The Mini Wall of Gooch

So this past weekend my dad was in town. Usually, my dad flies in attends whatever business meeting is required then comes for dinner then heads out but recently I have really been giving him the gears, as only a daughter who really does love her dad can do. So this trip he attended his meeting Thursday, did a bit of business type stuff Friday and then stayed with us Friday and sat night and flew out Sunday evening. It was so nice to see him, unfortunately I already had plans on Friday night so Dad, Amelia and Jeff chilled for the evening and I went to Gourmet Group. Again unfortunately for me I ended up with food poisoning and spent the better part of EARLY sat morning clinging to the toilet which made me less than 100% myself on Saturday.

When I found out dad was coming I informed him that we would be constructing a retaining wall with his help while he was here. Some of you may be thinking I am particularly horrible daughter right now but if you knew my father you would rethink. My dad’s idea of a prefect weekend involves chopping fire wood for a few hours, followed by using Pepe his tractor to grad the driveway then to round out the weekend there would have to be some sort of basic construction/invention/carpentry task. So really I am not evil I am just catering to his likes J, that and whenever we are at Salt Spring we are usually involved in Dad’s latest project.

So to continue with the weekend, on Saturday morning even after very little sleep and with a very queasy stomach I was determined to get out of bed and see that the project was underway. I managed to make it out of bed and even down the stairs and then I had to plop in the chair, jut enough to inquire when the they were off to order our stones J ha ha ha.  Anyways Day 1 of construction I was pretty useless and Dad and Jeff cut the end of our drive way off and laid the soldier coarse along the edge, I catered to Meals and managed to get our Muskoka / Adirondack chairs stained and weather proofed (yippee just in time for the storm that night). The saw that the guys used to cut the driveway with was pretty intense; Meals announced it was “SCAREEE” as she plopped into my arms when it started. That night Mom and Deep took pity on us and had us all over to their place for a YUMMY dinner of ribs, it is so nice to have divorced parents that get along, add to that two great step parents and my brother and I are very lucky.

 

I participated a lot more on Day 2 and will we constructed the wall Amelia was a very good girl playing in the dirt and with her play dough, there were a few incidents of trying to pull my plants out but those were quickly put to an end. By mid day on Sunday we had our little wall done and the yard graded.  Looks pretty good.  Now I can’t wait to sod and plant. Yipeee!!! We really couldn’t have done it without my Dad; he is such a workhorse so much so we gave him a new nickname “RotoRick”.   We were all very proud with our accomplishments.

 

Sunday after we cleaned up abit we headed over to John and Denise for our first swim in the pool. It was raining and chilly in the air but the pool was so warm and Amelia couldn’t keep the smile off her face. She even let us put the life jacket on her and she floated around by herself abit.

Front yard update

OUr one finished front garden…

Jeff starting the Rototill…

Our Little Spectator…

What I did this weekend…

Okay this is a Mia excluded post. I really could not sum up my weekend event as well as Julie so just check out this link.

hmmm donuts….

http://duotangoflies.wordpress.com/

And seeing as I don’t have time to write here are some pics. the first is from the weekend the others are leftover from Amelia’s birthday (Deep just sent them to me).

The Week That Was

Happy belated Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there.  The big day was this weekend.  Luckily for me, I was away in Niagara Falls engaging in fine upstanding behaviour in honour of Dave’s looming marriage (brownarelli.wordpress.com).  The less spoken about that, the better.  Suffice to say, this also meant that poor Alicia and Amelia were all alone until I got back, we had a lovely Sunday night at Estes, doing it up with the Family and having a relatively quiet night.   Alicia continued her amazing work on the front-yard landscaping and mowed the back yard lawn just for kicks!  Yes!

This has been a really busy week.  For some reason soccer is taking over my life, I had FC Toronto on Wednesday night and EarthTech Football Club on Thursday.  On Fire United was supposed to have been on Tuesday, but God decided that was a bad idea and sent a small warning flood.  No sign of poison monkeys though so there’s still some wiggle room. 

This has meant a bit of chaos for poor Meals, though she’s taken it generally in stride and doesn’t seem too phased by the crazy time all around her, so long as she’s free to get out of the car and run around eating dirt and singing to herself in Portuguese.  Thursday she even finagled a Swiss Chalet lunch out of Pake and Juju, further sweetened (if that’s in fact possible) by a brand new Dora watch which even has a stopwatch and lap counter on it.  If my 2 year-old starts tracking laps of anything, she will officially be the smartest kid in the whole wide world.

