It's All a Long Weekend

It's Tuesday morning. We've just finished banana pancakes at the lake. Yum!

The boys LOVE being at the lake. BIG thunder storm last night - electricity went out for a couple hours.

Ivo and I walked up to the community grange/lodge/center the other day to play at the playground. It probably takes 25 minutes - when a 3 year old is walking it - all gravel roads, evergreen canopy, wild daisies, wild carrots, bees and butterflies. Ivo said, "You SURE dis is da right way?"

Ivo and Burl made a fire and roasted hotdogs with Grammie Gail and Ryan. Ivo wants to know, "What smoke made of?" He was very interested in the whole procedure. He'd never seen a match before - not in real life, anyway - he has a book that compares the size of the smallest mammal in the world to that of a matchstick. Later he told Gail, "I a dragon. I shoot fire outta my mouth. Next time you don't have fire - you ask me."

A little more Ivo Overheard:

• "I don't like towels on chairs." He has said this several times, different days - it's getting funny. This house is 2 meters from the lake. There will be towels on chairs...


• "We all a flamily in da rocks."


• (To Burl) "Show me your funny face." - everyone laughs - (To everyone else) "Check my funny face - better dan Burly's"


• (While sitting on the toilet) "Papa, can you read me a story 'bout a boy walking in da forest?" While yr pooping? "Yea." No! "But... Grammie Gail did it." Well, grammies are very special people.

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Yesterday, Little Burly turned 17 months old!!!

Burl is a very happy boy. He loves his family and when one person is missing, he stretches his arms out and asks "deeeh?" in a very hi-pitched, rising tone, with a concerned look on his brow. Burl is sooo close to talking, his babbling has the inflection of real conversation, tho, so far, he only says, "uh oh," "no, no, no," "bao-bao," "up," "ba-ba," "mama" and a bunch of de's, duh's, da's. Amazingly, though, he makes himself understood. For example, when he wants milk in his cereal, he points at his bowl and says, "duh!" (rising pitch - command mode). Burl also can kiss:)

Click here for video of Ivo the Green Dragon and Burly the "10-year-old Dragon."

Fredericton & New Car

Here's our new car!!! Ivo took this pic just before dropping the camera on the cement - The camera was stunned for a few minutes but seems ok now.

Here's a better pic Doug took:)














Yay!!! Yayayayayayay!!!

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Ryan and I spent the day in Fredericton checking out STU, neighborhoods and housing options... Let's just say this - if ANYONE KNOWS ANYONE IN FREDERICTON who can give us a decent place/price PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let us know:)

It's brutal. But we hold out hope - we do believe strongly in luck and magic and guanxi, baby, sweet sweet guanxi!

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Plus both Ryan* and my** horoscopes were very very encouraging today. Mine made me cry a little - all good stuff - somewhat related to finishing one year anniversary of Patty's death eulogy... which will be finished by 13 Aug.

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Tell me this guy doesn't look like Alex Trebek...








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This says "SHE'S OLD HOME WEEK" and it's not a typo:)


Colloquial.

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* In his book The Medusa and the Snail, science writer Lewis Thomas said that the English word "error" developed from a root meaning "to wander about, looking for something." That's why he liked Darwin's idea that error is the driving force in evolution. I think this wandering-about-looking-for-something approach should be the driving force in your personal evolution, Sagittarius. The coming weeks will be a great time to meander and get distracted and stumble upon unexpected opportunities. May all your mutations have a positive spin! (P.S. Lewis also wrote this: "The capacity to blunder slightly is the real marvel of DNA. Without this special attribute, we would still be anaerobic bacteria and there would be no music.")

** Your life story is about to deepen and sweeten and get more interesting -- if, that is, you follow the trail of clues into the dark forest, and if, as you travel, you hum songs that are both sad and happy, and if you call on the spirit of your favorite dead person to accompany you. Of course, you're perfectly free to refuse the call of your destiny, and never even take a glance into the dark forest. But in my opinion, that would cheat you out of some profound fun that has the potential to teach you and tune you for many years to come.

Ivo & Burl at the Park

Ryan, Ivo, Burl and I spent the morning at Connell Park - which is such a great park - all the swings and jungle gyms are surrounded by tons of sand. We brought some of the kids' pails and shovels and built some castles and train tracks. Ivo and Burl mostly like to shovel and pour and stomp on anything with shape. Today Ivo made a mountain. Ivo LOVED swinging - especially underdoggin'!





























Afterwards we went to DQ - as part of our scientific sampling of N.america's junk food, purely research - oh, yea, and fun too! It was the first time Burl has ever liked ice cream - and boy, did he like it! Soft serve with chocolate sauce. Ivo had a little cup of chocolate - we'd ordered vanilla, but got choc instead. The server was very nice and offered to change it - but we just rolled with it. The girl was NUTTY! She told us waaay too much about herself, her spending habits, her living arrangement, how she doesn't get along with her mother and how she binge drinks and puts it on her credit cards... Well, we were happy to just get ice cream outta her, so we didn't wanna tax her any more than necessary.











Yikes.

Oh yea, a friendly customer at DQ asked us if our kids are always so well-behaved!!! Whoo-hoo!

