Maybe I went overboard...

but it was ALL on sale!!!

A local photography shop is closing it's retail doors and having a huge inventory clearance, so I had to check it out. I called Yolanda and Tara because you have to let people know about these things...Tara was working so I was her personal shopper, Yolanda and the girls met me there. And shop we did...

Everything was pretty much 50% off. How could you go wrong? I didn't buy frivolous things, although now I'm thinking a wide angle lens would have been nice to check out, I bought practical things...ink, a battery, a reflector, a CF card, a filter and the icing on the cake...a Wacom Bamboo tablet for a certain young lady. Emily has been using a borrowed rather tiny tablet for a few years now and this new baby comes with PS Elements 5, a Corel program and some other program, a mouse, and is much larger. PSE is $100 on it's own, I got this whole package for $100! Tara is the proud owner of a tripod, and a few other goodies, Yo got a printer at a steal.

Then I went to Costco with the girls and now I need a nap. I am still sticking to my believe that 2 kids = peace and quiet, 3 kids for some reason always seems like chaos to me. I don't know how people do it. Yay Yo!

My peonies made it through the path of destruction known as Linus. Last year, he tore off every single one of the flowers before they fully bloomed. This year, he was sniffing them, they are sooooo fragrant. I'll let him live another day.

Hinterland Who's Who

Deep in the lush vegetation in an area of Rutland, a habitat known as The Williams' Backyard, you may find a rare species of tailless canine. This species, Caninious Escapimus, more red in colour than it's golden counterparts, has migrated from the Mission area to this location where it has used it's amazingly strong front legs to landscape this 'Backyard', turning it from a relatively flat lot into a pock marked field that those with weak ankles should avoid. His main objective is, like his name implies, to escape. He has the unique ability to collapse his skeleton and can then slide under even the tightest of chain link fencing.

The Caninious Escapimus, also known as That Dog, has used it's vice like jaws to uproot any and all unwanted vegetation in this 'Backyard' , so that there will be no obstacles to crash into when That Dog gets a sudden, but brief burst of energy. Caninious Escapimus is also an excellent fruit and nut picker, jumping 6 feet vertically from a sitting position, That Dog can pick fruit that most humans cannot reach. That Dog's diet consists mainly of sticks, grass, fruit, nuts, stuffed animals, and small children's body parts, followed by an occasional human's bum cheek and boob, this breed will eat just about anything.

Being tailless, it is hard to read the many moods of That Dog, researchers have concluded that you can with some certainty read the positioning of the ears. There are 'Good Dog Ears' which hang loose and relaxed, and 'Bad Dog Ears' which are pulled back and 'open' so that he can hear you trying to flee his attacks.

The live span of the breed is normally 12-15 years, but due to the hijinx of That Dog, this rare breed may only live until tomorrow. If you get the rare opportunity to see That Dog escaping from it's natural habitat, you will most likely hear the angry, tortured howl of another rare animal, Angrius Momius if this happens, run, run very fast in the other direction.

Made the Cut.

Warmer weather = going sockless more. Not something I enjoy doing. Besides the obvious damp foot syndrome that occurs when you wear your shoes without socks, there are other perils...Like stepping on things which is what happened to me this weekend. I went sockless, I thought I had a piece of wood from a certain dog's stick stuck to the bottom of my foot. So instead of looking and removing it with my hand, I decided to 'wipe/grind' it off on the deck. This made for a bit of pain, then when I did look, I noticed some red stuff. Still thinking that there is something stuck to my foot, I ask Shaun to look. He says "looks like blood" which is the beginning of the end for me. I can't stand the sight of blood, I've probably told you about my attempts at being a blood donor. I kind of pass out. So we have to get Kerry to look at my foot and right off the bat he says "you have a sliver or something stuck in there" so he pulls out my beautiful Tweezerman tweezers and makes like he's going gold digging.