“Daddy!  Lap three was slooooower by 4 seconds!  Again again again!”

Tonight we’re off the Hezzie and Adam’s for yard-sale assistance and grilled meats, the rest of the weekend is fairly chockers and should include major landscaping work and an exciting Donut Sprinkle Taste-off (to the death).  Timmy’s v. Coffee Time v. Country Style v. Baker’s Dozen.  $40 live on pay per view.  That sound you hear… that’s you being jealous of Julie and I for having such an idea.

In terms of Amelia news (how dare you be so single-minded), things are pretty much same-old.  She is still the smart and lively and annoying child that we all love.  She’s getting pretty good at stair climbing, as well as goodbye hugs & kisses.  You are not allowed to leave unless you get your “hugnkiss”; Amelia has also given up her ‘kiss me on the cheek’ kiss, she now does the proper lip-kiss complete with ‘mwah’ sound effects.  Meals has also recently taken to using the phrase “kind of”… looking at pictures or things and saying that its kind of like *whatever*.

“Daddy look!  Car!  Kinda like Mia’s car?”

So, if you have some crazy disfigurement or remarkable possession, and happen upon a look-a-like and Amelia at the same time, heads up. 

Hugs and Kisses!!

Okay we are now a few weeks into the “terrible twos” and so far so good, I feel abit like I am walking a tight rope though and any moment we could plummet in to hellionland.  Amelia has had her moments in the last week, usually they are a result of either “mine” or “want”, two words Jeff and I hate and usually ignore much to Amelia’s chagrin. One thing that Amelia does demand these days that I am fine indulging is Kisses and Hugs, she is big on both right now and doesn’t like to leave anyone without planting a big wet one on them.

 

So what has been happening with us. Well with the weather being SO nice I have gone abit nuts with landscaping and finally starting to plant our front gardens. I am still quite shocked how much I like gardening; it really isn’t like me I am totally an instant gratification person and easily bored but plants seem to grow just fast enough to keep me interested. This past weekend we planted pots and a couple beds, I can’t go as far as saying out front yard is looking good but baby steps, better would be appropriate I think. Amelia helped with the gardening but playing in her tent that we moved out to the front lawn and ate her lunch still on the front steps. While we were out front working away and Amelia was snacking on her lunch, our neighbour’s son was out “working” on his car. He has a supped up jetta with a stereo you could hear coming for a few blocks away. Our neighbour was testing out his new speakers for someone and was playing what my husband refers to as “mad gino beats with a peppering of tone defness” music, with lots of yelling of words that would have been bleeped on TV. We were working away when Jeff told me to look at Amelia, there she was shakin’ her bootie to the music and pulling out her patented “turnin’ the key” dance move.

 

On Saturday night we had the parents and Hez over for dinner, it was pretty yummy but after Amelia’s big day or out door play, she hit the wall hard and went down screaming, early bedtime was REQUIRED! Sunday after a run in the morning and gardening in the afternoon Jeff, Amelia and I headed over to our neighbour’s (different from the car/tunes, neighbour) for the first annual Turkey fry up. Jeff and Rob had discussed getting a turkey fryer for almost a year now and this past Friday push came to shove and the purchase was made that the event was planned. A trial chicken was attempted on Saturday to ensure the technique was sound and Sunday friend and family all had the pleasure of enjoying deep fried bird along with anything else the guys could think of frying up. I must say it was VERY good but no matter what the guys say I don’t think I could attend a weekly fry, eep. Pictures to follow.

 

This week has been flying by and the weekend is almost here. Jeff is off to The Falls this weekend for his friend Dave’s bachelor party and Meals and I are chilling at home, I am fully expecting her to surprise me with a breakfast in bed on Sunday morning… Well maybe she will be kind and sleep in till 8am, I would settle for that.

 

Hmmm what else is new with Amelia, her word of the week seems to be neighbour, she is very interested in both our neighbours and regularly asks where they are or what they are doing… maybe she is looking for some more mad beats. She has become addicted to watering, Jeff’s aunt and uncle got her her own watering can for her birthday and she is now bid on watering all my plants, I think she might be trying to drowned them.