Top Ten #2

This is a pretty good one too. Also, 5 or 6 of our friends from our ward in Poway have had their homes burn down. How tragic... I worked at the popcorn shop today. I have been asked to work there 4 days next week too...not really looking forward to it but I have such a hard time saying no! Well, maybe I'll get some free popcorn out of it. Ok, here's the top ten list...again, my favorite's in green...ha ha ha

Ways to Make the House Of Commons More Interesting

1. Make the politicians give their speeches in rap, just like that Bulworth guy
2. Whoopee cushion on the Speaker's chair.
3. Parliament press gallery + a pack of starving timber wolves = quality entertainment the whole family can enjoy.
4. Every time the Prime Minister answers a question, an Opposition member has to yell "'Fraid not!"
5. Two words: Dunk tanks.
6. Get that "Let's get ready to RUM-BLLLLE" guy to start every new session.
7. All the cabinet ministers' answers must be phrased in the form of a question.
8. Put in those funky Pop-Up Video Balloons during question period -- e.g., when they show a picture of Chrétien, the phrase "Hobbies: fishing, the manly art of self-defence and collecting Inuit sculptures" will bloop on the screen.
9. Instead of seating by party, arrange all the members by height.
10. New Deputy PM: Danielle House! (have NO idea who this is?!)

Top Ten #1

In my search for information for my up and coming Canadian Night debut, I came across this website that had heaps of good stuff. There are several Top Ten lists and so I chose one that I thought you might all enjoy! My favorite is highlighted in green!

Songs That Should Replace 'O Canada' As Our National Anthem

1.Queen's We Will Rock You
2.The Irish Rovers' Wasn't That A Party
3.Tom Cochrane's Life is a Highway
4.The Barenaked Ladies' If I Had A Million Dollars
5.That song with no words they play during hockey games, just people shouting "Hey!" during the chorus
6.The Hockey Night in Canada theme song
7.Anything by Stompin' Tom Connors
8.The Beatles' Twist and Shout, with a law requiring everyone -- including the Prime Minister -- to do the Twist when it's played
9.Bachman Turner Overdrive's Taking Care of Business
10.Queen's We Are The Champions. 'Nuff said!

These days...

Well, last week I worked full time for Remax. I had a good time getting used to the one office that I had worked at the least and I was flat out all week long. I swear being a mother/wife and a full time worker do not mix! I would get home and a couple days I would have prepared dinner so it was all ready and waiting for me when I got home but if it wasn't prepared...look out family! One night it was pretty scary. I had used up all my brain power at work and had absolutely no imagination left when it came to figuring something out for dinner, so this is what I fed my family...I cooked up some ground beef and added a few spices to it, then I cooked some rice, heated up a can of beans in tomatoe sauce, cooked up some chinese noodles, cut up some lettuce and put salsa and sour cream on the table. It sucked...yup...usually, I can start cooking up the meat and something really creative will come into my mind and I'll end up with something really unique and yummy. This...was neither. It was something of a hodge podge of ingredients that didnt really match each other at all. Ha ha..at least that doesn't happen very often! Well, one night a couple months ago I actually made popcorn for supper! Can you believe that!? I should have fed them popcorn last week instead of hodge podge garbage. Well, now this week is catch up week. I worked in the yard yesterday for the better part of it, and it is starting to look fabulous. And I cleaned up Mesa's tornado room on Monday. I would love to give you some pics but I also was little miss butterfingers and dropped the camera and now it's broke! Crap! We just got it in March and I dropped the last one too! I need to stop this camera breaking nonsense!



Tomorrow I've been asked to fill up an hour doing some sort of presentation on Canada to a bunch of 8-11 year olds for a Faith in God activity. So now I have to spend a bunch of time on that. I am enjoying preparing for that though...Did you know that the highest mountain in Canada is in the Yukon territories and reaches 5959 m? It is called Mt. Logan. The provinces with the most mountains are (1) B.C (2) Yukon Territories (3) Alberta...PEI boasts it's highest peak at just 142m. Just some food for thought.



One other thing I wanted to talk about was the fires in San Diego. My dad called me up this am and says, "I bet yer glad ya don't live in San Diego anymore!" I'm like, what? "Don't you watch the news?" Ummm no, I don't get the news on tv... then he tells me about the fires going on down there. I checked it out and ended up phoning a friend of mine who's mobile number I had because no one else is home because they've all been evacuated! Crap! Turns out our house that we lived in is gone, as well as our neighbors, one of whom were friends of ours in our ward. I am praying and hoping that everything turns out all right for all who are in danger and who's homes are in danger. It's so weird to think that the place we called home for 2 years is gone! I mean, it was built of rocks so I'm sure the rocks still stand but the interior will be gone. That's all, I'm tired of typing.

So ya wanna become an Aussie mate?

