Things that are red include what you said, the drinks in the fridge, and the sheets on your bed. Things that are red like fire and blood and the color of clay in Carolina mud remind me of rose petals covering hearts wrapped in licorice strings like bullseyes for darts in cheap red-roofed bars where Italian made cars wait outside with the stars. Red like your eyes on the clandestine drives filled with small red leaves falling from November skies could be read like a book that’s tucked against your side – red like your face and your lips when you lie – to me then with me, a fire alarm some romantic triggered for kisses in cars. Your dad was red-faced as he lifted the case of Budweiser classic your mom used to make her hot jumbo shrimp, with her hair showing tints of red like a cherry or expensive lipstick. Red-handed, red-blooded, red-eyed at red lights, touching red tongues, eyes adjusting for sight. Red is the color of more than your might, a strain that no pain can help you obtain, no matter how hard you strive to explain just why your red coupe now serves you no use, rusty guardrails take a tooth for a tooth. Red is the color of love and abuse, so it was bound in the end to be you, screaming at me “What the fuck did you do?”  Red is the color of wine and the roof of your mouth where the least red thing ever, the proof, lays waiting to be spoken into the air. Red like your curtains and red like the stairs some past tenant painted before you lived there. Red

Unbelievable site that I recently discovered somehow (if I could retrace the site-to-site-to-site-ad infinitum itinerary, I promise I would.): Kiddie Records Weekly: Classics from the Golden Age. Kiddie Records Weekly features a weekly selection of  vintage children’s album designs. Their archives are enormous, AND they stream all the audio! It’s pure old-school craziness! Go forth and enjoy. And, for now, here are some of my faves (but I still have stacks to pore through):

Aren’t they amazing? Love them. Love the colors, love the type, love the illustrations… love it all.

Are you there GOD? It’s me, candy~

I can feel the heartbeat of a mother I’ve never met.

She is frantic
Scared
Every nerve in her is electrified
Panic
Dread

Is there doubt that she looked away for a moment?

That exact moment when she hears the sound
that “no” mother wants to hear.
The fall of her child.
The thump of his head.
The shrill in the cry that “you” know instinctively as a mother.

The adrenaline running through her, snatching up her precious child to check for “anything”.
Anything

The small prayer for nothing to be wrong.
The mumble under your breath” Please GOD don’t let anything be wrong.”

And when it does and our day changes~

Care Flight

I am only a standby today,
into a world that I  never wish to be.

The sound of the sirens blended in with the sharp blades making everyone look to the sky.

The day changes in a blink of an eye.

I see it all though the eyes of an outsider, with the camera in my hand I am able to separate myself from the chaos.

Firemen are true Heroes~

tears
relief

A parents nightmare
and I stand with the camera in my hand
mumbling prayers under my breath for their child

a child who’s name I do not even know

GOD I know that we forget so many times to lean on you….

but I know “YOU” were there

I could see it through the firemen eyes as the cared for this precious child.

The thumbs up sign from the Care flight crew!

The precious package being put in such a amazing machine.

Thank You GOD for their bravery and expertise as  the outsiders mumble prayers for you to hear~

Pray and ask God what you can do for Him and what change you can make in your life to serve Him.
This is a day of finding that little something extra we can do;
this is a day of change.

candy

PS: his name is Rhys~

Rhys and Rhylee

(Provided you’re not colorblind)

Red is a bad color.  It’s a color that we Americans (and likely other countries as well) associate obedience with.  Stoplights and stop signs are red.  Firetrucks are red too; you see a firetruck barrelling on down behind you, what do you do?  You pull over, let it by, as much as you can, anyhow.  You see red and blue flashing lights?  Let’s face it; you’re in deep shit.

Even Santa Claus is part of this trend.  You gotta be good to get presents; you gotta be obedient, follow the rules etc.

In elementary school, some of the classes had this point system that they used as a disciplinary means.  If you were doing badly, you got a red card and everyone knew what that meant.

Sunburns are red too.  And they hurt as a result.

