As if I don't have enough to do in my spare time, I have recently signed up with a national organization to do some volunteer work.  I will be be speaking to organizations and working health fairs a couple of times per month.  Today was my first day.  Fortunately, it was in my old stomping grounds so I was in familiar territory.  I saw so many people I knew!

Do you do volunteer work?

Now that she’s settling back into her normal groove, following a romantic Caribbean getaway with boyfriend Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens is focusing on the musical facet of her career.

And the Thunderbirds hottie was spotted taking a chauffeured limousine to a recording studio in Hollywood, California sporting a white t-shirt dress and an oversized black and brown leather handbag.

This fall, Hudgens is teaming up with Sears stores to help teens and tweens head back to school in style. Her “Don’t just go back. Arrive.,” campaign is scheduled to hit stores this month and will feature print ads, videos, television spots, and even a contest to win a private concert at the winner’s school.

Hudgens told press, “I like to make a fashion statement by changing up my look with different styles. Sears is a great place for those heading back to school this year because you can find an entire wardrobe of fun ‘looks’ to suit any mood or fashion sense. Plus, since the clothes are so affordable, you can easily switch styles and really get noticed when you arrive back at school.”

We don't like Sears...we're shopping at American Eagle, and Hollister, for back to school clothes. What about you guys??? :)

The show was huge, we were there 'til closing time and still had bits we hadn't seen properly.  I can assure you that I visited every toilet block on the site though!  Photos can't do the exhibits justice, but can give you a bit of an idea of what it was like. 

  This is part of the exhibit of the Trinidad and Tobago society.  It seemed so vibrant, and we felt warmer just looking at it.

  The Thai tourism authority built this recreation of a floating market for the occasion.

  Looking back down the Long Water to the back of Hampton Court Palace.  Not the Palace's most picturesque side in my opinion, but it was the side butting on to the show.

  Part of the national farmers' union's display - all fruit and veg with flowers in colour co-ordinated groups going round the display.

 This cottage was put up just for the show.  All the gardens, buildings etc. are all temporary - put together the week before just for the 6 days of the show. 

  I didn't think this was that attractive but again couldn't believe how it had been put up in such a short time just for the exhibition.

      I really liked this tiny garden.  Again, the photos don't do it justice.  The round dark bit in front of the teepee is a little water feature.  The pencils in the border reflect the colours of the flowers behind them.

Just a tiny peek at a huge show - I hope you enjoyed it!

Last weekend we went to Wales to see hubby’s parents. Then on Monday I was back at the doctors for a check up, (just to make sure everything was doing what it’s supposed to).
Hubby went for his pre-op check-up. The results from this op will determine whether or not hubby keeps his job, if it is a heart problem he may lose his licence and with this his job. Years ago they would have found him a job elsewhere in the company, but the odds of that are looking very slim now. The company was taken over last year by a German company and the deal becomes final this September, already they have cut management staff and yesterday they were told that they were putting some of the jobs out to contractors, so more men will have to go. So it looks like another rough path ahead. As the saying goes ‘These things come to try us and what don’t kill us makes us stronger’
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I packed my back pack with salad, (most of it from the garden) and a flask and headed for Malvern, to have a walk over ‘The British Camp’ hill. Right at the top used to stand an Iron Age fort (which wasn't iron age), it really is a beautiful place, once at the top you can see for miles and miles, below are a few photo’s but they really don’t do the place justice.

Giants cave

A ET moment

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First lot of peas

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You Are 32% Gross

You're a tad gross, but generally you're a clean, hygienic person. No one can be perfectly clean all the time, and it's better to be human than a neat freak.

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I never thought I would say this but I think it is time to bring back National service. I have never believed in sending children to train to kill people, I know that’s not all they are taught, but for me that was the one thing that really stuck in my throat. ‘Take young people, train them and send them to war’, never sat easy with me. Now however I feel we need something. A three opposition choice could be given to children on leaving school, go on to college, (and attend or national service will be imposed), take paid employment which must be on going, or national service. Each of these oppositions should last at least 3 years. I also think we have to change our attitude to younger children and make them take reasonability for there actions. No more of this they are under 10 so nothing can be done.

