Monday, July 30, 2012

Welcome to Camp Canada!

Yay!  We were pretty excited!  Bronwyn, Mike, Rubs and Pash came to visit us on the weekend.  Welcome to Camp Canada!

Guess what the first thing they did was?  Like any decent, self respecting family, they piled into various vehicles and went for sushi.  Janet likes to turn any occasion into a sushi lunch.
Look how happy Mikey looks!  Mike and Bronwyn don't normally go for sushi in Portland.
After they made sure they were more than full, we finally got to eat:
Janet says she can't believe how much dog fur four dogs leave on the floor and how much water they power through.  Can you believe how cute AND obedient we are....well, truth be known, food was on the horizon.  Spot quiz - who knows which Golden retriever is Pash?
We also spent some time smelling the roses.  OK, not roses, just pretty flowers
The door to the back porch is shut, so now Rockers is having a mini melt down.  He loves to sit on the deck, but all doors need to be open.  The second it's closed, he needs to get inside.  I might be Naughty, Naughty Noodles, but he is seriously Crazy, Crazy, Rockers!
After their lunch of sushi, they headed out for Chinese for dinner.  We know Janet is bucking for a new stove, so we wonder if she was putting some pressure on Phil by not cooking any meals on the weekend.  Mike took his parents home and fell asleep at their house.  Here are the new sleeping arrangements at Camp Canada:

The time flew by..before we knew it, they were packing up to go home.  We were sad!  Janet told us  Pash could stay with us, and perhaps we could take her home in August.  Phil said it wasn't a good idea because with Rocker's surgery there would be three of us in the back of the car and it was too many.  Sorry, Pash!
There was a really scary room in our house that is "lovingly" referred to as the "dungeon".  Janet has not been in this room for at least 20 years.  This week,  Jeremy spent several hours cleaning it out.  What an improvement!  He also found the coolest thing:
Janet made this when Meg was a baby!  Isn't it cute?  It needs a bit of repair work, but by and large, is in really good shape.  Janet was super happy!

Here we are, exhausted after our 15 minute walk with Phil this morning.  Camp Canada is really tiring!

Friday, July 27, 2012

New Beds and Food

Hi everyone....guess what!  Janet strong armed Phil into buying us new doggie beds.  They are so comfy and smell all pretty with cedar.  We love them! Phil grumbled and complained was delighted to buy them for us and congratulated Janet on such a good decision - yeah, right!  The old ones have already gone to the dump, so we are secure in our ownership of the new ones.

Well, sometimes the people version is just as comfy.
Look what Janet made this week - Phil's friend Peter brought over some sour cherries from a tree in their yard, so Janet made Cherry Pie.  Janet said she had never made cherry pie before.  It looks all nice and juicy, but her lattice is a little crooked.

Then, they invited Lolo and Stevie and Frank for dinner on Monday.  Frank is down in the dumps because Shirley went back to China.   He was going to spend the evening ironing, but Phil is so persuasive and charming he talked him out of it. Good thing - surely (get it??) a home cooked meal trumps ironing!   For an appetizer, Janet made some guacamole that they served with Juanita chips and some salsa Janet made last fall.  For dinner they had Home Made Baked Beans, BBQ Prime Rib and Layered Salad.  Dessert - Miss Lazy Pants Newest Go To Dessert - Rhubarb Cheesecake.
Janet made some Bar-B-Que Sauce
The beans after they baked in the oven for more than six hours.

Here is Lolo, looking at Meg's wedding gift cookbook.  She didn't think she should look at it, but Janet insisted, saying "Goodness Gracious, Meg won't mind!"  Hah!  Who actually thinks Janet says "goodness gracious"!
When our Aunt T was here, she spent a lot of time helping Janet prepare dinners.  She was shocked to find out Janet didn't have a salad spinner.
Now she does!  Aunt T bought Janet this cool salad spinner with a pretty lime green lid.  Janet has already used it three times and questions why she didn't already own one!
This is the salad spinner Janet sometimes uses at work.  It' really, really big.

Here is a brand new super size mayo at Janet's work with margarine behind it.  They usually make about 320 sandwiches on Thursdays.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Janet is Shameless

When Meg and Derek decided to get married, they hosted a website with all things wedding info.  One of the things they mentioned were no gifts.  Janet and Lolo discussed this, looked at the website together and discussed it further.  Lolo has a mind of her own, so she and Steve bought a gift.  Lolo was afraid that Meg already had the gift, so confided to Janet what it was.  Meg and Derek did receive a few gifts, but only opened a couple.  Janet, using her inside knowledge, strong armed Meg to open the gift from Lolo and Steve.

