A Playdate for Puppies and People!

As I’d mentioned a while ago now, we had hopes of heading out for a puppy (and people) playdate with my friend Yolanda.  Unfortunately we got rained out and had to postpone.  Fortunately, the weather was perfect today.    And, as promised, I tried to be less of a hovering mother hen, and more of a stand-back-and-take-photos kinda gal.  So without further ado, our family playdate:

Alice on Yolanda’s lap

Yolanda and Lily-Ann, blowing coloured bubbles.

Indigo and Lily-Ann, hanging at the pond.

Lily and Alice

The girlie – way too cute for words.

Rooty-toot checking on Deedee

Damon and Roo

Lily-Ann and Roo

Deedee and Alice, having a break.

Roo, Alice, and Deedee – under the chair.

Alice and Deedee – being goofy.

Indigo trying to initiate play with Alice and Deedee

Deedee and Alice, watching Indigo (who is off camera).

Yolanda cuddling Deedee while Roo mugs for the camera.

Thank you so much for having us all over Yolanda.  It really was a fabulous afternoon, and a much needed break from all the overtime hours I’ve been putting in lately.    Very much looking forward to doing it again soon.

One Heck of a Day – Chihuahua Puppies!

Wow.

Seriously.  Long.  Day.

LOL  If it weren’t for the pure exhaustion, I’d share it all with you.  But honestly?  I am wiped right out.  The adrenaline is no longer pumping, and I’m likely to crash soon.  Okay, I’m starting to crash NOW. 

Details can wait, but one thing can’t:  a HUGE shout-out to my husband Damon!  Seriously, this guy was a freakin’ rockstar today.  Never whelped a litter of puppies before, and he was amazing.  Seriously, amazing.

Roo went into labour early, she was due on the 27th.  And of course, I’m in Regina, hours from home.  But I didn’t need to worry, (even though I did, I worried and stressed – LOTS) Damon nailed it!  Not only did he keep Roo calm, and help her out with her first litter, he actually saved a puppy who was in distress.  Like I said.  My husband is a rockstar. 

And another huge thank you to Em, Rosalie, and Laurie who all helped out with advice when the little boy was struggling.  And further thank yous to all my dog show peeps (Lisa, Haille, Kandy, Barry, and everyone else) who tried to console me when things were looking bleak, and celebrated with me when things ended up being great.

So yeah.  Long day.  But, one with a bright happy ending.

Rooty-Toot and Puppies

Oh!  And Marnie won another point today, and got Best Puppy in Breed.  LOL  So, yeah.  Totally draining and exhausting and amazing day. 

Like breathing for the first time…

Tonight I spent the evening with Anthony.  He was the coordinator for Camp fYrefly two years ago, so he’s definitely going to be my right hand man for the next six months. This job means so much to me, in so very many ways…  and having a guy like Anthony by my side is only going to make it that much better.

I haven’t felt that lighthearted and that quickly connected with someone in a very long time.  It was honestly like breathing for the first time.  We just instantly seemed to accept one another as we were, for who each of us is.  No expectations.  Just open and honest.  And by some twist of fate, we have SOOO much in common.  So many of the same drives, the same passions.  It really was awesome getting to know him.  I am so looking forward to our next tete a tete.

At one point, a couple hours into our evening, Anthony got really quiet.  And the tone became very serious.  He said to me, “I don’t want to offend you…  but…”  I was nervous about what might come next.  Questions and statements that follow something like that can be brutal, and slash a person to the core.  He finished, looking quizzical but open and honest, staring into my eyes as if searching, “…are you in a heterosexual relationship?”

I’m sure I broke out into the biggest, goofiest grin.  I laughed brightly as I answered in the affirmative.  And he grinned and laughed with me.

It felt so good to be accepted for who I am without anything about me or my sexual identity just being assumed.  Everywhere we go, people instantly judge us.  They make assumptions about who we are, how we  identify, making labels for us for their own convenience and security.  It was amazing to NOT have all that taken for granted, to just be allowed to be me without it mattering, with the question coming almost as an afterthought, yet with concern about how it would make me feel.

Anthony?  Tonight you affirmed for me all of the reasons I first wanted to apply for this position.  Thank you!

It’s amazing to find such a fast friend.  One you can open up to and share secrets with so very quickly.  And I believe I’ve found that in Anthony.  I look forward to many more evenings together with my right hand man.

Yay Camp fYrefly!

Busy day…

Today started off nice and lazy, just the way I like my Sundays…  but then it got busy.  Mostly fun busy, with a visit from my good friend Trae and her son Jaden.  They joined us for supper, which was a really nice treat.  Unfortunately we had some bad busy too though, in the form of a wee girlie and her daddy both with fevers and sick tummies.  A set of sheets, pillow cases, and comforters later…  at least the sickies have a clean bed to lie in.  Always a joy to have those types of messes… but we got through it.  And I have to say, have Trae here to help watch everyone else while I took care of the mess was a big help, and made me feel a lot better about everything.

