Too funny!

So, it turns out that the man who I wrote about in this post, the one who took some pictures of Val & me at the Corn & Apple Festival parade, is named George Siamandas. I guess he likes to go to different festivals in Manitoba and take pictures of people, create montages and post them on YouTube. I got an email from a Corn & Apple Festival committee member who passed on a link of someone who made a film about the festival. I was half way through watching it when I thought--I wonder if this is the same guy who took our picture... when suddenly, there we were!

You can watch it here. (Sorry I didn't post the actual film in my blog-- couldn't quite get that to work today.)

Corn & Apple Festival story #4

Okay, not another story. Some highlights & favourite pictures from our weekend at the Corn & Apple Festival.

On Friday, we went in the afternoon & checked out the booths first. Austin always likes to take a turn in the Bison driving simulator. I love this picture, because Sage has become such a little poser lately, smiling so nicely for the camera. Love it!


Here's a cute one of Sage at the petting zoo. See what I mean? She poses so nicely.


Cameron went to drive the shuttle bus


and I took the kids on some rides. You'd think from these photos that putting Sage on the Dragon Wagon was a bad idea, but she really enjoyed herself. Really.



We saw my niece (Heidi) & nephew (Luke) at Luke's farmer's market booth. (Jonah isn't as good of poser as his sister-- LOL!)


At the petting zoo on Saturday afternoon, on the pony rides.


We met up with Austin's best friend, Soren, and they went on the rides together. This is on the Sizzler


and the tea cups (love this one!)


and the pirate ship.


Sage loved the merry-go-round just as much as she did at Tinkertown.


And two tired little boys at about 5:15 Sunday afternoon, just about ready to go home.

Corn & Apple Festival story #3

It's towards the end of the festival. The kids have gone on rides for a good part of the afternoon. They've eaten the kids combos I bought for them (hotdog, chips & a pop) and a good portion of a bag of cotton candy while sitting at the Chris Rice concert. We were just about to head home, when the Jonah spotted Laurie, the clown on stilts who makes balloon animals.

Now, on Friday, we stood in line for said balloon animals for over half an hour, only to have Jonah's balloon pop once we got home. So, of course, he wanted a replacement.

So, while standing in line, this woman comes up to me and asks if my name is Leah.

I said, it's Leigh.

She said her name was Lori. And I recognized her as one of the managers that I worked for at McDonald's 15 years ago.

I told her I was surprised that she recognized me.

And she said that I look exactly the same!

So I thought, that's pretty good that I still look 19. ;)

(By the way, Jonah's balloon animal popped when we pulled into the driveway-- it didn't even make it through the front door!)

Corn & Apple Festival story #2

Last night, my kids spent the night at my MIL's, so I could volunteer in our church's booth at the C&A Festival.

So this morning, I went for a run. And I've run about 7 blocks when I hear:

"Nice butt, Leigh!!"

I turn around and there are Marlo & Mary running behind me.

Thanks for the compliment, guys! ;)

Corn & Apple Festival story #1

This morning, as per our Corn & Apple Festival tradition, we went to watch the parade. We picked up doughnuts from the Youth for Christ golf cart and staked out a spot to watch.

My friend Val & her family came and sat with us. The parade was good and it was nice to catch up with Val, as I hadn't seen her in a week.

Towards the end of the parade, I noticed an older gentleman take a picture of an older couple sitting close to us. He encouraged them to sit closer to each other and for the man to put his arm around his wife.



Then when he walked past us, I said, jokingly: "Did you want to take our picture, too?"

And he said: "Sure!"

So I actually handed him my camera and he took some pictures of Val & I with it and then took some more with his own camera! It was so funny!

When he asked us where our husbands were, I told him that mine was driving the shuttle bus.

"Oh," he said. "I met him. He's a real ambassador to Morden."

So when Cameron came home later, I asked him if he had any passengers on the shuttle bus take his picture, he said: "Yeah. How did you know that?"

Apparently, he took pictures of everyone riding on the bus! That just makes me laugh, because he was such a nice man and so funny and you could just tell that he was enjoying himself immensely.

Here are the pictures that he took of Val & me:

What's new

This week has gone by so quickly.

