The ants go marching one by one hurrah, hurrah

The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching one by one,
The little one stops to suck his thumb
And they all go marching down to the ground
To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

2 by 2, 3 by 3.... it never stops at our place, yeah they are marching, everywhere but they don't need to worry about the rain so they keep marching on. and there's plenty to keep them busy at our place cause they can live happily on everything that fall to the ground. oh yes! our ants are verry happy i'm sure cause i seen them more and more.

And i keep sweeping and sweeping, but it doesn't matter cause with kids once they start eating stuff in their high chair and so on there's crumbs! everywhere all the time, no matter how many time i sweep, crumbs crumbs crumbs, under my feets, argh,
there's always some more. it drives me nuts. yes! the small things that fall to the ground and stick to my feet are really getting to me lately.... CRUMBS!!!!
yeah, when it stick under your feet, you won't find it funny, wet, dry, hard, squishy, you name it, it's quite a feet experience.

So it worries me that the ants will keep on marching in cause there's always food falling to the ground. is it possible to have toddlers and be ant free?

ok, i'll put aside the ants for a moment. i just noticed something verry bizzare. in the room that we have made into our office, there's vinyl flooring and what i thought to be two little floor mats, one in each of the back corners. and i was wondering why Andy didn't take them off when he put our desks in place. i just realized why. they are glued there and the vinyl flooring is cut around it. how odd? i never seen something like that before.

The ants go marching ten by ten, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching ten by ten, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching ten by ten,
The little one stops to say "THE END"
And they all go marching down to the ground
To get out of the rain, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Chantal, that's it, "THE END" for tonight!

We got a letter from Santa Clause!

no no, i'm serious...

Andy thought it might have been a pranks at first but it wasn't. look

see? Santa wrote us, we didn't even have to write him first. how special. even tho it was just to tell us that our mailbox need straightening.
Santa's first warning :

our mailbox is in pretty rough shape, i had to pull it from the ditch when we moved here. and even then, it keep wanting to fall back in there. i tried to prop it with a rock, but it's in quite a bad shape. we bought a new one but haven't had the time to replace it yet. hopefully before our next warning. i don't want to make Santa mad.

Chantal, on Santa's list, he has no excuse for forgetting us anymore!

Yay Daphne!!!

Our cat Daphne has been a house cat all her life, she has no front claws and never goes outside. well, that's not entirely true, she escape once in a while for a break outside. most of the time it's go graze on some fresh grass and roll around on dirt.

since we moved, she made a few more brakes, because our son took an enjoyment to play with doors. and she goes exploring the woods. what she does there, we don't know, all i know is that she come back before it is dark.

tonight, after a long effort to get Vivian to sleep, i came down to relax while i eat a snack before to retire for the night and she comes to the office doorway and playfully batts at a piece of packing tape, it makes some funny noise, get our attention and we laugh, not much unusual about that. but after a second look, i say "what's that?"

-what?

-that thing there in the doorway?
-hmmm?
- there!!! ...poop?
- no... it's a mouse!
- really?? but its kinda small
Daphne turns it belly up and Andy conclude, it's a shrew!

I really didn't think she had it in her. i'm proud of her and now we have a good reason to keep her. my mom always complains about cat hair everywhere but i'll take that over rodens anytime.

other noteworthy event, Vivian was standing holding on to something as usual to keep her up, then we cheered to make her clap and she did for about 10 seconds standing without holding on anything. i wanted to go get my camera to capture that special moment but the moment was already gone. i'd need a camera permanently around my neck. those moments always catch you by surprize.

i guess i should go to bed now, my snack is long gone and i'm going to get hungry again.

Chantal, sleeping peacefully. the mice won't be playing tonight!

a bit of catching up

ok, so after 4 days without hot water we finaly have a new hot water tank that should be able to fulfill the need with a jaccuzi and some future teenagers. altho there's still a long way to go before that happen hehe

after that was taken care of, there's been my dear daughter that wouldn't go to bed often before 10 pm, leaving me verry little time to myself before bed. the place is still scattered with boxes all over. no printer cable and no camera cable. but a brand new thing to wast my time on, if i ever get to install it. my sweetheart bought me the sims 2. not sure if i'll have time to play it at all, i still havn't played the older sims in ages, like probably a while before Vivian was born.

