http://www.clearlandmines.com

I sure haven't been here often lately. You'd think nothing has been going on. Which is not the case! We've had two birthdays in the past month. F and M have turned 4 and 3. The baby has learned to crawl, with all that entails! I hadn't had anyone getting into the cats dishes in a while, lol. Scott is loving Grade 6. He has a fantastic teacher, Mr. F. Both Kevin and Leanne had him, years back when they were in elementary school. Scott is thrilled to have him for his teacher now too. Divy has started Kindergarten. It has been a bumpy beginning. He is a different kid there. Normally he is very outgoing, talkative, anything but shy. There he hasn't said one word, and he has been going since Sept. 4th. He even cried for me there on Tuesday morning. Not for long, but he did have a bit of a meltdown his teacher said. He cries every morning, telling me he doesn't want to go. He says yes, he likes the teacher. Yes, he likes the kids. Yes, he has fun there. He doesn't seem to be able to express what he finds so upsetting. Today was better. He didn't exactly run into the classroom and start playing, but he wasn't nearly so reluctant as he has been. Hopefully this is the turning point for him. Of all the kids I've had start Kindy, I've never had one that wasn't eager from the beginning, so this is kind of breaking my heart.

I had a great phone call from Kevin last night. They are heading home to Edmonton tonight! Even better he will be coming home tomorrow night!! He'll be driving, so he'll leave Edmonton after work on Friday and be waiting for the first ferry Saturday morning. He doesn't know yet how much leave they'll be getting, but he has been working 13 hour days since the beginning of August fighting the fires. Hopefully they'll get a week, but we'll take anything we can get!

Steve and I are going on vacation at the end of the month. We'll be cruising from Vancouver to LA, then going to Las Vegas. I think I'm looking forward to seeing Julie as I am the rest of the trip! I just hope I don't have to show that nasty scary passport photo along the way.

Kevin is becoming quite the famous face. Ok, so not really. I'm excited though cause he phoned this morning and he will be on CBC Saturday Report tonight. I don't know how many of my Canadian friends will see this before it comes on, but I thought I'd put this here just in case. I've got the VCR set and ready to go!

My son is in the Aug. 25 Globe and Mail. On page A6! He called tonight about 6 p.m. and I headed right out to pick up a copy. Do you know how hard it is to find at that hour of the day??? I had to go to four stores before I finally found it.

For those of you wanting to find a good source of information on the Okanagan Mountain Park fire, this site is full of up to date info. The pictures are amazing too. This is one that I couldn't stop staring at. To think the fire could devour the home yet leave the marigolds untouched.

I don't know how many of you outside of BC are aware of this, but there are unimaginable fires sweeping through our province. There are over 800 burning now. 

Being hit especially hard right now is the city of Kelowna, with 30,000 people having been evacuated as of last night. That fire has already destroyed Okanagan Moutain Park, but it is no longer a forest fire, it is a forest and urban fire. Over 200 homes have gone up and many more are threatened. The fire now covers more than 19,000 hectares. For my American friends, a hectare is approx. 2.5 acres. It is being called a Level 6 Fire Storm. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but apparently it is the worst type of fire. You can read more about the situation here or here.

Please keep the people in all the threatened areas in your thoughts and prayers. Also the hundreds of men and women who are doing all is humanly possible to put the fires out. One of those men happens to mean the world to me. My son Kevin is there. We heard a report last night that some firefighters had been trapped by the flames, so needless to say we spent a horrific night waiting for more word. They were able to be rescued.

Wow, just as I was typing that Kevin called. They worked from 6 a.m. yesterday til 6 a.m. this morning, and are just getting set to head back out. He said he was in one of the neighbourhoods that went up. He told me that as they were running for their lives down a hill, he thought to himself he was glad his momma couldn't see him now. I'm sure glad too!  

Gone Camping!!

This is rather embarrassing having to ask, but ask I must. Is someone here Terry and Susan? I had a flower delivery a while ago. Two dozen gorgeous roses in a beautiful glass vase. A touching message, signed by Terry and Susan. I feel so idiotic, but I can't think of who that is. If it is someone here, please forgive my ignorance, and let me know it was you!

