We Are Back, In A Major Way!

Janet has been way too busy to post our blog for us, but now we are back, and we don't mean maybe!  We have had some fun and busy times.  Mr. Baby arrived with his "handlers".  One person is a full time "handler" and the other has split duty as "handler/bodyguard".  Jeremy was already here, Grandma and Grandpa arrived shortly before that and Briana arrived way past Janet's photographic skills.  Brownyn showed up the next day at 10:15AM.

What self respecting 64 year old man goes out in public in his jammies at 10:30AM??

We first had a party with some friends and a couple neighbours so they could come in and admire Mr. Baby.  Everyone thought he was pretty cute.  They had Cilantro Cream Dumplings, Sushi, Smoked Salmon Roll Ups and Artichoke and Spinach Dip with Juanitas.

Here he is with his major "handler".  It's her job to make sure he gets fed, bathed, changed and they are still working on the sleeping angle of Mr. Baby's gig.  The other "handler" keeps the paps away in case he does something that might make the tabloids

Some sisterly love with Mr. Baby.

Two loving aunties, one loving mommy and one much adored Mr. Baby.

Low and behold, they had another party!  This is so out of the ball park for Janet.  Two parties in three days!  We shudder to think how long we will hear about this for!  They had long time friends Brad and Laurie coming here from Calgary to bike for two days with nine friends.  They came to our house on the last night and it was so much fun.

Carmelized Onion and Cambazola Tart (crazy lady forgot to serve this on Saturday night!), Tuscan Bread Salad, Roast Beef with buns, Grilled Veggies and Olive Cheese Bread.  Lolo was really kind and brought two desserts on Saturday so that Janet could save one for Monday and Briana made our family favourite of Stuffed Chocolate Cake because it's Bronwyns' birthday next week.

That's actually tin foil above Phils index finger, but it kinda looks like a Liberace style ring!

Brad and Laurie with Janet and Phil.

Brad reminded Janet that he was Megs' first babysitter when she was only five weeks old!  Why would two people with no money or friends possibly need a babysitter?

Guess what!!  Mr. Burr finally departed with "Betsy" (he corrected Janet as she referred to his piece of shit as Bessie) and now has new "wheels".  Apparently, his love affair with "Betsy" was over as now he is driving this sparkly baby.

Monteith Street Russian Roulette, Real Estate style over and done with!

Single Mom Moves Onto Our Street

Janet bakes!  She wanted some rhubarb muffins, but didn't want to go to the store for the rhubarb.  Off she went, down the street to get some for free from Neighbour Jack.  Janet loves free!

Mmmm...they look yummy!  Janet actually has rhubarb in her garden, but it's really lame.

Then, because Jeremy was coming home, she whipped up his favourite dessert - Grasshopper Pie.

Pretty!

Janet and I relaxed in the sun.

Is it possible to be any cuter than this?  Seriously.  Let's not get the parental units of Mr. Baby involved in this conversation as they are likely to disagree.

Janet is Volunteer Receptionist on Friday mornings, so she gets dressed up in her version of fancy pants clothes. 

We enjoyed our dinner.  Noodles is playing her colour blind card as she knows full well the red bowl is mine.  Back up the bus, Noodles!

Here is the new single mom on our street.  She may not be a new neighbour as there was a raccoon last summer with three babies.  She's pretty cute, but those are some mean looking claws! 

She is having trouble finding suitable accommodation for herself and her three babies.  First she rented out the shed in Neighbour Williams yard, but they disinvited them by making a lot of noise.  Now, she has moved into the shed beside our vegetable garden.  Phil is trying to encourage her to move on with noise and lights.  We learned last year that raccoons will have four or five dens they move around to.  Janet says hell will freeze over before she goes into the veggie garden while Ms. Raccoon is still in residence.

A Special Day At Janet's Work

Last Thursday was a special lunch at Our Place.  It was sponsered by AON, a global insurance company.  All over the world, Aon offices support a local cause for "National Service Day".

There were 560 hamburgers, laden with cheese, tomatoes, onions and lettuce.  Potato salad, fruit salad and cake and ice cream.  It was beautiful and sunny out!

Prior to helping with the serving, Janet filled these teeny tiny paper cups with butter.

The man in the white shirt and black pants is Brian, head of Food Services.  He is working out the logistics with the AON people.

The line went through the courtyard, around the corner and down the block!  Kind of reminded Janet of how huge the lineups were for passports when the U.S. said we all needed one.  Janet said the line up would be way past their office and down the street.

There were two of these gigantic containers of potato salad and fruit salad.  All the hamburgers were eaten and most of the salad was gone.

We had a visitor the other day.  It's Mickey!  He used to Mexican, but then he got to move to Canada.  He is Glenn's dog and he is a lucky doggie who gets to go to work everyday.

Janet thinks he's pretty cute!

Noodles and Mickey chillin'.

