Bender Fender

We got into a bit of a bump on Sunday when we went to Mayfair mall.

We were entering the parking lot and noticed a vehicle backing out of a spot. It appeared they may not have seen us, so we slowed down and stopped and layed on the horn. Apparently they couldn't see or hear the horn and backed into us, hitting the passenger front corner.

The whole family was in the car and we seem to be ok. The car has minor damage with a few scrapes on the bumper, but the hood has a small indent in it (like it was curled back a bit).
We were a few minutes late for a Birthday party (at Build-a-Bear), so the girls all headed into the mall while I dealt with the insurance. The other party and I started to get insurance papers etc and she mentioned that we should move our vehicles to a safer place. They moved their vehicle and I then realized that in the excitement, I had locked my keys in the car. I tried calling Restita for 10 minutes with no answer !! I finally went inside to get her keys and found out that her phone was charging in the car.....arghhh. When I got back, the other vehicle had taken off....good thing I got their plate number before they left !!

So far both insurance companies (ICBC and ING Insurance) have been a pleasure working with, so hopefully that will continue.

I am working today and worked yesterday, so we will bring the car in to the shop tomorrow.
I guess the good news is that we are covered for a rental vehicle while it is in for repairs !!

Mari's Christmas List (continued) and others

Hi, this is Mari again.

I forgot two things after I published my post.

8. Webkinz clothes(for Kate and Clara)
9. Build-a-Bear (for my account)

Now for a new subject... Reading/Phonics!
My favourite!


I was 3 years old (in preschool) when I first read my books.

I got so good, I started reading chapter books when I was in Gr.1!
Wow!
Now I'm really into challenging books!

Bye for now! P.S.( I am into novels now and in Gr.3!)

Apple Fan's....

There sure are some Avid fans out there !!

I don't read much chinese, but visit this site for how they did it (I thought someone used photoshop until I saw the other photos)

Fun baking

We decided to play around with our color cookie dough and the girls made some interesting (and almost tasty) cookies.

Mari 's Christmas List

Hello, my name is Mari( Carl's eldest daughter).

These are the things I want for Christmas:

1. Nintendo DS
2. Hannah Montana Wii game
3. Nintendo DS game( to start off collection)
4. To be with my family
5. Alisha to stop bugging me
6. A tickle from my Daddy
7. MORE HOMEWORK!


Anyways, Have a Merry Christmas!

Social experiment by grade 8 girl

This is an article about a girl that wore a pro-McCain shirt to school and recorded the comments. The next day, she wore a pro-Obama shirt and record comments also.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-13-nov13,0,2881384.column

Considering Obama is a strong supporter of tolerance, it was interesting to read the comments when we wore the McCain shirt....needless to say, they were not very tolerant people.

Hope you enjoy this.

Macgyver creates some cool looking speakers

Straight from the ghetto

http://www.yankodesign.com/2008/11/13/macgyver-tries-ipod-speakers/

Would you like a set for Christmas?

Just some photos from my phone

halloween

my three princesses
fridge cleanup

we found this stapler frozen in a casserole dish while cleaning the fridge at work !!!
playing in the park

swing time
playing in the park

swing time
Posted via Pixelpipe.

50 Strange Buildings of the World

These are some strange buildings

Hope you enjoy these strange links I am finding on my night shifts.

Funny Super Mario Bros video

Stumbled across this video and thought Shelley and William might enjoy it.

http://www.pwnordie.com/videos/e6bedb7d13

Antipodes

Things you learn while you are on the Internet. Did you know that if you dug through the earth, you would NOT end up in China? Sorry Mom :-)

Have a look at http://www.zefrank.com/sandwich/tool.html to find out where you would be.

Hi-speed fun

I just love high-speed photo and videos !!

Checkout that link I just stumbled across
(from http://www.digg.com)

Halloween 2008

Just posted some Halloween photos on Facebook.

The girls just left to go to Malloween at Mayfair mall and then they split up and go to their friends parties (they live nearby).

I am getting ready to go to work :-(

Saving paint

I was just thinking of William and remembered this tip about saving paint.

It is from one of my new favourite websites called http://www.unclutterer.com.

The article suggests putting old paint into smaller containers that you were going to throw away anywayz, IE, water bottles....what a great idea.

Have a look at the article
http://unclutterer.com/2008/07/31/use-water-bottles-to-store-paint/

Kidzui

This is a great program you can install on your computer.

