Shining up that beautiful smile

C must be married to a scrapbooker - he snapped this pic of Katie getting a fluoride treatment with his camera phone.

The sap is running

The endless long winter is drawing to a close - the maple sap is running. This old fashioned sap collecting bucket (and many many of its brothers) is still in use at a private hobby farm near Crysler. They were boiling the first of the season's sap when we visited. Ah the smell of boiling maple sap, the promise of sticky sweet treats to come.

Earth Hour 2008

Today, from 8:00pm to 9:00pm, was Earth Hour. It doesn't mean much, really, an hour without lights, but perhaps this one hour will lead to greater awareness. Maybe.

Forever

When my oldest friend Jodi came to visit last November she brought me these beautiful ceramic angels. Jodi's always had a thing for angels. I loved the sculpture, and we laughed about which angel was her and which was me. Then I put it on the shelf in my living room and hadn't thought much about it until now.

Today Jodi joined the angels she's always loved. 18 months post transplant. I know that I'm supposed to be grateful for those 18 months, but mostly I feel cheated. 80% of lung transplant recipients live 8+ years past their transplants, and many live much longer.

I am grateful for our final weekend together. I did see her one last time before she passed, in the ICU in Toronto, but it's the two days of chatting, hugging and sharing tea that will always be, in my heart, my final visit with Jodi.

Now that she's gone I look again at this angel sculpture, only this time I really see it. Two angels, 'friends forever'. Thank you Jodi. Thank you for the angels to remind me of you, thank you for 17 years of friendship, 17 years of love. Thank you for being patient with me when I was selfish, for loving me when I was unlovable, for teaching me more than I can say. I miss you.

Friends Forever.

Jack frost

Waiting for the school bus (yes, we drive the kids to the school bus stop, it's far!) I snapped pictures of the cool frost patterns on the window.

Happy Easter

Hope your day was sugar-saturated bliss...

The dreaded 7 - 10 split

We took the bits bowling for this first time today. They enjoyed it (despite being distracted by air hockey tables and slushie machines), but I felt it in my arm and shoulder after just one game. Still, I'd like to take the bits again!

Game on!

Yup, another hockey game. What can I say, we're Canadian eh! This time C and big J encountered this furry fan queuing up for caffeine during intermission.

Taken on C's cell phone camera

Mamma Mia!

That's-a big-a plate of spaghetti!

Yummy too :)

You could lose a Smartcar in here!

I know, it's been a hard winter, the plows have worked non-stop, there's no time for caution, blah blah blah but SERIOUSLY people will you look at the size of this freakin' pothole??? And it's not even the worst I've seen!

(PS - if you work for the city of Ottawa this bad boy is on D'Aoust Avenue)

Little helper

She was pretty darn fascinated by the rollers we were using to paint her room. No harm in having her help out - painting inside the closet :)

Cabane a sucre

An annual tradition - our family trip to the sugar bush. There was a LOT more snow this year, so instead of a wagon ride we enjoyed a real horse drawn sleigh ride through the woods.

The face of seven

I did a little portrait shoot with the princess today. Such a beautiful girl.

More of the same

Why not, it's freakin' snowing again anyway.

Snow, on a smaller scale

Leah challenged me to take macro shots of snowflakes. The weather wasn't perfect for it today (at only -5 or -6c they were melting too fast) but I gave it a try.


PS - Happy Birthday little brother!

Icicles

Check out the way cool icicles! HUGE! I love icicles.

At least someone is enjoying the snow...

Not a trick photo at all, this snow bank is well over ten feet tall. Scared the wits out of me seeing them scramble up there but I had to snap a few shots anyway!

53 cm

Yup, came home to 53 cm of new snow on the ground. That's nearly two feet for the non-Metric among us. That's on top of the many feet already there. Really, what can you do but laugh (and grab a shovel). Here is our front walk, before and after (notice how dark the after picture is? Took quite a while to get through that snow...)

The storm hits Toronto...

Just how crazy do you have to be to drive on highway 401 in this crap? It was a white knuckle ride for sure.

Fat free!

I'll spare you any more snow pictures today (if only because a MASSIVE storm is coming this weekend so there will likely be more snow shots to come) and instead present red licorice - fat free means I can eat the whole bag right?

Seriously, this is nuts

My neighbour's house - these are second floor windows people! At this rate we won't be rid of our snow until July! I think we should just declare all of March a snow month, and hermit ourselves away inside until Spring.

Mother Nature continues her torment

Yes, another winter storm, another snow day. The fence Katie is standing beside? Over 5 feet tall. The snow she's standing on is packed solid, and still the white crap continues to fall.

I'm going to have to kill the groundhog.

Webkinz

How did one cute little black and white stuffed kitten turn into this? And that's not even all of them! Webkinz - they're practically viral!

Bucky the beaver

Sheesh, she's only been 7 for 2 days and she's lost 2 teeth. The tooth fairy is going to go out of business.

(PS - I showed this picture to a dental hygienist friend who commented 'she's a grinder, just like her mom'. Proof positive that you can't hide ANYTHING from your hygienist - so floss!!!

Crash

Poor sweet fella spent well over two hours like this. Guess all of yesterday's fun caught up with him...

A Princess Birthday

I can't believe my little princess is 7. How did this happen? She had a princess birthday party, here she is with most of the other princesses.