1. Ever since I made peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwiches for Ingrid's birthday lunch I've had at least half a dozen. I hadn't had one in about 20 years. I guess I forgot how great they are. Blast from the past.
2. Look, we're farmers!
My lonely tomato plant is "working". We have three actual, real live tomatoes. Not sure I'll eat them. I know these might actually be better than the pesticide laden ones I buy in the supermarket but for some reason I don't think I will be able to eat these, just because we, non-farmers that we are, grew them.
3. It is hotty hot hot today. H.O.T.
4. My right knee is on the fritz.There is a crunching sound with every step I take when I walk up the stairs. Which is a lot during the day with a 20+ pound baby attached to me. It doesn't hurt. The sound and the image it evokes in my head just grosses me out.
5. Each afternoon about a half hour before Derek gets home I take Ingrid out on the front doorstep to wait and watch the cars go by. She loves it, pointing out the birds, dogs, cars, buses and flowers. She gets most excited by the dogs and buses. But, we have hanging flower baskets and every day, without fail, I forget that they are there and bump my head on the bottom. Tonight, I found a flower leaf stuck in my ponytail from the collision earlier today.
6. Ingrid has 6 3/4 teeth.
7. Today our mailman decided to give us mail belonging to numbers 6, 8, and 21. We've received mail for neighbours before but never so much at once. It makes me wonder if the reason we've received no mail three days in a row this week is because someone else received it instead.
8. Meet Miss Ingrid Flintstone.
She's recently taken to saying "yabba dabba, yabba dabba, yabba dabba" and on and on. And on. So cute. She also said "rat-a-tat-tat" or something of that ilk. She thought it was hilarious.
9. This week, beginning on June 17, Ingrid has taken many independent steps. Since her birthday she has been a walking fiend while holding on to something but now she's doing it on her own. I don't call this walking yet because it's just been one step at a time. Until today! She took about three steps in a row. She did it!
10. Ingrid has a new trick. She fills her mouth with water until it's overflowing and spits it all out drenching herself. She did it today in her car seat, unbeknownst to me, and got herself and the seat soaking wet.
11. Still dreaming of that clothes line. Especially on hot days like these.
Makeshift will continue to do for now.
12. I recently took out a photo cd from four years ago. It is home to our very first digital photos, wedding photos, and a few measly pictures I took while we drove across Newfoundland on the day we left for Ontario. I was curious what my very first digital picture was and, lo and behold, I don't have it. Nor do I have the subsequent six. I guess they were just practice shots. But here is the first digital picture I ever took and saved.
DSCF0008 - Taken May 21, 2005.
I remember this day very well. The weather was miserable. I was dying with a cold. I had just arrived in Ottawa for a 10 day visit and we went off on a road trip, making our second trip down to North Conway, NH, with a day stop in Lake Placid first. I took no less than four shots of Derek, just like this while we were driving.
13. I get so sad when I look at the lack of pictures I took of my last day as a resident of Newfoundland. I have very little documentation of a very big experience in my life. I started out taking some pictures of the scenery but after a while it all started to look the same so I stopped. Plus we didn't stop much or take our time because we were on a deadline to catch the ferry. But mostly, I was just so sad to be leaving my beloved home. In my head, I didn't think I'd ever want to remember that sad day again. I remember expecting to feel something. At midnight the ferry departed and I looked out the window and watched as the island faded away into darkness and just waited for the flood of emotions that I expected. But it didn't happen then. It hit me about a year later. Really hit me.
The lack of pictures is a very sad reminder to always take pictures of the big moments in my life, even if I'm too tired, too scared or too sad to want to as the moment unfolds.
And from a folder named "From St. John's to Ottawa" from the same cd mentioned above, here are a few pictures...
It was late, cold and wet. It was August 29 and Hurricane Katrina was tearing up coastlines everywhere.
This is me then, a tired, sad and uncertain newlywed.
And, here's Derek, road-weary and perhaps a little uncertain himself.
But fear not. I have many, many fond memories of this time in my life. Two of my favourite memories from the early days of our marriage are from this trip. The first was our stop in Beddeck, NS. I'm still waiting to go back. I had the best lobster sandwich of my life there. And the best pizza, too, that we bought from a very suspect looking little shop way off the main road. It was so good we went back for more the same night. My second favourite memory is from our stop in Moncton, NB, where we went to a fair type thing and I kicked Derek's butt in pretty much every game we played and Derek won me a tiny stuffed lizard that I hung on our very first Christmas tree together, and continue to do so every year.
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