It carries MANY kid-safe websites and my kids love it !!

"Over a million kid-friendly games, websites, pictures, and YouTube videos reviewed by parents like you"

check it out
http://www.kidzui.com/

test #2

Just trying a different way to notify you if I post something.

Let me know if you get this also.

good deals at RedFlagdeals.com

I Just wanted to post a site I told Mom about.
http://www.redflagdeals.com

It has a list of deals from all different companies, such as Sears, Home Depot (hammer drop of the day is cool), Dell and lots more.

test post to family

I am just trying to auto-notify you of blog posts.

If you are getting these, then you will get them whenever I post something new (not as frequently as I would like, but nonetheless).

You can always view the posts at http://www.carlsstuff.com

Let me know if you get this message...or better yet, go to the site and post a comment.

test post to Mom

did you get this?

Carl vs Costco

As some of you may have heard, I seem to have a knack for getting reduced pricing or extra warranties from companies.

My latest story involves Costco and getting a photobook printed.

This started a couple months ago when I noticed that Costco had some pricing listed for a photobook. They listed their books for $26.99, which seemed like a reasonable deal.
So it took me a few weeks to get my favourite photos together and create the album online.
When I went to pay for the book, they were going to charge me $39.99 !!!!!

I thought perhaps I miss-read the sign at Costco, so I eventually made it back there and verified the pricing. I asked the clerk why the difference in pricing....he didn't have a clue, but verified the new pricing on the Costco site. He didn't seem willing to help me with the pricing (ie, offering me a refund, or calling someone about it).

A week or so later, we found ourselves at Costco again, and I asked a different clerk (Mark). Mark verified the price difference and told me that he would pull the sign and put my name/number on it so that I get this price.

So I ordered the book. One good thing about the Costco photo site is that you pay for the product at the store (instead of online). So when my books came in (notified by email), I went to Costco and spoke to a different clerk who wanted to verify it with the clerk I originally spoke with. The good news is the Mark was just on his way in and he gave me the price that we originally saw.

So instead of paying $39.99 for the book, I only paid $26.99 !!!

Thanksgiving Poem by Mari

This was published in the school newsletter (only one of two)

Thanksgiving by Mari Chambers

Thank you God for the shiny light.

Thank you God for food we bite

Thank you God for moon and stars.

Thank you for who we are

Thank you God for clouds and sky.

Thank you for time that passes by.

Thank you for the trees.

Thank you God for me!

Mari

look who is on top of her class
Posted via Pixelpipe.

My little angel
img_0282.jpg

Posted via Pixelpipe.

Lounging

Alisha being a poser

First week of school

Wow, two posts in a day !!! This should hold me over for another few weeks :-)

Anywayz, the girlz started school this week. Tuesday was a 1/2 day and yesterday was their first full day. I was suprised to see Alisha with LOTS of energy at the end of day.

I've also had the past 3 days off (one more tomorrow). Call me selfish, but I gotta say, it is kinda nice to have the day off w/o the girls (but not too nice). Pickup time is at 3pm, so we do get to spend some time with them.

Found our first Geocache !!

What is a Geocache?

"Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment"

This is all coordinated through a website called http://www.geocaching.com

We have only attempted to find 3 Geocaches so far and this one is located at a small community garden called "Spirit Garden". Click on the link for the original information we got.
The good news is that we emailed the original hider and she gave us additional clues and eventually lead us to find this cache underneath a loghouse type planter.

Facebook Pics

Enjoy !!

2 weeks later...

Wow, I can't believe it has been 2 weeks since we got back....just shows you how busy we have been.

I've been working 6am - 4:30 pm Mon - Thurs for the past couple of weeks and have finally found a good time to workout when I am working that shift. Go straight from work to the gym. I usually get there about 5pm and supper is usually not ready until after 6 anywayz, so it is a good time to go.

Now I have to find good timing for this weeks shifts, 9:30 - 8pm. Not sure if I want to go workout after that shift or not...we will see.

I am supposed to go workout today, but my lower back is VERY stiff, so I am going to skip today and I am icing it as we speak.

Mari and Alisha had a morning camp at St. Patricks church on the first week we were back. It was called "power labs" where they learnt the power that Jesus gives us power to "be thankful", "help others", "live forever" and "tell others about God". They had songs and verses and some science experiments to go along with it.