just bought ourself a new mailbox. was a bit of a debate or indecision at the store between the traditional uncostly box or the newer stand alone plastic version. so i asked Owen what color he wanted, and he picked the expensive one. but in the end we decided to go with the $16 one.
also found our 911 street number in the ditch this week. it was bent but i hammered it back to a more acceptable shape.

i should go take my shower and go to bed
TTFN
Chantal

I stink, you stink, he stink

We stink, you stink and they stink, argh!!!! Guess what! We still don’t have hot water!!!!!!!!!!!! No sir! Hot water we don’t have here. Someone told us we needed to upgrade the breaker and wiring to have a 60 gallon thank but didn’t tell us we needed the upgrade even if we stayed with a 40 gallon, so the guy came to install a 40 today and no can do, actually he was asked only to deliver it, not instructed to install it. What am I supposed to do with a thank that’s not hooked up? Who’s the dumb ass and can I offer him a nice ice cold bath?

Can’t do the dishes, can’t wash any cloth in hot or warm water, and can’t take a friggin bath, gotta wash babies bums with cold water. Vivian was constipated and I was hoping to give her a good hot bath soak to ease the tummy cramps and help her relax to encourage elimination. Nop, instead I had to try and shove a piece of glycerin suppository up there. At least that helped some and she seem happier now. Owen’s looking at the bathtub and climbing all around and saying splish splash, take a bath? No dear, we don’t have any hot water… haven’t had any at all for 2 days going on 3. I don’t remember the last time I been this dirty. I don’t even dare take my pony tail out, it’s like my hairs are stiffened in that particular shape, they stay that way if I take off the elastic but if the elastic is out too long they’ll fall down and be too hard to return in the pony tail and then it will be a bigger mess. Hmmm that gives me an idea. maybe I should go to town with some sort of container and some pants with big pockets.

Hubby came home fairly late tonight, had a few things to do after work before to head home. Then I had the unpleasant news to tell him that we still don’t have hot water and we’ll need to pay an electrician. he brought a few things in the house and then told me he believe he heart a bull moose outside. I guess we’re really in the wilderness hehe

i’m not too worried about dears they usually flee but moose, I heard they can be quite nasty. I don’t worry too much about skunks but porcupines a bit more. Coyotes are some concern if there’s any and I guess I worry more about bears, I hope there’s none too close from here. We seriously need to invest in good garbage cans, we wouldn’t want to invite them with a buffet.

Weird that Andy hears them in the evening but I never saw anything during the day. I saw a few little birds but I saw that in Dieppe too. Even saw ducks in Dieppe. Hmmm, one day I was out in the back yard with Owen and I heard some thumping in the ground. I was wondering if it could be a groundhog but now I think about it again, maybe it was a hare or a bunny. Didn’t see any holes in the backyard but maybe there could be some at the edge of the woods. Ah well we should see something sooner or later. If they hide well enough, eventually it’s gonna snow again and we’ll be able to see their steps. Not that I’m looking forward to snow. No, I want to enjoy the summer and hope it will be a good one.

That remind me, probably a year ago I saw a book at Canadian tire that was all about animal’s foot prints and how to recognize them. That would be something interesting to get my hands on. Right now I have an other type of species to observe. They’re crawling all around part of the upstairs. Ants! The big black ones. so far I start to see a few path that appear to be regular route for their travel. I’ll try as much as the kids allow me to keep a close eye on them and their paths. I got a treat for them. One that I want them to take to their queen. Out of 5 ants I offered it to, only 2 were interested. Some literally fled from it, but one of those 2 really pigged out on it. I don’t usually like insects at all but looking at it eat I thought it was almost cute. Maybe I should get a glass ant colony observatorium and help them move into it? Would that be more interesting then an aquarium? I was also thinking about putting a bird feeder in front of Owen’s bedroom window. But I guess we have more important things to do for now. a new mailbox would be good. The one that’s here have a strong tendency to lean in the ditch, is bent and is cracked at the bottom. Makes me wonder what is not falling apart in this house?

Chantal, cold and stinky

It is now officially dead

Last night after we washed the kids, our water thank finally kicked the bucket. A smell of blown electronics and some water leaking, tripped breaker and no more hot water. I stink and have to wait till tomorrow morning for someone to come install a new thank. I can hardly wait as I was dying for a nice hot bath tonight but it will have to wait till tomorrow night. Andy will sneak into our old house for a quick shower before work early morning. A luxury I won’t have but he’s been working hard and still is from what I can hear. The computer room is in the basement and I hear some racket upstairs.