I was given this test by some co-workers. I knew I had failed when I answered the very last question and said I don't drink beer. Have a laugh folks! Not at the answers so much but the questions! We need to think of a good Canadian citizen test for all these Aussies! Seriously...send any good questions to me via facebook or email or comments of the blog...

The new AUSTRALIAN CITIZEN VALUES TEST

LANGUAGE

1. Do you understand the meaning, but are unable to explain the origin, of the term 'died in the arse'?
are you serious? I am unable to do either

2. What is a mole? It is an animal that digs a hole in the ground or a bumpy discoloration on the skin.

3. Are these terms related: chuck a sickie; chuck a spaz; chuck a U-ey? no

4. Explain the following passage: 'In the arvo last Chrissy the relos rocked up for a barbie, some bevvies and a few snags. After a bit of a Bex and a lie down we opened the pressies, scoffed all the chockies, bickies and lollies. Then we drained a few tinnies and Mum did her block after Dad and Steve had a barney and a bit of biffo.' I can understand everything but the barney and a bit of biffo...oh ya, and the block bit? not gettin that either...

CUSTOMS

1. Macca, Chooka and Wanger are driving to Surfers in their Torana. If they are travelling at 100 km/h while listening to Barnsey, Farnsey and Acca Dacca, how many slabs will each person on average consume between flashing a brown eye and having a slash? way too many?

2. Complete the following sentences: a) 'If the van's rockin' don't bother knockin � b) You're going home in the back of a ute?� c) Fair suck of the what the? �

3. I've had a gutful and I can't be fagged. Discuss Thanks to Valma, I know fagged means bothered so...i get a tick for this one eh?

4. Have you ever been on the giving or receiving end of a wedgie? Only on the viewing end...thankfully

5. Do you have a friend or relative who has a car in their front yard 'up on blocks'? Is his name Keith and does he have a wife called Cheryl? Not that I know of!

FOOD

1. Does your family regularly eat a dish involving mincemeat, cabbage, curry powder and a packet of chicken noodle soup called either chow mein, chop suey or kai see ming? I'm a better cook than that! oops! no offense

2. What are the ingredients in a rissole? mince, bread crumbs, egg, spices

3. Demonstrate the correct procedure for eating a Tim Tam. Bite off one corner, then bite off another corner, then suck hot milo through it until it almost is gonna fall apart and then devour the whole gooey choclatey mess

4. Do you have an Aunty Myrna who is famous for her tuna mornay and other dishes involving a can of cream of celery soup? I can only tell you the answer I gave to this question if you personally ask me to! To avoid any offense!

5. In any two-hour period have you ever eaten three-bean salad, a chop and two serves of pav washed down with someone else's beer that has been nicked from a bath full of ice? No but I do know what that means and actually I'd like a pav right about now. And I do love 3 bean salad! yummm

6. When you go to a bring- your-own-meat barbie can you eat other people's meat or are you only allowed to eat your own? Actually, I've been wondering about the answer to that question

7. What purple root vegetable beginning with the letter 'b' is required by law to be included in a hamburger with the lot? beetroot

CULTURE

1. Do you own or have you ever owned a lawn mower, a pair of thongs, an Esky or Ugg boots? lawn mower, yes...thongs, more than one kind...esky, sure...ugg boots, ummm...no

2. Is it possible to 'prang a car' while doing 'circle work'? I'm gonna guess no...what the crap are you talkin about?

3. Who would you like to crack on to? My husband????

4. Who is the most Australian: Kevin 'Bloody' Wilson, John 'True Blue' Williamson, Kylie Minogue or Warnie? Probably Warnie.

5. Is there someone you are only mates with because they own a trailer or have a pool? No, I've changed my ways since my white trailer trash days

6. Would you love to have a beer with Duncan? Who the heck is Duncan? And probably not because I don't drink beer which means I have probably failed my citizenship test right here and now.

I'm also thinking that because I sat here and answered all these stupid questions, that's grounds for failure as well...yup..true blue Canadian!

Remembering Gramaxine...

Last night as I was about to lay down to sleep I heard a police siren for just a few seconds in the background and it brought back a flood of memories for me.

Growing up in the farmlands of Southern Alberta with only the sound of the cows, sheep, birds, horses and other odd animals to lull me to sleep or wake me up, I always craved and thought it very exciting to go to my Grandparents house in Raymond and sleep over there where I could hear other noises such as police sirens for a few seconds or cars driving by or even seeing the shadows cast upon the walls from the headlights of a car driving by. It was a cool whole new world and it filled me with a sense of excitement.