This week they are at Emmanuel Baptist church at a different Science camp. Mari went last year and enjoyed it, Alisha is now old enough to go, so they are both going to it this year.

Alisha enjoyed all her Birthday gifts. We didn't have a friends Bday party due to the her recent poor behaviour. All we had was a family dinner, she picked "Old Spaghetti Factory" downtown.
Just the immediate family was there (unfortunately William and family couldn't attend).
Alisha got a Dora lantern from Grandma, a build-a-bear from Tita (to be built at another time, perhaps today), some cash from Tito and Lola and a Pokemon Yahtzee game from Restita and I.

Well, off to Emmanuel Baptist...ttyl

After 10,000 KM, we are finally home

A Calaway Splash 2007
Originally uploaded by John's Life

Calaway park was a lot of fun and we spent about 5 hours going on the rides. Our favourite ride was the Splash Mountain type ride that looked like this.

From there, we stayed the night at a friends house in Calgary and got treated like kings and queens !! (steak and hamburgers for supper, pancakes & eggs for breakfast).

We had about 13 hour drive ahead of us and we felt it was a bit tight to get to the ferry, so we intended to stop at Hope, BC and bring the girls to see a movie. Well, we stopped in Hope around 7pm, got to the theater in time, but found out that it was only open Fri - Sun !!!

Seeing as how we only had 1.5 hours to go, we decided to gun it for the ferry. The last ferry for the island was leaving for Nanaimo area around 9:30. We got to the ferry at 8:30pm so all was good. At the ferry, we called William and told him we are coming to visit.

Of course, William was working, but luckily Heather was home. We were arriving quite late (midnight), so Heather gave us the secret code to get into their place and we had a room all ready for us.

The next day, William came home and went right to bed, while the kids played (fairly quiet) all morning, until we all went to see Wall-E. After the movie, we went for a bite to eat and back down to Victoria, arriving around 2020 :-)

And that ends Roadtrip 2008, hope you all enjoyed reading the blog. We will try to keep it updated, but probably not as frequently (unless I find a cool application for the iPhone).

Drumheller, Alberta

Well, we made it to Drumheller here faster than we expected and ended up doing the Museum and such yesterday !!

Today, we are going to head down to Calgary and to a theme park called "Calaway Park"

From Thunder Bay to Regina !!

We really didn't expect to be in Regina on the first night, but we tried stopping just inside the Saskatchewan border at Moosomin, but all the hotels were booked !!

We even went to the next couple small cities and they were all booked up....who would have thought?

So we drove 2 more hours to Regina and glad we called ahead as there were 2 room avail in the hotel we called, and they were full by the time we got here (we booked on the road)

Anywayz, we should be in Drumheller, AB today for a good visit of it tomorrow.

Thunder Bay chapter is complete, time to head home

Well, tomorrow we are back on the road.

I think we had just enough time here to do everything we needed. In the 4 days we were here, we were able to go to the Suspension Bridge, Amethyst Mine, Terry Fox monument, Chippewa "zoo", Kakabeka Falls and two BBQ's !!

Here are some pics

We are now in Thunder Bay

Been awhile since we updated this silly blog....

Last weekend we were still in Orillia, we had a couple BBQ's to go to, on Saturday we were at Tito Aster's and hung around for the day and on Sunday we went to Michelle's for the day.

Saturday was mostly for the Tito's and Sunday was for the Cousins. Both were a lot of fun and we were able to relax for the day.

On Monday, Canada's Wonderland for the day....we arrived at 11:30am and were completely busy until 8:30pm. From there, we went up to Eileens for the night.

On Tuesday we went to CN Tower and Ontario Science center. Our original intention was to go back to Eileen's, but I got too excited and wanted to go to Thunder Bay ASAP.

We got to off to a slow start because we programmed the GPS to go to Thunder Bay, not paying attention to it, we realized after 1.5 hours, that the GPS was routing us through the US !!! We would have continued, but we had spent all our American money and there were lots of toll booths that we would have to run :-) So, we turned around and head back to Toronto and headed north.

We arrived in Thunder Bay about 3pm and went straight for the hotel to get cleaned up and quick rest. Our first suprise victim was Mom/Dad's place. We drove out to their place, pulled into the driveway and scared my Dad :-)
Mom was at work, more to that in a second.

Second victim was Shelley. Dad called her to see if she was home or working. She was home, so we boogied out to her place and suprised her. She is always weary of my tricks and didn't seem too suprised, oh well. Mom's suprise made up for it.