NOT in my FOOT...I can feel the anxiety coming on. He says "calm down, you can't freak out because you will set a bad example for the kids". The thought of HIM digging in my foot gave me the willies. So I rinsed it off, there was nothing that I could see in my foot. Then I ran my hand over the cut and sure enough there was something in there causing the almost passing out pain. I gently squeezed but still couldn't see anything, but when I ran the tweezers over it, I could hear the scrapping of metal on glass...not a great noise to have coming from one of my 2 favourite feet.

It took a while but I finally managed to squeeze and scrape a decent chunk of glass out of my foot. That's it on my hand. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't make it look as big as it felt.

What did I learn this weekend? When you have pain somewhere, look before grinding your body part into the ground. And where socks for Pete's Sake.

The other thing I learned, weeding is almost exercise. My butt hurts from sitting on the stool, my left arm hurts from over zealous weed pulling. We figured 2 more hours of weeding should get most of the weed in the garden. I hate the size of it, but we can't agree on how to make it smaller. So now I have some rhubarb, strawberries, chives, spaghetti squash, zucchini, and volunteer onions and garlic. And every year as I am weeding I think about how I could have the biggest, bestest, fullest garden with fresh beans, carrots, peas, etc. and then I remember how I hate weeding, I hate bugs, I hate the heat, and I love the coolness of the grocery store even more.

That Dog

Lately, I am finding myself saying things like "That dog" and "That dog is the bane of my existence" and "That dog is worse than having another kid". And then That Dog puts his head on my lap and talks to me in his best Chewbacca voice and I forget about all the grief he has given me.

Today, he was in attack mode, which is weird to see a golden do, but the hackles were up and the hair on his bum was up, and he was spitting and barking because the neighbour was talking to him. Normally, he's Mr. Sunshine and Lollipops for strangers, after Sally deemed the neighbour worthy of pets, Linus started singing a different tune. He turned into Mr. Look At Me! He crawled under a juniper bush and dug out a tree stump that I didn't even know was there. He pulled and dug and dug some more and come out with this huge chunk of tree, and then went back for a branch or two off the bush. Then he ran circles around the pool and then tried unsuccessfully 3 times to get in it. Then he decided if he can't get over the sides, why not go under, and started digging under the edge of the pool. The whole time, the neighour was just enthralled with how gorgeous he is and how big, and how strong and determined.

I was thinking "Ah, do you want a dog, CHEAP?"

I'm sure this is his best "I don't know what you are talking about" pose. The above photo is how he stands for part of the day, on a wooden crate so that he can see over the railing into the neighbours yard because you never know what that other dog might be doing and maybe just maybe you can hit him with a big rock. Really, someone lined the rocks up and they just happened to be in his head resting spot, but I sure wouldn't want to walk under him and those rocks, I could see the headlines...Woman killed when dog dropped rock on her head, which would be better than having your face chewed off while you were in a drug induced snooze.

The Jolly Green Giant

I've been mowing the lawn.

This doesn't sound like a big deal but it's usually one of Kerry's 'jobs'. But lately, I come home from my walk so motivated that I figured why not mow the lawn before I shower. Helps Kerry and the dogs get to hang outside for awhile.

But of course, no day would be complete without some Linus mishap. He's not jumping in the pool anymore, but he is trying to drink out of it by placing his front paws on the top ring. I'm sure he'll poke a hole in it soon enough. Today's mishap involves the puppy pool and the freshly cut lawn. First, Linus had to toss his rock around and pull up patches of grass, so I had to stop the lawn mower twice to yell at him. Then as I was finishing up, he decides to take a swim in the puppy pool and to 'dry off' by rolling and grinding himself into the grass. I didn't realize how bad this was until we were about to enter the house. If you check the picture out, you can see his neck is green, as were his cheeks, ears, legs and paws. (his teeth on the other hand are abnormally white, all the better to bite you with!)