It's the new Ree Drummond cookbook, called Food From My Frontier.  Guess what Janet has been using for the last week or so?  She is such a slob when cooking, our guess is she will be buying Meg and Derek a new version.

The first thing she made was Steak with Blue Cheese Sauce and her favourite, furry potatoes.  Not seeing any green stuff, Janet!
As of today, I have been trapped in one of my two little pens for five weeks.  Do you believe Noodles?  She has the audacity to be dragged off the couch to go for a walk.
I'm tired....come back later.  Oddly enough, Janet thought that was BS and dragged her sorry doggie butt out the door.

Noodles lives to get in trouble.  She found something smelly to roll around in, so had to endure Phil hosing her off with some doggie shampoo.  We love to play in water, muddy ponds, the ocean and the like.  The water in the hose - we hate that water!
Janet was on kind of a cooking roll this week.  In addition to some nice dinners, she made Bran Muffins.  She spent about 45 minutes going through all her cook books to find a recipe she liked (and had all the ingredients for).  After she made them, she told Phil she thought Lolo's recipe was much better.  Phil - Mr. Loves. Lolo's. Bran. Muffins. He even dispenses hugs over those muffins!  How many of Janet's has he had - ONE!  Janet tries hard not to count them everyday, but she can't stop herself.
This dinner was Razor Clams with homemade tartar sauce and a Pasta Salad recipe that Janet actually made up out of her head.  Shocking stuff because Little Miss Versatility Anal rarely goes outside the box.

This was a new recipe that Janet tried last night - Vietnamese Shrimp Pops with Peanut Sauce.
Look what Janet and Rockers saw when they went for Rocker's ten minute walk:
Janet says she remembers the Ice Cream Truck from when she was a little girl, but it didn't look like this.  She said her favourite treat was Fudgesicles and they cost 10 cents each.  Bet they are more now, but the ice cream truck still has the jingly little tunes to lure in the small kiddies!  They wondered if that little girl had too much ice cream or didn't have enough money to buy some!







































































































Sunday, July 15, 2012

It's All Quiet

Everyone has left our house, and now, it's so quiet it's almost eerie!

Janet has a new volunteer job, which is receptionist on Friday mornings at Our Place.  She is so nervous she gets a stomach ache and stutters when she answers the phone.  She told Phil she really likes it, but it's complicated - there are extensions to pass people to, messages to take, mail to stamp and sort. We really hope she gets it together soon as she would be crushed if she were "fired".  We know she would cry for sure if she were advised to stick to making coffee in the Nutrition Bar.  Go, Janet, Go - you can do it!
Janet is practicing at home for her new reception job.
When everyone first started to arrive for the wedding, Team JanDerBri went for a bike ride.  Briana suggested they go on Queenswood Road.  Janet had never been on that street before and she said it was beautiful.  Then on Tuesday, Team JanDerHan went for another bike ride, back on Queenswood.  They rode to the bottom of the big hill that Janet had to walk up during the Tour de Victoria.  This time she rode all the way to the top!

This really cute Mom and baby were at a rest stop they had on Queenswood.
Look what Noodles drew Janet and Phil's attention to!  At first we thought there was just a big one, but it turns out there are three babies as well.


We had two nights of thunder and lightning storms, which almost never happens in Victoria.  Noodles was really scared and kept waking Phil up.  When it comes to be woken up in the middle of the night, by almost anything, Janet whips out her "can't hear anything without my hearing aids" card.  We think she's pushing the envelope, but Phil hasn't clued in yet!




Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Rockers Didn't Get to be Ring Pup

There are lots of family staying at our house, so Phil is barista for quite awhile every morning.  He loves to complain, but we think he is only joking! We also think that Phil need not lose sight of the fact that this is basically his only kitchen job!  Wouldn't you think that Mother Of The Bride would be the first person to get her latte, as she is on a normal day?  WRONG!  Turns out daughters and mothers and fathers take precedence.
Rockers was a little bit sad about not being Ring Pup, so I tried to cheer him up.  He pointed out that I didn't get to be Flower Pup either, but I knew in my heart the chances were slim to non existent.  When you hear people saying things like "No Kia" (which I thought it was the name of a phone company) or "Naughty Naughty Noodles" you can pretty much rest assured there isn't any flower carrying in your future.  Rockers was somewhat consoled because the teddybear didn't get to be Ring Bear either.
Our nice neighbours made a pretty blackboard congratulating Meg and Derek.  It was a big surprise and Janet cried she was so touched.  Not shown in the photo is a big round ball with roses covering it entirely.
Janet and Meg made some Pork Dumplings, Smoked Salmon Tortilla Roll Ups and Meg and Derek bought sushi to serve at the champagne toast after the ceremony.  The caterers arrived at 3PM and got to work.
The bar area, being set up.
Now all we need is a bride and a groom!
See how handsome and beautiful our children are?  We love them!

They had appies and champagne at our house and then everyone went to the Oak Bay Bistro for the reception.
The wedding favours.

The Last of the Gang Arrives

The last family to arrive was our Aunt T and Uncle Bob.  Of course, everyone kick starts the visit with a nice sushi lunch.

Here they are with Uncle Henry.  We don't know why, but all our children call him Allah.  Janet says it's because when Meg was a baby, she couldn't say Henry, so called him Allah.  Sounds kind of crazy, because they are both pretty easy words.  Aunt T and Uncle Bob were just coming in from the airport, so they were lucky to get some of the tuna sashimi.

This is Janet's absolute favourite - Joe's Special Roll.  She says it might be Aunt T's favourite now too!

There is so much going on at our house.  Bronwyn is making fabric covers for the wedding party favours, which are Homemade Strawberry Jam.  Bronwyn, in a weak moment decided to buy seven flats of local Oregon strawberries to "start" making some jam.  She made 90 jars in one day!  She was exhausted!

Banana is helping out with our pork back rib supper:
Don't worry - they are still wrapped in plastic wrap.
Derek and Noodles are stressing out:
And finally, game on!  The chairs have arrived and there is no going backwards now!


More on "Wedding Week"

On Wednesday, Betty, Brian, Henry and Bronwyn arrived.  Poor Rockers is trapped in his little area and wants to get out to see everyone.

They celebrated Bronwyn's birthday on Wednesday.  Janet made all of Bronwyn's favourite foods.
Lemon Cream Cheese Salad

They also had Layered Salad and Shish ka bob and all our children's favourite - stuffed chocolate cake.



Here is the birthday girl, opening her cards.

After dinner, Briana, Bronwyn and Jeremy showed Meg and Derek the wedding gift they had made for them - a personalized door mat!
They thought it was pretty cool!

Monday, July 9, 2012

Leading Up to Our Wedding

Boy, oh, boy!  We had all kinds of things we wanted Janet to blog about, but she was too busy to do the typing for us.  Our week started out on Canada Day.  Janet and Phil were invited to Frank and Shirley's Canada Day Party.  Frank has a condo on the water in the Inner Harbour and Janet says the vantage point for watching fireworks is excellent.  This is the same building where Janet had her "staging" job.
Frank and Shirley on the balcony.
Here is the Blackball Coho Ferry cruising past Frank's condo.  The ferry moves quickly and Janet's photo skills are a tad lacking.
Janet made a Pina Colada cheesecake to take as Frank doesn't do desserts.  They couldn't stay very long because Janet wanted to get home and have dinner with Briana, Ted, Meg, Derek and Jeremy.

The next day, Janet's great friend Lolo brought over two types of muffins.  We could hear Janet calling Lolo bad names, which is very unusual as they always laugh together.  Turns out Lolo brought bran muffins that Phil loves and Janet never makes.  We think Janet shouldn't look a gift muffin in the mouth!
Look how delicious they look!  Lolo thought all the muffins would be a good idea with so many people visiting, and she was right.  Lolo and Stevo were also at Frank's party, so in addition, she scooped up all the left over cheesecake that Janet made and the remainder of the Lemon Bars that Lolo had taken.  Janet envisions Lolo literally taking plates out of people's hands!  
 Meg purchased a bottle of the special Tour de Victoria Pale Ale, so Janet, Meg and Briana all toasted each other.

Because Janet's daughters are so pretty, she likes to think they are the spitting image of her.  We think she needs new glasses!