in school today?

Canadian Carnival is up..

Check out the Canadian Home Educator's Blog for the carnival's third edition!

Random bits

Snagged this from Tiffany.. :-)

Where is your cell phone? I don't own a cell - though I was quite amused with the boys' phones while they were here and if I could have any phone (forget cost), I'd take one like that...preferably in a bright colour though!

Your significant other? That would be my husband Blair, of course. (MISS YOU!!) ..He's working out in Alberta with my cousin Norm right now....34 years old, fond of video games , 80's movies, ketchup chips and - shhh, he'll growl if he knows I said this - is an extremely talented cross-stitcher. Yep! I love him to bits - we were married this past January (after 8 years of being commonlaw) and I couldn't be happier about that! :-)

Your hair? Long and boring. Dark brown with some lighter spots where the sun got it. Nothing all that interesting here! (As a teenager, it was every colour of the rainbow)


Your mother? Lives right in town here - a 2 minute walk from our front door, if that. Loves cats & sewing, knows a lot about the birds she feeds every year. Grows beautiful flowers in front and behind her house and drives a Toyota Echo. Works in the kitchen at a manor (nursing home) and loves to read mysteries.

Your father? Lives in Germany with my stepmother - he's military (this is his last year in, I believe he's out this summer) and that's where they sent him on his last posting, near 4 years now I think. I actually don't know my father very well, but I think that may change a bit when they come back to Canada this summer - they'll likely settle in the next province over and we may have visiting opportunities.

Your favorite thing? "Thing"? ...hmmm. Our computer! *grin*

Your dream last night? I don't remember - I know a few nights before that, I dreamed that the basement was flooded with water and there were a bunch of raccoons swimming in it.

Your favorite drink? Diet pepsi, I guess. Now that they've officially begun to allow canned pop on the island, that may change. There's a lot of diet pop varieties out there that we've never had here - and the energy drinks! Those weren't allowed to be sold here until yesterday...There's all sorts of them - Red Bull, Rockstar, Monster, and more.. I might become quite fond of those LOL.... Oh yes, coffee too... particularly of the french vanilla variety.

Your dream/goal? Okay - I could write a book here. I'll stick with the very short though... Blair back home and us all living in a house out of town with a big yard, a tire swing, lots of flowers, and a dog.

Your ex? I have a few of those - most of them, I couldn't tell you where they are or what they're doing. There's one who is currently dating a cousin of mine; she's having his baby, last I heard. It's a small town.

Your fear? forks

Where were you last night? Later evening - at home. Earlier evening - down in Charlottetown, having taken Miss Cinders to the babysitting course and having spent the day roaming around with Diane and Christopher.

What are you not? Rich? 8 feet tall? Double jointed? Italian? I'm not a lot of things! Odd question.

Muffins? Hmmm. There's a yummy lemon-cranberry one that I like getting from a local coffee shop...

One of your wish list items? a sudden big lottery win!

Where you grew up? Everywhere. Military brat, then I ran away. I call the town I live in (and was born in) home though.

The last thing you did? Had a sip of my french vanilla coffee that is sitting right beside me on the end table.

What are you wearing? Pink & green striped pj pants, green t-shirt with Super Grover on it. (The stuff I slept in last night - it's 8am)

Your pets? Five felines and one fish named Toast.

Your life? Is awesome - with the exception of Blair working away.

Your mood? Usually, or right this very second? I'm not all that aake and energetic yet this morning... but I'm generally a pretty easy-going person, I think.

Missing someone? To quote Hannah Montana, "ya think?"

Your car? 1995 Saturn Station Wagon at the moment. White, with a missing hubcap. Pink & black fuzzy dice, matching steering wheel cover. Eeyore antenna ball.

Something you are not wearing? mittens!

Like someone? Haha, now this reminds of those quizzes that I see on my teenage cousins' facebook accounts.

Your favorite color? Hmmm. I like a lot of colours! Not keen on red though - it looks like crud on me.

When is the last time you laughed? Around 5am this morning when Max was being silly, trying to get me up to give him breakfast. Have you ever had a paw in your mouth? Pfffth *spit fur*.


Who will re post this? Oh I have no idea. I'm not tagging anyone - just go ahead and snag it if you want. :-)

Off they go again....

Well, today was the day. Back to Alberta they go... blaaaaaaah. Eh, you do what you have to do, right? ...We have a purpose and an end-goal and it's important that we keep it in mind...it still sucks though.