Emily and her Pokemon helped me with my photography class homework. I actuallly learned something last night. 3 hours of talking, and no touching of the camera does not make an easy learning environment for me, but I'm getting the law of reciprocity, I think I am getting it. Hopefully, my eyes won't glaze over when someone mentions f-stop, exposure, or ISO.

The hall is booked for the craft sale. Things have changed a bit but they(the heritage society) are bending a bit for me, it has been over 13 years so I would think they might and I do appreciate it.

Even Raptors need to look good for the paparazzi.

Because we are putting the pool up, and it's in the process of being filled, I have to stand beside it so that a certain four legged animal doesn't take a dip every chance he gets. And it's not just him, Sally's in there every chance she gets. It will get better as the pool fills, but for now, I just stand out there with my camera and take pictures of everything.

Today I got some shots of that darn meat eating bird grooming himself. I'm pretty sure that by then end of summer, we won't have any small birds in our neighbourhood. Yesterday, H. our neighbour was having a fit and yelling 'their dinner is still alive' which caused me to look up to find the sound of wings flapping and I got an eyeful of the 2 raptors fighting over their 'dinner', a small, bird still alive. It was terrible.

So, here's some happier pictures to clear the nasty birds out of my mind. Linus has a big stick, it's really a 4 foot 2x4 that he packs around. Kerry throws it for him and then I have to run because when he brings it back, he takes me out by hitting me in the back of the knees. The best is when Kerry throws it and it gets stuck in the tree.

Flash...you can love it or hate it. I hate it used indoors but it can make a huge difference when used outside. I never really understood the whole 'fill flash' idea with my little camera but this weekend while playing with my camera, I had a light bulb moment. This is without the flash, outside, in the shade.The next picture is with the flash, same situation...it really brings out Linus's eyes and his pearly whites. But it's almost too bright.Without the flash, E. features were really dark, the colour wasn't so great either, but with the flash, I got truer(is that a word?) colours in her hoodie and her face is brighter.

Did I mention that I love my camera?

And here is the reason I am not planting any pots, or any other plants in the yard this year. I caught him red handed trying to snack on my parsley. He didn't eat it, just had a nibble and now his breath is very fresh.

Almost a whole weekend without blogging.

Yikes, I know my fans must be wondering where I've been and what I've been up to.
Who knows? I think we did a bit of everything.
The long weekend's almost over and this is what I did...
-went to Yolanda and Duncan's bbq, held Scarlett for a long time, got puked on, ate too much.
- had butter chicken, nan and samosas, ate too much
- weeded on Sunday for an hour during the hottest time of the day, got a rash and sore legs to show for it.
- bought spaghetti squash, zucchini and basil plants at Ogi's and their daughter was home, I went to school with her, met her son and hubby, she looks exactly the same as she did in high school.
- decided a new flash is in my future, but that it is too expensive to justify right now. I'm working on this one.
- got an email saying Cards is going to publish one of my cards.
- got sick.
- looked for new, longer shorts to buy, there aren't any in town, I may have to wear my short shorts for a bit longer.
- put up the pool, it's being filled right now.
- put up the puppy pool, it already needs to be cleaned.
- took dogs for a walk.
- forgot it was my Dad's aniversary of the day he quit drinking.
- saw nasty meat-eating birds fighting over their dinner, it wasn't dead yet. I will have nightmares about that.
- walked to my parents to see their new patio and newly extended deck.
- slept in on Sunday!
- switched to yucky disgusting soy milk in my coffee. I'm starting to think I shouldn't drink milk. It's very hard to not have dairy products. I might try rice milk this week. If it's as gross as soy, I might just skip the coffee altogether. I will send out a public service announcement warning everyone ahead of time.

