Isn't she cute?

This is our new addition to the family as of this Saturday and her name is Nellie.

There had been spotted a nest with young kittens in the barn with the hay of the horses and somebody talked Emily into having a new kitten. We gave her permission and she could not believe it. For days she was busy with what to do, what to buy and so on.

When she spoke about having a wild kitten she feared it might not be so attached to here as she was hoping for. So it had to be a 'normal' kitten and rather yesterday then today. So we found an add in Friday's newspaper about an oppertunity on Saturday. After some garage sales Emily and Peter found there was one kitten left.

They came to show it to me at work. She is adorable. She is lively. She loves toes and feet. She is adventurous. She is cute.

Emily does not do anything else than playing with her, petting her, letting her sleep in her lap and lifting her all the time. Running from her when she aimes for her legs and being mad at us when we make her clean the mess this little cutie pie makes.

Our 12 year old grannies don't make a fuss. Noortje stays away and Nipper just ignores her. Funny if you see Nellie going after Nipper's tail and Nipper is just being cool eating her food.

Yep, this little one will keep us busy for the time to come. Now all we need is a dog....

Fish gotta swim

That's why I accompanied Emily and her class to the Kingfisher Interpretative Society Center (look at http://www.cedarridgecottage.ca/?q=node/54) to let the Chinook Salmon swim in the Shuswap River.

We went with the schoolbus to the Center which is a drive of more than an hour. Her school gets the salmon eggs and when the fry is big enough they put them back. Just like they do at the center. It was very interesting to learn about the salmon and their environment. She did some digging in bug soup and discovered lots of small bugs and a little salamander, quite exceptional.

They learned about water and the environment of that. And they found out that having a hotdog lunch in the pouring rain is not the best way to do it. The Chinook Salmon is a Pacific Salmon and we all hoped that our salmon is one of the few that make it back to the ocean and come back in the river. You could name your salmon and I must say there are a lot of Bob's and Bubble's out there!

Never a dull moment....

After an attempt this weekend to fall backwards in a creek, all bruised and scratches on my arm, I had another stupid thing. I parked my car backwards in a creek where the horses are.

We were leaving the property because Emily was going to do her weekly lesson horseback riding. I was supposed to be the last one leaving there. It was a combination of stupidity and bad luck that had me ending up in the ditch.

When I was a little too further backwards then I felt comfortable with, I must have hit the pedal again. That and the underminded side of the creek caused me flying backwards. After the big bang it got to be awful silent. I figured out there was nothing wrong with me, besides a big dent in my ego, and called Peter.

He send the owner of the horse back to me and stayed with Emily himself. I tried to get out, putting my car in 4-wheel-drive but I was to upright -it must have been in a 45 degree angle or so- to move. Only deeper into the mud. K. tried pulling me out of there. The band he used did not work and later on the iron chain also not. He was afraid to wreck the bottom of the car.

BCAA told me the tow truck would be there within the hour. Only with K.'s help I could get out of the car. There was just not enough room to walk around the door, even when he held it open for me. So I got out, jumped to the other side of the creek.............right with my hand in the little thorns of the dry grass there...

The tow truck was there pretty quick there and it all seemed a piece of cake. He has an arm that can be pulled out, allowing him not to only pull the car out of there but also lifting it up a little. The car came out fairly OK. There is a plastic part near the right wheel behind that needs a hand to go back in the right place and there are some skid marks on my gastank.

Just stay around me; never a dull moment!

What is she doing?

Emily her habits are sometimes what unusual....

We do not like to drink out of the tab at home. Maybe we were too spoiled with our Dutch drinking water, maybe it is the strange colour and smell, or the boil water notice a few months ago.

At the rental house we had a filter system in the fridge. Now Peter has bought the bottles at the video rental/water store and has them refilled whenever we need. We use it for drinking, coffee, lemonade and even the cats get there water from this dispenser.

Emily stated that she did not like to drink water out of a glass. Drinking is very hard to do for her so we had to come up with a solution: using a funnel!

It might look a bit weird but everybody is happy now...

Spring is coming

This is what our back yard looked like on Sunday morning. Yesterday, monday afternoon, we took a look in it and all the snow on the grass had disappeared.

It was a real adventure since we had not been in there yet, after moving in. In the red shed is a ride-on lawnmower and, to Peter's joy, it has a cart for behind it too! We have found, in different places, lots of tools. We have established where the trampoline will come and checked out the seating in the far corner. The picknick table is not to well but we have a new one waiting to be assembled.

There is also a compost bin. I would like to find out, as soon as possible, to see what it needs to work. The erator in our sink can handle it, but not the septic tank. And it is such a waste to let it go into the landfill!

All the -little- jobs that we have found outside made it clear that we have to take care of the ones inside real soon. And I would not mind that since Peter has moved into my crafts room while a good friend and he are renovating his office. I just had it almost finished and I can't still be in there...

But we are so happy in our new house!

Our very own Clown

She was a marvellous clown tonight!

With the choir that she takes part in, Emily had a part in the mini-musical 'Clowns'. They had worked very hard for it; the last month four (4!) hours per week instead of the usual one. Their performance almost made us forget all the extra driving, the soccer teams and Saturday's that the choir conducter messed up ;-)

It was a combination of 'Dragonflies' and 'Fireflies' this time. We ended up hiring a costume for her and borrowed some face crayons in the basement before the show. And we had time spend in the bathroom to get about 14 braids in her hair with colorful elastics.

We were very proud of her performance! She had some important lines and sung the songs. I do remember her just a week ago with a difficult scentence that was added to her other, much more simpler, lines. She knew them but it sounded awful. Tonight it was perfect. And if you also get to hear about her having such a positive influence on the group and being so nice to work with it just makes you so proud of being her mother.

But the most important thing is that she has to enjoy it. And I can tell you she really did!

They are here !

They are here; Peter's parents from Holland.

We picked them up from Vancouver airport at May 12. Their plane was 5 hours late so we all took a hotel room so we did not have to travel at night. Besides that they were exhausted and we did not want to get home at 3 a.m. ;-)

Since then almost one-and-a-halve week have passed. We have showed them our house and the neighbourhood, Emily's school and Silver Star Mountain. They have been to a few store and we took them to Davidson Orchards where this picture was taken. We also tried to get to a waterfall but due to many reasons, did not get there. But we all enjoyed the scenic route!

It is not easy for them here. They sleep in the basement where it still is, even after the hot temperatures of this weekend, very cold. Peter's father does not well with taking stairs so that is hard too. Today we went to the Red Cross to lend a cane for the rest of their staying here.

Maybe needless to tell but we love having them! We really wanted them to come and show them how we are doing. Now they know were the golfcourse is, where we do the grocery shopping and who are friends are here. They get to meet Emily's friends, get a chance to hear her sing with the choir and talk with them. I have not been reading her stories for months but now that grandma is here, she does.

We hope their visit is one they will long remember in a very pleasant way!