We drove from Shelley's to Mom's work and sat in the parking lot, waiting for her to come out. As she walked past, we snuck up behind her in the van. We rolled down the passenger window and cleared our throat to get her attention. She didn't recognize the van at first and thought we were going to complain to here that she was walking on the roadway....but when she turned around....WOW !!! She was so excited to see us. The worst part about us coming in early, she had to work the next day, she almost called in sick, but thought better of it because she had 10 days off after this last shift.

We spent 1/2 the day at Dad's place, cleaning up the van and doing laundry. After that, Dad, Shelley and I went to the "Suspension Bridge"....one word WOW !! We crossed the Ouimet Canyon on a suspension bridge and then took a 200 step staircase to the base of it !!! That was a lot of fun.

The rest of the family went to the Amethyst Mine, what a waste of time that was. There was nothing there, just some static displays from the 70's, a dozen tables of Amethyst rock that you could purchase for $3 per pound and a overpriced gift shop. And they charged you $3.00 just for showing up.
Oh well, you win some (suspension bridge) and you lose some.

Added some photos to Facebook

July 10 / 11th

didn't do too much (except save money) yesterday, just hung out at Restita's cousins house (Maria) for a play date. The kids all get along so well !!

Today we had planned on going to Santa's Village, but I got caught up waiting to buy an iPHONE 2.0.....there wasn't much of a line per se, but the wait times for them to call Rogers to activate were atrocious, but understandable today.

Now we are over at the Youngs' so that I can try and connect to iTunes to activate the phone.

In a bit, we are going to go bowling...so that should be fun !!

Niagara Falls / Marineland

Sorry for the delay in the update to the blog...we are staying at a place without internet. Yes, there still exists a place !! (Tito Tony & Tita Chit's place because it has 2 spare rooms)

We had a very busy day of our official vacation (the other days were just us getting to our vacation).

We started by going to Niagara Falls for a couple hours and then off the Marineland for 4-5 !!

Here is some of our photos from Marineland
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=59269&id=688430324

Roadtrip 2008 - Day 4

Well, we made it !!

We arrived in Ontario about midnight and our hotel room at about 2:30am (local time)....that was a lot of driving, but we were motivated I guess :-)

Today, we are going to the Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls and Marineland (Toronto) and then head up to Orillia (Michelle's place I believe).

Here is our map so far

a) Victoria, BC
b) Spokane, Washington
c) Glendive, Montana
d) Eau Claire, Minnesota
e) Niagara Falls, Ontario (arrived @ 2:30am local time)


View Larger Map

Roadtrip 2008 - Day 3

We are getting there...today we only went 1157 km :-( (perhaps my other calculation was incorrect)..oh well, our goal tomorrow is to be back in Canada, Niagara Falls to be exact....it is about 1300km away, so we will see how we do and how well we get motivated once we get near the border...

Here are some photos from today.

1) World's biggest cow (in Salem, North Dakota)

2) Alisha having a snack, Mari in the background using my iPod (w/o permission of course)

3) Alisha posing in front of a wooden cut-out

Roadtrip 2008 - Day 2

It was a long one, but the girls were behaving so what the heck. We went a total of 1222 km today in 13.5 hours!! (yes, we stopped a couple times for an hour and a couple other smaller breaks)

At any rate, we almost made it out of Montana and ended up stopping in Glendive, MT for the night. Looks to be a small town, but who cares, the hotel seems nice (Best Western)
and cheaper than last night ($67 vs $104). Perhaps we should stay in the smaller towns from now on.

Here is our trip so far.


View Larger Map

Roadtrip 2008 - It's going to be great !!

Haha, that is our motto for the trip...what do you think?

Most of our day today seemed to be spent either waiting for a ferry or on a ferry.
First we arrived at the Coho Ferry at 9:15 in anticipation of catching the 10:30am ferry.
When we arrived, we were put in the overflow section, but they said our chances we good. They were good enough that we got on. This is the first time I have taken the Coho Ferry and it "seems" a bit disorganized, especially when they are getting the last few vehicles in. Vehicles are parked at all different angles and when we were unloading, we had to wait for the person behind us to back-up before we could back up to turn around and drive off the ferry. And then as we were unloading, there were still about 5 of us on the boat when they starting loading the next sailing....weird, but it works.