Blood too. You don’t want to see your own blood.  You have to obey the rules of your body too.  Hmm, except that works kind of backwards with girls . . . meh.

CVS – a pharmacy sort of place around here has those letters in bright red on their store.  The main point of that place is so you can get medicine to make you feel better.  That’s what they say anyways–and what we believe, usually.  If you don’t go in there occasionally to get the things you need, you feel worse.  You have to obey the red.

In that case, you could argue that obeying is a good thing and not a bad.

But in my world, as an aspie growing up in a school system more focused on rich kids and jocks, obeying was the very worst thing of all.

They make you think that if you follow the rules, you’ll get the reward for your obedience.

They lie.

It was never good enough for them, because they don’t tell you about the unwritten rules.  They don’t mention that the hidden privileges of others tends to get in the way of your having perfect obedience.

Details, right?

I make my own rewards; I follow my own rules.

I go my own way.

Me.

I have synaesthesia.  It causes me to see numbers and letters in color.  Those different colors don’t change over time; 7’s are always purple, S’s are always green.

M’s are always red.

Ultimately, I only obey ME.

You can make what you want of that, but let me add this onto all of that above.  Perceptions are not set in stone.  Bad is only a word.

I am not bad, but there are those in my past who would have liked me to have believed it so.

My nephew’s birthday is this weekend and we are going for a party. I always get the best presents. Mostly because  my sister buys the thing he wants and then I give her money. She loves to shop and I really don’t. Then she wraps it up and calls to tell me how much. She left me a message last night, so I’m all done!

His favorite things at the moment are trains and firetrucks, which is so like me, because I love firefighters and guys in uniforms! I bring it up because I created an awesome play list on his behalf. I thought of it while I was doing the traveling roads one and now I have an excellent excuse to roll it out today! It’s sunny and 80° here in Chicago. Throw on some cute shorts and run your lazy butt down past the firehouse, we have exercising to do.

In honor of my nephew and our shared interests, here is:

“Ethen’s Train & Fire” List

It’s hot.

And because there was so many darn songs, I threw in a little “Extra Heat”

FYI, I know you want to know…he’s going to be four (4) this weekend.

(Firefighters are still hot, even if he doesn’t care.)