Quick Blogging

These are the cards from last night's stamper's group.
I'm working today, at noon, and need to got to Costco. I have to grab an appy to take to Yolanda's bbq tomorrow and thought that earlier might be better in regards to fighting the long weekend rush at Costco. Maybe everyone will be at the liquor store, which I also have to go to, but might leave for Kerry.
Thursday, veggie night, we just love getting that bin of veggies dropped off by the veggie fairies. It's so much fun to see what I ordered each week, we need a life.
Tonight is crop night, I've got a few people coming, I don't know if I have anything to work on, but it's always great to just sit and chat and watch others work.
We don't have much planned for the long weekend other than the Robinson bbq, but I did notice a long to-do list that Kerry had been working on this morning. I didn't see 'scrapbook', 'pose for photos', or 'buy Kelli SF Vanilla Starbuck's syrup'. I'll try to copy his printing and add them later.

1 New Thing

Me and Tara went to our first photography class last night. I'm not quite sure what to make of it. I expected to learn stuff, not to see ALL the new camera equipment out there. I expected to see photographs that made me say "I want to take pictures just like that" or "how'd he do that?" Instead it was more a show and tell. I am expecting more from the next session, it's about exposure.
What I did learn, and I need to research this, is that the UV filters that gal at London Drugs sold me might just be a waste of money. She said that they were to protect my lens from scratches and whatnot. They weren't cheap, but they weren't expensive. The instructor says they degrade the image and we don't need them, real protection filters cost $500. (which is more than my everyday lens, so why would I do that? I'd just buy another lens, but it's less than my other lens, but if spend that much on a filter, I'd never take that money sucking camera out of the house, I'd rather buy different lens anyway) soooo...When I told him I use the filter to protect my lens from dogs, kids, and mountain bikers, veins in his neck popped out and he said I had the wrong camera for that. He said if I was worried about the camera, I wouldn't get good shots, I need to worry about the photo, which I get but I also think he thinks we are there to become pros and buy professional grade cameras, I don't think anyone in the class is going to spend $10, 000 on a camera, so he can just stop there. So he didn't make a good first impression with me.
So my new thing...I might not need a UV filter, which is perfect Tara and I decided the other day that because they are always on my lenses, it's okay to toss the case they came in. Perfect!

I need a good massage

My body is rebelling. It's hard to type because everything is achy except maybe my fingers. I'm slow to admit that I'm not as young as I used to be, or that my body isn't. This walking every day is work, playing video games is taking it's toll. Seriously, my arms are killing me, my legs don't want to lift my body, and my hand are stiff. But enough grumbling. I'm still breathing, sometimes, and that's a good thing.

I'm not learning many new things lately, but after tonight I expect to have learned at least one new thing in the photography class Tara and I are taking. I sure hope I can stay awake, moving my body also makes me fall asleep earlier.

And because I can barely hold the weight of my camera, I haven't been able to take any pictures. So here's one from a few years ago, when I was younger, and rode a bike and could lift my arm above me head and still smile. (that's my cousin looking rather stiff in his snowsuit-dude, there's no snow!) I know everyone will be posting on how absolutely adorable I was!

Can't blog, arms too sore from Wii playing

But I have something to say.
Have you noticed how today's technology has turned us(me) into stalkers?
You can track your package travelling by FedEx, you can see it has left Utah, you can look at your house from space, you can see pictures of people you went to school with on Facebook, and you can check on your package again to see that it's still in Utah.

Ultimate Rayman Raving Rabbids Collaberation

Monday and a Strange Mother's day gift

This is it...My Mother's Day gift. I have no one else to blame but myself. After discovering that Kerry hadn't discussed Mother's day with the kids, we had a gift buying excursion on Sunday, before our Mother's Day bbq.
Since I have been the recent recipient of a beautiful diamond necklace and a most wonderful camera, we decided that the kids would get me something small.
After what seemed like hours of "What do you want?" from them and "I have everything I've ever wanted" from me(which is corny but true), we ended up in the electronics department of Walmart looking for Shaun's friend, who said "Why don't you get Rayman Raving Rabbids?" Which of course the kids were all for, it's a multi-player game, one I'd never really heard of.
So I turned down an aluminum water bottle, an assortment of cds, the first season of 6teen, scrapbook supplies, ipod and camera accessories and chocolate for an insane, hilarious Wii game. We played it for hours yesterday, my arms hurt, and the kids showed me how to set it up so I can play it when they aren't home. I just might. The thought of beating them at something other than boxing and golf makes my heart happy!
This is definately better than the year I got a water gun.