From that Ferry, we drove about an hour or so to another ferry (Kingston - Edmunds), we arrived at 3pm and were told we were going to be on the 3:45pm ferry, by 3:45pm, they mean 4:15, oh well, that was a quick ride (30 min) and we were finally on the road...sorta.


We had to bypass Seattle first, so there were a few turns until we were on the "open road", this was about 5pm. We then drove and drove until we got to our preferrred destination, Spokane Washington and are staying at "Best Western Peppertree Airport Inn"

View Larger Map

First day of summer vacation

I finally get to sleep in every day (sorta). When the girlz wake @ 7AM, they come to me and ask to use the main computer, and for some reason I always oblige :-)

Once we finally got out the door (noonish), we went to Beckwith park to try and learn to ride two-wheels, that lasted about 15 minutes between the both of them. While staying at Beckwith, we had some snacks and played in the sandy park.

We also tried doing one of our new hobbies, GEOCACHING. Essentially it is Treasure Hunting with a GPS. To get the co-ordinates, you create and account at http://www.geocaching.com and it will show you all the caches nearby.

New videos online

As you know, school is just ending. Both of the girls had their 'celebration of learning' last week, in which the kids get a handshake from the principal and they get to pose for a photo and they get a folder of work the teacher has saved for the year.

I had the opportunity to video tape a bit of it and put the videos online for all to see, so checkout my youtube link at http://www.youtube.com/czarl for 4 videos of that and then the picnic afterwards.

I also updated my website recently with some photos, so make sure to checkout http://www.carlsstuff.com (if you are not already here)

We hope you are resting up, we should be in Tbay in less than a month....

Father's Day

We had a great fathers day this year, despite the girls tipping me off on one surprise.

After Alisha sang at Emmanuel Baptist church (twice), we went to Tillicum Mall where we picked up some photos and they covered my eyes to bring me into a sports shop to buy ROLLERBLADES !! This is in hopes I can keep up with the girls when they are riding their bike. I've been working nights, so really haven't had a chance to roadtest them yet (aka, scrape my knees) :-)

After Tillicum mall, we went and saw "Kung Fu Panda", which wasn't too bad.
We were pretty tired after that, considering the girls had two dance performances the night before and we didn't get home until 10pm. Also, I had t work that night.

As you probably read in your email, I've finally updated my carlsstuff.com website to include this blog and the obscure locations of all my media online.
Locations include
Picasaweb
Facebook
Fotki and
Youtube for videos

Jobs for Mari

Jobs,jobs jobs! There are so many jobs to choose from... What job should I pick? Here are the choices:

- Old Money Destroyer _________________________________________________________________

- Librarian ___________________________________________________________________________

- Artist _____________________________________________________________________________

- Teacher _____________________________________________________________________________

- Nurse ______________________________________________________________________________

- Network Analyst ____________________________________________________________________

Print this out & then write your first initials on the one you think will be a good job for me. Then contact me on 220-3008

Sincerly,

Mari

Weekend according to Mari:

Dear everyone:

My weekend was great!

Saturday:

- Oak Bay Tea Party Parade, for Shaw Cable

- Go to Thrifty's to buy potato chips for Noah Tren-Raiden's Poke^mon party

- Noah Tren-Raiden's Gymnastics/Pok^emon birthday party

Sunday:

- Church

- Oak Bay Tea Party

- Irish Dance class

- Fillpino Dance class

Oak Bay Tea Party parade

busy day today !!!

we started off by waking up at 6:30ish so that we could be leave the house by 8:00 to be at the parade by 8:45am. We go there, got setup and waited....and waited....and waited.
The parade started at 10:30, but we didn't starting rolling until about 10:50 !! That is a lot of standing around...not sure why we had to be there so early, but we were.

After the parade we had a quick bite to eat and then Restita dropped Alisha and I off at the maritime museum for a birthday party that started @ 1pm. Mari & Restita went to a seperate party that started @ 2:30pm at Falcon Gymnastics (where they normally go, but had skipped their regular class in the morning).

After Alisha's birthday party, we took the bus home (Alisha loves the bus) and Restita came home after their party.

We just hung around for a bit and we got invited over for a BBQ / Birthday party leftovers to the family that Mari went to the birthday of earlier. My feet were exhausted (real problem these days), so Restita went with the kids. They left about 6pm, but didn't eat until 8:30pm and got home about 10pm. I am glad I didn't go to that one !!

