P.S.

oh by the way....While we were camping we saw a sign put on the road by a bunch of yuppie parents. It said "Slow kids playing". This drove us nuts. Why do people do these dumb things like their kids are the most important in the world. It drove us nuts! We wanted to say a few things to them like.....

Teach your kids to look both ways before they cross the street and you wouldn't need a stupid sign!

And it they are too dumb to understand this concept better they get run over now before you get too attached to them!

Charles stated very loudly when we passed by "Oh look honey they have slow children there. No wonder they want people to drive slowly"

So when we were leaving, we drove by there so Charles could drive over the sign, but they had moved the sign. Oh well I guess they didn't like his slow children remark. hahahaha

Best camping ever!!!

OK OK OK so this weekend we went camping at Mew Lake Campground. Last time we went here I asked Charles what was the name of the lake at Mew Lake Camp ground. He laughed till he peed. Men!

This is the first time we've ever been here when it wasn't covered in snow as this is our winter camping place. The temp, was around 1, and raining off and on. We managed to get in a bunch of walks and fires and were camped next to the lake. It was lovely. But I think I might have a bit of a problem..... as I sat next to the fire and beside the lovely lake, eating my Dixie Lee chicken, thinking if only I had some kind of hand held device to play super mario galaxy this day would be perfect!!!!! Hhmmmm If only someone would invent a camping wii game I would never have to go outside!!!!

There was tons of wild life too. We saw eleven ruffed grouse, a whiskey jack, red breasted nut hatches, chick a dees, otters, ducks.... it was so nice. Also this place has the best showers ever! The floors are heated, so no matter how cold you get you can get warmed up and oh so toasty in no time.

We also went to a bunch of museums on our way out. There are great displays of animals, stuffed and in natural poses. That always cracks me up cause it is really beautiful and well done, but I bet it's not allowed any more. Still you could see them in their natural habitat and they hide critters all over. It was kinda fun.

I'll add pictures after when I down load them.....

Another wonderful Thanksgiving...burp...

Oh man!!! I really have to do this more than once in a while just to remember how to get on my blog. Really! They should have a "click here if you're a mom or an old person and can't remember what you had for breakfast" button!

Ok so I noticed that Bob is posting every day so we can keep caught up, well everyday except for the days he's missed. Ha! Even Pam our famous pientologist has posted so I really am gonna try to keep up.

We had a great Thanksgiving. Pam and Bob came home and Chuck was here. Marilyn, Eugene and Kyle were here too. I may have slightly miscalculated the size of turkey needed to feed 8 when I purchased that 28 pounder. We ate for 2 days, sent food home with 3 different people, made 3 large and 4 small turkey pies, soup tonight and the rest went into the freezer for a meal in a few weeks when I can face turkey again.

I just love it when all of the kids are here. They are so bright and silly. It was wonderful.

So.... up coming events.... Fran is coming tomorrow and we're gonna play for a few days. We'll be working on Mike and Joss's wedding quilt. Then Thursday the guys are coming to put in new windows. Saturday Charles sister is taking me to Westport for a spa day to celebrate my birthday coming up in a couple of weeks. That's right! Turning 50 folks! I'll need presents, lots of presents! And never mind those crappy cards that say this is your present, I want really presents! Go! Shop! Off you go! OH OH OH Guess what Pammy gave me for my birthday? She let me keep her Wii while she goes to Moose Factory for 6 weeks!!! (only in Canada would we have a factory for making mooses) Best present ever! And Charles got me that lovely vacuume. It's red!

Well that's it for this week. I'm not as ambitious as you Bob so I'l just try to keep up once a week. Unlike our Franny who's lost in cyberspace.

Bye for now. Love y'all
The swamp's the thing!

I'm baaaaacccckkk!!

OK! I just remembered I have a blog of my very own! Ha! Take that Charles!!! Ok so I'm supposed to be cleaning cause well the place is knee deep in yuck! And I was honestly cleaning my little heart out, but then I had to move my lappy, and thought I'd check my email, and then I remembered that I hadn't ordered that on sale fabric I wanted and then I checked my favorite blogs, (nothing new from Pam, Fran, or Bob, c'mon you lazy bums!!!) and then I remembered I have my very own blog!!! Wooo Hooo. So now I'm not actually cleaning but blogging, which is like cleaning but cleaning out my thoughts.....ooo that's deep!

I do get to use my new vacuum though, and that's exciting. There is so much dog hair in here that if the dog stands still I can't find him. It's too bad that it swirls around when you walk or it would be like having a really deep, plush carpet. Hey I should vacuum a message into it. Dear Charles, sorry about the mess.

Love Dianne.

My cake exploded!!!

