Thursday

So Thursday was my last day to have Nugley in the morning so I thought we would go mini putt. I thought it opened at 10 am so we went to the mall first to look around and picked up a bird cottage to paint and build. When we got to the mini putt place I found out it wouldn't be opened until noon and I had to pick up Choo Choo by that time. So Nugley and I went back home and painted his bird cottage. Mom and Dad were both home getting ready for a camping trip and suggested that I take the 2 kids mini putting in the afternoon. During their QT (quiet time) I was thinking about it but was unsure about 2 kids with putters in a small proximity to each other so I thought bowling was a better idea. They loved it and it was even Choo Choo's first time playing. She jumped for joy every time she knocked over any pin. I definitely think I will do this again especially when it is a dreary day. Now my summer has officially started both kids all day all week. It is nice though because this is what I really like doing.

Jack Pine Trail

So today is Wednesday, I've had 3 full days with Nugley and I think we are still getting adjusted to being around each other again. He is testing his limits and I am setting them for him. I decided he needed some more exercise and fresh air and since it was a beautiful day we went on a nature walk in the Greenbelt this specific walk was named Jack Pine Trail. It has a lot of boardwalks over the swamp/marshland and usually chickadees but we didn't find any even though we brought some food for them. We did however, see lots of frogs, some were on the path we were walking others in the swamp but then we couldn't only hear some bullfrogs chanting to each other. Nugley was searching for which one was making that sound and then he heard it from another area and had to look for it there too. We didn't see any deer this time which disappointed me. Oh well maybe next time.

China

So today I took Nugley to the Museum of Civilization we were going there to see Dinosaurs in the Imax theatre. We were there along with a bunch of different schools, luckily for us we were allowed in the theatre first and got some good seats. Nugley really liked the movie but was "a bit scared", not from the actual film but from how loud everything was. He does have tender ears considering how he has been through 3 sets of tubes in both of his ears. Before going to see Dinosaurs we had about an hour so we went to see this new exhibit about China. They had a lot of artifacts and material This exhibition arrived here on May 11 and will stay until October 28 when it will be shipped back to the Museum in Beijing. I have posted some of my favourite pieces.

The first one is a classical poem in cursive script written by Wang Wen.

The next one is a Red Lacquer Case with flower and bird designs.

This one is a stone slab with 12 small seal characters.

And finally this one on the right is a part of a painting Spring Snow 1997 by Wu Guangzhong (1919-). Guangzhong comes from Yixing Jiangsu Province. Following his studies in France, he taught at Qinghua University and the Central Art College. Wu specialized in oils and ink-and-wash landscapes, and has become known for creating a new form of contemporary Chinese painting, which not only integrates Chinese and Western techniques and concepts, but also blends abstract ideas with realistic representations.

First Day of Summer

Now I know it isn't officially the first day of summer but it is for Nugley. He graduated from JK last Friday and is now enjoying his summer. Since Choo Choo still has one more week of school before her holidays, I have taken it upon me to do some fun one on one things with Nugley (mainly because this will be my last summer with them). So today was a great day for STRAWBERRY picking. He was so excited and couldn't wait to get to the farm. There were already a few other people there too. I bought one small basket and one big one. He chose the big one to fill up but asked if I would help him. It took him a while to get started because after he picked each strawberry he had to ask me if it was a good one. I went along with it for a while then eventually mentioned to him that all the red ones were good ones. So away he went. I filled my "little" basket and started helping him. He did get to try one (and told on me for it to Dad because I didn't wash it first).I took us a good hour mainly because there weren't a lot of ripe ones out yet but they will come within the next few days. Here is Nugley showing off one of his prized picks. We ate some after lunch and for snack after "quiet time" plus they were requesting some for dessert after supper when I was leaving. I think I may have to make another trip to the Strawberry Patch.
I am using my strawberries for dipping in chocolate and making daiquiris.

Today

So today has been quite an interesting day of me doing NOTHING!!!!! I arrive at my usual time of 7:30 and get the kids their breakfast, dress them and hurry them out of the house to get them to 2 different schools. Normal so far. I get to the parents office as usually but it doesn't officially open until 10 today, I stay until about 11:30 so I can go and pick Choo Choo up from school and bring her home from lunch. As soon as we walk in the door the phone rings, it's Mom saying that she needs to take her at 12:30 for an assessment for a new school next year (no notice). OK....I guess I will quickly feed her and get her changed in about 10 min. Mom says that I should still pick up Nugley from his school at 3:20. No problem. Well at about 2:30 Dad calls and says he will pick up Nugley from school and he would see me after. So I have been sitting around their house with no kids and nothing to do (it makes the day go by really slow). Why wouldn't they just let me go home at this time, I really hope (because they didn't asked me before hand) that they are not expecting me to stay later because I know that they both have a department meeting tonight at the hospital. hmmmm......

