the dog days of summer...

Where did that saying come from anyway? Dog days of summer....

Last week certainly felt that way. Heat and humidity. I do not like. At all. I try not to complain out loud. But it sometimes gets the best of me.

The dog above is Nikki Gerber. She has been with the family for many many years. She's not a spring chicken anymore. She spent most of last week on my parents front porch. Wagging her tail from time to time. But not getting up. Dog days indeed.

Over Canada day we went camping up at The Pinery in Grand Bend for about 5 days. Our first Ontario camping trip. (Not counting our stay in Thunder Bay last August on our moving trip across Canada.)

My sister LeeAnne came with us. We had a good time. The weather was fantastic that's for sure. Could have done without the racoons. The mosquitos. And the 10 minute drive to get to the beach. Really? Overall it was good. It wasn't West Coast good. (Let's be honest...it's pretty impossible to beat that.) But it was good. I'll post more pictures when I have more time.

Here's a quick run-down of what occupied our time last week...

(Just a warning, this could possibly turn into the longest post ever. Gah! That's what happens when I attempt to catch up on life.)

* First week of VBS for the Maxter. It's in Millbank which is a bit of a hike for us. But he absolutely LOVES going. LOVES IT! And the plus side is, I get to hang with my mom and sisters in between drop-off and pick-up times.

* LeeAnne was off on vacation all last week. We had so much fun together and made the most of it. We almost felt like I was here visiting from BC for a few weeks. Those were some good quality fun times we've had in the past!

* Hit the St. Jacobs market one morning for fresh cherries, new potatoes and beets and yellow beans and... and... and....YUM!

* Laundry. Laundry. Laundry. What a surprise. That never changes. Throw a camping trip in the equation and you can quadruple the amount of laundry that needs to be done.

* Monday Soccer. Tuesday Baseball. Wednesday Soccer. Thursday Baseball.

Oh wait. Scratch Thursday baseball. It was so hot that they called off the game. Too hot to play.

* Watering of plants. Non-stop.

Some of our patio planters just about didn't survive our camping trip. Lots of water and a bit of gentle coaxing seems to have done the trick. Except for my planter of ivy. It's a lost cause. Sniff. Sniff.

Twice a day, I've been dumping huge pitchers full of water into all the containers of plants. The plus side is that they're growing like crazy.

* I don't have any photos of my plants handy right now but I do have one of my mama's. Hers are much more lovely than mine anyway and they need lots of water too! :-)

* Max has been busy playing away to his hearts content and helping me with little projects. Mostly indoors when the weather is so terribly hot. Pirates. Cars. Knights. Legos. Those are still the favourites. Reading, reading and more reading. I love catching him curled up with a book. Not just looking at pictures. But caught up with reading the story to himself. :-) I still like to read to him as well though and he likes it too. We've started into the world of Little House on the Prairie...we're smack dab in the middle of the first book. Both loving it!

*Painting. Yes, painting. Just a few little projects. Like the steps from the garage into the house. They were plain wood. Unstained/unvarnished/unpainted. And very stained and dirty. They bugged me like crazy. Nothing a little can of paint from Home Depot couldn't fix. The two of us got those steps painted in record time! :-) Now if only the magic painting fairy would come and paint the interior garage walls... any takers?

I thought not.

Other painting projects included an impromptu decision to paint LeeAnne's bedroom. She decided she better do at least one project in her house over her week off so she can say she did something. She went with green. A bit more of an intense shade then what was already there on the walls. I helped her while Max was at Bible School. Now she's going to see if she likes it/can live with it/can't live with it. Possibly another painting morning is in the future...

* We've watched a few movies. Went to the theatre to see Toy Story 3. Those toy story movies are so clever. Love the perspective of them. All three of us enjoyed it.  The other evening we rented The Tooth Fairy. So it was kinda dumb.  Well maybe not dumb. But the acting was less than desireable. However, it was really kinda funny. Max loved it and we got quite a few laughs out of it. Def. not going to win any awards...but it was good for some comedic relief!

* My sister, the one and only Legger had a big milestone this past week. My friend Nancy and I decided to put together a rather last minute surprise birthday party for her. She was adamant that she didn't want any type of party. We thought she might be able to handle a casual dinner at a restaurant. And to our own surprise, we totally pulled off the surprise. She had no clue! She told me afterwards as she was walking down the stairs at Del Dente's she noticed this lady who looked just like me. She made a mental note to herself to make sure to tell me that she saw someone who could totally be my twin. And then about 2 seconds later, she realized that it WAS me. And by that point she recognized everyone at the table and figured out what was going on. Awesome!!

* The day of LeeAnne's birthday was so much fun. Blazing hot but fun. I haven't laughed so hard in a long long time. Max and I dropped off a coffee and muffin from Cafe Meme's on our way to VBS. After dropping off Max, I went to my mom's. She had very impromptuly invited us over for a birthday breakfast. Well I wasn't really invited. She told LeeAnne to come over. I just showed up! :-) ha!  So LeeAnne found a hat laying around the house and how much fun did she have with it? Too much. It was the start of an "eye-popping" day. Seriously. There were times, I thought her eyes were going to pop right out of her head...

I've entitled the bottom left photo "Too much plastic surgery!" LOL!

It was blazing hot. Even in the shade. We had no energy to really do anything. Other then laugh and take fun photos.

Is it just me? Or is that photo of her with the slow-moving-vehicle sign somewhat of an oxymoron?!

Somewhere that afternoon, in between gut busting laughing, pure silliness and eating, we managed to fit in some shopping and icecream time with my mom. I can barely remember where we shopped. I just remember this...

(Interesting little sidenote...that has nothing to do with LeeAnne really. As we were driving into town to go shopping, we passed the CTV news van outside of St. Clements. It was parked beside the road and they had all their gear out filming. Filming what? We were not sure. There was nothing going on/no one around. Whatever. Later that night, I was watching CTV news, and lo and behold a familiar image flashed across the screen of Chatterbox Farm, located just outside of St. Clements. And then it all made sense. The government just announced the appointment of our new Governor General, David Johnston. Who just happens to own that farm. I believe his wife runs a horse boarding operation there. Huh!)

We finished off the day with a cake and icecream celebration at the Gerber's for the whole family. Fun fun times!

Almost forgot. Late that afternoon, as we were driving home from shoppity-shop-shop-shopping, I pulled over and made the birthday girl hop out into a ditch/field for a few quick pics. This was a record for me in the speediness of time we took them and the amount of pictures I actually took. I only had a few pics left on my memory card so that made it fast and easy.

Happy Birthday LeeAnne! I must say, twenty-ten looks fabulous on you...if you can just manage to keep your eyes in your head! :-)

This seems like a good place to end tonight. The rest can wait for another day. Good night! :-)