So not a whole lot of new stuff going on here. Summer has gone by in a blink and once again we have crappy weather here. Feels more like Fall out there then summer. I think we’ve been able to spend a total of 2 evenings out on our deck enjoying the warm summer nights so far, yep TWO, that’s it. So disappointing.

I’ve only been to see one movie this summer - Knocked Up. It was hilarious, most likely I will buy it when it comes out on DVD. I cannot believe how incredibly well the Simpsons movie did, but I guess its not too surprising considering how popular that show still is. I admit, I did go to 7-11 when I heard they had all the Simpson’s paraphernalia there and I got my collector’s Squishee cup, lol. I’m not even a Simpson’s fan, no really I’m not. Of course I’ve seen the show (occasionally when I’m lying in bed unable to sleep and it’s the only thing on tv late at night…). However something really cool happened here in Vancouver, they turned one of the 7-11’s into the Kwik-e-Mart - they had the sign up over the regular 7-11 sign and had life size Simpson’s characters inside. After hearing that they only chose twelve 7-11’s to transform into the Kwik-E-Mart, 11 throughout the USA, and only one in Canada - how cool that the only Canadian location was local! I wanted to go see it but it wasn’t that close to us, sort of on the other side of the city and a hassle to get to. I also heard it was only going to be up for a month. So one day while we were downtown picking one of Brent’s friends up, the topic of the Kwik-E-Mart came up and I managed to convince the 2 guys to come with me to check it out. It meant going completely out of our way to get there but they reluctantly agreed. Yay! I even had my camera so I was excited. Lol. We get to the 7-11 and that’s just what it was, a 7-11, no Kwik-E-Mart sign up. BUT there was all this tape all over the sign that made me think they had just taken the Kwik E Mart sign off. We went inside and there was nothing Simpson-y about the place, no characters, not even a squishee cup left. We asked the not-very-friendly cashier if this had been the Kwik E Mart and she responded “No more Kwik-E-mart!!”. OKAY. Lovely. Apparently we had missed it by a day. Just our luck, oh well. We each got a slurpee for our long ride home.

I did manage to find some pictures online

Kwik-E-Mart
Oh and on that same site it has a link to a site where you can create your own Simpson’s avatar, kinda fun

I will say this much though… I am just about to start writing a BOOK!!! Of course a scrapbooking related one, but that’s all I can say for the moment. It’s really happening now and I am so excited!

The other news that I have been previously hinting about on here and on SG, well sorry, I still can’t say anything.*sigh*, I know, I wish I could say something…. crossing my fingers it will be soon though.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend

So, got back home today, went to teach a class tonight, and then heading back to the island either tomorrow night or Friday morning. My sister and her family leave first thing Sunday morning. I so need to try to get out to visit them again soon, the kids are changing so fast I don’t want to miss anything. I feel like I’ve missed so much already, cause I have. The girls are so cute, so absolutely adorable, I ADORE them. I do. The youngest one is 2 and a half and she talks like she is older. She says the funniest things sometimes, and she really has a great sense of humor already. I was really lucky this week cause I got to spend time with each of my nieces on my own.  (something I always wanted to do with my own aunts and uncles when I was little but it never happened). I took my 5 year old niece out on Monday - we went to the Petting Zoo at Beacon Hill Park, and then for Ice Cream at the Beacon Drive In. And yesterday I took the little one to visit my Grandma and also to Starbucks for a treat. The girls LOVE starbucks, they call it “The Coffee Store”. When we got home, the older one burst into tears upon hearing where we were, crying “I wanted to go to the coffee store!!!”.

But really, they are great kids, I am so proud of both of them.

This past weekend was quite eventful – lots of fun, but of course a few things always have to go askew.

I took a few days off to come over to the island to visit with my family cause my sister, her husband and their 2 little girls were coming to visit (they live in Indianapolis). It’s been almost an entire year since I’ve seen them! Way too long. Anyway I came a day before they arrived so I could see some of my friends and go tubing with them up island at Cowichan River.

We wanted to head up there late morning so I planned to take the 9am ferry across and one of my friends was picking me up on the other side. I was out late the night before with some work friends for a girl’s night so I didn’t get to bed until 2:30am and then got up at 6am to make sure I had everything packed, the dogs walked and fed, the guinea pigs cleaned out, etc. Brent drove me to the ferry early too so I wouldn’t be in such a rush, as I had a suitcase, my laptop in my backback, both the dogs and another bag. Could I possible carry anymore stuff all by myself? Nope, I don’t think it would have been possible! So we pull up to the walk on passenger area and there were about 5 huge tour buses full of students there and crowds of people around. I’ve never seen it so busy and I’ve been a regular passenger on these ferries my entire life. Brent was like “Oh no Jess, you’re going to have to run to get ahead of these people!”. So I jump of the car, he helps me get the backpack on, I grab the suitcase and the leashes and run with the dogs to the lineup. I was just about at the front (there was one lady ahead of me) and they make an announcement. “attention ladies and gentlemen, we have now reached maximum capacity for the 9:00 sailing and we will not be selling anymore tickets until after it has sailed. The next sailing is scheduled for 10:00. I looked at my watch: 8:29. ERGH!!!! 1 person away from the front of the line and they stop it. Never once in my life have I seen it so busy in the walk on passenger area that they have stopped letting walk ons on the ferry. Unbelievable. So there I stood for half an hour trying to tame the dogs and keep them from jumping on everyone who looked at them. Finally at 9 they started selling tickets again and then I had to walk down to the dock with the dogs and sit in the sun for 45 minutes. I had also forgotten to bring a magazine with me, but luckily I had my new ipod. (Brent surprised me the day before with a brand new PINK ipod!!)

