random thoughts

Cafesjian's Carousel

Built : 1914
Cost: $8 500.
Size: 50 feet across
Weight: 30 tons

68 hand-carved horses
2 hand-carved chariots
all of which are mostly wearing their original paint
originally located on the grounds of the Minnesota State Fair, it was moved to Town Square Park (an enclosed city park on the top level of a building in the heart of downtown St. Paul) and then at St. Paul's Como Park

unfortunately, i haven't a clue on the types of butterflies these are... but there were many! many of the same kind, many different kinds, many different sizes... but they were all so beautiful! there were so many - they would fly all around, totally ignorant that you were in their environment. one even landed on the lady ahead of me and stayed long enough for her friend to take out her camera and snap a photo. they had warned us before entering to not touch the butterflies, if one should happen to land on you, you should just leave it be until it flies away....

this one was my favourite! such a brilliant blue on the full other side of it's wings...

We got settled into our new room pretty quick... it's just as nice as the first room we had but with the bonus of a little refrigerator and a larger closet... still a small bathroom but how much time do we spend in there anyways LOL

Sunday, our first real day here, we walked and walked and walked! We quickly realized though that it's difficult to try and orient yourself, follow a map and read all the interesting facts about these amazing old buildings and the history behind them. so by late morning, we found ourselves at the tourist information building and signed up for a couple of tours for the next day. LOL
It wasn't just me! I had Guy reading the map too...

In the afternoon, we walked the Terrace Dufferin, got caught in some sprinkles (luckily it didn't last too long) and walked up 300 and something stairs up to the top of the walls at the Citadel. we also took a tour of the Governor General`s residence inside the Citadel. and then we went on to walk through the Planes of Abraham. such a beautiful beautiful park. Even at this time of year. I can just imagine once the flowers are all planted and in full bloom!

Yesterday we had a great guide who explained many things about the buildings in Upper Town and finished off in Lower Town (which we hadn't been to yet). I don't even know where to start but in the afternoon we took a bus to L'Ile d'Orléan and then to Montmorency Falls (amazing!!) and then to the Basilique Sainte-Anne de Beaupré. The Falls were incredible... so tall... so loud!! I wish we would have had more time to walk down the side and have a better view. The basilica was the most beautiful church i've ever been in. wow!! so ornate... so colourful... so BIG! We got to appreciate the work in the copper panels that told the story of Christ and the doors to enter the basilica because one of our earlier stops was to the studio of the craftsman who created them.

We have much more stops ahead of us today. More walking... more touring... so much more to see!

we have a lot of room for improvement at our house but I’d like to think that we're doing ok in the green department….


we’re getting better at the “reduce” part and we have always “reuse”d and “recycle”d (started in college). although I wish that our local recycler, KaMaR, would accept more types of recycling. we are able to recycle glass, aluminum, newspapers, magazines and catalogues but only certain types of plastics. (rule of thumb: if it has a screw cap it is probably the type of plastic KaMaR can accept in their recycling) we also have been using natural and/or environmentally friendly cleaning and laundry products for several years. a couple of years ago, I started using organic cotton tampons and that was around the same time we started using recycled paper products such as toilet paper, paper towel, napkins and kleenex. softness/quality can be an issue, so read user’s reviews online for these types of products! We also replaced all the light bulbs IN the house with compact fluorescents (another item that can vary – so many shades of white?!) and of course, we use reusable bags when we buy groceries. and my favourite reusable bag is.... (although not everyone gets the humour)















one day we will start composting and i am just waiting til we can replace our 30 year old deep freezer… yeah, like that’s not an energy hog!!! hmmm…. and maybe this summer we can put out a rain barrel.


ps. happy b-earth day, guy!


how to be green at work:

- can you carpool, walk or bike to work?
- recycle
- use environmentally friendly cleaning supplies
- turn off your computer monitor, printers, copy machines and the lights when they are not being used
- buy recycled content, remanufactured, and recyclable office products
- use spell check and proofread BEFORE you print or copy
- add reminder "Think before you print! Consider the environment. Réfléchissez avant d'imprimer! Pensons à l'environnement." to your signature for outgoing emails
- print double sided whenever possible
- buy reusable supplies vs. disposable
- reuse office supplies (such as binders)

Winnipeg?! Really?! Finally!! That was my thought process when I first heard SERIOUS talk last year about IKEA opening a store there. They still have some issues to work out but I figure they've come this far, it'll come to be!