Austin had soccer practice on Monday, which he enjoyed. Except we can't find his shin pads. I told him that he'd have no screen time (TV, computer or gamecube) until we found them. So far, they are still missing. But he's been playing more with his toys, so that's good.

We went to Tinkertown on Tuesday with Mary and two of her boys. That was a really great day! The kids had a blast and the weather was quite good. I'd post pictures, but my computer isn't reading my camera for some reason, which is not good. I'm going to Winkler tomorrow to get a new USB cord. So hoping that that's the problem and nothing serious.

Cleaning/organizing/purging in the house this week. Feels good. I'm thinking of having a garage sale in September, so I'm starting to put stuff away for that. And just tossing lots of stuff out. Of course, I'm putting toys aside for it that the kids never play with and then they see them and start playing with them!

And the Corn & Apple Festival starts tomorrow. It's fun and it's free. Riding on the shuttle bus, the parade, petting zoo, rides, free corn, helping out in our church booth, Chris Rice in concert. Should be a good weekend.

And this weekend is our monthly online crop at MSS. That should be good, too.

I've been looking forward

to taking this picture all summer.

I took it last night on the dock at the beach. I love it. I love him.

Birthday week

On Tuesday, it was my birthday. (As well as my twin brother's birthday-- Happy Birthday, Chris!)

But it seems like I've had a week's worth of birthday celebrations.

To kick it off Monday evening, my wonderful friend, Valerie, brought a cake, chips and pop to baseball in the evening and surprised me with a "party" after the game.

Then, Tuesday, we went to Grand Forks with our friends Al & Darlene and had a great three days together. (Here's a a picture of Darlene and I in the hallway of our hotel.)

Then, yesterday, my friends Cyndie, Pam, Mary & Val took me out for brunch (& provided babysitters, too.)

And then, my very good friend Anita stopped by in the afternoon for a visit.

I love my birthday week. If anything, it is just a fabulous reminder that God has blessed me with awesome friends!

Eight blocks!

So, I started running in spring again. I started with two blocks jogging and one block walking. Then I went up to 3 & 1. Then 4 & 1. And then I pulled a muscle in my leg. Which I took as an excuse to stop running for four weeks.

Then I started again with 3 & 1. And up to4 & 1. Then the other day, I thought, I should try to take out a section of walking in the 2 1/2 km that I run. So I ran 6 blocks at the beginning. This was on the weekend.

So this morning, I thought I'd do again. But for some crazy reason, I'd played with the math in my head, and decided that I could take out another section of walking if I ran eight blocks and walk one. And I did! I've never run that far before! I did two sections of 8 & 1 and then a last section of 5.

I'm so excited! It's so cool when you can do something that earlier seemed impossible.

The Lost Book

We enjoy going to our local library and taking books home to read. In Spring, Sage took out the book Dora’s Starry Christmas (she’s quite the Dora fan!)

And we lost it.

We renewed it to give us some more time to find it.

We searched high and low, but couldn’t find it anywhere.

So on June 10th, I paid for the book. $5.50.

The librarian told me that if we found the book in two months, then we could return it to the library and get our money back.

And I joked that we’d most likely find it on August 11th: the day after the deadline.

Well, wouldn’t you know it? We had water in our basement yesterday, so last night, Cameron was moving furniture out of the spare room to lift up the carpeting, when Sage said:

“It’s the Dora book!”

It had slipped behind the bed in the spare bedroom, behind the headboard. And when did she find it?

August 11th.

Of course.

Summer favourites, part 1

I LOVE summer!! Hands down, it is my favourite season. And after Jonah's birthday, I start to feel a little panicked that it's ending. So I try to enjoy my favourite things about it as much as possible.

And a few of these favourites include:

Playing baseball. Well, slow-pitch, really. A bunch of people from church gather at the park on Monday evenings and we make up teams and play. So much fun and such a great way to fellowship with part of our church family.

Ice cream. I splurged on some Breyers Heavenly Hash this week (it was on sale!)

Fresh fruit. Especially strawberries and watermelon.

Going to the beach. I love having a local beach. Such a luxury! I figured we've been over twenty times this summer already.

Birthdays. Cameron's. Jonah's. Mine. Love celebrating birthdays.