The boys were home for ten days (well, almost) and while I've poked my nose on here to read the blogs of others, I didn't do any posting of my own (with the exception of the post about the carnival) because time was short - I read and replied around sometimes, but it takes a while to do posts of my own because I'm a photo junkie and can't post without them. *grin* (hmm, visual learner? LOL) ....With such a short amount of time with Blair, we treasured every moment of it. . . . .

We were up early this morning to make sure everything was set - their flight was leaving at 12:20, so we had to be at the airport by 11am, meaning out of town by 10am (this time we were working with the airport on the island - not way the heck over in Halifax!) .....


He had to snuzzle his baby first. ;-) ...He grumbles and growls about the number of cats (and other critters in the past) that I seem to gather, but he's a big ol' softie and loves them too. Angel is his sook!




Then it was off to fetch Norm (we couldn't all fit in one car - each of our cars will only sit 5 and there was 6 of us) ....




And then to fetch Diane from her workplace - she works at a Montessori center.



Then we were off, kids munching away on snacks in the backseat...



Now, Diane and I had a bit of fun - see, both of the boys have cell phones out there because they need them and they've got these really cool ones that do all sorts of stuff... they take photos, have maps, play games, play music, etc etc etc...and...they text!! Okay, so apparently this isn't all that unique, I've been told, but it was for me...see, I've used a cell phone maybe twice?? in my life and I'd never ever "texted" anyone - the cells I used were several years ago and they didn't do that. I was very amused with the whole texting thing and took whatever chances I had to snag Blair's phone and play. *grin*



(Excuse the black blurb - Blair's cell # was there and I didn't want it just 'out there' LOL ...the times are wrong since he still had it set on Alberta time)

Diane had Norman's in the car and we were amusing ourselves texting back and forth as we went down the highway - the boys were driving, no worries! I wouldn't even TALK on one while driving, never mind while typing!



Heh - the second line down was me and the top was her. We won't really be getting them because they're too expensive and we don't *need* them...but we kept teasing the boys that we would. ;-)

(It was such fun to play with though!! I even figured out how to download music - the phones go right on the internet!!)

45 minutes or so down the highway and we arrived at the airport and unloaded the boys and their gear...




Then a while of waiting around...something fairly common to airports...



The kids found a wooden bead table to play with....



...I don't know if this is I love you! or RAWR I'll get you! ...but it's cute!




A sleepy Norm - either that or my flash got him. :-P




Blair taking a picture of me taking a picture of him taking a picture of me taking a picture of ... you get the idea. ;-)



(Wasn't the first time we did that LOL)


Boarding call came.... Christopher with hugs for Daddy....





Diane with hugs for Norm....



Miss Cinders with hugs for Daddy....





And off they went into the secured area where we weren't allowed to go... we stood and waved at them there for a while (looking rather goofy to others, I suppose..most people say goodbye there and leave..we're weird. *grin* ) and then went down to another area where you can watch the plane take off...




Here's their plane turning around to taxi out....they were on that side, far as I know.



......there they go.....




Right now, they're somewhere in the air between Toronto and Edmonton (Blair gave me a quick call when they landed in Toronto - they had only 25 minutes between flights)...they get into Edmonton at about 8pm our time (5pm their time out there) and then they have to do that long drive in reverse, back up the 63 to Fort McMurray (at least this time it isn't snowing and the highway shouldn't be "travel not advised" - won't be quite as long a drive)... their tickets went right to Fort Mac, but because of the whole mess before, Norm's car is in Edmonton (in the long term parking lot) and they have to pick it up.

Diane and the kids and I wandered around for a bit down there before driving home - we spent a few minutes in a thrift shop (I found the cutest denim jumper thing with Eeyore on it!) and then hit the grocery where we can get veggie sushi (she's not a vegetarian like I am, but she likes the veggie version anyway) and I found this interesting looking "seaweed salad"....



It was slimy and odd - and delicious. Miss Cinders disagrees (she tried a teeny bit) though. ;-)


Tomorrow, it's back to Charlottetown again - Cindy is taking the Red Cross Babysitter's Course with some other homeschoolers...this was originally scheduled for Apr 26th, but the guy running it had to change it to tomorrow. She's quite excited! :-) ...Diane is coming along - we drop Cindy off for that and then she and I and Christopher are heading to my very first used curriculum fair! I've never been to one - we only started hs'ing last year - and you bet I'm hitting this one. I have several things in mind that I'm hoping I might find... *fingers crossed* .... After that, who knows. Somehow, we have to find enough to do for the whole day down there because it makes no sense to drive all the way home (45 min) and then back again to fetch Cindy - not with the crazy price of fuel these days!