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Our first baby carrots

Be Happy

They’ve established themselves as worldwide rockstars. And now, the Jonas Brothers are teaming up with Verizon Wireless to reach their fans in a whole new way.

Kevin, Joe, and Nick were spotted arriving at a recording studio in Studio City, California this past Friday, no doubt getting ready for their next hit album as well as their upcoming tour.

Speaking of their next tour, Kevin announced, “We are totally excited to kick off our ’Burning Up’ tour with Verizon Wireless. We look forward to connecting with our fans in cool, new ways through their mobile phones and, of course, in person at our shows very soon.”

Speaking of their Verizon partnership, the Brothers Jonas will be releasing 10 exclusive 2-3 minute clips of their life on the road and in the studio that will be dowloadable via a Verizon V Cast phone. In addition, VW customers who download JB songs, ringtones, etc will be entered to win a pair of mobile tickets to see the guys in concert.

We barely see the guys out anymore!

My sister, Laurie, and her daughter came for a visit. I helped my niece make pound cake on which to serve fresh Spooner Berry Farms strawberries. Yum! My favorite part though, was when Brianna and I drew with sidewalk chalk on the patio out back.

We celebrated my sister, Carolyn's birthday. All of us sisters and my mom went out to lunch for Scandinavian cuisine at Broder on Clinton and 25th in Portland. I had a tasty grilled specialty cheese sandwich which came with a salad. Even better was the Aebleskiver, light and airy two inch Danish pancakes served with lingonberry jam, that my sister ordered for her children to share. Yum! Here are the cute little munchkins sitting outside afterwards. Aubrey is 3.5+ and Landon is 1.5+.

We made a trip to Canada to celebrate the first birthday of my cousin, Don's girls, Ava and Marlowe. I was enjoying them so much that I forgot to take very many pictures! Besides, they move faster than my shutter can shut, so for a better glimpse of them, click here. That's Ava on the left and Marlowe on the right; Ava's cake on the left and Marlowe's cake on the right. Everyone referred to them as smash cakes. We suspect that to be a Canadian term, but then again, it could be a kid term, about which we know nothing.

I went to the kids' matinee at our favorite theater in Centralia with my friend, Val, and her two oldest boys, Sol (in blue) and Jed (in white). We went to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. At the Olympic Club, you get to order food from their menu and lounge around on couches while you watch a movie. They generously shared their order of Tater Tots with me. Yum!

And summer has just begun...

I've been out today. On the spare of the moment (I don't do spare of the moment, nor do I do going out if I can help it) I decided to jump on the train into Liverpool city centre and visit the Tate gallery. It's about a 30 minute ride so I passed the time sketching a man sat near me (sketch shown above). (He looked very pleased with himself. I don't know why.)

It's years since i've visited the Tate (or anywhere for that matter). It must be years since i've been into the city centre because the skyline has completely changed. The whole city centre has been transformed. 

When I got to the gallery it was ridiculously busy. It was probably because there's a special exhibition on (Gustav Klimt). There were far too many people for my liking. I decided not to bother, so went to the Walker Art Gallery for look around there instead. There was just the right amount of people there. Not too many, and not so few that I stand out. The security guard type people who would normally appear sinister and intimidating, today seemed friendly and reassuring. Normally they would follow me and watch my every move, but today they paid me no attention. My mind was quiet and I didn't feel overly anxious. I was able to spend an hour or two lost in the paintings. I sat and and managed to spend a bit of time unnoticed  sketching a few people. It was a nice distraction.

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And I'll make a F.R.I.E.N.D.S refereance to the episode in which Chandlers dislike of dogs is exposed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuU6dp-_nP8 (a round 7 minutes in)

But I really love this dog <3

It is calmer than calm!

A few days ago I went to see one of my favorite authors, Connie Willis, do a book reading at a local book store. For those of you that don't know, Connie has won more Hugo and Nebula Awards than any other writer in her field. For those of you that still don't know, the Hugo and Nebula Awards are given for outstanding achievement in science fiction and fantasy literature.

