a day at coombs on her majesty's birthday
me and katie and delanie went to coombs on monday. we brought michealah, natalie, madalaine and mary. it was a busy day at coombs and katie was worried that she wouldn't find any parking but i coached her in the vancouver way of getting a spot and we luckily landed a plum place to park.
our first business in coombs was to pick out which loaf of cheesie herb bread to buy. katie and i each chose one with spinach and roasted red peppers and delanie got a garlic and cheese one. they went to secure a spot to sit and i went to buy a few smoked salmon delacies, nameley maple salmon chunks and honey garlic pepper salmon sticks. i found them already tearing hunks off their loaves and joined them. we shared the salmon and our bread and it was one of those times when nothing could be better than what you're eating. pure eating contentment and enjoyment. perfection in that moment. after that we looked around the store and saw lots of cool stuff as usual.
we went out the back and found ourselves by the big chestnut tree. it was flowering and delanie decided she liked it and wanted one. later we read on the wall in the little restaurant there the whole story of the tree, how a kid gave it in the form as a sprouted chestunt as a present to his teacher and how it found it's present home. i want to grow a tree from a baby sprouted nut. anyways katie showed us this cool place there that i never had any idea of. i knew that behind the general store there was a gardening type place but i never went in there and didn't know that behind all that there were two buildings chalk full of chinese antiques. ahhh! what a discovery! there was so many beautiful interesting different pieces that i coveted at once. i caressed each one and imagined how much joy i would recieve from owning such a piece. the garden area was cool too. there were little japanese maples in big chinese pots. i want a maple in a pot! maybe one day far far away i will have my own place that i can make beautiful and special and unique. if so i might go to coombs for a thing or two.
anyways in one of the buildings full of antiques katie and i were oohing and ahhhing over some piece or other when we heard delanie shout and a series of clatter and bangs that seemed to go on for a long time. we gave each other alarmed looks and rushed towards the sound. mary had knocked down two wooden chinese screens and much to our relief, she was not hurt and neither were the screens. we had enjoyed ourselves in both places without any store person to look at us snootily but a lady in the garden area came when she heard the clatter. she asked mary if she was ok and natalie made an angry noise at her. katie told her to be nice and as we walked towards the bamboo bridge natalie said "mommy! why are you talking to her??! she's a stranger!" katie told her that it was ok when she was with her that no one was going to grab her from her arms. natalie was very aware of the stranger factor the whole time, not letting her mom get out of her sight or move off without her running after her sometimes bewailing the stranger danger.
we went from shop to shop looking at all the neat things. i was mostly looking at the jewlery, which i always love to do. katie looked with me. she's drawn to jade and turquoise. there was this other place that had these cool glass humming bird feeders. they're hard to explain but i really wanted one. i liked this green and yellow glass ball one. meanwhile delanie was in the throws of delight over a big collection of the willow figurines.
after we had exhausted the shops there we went back inside the general store for icecream. i had troubles with the young man helping me. he told me you're not allowed to mix gelato flavours with regular icecream flavours. fine. so i was going to pick two gelato flavours. "uhhh... i'm not supposed to give more than one gelato flavour." he told me looking nervous. this bugged. "well i need some time to think then." i told him, but he just stood there looking at me. finally i decided on two regular flavours (peanutbutter chocolate and butter praline) and then he gave it to me and just left before i could pay. i had to tell another guy "hey i didn't get to pay!" hmph. katie got hedgehog from the gelato side. delanie shocked all the little girls by getting licorice flavour. she made madalaine try a taste but madalaine made out like it was the worst thing in the world. haha.
on the way home the girls were complaining about the long ride so i taught them to play alphabets and they did it as a team effort. then michealah and madalaine started singing the song they were going to sing for michealah's baptizim over and over and over and then they moved on to i spy.
after we dropped everyone off we went back to katie's place and we watched anne of green gables with michealah and natalie went outside with her boyfriend skylar.
sarah came over later that night and we talked and played gestures (i sucked at it because the timer caused me to panic) and taboo ( i wasn't too shabby at that one) mom called while we were there to say that jord and tracy needed to sleep in my room, meaning the room i had unpacked in which was the twin bed one, because their floors were being done and that room had the two beds. mom asked if i could sleep in the other room, but i slept there last time and the bed's really uncomfy so i decided on the cot on the balcony. mom took my pjs and scrips and crossword puzzle out of the room for me.
i love sleeping on the cot on the balcony. i've slept there all week. the cot is so soft and cozy and i have a little lamp and i love to lay all cozied up and read or do crosswords and hear the rain flying down or the frogs croaking in chorus or the birds chirping in the early morning. i never know what time it is when i fall asleep or when i get up. it's been a restful week. it's so dark and there's no house behind us but a wall of huge trees. i'm really going to miss this house. there are so many memories here. the other day i was looking out at the backyard and being amazed at how tall the red maple is now and remembering how small it was when we took pictures back there at katie's open house the day before her wedding and a month after i got home from my mission. then i looked at the fence and remembered when we painted it together as a family and i saw a picture i took of evan sitting on the fence in his blue jammie bottoms in my mind's eye. mom and dad have lived in this house the longest than any other house. there were little kids that grew up in this house, and went to elementary school and highschool near by. it's a rare thing in our family's past to have the stability of living in one place for so long. it's a root and i cherish it just for the root it is to me. i didn't even grow up here, but i've come 'home' to here for 13 years. whatever new house they get won't be home. it will be a strange empty place.
