Super Stone

I am completely enamoured with the little girl who lives across the street from us. I had sort of lost hope for childhood after reading one too many stories in the news about the violent, selfish, lazy and/or spoiled children that my generation seems to have rasied. I worried for Hayden's future self. Until last night.

Shortly after we got home, the little girl across the street and her girlfriend dragged a giant cardboard box to the sidewalk. They spent ages drawing and writing on two brightly coloured bristol boards and on the box itself. I watched as they eagerly held up their bright signs to anyone who drove past or walked even close to their house. Curiosity got the better of me and I took Hayden on the front porch to get a better look. As soon as I was spotted, a pair of neon signs were flashed in my direction.

Hayden and I sauntered across the street to peruse their sidewalk store. They were selling hand painted rocks for .50 each. My heart instantly melted. This was exactly the kind of thing I used to do. I asked them if they were saving up for anything special and they beamed as they told me that Father's Day was coming soon and they wanted to buy their dads something very special.

Hayden and I carefully scanned the rocks and just as he was about to choose one, one of our mini salesladies explained that these rocks were for display only. The ones for sale were in the smaller box to the side. Trying to suppress my laughter, we turned our attention to said box and chose two very pretty rocks: one that said "LOVE" in swirly letters and another with a carefully drawn red flower.

I duly paid my $1 and thanked them for my beautiful rocks. They then asked for my name and explained that they were only going to sell 50 rocks before taking a break for a week because painting rocks is hard work! Again, I bit back my laughter and nodded at their solemn business sense. I wished them good luck and walked across the street, proudly displaying my new painted rocks on our front windowsill.

Not five minutes later, the doorbell rang. Standing on my porch was one of my mini salesladies. She proudly thrust a small piece of paper into my hand and explained that I had forgotten my receipt. At this point I was completely in love with these little girls. I thanked her kindly and said it would come in handy in case I needed any more rocks and forgot where to go. As she skipped back across the street to her cardboard store front I took at look at my receipt. They had carefully penned in my name, the date, the number of rocks and the cost along with the name of their store: Super Stone.

As I watched them out our front window randomly throughout the evening, they danced between manning the store front and playing in the yard. Eventually the box was dragged back into the garage for next time and the girls bounded hand in hand into the house. I was left with a lovely warm feeling of optimism. Their simple idea to make some money for Father's Day and the true dedication they put into their little business just caught me by surprise. It made me hopeful that my treasured childhood memories and activities hadn't been completely lost with this new generation. There are still kids who work for what they want and take pride in what they do. These two little entrepreneurs reinstated my hope for the next generation with just a handful of brightly painted stones sold at a cardboard store front.

Drive-by bullets

• In developing our vegetable garden, we dug up an old family pet. (Note: this was not our pet, but one left behind by previous owners!) So gross. The smell was indescribable. Sorry to fluffy for disturbing your resting place. And to his owners - bury your animals more than a foot in the ground please! And not in the middle of the yard!
• We are burning out. Adam is working insane hours to keep up with the number of clients, I am trying to lead three major projects at work and we're both trying to tidy up and renovate our house and garden with every spare minute. Too much. Note to self: Must have more down time.
• I love our neighbours. They've been so helpful and friendly. This weekend we learned that the neighbours who abut our driveway are going to put in a small retaining wall along the edge to finish it! Wonderful! One less bill to worry about.
• Little boys love to get dirty almost as much as they love getting clean. Hayden has gone from having 3 baths a week to having one every night. Partially out of need, partially out of desire!
• I have the weirdest dreams. So real, so bizarre, so random. I could make a whole post on the rantings of my unconscious mind.
• I love my husband. Last night, despite the fact that we were both exhausted and dirty, he convinced me to have a very romantic evening. At first I was reluctant, but now I'm really glad that we went through with it. Those little moments really help to reconnect you and remind you of why we do all this!

Shhhh....

Do you hear that? Neither do I!

The peace and quiet at our new house is absolutely blissful. Since I moved out of my parents house, I've lived in six different houses. Four of them were in Ottawa and subject to the blaring horns, sirens and loud music of my neighbours. One was in a tiny town called Greely which would have been very peaceful were it not for my landlord living next door. When we moved to Cambridge, we inadvertently moved into the ghetto (it's amazing what a dusting of pure white snow can hide) and with it came lots of barking dogs, blaring stereos, shouting matches and cheap cars with REALLY LOUD mufflers!

We moved to our very first house last November and I guess I just expected it would be just as noisy. Through the winter, I was sure that our noisy neighbours were just hibernating and once the snow melted, all hell would break loose. But to my delight, it hasn't! All I hear at night and in the morning are birds twittering. It's so darn quiet! Most of our neighbours are retired and let me tell you, retired folks rock! I love our big blue house even more now that I know it comes with neighbourhood soundproofing! I never knew how much I loved silence until I actually experienced it! Sad that it's taken 10 years to find a quiet piece of heaven, but let me tell you how thankful I am that we did.

Cheers to everyone who makes the effort to be quiet, conscientious neighbours. Let's just hope it lasts!