Cait's quick visit home

Friday evening, Caiti arrives home around for a short little visit to make sure she has some time off since she is doing her practicum at Kelowna General Hospital as well as taking as many shifts as she can at Hawthorne. So Friday we had a houseful for dinner with Chrissy after work and Sheldon and Jon. The kids left for the night market after dinner so we had a quiet friday night.

On Saturday, Darcy, Caiti and I were up early to stop by the Barracudas swim meet at Central Park, They were going cardless...it was such a tiny tiny meet. As Darcy was running around doing business, Caiti and I ended up place judging for a while. We left and drove down to the farms on Marine drive for fresh veggies, then to Kirin at the new Starlight Casino for dim sum. $26.00 for the 3 of us to have such a lovely breakfast.
Darcy dropped me off at Sharon's at 11:30 a.m as she was hosting a special luncheon for the seniors who volunteer at Dogwood who have helped her out for the last 10 weeks. Wow! It was like a gourmet feast out of Bon Apetit magazine. It was just an incredible spread of summer fresh food from pasta to salads and roasted vegetables and apricot cheesecake. She also made pitchers of the most delicious sangria. I have not seen everyone in ages so it was so much fun chatting with all the ladies...they are a fun bunch of old gals! They brought Sharon some beautiful flower arrangements from their own gardens.
We were going to the fireworks but my back was killing me and it caused a great pain all down my side to my foot so I decided to bail. We ended up having a light supper withy Caiti, Chrissy had a temper tantrum and went to the fireworks anyway. We watched a couple of movies we had taped on the PVR...so easy to get back-logged with stuff to watch.
This morning, I was first up and made a pot of lamb curry for Caiti to take home. We decided to go for a later lunch at the re-opened Moderne Burger Diner down in Kits...love that place...awesome diner decor and great milkshakes. First we stopped at Metrotown as Caiti wanted to use an Old Navy gift card. When we got there, I realized I had no wallet...thank goodness for a daughter who could pay for things! I wasn't sure if it had dropped out when I was locking the door so we went all the way home...but I guess I had left it out on the chair in the dining room. Well, we headed back out then again for our burger lunch. We were so stuffed and full. So we got home and were going to laze around when Caiti got a call got work and so decided to get on the road back to Kelowna.

We like it when she comes home...when we were at London Drugs getting allergy stuff and creams she was so knowledgeable on the products.
Anyway, another weekend gone. Short week ahead for me as I have an EDO day on friday before the long weekend and its also Regionals so helping Darcy with that meet for the weekend coming up.
The flowers above was one of the arrangements made for Sharon.
If I was wealthy I would have fresh flowers in every room that I owned including bathrooms!

A weekend of nothing

This was a very quiet weekend with not much happening. We didn't have any plans at all. On Saturday, Darcy and I just ran errands. Went to the farm on Marine drive and had the best fresh peas. We picked up groceries and just did nothing too exciting. Darcy made strawberry margaritas from scratch and it was really good but there was just the two of us at home. We watched "Becoming Jane" and that was our Saturday. Today, we stayed home catching up on laundry. Terry and Rene stopped by to sign cheques needed to pay for the pool rentals for regionals and we sat outside on the patio for a little while. Sometimes its nice to have a nothing weekend but it would be nice to not feel so isolated.
Caiti is a little stressed out. She started her practicum but hates her living arrangements at the moment because Al (James friend who owns the place) is being really mean and...so she has given her own notice and is looking for a place to live on her own.

Shark Weekend

Sometimes I have no idea how a weekend comes and goes. However, it was a good weekend as the weather was nice. On Saturday we sauntered over to Spani pool just to visit a swim meet hosted by the Coquitlam Sharks...it was a very small sprint meet. After that we went down to buy a pie from Uprising breads to take over to Shannon and Cal's since impromptu texting on the Friday night resulted in an impromptu BBQ. It was such a pleasant evening to sit outside for a very casual hamburger meal...couple of glasses of wine and a couple of fireballs too. It certainly beat lying on the couch for another quiet evening of nothing. There was a message from Tricia asking Darcy if he would not mind doing an official start of the aquathlon and hand out the special landyards to the littles swimmers/runners. It was actual a great idea and I had fun at the finish line yelling out the numbers as the athletes came across the line to the recorders.
We came home and I lounged on the couch watching TV...we watched mindless Miss Universe contest and that was another weekend come and gone. We are having a really late dinner tonight as we watch the Blue man band on HDnet that Darcy had recorded. July is now almost half over too....wow...So this week we did go see another movie "Wanted" with Angelina Jolie, James MacAvoy and Morgan Freeman. It was action-packed and interesting. I really want to go and see "Mamma Mia" next weekend!!! I just have one more of those cineplex passes so that has helped us with some entertainment.