1. Crazy Train / Ozzy Osbourne

2. Morning Train (Nine To Five) / Sheena Easton

3. My Engine Is With You / Bush

4. Rock N Roll Train / AC/DC

5. That’s Alright / Fleetwood Mac

6. Downbound Train / Bruce Springsteen

7. Peace Train / Cat Stevens

8. A Train Not Running / Chris Knight

9. Nightrain / Guns N’ Roses

10. Machinehead / Bush

11. Fire Woman / The Cult

12. Light My Fire / The Doors

13. I’m On Fire / Bruce Springsteen

14. Fire And Ice / Pat Benatar

15. Through The Fire And Flames / Dragonforce

16. Settin’ The Woods On Fire / Johnny Burns

17. Rooms On Fire / Stevie Nicks

18. Fire / Jimi Hendrix

19. House Of Fire / Alice Cooper but sung by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

20. Wildfire / Michael Murphey

21. Crossfire / Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble

22. Paper In Fire / John Mellencamp

23. Play With Fire / The Rolling Stones

24. Fire Burning / Stevie Nicks

25. Ring Of Fire / Johnny Cash

26. She’s On Fire / Train

27. Sex On Fire / Kings Of Leon

28. All Fired Up / Pat Benatar

29. Come On Baby / Wakefield

1. Heat Of The Moment / Asia

2. Burnin’ For You / Blue Oyster Cult

3. Hot Child In The City / Nick Gilder

4. The Heat / Needtobreathe

5. Freewheel Burning / Judas Priest

6. Hot Kiss / Juliette & The Licks

7. Burnin’ Up / Jonas Brothers

8. Heat Wave (Love Is Like A) / Martha Reeves & The Vandellas

9. Burning The Water Brown / Killradio

10. Hot Hot Hot / Arrow

11. Burn, Burn / Lostprophets

12. Hot Stuff (Let’s Dance) / Craig David

13. Burn Up The Road / Operator

14. Hot Rod Rock / Edd Byrnes

15. Which One Of The Two Of Us Is Gonna Burn This House Down? / The Star Spangles

16. Drunk And Hot Girls / Kanye West feat. Mos Def

17. Hot N Cold / Katy Perry

18. This Is Why I’m Hot / Mims

19. You’re So Damn Hot / OK Go

20. One Hot Coma / Paris, Texas

21. Some Like It Hot / The Power Station

22. Burning Heart / Survivor

23. They’re Red Hot / Robert Johnson

24. Burning Down The House / Talking Heads

25. Hot Night Crash / Sahara Hotnights

26. The Heat Is On / Glenn Frey

27. You Make Me Feel Like A Whore / Everclear

28. Hot For Teacher / Van Halen

29. In The Heat Of The Night / Pat Benatar

30. Hot Blooded / Foreigner

31. Burning Love / Wynonna

32. Hot In The City / Billy Idol

Let me start by sharing some pics of the Harlem Ambassadors game from last night. Thank you Debra for organizing it. We had SO much fun….it was very cheap and entertaining….the kids had a so much fun! …. And Chris loved getting to “hoop it up!”

Here is another shot of Chris playing…

Here is a picture of some of the kids….You can’t see Torie’s face…but you can kind of see her new hair cut.

Here is a picture of Rylie playing musical chairs….one of the players was helping her carry away her chair.

Everytime the Ambassadors huddled they let the kids come over and huddle with them….here they are! They had a BLAST!

The team that played the Ambassadors was made up of a few fireman, a few policeman, the mayor, and a few pastors. After the game we were walking out and the firetruck was parked, running and waiting to pick up the fireman who had played in the game. One of the fireman players asked Ryan and Torie if they wanted to get in. Ryan as SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited! He kept saying, “Wee ahhh, Wee ahhh, Wee ahhh!” He was so excited that it was running and the that the lights were on. Here is the best picture I could get of the kids….he was SO overwhelmed I couldn’t get him to look at me.

I also wanted to take a minute and brag on my sweet daughter. We got report cards yesterday and she made the A/B honor roll. Last six weeks she struggled SO much in Math…and raised her math score over 20 points this time around. We love you sweet girl and are SO proud of how hard you worked this 6 weeks!

YEAH PHILLIES! WORLD CHAMPIONS! (picture half irrelevant)

So I didn’t cry. But I definitely freaked the hell out. Holy crap…we actually did it? The Phillies actually won? Well, I’ll tell you, Philadelphia needs to win a little more often, you should have seen (though most of my readers probably saw what I saw) how crazy this city was? It blew up!

Without any hesitation, everyone started running for City Hall. I literally watched thousands of people running and we all knew we were all going to the same place. It was the weirdest thing; it was like it was innate. By the time that I got to Broad, tens of thousands of people were all over the place. People were on poles, on lights, on buildings, on bus stops. I ran into so many people I knew but it didn’t matter since all Philadelphians were one; winners.

Pictures are worth so much more than words, so just check out the pictures (sorry many are blurry) I was able to get. I saw just about EVERYTHING I could have seen last night; boobs (whooo!), fires, fireworks, firetrucks (yeah, lots of fire stuff), broken glass, beer showers, funneling through traffic cones, people climbing in places you shouldn’t be climbing, rioting, a school bus full of SWAT, police brutality, and of course, other fans that felt like me: relieved.

Now, let’s see if this uplifted curse can get some other teams winning

This should be my last sports blog for a while…I feel that’s all I’ve written about in a while.

Continuing on down the alphabet line our letter for today is F. How fun! There are many fun things to do today that are letter F related that both the kids and Mom will enjoy.

Take some field trips! Call your local Fire station and let them know you want to stop by and check out the firefightersfiretrucks. They are usually willing to show the kids around and let them sit in the firetrucks and touch stuff they normally wouldn’t be able to. Journey, Faith and I went with a friend of theirs and they all had fun. They got their very own fire hats, they slid down the pole a few times and loved being inside the truck. The firefighters told us that if we give more notice that they would fill up the fire extinguisher so that the kids could spray it. That is for the next trip!

