Cameron Falls
Today I headed out to Cameron Falls with Cassidy and Elijah. It was a wonderful day, hot and sunny and just enough wind to keep the bugs at bay. There was lots of water at the falls and the wild strawberries were just delicious. We played Pooh sticks off the bridge but then started throwing sticks in willy nilly anywhere. When we got close to the edge of the falls, Cassidy (10 years old) declared that it couldn't just be plain old Pooh sticks, we were now into "extreme" Pooh sticks. We ate our lunch as the kids waded around in the water. I couldn't convinced them to go in the water with just their underwear so they came back to town, tired but dry. Once we got back, we hit the ice cream store, hopefully they will get their appetite back by the time they have to eat their supper.

Well the job that was supposed to last for a month only lasted for a week. The idea that I could handle a new job and Barry’s surgery turned about to be a bad one. I lasted a week and then the employer decided that the job was too much for me and I was made redundant. Does that sound better, than I was fired, I have come to grips with it and basically decided that it was better for my mental health that I not continue to work in that environment. Since then I have gone on one interview with the Dept. of Justice, the feds were looking for a casual for 2 months, as far as I know they are waiting to get approval from Ottawa for funding for the job, so I am still in the running.
I did have a job for 2 hours today though!! When we were cruising, the standard joke is that you can go back to work and be a Walmart Greeter. We’d even practice our lines, or the other classic, “Would you like fries with that?” WEELLL today, I almost fit into that scenario. I was the customer survey person at the local Canadian Tire. I got to ask customers 6 questions about their CANADIAN TIRE experience today. I was rather dreading it but everyone was quite nice, no one snubbed me and I was able to be my happy, cheery self for 2 hours. I had to get 50 people to answer questions and I would say I only had about 10 people refuse, that was pretty good odds. I must admit the next time I see someone with a survey in hand, unless I am late to catch a flight I will certainly answer their questions, unless of course they are trying to sell me anything. I think one guy tried to pick me up but I am not entirely sure as I am out of practice to detect those types of things, he did stand very close and he was a trucker, an ice road trucker. I guess I should have gone all googled eyed and asked him if he was a star of the Ice Road reality show!!!
The weather has been great, hot, sunny and windy, I have raced twice in the local Wed. night races and I am hoping to sail across the lake next weekend in the annual Commissioner’s Cup. There is the annual float plane fly in this weekend so we will have to go down and have some breakfast with the pilots and listen to some stories.
Barry and Bruce turn 60 this year. I e-mailed Marg and asked if she was planning anything special. She said that Bruce didn’t want a fuss made, neither did Barry. I suggested that Bruce and Marg come up for a visit. They got some very cheap flights with West Jet, so they are coming up for almost 4 days in the middle of Aug. We will have the use of a boat then so hopefully Barry and Bruce can catch some large fish. Bruce really enjoys that type of thing.

Here are some lovely photos of Leeland Edward Stonehouse that Jen and Mark took. I really like the shot of William holding on to Leeland. Jen said William asked to hold him but she had to coax him to stay still for the pictures. Once he was done holding him he wanted to go, go, go.
I had a visit with Cassidy and Elijah and we went to the pool. Cassidy and I had great fun sneaking up on Elijah who was playing away with a buddy from school. Cassidy climbed to the top of the climbing wall in the pool before falling back into the water. Elijah floated and showed off his swimming skills. He is a tentative child and although he came into the deep end with Grannie he was not too happy about it. They came back to the apt. after wards and Cassidy entertained us by dressing up their monkeys. I loved her sense of style and humour. If you click on the picture it should get bigger and you can really appreciate what she did. We got to hear about their visit with their Auntie Jen and the Kravitz side of the family. It sounds like they had a blast when they visited, NS, NB and PEI. I did not manage to get the camera out while they were here so will have to make sure I do that when I see them again.

I went Yellowknife's folk festival, Folk of the Rocks. It has been running for 29 years and this is the first one I have managed to get to. We were always busy sailing other years. Now I know why people go back every year. The theme this year was hip hop, and I was not sure I would like that. It was a blast. There was an aboriginal hip hop group up from Edmonton that explained the genre and had great fun with the audience. In the evening there was a collaboration between all the hip hop groups, which incorporated throat singing, Inuit story telling, hip hop and Dene drumming. They did a great job and you could tell the performers were thoroughly enjoying themselves. One of the hip hop guys who makes noises into the mike did a duo with a throat singer, magical.
Barry didn't come because he didn't want to sit on the ground the whole day. The weather had finally warmed up so we went for a jaunt to Tim Horton's. Barry insisted on walking there and back, a total of about 3 km. He said that nothing hurt and when I asked if I could walk home and get the car he was insistent that he was fine and walked all the way home. He is resting in bed with his foot elevated at the moment. He says he is going to work tomorrow, he doesn't get his stitches out until Thurs. I suggested he only go in for a half day and he said he would come home if he got too tired or his foot got too swollen.
I scored on the way home. I have been scheming about finding some rhubarb I can use. We walked down this lane and there was a huge patch all going to seed behind a vacant bordered up house. Barry had his handy dandy all purpose tool in his pack so I cut off all the pieces that were going to seed and took enough home to make a pie, yum. What could be finer!

Introducing Leeland Stonehouse
Mark just sent me these pics. Doesn't Leeland have a shock of dark hair!! He is a very handsome looking baby don't you think. I think Jen looks great.

