A recent study found that the average Canadian walks about 900 miles a year.

Another study found that Canadians drink an average of 22 gallons of beer a year.

That means, on average, Canadians get about 41 miles per gallon.

I just finished Laura’s slide show, and I’m in the process of burning the copies as I type. This handsome little honey is Michael Buble if you didn’t know that already. I used his new song, “Everything” as the song for the end portion of the slide show where I have the pictures of Laura and Craig together. I love this song!

Here are the lyrics!!

“Everything”

You’re a falling star, you’re the get away car.

You’re the line in the sand when I go too far.

You’re the swimming pool, on an August day.

And you’re the perfect thing to say.

And you play it coy, but it’s kinda cute.

Ah, when you smile at me you know exactly what you do.

Baby don’t pretend, that you don’t know it’s true.

Cause you can see it when I look at you.

[Chorus:]

And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times

It’s you, it’s you, you make me sing.

You’re every line, you’re every word, you’re everything.

You’re a carousel, you’re a wishing well,

And you light me up, when you ring my bell.

You’re a mystery, you’re from outer space,

You’re every minute of my everyday.

And I can’t believe, uh that I’m your man,

And I get to kiss you baby just because I can.

Whatever comes our way, ah we’ll see it through,

And you know that’s what our love can do.

[Chorus:]

And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times

It’s you, it’s you, you make me sing

You’re every line, you’re every word, you’re everything.

The weather has been stiflingly hot here all month. We are finally getting a slight reprieve today, because a huge thunderstorm rolled through last night. The sky got really scary looking, a huge wind blew through and then it was followed by a very loud lightshow that went on most of the night. Who should I find out on the balcony all soggy and pitiful looking this morning?? Stanley!! Poor little cat got locked out there, and must have been scared to death with all the noise!!!

Sarah started her new job at a new hospital down near the farm. They’re going to train her to work in the emergency room, which is what she’s always wanted to do! She’s finding it a bit stressful living in the in-laws basement with her brand new hubby. Especially since here MIL asked her to cook dinner tomorrow night. Sarah’s freaked right because FIL is so fussy, and quite vocal about what he likes and doesn’t like. They’re very meat and potatoes. She has no idea what to cook that that man is going to eat without bitching. If he does, he’s quite likely to get a frying pan upside the head!

Jess started her job yesterday. She got a good paying job as a receptionist, working Monday-Friday, so she’s thrilled. Her hours and location are close enough to Ben, that he’ll be able to drive her to and from work most days, and if he can’t, she’s on a good bus route. They went on their annual camping trip for 5 days. I guess it was awful. Two of the guys managed to ruin the trip for everyone. That’s too bad, as it is probably Ben’s last weekend off for the summer.

I have Laura’s slide show 95% finished. It went quite well. Hopefully she’s pleased.

And now, the rules:

“Each person links to the person who tagged them. Then each person posts the rules before their list, then they list 8 things about themselves. At the end of the post, that person tags and links to 8 other people and then visits those peoples’ sites and comments letting them know that they have been tagged, and to come read the post, so they know what they have to do.”

I was tagged by Lisa! Time to think about this!

1. I have a son-in-law now, Jay. I think he’s the cat’s ass! I love how he looks at my daughter. It makes me know they were meant to be together.

2. I am an Edmonton Oilers hockey fanatic. We have season tickets. We buy them each year rather than going on a vacation.

3. I rarely answer the phone at home. If it’s the kids or huby calling, I will ALWAYS answer it. If it’s my Mom, I will USUALLY answer it. If it’s my in-laws, I will RARELY answer it.

4. I am seriously considering getting a dog. Even though until September (when Sarah & Jay move back to her cond0), I have 4 cats here!

5. There is no one on this earth who can understand how overheated I am 90% of the time. I’m this way almost 24/7 no matter what the weather. I will sweat running down my back, and my face will just be dripping. It’s horrid, and it’s disgusting! I can’t wait for these whoremoans to settle down, and let me be “normal”.