It was a SUPER WINDY day! Ivo and Ryan went to an evening showing of Wall-E from which Ivo returned kinda sad and mopey. Burl, Gail and I worked in the garden, walked around, played ball and saw a huge rainbow!

Tomorrow Ryan and I are going to Fredericton to check out the housing market... Hopefully we can find something GREAT!

My Favorite Pics from Today

On the way home from visiting the cows...


























I think this should be Ryan's headshot for his introductory essay at STU...



























One more from the library...






















I have a bunch of Ivo and Burl together that I've got to crop - they will turn into favorite tomorrow.

Yes, Sandy, There is Intrigue in Rural N.america

Last night after the boys had fallen asleep, I looked over at the computer, sighed and decided, No – I don’t really have anything to blog about today. I hadn’t really taken any new pics to post and, while it was an awesome day - Ryan and I had a lunch date where the Meduxnekeag and St.John Rivers meet - I just thought, gee, maybe life is slower here in rural N.America and maybe I won’t do as much blogging.

BOY WAS I WRONG! And thank g-d, too. Today was a day filled up with event and incident including an up-close and personal brush with celebrity, royalty, even!

Today was our 2nd visit to the weekly story time at the Woodstock Library. Gail, Ivo, Burl and I were treated to special guest story-reader, Miss New Brunswick. No, I’m NOT joking! There she sat, in the flesh, in her crown, in her sash and in her super high heels! It was almost too much. This Miss NB 2007-2008 is named Jenna, she hails from Woodstock and is entering her sophomore year at UNB. She was sweet with the kids and friendly in the ways people who make public appearances for a living are. She was generous with the picture taking – but neither Ivo nor Burl were in the mood to be part of such group shots…



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The library kid program is great!!! Each week the kids get to hear stories and do crafts around a theme. This week was spiders - with a princess/crown craft and book tacked on at the end to mesh with the gracious Miss NB.





Ivo made a beautiful spider and web with Grammie Gail but had had it by the time of the crown craft which Burl went for. The kids checked out 4 books including Walter the Farting Dog Goes on a Cruise.





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Afterwards, we saw Miss NB at a local health store picking up lunch. Again, very friendly but sashless, tho we all knew who she was. We said hi’s/bye’s and got to the car where Gail asked me if she’d/we’d/anybody’d paid for the paper I had grabbed. I guessed not as the name of the paper is Carleton FREE PRESS, it’s offered just beyond the registers and it definitely looks like the kind of local-ad-driven rag published in so many small towns. In fact, Ryan had seen the Carleton FREE PRESS yesterday at an Irving gas-n-go (we were looking all over for a lollipop to bring Ivo) – and thought it looked too crappy to bother with - even if it was free. So, No – no one had paid for the paper.

I ran back inside and had to wait behind 3 people – and face Miss NB again, this time as a thief and I think we’d both tapped out our small-talk reserves. With accounts settled, I hopped back in the car (I’m the driver cuz I’m learning the roads). And who was pulling out in her silver vw bug with the JENZ vanity plates? That’s right – Miss Jenna NB. I don’t know what to say first… This silver vw is a flashy vehicle – and the vanity plates seal the deal. There’s absolutely no mistaking that JENZ passed Ryan and me, crossing a double yellow line on a quiet two-lane country hiway yesterday at a silly speed.

Now, Woodstock is a town of around 5000 people. It’s definitely the kinda place where you know who’s where by the presence/absence of their cars. It’s the kinda town where pubs have blackened windows so you can’t see who’s in there drinking – even tho you can see their vehicles right out front. I’m not even in town that often and I’ve identified the driver of the one black Cadillac Escalade by face and vehicle.

But, it’s not like Miss NB has had the smoothest reign – oh yes, there has been controversy. Miss NB had to fight for her crown – and it wasn’t pretty.

And come to find out – the unfortunatley-monikered Carleton FREE PRESS is all scandalicious too!

Game on!


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Ivo, Burl, Gail and I took our snack down to the river for a mini-picnic and play.





When we got home we went over to see the cows and on our home, we got caught trespassing thru Nancy and Jerry's yard, so we got to go in and Ivo brought over the cheesecake he and Grammie made to share. YUM!





Here are a few sites to read about Woodstock, the oldest incorporated town in NB - settled by loyalists who fled the US revolution, hee hee hee!!!

Ivo Dance & Funnyface Burl

We've had an excellent excellent day! Ivo even learned a dance from Capt Honeyface from Wordgirl... Click here for video of Ivo:) Click here for a video if Wordgirl being interviewed by Jim Lehrer

Oh - It's not Capt Honeyface - it's Huggyface - which I don't think is the way Ivo said it - and I don't think it's as good as Honeyface...

Which reminds me of another misheard piece of creative genius... "Guy Midnight" from Forest City...

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Burl has been making a very funny face lately. He does it on purpose to make us laugh, to show he thinks something is silly and/or when we ask him to! It looks like this...

And reminds me the funny face he made back in Oct/Nov 2007!

This is Ivo's current funnyface...

Ivo and Burl's Almost Favorite Activity

Ivo and Burl love throwing rocks into the lake - almost as much as they have ever loved anything ever in their lives, combined...

Ivo loved riding in the canoe. Burl did not - but that may be because he thought he was gonna get to paddle all by himself.

Bonus pics of Ivo, Burl and Grampie Doug:)