Going to the park. Morden has such nice parks, all within biking distance. So nice!

So, now it's your turn. What are some of your favourite summer things?

Sand Pie

I love the stage Sage is at right now. Totally enjoying playing with her toy kitchen and "making" food and serving it. Yesterday, when my friend Mary was over to scrapbook, Sage came up to each of us in turn with a tray with little plates and food on them (a plastic strawberry and tomato!) What a great hostess!

And then later in the afternoon, while playing in the sandbox, she came up to me and offered me some "sand pie." So cute!

It's somebody's birthday today

I can't believe he's five already! I'm so thankful that God blessed me with this sweet, imaginative and wonderful little boy.

Happy Birthday, Jonah!

My week

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while.

Here's what I've been up to:

It was Cameron's birthday on Monday, as well as his dad's . We had supper at my FIL's where he lives at Salem in Winkler. Cameron's mom and sister and her family joined us. I made Cam's dad a framed layout of our family and when I gave it to him, Sage pointed out who everyone was to him. So cute!





Played slow-pitch on Monday night with people from our church. I love playing ball! So fun. And such a great way to connect with people from our church family.

On Tuesday, I met my friend Darlene at the church and we picked out music to sing on the worship team on Sunday morning. Then we biked to the doctor's with the kids to check out the infection on Sage's arm and the infection on Austin's toe. Then we had lunch at McDonald's, followed by ice cream at Tasti's, where the kids played until after 2pm. I love days like that with friends where the day just stretches out as we spend time together.

Wednesday thru Friday were somewhat the same during the day. We went to the beach in the morning to hang out with my friend Val whose kids are having swimming lessons. In the afternoon, we'd relax or I'd clean. I've also done quite a bit of reading this past week.

(I'd reserved Sophie Kinsella's newest book in the Shopaholic series from the library and figured that I'd reread the first four books so I'd remember the characters, plot lines, etc. Well, I read all four books in five days! And then the library called yesterday morning to say that the newest book Shopaholic & Baby was in. I picked it up on the way home from the beach and finished it last night at 2 am!! )

On Wednesday evening we took Cameron's new boat (his birthday present) to the beach for a test run (test float?) The kids and I bought it last week and at supper one evening, Austin said: "Dad, we got your present. I'll give you a hint." And despite the fact that Cameron and I told him not to, he said this:

"It's not a boat."

Silence.

Followed quickly by Jonah and Sage saying: "Yes, it is, Austin. It is a boat."

So much for surprises.

So we took the boat to the beach and had some fun.







Sage liked the idea of the boat much better when she wasn't sitting in it. If she was in it and we moved off the shore, she'd start crying and asking for the parent on the beach.

This morning I went for a run (that's twice this week!) and biked with the kids to the grocery store to pick up some stuff for Jonah's birthday party tomorrow. I spent part of the day baking and icing his cake and making salads, etc. for our barbeque tomorrow. (And I also got a chance to scrapbook a little this afternoon.) I was inspired by a Lisa McGarveyLisa McGarvey layout in the August Scrapbooks Etc.Scrapbooks Etc. and created this layout:



I used:
Bazzill cardstock
Patterned paper: Scenic Route, Bo Bunny, Rhonna Farrer, Magnolia, MOD & Foofala
Buttons: MOD & Stampin' Up!
Chipboard: Scenic Route (title) andI can't remember the swirls. Maya Road. Or maybe Fancy Pants? I adhered pp to the chipboard, cut it out and sanded the edges. On the two largest swirls, I didn't cut right along the chipboard, making my own shape.

Thanks for looking!

Photo a day

Okay, I have not been doing a very good job of taking a photo every day this month. (Sorry, Anita.(a.k.a. initiator of the photo a day challenge))

But I have taken a few over the past three days.

Here are my favourites:




We went to the beach on Wednesday and met some friends there. I bribed the kids with a movie night to let me take this picture. (A woman watched me take the photo and I said to her, in explanation: "I'm a scrapbooker." And she replied: "I figured as much." LOL!)




