My boy's grading present

At times, this past year has been challenging for Colby. Luckily he had a teacher who saw his true potential and pushed him to perform to the best of his abilities, even if it meant staying after school. We were both very proud of him, and Rob ordered in this pellet gun for him through the store. He really is his father's son when it comes to guns. Someone help me now. :)

Last video for a while, I promise

Untitled from Tina Schwartz on Vimeo.

Yep, I finally figured out an easy way to upload videos

Proof that I really am a cruel mom.. and I love it from Tina Schwartz on Vimeo.

My new postcard

After a small voting poll on Facebook, I've decided that this will be my new postcard. Rob is trying to get a small "souviner" section in his store, and I really wanted to put some postcards in there, as this is what everyone looks for. I'll also be putting the one of the church and the "Winter Wonderland" in the store.

The singing continues

Hea Soul Sister, kind of from Tina Schwartz on Vimeo.

My silly boy

My silly Colby from Tina Schwartz on Vimeo.

Garden!

This is the first year for the garden here in the community garden and the weeds are horrible! What a nightmare. But, we do have lettuce, beets, radishes, cucumbers, potatoes and turnip growing right now.

Camping pictures!

Joey in his bed. Rob and his weiner in his bed.

Joey and Tank.

The boys, or "fish" as I called them.

Me and Sierra (I think, they're twins) and my new glasses

Sandal tan!

Pebbles and her new best friend, Cleo.

Joe and Dan on the roof of his camper.

Rob thought it would be a good idea to shoot an arrow straight up (this was after a long game of Washer Slosh)

Yep, that's beer. I asked her what she was eating, and she showed me. Trying to cock the gun. Target practice

Camping this weekend was so fun. We went with friends of ours from town and their 4 children and 3 dogs. 3 of their kids all go to the preschool and their oldest daughter is a friend of Colby's so it worked out great. The camper is great, although we quickly found out that the fridge doesn't work, so instead of investing the money to fix a 34 year old fridge we are replacing it with a bar fridge, as soon as we can get out of town to buy one. We have a game called "Washer toss", which quickly became a drinking game called "washer slosh". The modified rules involve taking a drink for.... well everything, so by the end of the game you are sloshed. It was loads of fun. The dog also spent the entire weekend off her leash, and was so well behaved. She was the boss, which is really funny when you consider the other dogs were rotties, and one was a rottie/pitbull mix. We can't want to get out again!

Camping pictures are coming, I promise

Joey singing from Tina Schwartz on Vimeo.

I just had to share this. While looking through the pictures of this weekend, I found this. Joey loves to play with my camera, and has recently figured out it takes video.

We're going camping!

I'm soo excited. We bought a camper trailer in the fall of last year and this will be our first weekend out with it. See ya on Sunday!

Mother Nature really is a B*tch

Mother Nature hates me. I'm now convinced of it. She likes to make my life miserable. Why, do you ask? Well, here's why. As soon as I got my clothes line, I was so excited to hang out clothes that I went foolish hanging it out. And as soon as I put it out, the sun would go away and it would rain. Am I exaggerating? No sir-e-bob, I am not. I would curse her, my friend Charlene would laugh at me cursing her, and then curse ME as she would have to return home to take in HER clothes. This continued for MONTHS. Now, this month, we planted a garden. Keep in mind, it rained for almost a week straight before we planted the garden. As soon as we put it in, it was like a freakin' desert here. No rain. We had to bale water from the lake to water the garden. I continued to curse her, and my friend continued to curse ME for cursing her. Yesterday, day four million and ten without rain (at least it felt like it) I washed clothes and put it on the line. I got lazy and left it out overnight, figuring I would bring it in today when I came home on my lunch. And guess what? Mother-freakin-Nature decided to have some fun with me and IT RAINED. I had to run home and quickly pull in my clothes. Now, this morning at 10am it was so bright and hot outside that we had to bring the preschoolers back inside. By 11:30, it was raining. She hates me. I swear. I'm convinced I hear her laughing as I pull in my clothes in the rain.

The daily Iceberg, and my kiddies

Yep, in Saskatchewan pelicans DO walk on water.