So today the question on my mind is go to work or play the Wii till noon? It's so tempting. And I think my throat is starting to hurt.

The dreaded weigh-in

I made it. I didn't want to go to the staff meeting and mandatory weigh-in. And to top it off, it's that time, and then I've been up on and off since 3 am. I didn't feel so great today. I hope I'm not coming down with something.
Then weigh-in wasn't bad at all. And considering I usually do it first thing in the morning and this one was at 2 pm, after I had eaten a few meals, it was decent, not great, but acceptable for me.
The meeting itself was informative. There are some changes that will be implemented ASAP and some June 1st. Bear with us at WW because it might be tough for the first bit.

We went to Genji's for dinner because we still had gift certificates from long ago. We made the executive decision to not go again. $60 for me, Kerry and Emily to have 2 rolls of sushi, 1 veggie tempura, gyoza, and a chicken donburi is too much and it's not fantastic. It's weird. E's donburi chicken was chicken stuffed with broccoli and cheese served with stir fried veggies and rice. 3 slices of chicken, $12. Not nice. Roll of sushi was $9. I kept telling myself it's 'infused', but it just doesn't do it for me. It's weird and Taki and Ozekis are so much better. My Grandpa would cringe if he saw the ingredients in some of the sushi rolls, like chicken and cream cheese. EEEWWW!
The one thing it had going for it, speed, we made reservations for 6:15, we were on our way home by 7.

Tomorrow is Mother's Day! We're skipping the traditional waffle breakfast and doing a BBQ instead.

Running out of witty titles

I was sorting photos yesterday and came across these again and they made me laugh. Hmmm...what's that? Move over Eeyore, they's something meatier to chew on.
Nice, chewing, kind of furry, I see Sally with it all time.
Now's my chance she's not looking. I can make a break for it and steal her toy.
If I could only get it, I'll pull harder... Oh sugar honey iced tea...it was the pull tab to open a can of whoop ass!


Do not forget about Mother's Day on Sunday. As Kerry explained to the kids, this is THE day you don't ever want to forget. Nothing's worse than a disappointed Mom!!!

I feel lighter this week, I should, I'm eating better, exercising, drinking copious amounts of fluids. But I also know from being on both sides of the scale that 'feeling lighter' does not translate into a loss at the scale. I don't own a scale so it's always a surprise either way for me.
I have to say the little bit of exercise I'm getting is giving me more energy which helps me claim the couch faster at night.

Do you watch the Office? I used to think that it was stupid, I couldn't stand Michael and could not watch him being such an idiot. But over time, and Kerry's insistance that it was a good show, I stopped leaving the room and started laughing like crazy. I still think Michael is a complete idiot, but everyone else makes up for it. If you watched it, was the guy that Pam was talking to at the graphic design booth Jim?

Other stuff I've been doing...
sorting photos, one step closer to photo freedom.
taking water pictures that at some point I will have to sort.

Our Urban Harvest bin had this little treat. Garlic Sprouts, different from Garlic Greens, but still tasty.
I made this with them.
And then I had some of these.
Eating better if it kills me.
Now off to find some plants for Mother's Day. And then to print some pictures to make a Kerry's Mom book.

One of THOSE days

It's been a long day. Full of not much, but enough disappointing things to warrant a bad day title.

My trip to Costco was not good, and then I tried on the 3 tops I had bought and have to return all of them, which makes me curse Costco and their no changeroom policy. Makes sense to me to have them, I think it would be less paper work for them.

