june family time

i'm trying to decide whether this blog is obsolete now or not.  after 13 years of blogging i still think in  narration sometimes.  but i don't act on it very often as you can see.  i don't know.  i still feel like it though.  so i guess i'll keep going for now.  it's the middle of august.  i've had some adventures and summer events undocumented.  ...yet.

august seems to be shifting by unnoticed and uneventful so far.  at work i am in a mode of squaring the shoulders, head down, barrel through.  it's that kind of month.  i have 2.5 staff.  lindsay started last august.  she's half japanese.  right now she's in japan.  i can't wait until she gets back.  pascale is half french canadian. she started last october. she has a perfect boyfriend named steve.  steve has done no wrong and not only that--every story about him is too perfect to be believed.  pascale has a tender heart--loves all animals and saves bugs etc.  she just moved to a full time position.  i just hired a cute little turkish girl named yasemin.  she sliced off the fleshy pad of her pinky in the mandolin last week.  like we found it.  and sent it with her to the hospital. yasemin blushes easily. she's in turkey now taking her boyfiend alex from belarus to meet her family.  i just lost a girl named jasmine.  but she still works the occasional day that i can use her, while i have the hours to give her.  she was great.  but she lived in maple ridge and the commute and child care etc was getting too much for her unfortunately.

one day last week i took my sleeping bag out into the field at the park and lay down under the dark sky and watched for shooting stars.  i don't like to miss the perseid meteor shower.  the sky had a lot o light pollution, but i still managed to see 8 before i got too chilled and came back inside.

lately my weekends have been so empty.  i barely leave the house.  i might grocery shop.  or go on a junk food run.  the best days have been the sundays.  guess what happened today!  well i waltzed into to my fourth row, right side of the middle pews behind the umbachs, just as the announcements were being made.  i'm always skimming in late like this. it's my mo.  (not mohammed. i  don't have a mohammed....as far as i know...)  half way through the prayer i have this thought--a thought that was not a prompting from the holy ghost unless he's a prankster which i haven't noticed up to this point.  the thought was "did you put your phone on silent??" i didn't think i had, so slipped my hand in the pocket of my purse and pulled it out.  it was on silent.  phew!  then.  THEN.  then... then something unthinkable happened.  sheri l. dew's strong and confident voice echoed out over the silent worshiping congregation.  PANIC. button pushing.  banging.  sheri strides on in her conversational interviewing voice.  strangled cry from me, bent over as low as i can go in the pew.  finally, and not before the "amen" was said, did i get to that pesky mormon channel app that seems to override the volume settings and come off and on as it feels in the mood to do--and turned it off.  then i put the phone down on the pew beside me and pretended none of it had ever happened.  crossing my legs demurely and looking earnestly and attentively up at the pulpit like the model church attender that i am.  derned mormon channel devil.  you may have beat me that time, but watch out.  i'm a-gunnin' fer ye!

i've been learning portuguese.  have you heard of the duolingo app?  it's handy.  

well tomorrow i have to get up early to clean some offices where there it is always too hot.  it's an employment site for our members and i am one of the people that covers when our member can't make it.  i try to get there before many of the staff get there because well, let's say that some of them are not the most friendly people i've ever met.  last week i was covering there for a sick day and someone did a horrific dump in the toilet just before i came in to clean the men's bathroom. (of course it was mens!) i could smell it from the hallway, before i even got to the door.  but what could i do?  it was the last room to clean before i was done.  so i tried not to breathe through my mouth and if that was all...well it's not pleasant, but by the time you are 41 years old, you know there are worse things in life to bear.  but he didn't fully flush. and there were fresh skids in the bowl.  and even so--even this one can grit their teeth and get through it.  but... BUT.  but, the urinal.  i cannot do it justice.  i cannot describe.  i can only say that there was something so foul and rancid in the urinal that when i went to clean it the fumes shot up into my face choking me and making me involuntarily heave.  like i don't heave like a sissy. i have a stomach of steel (under all the chubb that is)  i gagged and heaved three times before i stumbled out of there, a survivor of the men's washroom.  please bless tomorrow will be uneventful.

so before i go here are some photos from june.

june 20th we had a picnic day at cultus.  jordan and tracy's family was at home with a violent flu.  which jordan under guise as tracy on facebook, shared with us in great detail.  happy birthday eve. jordo.

 so some of the kids covered themselves in mud and painted tribal patterns on their faces. and i took note.

 sam lives in vancouver now.  i picked him up and took him with me to the picnic.  when we first encountered josh and mary and gabriel in the parking lot, josh like the polite boy that he is, introduced himself to sam.  "that's sam your cousin." i said.  then everyone kind of laughed and felt foolish.  it had been a while since they all saw each other.  but they didn't let that stop them from doing crazy jumps of the dock while i documented.

 cousins are the best.

 what i enjoy here is the wet dock and the reflection.  you are free to enjoy what you want.

somehow i managed to get these few pictures of queen e. before she eventually executed her customary rebellion.

it was all about a feather...

the next day was father's day.  and jordan's birthday.  but jordan was throwing up, so let's not talk about him. there has been enough ralphing in this post.  it was also noah's baptisim.  so after church in chilliwack we all drove to abBUTSford.  doug gave the most remarkable and powerful and beautiful talk on the savior and on baptisim.  it hit me so deep, as my friend would say.  after that we had a potluck with no luck.  it was one of those orchestrated affairs.  i made ambrosia because i was representin' gram.  doug and del's new place has a couch house in the back.  queen e. showed it to me and asked for her picture.  but just when i had my finger on the money shot--she rebelled again.  "i don't care" she smirked.  queens don't have to care.  they're queens.

 later we went to the park.  dad almost didn't come.  i was failing at my attempts.  but michealah was sent up to bat and she never fails with grampa.  which is good because i wanted to take some father's day pics of pops.  and so i did.

i think we all recognize his "here i am. take them already" stance.  but now we have it recorded.

  silly lovable oaf...

 love this one.  look at his face.  he loves her.

 d1  and d2 mano e mano.  things got a little weiwd, but whatever.

families are special, va?

mom, katie, natalie, mary, gabriel, delanie and i then walked all around the lake in the park and had a nice time.  part way through i realized that i had been there before with martha, on her birthday.  anywho, when we got back everyone was ready to go home.

later in the depths of the night i began to throw up.  but that's another story.