Oh how I hate to spend money on myself

For anyone who knows me personally, you'll know that I HATE to spend money on myself. I will debate, review, decide against it, go back, and then debate more until Rob gets so frusterated he orders it for me himself. I have outgrown my camera bag, to the point that I cannot carry all the gear I now own. I have been feeling it because when I am out taking pictures of "icebergs" I am missing some really good shots because I don't have my zoom lens for me (the zoom lens was removed from the case when I bought my big flash). This summer I will be photographing 3 weddings, and I KNOW I'm going to need all my gear for this. So I just did it my blogger friends. I spent over $100.00 on myself ( I know! *gasp*) and just ordered this case. I have been researching cases online for over a month, trying to find one that suits my needs, and that will grow with me as I hopefully get more gear. And thanks to Rob, I found one. Well, he found it. It's a Tenba Messenger, and after watching the little video they put on the website about it, it looks like it it exactly what I have been looking for. Can someone tell me when I turned into Adam?! (For anyone that doesn't know Adam, he is exactly like this when it comes to buying ANYTHING).

Pelicans, the new Iceberg

These pictures were taken with my little point&shoot camera but you get the idea. I LOVE pelicans, and all my Northern friends who read Clare's blog will understand the title!

Tagged by Kara

I don't normally do this, but since this is for you Kara I will. I've been tagged, so I have to answer these questions. So here we go.

1. Where would you like to live once you retire? Hmmm, somewhere on a lake, very similar to were I live now. With a summer home on the east coast somewhere, on the ocean.

2.) What causes you to worry the most? The fact that we live so far away from family. If an emergency ever happened back home, we probably wouldn't be able to make it back in time.

3.) What was your favorite toy as a child? This is an easy one. I had a pink plush doll with a plastic face named Suzie. I had it right up until we had the Greyhound and she ate the face off it. Damn dog. And a Fisher Price wind up Music Box that played My Name is Michael. I still have it to this very day and both my kids played with it.

4.) Do you make decisions quickly and easily or do you fret over them? Depends on what is it about. If it's about purchasing something big, it's a HUGE fret for me. I'm pretty easy going about everything else.

5.) What hobby would you like to persue if money wasn't an option? That's easy. Photography, which at this point is my life is more than a hobby, but not quite a profession.... yet.

Alright, it's your turn. If you have a blog, post it there. If you don't and want to play, you can post it in the comments.

Crazy times

Life is getting really busy again, with the end of my work year and graduation here in town. I've been super busy getting in a few more grads. I just had to share this one. This is one of my new favorites.

My Uncle, who will be very missed

Community garden

My gardening buddy Charlene.

The beginning of our garden. Carrots, radishes, beets, cucumbers, lettuce so far.

Our community has started a "community garden", where you pick a plot and it's your responsibility to plant it and maintain it. My friend Charlene and I are sharing a plot, and I'm super excited about it. We want to make a creative name for our plot to put on a sign. Any suggestions? (Her last name is Ratt, and for those who don't know my last name is Schwartz so I was thinking on a play on words with those, unless you can think of something better.

Dandelion Syrup

Well, I made it. No, I haven't taken pictures of it yet, but I will. I will admit, when I first started it, it smelled like ass. It was REALLY stinky when you start the brewing process. BUT, holy hannah is it ever good! It has the consistency of honey, looks sort of like honey, but tastes NOTHING like honey. I wish I had smaller jars, I would can some. I'm going to take some to work to get another opinion.

In other news, we set up our trampoline in the backyard. And yes Chris, we bought an enclosure for it so the boys won't fall off. I was out there today with Joey. Well, I was laying on it, Joey was running around me. It was equally beneficial for both of us.

My job was posted again at the beginning of May. The school board has to post it every year because I don't have my full ECE (Early Childhood Education) YET, but I am finished the 1st of a 2 year program. The closing date on the job was Sunday and I still haven't heard if anyone else applied. If no one else applies, it's automatically mine again, if I accept of course. I've checked my email about 50 times today to see if there was an email, but nothing. Patience is NOT a virtue of mine. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Without going into too many details, 2 weeks ago one of my favorite uncles had a massive stroke and is now in the hospital. He is completely paralyzed on the left side and is not doing very well. If you believe, please add my family to your prayers. I'm praying for strength for them for the days to come. They are not going to be easy. This is one of the very few times I wish we lived closer.