A Sunny Weekend

This past weekend I went downtown Ottawa to the Byward Market. It was a very sunny day but luckily the humidity didn't return and we had a nice breeze. Our main reason for going downtown was so that Will could get a tattoo (Cheryl's pick). So after a few price quotes they decided on a dragon on the right shoulder blade. We had about 3 hours to wait so we went towards the market and took some pics of summer. We saw a few buskers doing their thing. This one was neat to watch with his "hula hoop". We also saw lots of flower stalls with all sorts of different types of flowers and plants. We picked up a few fresh veggies and fruits, some we ate while we were there, well some I ate. We even had to make a stop at the candy store for a few treats. In the market we also saw some artists creating some pieces using on chalk along the sidewalk. The picture I have is of a Picasso art not sure which one but looked nice and colourful. They have a lot of time on their hands and patience. I'm sure it'll look good when it is finished and all it takes is one rain fall to have it go and allow them to start again. Before heading back to the tattoo place we stopped to get an ice cream and while walking back we came across a "parade" if you could call it that. It was mainly a bunch of people (males and females) on bicycles riding through the city NAKED! I was a little unsure of the point of it but hey it's not me so it was interesting to see. They did have police escorts as well which was funny to see.

Finally we get back for his tattoo and it only took about 45 min. He was in a lot of pain, at least it looked that way. It turned out really good but to me it looked really big nothing I would ever get but he liked it and was very happy with it.

Stanley Cup Goes to Anaheim

WIN 2007 STANLEY CUP IN 5 GAMES!!!!!!

New York City

So this summer I am pleased to say that I am finally going to New York. I will be driving there from Ottawa with my two sisters and staying with my Aunt in New Jersey. I bought a book on what to see and do while there but I am still not sure what the one thing to do is. We are planning to go to Central Park, I didn't realize how big it is. We want to see Shakespeare in the Park, my sisters want to visit a store in SOHO called Anthropologie, and I did say they could choose one museum. So if any of you have a spot that is a "have to see" spot please let me know.

Nineteen Minutes

I have just finished reading Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. It is about a trial of a 17 year old boy, Peter Houghton, who was involved in a high school shooting. It makes reference to other school shootings which have happened, like Columbine. The Judge, Alex Cormier, on the trial has mixed feelings on whether she should sit in for the trial because her daughter was a student at the school. The book jumps around a lot from the day of the shooting and the past to know why this might have happened. The title Nineteen Minutes means that is how long it took before the shooter was found by the police. A good read and a surprise ending.

My next book on the list is Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult.

52:26

So this past weekend, well actually it was yesterday, I ran 10k along with 7538 other people which was part of the National Capital Race weekend. There was a 2k, 5k, 10k, half Marathon and full Marathon. My sister Cheryl ran the 5k with Scott, where Scott took off right at the end to beat her. I ran the 10k with Will. He was ahead of me during the first few kilometres and then I lost sight of him so I just focused on my race. My goal time was 50 min. and in the 10k they provide pace bunnies so when the 50 min bunny ran past me I decided to stay with him. It wasn't as easy as I thought because there were so many people in this race that I had to try and weave through the people and avoid the people who decided to stop and walk suddenly. So basically, I lost my friend the pace bunny. But I did feel good through the race not too sore or too tired. I finished the race at 52 min and 26 seconds which beat my time last year by 4 min. I was the 267th female to finish out of 3661, and the 47th in my age category out of 574. I had a pace of 5:20. Oh, and I ended up beating Will as well. Unfortunately me and everyone else who came to watch forgot a camera so we don't have any pics of us on that day. Next year I plan to run a half marathon.

NHL Playoffs 2007 (Stanley Cup Final)

I am choosing Anaheim Ducks to win the Stanley Cup after 7 full games maybe some might even go to overtime. Maybe I think this way because yes I am a Leafs fan and no there is no way I could ever cheer for the Sens. But the same would it be if the Leafs were in the playoffs, you wouldn't see the Sens fans cheer on the Leafs. If you see all the hype here in Ottawa and to be real in all of Canada everyone wants the Cup to come to Canada, well, I do too. It will be in Canada a lot more if Anaheim wins because Anaheim has 20 CANADIAN players including their captain and Ottawa has only 14 Canadian players. Good luck to both teams but I guess Ottawa needs the most luck since they are going to lose this round.