Mr. Beau was out for a walk with Neighbour Jack.  Mr. Beau had to have minor surgery, but he's still walkin' the walk and talkin' the talk!

Janet's photo makes his leash look like it's about 25 feet long.

In the meantime, I have still not recovered from helping take care of Mr. Baby.  It's a lot of work and the responsibility was crushing.  We aren't accustomed to being around babies.

Janet says Mr. Baby and his parent's are coming soon.  We'd best get all the rest we can so we can watch over him. In addition to being God Pups, we are also Nanny Pups!

God Pups Of The World Unite!

We are so excited to be God Pups, or do you think it should be Great God Pups?  Meg never actually sanctioned the idea to Janet, but she also didn't ask her "what are you, nuts?", so we are running with it.  Not only that, Meg is far too busy at the moment to read our blog, so we can bask in the glory.

We started off Sunday with a little stroll down to the Oak Bay Tea Party.  It was beautiful and sunny and there were lots of people.

Every year, this is an issue for me.....I can't seem to wrap my head around stepping over, or on this cover they use to hide the cords.

When I can hear people snickering, I finally muster up the courage.  I don't want to be known as the village idiot dog!

After our walk, we were thrown into the back of the Volvo, and off we went!  First order of the day....lunch at Crow and Gate Pub.

Well, first order of the day if you are a person.  If you are a dog, you wait in the back of the car in the shade.

Look who we discovered in Squamish!  Mr. Baby Finley!

Hi, little Buddy!

Mr. Baby quickly got into the swing of things.  He and Phil are networking and schmoozing.

Even Grandfather's have to make a buck!

Janet had Phil make some more of those ridiculous hats.

Our hats say "It's A Boy" and Mr. Baby's hat says "Finley, I'm The Boy"  He felt as foolish as we did.  You can tell he is a bit concerned about growing up around these crazy ass grandparents!   I can at least fake it, but look at Noodle's face - she has the 'get me the hell out of here now!" look written all over it!

See Mr. Baby's fancy pants bassinet?  It's a loaner from Phil and Janet and Meg's friends Karen, Ken and Raeleigh.

Don't worry, Mr. Baby Finley....Noodles has your back!

Janet "says" they were very cheap poor (and sounds like hugely disorganized) when Meg was born.  Janet is rocking the "she was three weeks early" gig.  This was Meg's bed when she first came home from the hospital.  Who lets a newborn baby sleep in such a manner?  On the bright side, Meg turned out pretty well, so perhaps it was tough love, newborn style!

Yes, folks.  In case you think you have misunderstood, a laundry basket like this one was Meg's first bed.  When she got too long, she was moved to an empty dresser drawer - outside of the dresser, of course!  Finally and we are willing to bet,  just moments before Children's Welfare dropped by, someone gave them a real crib.

Looking out for Mr. Baby is exhausting.

Look....he's asleep!

Good night, Mr. Baby!

Our 'Hood Goes Downhill And Our Big News!

Falling into our "favourite neighbours" category are Neighbour Wendy and Mr. David Burr.  Noodles loves Neighbour Wendy because she lets Noodles lick her legs.  Noodles loves body lotion!  Mr. David Burr had a really nice, super shiny white truck.  By far, the most lovely truck on our block.  Mr. Burr sold his business, and thus the truck went with it.

Next thing we know, Mr. Burr has a "new" truck that he lovingly refers to as Bessie.  Neighbour Wendy calls it a "piece of shit".

In an effort not to play favourites with the neighbours, he moves his truck around and parks it in front of different homes on our street.  This way,  not just one family is targeted with a drop in property values. 

This is the sort of thing that causes Janet to have mini meltdowns.

Phil has finished his yoghurt and has thoughtfully placed the spoon on the counter above the dishwasher.  You would think after all the surprise parties Phil threw for her 60th birthday that she would be willing to let it go.  No siree!  We probably shouldn't mention too much about the nonexistent parties or she might whip out a whole new batch of bad words!

This is Oak Bay Tea Party Weekend and we went with Janet to watch the parade.  Parades, no matter how lame they are, always make Janet cry.  This year was no exception.  Phil purposely quite by accident made some appointments that coincided with the parade.

The mascot from Glenlyon Norfolk School.  Janet says our children went to school there.

Reynolds Secondary School Band

An "old school" city bus.

There were tons of cute puppies in the parade.  Why, oh why can't we be in the parade, Janet?  Is it because Noodles refuses to behave and almost everything scares me?

It was a fun, but exhausting parade!

Perfect book ends!

Last, and for sure not least, the Bump turned into a real person.  Finley Illin....(whoops) Timmerman was born 29 May and weighed 9lbs 10oz.  We think he's pretty cute.  More on this later as we GodPups are going for a viewing.  Meg hasn't officially OK'd us as GodPups, but we think she will go for it.

We doggies don't know a whole lot about babies, but we think he's rockin' a real hip hairdo!