Jennifer and Mark have decided that their son's first name is going to be Leeland, they have not decided on a second name yet. Mom is doing fine, she says she feels better than after she had William, but was pretty groggy during birth and through the night last night. Leeland has been nursing well and I am told he looks like William although Jen said his hair may be darker.

I forgot to tell you a funny story which happened the day Barry got home. He had read in the literature that the hospital had given him post surgery, that prune juice was a good idea. As per usual he didn't read all the way to the end of the sentence, which said you should mix it half and half with hot water, or perhaps he just processed the first part of the sentence. He just knew prune juice was recommended!! Sooooo he requested that I buy him some prune juice, no problem, probably a good idea. When I came home that night from work, he had drunk a half of the 2 litre container. He was already feeling the effects and had spent some quality time on his fancy high rise toilet seat! What a Lange move!

NEWS FLASH
Jen had her baby tonight. She had a boy, he is a healthy 9 pounds, 13 ounces. Mark said they are both fine. Jen tried to give birth but he did not want to co-operate so she had a Cesarean. They have not agreed on a name yet, so Baby Boy Stonehouse he is for the time being. The clan just keeps expanding, that is grandchild number six for those of you keeping count. There are now 3 born within a week in July. It should be fun it we all get together for a July celebration some time. It is hard to be here when I want to be there!!

Barry is home from the hospital. The operation seems to have gone very well, it is early days yet, but everyone at the hospital was amazed at his progress. We actually (this is 4 days after surgery) went for a kilometer walk this morning. Barry was really tired out after wards, and his foot was quite swollen but I kept asking him if we had gone far enough and he wanted to keep going. I guess I should have made him come home sooner. He is in bed sleeping off his walk!! He is still on pain meds but says that the burning pain that was in the joint before the surgery is all gone, he is so happy about that. He is walking much better than before the surgery, he only has to use one crutch to get around. He is already talking about graduating to just a cane next week. I must get a picture of him outside standing up straight and tall. Wow, what a relief that it worked out so well.
I have gotten a temp job, with the local Chrysler dealership. I am doing some bookkeeping there. Their system is not windows driven so it is cumbersome and the woman who is supervising is very busy so does not have time to train me properly. The person in the position before me left on two day's notice so she is not there to train me. I was not even introduced to the staff so when I had to answer the phone to cover the receptionist I had to ask who everyone was. I will be there a month and then the job is up for grabs. I have applied for it. I also had another interview for a part time position that sounded right up my alley. Hmmm, work really hard and bash my brains out learning an archaic system or go to a windows driven environment where I can name my hours, pot and curl all winter and enjoy myself. Some choice, but we are here to make money, maybe I should just let Barry take care of that, he loves to work so much!!

JUST KIDDING!!!
Well we just achieved our main goal in returning to Canada. Barry had his hip operation. So far it seems to have gone really well. He feels GREAT. I don't know I think he looks rather wan myself. He went under the knife at about 10:30 and did not return to the room until about 2:00 P.M. I was about fit to be tied, I was so glad to see him, my gosh, you wouldn't believe how good it was to clap my eyes on him.
He was awake the whole surgery (the surgeon told him he might need an extra pair of hands) and when he came into the room he was regaling the nurses with South Pacific stories. When I went back tonight, the nurses came in to change the dressing and I got to see the scar. I think it is great, we can tell shark bite stories and he has an actual scar to back up the stories. Barry will be able to go to town on that story for years, I can hear it now, man oh man.

He is being well looked after, the nurses are wonderful. He will see the occupational and physio people tomorrow. He told me to get something to put under one knee because he has to do these exercises. He wanted something round that was fairly substantial, so I got him a large bottle of Diet Coke and figured that if he didn't like the size of the circular object he could just drink it.
Anyway, thank you to everyone who sent us their kind thoughts, it is good to know there are lots of people in the world that care about us. We have both had a big day so I think it is time for me to get to bed.
P.S. Barry made me take the AHHHHHHH picture and post it, if you don't believe me ask him!

A TIRED FAMILY AT THE END OF CANADA DAY 2009
We, that is Trish, Graeme, Quinn, June, Mooch and I spent the day up at the ranch. The spot where Trish has been working off and on for the last 7 years. What a gorgoeus location and it was a perfect day. The owners had asked that Trish come up and take them riding and they were kind enough to include the whole family in their invitation. Trish had a tiring day, out in the hot sun, brushing, saddling, walking youngsters around and then going on a 2 hour ride.
Graeme and I hung out, he entertained Quinn, there were horses to look at, cats to harass, tractors to climb on and bikes to ride. Oh, and the best of all, balloons to blow up, there was this cool balloon pumper up thing and the balloons had a special end. Graeme would pump up the balloons and the kids, (the owners have 3 under 3 years of age) would let them go and they would scoot up in the air and around and around and they would make this wonderful noise, fascinating for kids. By the time we were done, I don't think there were very many useable balloons left, oops.
June was the perfect baby, waking up at the correct times so Trish wasn't exploding when she was riding, and eating the bottle that Grannie had heated up. The only mishap is when she projectile peed over her diaper when I was changing her and wet a towel that was on the bed. How does she do that?? Girls are not supposed to be able to pee in that manner, what a kid!!
Trish took a bunch of pictures yesterday of June, just chilling on the grass, enjoy the pics of her, she really is lovely.