Another fun fieldtrip could be to the flower shop to visit a florist. A good idea to call ahead for that one too just in case they are busy. Try to pick a mom and pop shop so that maybe the kids could be a little more hands on with helping prepare a bouquet or something. I would feel comfortable with both my daughters because they have learned to sniff flowers and not pick flowers. I have never tried this but thought it would be fun, you know. If we do it I will let you know how it goes.

Some more letter F activities:

• Sing some songs! Our favorite is Hurry,Hurry Drive that Firetruck!
• Play games!
• Have fun snacks; fish-shaped crackers, french toast, fruit salad, fish sticks, real fish (Mmmm…catfish)
• Also, you can tell fables or stories to your children. One of my favorites is the Fisherman and His Wife because of the moral that material things and riches won’t bring you happiness. True happiness lies in your ability to love and be loved.

This story is referenced from First-School.com, but one of my favorite versions comes from the HBO Family channel series Happily Ever After.

Source: Everything Preschool

Now for our Letter F page activity;

What you will need:

• White paper or contruction paper
• Tissue paper or small strips of green colored paper
• googly eyes (optional)
• glue
• markers, crayons
• anything else to make it fun! buttons, glitter, shells, etc.

What to do:

I like to make each alphabet page personal and allow Journey and Faith to be able to create their own art. So, here is what we will do for letter F today. Print out or if you can draw a frog then cut out the outline of a frog shape from paper.

Cut out a big letter F and glue it to the far left of the paper. The frog will sit on the far right. Get creative and organize the page to look like the letter F and the frog are both sitting on lily pads in the middle of the pond. Speaking of in the middle of the pond we just returned that book to the library and it is the cutest book about friendship! Ok–correction it is called, In the middle of the puddle / by Mike Thaler. Check it out!

Now that everything is glued down let your kids color and decorate the pond scene however they want. From as early as 12 months old it is healthy for a child to be able to participate in crafts projects. From 12 months old to 3 years old children who do crafts exercise their fine motor skills, it improves manual dexterity and understanding of visual-spatial relationships. I got this tid-bit of information from a book I’m reading, Raise a Smarter Child by Kindergarten by David Perlmutter. I didn’t get it to make my kids smarter, but it gives reason behind simple childhood games and how they help development. I will be sharing more interesting facts as I read more.

Well, that is letter F. Let us know how your frogs and your F’s turn out. Also, since Reneca and I are in different time zones we usually try to have our new posts up by 8am California time. Is there anyone that reads this on the east coast and are very annoyed that you don’t get a new post from us until like 12noon your time? Just wondering? We could get up extra early to make sure things are posted on a timely manner. We could try

Have a great Wednesday! Until next week–Letter G.

Kalisha and Reneca

Listen.  The rocks cry out.
             The rocks cry out.
Streets cry out, “To the Glory!”
Yes, even the pavement.
The city lights, they sparkle.
Glass and beams of architectural
Praise.
The glint of sun reflected in steel.
A bustling of life that whispers
Your Name.
Firetrucks and ships.
Surfboards and street signs.
The rhythm of homeless percussion.
Guitar riffs in the park…
Bring Glory to Your Name!

(WOO HOO! My first Flickr-hosted video!)

We went to our local National Night Out festivities last night where Anthony made a dancin’ fool of himself (along with his best friend Jakob). Then again, Anthony rockin’ out is nothing new to us.

The kids had an absolute blast and all got to meet policemen, firemen, Marines and anybody else from our community that puts their lives in harm’s way to keep us all safe, locally over overseas.

And to all of them, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Pictures from the event can be seen here!

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As I sit here at home, I simply loathe the fact that I’m not still in New York right now. I’m listening to music that was played in the hotel, (W Hotels – Warmth of Cool), and quite simply, wishing I was there, the feeling of always being comfortable, always feeling alive and well was just something I wasn’t used to in England. I love it, the people, the cars, the shop fronts, the food, everything I guess.

