Say Hello To My Little Friend

We seemed to have attracted a rather unwanted visitor to our house this last week.  A big, bum-waddling skunk!  We spotted him around our garage about a week ago, and shooed him off.  We were hoping he was just passing through - apparently that is not the case.  He's found all the birdseed that falls from the feeders at the base of one of our trees and seems to find it all rather appetizing. :(  And Mr. Skunk is becoming rather bold.  Two nights ago, at about 3am, he wandered on our deck, stood up and started scratching at the outside of our garden doors!!  Adam rattled the handle on the door to scare him away.  It scared him and Adam says that he turned around and looked like he was spraying our door.  But there was no scent.  So either it was all just for show, or Mr. Skunk is not mature enough to spray, yet.  He's pretty big, so I'm thinking it's only a matter of time.  Last night, we took turns shooting him with our pellet gun (our only line of defense).  It seemed to scare him away, only a few feet, and only for a few minutes.  He always seemed to return to the base of that tree.  Today, I'm placing a call into our County's office to see if they'll come out and trap him.  If not, we'll be speaking with some neighbours who have guns a little more substantial than our little air riffle, to eliminate the pest.  Considering he seems to show up around dusk - it really is like he's keeping us prisoner in our own home at night.

But it's daylight once again, and so we are free to venture out of the house.  After some gloomy, rainy and yes, SNOWY weather this last week, we are in for some dry, sunny conditions for the next week or so.  Gonna soak it all up while I can.  Today marks the start of me and Emily going to a new season of Moms & Tots.  There's been some "adjustment" of the program and this morning we'll be trying out a new location.  I'm just praying that she won't be the only kid there.  She sooo desperately wants a little friend.  She keeps talking, rather excitedly, about Winnie the Pooh & friends coming over to play this winter.  What does a parent say to that??  I can't crush her excitement by telling her that they're just pretend and won't be coming.  So, instead, I've been saying "we'll have to wait and see - Pooh is pretty busy" (I feel like such a bad mom, lying like that).  A real friend would be much better, I think.  It's difficult, because I'm very particular about the kinds of kids I want her to spend time with, and the selection around here is already very limited.

On to other news... I've done a little scrapbooking.  I've completed one layout.  This one's from Christmas 2009 - still playing catch-up with a number of photos. 

It's not my favourite layout - I seem to have a more difficult time working on Christmas themed pages.  I did do some fun things on it, however.  I flocked the edges of my main photo, to look like snow.  I also finally broke out my Slice again and gave it a go.  I think having things set up a little more out in the open will help me to remember to use everything a little more.  I'm hoping...

Well, it's time for breakfast and then off we go for a morning of playtime, stories and crafts. :)

Until next time...

Buck Lake Blogger

My Garden's End

This was the view of my front yard at 9am this morning.  A hard frost last night left all my flowers and what remained of my garden to wilt and wither.  Emily awoke this morning, exclaiming very excitedly, "SNOW!!!"  I had to disappoint her by telling her it was just frost - thankfully. Today is a sunny day - a rarity the last few weeks - and is supposed to top out at 10C.  So after Emily's quiet time, we're headed outside to pull up plants and clean up the garden.  Not sure how many sunny days we have left in store.

I had another morning spent tackling the chaos of my house.  I doesn't look like I accomplished much as I never even completed one room - just a little of this room and a little of that room.  But, I'm loving how spacious my living room looks again now that all of Em's toys have been relocated to her own room.

My scrap room is slowly taking shape - might be able to start crafting again in a few more days! :)  You never really realize how many supplies you have until you start pulling things out of closets and relocating them.  Hmmm... might be time to downsize some of my scrapbooking items... but what to part with???

I'm off to tackle a few more things before the timer beeps. :)

Until next time...

Buck Lake Blogger

A Girl At Play

This is what I saw the other morning - Emily lining up all her little animals.  Going to the zoo, the lake, or to the trampoline (which in this case is a couch cushion) - it's always fun to watch.  She's got such a great imagination and I'm so thankful for that - it seems to be becoming more and more rare in kids these days.  It is very interesting to hear the conversations she has with her toys.  Makes you wonder what else is going on in that little head of hers.  This is the new little Playmobil set she got yesterday, that she's playing with right now.  She's very fond of the little baby and stroller.

I did manage to accomplish all the painting of her room yesterday, and it appears to be dry, so today is the start of moving in!  She's SUPER excited!  I am too.  Hopefully by the end of the week, I'll have my new scrapbooking room all set up and ready to go. :)

Lots to do today, so I must run. 

Until next time...

Buck Lake Blogger

Painting Day

Today is painting day... finally!  After a number of days spent prepping the walls (filling 1000 holes, sanding, priming, etc) I'm finally painting!  Yesterday, I repainted all the trim and closet doors, just to freshen them up.  Today, I'm tackling the walls.  Three walls done (first coat), one wall left.  It's taking a LONG time to dry today with all the rain.  I'm hoping to get the second coat all done today so that we can move Emily into her new room tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to getting my house organized again. :)  I'm very pleased with the light blue colour we picked... Emily wanted blue and I picked the shade.