My first IKEA experience was in 1988 while on a family trip to Alberta (don't ask my brother or sister about it, the only thing they'll remember is the pleasure of sharing the back seat of our Mercury Topaz) and one of the many places we stopped at was the West Edmonton Mall, which if I recall correctly wasn't too far from the IKEA store - which my Mom was not going to miss. We spent HOURS at the IKEA store. I thought it was cool place - I had never been to anyplace like it. And we left with a haul! We even had to buy a storage thing for the roof of the car. (Did I mention, we were driving a Topaz.)

Then fast forward to Guy's first IKEA experience, which was in 2004. He was going to be in Minneapolis for work so we had all come along and made a family trip of it. Well IKEA had just opened something like a few weeks prior to when we were there. I had been with the kids already but I wanted to get a few more things so I begged and pleaded with Guy that he just had to come to IKEA with me this time. He wasn't thrilled about it but he eventually caved : ) He thought if we went there first thing when they opened would be best. Yeah... right! Was it a Sunday morning, I think? We got through the Mall of America parking lot towards IKEA and they were directing traffic!! all the way to our parking spot!! Guy was in disbelief, he didn't get what the big deal was, why all these people would be coming in droves on a Sunday morning for this! Having people direct us where to go was great, couldn't imagine what it would have been like without them. Guy thought that was just crazy! Needless to say, the store was already bussling with shoppers. He doesn't like crowds so he wasn't thrilled to be there but he made the most of it ; )


To find out more about how IKEA went from the woods of southern Sweden to being a major retail experience in 40 countries/territories around the world, read IKEA history - how it all began.

1943 - IKEA is founded by Ingvar Kamprad
When Ingvar Kamprad is 17, his father gives him money as a reward for succeeding in his studies. He uses it to establish his own business. The name IKEA is formed from the founder's initials (I.K.) plus the first letters of Elmtaryd (E) and Agunnaryd (A), the farm and village where he grew up. IKEA originally sells pens, wallets, picture frames, table runners, watches, jewellery and nylon stockings - meeting needs with products at reduced prices.

1951 - The first IKEA catalogue is published

1956 - Designing furniture for flat packs and self-assembly
IKEA's decision to design its own furniture stems, ironically, from competitor pressure for suppliers to boycott IKEA. Exploration of flat packing begins when one of IKEA's first co-workers removes the legs of the LÖVET table so that it would fit into a car and avoid damaged during transit. After this discovery flat packs and self assembly become part of the concept.

1958 - The first IKEA store opens in Sweden

1976 - IKEA arrives in Canada
The first IKEA store opens in Vancouver.

1985 - IKEA arrives in the USA
The first IKEA store opens in Philadelphia.

1997 - IKEA on the web
The IKEA web site http://www.ikea.com/ is launched.

2000 - IKEA customers can shop online
E-shopping is launched in Sweden and Denmark. Since then many other markets have started offering online shopping at IKEA.

2012 - IKEA arrives in WINNIPEG!!!

I'll try to do better ... I'll have no excuses since I can blog from my blackberry...

that you can read here... i found (and of course and to buy!) coffee crisp at the cenex gas station in town!! i'm not sure how long they've had them there but i'll be sure to stop in there more often now : )

it might be worth something other than at canadian tire!! who'd have thunk?!

i was just chatting with a friend here and they were telling me about a recent trip to canadian tire where he paid for his purchase using only canadian tire money and he was surprised that he still earned ctm on his purchase - how cool is that? like he said - where else but in canada?!

i was forwarded this email (thanks ivan)... and thought it worth sharing...

you'll find cochrane a little northwest of calgary... with a population of about 12 000... you'll also find this AWESOME mural in downtown cochrane that took 200 artists 3 months to work on.

http://www.muralmosaic.com/Cochrane.html

i guess it was originally painted and then panels were taken apart for artists to paint individually and then reassembled back. when you click on each mosaic tile it will show in detail each one. some even show what the original tile was painted as.