This photo is one of my favourites from the trip. It is of the Federal Hall on Wall Street, famous, obviously. Besides that point, it was interesting to me due to the fact that there must have been some sort of scare in terms of a fire, as about five firetrucks pulled up honking away, and police vehicles, and that ’small’ Fire SUV you see there in front of you.

If this blog is going to be about the photos, then I’d better make it a little snappier, otherwise it’ll simply be another ‘diary’ blog of random thoughts. Not that I don’t love doing those, but I’ve already got a cool one. Although I like this design more

I had purchased the Sigma 10-20 the day before I took this image in BH Photo, ($:£ very nice, thus, a pleasant purchase), and I used that for this image, you can see elements of distortion, particularly on the edge of the left firetruck, and people in the bottom right, but I kind of enjoy that in an image, it makes for some interesting compositional features.

What I really love about this image is the way it makes the buildings around the federal hall seem almost infinitely high, just shooting up uncontrollably, either side, and I love that feeling of clostrophobia and enclosure in this image, however, I gather and understand that some people may also not enjoy it as much as I do.

As well as this, little things like how the flag atop the building is so neatly folded over itself, and almost backlit by the light coming from behind just makes me smile, it’s very nice. All in all, it’s an image I’m most certainly pleased with and proud of. You can visit this photograph on my Flickr.

I hope your doing good, and as this photoblog is quite new, (first post ), I hope this goes well, it was John’s group that inspired me to simply make somewhere for me to gas about my photos, and others maybe, sometimes. We’ll see. I’d love any comments, and I hope you’re well

charlie styr.

Why is prostitution illegal? I mean, if that’s how you want to make your money and hey, if you’re good at it, then go for it. While this is not a personal issue for me, hahaha, the il-legality (new word? I’m not sure if it’s real) of prostitution is not good for people, say in, Las Vegas. Or even around here. I remember one day at lunch in tenth grade Luke told us about this prostitute he saw at the movie theater with her pimp. haha. But really, if that’s what you want to do with your life, I don’t think it should be a problem..
Even though it makes you… quite the whore. =]

I want to drive a firetruck professionally. That would be so fun. And today I noticed that they have the coolest turn signals! It’s not just a flashing light on one side of the vehicle, there’s a cute little arrow pointing in the direction they’re turning. How inventive is that?! hah. except that I see it in my mirror and still don’t realize what direction they’re going.
I still don’t know my left from my right. ha. It’s a serious issue in giving directions.
I’ve noticed that I know pretty much how to get anywhere that I need to go, well, not really, but for most cases, but I can not give directions to save my life. Partly because I don’t know my left from my right, but that’s another story. Like, I know what road I need to turn on, but I don’t know the name. and how do you describe a road to someone? lol. It’s asphalt.. yellow lines?

and my favorite street in the WHOLE world is King Arthur’s Court! How awesome is that?! totally. I love it. and I get to pass it everyday on my way home from school. <3
haha.