I got there about 45 minutes early, mostly hoping to get a good seat, but also because I like to be excessively early to things. My early arrival was totally unecessary - although she is an acclaimed writer, she hasn't garnered any mob-type crowds (although I was prepared to go all elbows if that had been the case). All together there were probably 50 of us there to see her, and I was maybe one of the five who were under the age of thirty.

She was a brilliant speaker, the definition of eloquence. The anecdotes she told were humorous and honest and I soaked in every word of it. At times her stories were tinged with snobbish, offhand comments or tired, overdone comedic bits, but I can't blame the woman: she was real.

The excerpt she read was from the book she's currently writing about time travel to WWII. It was great to hear her read the words as they were intended to be read. Plus, the excerpt was awesome and only made me want to hear more; she is truly a great storyteller.

After the reading, I stood in a surprisingly short line to get a book signed. I wish I had said something cute and clever, but words escaped me in the moment and I said something lame about enjoying her reading. What a dope. It doesn't matter though, because for those ten seconds, I got to pretend like we knew each other, and that was all I wanted, really.

For all of you Islanders who are in town for the weekend, might I suggest you come and check out the Moss Street Paint-In (Saturday from noon to 4 pm)?

My dearest Marty will be one of over a hundred local artists who will bring their easels outside for a day of demos and art sales. (Booth #68, for anyone who's interested, near the corner of Moss and Graham.) I will be there too, of course, chatting up the passersby and making Marty blush with my PDSPs (Public Displays of Shameless Promotion) and unadulterated professions of love for his paintings. He's so modest. (Unlike me, who-- if I am remembering this correctly-- scored as low as I possibly could on the Humility and Modesty scale. Stupid personality inventories...)

But how can you be modest when your artwork was featured on the FRONT PAGE?? (Of a tiny community newspaper, yes, but it's still on the FRONT PAGE! And it's also... Oak Bay! So exclusive!)

Being invited to participate in this event *officially* makes us Victorians. Yeah, sure, we have our BC Care Cards and BC Driver's Licenses and even a family doctor in Victoria, but it takes participation in the Moss Street Paint-In, where only local artists are invited and selected, to make us truly feel like locals! Huzzah for our newly acquired locals status!

Painting in progress... this is an old photo. The painting was finished some time last year.

Anyway, if you feel like taking a stroll down Moss Street this Saturday, feel free to stop by and say hello! I promise I will not pressure you to buy anything or otherwise make you feel awkward. Truth be told, my personality inventory should have actually listed Salesmanship/Upselling at the bottom of my skills barrel... But that's just between you and me.

BC will turn 4 in a few months. Up until now, here's a list of some of the regular 'fun' activities he's been involved in (not all the same time of course):

Water awareness, Gymbaroo (baby and toddler gym), Hi De Ho Music time, Hydrotherapy, Yoga for the Special Child, Special Needs Play group, Mums Group, Therapeutic horseback riding, library early learners reading time, Early Intervention group sessions etc etc.....

And here's the list of regular 'fun' activities that the little Bean has experienced so far.

Here's that list again:

That's right. A big fat nothing. He occasionally gets to have a dip in the pool with me on a Friday when BC is at childcare IF we don't have other jobs to get done. AND of course he gets dragged around to all the activities, appointments and therapy sessions that BC has but as far as a regular 'social activity' NADA. Nothing. Nil.

I've known all along that it's not that fair for him to have to be dragged around too all the things we do for BC, but now I feel the added guilt of not giving him enough of a social life! I can't remember the last time (if ever!) he's had the chance to potter around with other toddlers his age, except perhaps for random meetings at the playground....

Perhaps little kids don't need all this extra 'stuff' anyway? I know I didn't do anything before kindergarten...But it still makes me a little sad that I've given so much time, attention and opportunities to my first born, but my second born hasn't had that experience. And in reality, even though I feel sad, I know there's not the time anyway for me to start adding more to our busy schedule to address the imbalance right now.

Ho hom.

I guess I'll just have to remind myself that what Bean DOES have that BC didn't when he was little, is a big brother around all the time to play with, to bother, to learn from, to explore with. And perhaps that's all that he needs for now. I sure hope so.