I think tomorrow is going to be a bit better, we are going to church and then to the Oak Bay Tea Party (which we were in the parade for). The OBTP there is a small carnival section with about a dozen rides, so he girls will enjoy that....and I will enjoy spending all that money :-( oh well.

here are some photos - http://picasaweb.google.com/junkforcarl/OakBayTeaPartyParade

busy weekend?

Suprisingly it wasn't too bad of a weekend, considering Restita was out of town. The girls had gymnastics on Saturday, 10:45 - 12:00 and then we went to a BBQ at the Smiths.
We hung out there for most of the day, got home around 4. It was so hot, the girls and I walked to DQ for a ice-cream supper. When we got back, we waited for Leah & Gerry as they were coming to Mari's Irish Dance performance.

We got there about 10 minutes early, which would have been great if we had gotten the irish dance dress....argghhhh, so I race back and got the dress and ended up being about 5 minutes late (I made pretty good time)....only to find out that she wasn't dancing for another hour !!! double arghhh !! We got home a bit late that night, the girls probably didn't get to sleep until about 9:30 - 10, but they still woke up before 7am !!

On Sunday, we went to church (we were awake in time, so why not). After church we went to the Ballingers (George, Mari-lou, Simon and Luke) for another BBQ. Mari and I broke away from the BBQ to go to Irish Dance practice from 1:30 - 2:30. George was kind enough to watch Alisha while we did this. Shortly after coming back from practice, Restita came back (she went out of town with Marilou) and the girls were VERY excited to see Mommy.

After that, we went to AihLinh and Steves for another BBQ...that is right, 3 BBQ's in one weekend !!!

Well, back to the grind this week...I have Monday off, but working T/W/Th & Fr.

ok ok...the time between posts are getting longer

OK OK...I understand that you want more updates...I just can't think of anything to write about. I think my biggest delay is that I want to post photos with my posts, and the photos aren't always readily available (ie, they are still on the camera, or on the PC).

Last week, we finally got our suite rented...still have a coat of paint to go. It is a younger couple (aren't they all), with a 4 year old. Alisha and her 'hit it off' by draw with chalk all over the sidewalk to the suite. Hope this works out and if we trust them (and they trust us), we might be able to share some babysitting. We are cautious of this as we still want to maintain a business relationship first, and possible a personal relationship second. we will see. They seem like nice people, they guy is pretty quiet and the Mom seems nice...is bubbly a word?

Anywayz, as you know, this past weekend was Queen Victoria day and Victoria always has a parade (that we seem to always attend). I won't bore you with the 100 photos that Mari took and I've posted some of my favourites at http://picasaweb.google.com/junkforcarl/VictoriaDayParade
.



There is also some photos from a recent "Crazy Hat" day held at school.

weekly update

Well, Mari is done her 7 performances in 10 days....the one thing I didn't realize is that there is always tickets to buy for these performances, usually $5, but multiple that by 7 events times 2 ppl and it starts to add up. (probably about $100 in all)

Tenant moved out today, but we don't have anyone moving in...we sorta missed a young family, but only by a few hours....they had seen the place, loved it, we decided to offer it to them and they ended up taking another place they saw...oh well, gives us some time to paint a room or ??

We have almost come to the conclusion the girls are too big for their carseats...we are having troubles snapping Alisha in...it is SOOO tight. Funny enough, Mari had to use Alisha's seat and it was easier to snap her in....oh well, but the time our road trip happens, we might be fully in booster seats.

Mari was happy today as she finally outgrew her toddler helmet and we had to buy her one for 5 yr old (and beyond). She has a princess one now. No big surprises there.

We tried to have a date night tonight since we both have the day off, but we are running low on free babysitting and they have both spent quite a bit of time with the girls recently...perhaps next week. I ended up going to the Roxy theatre tonight and saw two movies. The Bucket list with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman and "The other Boleyn girl"....they were both pretty good and worth the $5 I spent seeing them both. Click on the links for more info on them.

That's about it...Restita finished her 8 of 9 nights stretch, so all is back to "normal".

Mari Choir performance

Here is a video of Mari in a choir....first just her Primary Choir, and then in amongst the merging of 6? choirs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAjRvwD_Y-w

It is about 10.5 minutes long, so grab some popcorn and enjoy.

tax time part 2

still haven't filed those pesky taxes...I should file soon as I am getting a refund.

then this came in my email this morning...haha

tax time

arggh...working through the taxes.....does anyone get the feeling that if they get a refund, they must be doing something wrong?

anywayz, Mari is out with Tita for a few hours. Restita is at a playdate with Alisha and the Ballinger boys...and I am doing taxes :-(

here is a link to cheer you up
http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf click anywhere to begin :-)

Fun cousin day (again)

yet another successful cousin day.