check out the mosaic tile of the horse's eye, of the cowboy's nose and mouth, actually all the tiles in the cowboys face are incredible... i haven't had a chance to click on all the tiles yet, i'm sure i'll find more awesome ones... i can just imagine how this must look in person!

the girls had my eyes. i guess i've been told this before but this time it made me reflect a little more... and yes, i take it as a compliment! i think they have beautiful eyes... i love the colour - such a dark brown - they're so brilliant! although this photo isn't as clear as it should be, i still love it because this is how i always picture chantale and danielle... smiling, brilliant eyes, hair all messy and enjoying being together!

too funny! as i write this, chantale is coming in the house saying that danielle isn't letting her do something... oh well, i think i'll still choose to remember them always as they are in this photo : )

here we are waiting for the bus to take us to the fairgrounds... the kids weren't very patient : ) the bus runs every 15 minutes and we didn't even have to wait that long but it seemed like an eternity to the kids!


matthieu posing in front of his artwork that was submitted for the fair... his is the watercolour painting of the flowers in a pot. awesome work!!


matthieu and katlyn waiting for this ride to get going...

we all had fun at the fair but i'm glad it's done for another year! (but i'll miss the food)

katlyn and daniel playing game cube...


matthieu and jeremy playing nintendo ds...

more practical than some of those boxes that only have holes for 3 or 6 ribbons.

pretty to look at and cheap to create!

well that was fairly easy slipping into no school for the summer mode. need to take advantage of the kids' time off! also trying to get stuff done in the yard... the rain we got from last week/this weekend still has things wet in the backyard. pretty squishy by the play structure and trampoline. so the kids have been spending most of their time in the front yard.

matthieu got a soccer net which he begged for and is thoroughly enjoying. it's 6'x4' so it's an okay size but i think ideally it should be larger. he basks in every goal he scores against me or guy!

danielle is bummed.... no handstands for another month and she'll have to wait til then to take the training wheels off her big girl bike... doctor's orders : (

what a scorcher today was!!! wasn't ready for that yet - we're still only the beginning of june! thank god for central air!

danielle is bummed and matthieu is looking forward to the end of the school year... it sounds like matthieu isn't interested in taking in summer fun classes this summer.... oh well... i can still make him take swimming lessons - hopefully : )

i figured my flowers would be safe from freezing now so i planted my annuals last night, i'll get the others in the flower bed tonight. i hope monday morning was the last of the frost... guy put up the trampoline last night, so of course the kids were excited about that. the girls came up with this idea to jump rope on the trampoline.... i'm not ready to go back to the emergency room so i told danielle she had to be extra careful. "i know, mom" she says.... yeah, right.... she's also been begging to take the training wheels off her bike. she'll at least have to wait until her dr. says her arm is 100% when we go next week before we take off the training wheels. danielle has improved some for bending her arm but she has a long way to go! at least she can extend it all the way now.

that's it for now....

been busy.... haven't we all!
well where do i start? hmmmm... new name at work - our members voted to ammalgamate with caisse provencher (no, not the ones in winnipeg) so that become official - as of may 1, we are caisse la prarie. that's been a little hectic, but getting better now. we had some preparation to merge our two banking systems but most of it was done at administrative level so we didn't have to work on it too much : ) we threw a little "party", as matthieu called it. still getting used to answering the phone properly, and the new titles, new people, new service charges... keeping lots of notes handy.

saturday was national scrapbooking day - so of course had to go celebrate by scrapbooking... worked on memere's album and made a couple months worth of cards for card club. glad to have gotten those done! the weather on saturday was wet and dreary.... good day to be indoors and doing something i love.

now we're getting ready for the bedard garage sale this weekend... i think it's from 8am to 3pm on saturday if you feel like stopping by. look for the bright pink signs south of town among the sea of garage sale signs that will be up.

the grades 4, 5 and 6 will be putting on their spring program tomorrow.... i'll be going to watch matthieu in the afternoon. chantale will be with me but danielle is going to get her cast taken off tomorrow. she is sooooo looking forward to it. she's had this one on for four weeks now and i'm anxious for her to have it removed too... it's pretty filthy... guess that's what happens when you play in the dirt, in the rocks, and the sandbox with a cast on and get food on it and stuff. she's been very active with her cast on, didn't slow her down for long! guy will be bringing her tomorrow so hope the dr. thinks she's doing good enough that she won't need another one!

