The View from here.....

so here's a view I have NEVER seen before....

compliments of my daughter Abby.....





with apologies from me for the head injury !

My daughter, the artist.....

The last few weekends before school finished, I often found Abby labouring over her art homework...

at times it frustrated me, to see her so having so much to complete......and I need to point out, that any art talent my children have, did NOT come from me.... if I can't use a ruler, I don't draw!!

so to see my children even TAKING art, does my heart good ... though I often utter the age old phrase... " better you than me! "

This year, when Fathers day came, Abby told me that her gift was something she'd been working on in art class, but wasn't finished...

I've been gone since just after Father's day, and only got to come home last night to get my fathers day gift...

and just so you know, it was worth the wait!!

Abby combined her two loves... hockey and art... no wait. Hockey and DADDY!!!
Here's what she made me.......

..................to start, here's the Fathers Day card......

Abby's favourite # is 31, thanks to Carey Price .....

Check out the detail..... sigh... this is going to be framed!!

and this was the piece de resistance..... a Habs pen holder ( or coin holder ) .....

now check this out.... any good artist signs their work.....

this I LOVE!!!

AM for Abby Mackay... and the heart for uh... Daddy??? ;)

I love you Tigger...




sigh.... Thank you!!! ( hugs )


love Daddy xoxo

Isaac turns 5

I got to spend a few minutes with my niece and nephew at McDonalds last night.... I arrived late, as I was working near Newcastle, and didn't get back in time for supper....

Isaac made note of that, and when it came time to play with his new gifts, he said " I'll play with Uncle Pauls' gift last, cause he CAME last "

Ugh Alex P Keaton the 3rd is alive and well!!!

Click HERE to see the face book photos or copy and paste this link .....

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40683&l=ce554&id=538261469

Happy Birthday Isaac!

The Man in the glass

THE MAN IN THE GLASS

When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day,
Just go to the mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.

For it isn't your father or mother or wife
Who judgement upon you must pass;
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass.

Some people may think your a straight-shootin' chum
And call you a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you're only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the eye.

He's the fellow to please, never mind all the rest,
For he's with you clear up to the end.
And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of life
And get pats on your back as you pass.
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you've cheated the man in the glass.

Peter "Dale" Wimbrow Sr.

Tears are a language.... that God understands...

Tears Are a Language
By Gordon Jensen

Often you wonder why tears come into your eyes
And burdens seem to be much more than you can stand.
But God is standing near. He sees your falling tears
And tears are a language God understands.

God sees the tears of a brokenhearted soul.
He sees your tears and hears them when they fall.
God weeps along with man and He takes him by the hand.
Tears are a language God understands.

Then grief has left you low it causes tears to flow
When things have not turned out the way that you had planned.
But God won't forget you His promises are true.
And tears are a language that my God He understands.

God sees the tears of a brokenhearted soul.
He sees your tears and hears them when they fall.
God weeps along with man and He takes him by the hand.
Tears are a language God understands

Composed by Gordon Jenson ©1971



Click HERE to hear a pretty version of it.....

Humidity

I'm not exactly tolerant when it comes to hot hot temperatures.... I don't sleep well, I get grumpy..... and I find it very hard to stay focused.....

My living quarters in Brantford are for the most part quite comfortable...... It is a 3 storey on grade, with the ground floor being laundry room, hall and built in garage.

The garage was renovated several years ago, and made into a den/family room which became my room.... it houses my office, my books, my 19" tv, and my bed.

On very cold winter nights, the office gets pretty cold... and in the hot weather, it gets very stuffy.... there is no window, only the front door around the corner...... There is a big plate glass window in the laundry room, but it does not open...... so putting an air conditioner in the office seemed an impossibility..... until I was inspecting north of 7 last summer and saw that someone had installed one in a Screen Door.... WHOO AHHH!!

So on Sunday afternoon, I went to home depot, bought a tiny air conditoner ( FOR $78, if you can imagine! BRAND NEW ) .... and installed it in the screen door in the back room.....

I might as well live northa 7 ...

the other picture shows where the REST Of my money will go this summer, funding the units in the upstairs.....


sigh.... gotta go wipe my brow and hit the road!! Happy TUESDAY!

yikes.......

I took the kids home from school today... bought them supper, visited in their driveway for a while..... it was a sweet visit... short but really nice..... wont' see them now til Friday....

on the way home, I saw this one exit from my own... UGH...

Some old photos I found and scanned

Found some old photos from when the kids were younger....

My scanner has a sensor and it will crop automatically... so scanning old photos is very easy and fast....

so I will now humiliate my children on a daily basis as I post publicly photos from their childhood!!

Click HERE to see them..... when the page opens, click on the first picture and you can toggle through the photos by left clicking the mouse on the photos....

Left Outside.....

I'm not sure why I even like this picture... but I do.......