A Long Weekend

I went to Ingleside today to visit my grandmother. She has not been feeling well lately so I think the visit helped her spirits a bit. Also my Aunt was visiting from Toronto. So it was nice to catch up with her as well. We had a nice lunch in Cornwall. We started to go to the Marina which is on the St. Lawrence Seaway but when we got there we realized that they are closed on Mondays, so we headed over to Don Cherry's. It was a nice way to spend the end of a long weekend.

On our way home we saw these signs and had to stop and get some pictures taken. We even got Scott in one of them.

My Sister's Keeper

I have finally finished My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I had to take a bit of a detour since the nurse from the office lent me one of her books and I felt I had to finish hers before I am done working at the office. Anyways, I did finish and I was quite a good book, it was controversial and touching dealing with how a family can make some big decisions about life and death situations for their children. In the end I was a little disappointed with the way things worked out. But it did keep me wondering what was going to happen and when I got about half way through the book, I could barely put it down until the end.

My next book is another Jodi Picoult book (I seem to be into her books lately) this next one is her most recent one and is titled Nineteen Minutes.

NHL Playoffs 2007 (Conference Finals)

So here we are near the end of the hockey season. We are down to the Conference finals, also known as Semifinals. So as always here are my picks for this round.

In the East we have have the President trophy team aka Buffalo Sabres then we have my home team aka Ottawa Senators. I am going with Buffalo to win it in 6 games. Miller is solid in nets and his team can score.

And finally in the West we have Detroit Red Wings and Anaheim Ducks.

I believe that Anaheim will pull through and win it in the final of the 7 games. Giguere is solid in nets where Hasek is on again off again with his playing. But I guess we won't know until it all happens.

How Sweet It Is

You know that the summertime is on it's way when all you smell during the week is everyone's BBQ cooking hamburgers and steaks. I run Wednesday nights and this is all I can smell it doesn't help me with my running but it sure is mmmmm yummy. I walked up to the grocery store today and saw that there was a sale for corn on the cob, another of my summer favourites. So I picked some up for dinner tonight and I was so happy to have summer again. I look forward to all the special treats this season will bring and I hope to enjoy them as much as I can. What kind of summer treats are your favourites?

NHL Playoffs Round 2

So Round 1 finished and now we are on to Round 2. Here are my opinions on the up-coming series. Again this is both what I think and hope will happen for how I think the teams are stacked up against each other.

In this series I definitely think that Buffalo will take it in 6 games. Even though the Rangers are ranked at 6 I think they will put some pressure on Buffalo especially since they swept their last opponent away 4-0.

In this series I am going to go with New Jersey winning it in 7 games. I think that both teams have great skaters and scorers but when it comes down to it Jersey has the goaltender, where Ottawa has a rookie.

For this series I think that Detroit will be able to win it in 6 games. San Jose has some great forwards but are lacking the goal tending they need to take it all.

Finally in this final series of this round I think that Vancouver could take it in 7 but Anaheim won't let them win it easily.

Which One?

I have written on here before about what type of a job I will be looking for in September. Well, I have sent out my resume and I am meeting with a Montessori school this week for an interview. Actually, it is the same Montessori that Choo Choo goes to and the teachers there all know me for about 3 years now. They have already told me that they would love to have me work for them. Yeah!

However before I got all this feedback from the school, the Docs I work for told me about the anesthetic guy who works in the hospital with them. His wife is due in June with their first child. She is not sure how long she will take off for maternity but I did meet with them and they are a lovely couple and I would love to work with them too. They also told me that it wouldn't be just a 4 year thing because they are planning on having at least 3 children. She is doing her residency for becoming a doctor, so maternity time is limited if she doesn't want to go back and redo some elements of that.

I have no idea what to do. I know that the nanny job would pay really well, but then if I want to be a teacher after than I will be that much older. The teaching job won't pay much but then I would have my foot in the door to maybe some other options after a few years. I would really appreciate some feedback or some pointers on how I should decide my next step.

The Tenth Circle

The Tenth Circle is about how much a parent will do for their child under very difficult circumstances and where they will go to protect her when she was hurt in a most terrifying way. It gave me a look at how the Natives from Alaska deal with the same kind of circumstances. Again a good read by Jodi Picoult and I am now ready to read My Sister's Keeper also by Jodi Picoult.