Here's a couple of puppy pics, because pictures of darn dogs make me happier than the actual dog right now.
Don't look her in the eye! NOoooo I told you not to look!!!
Hurry Dad! I need to rinse out my mouth, look at how swollen my tongue is. Ith wewwwy fat.
Before PW's actions of Boost and Quick Edge Burn.
After the actions...Love them! Check out that amazing water droplet action. Can't you just feel it!

Kerry's co-worker commented on the colour of Linus, and how red he is in this picture. I didn't tell him I had boosted the colour and now upon looking at it again I realized it didn't change the redness of the dog. Just add Freakishly Red to his long list of strange attributes, Linus's list not the co-worker's

Where did the week go?

It's already Wednesday and half the week is gone. Today's a slower day.
I'm finding my allergies are kicking my ass this year. I'm ready for bed at about 9 pm which is really unfortunate for the people taking my classes. It's not so great for watching good evening tv either. I fall asleep after about 20 minutes.

I have been walking with JW the last 2 days. We've been doing the stairs. It's great to find someone to walk with that lives so close and because the kids are friends, it's nice too. She's got similar parenting and moral views so it's nice to know my kid is 'safe' at her house or when she's with their family. Not that I really worry, it's more like "you want my kid? sure take her, want a puppy too?"

I'm also eating in my points range. It's a killer. It's not that I can't stay in the range, I don't want to. I make terrible choices. I want sugar and Becel, and once I start, I can't stop. I heard somewhere that not only does sugar feed tumors, it makes you crave more tumors, don't know if it's true, but I think it's got some merit.
Why am I eating in my range and walking more? Simple, not because I want to be healthy and live longer, and weigh less, but because I have a major weigh-in on Saturday, and a staff meeting and I need to look like I'm following the plan. If I happen to lose a few pounds, great!

Happy Anniversary to ME, I mean US!

Today is our 13th anniversary, we've been together 15 years if my accounting program is correct.
Today, I leave before 4 pm, Kerry gets home around 4:45, takes E. to music, I get home around 7 and start my class at 7:15. I plan on seeing Kerry at about 9 pm. tonight. I said we should just pretend the 13th anniversary is like the 13th floor of a building and skip it.
So since mid-April we have had a million babies born, about 1/2 a dozen birthdays, probably some stuff I'm forgetting, and we still have today, and Mother's Day. Which I heard Kerry telling the kids it's THE most important day and they better not forget it. We have a long standing "Plant Mom's Stuff" day on Mother's day but this year with Linus and his penchant for plant destroying, I'm thinking I want to have "Make Mom Twice Baked Potatoes and Do All Her Bidding" day.
Just so you can understand my situation...2 pictures, 1 of Sally loving the beautiful flowers and 1 of Linus loving the beautiful flowers.




And I've been using some PW Actions in PS7. I love them. They are great for the lame-o like me. Here's the cutest, bestest baby in the world, again.

Don't you just want to eat her up? Those Robinson's make cute babies.

I can't wait for this week to be over already.

It's only Monday and I'm ready for Sunday. We've had crazy birthday celebrating, NSD stuff, friend and family gathings, and I'm ready for it to slow down.
I have classes this week, and I work at WW, some nights have more than one thing on the go.
Emily's at camp for 2 days and it's kind of nice to not have to do the homework, music, snack thing. Shaun will probably not be home for dinner, so Kerry and I can fight over the last samosa.
I have a few pictures that I'm not going to post because I truely do value my life, but I will leave you with this, Shaun, trying out the Borat look. We do get a lot of laughs out of the "Cathy Z. Mustaches".

NSD!

I went to a NSD crop yesterday.
I'm tired today. It's amazing how tired a person can get being creative, eating and talking. Oh, and holding a baby! I got to hold baby Scarlett. She's so cute. She thinks I'm sooooo funny.