well, talk to you all soon....

well diane called me at work tuesday morning because danielle had a sore arm after jumping off a chair, not a high chair, not a kitchen chair, but a kid's little yellow plastic chair. i guess she landed on her arm and then it started to swell. i didn't know what to do when diane called to tell me about it - danielle wasn't crying, she could move her arm some, she said it hurt, but she wasn't crying. diane and i were at a loss, neither one of us have had to deal with broken bones before so we didn't know what to look for. diane put ice on it and then said she'd call in a little while to let me know danielle was doing. well then danielle was acting normal, playing and joking and eating, but she said it still hurt. luckily, one of diane's neighbours is a chiropractor so she asked him what he thought. dislocated, maybe? so we need to bring her in. i wasn't thinking when i left work, i was still signed on to everything, left my desk with stuff i was working on - thinking i'd back before the end of the work day. it couldn't be broken, we wouldn't be at hospital long. yeah, right!

first we go in a room where the nurse checks out danielle and asks her questions, then we get moved to another room. we wait there until they come get danielle to escort her to xray. she thought taking a picture of her arm was cool. she was hoping she'd get a chance to see the pictures of her arm. then we went back to the room to wait for the doctor. imagine my surprise when he comes in after looking at her xrays and telling us that danielle has a broken elbow! so they moved us to yet another room where the doctor came back to put her arm in a splint and said that we'd have to go see the "bone doctor" in grand forks. it hurt danielle when they were putting the splint on, but she was being tough! she didn't care for the sling they put her arm in though, especially when they said she'd have to keep it on til she saw the doctor the next day. they gave her prescription for tylenol with codeine.

danielle didn't wake up that night, but she was restless. so she didn't have any meds till yesterday morning, we gave her her dose and then a little bit to eat. she started saying she was going to be sick and sure enough.... she tried nibbling on a few things but nothing would stay down. when i called the hospital to see what i could give her instead, they said it was the codeine, it's hard on the stomach. she was still throwing up on the way to grand forks. fun... i even missed my exit because i was trying to help danielle open the bag - poor thing was having a hard time managing with one good hand : )




so then we're at the valley bone and joint clinic, chantale is striking up a conversation with EVERYONE... "what's your name?" and usually they wouldn't realize she was talking to them, so it was like a loop of "what's your name?" "what's your name?" "what's your name?" until they would turn their attention to her LOL



all the doctors and nurses there are super nice. a VERY busy place! dr. thompson is her doctor, he showed us where the break was and said it's aligned pretty good but you could see one part where it was jutting out slightly, he said that should not cause any problems though. he explained a few things and that we'd have a few trips ahead of us. luckily we'll be able to do the re-xray in a week in roseau and they'll send the pictures to the clinic in grand forks for her doctor to take a look at them there. we'll be going back to grand forks in three weeks when she'll likely have this cast removed and have a new one put on for another three weeks. after that, danielle will need "parental supervision" for a while. LOL.


ben came and wrapped her arm in a full arm cast, he enlisted me as his nurse - good thing we had a good patient or i might not have done so well : ) he's a super nice guy too - gave us some tips on taking baths, etc. since he'd been through it last year when his little guy broke his arm. i gave guy a call when we were done. he was in grand forks for work and he took some time off to join us for lunch. we went to boston pizza - but in the states they call in "boston's - the gourmet pizza" as i've been corrected.

oh yeah, dr. thompson gave danielle prescription for an anti-nausea medicine or something but i brought it back to roseau to get filled, no one had that dose in liquid. they could get it by this afternoon but in the meantime she'd be puking... so we decided to try just regular tylenol/motrin and that's been working fine. she says she's not in pain with just the regular stuff so we'll keep up with that.

flashback to when my nephew, daniel, was one and a half (i think?) and he broke his leg after a tumble from a little tykes-type playstructure - and he had to be in a whole leg cast : (

danielle appreciates the calls and emails : ) so thanks for checking on her. if you do talk to her, please remind her she needs to rest her arm and not be so active - she thinks she can still continue to do everything like usual!