Friday, April 28, 2006

Scotland



Welcome to Scotland! On the right we have a picture of Edinburgh that DOESN'T feature the castle, though it can be seen in the background. I never got much closer to the castle than this. I came more to check out the art galleries.
Below we have Eileen Donan castle which unfortunatly was closed while we were in that part of the world. Still, we did get to walk around the outside. John McCrae was a Canadian, but I don't recall ever seeing
postcards here with his "In Flanders Field" poem. I found them in the gift shop for the castle. Apparently Eileen Donan is in McCrae clan territory and they appear to be proud of their poet. There's also a Clan McCrae memorial beside the castle.

"Oh what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day!"

"The sun is shining, the tank is clean, and we are getting out--"
I love sunny days! Especially when they are mixed with a few dreary grey days and a little breeze...not a wind tunnel. The days are definately getting nicer. Danaka and Maret are now keeping the popsicle tray filled with lemonade so every day they are out on the porch sucking on them. Like now. Pancakes on in the making...with real maple syrup...I still think the YWAM Dundee people were AWESOME for adding that to our brunch in February.
My dad, Danaka, and Gaelyn went to visit the accountant in Nanoose yesterday. Big deal, right? But they got this awesome view of a semi driving over some dude's car in the parking lot...WAIT A MINUTE! That's DAD'S car! Byebye mercedes. "It's a hard knock life..." :)
I think I'll go read a book.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Happy Easter!

This is the best Easter of my ENTIRE LIFE! -haha
I am typing this morning with a bowl of last night's couscous that Hillary and I made. The little kids didn't like it, but Mom, Dad, and Rauchelle did and that's enough to make me happy.
Yesterday morning/afternoon my dad took Hillary, Danaka and I out 4x4ing in the jeep as far up the mountain as the snow would let us go. We made a few stops along the way to make a snow man, have a snowball fight or two (Hillary kept throwing snow down my shirt!), break off icicles from the rock face, eat gooey cinnamon rolls, and let Hillary make a snow angel and face print. We found a geocache, the rusted remains of an old car in a waterfall, and a man who told us about a dead body somebody found on the side of the road down by Horne Lake.
We got home a little before 2:00, admired my mother's new all-fridge and all-freezer (as she calls it) that arrived while we were out, ate lunch, and visited with two next door neighbours over apple pie and cookies and chai tea. The rest of the afternoon was spent playing Scum (personified by yours truely) and Canada Jingo (like bingo, but you have to answer questions about Canada. Hillary is VERY good) until it was time to make the couscous.
Last night Hillary taught Rauchelle and I how to play the cup game Susan taught her, and so this morning it was Danaka, Mitchell, Maret, and Toveli's turn to learn. Mitch is obsessed.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Hillary is here! Like a little girl I have been counting down the days...even the sleeps... We've talked and talked and laughed, looked at pictures, and we even played Straight Jacket 500 and Scum! Hooray for Easter Holidays and no work for my favorite Kiwi!

Friday, April 07, 2006

Various letters put in random orders to create some sort of sense

Don't you just love accidentally finding old friends? I do. Though, technically Laura and Jillian found me first. Oh, the fun of being found. Thanks, girls!

As usual, life has been busy in a slow sort of way. At times my brain feels overloaded with all this new information I recieve in the morning watching the stock market go up and down and reading about it and talking with my dad about different aspects of it.

Always new information. Right now Mom, Dad, and Rauchelle are talking about being acidic vs. alkaline, where the line is drawn on the pH strip, and why it's better to test your urine instead of your mouth. Chelle said she heard it changes fast in your mouth according to what you see and hear. If that's true, it's very interesting.

So, main topics of conversation in my family:
Stocks
Health and raw food
Target shooting
Horses (Danaka, Mitchell and Maret are all taking horse back riding lessons once a week)

I am currently reading 4 books:
Of Permanent Value (bio of Warren Buffet)
Swift Trader (day trading stocks in Canada)
Twenty Years After (the second of Alexandre Dumas' books about the Three Musketeers) For the Temple (a G.A. Henty book about the fall of Jerusalem that I am reading to Danaka)

I find reading just one book to be rather boring.