Edited: I am certified an idiot. Terry is our accountant and Susan his wife. He only took over our business stuff a couple months ago, and I have never met him. Steve was talking to him this morning and told him what was going on. Obviously before we got the good news. How sweet is that, to send me flowers?!?!?!?!

"benign findings"

Aren't those the sweetest words? They sure are the best two words I've heard in a while now.   

I go in Tuesday morning to talk with my doctor, but he wanted me to know that the results looked good. After hearing those two magical words, the nurse went on to read more to me, something like negative mammagram and negative ultrasound. I'm not sure of the exact words, since the word I needed to hear had already been said. Whew.

To all of you who left messages of support, thank you. I know that there is a wonderful group of people out there, and having you all come by to offer up a kind word and a hug means more than I can say. Thank you,

On Thursday I went for my yearly check-up. My doctor found a lump in my breast. Today I went for a diagnostic mammogram. They took two pictures of each breast, then told me to go back into the waiting room so the doctor could be sure they had a good picture before I left. Several minutes later, they called me back up to the desk. The doctor wanted some more pictures. This time they focused on the right side of my right breast, where the lump my doctor had found is. Used some sort of add on that magnified the area they wanted to focus on. Back again to the waiting room. Thank God Steve had come with me. This time they told me that I needed to be sent for an ultrasound of the breast. They could fit me in in two hours.

I haven't been able to get here for ages, kept getting Page cannot be displayed messages. When this is a service I pay for, I can't help but getting pissed about it.

Thank you to those of you kind enough to comment or send me messages saying I was missed. Makes a gal feel good!

The funniest thing happened last week.  We were having corn on the cob with our dinner. Divy was loathe to stop long enough to eat, as usual. We had told him he couldn't play until he ate some of his food. He sat there for a long time, slowly getting a bit of his meat ate up. Now we never force kids to 'eat everything on their plate', but we do want them to eat something. At least enough to keep a bird alive.

Suddenly Annie jumped up, and ran down to our room. Div had gotten up, but I ASSumed he was going for a pee, like he does most meals. For whatever reason, he likes to use our bathroom. Luckily she had noticed that the corn had gone to the bathroom with him, and mysteriously not come back when he did. The little turkey had FLUSHED his corn down MY toilet!! TG it was only half a cob, but still, bigger than the typical turd. It disappeared and the toilet worked the rest of the evening, so we were hoping all was well. Not so.

For the next day, our toilet wouldn't flush. I wonder why? When Steve got home he went to work. Plunging of course had no results. He ended up taking the toilet off and emptying it, into MY shower. Then he could actually see the cob, stuck somewhere. I wasn't getting that close to the inner workings of a toilet to find out exactly where. He tried to get a grip on it with his hand. Nope, not grab-able.

Then he digs out the tools. Meaning an unbent wire hanger. Next, one of  my paring knives. Still no freeing of the cob. Ok, time for drastic measures. He figures he can blast it out. Literally. He takes the friggen toilet outside. To sit on MY front lawn. He then goes and gets his power washer. All the while, there sits my crapper. Did I mention it was sitting on MY front lawn? Oh, I did. Why not the back yard you may be asking. Funny, I asked myself the same thing.

Crowds gather as he gets busy blasting hell out of the corn cob caught in my crapper. Or maybe it just seemed that way. People out for an evening stoll slow down and gawk, and neighbours seemed caught in a spell of sorts, watering the same area until it is afloat with water as they watch the unfolding drama. One is brave enough to come over and chat about what is happening. Steve showed considerable restraint I thought, as he didn't tell him to piss off.

Water blasting didn't budge the bugger. Back to the heavy duty plumber tools. Meaning the paring knife. I suppose the water, coat hanger and knife combined worked magic, cause suddenly there appeared a perfect fat half corn on the cob. Looked almost good enough to eat.

I forgot to take pictures.