Will and his girls came down and we met up for lunch, then we went to Beacon Hill Park and had an awesome suprise...ALL the girls got to bottle feed a small lamb !!

Here are some
photos from today

It is a start..

Would you believe we finally got around to diving into the carport stuff? only 7 months later...but it is a good start.

So far we have a vanload of stuff to give away to the Salvation Army...but it is not a easy as one thinks to do this....We called the SA nearest to us, they told us that we could drop things off at the warehouse on Quadra...great..we know where that was...except that it was shut down with a note where the new location is...we had to drive by again to get the address, and glad it was not too far away. We went to the new location and there are SA trucks around, but nobody to be seen...soooo, we called one the of SA stores again and they don't know what the hours are (being a new location and all)....argghh

**update - we went to the SA the next day and was able to give away the stuff and the guy was somewhat nice about it, so it all ended well

Well, there is always tomorrow.

Happy 35th Birthday William

Here is a copy of a card I sent him :-)

click me

VAN is sold !!

Sold it to a friend of a friend that is going to use it for a work van...woohoo !!

He didn't even haggle on the price, so I am double happy...I hope it works out well for him.

Last weekday of springbreak

Restita worked nights last night so I figured I'd keep the girls out of the house, but wasn't sure how what I wanted to do with them. Alisha wanted to go swimming, Mari wanted to go to the museum. Our closest swimming place (Oak Bay Rec) is not that great (one small kiddies pool, one large pool) and wasn't open for very long today. Anywayz, it just seemed like a hassle to find a good pool open for us to swim in.

I ended up finding a play date for Alisha (a classmate) and Mari and I went to Museum for a couple hours. Haha...I can still sneak Mari in as a 5 year old..aka FREE

Not much else new here...I just started 4 days off and then back to the grind..Restita is working 2 more nights, then she is off for a few.

Will and I plan on meeting up next week to see a Salmon Kings game (hockey)...their last game of the season.

Irish Dance video

Well, the girls are on their TWO week spring break starting last Friday @ noon.
We got a pass for Mari for the rec center, $12.75 for unlimited Skating & swimming. Alisha is free, but unfortunately there isn't an adult version of it, so we have to pay $5 for each activity :-( So far this week, they have gone swimming and skating twice.

Restita and I have a scheduling conflict tonight, so Restita is taking them to a movie.
They are going to see "Horton Hears a Who", click here for a link to a preview and then to Antonette and George's for a sleepover.

Mari was a bit busy with being in an Irish Dance group and it being St. Patrick's day. We were able to video one of the performances, so click here to see Mari dance at Oak Bay Lodge.

not much new

So we tried to go see Tranformers IMAX on Sunday, but we arrived too late. we arrived @ 6:45pm only to find out that it was sold out !!

So we went and saw "Bank Job" at a regular theatre, not a bad movie, I give it a 7/10. It might have been a bit better if Restita told me BEFORE the movie that it was based on a true story !!! arrghh...now I have to watch it again :-)

Alisha's last day is tomorrow and then TWO WEEKS of spring break...what are we going to do for that long...we are working too much to take a trip anywhere (we are both working nights).

Mari has 1/2 day on Friday and then she is off for two weeks also....don't these kids ever go to school (Alisha had last Thu/Fri off also).

Oh well

GPS on sale

Just wanted to say that we bought a TomTom One Third edition GPS a few weeks ago and are very happy with it.

When we bought it, it was on sale for $169.99 instead of $199.99. I went to Futureshop website and it is even cheaper now...it is on sale for $148.88 !!! No problem getting the difference at Futureshop, but I thought I'd pass on the info.

busy day

Today we had "student lead conferences" which we had never heard of and weren't sure what to expect.

Essentially we had a 1/2 hour meeting in each classroom. The kids got to show us all the things they have done up to this point. Alisha was very excited to show us around her classroom and the 1/2 hour was about right. Mari was excited also (in her quiet way), but we could have stayed an hour reading all her journals, math books, science books etc...1/2 hour was definetly a bit short.

