What a week that was!

Holidays, last week. Four days in Qualicum Beach where we did TONS of stuff.

This giant turtle was in the playground across the drive from our room. This is where the girls gravitated to upon our arrival.

Our apartment as seen from the pool. We overlooked the pool and playground right beside. It wasn't too bad, but it did get a little noisy at night once or twice before the teenagers were chased away by the management.

A stop sign at the Double R Bar ranch.

The Sandcastle Competition in Parksville! This was my favourite entry. The detailing was amazing on both front and back. Note the giant dino tracks at the bottom and the amazement on the discoverer's face when he sees prehistoric man (in his plaid pants yet) plot his golfing move. Love it!

Sailor and Ray into the ocean. My father took a similar photo of my mum and me when I was about the same age as Ray, going into a lake in Nanaimo.

Greta had been asking me since June if she could ride a pony. Looks like I might have a rider on my hands. She loved this ride and wanted to go again and again.

Ray FINALLY got on a pony after 5 years of wanting to but not. She loved the ride and probably next year, if we have the money, we might put her into the horse camp at her school for a week.

This is the Cheeseworks we went to (as you can see). They had these lovely signs up all over the place that made us laugh. I picked up squeaky cheese (free thanks to a coupon Sailor found in a tourist booklet he picked up), Caerphilly cheese, brie (natch), and a Peach Wine (with a 15% off coupon in the same booklet). Deeeelish!

Ray's favourite hole on the course. We did the bumper boats after the game, and we had a RIOT!

This week's flex:

Sunday: Leave for Camp Columbia.

Monday-Friday: At Camp Columbia. Sailor's at sea Tuesday-Friday.

Friday: Come back from Camp Columbia.

(I sense a trend)

Saturday: Two family BBQ's. Let's see how I get to both without hurting feelings.

Sunday: Church. Uniform prep for the week back to work.

I'm slack and idle

I didn't take a single picture all week. Bad bad bad. I made up for it this weekend though.

A deer catching a rest in the neighbour's yard.

A hummingbird came to have his/her dinner at the Malahat Mountain Inn.

My dessert at my friend's birthday dinner.

The view from our friend's house. Not too shabby, eh?

Greta, hanging around. She was so happy to be hanging from her knees again, even if it was only for a few minutes.

Hera, the young Bald Eagle. She caught Lady Gray's lure (the Peregrine Falcon... who was NOT impressed at all!).

Duck, the Harris Hawk. Fast as lightning.

This is Cleo. She's a three year-old Barn Owl. Such a cutie.

This is a Gyrfalcon (Merlin).

This is Manwe, a Bald Eagle.

This is Storm. He's a Golden Eagle. His legs were HUGE!

This week's Flex:

Mon: I'm at work, Sailor's on leave. Ray has piano lesson #2.

Tues - Fri: I'm at work, Sailor's on leave.

Fri after work - we go to Qualicum Beach for our vacation til Tuesday. YAY!

Catch-up photos

1. This beautiful dog enjoying a summer's day in the car.

2. Daisy, our neighbour's chihuahua. The girls LOVE her!

3. Greta and her chalk hands.

4. Canada Day!

5. Pretty flowers at our friend's house.

6. Greta as a kitty.

7. Someone inventive in the neighbour-hood with the stump and flowers. Love it!

8. Greta and her first day of gymnastics camp

9. The new Base Commander's Pennant

10. Greta as the wolf telling us what time it is.

11. The Three Amigos watching Greta's class.

12. Ray at the water park.

13. Greta at the water park.

*sorry about the weirdness of the placements*

That was a close one!

So I mentioned last time that my card wouldn't read. The camera couldn't read the card, and the card reader had bent prongs, so I thought I was hooped to get photos off the card. London Drugs came to the rescue in a BIG way!

Not only did they manage to get the pictures off, but they burned them to disk and charged me only $20 instead of $20 plus print costs. They're amazing.

So now I'm busy downloading photos from two cards (a 256 plus a new 4Gig!) and my point-n-shoot. This means there'll be a bunch of new photos coming soon.

Niece A is here and things are going great with her. She's a little disappointed I'm not paying her $1K for 23 days work, but I'm paying for other things too - just bought her a new dance coat, so I'm not such a bad auntie. We're taking her to Salt Spring Island, the Pacific Northwest Raptors, and our holiday at Qualicum Beach, so perhaps it'll all even out in the long run.

I have one more day of studying - of which I've done about 1% so far - before I write my exams. Saturday is Economics. Sunday is Accounting. I have to get some good marks on these so that I don't have to do them again. I got pretty good marks on the Econ assignments, so perhaps it won't be all that bad. The Accounting though... yeesh. I'm not so sure about that one at all.

Anyway, more photos next post.

The week that was...

is finally over. I can't stand having a holiday on a Thursday. I don't know how the Americans do it every year at Thanksgiving. I didn't get Friday off, so having two days (one for academic leave and one for the stat), then going back to work, really sucked. I only went back because I'm not in all next week and I felt guilty just blowing it off. Besides, I'd probably get into trouble if I didn't go back.