Once we finally got onto the ferry, it got even worse cause it is one of the OLD ferries, a smaller ferry and they don’t have a pet room on this one. The new ones have a little room on the upper car deck where you can sit with your dogs (when you are walking on) cause they aren’t allowed upstairs in the passenger areas. But the small ferry has no such room, so I had to sit on the ground on the bottom car deck right between all the big trucks and tour buses. Yeah that was fun. The ferry crew were great though, they came to check on me, and one brought water for the dogs. As we were walking off the ferry, there was a group of guys who were coming to the island for a stag and one took pity on me as he saw me struggling with all my stuff. He offered to pull my suitcase off the ferry and up to the parking lot for me.

Then I got to sit in the blazing sun in the parking lot for 35 minutes cause my friend was late picking me up.

So totally NOT a fun morning.

Where we sat on the ferry - not the most comfortable accommodations….

We dropped my stuff and the dogs off at my parents house then we headed up island to the river. We were meeting some other people up there and they were almost there so we debated on whether we should still go, since they would be done by the time we got there. We had about an hour and a half drive ahead of us. We went, and stopped at Subway on the way cause we were all starving (there were 3 of us). The service in Subway was painfully slow, I think we were standing in line for over 20 minutes. We ate quick and continued on our way, only to get stopped by road work. Another 20 minutes stuck bumper to bumper in the hot sun. At last we get to the small town of Cowichan and we find the roadside stand where you can rent the innertubes. We got our tubes and were horrified that we had to walk down the street in our bathing suits to get to the river. Lol. Luckily it was hot out so it was nice getting into the cold river although it was REALLY cold when we first got in.

We met up with the people who we were meeting there, they were just floating around in the calm part of the river – they hadn’t yet started the decend down to the rapids. So we all went together. No turning back then, and right as we hit the rapids, the clouds came over and blocked the sun and it was darn cold! I had goosebumps on every inch of my body. The river was deep in some parts and shallow in some and when we went over the rapids, I think my butt hit every rock it could find. It took us 2 and a half hours to make it down the river. It would have been fabulous if it had been really hot out, but for the most of it, it was chilly so that sucked.

Sunday my sister and her family arrived – it was awesome to see them all again! The kids have grown so much, especially the youngest who is 2 and a half now – she’s not a baby anymore and she is talking so much. My dad cooked the most delicious food so it seemed all we did was eat and eat all day.

I felt guilty yesterday morning for eating so much the day before so I forced myself to go for a run. My parents’ property backs onto long mountain bike/ horse back riding trails through the highlands, so taking Zoey with me, we set out for our run. I left Angus behind as he wouldn’t make it past the gate let alone for an hour down these trails. I found out these are not the greatest trails for running as they were very rocky and hilly in most areas and several times I just about bailed and/or rolled my ankles. I seriously envisioned myself doing so and then having to hobble all the way back alone as I only brought my ipod and no cell phone with me. Next time I will also bring water for both me and Zoey as it got VERY hot out there, it felt like we were in the desert. Zoey is an incredible dog – it’s like she is on super charged energizer batteries. She NEVER gets tired. This dog can go and go and I don’t think we’ve ever really been able to tire her out. So we ran part of the way and walked part. It was great cause we had the whole place to ourselves, although we did run into a couple mountain bikers at one point. I was trying to run *carefully though* most of the back but suddenly Zoey was lagging behind. My goodness, did I actually tire her out?? Amazing! We found some shade (which was really hard to find) and Zoey actually plunked herself down and lay in the middle of the path! This was a first. After a little rest, we kept going but I dropped her leash and let her run behind me. All of a sudden, she caught wind of some animal in the bushes and she took off like a little speed demon. I bolted after her sprinting up the hill trying to catch her, as all I needed was to lose her in the bushes out there somewhere and have to trek through them searching. I caught up and grabbed her leash. Whew. That dog can sure run fast, I didn’t even know I could run that fast!