I made this after seeing BL's very cute one she made of her mom. Mine has my favourite photos in it.
I made this for a PotP crop challenge, using picures from my favourite place.

I sure hope someone got a good picture of me and the cutest baby.




Not only was it NSD, but it was Kerry's birthday. He had a lonely, but good day. No nagging, no to-do list, just him and the dogs and a long walk, a good lunch with Emily, and samosas for dinner. And I bought him a pooper scooper when I went to Vernon. That's gotta be the best birthday present ever!

Holy Mackeral! This is where the panic sets in.

I have less than 18 hours to pack for the crop.
If you consider that I need 8 of those hours to sleep, maybe 1 hour to eat, 2 hours to shop at Lulu Lemon, 1 hour to clean up my space so I can see what I own, 1 hour for bathroom/personal stuff, that leaves me less than 5 hours to pack all the essentials for a scrapbooking filled day.
I've pretty much decided to print pictures like crazy, take all my embellishments, patterned paper and acrylic stamps, maybe some ink, some card stock(not the right colours of course) and maybe a few last minute panic items that I will toss in the bag, and I will spend all my time holding baby Scarlett. I'm going to regret not lifting weights and strengthening my upper body but that's the price you pay for luvin' babies! I've even gone so far as to ask Yo what she's dressing Scarlett in so I can co-ordinate for photos. I am taking my camera.
I could take my photos, and organize them now that I've read PhotoFreedom and have the 'tools' to get them organized, I might take some magazines/books to get caught up on, I will take some snacks, and maybe a nap. 11 hours of cropping will probably kill me, but with a nap, I should be good for a few more hours.
I did get my class layout and cards for next week finished today, from start to finish. But now my table is a mess, I have more stuff in pizza boxes than I care to admit.
I got these last week and love them!
This I found on TED.com. I think it's great.

Enjoy National Scrapbooking Day!

toot for me

Lori, the dental hygienist: You have the cleanest adult mouth in this office.
Me: You say that to everyone.
Lori: No, really, your mouth is really clean.

My secret? I have to floss after every thing I eat, everything. After my root canal, I ended up with a tooth that needs flossing all the time. I'm not saying I wouldn't floss, I would floss after every meal, naturally. But I seriously have to floss after EVERY little thing that goes in my mouth.

My teeth are so clean I swear they 'ting' every time I smile.
I was told not to eat for 1/2 an hour after the fluoride, and of course, I'm starving now.
I walked to the dentist and back! Yay me. Thank goodness for my ipod that I love almost as much as my camera. I got to show the hygienists and office staff my 'good' dog and 'bad' dog. I guess Kerry must have regaled them with stories when he went in too. Poor Linus. (I have over 2400 pictures on my ipod)

I survived!

Somehow, we ended up with 9 kids, 2 larger teens, and 3 adults at Scandia (Emily said only 8 were coming) but we did just fine. 12 yr. olds are talkative, they discussed at length geography,opinionated, and some are rude. They ate all the pizza and almost all the cake, good thing I picked up chips. My tummy's not so happy, but the kids were.
They played games, won tickets and prices, and mini golfed. If you want to torture yourself, take 9 12 year olds mini golfing. I have never seen so much cheating, bickering and misbehaving before. Kerry had it easy, his group consisted of 1 well behaved 12 yr. old and 2 18 yr. olds.
I had 8 12 yr. olds. I feel hung over today.

Scandia knows how to treat the birthday girl right, she got a card with a picture of her and the cake, much like mine above, extra tokens, and tickets and when she turned in her prize tickets she didn't have enough for the squeaky inflatable mallet, but they gave it to her anyway.
And because 12 yr. olds are hard to shop for, this one got hundreds of dollars in gift certificates for all kinds of places! We will be planning a girls shopping spree soon.
In other news, I'm not ready for the crop, my classes next week, or the dentist today. I'm not that worried about the dentist, I like to floss and brush, I just don't like it when someone else does it for me.