May, you're finally really here!

May is the beginning of the Summer. Our sleepy town awakens with the hustle and bustle of tourists. Fruit trees blossom, boats come out of hibernation, backpackers thumb into town in search of work. Days grow longer, brighter. Sunscreen noses and dirty toes. Flip flops. It's a strange balance between loving the solitude and peacefulness of our whistle-stop town as it is for so many months out of the year, when all we see are the residents, and handfuls of snowbirds escaping the Saskatchewan snow - and celebrating the coming of sweltering summer days, the onslaught of tourists, white caps, bikinis, and coconut scented air.

Looking past the big city folks and their enormous attitudes, their even larger boats, and fat wallets, I see how special our town is in these few Summer months. To me its like a big growly bear waking up from a long winter slumber. Shaking off all the dust and ambling out into the Spring sun...rubbing his eyes and getting a good look around at the new growth, melting snow, Spring flowers. That's us in this hamlet of O-Town. The long drawn out winter is beyond shadow of a doubt GONE! We're slowly waking up to the palpability of Summer.

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(photo deleted due to Nana's apparent shyness at being broadcast over the internet...
Awaiting Nana approved photo, will post when received.)

Little C enjoying her time while visiting Nana and Papa camping.

Saying goodbye and saying hello all in 48 hours. Thats my husband for ya.




and then finding 2 good old friends at the car show.

Beautiful Boy on Bike

Need I say anymore?

Easter Shenanigans

That wily Easter Bunny! He didn't just stop at hiding a CHOCOLATE race car in the shower this morning. He also hid over 1,000 chocolate eggs at the Elementary School, and finished off by leaving a trail of treat filled eggs at Nana and Papas house.

Bryce has been in his glory all day eating chocolate and treats. I've also been in all my glory trying to eat HIS chocolate treats faster than him so he'll have less of a sugar buzz than anticipated. Oh! What we do for our kids eh?!

The day started out with a local Easter Egg Hunt and it was pretty much mayhem. I had planned on having Little C collect eggs with the rest of the kids, but after seeing the mass of bodies, I rethought that decision. She spent the entire time attached to Daddy's leg! Little B and I took part in the Egg Free-for-all stampede. It was great fun.



We headed over to Nana's house for another Egg hunt. It was a total success for Little B.


Little C decided throwing the ball and laughing her new "Evil Laugh" was much more fun than collecting bright colored objects hidden in the bushes.




Little B and mummy wanted to take part in the Easter Parade with our local Pre-School that we attend weekly. I had a tough time finding them so we snuck in with the Kiwanis Group and rode in the parade with them. Little B was uncharacteristically shy and tried getting off his bike a few times. I persuaded him to smile, wave, and keep his eye out for anyone he knew and in hte end he had a terrific time.

1st Spring Cruise of 2009

What a glorious weekend we're having. FINALLY, the weather is acting like it should...Warm days, sunny skies, light wind, birds chirping happily, kids heard around the neighborhood hooting, hollering, and generally enjoying themselves.

After a morning spent tidying up the house and back yard, we loaded everyone up in the old '47 Coupe and hit the road with our good friends and their old Hot Rod.


We did the Nighthawk Loop, driving east on Hwy 3 and entering the U.S.A. through their teensy Border Station at Nighthawk WA. We stopped in at Palmer Lake at Big B's friends lakeside lot and enjoyed some time skipping rocks. Little C enjoyed her time playing with neat little brown marbles that were scattered in the grass....
"C !!!!!! Put the deer poop down!!!"






We looped through Loomis WA, and ended up back in Oroville WA by dinner time. We finished of the night with a wonderful BBQ at our friends house.

History is repeating itself as it does every year at this time. The warm weather is seducing Big B and I - deleting our memory banks of the horrific cold, ice, snow, and wind we painfully endured the past few Winter months. I think Winter must pay Spring off each year. How can something so traumatizing be forgotten so quickly with one Robins song and a simple ray of sun?

None the less, we're drunk on Spring Fever and our annual dreamy plans of retreating to the deserts of California for the following winter are being erased and rewritten with dreams of Summertime fun. White sandy beaches, fast boats, BBQ's and bikinis. We'll see where the Spring takes us. Maybe we can muster enough strength to keep the Sun from infiltrating our brains an causing "Winter Amnesia" and maybe, just maybe well concrete our big dream.

Just a recap. Incase you too have been brainwashed into forgetting....Osoyoos in the Winter:
California in the Winter:
Why is the decision do hard?

My Water Baby

Better in High Quality...click the HQ button on the bottom of the screen.

Coming out

I have a slight addiction. No one knows of it, not even my husband. It grips me tight, pulls me in, and crushes me. My heart starts to race, tears well, my throat constricts.

How it started: I stumbled upon a website not so long ago written by a new mom. She had birthed twins. They came frighteningly early, and while hooked up to wires and tubes, she typed of her pain and her joy, and somehow touched me deeply. So deeply in fact that I started reading more blogs written by mothers of preemie's. Then I'd spot a link to a blog written by a mother of a baby fighting cancer, leukemia, congenital heart disease. The sad list goes on.

I read these mothers words, soak in their pain, and with tears usually streaming down my face I pray in my own way. I pray that their pain will miraculously disappear with the disease that grips their childs body. I pray that their lovely, sweet child feels less pain today, less the next, and wakes pain free someday soon.

I selfishly pray that it never happens to my family, and then realize no one is immune from this. These women cared for their growing bellies, nurtured their crying babies, fed, bathed, loved, held and sang lullabies to them just like I do to mine.

Once and awhile the anxiety and he terror leave me utterly wiped out. I hug my little ones a little tighter, give them a few more kisses than usual, and thank my lucky stars that we are all safe, warm, and healthy.

I have added a blog list on the left of a handful of blogs I follow that are pure inspirational. The mothers and fathers that write these blogs will leave you reeling with wonder and love and a strange sense of peacefulness; even in the face of tragedy, these parents emit a calm sense of direction. It may come as a surprise to some of you who know me, that most of these fellow bloggers are religious and depend on Gods love for much if not all of their salvation. A surprise to you because I am of course not religious at all. I consider myself spiritual, but the concept of God being The Almighty just doesn't cut it for me. I am not going to be saved any time in the near future, nor am I going to be struck down by lightening when I cross the street. I only brought this up because even though I can't get my knees dirty in the sense I can't pray to the Lord for these people, I can send my own thoughts and positive prayers to The Universe for expedient healing and peace.

I'll leave you now with my blessings, pictured below. I sure don't rely on someone elses misfortune to make me see the light, but it definitely brings LIFE into perspective.



M.O.