For Charlene

My best friend reminded me I have a blog. My last post, July 2008. Do you want me to catch you up on the last 6 years? Could be a long post....

New Look

Well, you'd never believe it, but I changed the look of my blog without any help from Daryl. He's the computer person around here you know!
Hard to believe we are almost half way through the summer, feels like we have so much to do. Vacation starts next week and included are house projects, a quick trip to the states and celebrate a birthday or two.

8 months later....

Yup, haven't posted forever as I couldn't remember my password, yada yada yada. So, here it is May 2008 and a new post! I won't bore you with a month by month update, most of you know my life and it's not super exciting. (well, Bon Jovi was very exciting)

Summer seems to be up in the air for plans. A trampoline has been added to the backyard so the girls will be able to jump off some energy back there. For me, it is a bladder trainer. (40 and 2 kids later has a couple of drawbacks)

We were hoping to maybe make it to PEI for my nephews wedding, but the distance is far, timing isn't good and airfares are even worse, so we regret to say, we probably won't go. Plan B, perhaps heading off to Valley Fair or even better, Wisconsin Dells. It will also be filled with camp, family visits, welcoming good friends home and perhaps a cool beverage on the deck with a book.
The pictures are of Milo, he got his summer cut yesterday, looks like a totally different dog! The pink thing is a hairband one of the girls thought he should try to keep his hair out of his eyes.

Sept happenings

Well, we are thick into the swing of school again. The transition for Becky seems to have gone smoothly. She hasn't complained about the 6AM(ish) wake up from Daryl as her carpool picks her up just after 7. She's lovin the tuba and is making some new friends. Friendships take time, and I'm sure we'll be hearing about more in the future. Jenny gets on the school bus at 8:15, so she gets to sleep til 7:30 when I send Milo in to wake her up. (he's very good at it) This week I start facilitating with nursing students at the hospital. It will be a learning experience for us all! I am looking forward to it. I got the flu this last week, so I should be healthy for the next couple of months. I had forgotten how lousy one can feel when you have the flu. I actually watched 2 episodes of Dr.Phil...shows you I didn't want to move. I just need to get rid of what feels like a hairball in my lung, it's causing me to cough and also causing me to go a little crazy. I bought cough syrup today, my last experience with cough syrup cause me to toss my cookies (well, I actually drank it from the bottle in a desperate act at 4AM, so I may have taken a tad too much) so I have a slight aversion to it now.
I also cleaned out our veggie garden. Some relief that I don't have to go back for anything else. It was good to us, many a tomato sandwich consumed this fall, (bacon and cheese is my favorite). Maybe we should try carrot sandwiches now!
We also are a 2 car family. We went for 18 years with one vehicle...(ahhh, my 1st car, a rust colored Acadian...good times). With my crazy schedule with 2 jobs and carpooling and trying to get the girls to clubs, music, youth and school events, we have taken the plunge and are driving a new to us 1996 Honda Accord. Yup, I knew you'd all be jealous! It's quite functional and it gets me to where I need to be. It actually belonged to Daryl's folks and we convinced them to sell it to us.
Well, that's pretty much the excitement of our house. Daryl continues to work on the basement. I've primed some walls, that's progress! I don't want to hope for a date that it will be done, I've been disappointed already, so I will just say it's progressing in the right direction.

Summer Vacation

I'm sure most of you have given up checking this site. I've had a request to blog, so here it is.
Summer has pretty much come and gone, and in 8 short days the girls are back to school. Becky changes schools this year so at least 2 of us have a few butterflies about it. It feels like yesterday she was wearing her little dress and I was holding back tears dropping her off for her 1st kindergarten day. Time marches on!
Jenny's routine changes too as we/I can't be at 2 different schools at the same time so she is taking the school bus. She thinks it's great, I'm not about to burst her bubble.
Daryl and I went on a business trip (for Daryl)to Vegas and a highlight for me was going to the Grand Canyon. I prefer God's natural made sights to the really loud and bright lights of Vegas. Vegas was good, a relaxing vacation spot it was not. The pictures are of our Grand Canyon tour. The first photo is of the new glass walkway they have built 4000 feet above the Grand Canyon floor. We were not allowed to take camera's on it and had to wear booties over our shoes not to scratch the glass. Very cool. 2nd picture is pretty much all I saw of Daryl for the next couple of hours. And the 3rd is self taken which is pretty obvious! Our tour included stopping at the Hoover Dam on our way back, but we didn't linger very long there as it was 118 degrees in the shade, and the only place where there was some humidity in Nevada.
It's good to be back at home and I'm enjoying every last morning we can sleep in.

Mother's Day

It is always fun to wait and see what little surprises your kids come up with on Mother's Day. I had to work, and they really wanted to get up and see me off, but I really just wanted them to stay in bed as every minute counts to get ready for work at 6 in the morning. I was treated to a wonderful supper (BBQ T-bone, potatoes and garlic mushrooms....YUM!) and Becky made a cake for dessert. Gifts came just before they went to bed which was a nice surprise. One of the best treats, is when Becky writes a poem for us. Here it is....enjoy.

Do you like your presents
cause today we are your peasents
you are our mother
we are going to smother
you with kisses
and maybey do the dishes
i love you
now i gotta go to the loo

Death and Life

Well, there was a sad day last week when Daryl's surgery on my vacuum turned into an autopsy. It was a quick death, a couple of sputters and it died, never to suck again. This was last Wednesday. It was decision time, do we buy another upright or do we make the plunge and install a central vac. With much research and asking many people of their opinions, we opted for the central vac with a couple of stipulations from me. It must suck as well or better than my old upright, AND I must have the kickplate in the kitchen to suck away all crumbs and dust. So, it has come to be. Daryl spent the whole day yesterday installing everything and late yesterday evening, my carpets are once again clean (ish), they need a real carpet cleaning this spring. I am happy to say, it sucks and I've swept my kitchen floor about 5 times today, just to see dirt disappear from under my cupboard.