6. I watch way too much reality TV. It’s seriously hard to find the time to fit them all in! No TIVO here!

7. I’ve become completely un-domestic since the kids moved out of the house a year and a half ago!

8. I got a brand new windshield in my Jeep, and within one week, I had 3 new rock chips in it!! WTF??!!

I’m tagging:
Sue Ellen
Gina
Trish
Monica
Friglet
Pam
Peg
Bobbie

Well Sarah and Jay have landed back at the farm after a 12 hour trip home. They had a nap, and then opened all their gifts. She said they got a lot of really nice stuff. Some fugly stuff too!! heh! Like a plate with a squirrel on it! hehehe She told her SIL that she’s giving it to her at her shower. She said, and you’ll get it right back at Christmas!

Hubby ended up in ER for 10 hours. They found nothing wrong. He was displaying all the classic symptoms of heart distress, but all the tests came back negative. I suspect it might be asthma, worsened by the insufferable heat we’ve been having all month. Anyways, he’s fine.

Sarah will be here in the morning, probably around noon. I’m excited to see her, and hear all about the honeymoon. We’re going for lunch, a pedicure, and then meeting hubby later for dinner. Good to spend time in the mall, because it’s going to be insufferably hot again tomorrow!

Yesterday I worked my butt off! I got up really early, and started with laundry, and vacuuming. Then I organized a bunch of the pictures into an album, and printed off a few that I’ve played with. Then I ran to the post office, went for a hair cut, came home and changed, grabbed my IPod, and went out and mowed the lawn, and pruned a bunch of shrubs. I’m trying hard to reclaim this house and yard!

We’ve had piles of shingles sitting on our roof for weeks now, waiting for them to come and re-shingle our roof! We also had 3 big spruce trees pulled out of the yard. We haven’t done anything with the bare spots where the trees used to be yet, because we’re waiting for the shinglers to come, because they’ll make quite a bit of mess in the yard. Once they’re done, then we’ll work on fixing the yard again.

Hubby has been at the doctor’s office since 10:00 am this morning. He wasn’t feeling “right”, so he decided to go in and get checked out. Since of course he’s just a walk-in, and it’s after a very hot few days, he’s been sitting in the waiting room almost all day. He must really not be feeling good to sit there that long without getting pissed off and leaving! Hopefully I hear from him soon.

Since it was somewhat cooler here this morning, I took the opportunity to get outside and tidy up the yard a bit, and wash some windows. We’ve been getting occasional emails, and facebook messages from Sarah and Jay. They have been in Maui on their honeymoon for the past 10 days. I’m looking forward to them getting home!! I’m sure Miles (their cat) will be happy to see them too. They’ve had a really good time!! They’re in Maui, swimming, and snorkeling, and we’re here in a heat wave, with no A/C, sweating to bits, paying WEDDING BILLS! hmmmph

I was busily taping their dance, and just shortly before the music “glitch” happened, and they went into the jive, when my camera ran out of MEMORY! Here’s what I got.

We started the processional at precisely 3:59 pm. Sarah was determined that the wedding be on time, because her soloist had to leave immediately following the service to go to another performance. My biggest fear, leading up to it, was of course getting that damn candle lit! First Jay’s parents entered, and sat, and then Ben ushered me in and then Brenda and I went up to light the candles. Success! I gave a triumphant little nod and wink to Ray because he was teasing me about the candle because he knew I was quite paranoid about it! Then the groomsmen and bridesmaids started entering at the same time coming up the 2 aisles. Jay and the minister were at the front waiting. The violinist and pianist were wonderful!! Made it so much more special.