(Me, Grandma and Baby Candace)

My Grandma Maxine and Grandpa Lenard were the coolest. They would have us 4 kids over on a regular basis, and not all at once either! I said they were cool, not stupid! Sometimes I would go by myself. Sometimes I would go with my sis. Other times it would be my older brother and I. It just depended on what kind of mood everybody was in. Whether it was my brother or my sis, we used to go on these "Great Adventures" We would hop on bikes with banana seats and those handle bars that go up..you know the ones? Then we would ride all over Raymond exploring new places and enjoy our freedom without the accompanyment of any adults. Then when we got back we could have pretty much anything we wanted. Ice cream, hard tack candies, nigger babies, homemade pies and sometimes homemade rootbeer if it was the right time of year. Whatever she had was there for us. I especially liked her selection of ice cream. She rarely ever had plain old vanilla and chocolate like my mom did. It was always strawberry ripple, butterscotch ripple, chocolate ripple, neopolitan, tiger, strawberry...yah, the selection was great. We could watch t.v. as much or as little as we liked, which was definetly a treat for us because at our house watching t.v. was definetly a special treat. This was where I got to watch The Price is Right probably for the first time. There was usually something fun to do at Grandma's. Take Fraggle Rock for instance...They had a real life fraggle rock below their house. It was so cool. I'm sure if I were to take a look at it now I wouldn't think it was anything exciting, but to a child, it was fantastic! Tunnels with dirt walls and floor...We weren't allowed down there too much though cuz gramps was always afraid something might happen to us down in fraggle rock without him! He just wanted to putter around in the shed outside and pretend like he was fixing the world! ha ha
Grandma with Candace and Baby Blaze in the hospital after she was too fragile to be on her own.

Waking up to the smell of coffee was such a comfort those days. To this day, I love the smell of coffee and I think that's why! Gramaxine would make us anything we wanted for brekky. Toast, eggs, hot chocolate, cold cereal. Then she'd put her trust in us to go get the mail from the post office and often give us money for a treat at the Raymond Pharmacy (usually gum as my mum wouldn't let us chew gum! We were so sneaky!) and then later on maybe we'd go to the Merc and do some shopping with her. In the winter time it was always fun to race to the heaters and almost get burned by the hot air coming out of them...Only at Gramaxine's and Grampa Lenard's house...

Us with my Dad in the hospital. This would have been shortly before she died.

It was so cool how just that few seconds of police siren brought back a flood of memories for me and for the first time in the 9 years since she died, I cried cuz I missed her and I had this huge aching desire to be a child again and be in her house and feel of her love for me. She always made me feel special and would give me almost anything I wanted which was quite uncommon for me as it seemed my own mother used to say 'No' more often than not! Anyways, I hope I didn't bore you all to tears with my memories. I really did this for my family because I know when they read it they will remember too and memories of our loved ones is such a precious gift. There are so many more memories but...

Grandma with Baby Candace

The oh so great surprise

Yesterday I was in a major rush to get ready for work b/c of some stuff I was doing before work that Candace would rather have me not tell what it was...so anyways, I had asked the girls if they would please pack me a lunch and told them a few things I wanted so they did. That was really nice! I was then at work and when I went to grab a couple things to eat I found this. I thought that was so sweet for my girls to do that for me! It really brightened my day at that point. Yay! Thank you my sweet girls! I love you too!

Girls Day Out

Well, some news to tell....remember my job as a PA? Well, I just wasn't feeling right about it you know? I don't want to be a career mom and gone from home as much as I would have been, even though I wouldn't have been gone from my kids at all really, it was going to be the loss of too much freedom and after 2 days of working on the job I realized it wasn't the work I really wanted to do anyways. Actually I would rather muck stalls than that! So I was gonna ring them up on Monday and tell them they should look for someone else but they beat me to the punch! How weird is that!? They were feeling the same way so it was a mutual agreement that I don't work for them and that made me feel really good because here I was fretting all weekend about letting them down!



So because of that I have been on a high the last couple of days and also because of that, I was able to have today and tomorrow to spend with my girls...just us...so we planned on doing some fun stuff. Today I took them to the Plaza and we went on the Banana Boats and they each bought a beanie Kid which is the Aussie version of a Beanie Baby. Then we went to the beach and had hot chips and soaked up some sun. I read a book while the girls played in the water. Yah, the weather and water are not hot enough yet for me to take the plunge!

I took some pics of these activities and my friend Amber also met us at the beach with her baby Chloe who happens to be my favorite little midget these days. So cute she is. Enjoy all the pics!

This is my attempt at photography

I am waaaaay tired now though. I think I may have gotten a bit of heat stroke. Just super tired and no appetite...that kinda thing. Not that that's a bad thing! (the appetite part!)

I owe my life to Chocolate

My sis was quite concerned when she read this as she thought it was really about me so I thought I should clarify that it is actually an email I got...

A good piece of chocolate has about 200 calories.
As I enjoy two servings per night, and a few more on weekends,
I consume 3,500 calories of chocolate in a week,
which equals one pound of weight per week.

Therefore ...

In the last 3 ½ years, I have had a chocolate caloric intake of about
180 pounds.
I weigh 165 pounds.

Without chocolate, I would have wasted away to nothing about three months ago!

I owe my life to chocolate.