So, Libraries suck. Don’t get me wrong, I love books, libraries (Just not the ones in PWC… grr.) and bookstores! woo. but I have been having a very difficult time finding my books about Australia.
It’s Tuesday, my group’s meeting Wednesday, I don’t have any research.. haha. not surprising. so I go from GMU-PW all the way past my house to Chinn Library.. they are freaking closed! And now I get stuck in traffic because all the illegals are over at the County Center protesting the new law or whatever the hell their problem is.. “Illegals Make PWC” was on the back of a van I was behind.. uhmm. No. I don’t care if you’re here, whatever, but I don’t think they need to be receiving free medical care and public education.. haha. now that’s into my English paper..
anyways, I drive past my house, past my school and two lights down is the turn for the Bull Run Library. Well, I’m a bit of an idiot and I wasn’t even paying attention. lol. and I drove right past it and consequently had to drive all the way down to whatever that road is and go a different direction.. gosh. I was so lost. Then I’m there. and they have like, zero books on Australia. All of them are travel books, I’m not traveling there, I just need to know about their culture! So I get those books and drive back home..
Wednesday, I decide, well I can look at the PW campus’s library. Mistake. The library has like five books total. haha. Of course none of them will be on Australia, because that would just be crazy. So I go home, eat, and I drive down to the bank again because it’s not a made-up holiday today and then decide I’ll try Potomac Library. Wow. Potomac Library is worse than Bull Run Library! And Potomac Library was scary!!! I sat between this old, creepy white guy who I swear he was watching me the whole time. creep. and this spanish kid checking his MySpace. lol. and this place had one book on Australia and it was all pictures, big two page pictures.. not helpful. Ok. I still need these books, so I proceed to drive down to Central Library. I get lost and make a turn down a one-lane road, in the wrong direction. haha. Eventually I found it and I got my books. I ask the woman at the desk why Chinn is closed and they’re having Heating and Ventilation problems.. ugh.. stupid library. Why must it be this week? lol. It would’ve saved me sooooo much hassle.
Gosh. That’s been my dilema these past few days. haha.

So I love Ellen. I think she’s my hero. lol.
But she always makes comments about how people are too scared for her to get married. I don’t understand how gay marriage would be illegal either. Personally, it’s not my business what you want to do, who you want to marry or whatever. So, I don’t see a problem with it. For all the people who say, well it’s not what God wants, well, maybe these people don’t believe in your religion! goodness, let them love who they want! It won’t even bother you.. ugh. people are stupid.
That leads to my thoughts on people who try to push their religion down your throat. Ok. I have my religion, I’m happy believing it, if anyone wants to talk about it, ok with me. But I don’t understand why some people feel that their was IS THE RIGHT WAY! umm. no. People believe all sorts of things, whatever they believe is how they truly believe they will get to Heaven. It’s not your responsibility to convert the world to what you believe. Sorry. my opinion.

Today on Ellen, or maybe it was yesterday, I don’t remember, but she saw a billboard that said “Life is short, Have and affair” lol. what the heck? And it had a website for married people to get on and find other married people who wanted to have affairs, umm, maybe this is just me, but if you want to have an affair, I would say your relationship probably isn’t all that strong and maybe you should not be together, but hey.. maybe that’s just me.. haha.

Wow. I feel like an old person, but today on Dr. Phil there was a married teen couple. The girl is 20, the boy 18. They have two kids. I don’t understand. People are stupid. Why would you get married so soon?! You’re going to change with college and growing up in general. Yes, I understand that you knocked up your whore of a girlfriend at the age of 16, so I guess it’s best for you to get married, but what kind of idiots have unprotected sex when they already have a kid!!!! IDIOTS! and then those poor children have to live with these two people who can barely take care of themselves.. it amazes me how selfish people can be.

Anyways.. it’s getting nice out, Finally! yay. October weather might actually be here now! When I was driving around Tuesday, there were leaves flying everywhere! It was amazing. And then it started raining, which was nice because my car is soooo dirty. Plus, I’m not kidding when I say it dropped 17 degrees in about 5 minutes right before it started raining. lol. And now we have the windows open and there’s a nice breeze. ahh. I’m so happy!

Apparently, not only is October Breast Cancer Awareness Month.. according to Bull Run Library, it’s also Emotional Wellness Month, hah.. right. and I believe the 16th is Boss’ Day. woo! how.. exciting. Too bad I have no boss, I know, I’m really sad too. =[ And there was another thing that's this month that was pretty dumb, but I don't remember what it was.. And of course James' birthday is this month. =] yay.

I’m excited to go to this corn maze over off of 66 soon. yay! If you go from 7-9pm you can take flashlights and try to find your way out. that’ll be fun. I think we should try without flashlights, but maybe that’s just my adventurous side coming out. lol. I’m not sure who will come with me tho, Ashley said she’d make Josh come, but I feel bad for ditching Nicole and Cam for Fear Fest. So it may just be me and Dent. lol. that’ll still be fun tho.