While we watched Cheaper by the Dozen 2 on Wednesday night, I braided Sage's hair. I took this photo at the park on Thursday morning:



This afternoon, we biked to do some errands (optometrist to pick up my repaired sunglass clips, post office to mail off a RAK, the library and the movie store) and I took the kids to Warky's for supper. We stopped at the park on the way home. Lots of photo opportunities there, but of course, I didn't have my camera with me. :(


When we got home, I suggested that the kids look at their books from the library on the patio in the backyard while I mowed the lawn. And I got these:

So sweet

Yesterday afternoon, I was scrapbooking at my craft table and Sage wanted to "do scrapbooking" with me "with paint."

So I set her up with some pink cardstock, purple paint and a paintbrush and she was as happy as a clam. And while I scrapbooked, I mean, we scrapbooked, she chatted away.

And I, being the wonderful mother that I am, tuned her out.

But then I tuned in when she said something about "thankful for loving me."

"What did you say, Sage?"

"I said: "Thank you, God, for loving me. And thank you, God, for Daddy and for Mommy and for Jonah and for Austin!""

Totally makes me understand what Jesus meant when he said we need to become like little children.

Baby, it's hot outside!

Crazy, humid hot.

The kind of hot that makes you very grateful for air-conditioning & cool basements to scrapbook in.

Here's what I created this afternoon:



I was pleased to find another way to use my "treasure" stamp. And I'm loving the Rhonna Farrer journaling chipboard!

Here's to keeping cool!

Painting, strep & a visit from my twin

So yesterday, I woke up with a really sore throat that hurt when I'd swallow. I took Jonah to the doctor's for his five year check-up (& his kindergarten needles) and asked the doctor to check my throat right away. Turns out it's strep. Yuck. So I'm on penicillin and waiting for it to kick in soon.

My twin brother, Chris, is out for a visit from Nanaimo and he and my mom drove out for the day.

It was really nice. We haven't seen him since Christmas 2005 and it was really good to see him connect with his nephews and niece.





Sage warmed up to him okay, but then this afternoon, she decided to roar at him to "scare him" and he roared right back at her! Well, she did NOT like that at all! She kept her distance for the rest of the visit, but did give him a hug before he left.

So this week, in preparation for their visit, I painted my front door. (Man, what a drawn out process!) But it's Raspberry Truffle now and I'm really happy with it.


I've also been working in the yard, fixing up my paths. Everything is huge in my garden this year! This is the path that leads around the north side of my house to the backyard.


My back flower garden (& three tomato plants)


And the hydrangea that I moved in Spring. It's doing much better in its new location.

Wouldn't it be nice...

to have lots of money?

I think this a lot. It doesn't consume me or anything like that, but every once in a while, I'll come across a financial need and think that it would be really nice to be able to meet it.

Or a want.

This morning, I definitely found a want.

I went shopping in a store in our town with a friend and decided to try on some bathing suits. (I know, I must have felt like punishing myself or something, but I thought if anything, it might be good for a laugh.)

Well, I found this gorgeous dark brown and teal blue suit that actually, believe it or not, looked good on me.

Seriously.

Now I think this is a first for me since my early twenties, if not my teens. The term "nice-looking bathing suit on Leigh" just seems like an oxy-moron to me.

But there it was. A very flattering bathing suit. I was so tempted to buy it.

So, what stopped me?

The price.

$145.

Yeah. Not in this lifetime.

However, it did help me get some perspective on the whole want vs. need thing. God totally provides for my needs (& some of my wants, too). And it's okay for me to not get something that I want.

Even if it did look pretty darn good on me.

A day in the city

Austin's team was chosen to play in a jamboree at the Goldeyes Stadium and yesterday was the day.

His first game started at 10am. They had set up 3 little diamonds on the Goldeye's field. It was really cool to watch them there. They also had a nice playstructure, so that was good for Sage and Jonah. Austin played left field and got on base quite a few times, which was great.

For lunch, we'd packed a cooler, so we crossed the river into old St. Boniface and ate on the steps of the Cathedral, which was really nice. We showed the kids where my dad was buried and of course, took some pictures.

Austin's second game went well, too and afterwards, we took the kids to see Ratatouille.

(Cam almost had a heart attack at the cost for the five of us to get into the theatre-- good thing Sage was free!) After supper at A&W, we headed back to the Goldeyes stadium where we watched four innings of the game.

Austin was really happy to get his picture taken with Goldie.