Before things got busy I had been thinking about scrapbooking kits.  I have a few in mind.  Gotta build up a bit of a supply, and then I’ll hopefully be able to find a shop that is interested in selling them.  Here’s one of the pictures I took today…  while thinking scrapbooks.    Any guesses as to the theme of the kit it will belong in?

The first snowman, snowowl, thing…

Today, during our walk to school, the wee girlie and I were playing catch using snowballs.  It’s only a six block walk, but we usually allow ourselves a half hour to get there because…  well…  because you can just have a lot more fun that way. 

–

“Hey!  Lily-Ann…  check out this move.”

The wee girlie comes running over, and watches, utterly amazed as I take a snow ball and roll it through the damp sticky snow covering the field.  The little, tightly packed ball, quickly grows to double, triple, and quadruple it’s original size.

“This is how you start a snowman.  Wanna build one with me?”

You can almost see the wheels begin spinning in her little mind as her eyes widen.  With the enthusiasm only a pre-schooler can muster, the girl bursts  forth with “Yah!”

And thus our little snow adventure began to take shape.

–

So, on the way to school we built a snowman in the park.  Which is cool enough on it’s own.  It was the wee girlie’s FIRST snowbeing.  We didn’t have carrots or raisins or twigs… but we did have lots of leaves – so they worked for making a face.

On the walk home though, it got even better.  We talked Carissa and her Dad into building some more with us.  In the photo below you’ll see the two super long paths the two larger snowballs made as us two grown-ups pushed them along.  I made the bigger one.  LOL  …but I didn’t have to pick up mine.  Carissa’s dad on the other hand, did have to pick up his, and nearly crashed into the original snowman after dropping his on the ground where it broke in two.  Snow is heavy.  Damp snow especially so. 

The new snowbeing is an owl, I was told.  Or at least what the two girls perceive a mythical snow beastie of an owl to be.  I loved it!

And even the broken half of the second large ball of snow ended up becoming something…  a baby snow creature.  Thus our original snowman became snowmother.  So snowowl, snowmother, and snowbaby now sit in the park by our house waiting to greet us during our walk to school tomorrow.

Working on the snowowl

Discussing what would come next.

The whole snowfamily.

Run, run, run through the pumpkin maze

The wee girlie had her first ever class field trip.  As it turned out, she needed both her Daddy and I to be there with her.  LOL  But it was a nice trip, and I’m grateful that neither of us had to miss out on it.  It was kinda special that we were both able to be there.

This photo is a little quirky, but I love it.   Hope you do too.

Run, Run, Run!

If you remember Carissa from an earlier blog post (where the two girls were holding hands on the way to school) that’s her with the adorable toothless grin.  She and Lily-Ann are too cute for words!  LOL  I’m so thrilled that the wee girlie has picked such a wonderful girl as her bestie.

For those of you who are “friends” with me or “friends of friends” on Facebook, I’ve got a whole album there from todays trip to the pumpkin maze.  It really was a nice time, and I captured some really cute moments.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=458734842352&set=a.458733677352.241763.532787352#!/album.php?aid=241763&id=532787352&page=3

Scraptastic Saturdays – Modesty

Today I just thought I’d share a new layout with you all.  The kit I used is called Built-in Playmate and is a collaboration between Kat’s Creations and another designer.  As a member of Kat’s Creative Team, I had early access to the kit so got to play with it before it was released.

Modesty

Lily, Damon, Keegan, Rob, and the Bear.

Friends of ours were in town this weekend to spend Thanksgiving with family, and we were happy that most of us were able to make some time today to get together.  The  five of us headed out to the Forestry Farm Park and Zoo.  We were there all afternoon, and time went much too fast.  Between the zoo, the new playground, and the fishing pond, we could have easily spent another couple hours hanging around.

For those of you in Saskatoon who haven’t made it to the new playground at the Forestry Farm yet, now is the time to do so.  There is free admission to the park (not to the zoo, just to the park) until late Spring/early Summer… and with the mild weather, you couldn’t ask for a nicer time to go play. 

With that said, here’s the gang hanging out with a bear.

Damon, Lily, Rob, Keegan, and Pooh.

Princess Pinky, the Maiden in the Middle, and other finger friends.

A handful of fun friends came to visit with the wee girlie during a break at our Collective Kitchen leadership training today.  And they all fit onto her Auntie Riki’s hand (who also happened to be taking the training). 

Four Friends

 

You can click the image above to bring it up larger if you’d like to see a little more of our four friends.  LOL

Girlfriends!

This  week I’ve been taking the Collective Kitchen leadership training.  And, yay for me, it’s being offered at the Carpenter’s Church only seven blocks from my house and two blocks from the wee girlie’s school.    Anyway, I left to walk Lily-Ann to school, and on the way we ran into Carissa and her mom.  So the two girls got to walk the whole two blocks together – hand in hand.  It was so sweet.  Us mom’s have exchanged contact info, as we’ve both noticed over the last month how close the girls have gotten.  They hit it off at orientation, and their bond has just gotten stronger as the weeks have gone by.  So hopefully we can work things out for the girls to have a couple play dates at the park before it gets too chilly out for such things. 

Girlfriends!

 

Aren’t they WAY too cute?