Jewel- Solo and Acoustic at Red Robinson

My contact at the Red Robinson Theatre came through...tickets for tonight's Jewel concert. There are no bad seats at this theatre and the value of the tickets I got were over $70.00 each. I gave away 30 tickets. Even the seniors who went raved about it and said they loved it. Red Robinson, the man himself, came out to do an introduction on her and how pleased he was to have her sing in his theatre. Love this man and his familiar voice as he is a legend himself. It was phenomenal...she sang with just her guitars or with no music at all. Opening with "Somewhere over the rainbow". It was very personal and intimate. There was no band, there was just a pretty background, a carpet with a side table with a large vase of beautiful flowers. She stood the entire 2 hour concert with just a simple spotlight on her and her guitar and her flowers. She was very entertaining and told very funny stories about her life and how she lived such a very tough life and how her lyrics and her songs got her through. The range in her voice is incredible and for fun she demonstrated her yodelling skills which is not easy but she made it seem so. She sang all her key songs...albeit being live she changed the tempo and the style but no matter what she gave an amazing live performance...the sort of concert worth every penny. I would have paid for this but luckily it came with no price. I love her song "Hands" and it was poignant her telling how the song was used after the 9-11 attack, and how it made her feel. I also love "Song of Freedom", "Foolish Games" and "You were meant for me"...There's no doubt that she is a poetic and a highly thoughtful artist, and has fought through poverty and hardship to be able to relate her feelings and emotion through her music. This was a totally satisfying evening for me.

Mrs. Bishop's Retirement Party

Mrs. Bishop is on the left... with Mrs. Stanley and Mrs. Santone.

15 years ago, Caiti started Kindergarten at College Park and here new teacher was Mrs. Bishop. She was a little older starting out in her career having gone through a divorce and was up for a new challenge...taking on these little kids all ready to learn. Caiti adored Mrs. B and she loved the Summer Memories Project they did the first week they started school. It was an extremely great year for Caiti as she learned how to read and write and such a solid foundation.

Now Christina had Mrs. Bishop for 2 years, Kindergarten and Grade 1 as she was in a split class. Only Mrs. B had the patience for a very social and very difficult learner like Chrissy. Charlotte Diamond and Raffi songs was what carried her along in these two years.

These old photos were the little faces that she knew. Anyway, a very nice retirement party was hosted for her at the Easthill Complex party room. It was an open house with everyone bringing food and also a page for her Retirement Advice Book where all her former students could fill out a sheet updating her on old they are now and what they are doing. I hope that there were many pages for those really old students...her first students.

I didn't stay too long as it was very humid and many others wanted to have a chance to wish her well. There were only a handful of the familiar faces and a great many younger parents from more recent years.

Teachers are very important and for Caiti is was Mrs. B and Ms. Creelman. For Chrissy...it is Mrs. B all the way.
Today was a little humid and hazy as we got some drizzle over night but even though it was a short week it seemed like a normal one so thank goodness its Friday tomorrow. I need to really try and clear off this dining room table as it is so full of clutter that needs to be removed.

Happy Canada Day!

I actually had 4 days off and here it is all gone and really have nothing to show for it. My neck and ridge along the shoulder has been killing me and I was hoping that the pain would have gone away by the time I was heading back to work tomorrow.

So...happy canada day 2008. We drove by the Golden Spike Days down at Rocky Point and didn't even venture much farther than a drive by.

Well the summer heat came this weekend...just in time for the Golden Spike swim meet. Darcy and I were there for both days...Darcy as the Meet Referee and me as the Chief Meet Recorder although it was meant to be more in a training capacity. It was nice to be back on a very familiar pool deck. New pop-up tents instead of the large ones that were a pain to erect. Mike Wilson led the team cheer, and it is a very young Port Moody Aquarians club with only very young swimmers.
On Monday, Darcy and I went to watch Ironman to escape from the heat. He really wanted to see this movie so I went along because any movie on the big screen with air-conditioning is a lovely afternoon. Ate movie popcorn and drank pop...so much for my WW points.
And then today....spent the morning getting organized for my summer Wings workplan and getting an upgrade installed for the Clublink program. Went to Sears to exchange a few items and then home and an evening of quiet. Darcy has been working on de-cluttering and we are slowly cleaning up and getting ourselves a little less full of stuff. We really have too much junk and clutter and we just need to simplify our lives.
Anyway...the summer weather will stick around for a while and hopefully this summer will result in good things for us.