I’m also having trouble sleeping at night and I don’t know why. I think my brain just decides that bedtime is the perfect time to think about all my life questions. lol. stupid brain. so tonight I figured I could write some of the stuff I’ve been thinking about and then maybe I can fall to sleep tonight.. haha. maybe it’ll work, we’ll see.

I’m also not quite adapted to this whole college thing. For some reason, I still don’t understand that things are open after 9 or 10pm. lol. and that most things that go on, are after 10.. haha. I’m lame.

I love how music has such an effect on people. Some songs make you feel so happy, some make me cry, some just touch me and I feel both happy and sad. Like the song i’m listening to now, Moments by Emerson Drive. It’s an amzing song, I just don’t know how to explain it.. but I just like it. Like, it always makes me happy when things turn out for the best. This song, the guy’s going to jump off the bridge and the old man kinda convinces him not to and idk it makes me so happy. and the line “Like the day I walked away from the wine, for a woman who became my wife, in a love that when it was right, could always see me through” I don’t know why, but I always get chills. haha. it’s dumb. but I like it. I like songs that make me teary-eyed. Or, or. I was watching Degrassi, the same episode about 5 times, because I thought I broke the tv this weekend. lol. anyways, and Darcy gets raped and she’s so ademate about waiting until marriage and everyone thought that she had has sex with her boyfriend, not been raped, so they all think she’s a hypocrit and whatnot, and then her boyfriend and Manny give her, her Abstinence ring back and said that it didn’t count. I don’t know why, but that made me feel good too. I’m just a sucker for that kind of stuff. Music especially.

Now I’m in a wonderful mood! yay. and the wind’s blowing in my window so it’s kinda cold, but not too cold.. ahh.. Life is beautiful.

Anyways, I’m gonna see if I can fall asleep. Wish me luck! =]

Oh. I’d also like to express my extreme hatred for abbreviated words such as:
fav and whatev.. uh, I’m sure you can write out the whole word.
AND! It’s even worse when it gets into their speaking.. oh my. what has this world come to? haha.
Anyway, I’m done.

My friend Cam is a Firefighter for the Mississauga Fire Department (A city west of Toronto). He let me take some photos of his truck (Pumper 116), which being a little bit of a fire buff myself piqued my interest quite a bit. Click for larger photos.

Friday night I headed over to my parents. I took my niece Abbey with me (she’s 9). Since her mommy’s pregnant and she is so excited about having a little sister, lately she has been in baby doll mode. I picked her up and here’s how the conversation went….

“Do you wanna sit in front?”
“No, Megan needs to sit up there.” (Megan, or Mae-Mae is her doll).
“Oh, good, then I don’t need to clean off the seat.”
“Yeah you do. We have to buckle her in.”

I proceeded to clean off the seat, leaving a basket for Mae Mae to sit in. After about 5 minutes of struggling to get her arranged and buckled, we were off. We stopped at Sears Grand for a quick stop, and of course we had to take Mae Mae in, which entailed unstrapping her and then carefully putting her back in her basket seat. Then I made the terrible error of setting my shopping bag on Mae Mae’s feet. Abbey let me hear about that!

The ironic thing is, after all that, we got to my parents, Abbey opens the car door, grabs Mae Mae by the arm, rushes into the house and throws her on the floor. SIGH!

Saturday the other niece and nephew came over, as well as the rest of the family. We celebrated my mom’s birthday with a big brisket dinner. Another piece of irony, as she doesn’t eat brisket. The boys had total control over the TV all day (which translates into all sports all the time). I had brought a movie I thought everyone would enjoy and asked when the TV would be available, to which they responded, “midnight”. Typical. So I got some scrapbooking done and played with the kids.

Dad has a thing about firetrucks lately. He has an old antique pedal car that he recently got restored and it’s now worth quite a bit of money. The kids always want to ride it, so he bought a newer, less valuable pedal firetruck. Then Friday night he came home with a smaller firetruck, which was just Philip’s size. So they had fun on their firetrucks.