I've managed to finish my Accounting Assignments, but there's a couple things that I got wrong, so once the tutor has returned from his long weekend, he will hopefully help me out in time for me to get good marks on the exam I'm writing this weekend.

ARG! I just tried to get the pictures from the week off the camera and there's something wrong with the card. The reader has two prongs that are cockeyed and the camera can't read the card, so until I can get a new reader, we're picture-less. Just believe me when I tell you - they're GREAT! hee.

This week's flex:
Sun: Church, niece A arrives, movie night with L to see Eclipse!
Mon: Academic leave for me. Sailor goes to work. Ray to dance camp (9-10) and Greta to Gymnastics camp (9-12).
Tue: Sailor is duty. I have to attend the Change of Command ceremony (as a guest but still in uniform). Ray has dance camp and Greta has gymnastics camp. My friend N is going to pick up Greta and Niece A from camp and I'll meet them at home. Ray will spend the day with her friend from dance camp.
Wed: Academic leave still. Sailor home. Dance and gymno camps.
Thurs: same as Wednesday.
Fri: Academic leave. Sailor home. Camps.
Sat: Sailor is on duty. I write exam #1 in the forenoon, and then I have a bridal shower in the afternoon (note to self: make tortilla twists and get wine on Friday). Niece A to watch the girls for me.
Sun: Sailor back home. I write exam #2 in the forenoon, and then we have the annual country party at our friend's place in the afternoon. No church today. Niece A to come along for the party.
Monday: back to work for me. Sailor off. He's working on refinishing the deck surface as the weather's supposed to be super nice all week.

The past week with more pictures

1. Greta running in the sprinkler.

2. Ray after the sprinkler.

3. Greta in day two of the sprinkler.

4. Artsy goggle shot.

5. Girls on the tire swing at the park.

6. This poor horse had a bazillion kids feeling it. Didn't seem to mind too much though.

7. The girls on the swings. Ray is dancing and saying she's cool.

This week's flex:

Sun: Church & church picnic. Roast beast for dinner.

Mon: Sailor's duty. I go to work, girls to daycare. We're having a friend join us for supper.

Tue: Work day for me & Sailor. Daycare for the girls.

Wed: PAYDAY! Sailor goes to work, I'm off for book-learnin'. Ray stays home with me, Greta goes to daycare.

Thu: Happy Canada Day! I have no idea what we're going to do, other than muck out the spare room for A.

Fri: Daycare is closed, so either me or Sailor will be home with them.

Sat: Niece A is coming this weekend.

Next week is Week From Hell 3. Should be fun.

Exciting, exciting news!

About four weeks ago I hit on an idea. Now, usually my ideas are just that - good ideas that never go anywhere. But suddenly, I got really excited about this idea. So excited that I'm going to run with it and actually do it. So, once I'm out of the Navy, instead of going off to teach adults leadership, communications and team building (which was what I have wanted to do for a while now), I'm opening up a dress shop.

But not just ANY dress shop. No! This is a formal/bridal/prom shop with a consignment and rental portion, as well as a not-for-profit similar to the Princess Project.

The name of the shop is Paper Doll Formals. I have registered the name and I have a business number and everything! I will be creating a blog, a Twitter page and a Facebook page once I get the domain name up and running. I will be keeping a journal/blog of how things are going on another BLog page.

Sailor tells me to keep my plans to myself, and for the most part I am. However, I don't think there's anyone in town reading my Blog (correct me if I'm wrong), and if it's taken this long for a woman's formal wear store to open up here, then I'm sure I'm not running into anyone else who is going to open up a shop tomorrow. So here I am, putting it out there for real and all. Eeks!

In the real world, I have finally finished my Economics assignments and I'm just waiting to receive the ones already handed in before handing in the last two. The Accounting is causing me some hassles. There was two assignments where I did okay - 75% and 78%, but this eighth one is about doubtful accounts and the text book isn't all the clear on what to post in the ledger accounts. I'll keep at it though as I have 8, 9, and 10 to hand in prior to the 10th of July. The tutor is a great help to me and calls me up to help me out if I'm under 70% on the assignment for resubmission.

Work is going well. I have a giant data base that I have to go through person by person to ensure they're still members of the Mess for when we get our Mess Coins. Slow going, but it'll be SO worth it when people get their coins. Which has been pushed back because the stamper returned the prototype back to the minter because of colour bleeding. Yay!

Sailor got his leave approved so we're all going on vaycay together at the end of the month. My niece A is watching the girls for us in July so we don't have to pay $1400 in child care. Sh

e arrives next weekend and we have a spare room to muck out before she gets here! Good thing this is a short week at work.

Here's some pictures to catch up from the last week (or two...?)

1. I received the DSLR I purchased from a friend. Began snapping photos and learning about depth of field. SO happy.

2. More flowers on the deck.

3. Excuse the demon-eyes on Ray. This was her "grad" into Grade 1.

4. This was where I got to sing with the Navy band. I sounded a lot better live than I did on video.