I had a little bit of free time (what’s that??) this morning so I put together a new little book. I had this round chipboard album (Reminisce) sitting on my desk for months now and I couldn’t figure out what to do with it. I ended up making it into a Disney album - added some ears to the cover to give it the “Mickey” shape.

Did anyone see the sort of “5 senses” theme I slipped in there?

Saturday we took the dogs to Stanley Park, for our next “mystery date” although it wasn’t a mystery cause Brent told me where we were going. The weather was ok, it was warm but cloudy most of the day. Here are a couple pics:

Underwater themed course

the Jungle Course

Brent and I (and the dogs of course) went to Victoria last weekend for a very quick - but fun - trip. I know I’ve only been living away from the island for a year and a half now, but it seems so different to me now when we go back. So odd cause I spent my ENTIRE life there until last year, and even now, we are only a ferry ride away. And it’s true, the lifestyle there is much more laid back then it is here in Vancouver. People always used to say that (when I used to live over there) and I scoffed at the thought thinking it was all the same. But it really IS more laid back!!! I see it now - LOL!!

It was Angus’s 4th birthday on June 16th - he was thrilled he got to spend it at my parents house (”in the country”) running and playing with his best friend Mitzy. Angus absolutely loves being at my parents house, he would gladly stay there full time I think. Zoey on the other hand is very attached to us (especially me lately), and where I know she loves to visit there, she worries the entire time that we are going to go home without her. Angus worries that when we leave we are going to drag him along with us. What a pair.

Giving my baby a birthday kiss

A couple of the daily visitors to my parents yard. My mum even feeds them numerous times a day. She buys them special food and everything, and she has named them all. There are about 8 different deer I think that visit each day. (While we were there one of the neighbors called to ask my mum if she has seen one of the large bucks, as she hadn’t seen him in her yard for a few days. Brent called this “the neighborhood deer watch” lol!) Oh, and yes we were that close to them. My mum is able to stand only a couple feet away from them now, they are really beginning to trust her.

Mitzy, Angus and Zoey watching the deer from behind the gate.

Here are some pics of me

Brent and I (and the dogs of course) went to Victoria last weekend for a very quick - but fun - trip. I know I’ve only been living away from the island for a year and a half now, but it seems so different to me now when we go back. So odd cause I spent my ENTIRE life there until last year, and even now, we are only a ferry ride away. And it’s true, the lifestyle there is much more laid back then it is here in Vancouver. People always used to say that (when I used to live over there) and I scoffed at the thought thinking it was all the same. But it really IS more laid back!!! I see it now - LOL!!

It was Angus’s 4th birthday on June 16th - he was thrilled he got to spend it at my parents house (”in the country”) running and playing with his best friend Mitzy. Angus absolutely loves being at my parents house, he would gladly stay there full time I think. Zoey on the other hand is very attached to us (especially me lately), and where I know she loves to visit there, she worries the entire time that we are going to go home without her. Angus worries that when we leave we are going to drag him along with us. What a pair.

Giving my baby a birthday kiss

A couple of the daily visitors to my parents yard. My mum even feeds them numerous times a day. She buys them special food and everything, and she has named them all. There are about 8 different deer I think that visit each day. (While we were there one of the neighbors called to ask my mum if she has seen one of the large bucks, as she hadn’t seen him in her yard for a few days. Brent called this “the neighborhood deer watch” lol!) Oh, and yes we were that close to them. My mum is able to stand only a couple feet away from them now, they are really beginning to trust her.

Mitzy, Angus and Zoey watching the deer from behind the gate.

So on Saturday Brent was taking photos for our friend Alicia who is a hairstylist and make up artist. She had a few “models” at her house and she was doing their hair and make up so Brent could take photos of them for her portfolio. I got to be one of her models! Hehe, yep me… She did an awesome job on everyone’s hairdo’s and make up.

Tweak enjoying his spinach salad

Speaking of fresh fruits and veggies, there is this fantastic market not far from us that is only open for the summer. I stopped by there yesterday and loaded up on tons of great stuff!! A lot of it is local too - I SO love this time of year when we can get all these yummy things. I got strawberries, cherries (which I used to hate until 2 years ago - I had no idea what I was missing - they are SO good!), corn on the cob, english peas, various lettaces, spinach, nectarines (one of my most favorite fruits ever!), and carrots. YUM!!!

Well this is a quick post today and no new mini albums to post yet but I am working on a couple new ones. I just don’t have a whole lot of time to work on them right now - working 3 jobs is wearing me out and I have deadlines to meet too - yikes! Only 36 days left until I can spill the beans and tell everyone about our big announcement!! July 15th is the day. I CAN’T wait!!!!

Really hoping I can get some sleep tonight, have to be up early again tomorrow for work. Oh I enrolled myself in a Boot Camp at the Gym and it starts on Tuesday - 6:00am, and also in an Amazing Race Fitness competition. You know, cause I just needed some more stuff to keep me occupied….Lol!

Hope everyone is having an awesome weekend!