our first business in coombs was to pick out which loaf of cheesie herb bread to buy. katie and i each chose one with spinach and roasted red peppers and delanie got a garlic and cheese one. they went to secure a spot to sit and i went to buy a few smoked salmon delacies, nameley maple salmon chunks and honey garlic pepper salmon sticks. i found them already tearing hunks off their loaves and joined them. we shared the salmon and our bread and it was one of those times when nothing could be better than what you're eating. pure eating contentment and enjoyment. perfection in that moment. after that we looked around the store and saw lots of cool stuff as usual.
we went out the back and found ourselves by the big chestnut tree. it was flowering and delanie decided she liked it and wanted one. later we read on the wall in the little restaurant there the whole story of the tree, how a kid gave it in the form as a sprouted chestunt as a present to his teacher and how it found it's present home. i want to grow a tree from a baby sprouted nut. anyways katie showed us this cool place there that i never had any idea of. i knew that behind the general store there was a gardening type place but i never went in there and didn't know that behind all that there were two buildings chalk full of chinese antiques. ahhh! what a discovery! there was so many beautiful interesting different pieces that i coveted at once. i caressed each one and imagined how much joy i would recieve from owning such a piece. the garden area was cool too. there were little japanese maples in big chinese pots. i want a maple in a pot! maybe one day far far away i will have my own place that i can make beautiful and special and unique. if so i might go to coombs for a thing or two.
anyways in one of the buildings full of antiques katie and i were oohing and ahhhing over some piece or other when we heard delanie shout and a series of clatter and bangs that seemed to go on for a long time. we gave each other alarmed looks and rushed towards the sound. mary had knocked down two wooden chinese screens and much to our relief, she was not hurt and neither were the screens. we had enjoyed ourselves in both places without any store person to look at us snootily but a lady in the garden area came when she heard the clatter. she asked mary if she was ok and natalie made an angry noise at her. katie told her to be nice and as we walked towards the bamboo bridge natalie said "mommy! why are you talking to her??! she's a stranger!" katie told her that it was ok when she was with her that no one was going to grab her from her arms. natalie was very aware of the stranger factor the whole time, not letting her mom get out of her sight or move off without her running after her sometimes bewailing the stranger danger.
we went from shop to shop looking at all the neat things. i was mostly looking at the jewlery, which i always love to do. katie looked with me. she's drawn to jade and turquoise. there was this other place that had these cool glass humming bird feeders. they're hard to explain but i really wanted one. i liked this green and yellow glass ball one. meanwhile delanie was in the throws of delight over a big collection of the willow figurines.
after we had exhausted the shops there we went back inside the general store for icecream. i had troubles with the young man helping me. he told me you're not allowed to mix gelato flavours with regular icecream flavours. fine. so i was going to pick two gelato flavours. "uhhh... i'm not supposed to give more than one gelato flavour." he told me looking nervous. this bugged. "well i need some time to think then." i told him, but he just stood there looking at me. finally i decided on two regular flavours (peanutbutter chocolate and butter praline) and then he gave it to me and just left before i could pay. i had to tell another guy "hey i didn't get to pay!" hmph. katie got hedgehog from the gelato side. delanie shocked all the little girls by getting licorice flavour. she made madalaine try a taste but madalaine made out like it was the worst thing in the world. haha.
on the way home the girls were complaining about the long ride so i taught them to play alphabets and they did it as a team effort. then michealah and madalaine started singing the song they were going to sing for michealah's baptizim over and over and over and then they moved on to i spy.
after we dropped everyone off we went back to katie's place and we watched anne of green gables with michealah and natalie went outside with her boyfriend skylar.
sarah came over later that night and we talked and played gestures (i sucked at it because the timer caused me to panic) and taboo ( i wasn't too shabby at that one) mom called while we were there to say that jord and tracy needed to sleep in my room, meaning the room i had unpacked in which was the twin bed one, because their floors were being done and that room had the two beds. mom asked if i could sleep in the other room, but i slept there last time and the bed's really uncomfy so i decided on the cot on the balcony. mom took my pjs and scrips and crossword puzzle out of the room for me.
i love sleeping on the cot on the balcony. i've slept there all week. the cot is so soft and cozy and i have a little lamp and i love to lay all cozied up and read or do crosswords and hear the rain flying down or the frogs croaking in chorus or the birds chirping in the early morning. i never know what time it is when i fall asleep or when i get up. it's been a restful week. it's so dark and there's no house behind us but a wall of huge trees. i'm really going to miss this house. there are so many memories here. the other day i was looking out at the backyard and being amazed at how tall the red maple is now and remembering how small it was when we took pictures back there at katie's open house the day before her wedding and a month after i got home from my mission. then i looked at the fence and remembered when we painted it together as a family and i saw a picture i took of evan sitting on the fence in his blue jammie bottoms in my mind's eye. mom and dad have lived in this house the longest than any other house. there were little kids that grew up in this house, and went to elementary school and highschool near by. it's a rare thing in our family's past to have the stability of living in one place for so long. it's a root and i cherish it just for the root it is to me. i didn't even grow up here, but i've come 'home' to here for 13 years. whatever new house they get won't be home. it will be a strange empty place.
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