In the evening we went to Emmanuel Baptist Church to see the African Childrens Choir...what a lot of energy these kids (aged 7-11) had...they we just so energetic...we all enjoyed and and even bought a CD at the end. Click on the link above for a sample of the type of music we heard (and saw). Here are a couple photos from today.

interesting photos

Read this article about a whale and a kayaker...

Last week

That was a long week, worked 10:30am - 9pm, Mon - Thurs.
The worst part about it, is that I didn't see much of the kids...I'd get them ready in the morning and walk them to school and then by the time I got home, they'd be asleep.

But we made up for it on my weekend. Will and Family came down to join us for "Tourist in your hometown". We each bought a booklet for $10 which gives you access to a whole bunch of touristy things. This is an annual event and a good time to visit...hint hint :-)

On Friday we went to "Pacific Undersea Gardens", "Miniature World" & "Royal London Wax Museum", then we picked up Mari from school and went to "Craigdarroch Castle "

On Saturday we decided to go up to Sidney and do some of the attractions there. We did
"Sidney Historical Museum", "Marine Ecology Centre" and then stopped at "Rogers’ Chocolates" for an ice-cream snack. We tried to get to "British Columbia Aviation Museum", but it was closed at 4pm and it was already 3:45pm, so we hung out at a park until it was supper time and we ate a friends restaurant called "Good fortune".

Today (Sunday) we went to Church, Costco and then Mari had Irish dance from 1:30 - 3pm and both girls had Filipino dance from 4-5pm. I just stayed home and got a few things done around the house.

That's about it...ttyl

Unplanned work day

Well, kind of a weird day today.

I just came of nights, working until 6am on Sunday, so I felt a bit tired today and took a nap after I dropped the kids off for school. When I woke up, I noticed I missed a call from work....uh oh

I reluctantly called back and they told me there was a scheduling mix-up and wondered if I wanted to come in today (right now) and have Friday off. Having just woke up, I was a bit groggy and said no.....but then I remembered I wanted Friday off so I can enjoy "tourist in your own hometown" will Will, so I went to work.

My shift was 10:30 - 9. but I didn't get there until 11:30, but my supervisor told me not to worry about the hour....YEAH !!

Look at how tall my kids are now !!

Fun cousin day

Just wanted to post about the fun day we had yesterday.

The North Island Chambers came down to visit the South Island Chambers. They arrived shortly after 2pm and we went to the Undersea Gardens. It had a discounted rate because there was no diver show (off season right now)....what they didn't tell us is that there weren't as many fish to see (or they were hiding)...oh well.

After that, we walked over to Fisherman's wharf (15 min walk with the kids) to see some houseboats. While we were there, the harbour ferry showed up and for $10 for each family, we took the ferry back to downtown Victoria.

From there, we met at FutureShop. William needed to buy a $10 cable, and ended up buying a wallmount for his LCD TV...haha, it is hard to go into FutureShop and spend less than $100 !!

After FutureShop we had dinner @ Swiss Chalet and we both headed home from there.

That's about it

math troubles

We finally found Mari's weakness in school....MATH.

She isn't doing too bad, but she doesn't like it. But sometimes she does 'accidental math', which essentially doing math without realizing it. IE, I bought some paper the other day, and there was 30 pages in the package, but I need more pages, so I bought two. Mari says, "so you bought 60 sheets"....."accidental math" :-)

You know she is trying to avoid math when she asks Restita "if I am just a reader at a library, do I need math" :-)

Kids :-)

Well, one more nightshift and then I am done this set and only 2 more to go (at the end of the week)

Happy Valentines day

The girls made a video for all to see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8zSp-ifcyo

Enjoy

not much new

Didn't have much success selling the van last weekend...perhaps this week will be better.

Alisha is getting here 5 yr old shot tomorrow...it should be a fun time for everyone :-)
She told Mari that she is not going to wake up tomorrow so that she doesn't have to get her shot....haha

Lola and Gerry arrived back from the Philippines last week...they seemed have a good time.
Gerry is going to help me with Alisha tomorrow as Restita is working tonight and Tito is her favourite person :-)

that's about it

Old van

Wish me luck today...we have possibly two viewings of the old van...hope it sells as we just got the right-side power mirror fixed to make it easier to sell. (it has been broken for 6+ months, but doesn't look good when selling).

Posted some photos

Took some photos of the van and the girls today. check them out at
http://public.fotki.com/carl/2008/feb2008/