A lot of the cottage properties I get to inspect up north are gated.... as long as the client expects the inspection, then I park like in the picture and walk in...

this was in Apsley area on Friday.....

I just like the picture!

Mom

I found this picture of Mom, in Abby's room this morning..... it was taken in the Kinnard Rd house back in 2000 I think......












It was after seeing this picture, that Bruce asked to be put up for adoption!!!

Freaked me out....

I was inspecting the other day.... and as I backed up to take a picture of the side wall of the house... I saw this MONSTROUS crawling thing... moving all over the wall of the house.... I mean.. it covered more than half the house.... it was unbelievable..

I slowly started backing away.... afraid to run, but more afraid to stand too close....


it was then that the little black fly stopped crawling on my camera lense.....

and flew away...

doh

Tagged..........

You've been tagged In A Meme... ( whatever THAT means )


Each player answers the questions about themselves.

At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answers.



[1] What was I doing 10 years ago
---------------------------------------
I was managing an insurance brokerage in Burlington...I had just moved from Windsor area to Brantford.... was working in Burlington, staying with my cousin in Hamilton...driving home to Cottam on weekends to see my family......


[2] FIVE things on my to do list for today
------------------------------------------------
[a] Drive my kids to and from work
[b] Clean up my kitchen
[c] play road hockey with my daughter
[d] Laundry
[e] Grocery shopping...
[f] Watch the Penguins game, with my daughter
[g] sneak cookies when nobody is looking



[3] Snacks I enjoy
-----------------------
Whole Grain Nachos
Cheese Curd
Nutrigrain Bars
Ice Cream ( any kind really, but ESPECIALLY Chocolate Peppermint )
Dill Pickles
Olives ( Especially the big ones stuffed with Garlic Buds )

[4] Things I would do if I was a Billionaire....
-------------------------------------------------------

[a] Buy a Tim Horton's franchise for each of my kids so that they and their children would have an income long after I was gone
[b] Buy a cottage and 4 Seadoos
[c] Buy a television network ( like TBS )
[d] Pay off the mortgage for all of my siblings, and for my church[e] Set up a homeless shelter in downtown Toronto....
[f] Set up Soup Kitchens in every city in Ontario
[g] buy a new car...and a hybrid Pickup truck
[h] Sponsor a missionary for his full term
[i]Travel

want me to continue???!!

________________________

Who I tagged...

Glenda
Carol
Bruce
David
Gayle
Goldwings
Donna

Too Far Gone...er too LONG gone

When I left home a week ago Wednesday, I was in an awful flap to get my car loaded and get on the road.... I had to drop my son at a Dr's appt in Hamilton... and I had been given STRICT orders to have him there on time ( not that that would ever be a CONCERN with me... Mr Punctual, they call me )

anyway.... i was in a mad rush.....and I knew I would be gone for 9 or 10 days.... so I was stressed about not forgetting anything....

When I went to put the Coffee tin back in the freezer, I needed to make room and apparently decided to rearrange things..... at least that is what I assume...... cause when I got home 9 1/2 days later ..... we couldn't get the fridge door to open.. or the freezer door for that matter..... looking up on top of the fridge, we saw a cardboard ice cream container sitting on top of the fridge....

and looking down, to the floor, we saw THIS.....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaThis picture is hard to see.... but the cream and the syrup from the ice cream had melted and drained out.... all down the inside of the door of the fridge and freezer... leaving behind what seemed like a compact brown and white brownie textured substance.... ugh......
When the fridge door finally opened, we found the syrup had hardend and was literally like sticky hard taffee ..... I peeled some of it off with a knife....The syrup on the floor was just as hard... when you look at it, the brown syrup looks wet I assumed I could clean it up with a mop... but it was actually as hard as glass .... ugh....... I scraped some of it up with a frying pan flipper....then poured hot water on the rest of it, to melt it so we could mop it up....

the floor, has been sticky all weekend... Finally after washing it two or three times, I mopped the whole room last night and that has seemed to stop some of the sticky.......

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...... I guess I'll either have to be gone less time, or perhaps... ( horror of horrors... ) be a little more organized when I leave, next time!!!

My Favourite Saturday activity....

So the Saturday activity of choice, in the Mackay household, a routine I share with my father, is to go to some garage sales.... we're not anal about it.. we don't miss WEDDINGS and stuff to go ( though I would if I thought I could get away with it! )

Yesterday morning was a bit of a rush, getting my son to his hair appt, my daughter to work, etc...

on the way back from picking up my son, we hit a few yard sales..... got a goalie blocker for my daughter, who's taken up a love for netminding...

the other things of note were :

A tv and vcr at two different yard sales...

The TV was $5 .... no remote though.... and the vcr came with 11 tapes, and was $10 ..... kind of a bargain... I am going to put this upstairs for Abby to use.....

My favourite bargain of the day was this clock....

$4

nice huh!!