Then we all stood, the little flower girl and ring bearer came in together holding hands, and then Sarah and her Dad started making their way down the aisle. I immediately got teary, but “got a grip” quickly. Hubby said he was fine until he looked at me, and he had to quickly look another direction! Finally everyone was all in place, the congregation seated, and the ceremony began. Rev. “Snowy” was great! It was short, and sweet, and lighthearted. Vows, and rings exchanged, while Sarah and Jay were signing the registry and lighting the unity candle, Kjel began to sing “When You Say You Love Me”. This 19 year old kid was amazing!! It was so moving, and powerful. He’d just close his eyes and sing, and then at the powerful parts, he’d open his eyes, and look over at Sarah and Jay. His performance, accompanied by the piano and violin, was truly one of the highlights of the day for me! Everyone was simply raving about him. I definitely got all emotional during his song, and I looked at Jay, who had remained fairly composed, and he was really getting choked up, hearing his friend sing to them like that.

Then, they were announced as married, and Ben hit the boom box, and they all walked out to “Crazy little thing Called Love” by Michael Buble. That helped ease the weepiness of the day!! Plenty of hugs and kisses, and we all met behind the church for family pictures and wound up part one of the day. I must mention thought that the girl’s flowers, and the bouquets at the church were outstanding! Just gorgeous! When Sarah first saw it, she was a little worried, because it was very large. Then she just said, well I’m tall… I can pull this off, and she did! There were also many compliments on the flowers.

We had a couple of hours to go check into our room, have showers, and an ice cold beer. By this time, Ben and Jess were there. They were staying in the motor home and decided to just keep it in the parking lot rather than go down to the campground. By the time got changed, it was time to go down to the dining room for the rehearsal dinner. It was a very good meal and nearly everyone showed up. I think someone forgot to invite an usher though. We didn’t dilly-dally long, and then headed up to the church to rehearse. It all went smoothly. Sarah knew pretty much how she wanted things to go, and the minister totally had his act together, so we ran through the processional 3 times, so the little ones would know what they were dong, and that was it! The best part as we got to hear the pianist and violinist play. They were fabulous!Three Flights Up by Yellowcard is the song Sarah had chosen for us mothers and the wedding party to enter to. They did a great job. It was beautiful.

We dragged our weary bodies back to the inn, where there was no tv, no wifi to steal, and we couldn’t even get signals on our cell phones! GAH! There wasn’t even anything to read!! Talk about torture!! Little house on the prairie or what! We had to read newspapers, and do the puzzles in them until we got tired enough to fall asleep!

We left Friday morning at 6:00 am for Rosebud. The motorhome had been loaded up the previous day, so we just piled in, and left. What a long, NOISY ride! We were transporting all the pillars for the wedding and they clanked and banged all the way there! To top it off, the last 5-6 miles before the Rosebud turnoff were under construction, so it was like travelling on a goat trail! That stuff made so much racket that we just had to laugh, it was so bad! I had been texting Sarah with our progress throughout the morning, so she knew where we were. She met us at the church. She and Brenda (Jay’s Mom) had done quite a bit of the decorating of the church on Thursday night. They had hung all the pew bows, swagged all the fabric up on the walls, and started to do the unity candle table, and guest book table. Hubby and Sarah busied themselves putting up the arch, and went about doing the finishing touches on the tables. We didn’t have much to do, but it still took almost 2 hours until we were satisfied.

From there we went down the highway to Standard, and started with the task of decorating the hall. Jay was there, his Mom and Dad, and 2 sisters. One of Sarah’s bridesmaids was there, and another met us there later in the day. Some of Jay’s aunts and uncles came and helped too for a couple of hours, so off and on through the day we had quite a bit of help. We unloaded the motor home, and then we got going. It actually went very well. The most difficult part was putting the pillars together, and then swagging the fabric. Fortunately Sarah, and hubby and Lisa tackled that, so I kept busy with fine tuning things.

One thing that caught us a bit off guard, was that the tables were so narrow. This meant that we had probably made and bought almost twice as much bling and things as was needed, so that ended up being quite a waste. Fortunately, these weren’t expensive things.

This is the swag that was causing some grief to get up properly, but when it was all said and done, in the dim candlelight at night with it all lit up, and the girl’s bouquets placed in the bouquet holders, it all looked very beautiful and sparkly!