bizarre link

Geriatric investors in Germany stick it to their incompetent investment advisor...

the story

One of those days...

The power was out on Broadway and in my neighbourhood for 3 or 4 hours today. I came home from the park and had no solid plan for dinner. My standby, toast, with a few peas on the side was not happening. So we had strawberries, yogurt, and cut up veggies... cucumber, carrot and yellow pepper. Actually read the popcorn package and it had fibre, protein, and iron. 

Hazel was very, very tired as she woke up on the transfer from the car to bed earlier today. So her nap was short. 30 mins or so.

I decided to put her to bed a 1/2 hour early. She was "tired crying" in the bedroom while Coco was yelling at her imaginary friends in the living room. Then silence on both fronts. I guess Coco and her friends came to an understanding. Hazel just zonked out.

Coco went to sleep a half hour later.

Crowds

I didn't always find crowds and ques annoying but now I do. Today at the aquarium, we had to que to get in, we had to que to get a coffee and we had to que to see the new baby baluga whale. The aquarium is amazing. I'm a member. But stay away over the summer. I repeat, stay away over the summer. It is mayhem over there. 

Or maybe it just seemed that way as I was trying to keep an 18 month old in check. The umbrella stroller doesn't have a 5 point harness so she was standing up and trying to jump out then running all over the place. The other one knows to hold my hand when I tell her to but not the toddler. 

Resilience

"Resilience begins with the capacity to sustain disappointment, to feel sadness, to accept the futility of wishing that we can ultimately control the course of events. It means adapting to circumstances that we cannot change."

Basically we need to have an inner core of self-esteem to be resilient.

I am interested in this topic as it pertains to raising my two daughters.

I am finding now that Coco is starting to want things more and more, particularly something a friend has (ie a kiddie camera, Barbie doll). I don't want her to measure herself against what other kids have. 

As her birthday is in August, I am telling her to write these things down that she really wants. It seems to change daily so we'll see what she wants closer to the date.

Also, working on nurturing her talents and relationships with people. 

Fancy fruit pie I made

Almost looks like the picture in the magazine. It was yummy and surprisingly very easy to make with store bought puff pastry. 

Turned around again...

Grandma Sue and I were painting the fence. I set the kids up with some paint and an easel in the garden to keep them occupied. I turned around to paint the fence and those little rascals got up to some painting of their own... body painting that is.

I filled a tub with water and this occupied them for awhile with clean up.

Fence looks great though. Yeah Grandma Sue!!!!!

kids!!!**##@@!

So we're having dinner and my daughter announces "This is not my idea of a cheese sauce." Pardonné moi?!  

Then later... "I am not getting in the bath" Why? "It is too wet".

Looking forward to the quiet house when everyone is asleep tonight.

At least I had a few minutes to read...

Seemed harmless. Kiddies playing in the garden. I was reading a magazine I took out of the library. Then I looked up... 

Love craigslist.

Posted the gas stove from the basement suite we are redoing. Tried to sell it for $100 then $75 then just listed it for "free". Got a call 5 minutes after the post (no kidding!!) and it was gone the next day by 2 pm. 

The funny thing is that someone offered to take it to the dump for $150 this past weekend. I guess they had a truck and saw it in our alley. That was a bit strange. 

Pics from art class

A value scale exercise. I painted 4 of the squares with black and white then photocopied the rest. This would make great wall paper! It is my dog, Lucky, at the park

All the value scale exercises

up on the wall. 

 Using tons of painting techniques.
This what the canvas looked like at the half way mark. We learned a photo transfer technique.

Third art class over

Into the home stretch now as I just completed my third art class today and there are only six. Bruce is watching the kiddies. He has taken them somewhere in the stroller as I have arrived home and they are no where to be found. Thought about calling them but then I'd never get to post.

It has been a few days without posts as we were in Edmonton visiting family.

We learnt some cool techniques in class today for doing abstract paintings.

Plus, downloading a pic from a black and white exercise we did. I didn't paint this all. Some are photocopies. Can you imagine wallpapering your bedroom in this?