Ok so I invited people over for tonight because I had a rum cake baked but not iced and I thought it would be fun to share with company. So I started making this icing that combines custard and sweet butter. I switched the sugar for brown sugar and turned it into a butter rum icing. OOooooo So I got out the cake which is a large roll that I baked yesterday. I unrolled it and that's when the first crack showed up. Hhmmm no problem, I can fix it. I started to slop icing on the cake and then another crack. hhmmm that's OK. so I keep spreading my icing and stick, crack, break, slop, big pile of icing cake bits, bad things, bad things. Cake gone, company still coming. OK OK OK think, what to do?? Time to invent a new dessert since I have all of the baked, raw ingredients.



So a broke up all of the cake that I hadn't yet smashed. (that didn't take long) I dusted a spring form pan with graham crumbs and then I just started smushing all of the bits and icing and stuff into the pan. Then I put a piece of plastic wrap on top and squished it flat. It's in the fridge getting firm. Then I will dump it onto a fancy plate and drizzle with chocolate (cause presentation is everything), and viola, dessert! I call it "Stuff a-la Dianne" hmmm or maybe "Blonde Bomb"

SEW HOLY

What an amasing weekend. It was spent with my daughter, sewing a chasuble and stole for my sister, while the rest of my family sustained us with food and laughter. Dan and Jess cooked on Saturday. We had Mexican night. Then Chas did a beer can chicken on Sunday. Charles and Chas kept the dishes mosty done up. Pam and I took turns at the machine and tra la. We acomplished so much. Best weekend ever!

We started out on Saturday deciding which fabrics would go where. You see we didn't have an actual pattern, but more of a concept in mind. Pam decided to work on the chasuble and I went for the stole. We decided that we would race. (Oh by the way Pam, I finished the little bit of hand sewing on both pieces and what do you know? The stole was finished first. hhmmm, I guess I win.) We took off at breakneck speed ooo-ing and ah-ing at each other's work. Sometimes we really didn't know what we were going to do next, but we sewed on the piece we were sure of and then somehow the next piece became clear. It was very interesting. To me it felt like we weren't really designing it but rather watching God design it through us. Very cool.

Saturday Pam and I stayed up until almost one in the morning. We had stopped sewing at nine or so, but we didn't seem to make it to bed as early as we should of. I told Charles to wake me at eight so that I could get back at it. Well I actually woke up at six and I was so full of energy that I got up and started to sew. Same thing happened on Sunday morning. I was up and sewing by seven. This is so unlike me cause, as you know, I don't do mornings, but I was awake and full of energy and running on very little sleep. Today I decided that I would sleep in since there was just a tiny bit of hand work left on both pieces. Then at seven twenty the phone rings. Some cheerful little old lady asked "What happened to you? Did you sleep in?" No, I thought, but I sure would have liked to. It was a wrong number. Oh well, might as well get up and finish the sewing. Too funny.

Here are some neat things that are in the garments.
-I went looking for some matching thread to sew the chasuble and found an exact colour match in some very old thread that was my mother's. It was cool to use something so special to me in the chasuble.
-The threads on the stole are hand died cotton which I thought was very nice with all of the raw silk.
-We had to buy some lining and found some material that was crazy on sale.
-As we sewed we were forever having teary moments. Whenever a loon called. Whenever I thought of Dan moving. Some were tears of laughter as Pammy would yell, "No don't lick the material", or Dan and Pam playing "bear, ninja, cowboy" to decide who would make a pineapple upside down cake.
-This morning I was trying to decide whether I should sneak something inside of the chasuble and the loon was laughing at me. I could hear him saying "Since when do you wonder about whether you should be doing a silly thing or not? Sneak it in there." So I took his advice.
-Then when I was done I hung it up and went to have breakfast on the deck. As I was sipping my tea I heard the loon call again. I looked up to see where he was and a great blue heron was flying across the swamp. It was just so right and I felt God's blessing upon us.
Best weekend ever.

Bon voyage

So there I was sitting at a table, and saying good-bye to another group of kids. Youth band, the next generation, is now heading off to be grown-ups. They said thanks, the last four years has been wonderful. Four years? Has it been four years? How did that happen?

I watch them talk and eat and smart mouth, make one ten-foot straw out of ten one foot straws. They crack me up. They are so beautiful and handsome. Weren’t they just goofy little kids just a few short moments ago? And now they’re moving on, each taking a piece of my heart with them.

One would think that that would hurt, and it does a bit. I feel a bit of a pinch as I watch them take off, eh. But mostly I’m just so proud of them. They are really such nice people. I hope theses young adults remember to keep a child’s heart. I hope as they mature that they remember to remain immature. I hope they remember just how much they are loved by their families and me and most of all God. Did I get that across? In giving a piece of my heart did I give them a piece of my faith? Will they be able to find the joy in the sadness? It’s always there, although it’s hard to find sometimes. I hope they will remember to look. That’s all it takes, remembering to look.