Emily is also officially outgrown her nap now.  Sad, I know.  I've been very fortunate, from what I hear, to have been given this long. Now she has a half an hour "rest" on her bed after lunch.  The door to her room is left open and she can keep her eyes open... something she states everytime... the timer is set and she gets freedom when it beeps.  It's kind of funny, because about a week ago, when she woke up from her nap (too early), she was miserable and I told her she needed to lie down again until she was in a good mood.  Now every morning when she wakes up she calls to me "Emmy in good mood" to get her out of bed, instead of "all done".  Too cute.  She certainly picks up on EVERY little thing one says.

Well, I suppose I should get back to painting.  I imagine there's only a few short minutes left on that timer before Em's rest is over.

I leave you with one of Emily's favourite new looks.  She always says to me, "mommy like scowl?".

Until next time...

Buck Lake Blogger

Lovely Labour Day Weekend

We had a great weekend in our house.  On Saturday we spent the morning at a country fair nearby, where we witnessed mutton busting, log sawing competitions, various horse events and Emily spent lots of time in the petting zoo. For a rather cool and drizzling day, there was an impressive turnout of people. An annual outing for us perhaps.

On Sunday afternoon we took advantage of some nicer weather and once again raided the garden for some fresh peas, which Emily enjoyed on the deck.

Monday brought a trip into Edmonton to visit the Valley Zoo.  The much anticipated zoo trip.  The drive up (almost 2 hours with the "detour" (aka getting lost) that we took) gave me a glimpse into what might be of our future vacations with Emily.  This was the first time that she's asked us, repeatedly, if we were "at zoo yet?"  You know it's going to be a long drive when you hear it for the first time within 5 minutes of leaving home, lol.  Threatening to be a rainy, miserable day, we packed up all the rain gear and warm clothes and set off to find us some wildlife.  It turned out to be a perfect day.  The sun came out.  It warmed up, and not a single drop of rain fell the entire time at the zoo.  It was definitely much more exciting for Emily this time - the first time we took her she was 1.5 years old and was more interested in the landscaping rocks and water fountain than the animals.  She was excited to see Lucy, the elephant, who was out for a walk on the zoo grounds. She looks scared in this picture, but she wasn't... that was just her attempt to look at the camera for me... she kept getting distracted by Lucy eating grass with her trunk.

She got to pet a little python, which to my surprise, she really enjoyed.  There were monkeys, ducks, arctic wolves, owls, zebras and many other animals to keep her interested. 

Emily was excited to pick grass to feed to the zebras, who were too far out of reach to feed.  But that didn't stop her from throwing grass into their exhibit.

Unfortunately, the flamingo exhibit was under construction or something, and they were not on display.  Despite that, a good time was had by all.  We look forward to our next zoo adventure.

Until next time...

Buck Lake Blogger

Mommy's Little Mimic

I'm taking a much needed break from all my paperwork to write this blog... the numbers are starting to blur before my eyes. 

I thought I would tell you about the new mother in my house.  Emily recently got a new baby, Molly.   It was $3.00 (used) at the ice cream store we went to a few weeks ago.

It immediately became her best friend.  She reads stories to her, sings her songs, takes her for walks in her stroller down to the "beach" (which is really just whatever part of our house she's deemed "beach worthy" for that day) and treats her like her own little baby.  She's commented/questioned on numerous occasions recently "Emmy good mommy?" to which I always reply, "yes, you're a very good mommy to your babies".  The last few days I've heard Emily tell Molly to "sit still", "sit nicely" (something Emily hears a lot of at meal times), "go play" and various other things that I apparently say to Emily myself.  This morning I actually heard Emily disciplining Molly.  Hmmm... it seems that I have a little copycat on my hands.   It's really very cute, and it's keeping me on my toes, since her mothering style is a direct reflection of my own.   

Not much else is new on our end.  The long weekend is coming up and we're making plans to visit the zoo.  Probably just the one in Edmonton again this time, as Adam's too busy to take much time off to go to Calgary for a few days.  Hopefully we'll get to Calgary's zoo sometime later this month.  Emily's very excited - especially about seeing "Saminose" (aka Flamingos - it took me awhile to decipher that one, lol), and petting bunnies in the petting barn.  She's very concerned with everything being "nice" and whether or not she can pet it.  Not wanting to scare her by telling her that lions and hippos are not really nice, we're trying to get her to understand that they're just wild animals and can be seen but not touched. 

That's about it for now.  Here's a few new pictures of my little lovely:

Picking up lots of tiny little shells at the Lake with Adam.

Cute little grin at lunch.

Excited about getting her own glass of apple juice (with ice cubes!!) at Moxie's.

Helping mom make zucchini cake.

So sweet.

Until next time...

Buck Lake Blogger