I insisted he install one of the safety gate at the top of the stairs so it will be less stressful tomorrow all day with the kids. I don’t have time to run after Owen wandering in the basement and less worrisome when I don’t have to be scared Vivian will attempt to go down those steep ceramic dressed stairs with sharp edge. So scary to think about a tumble in those, not only would in make for bad bruises but also for nasty cuts. Now this house is weirdly made and there’s different elevation to go to some rooms. Most are just 1 step and Vivian is starting to get the hang of it already. But we also have a 2 step sunken living room and that too is some steep and ceramic. Don’t know what those peoples were thinking. I hope one day to change all the steps to wood(rounder edge and some softer too). Until then I have to keep making sure she doesn’t attempt to go down those 2 steps by herself. I’m trying to teach her to go down feet first instead of head first. Once the house is sold in Dieppe, I might be able to afford a custom made gate for the living room.

My dear husband informed me this evening that he saw some critter waddle away from him making weird noise. He wasn’t sure if it was a skunk or a porcupine because it was dark outside. not sure which one I’d like it more to be. Hmmm, I think I’d like it more to be a skunk. Aside from stinkyness, it’s mostly harmless. A porcupine can hurt much more. Leave needles around, and me that like to walk barefoot… and the kids, and the cat? Visit to the vet because of foolish cat is not my favorite thought. Tomato juice on the other hand is fairly cheap.

Chantal the stinky pest

Six things you might not know about me?

So I got challenged, not sure if I can come up with stuff really worth mentioning.

Does that mean I got to find 3 persons to challenge in return? I don’t know many bloggers aside from you 2s. you 2s know who you are. I probably don’t even need to say the names (Nancy and Tina) because there’s probably no one else reading my so unfamous blog.

1. I like to ware men’s boxer short (the ones with a fly) although they are all worn out and had to go bye-bye and I havn’t bothered buying new ones. I also always ware pajamas at the house, get dressed to go out and get back in pjs as soon as I’m back home.

2. I’ve appeared on TV twice, first time was during a mass that was televised, and I was in the choir at the time. The second was while I was doing a training at Royal Direct and they used our group to make a commercial for I don’t remember what. I so don’t like cameras.

3. I used to hang out at a Tim Horton from around 10pm till the wee hours of the morning with a bunch of friends every nights. So much so that the lady that was serving us our coffee knew what to serve us as soon as we walked in and we called her mom. I also knew a few cab drivers and they would drive me home free at time because it was a 30 minutes walk and they wanted to make sure I made it home safe.

4. when I lived in Montreal, no one was paying attention to me but when I moved to Moncton I quickly had more peoples to hang out with then I ever knew in Montreal. Also much more attention from boys.

5. I’ve been at a punk’s party/ demonstration in Montreal. The punks/homeless used the park as a place to sleep and the city was gonna put a curfew in place to prevent them from using the park. It was a very pacific event. The authorities still decided to interfere none the less, but I was gone before they started handcuffing peoples.

6. I’ve been in the scout movement, took piano lessons, figure skating lessons, been in a folklore dance troupe. All mostly for 1 year each. Quite scouts because of a bad summer camp experience with dislocated shoulder from previous trip with parents. The camp wouldn’t accommodate my discomfort. Quit piano lessons, mostly because bored, didn’t enjoy the music I was thought with(maybe trying an other teacher would’ve helped). The dance troupe, I quit because through childhood I often got sick for some time and missed some practices just before a performance and messed up in the show. Felt too embarrassed to continue. And figure skating, I was doing ok but the second year there were no more room for my level so they bumped me up and I had too much struggle keeping up. Also was bought new skates that were supposed to be more professional but I kept tripping on the front picks that were sticking out more then my old skates. I think after that my parents didn’t want to enroll me in anything because I was always quitting. When I got in college I got myself into karate, really enjoyed it but as time went I started to be more and more tired before training, and got to the point training was making me dizzy, I didn’t have enough energy to keep up, I had to admit to myself I couldn’t continue. When pregnant with Owen started ti chi and again, I got too uncomfortable at the end of pregnancy to continue and after birth have been too busy ever since. There’s probably more to this list. But even though I did those things only for a short period of time, I’m glad I did them.