Camping Trip

In the past few days, I've been perusing my favourite internet shopping sites and looking to see if they have started selling winter and skiing gear. **ducks head**
I know, I know, you are screaming at me that I'm crazy.
It's not that I can't wait for winter, because I can, it's just that I do love window shopping online, and as I've said before, my secret obsession is buying outerwear.
Yes, I'm weird.
The number of times I actually purchase anything is really minimal, but I can still dream, right?
Anyhow, back to summer.
We have only one week left until school begins, and I'm still unsure as to whether I'm happy or sad about that. More sad, I think.
In an effort to take advantage of the good weather while it's still here, we decided to go camping last weekend in Arrowhead Provincial Park that is in Huntsville.
We had a pretty good time, even though my DH really doesn't like car camping. He says it's not "real" camping, but sleeping in a tent practically on the ground, having to hike to the bathroom and cooking outdoors is real enough for me.
When I was a kid, my dad used to take my sister N and I camping quite a bit. I don't really remember many camping trips involving my younger siblings (S and A), nor my mother, so I'm guessing she declined a lot in favour of staying behind with the littler ones and a comfortable bed and private washroom. We used to take hikes through the woods, and my dad would point out all the flora and fauna and fungi that he could identify, and the ones he couldn't as well. Any love of nature I have is due to him. I think if he had never done this, exposed us to camping and nature, I really wouldn't be very outdoorsy at all. And I'm pretty lacking in that area as it is. So, thank you Dad.
The coolest part of our nature hikes were looking at all the fungi and mushrooms. We really don't know any names of any of them, but always found them fun to look at and poke. Here are some pictures of our trip and wildlife. Sorry they are all out of order and mixed up. I still can't figure out how to get them the way I want...Hope you like 'em!

At the falls in the park. The sign says "no swimming" but everyone does anyway. Who can resist a natural jacuzzi?

Some awesome fungi. I really like the one above, it looks like lacy coral to me.

Above, the boys climbing the falls (probably not the best idea), and below, L holding a salamander found in a rotting log.

Below, a shot from our canoe ride.

The falls again.

R taking a turn to paddle the canoe. He did really well!

This guy (a great blue heron) was hanging out at the bottom of the falls watching everyone watching him.

Summer's End

Summer feels like it has gone both quickly, and slowly. Weird, I know. On one hand, I can scarcely believe that we have only two weeks + a day left until the first day of school, but on the other, it feels like my kids have been home for ages. Again, I am feeling bad sometimes because we really haven't done much with our summer. We've been to the local beaches several times, and of course to the parks a lot and the splash pad twice, but I feel somehow that we really haven't got much out of our summer. We haven't been camping, we haven't gone on enough bike rides or walks, we've done nearly no summer attractions, such as Wonderland, Ontario Place, etc...
I can't help but feel badly about that, but it's just not in our budget. We did go to a small local zoo last week with Kady-bug, as she was the only daycare kid I had for the day. That was fun, but still cost me a pretty penny, even with the toddler being free. I just don't want my kids to grow up and think back on their summer vacations and realize how boring they really were. I'm lucky that my kids are home-bodies like me. They really just like being home and hanging out with their Lego and toys. I guess I shouldn't complain if they aren't complaining. Really I think it's just me. I'm so bored lately. So bored with my life. I am missing the routine of school (I just don't miss the lunch-making), I am missing the after-school sports/activities. I am tired of the same walls, the same tv programming, the same internet pages, the same view outside my window and in my neighbourhood. I miss talking to other moms at the school yard.
I'm not really anxious for school to get started though. It means so many unpleasant things, mainly the passage of time. I know, I know, whether there is school or not makes no difference on how time moves, but it seems that once school starts, time flies. My babies are growing up, and much too fast. R starts grade five this year (!!) and L grade 3. I know that in the blink of an eye, it will be Hallowe'en, and then another blink, boom, Christmas, and then another and it's February and we're all looking forward to spring. Another blink and it's the end of another school year. Before I know it, they'll be graduating.
Sniff.
Of course, along with that unpleasant thing are others that come with school. Making lunches (yes, I had to mention that again because I despise it so), early mornings, earlier bedtimes, grumpier L, dealing with teachers, dealing with issues, and the exponential increase in exposure to illnesses.
Yes, I'm a hypochondriac of sorts. I hate dealing with illness, the kids', mine or hubby's. And guaranteed every September as soon as school starts, so do the illnesses. And this year R is in a portable, which means even more chance of him getting sick. Yes, it's not a proven thing, but just think about it. A closed-in environment, one room with no great ventilation, thirty kids breathing/coughing/sneezing on each other and most of them do not wash their hands at all.
Sigh.
And I will miss my boys. Yes, they've driven me crazy with fighting at times. But mostly, they've been pretty good all summer. I like having them around. It kills me to think when they're at school that the teacher sees more of them than I do. I guess that's probably the way parents feel when they send their kids off to daycare.
So I have this week off and I am desperate to fill the days with fun activities we can look back on during the winter months and remember fondly.
I just have no idea what those things will be. Anyone have any great (cheap) ideas?

GROSS!

Anyone who's read my blog before may know how disgusted I am by bugs, like in this post here. This morning as I was getting the kids ready to head out into the backyard, I was greeted by a disgusting surprise crawling across my kitchen floor....
a maggot.
UGH!! EWWW!!! GROSS!!
Why oh why it was at the back sliding doors is beyond me. I have found them in the kitchen before, unfortunately, but they were in the general vicinity of the garbages (both regular and the green compost one). Usually the compost bin is the culprit, which is why I hate it, but put up with it for the sake of the environment and saving money on garbage tags.
This one was crawling away from the back door under my table. Where it was going, I can't fathom, but it ended up in a kleenex squashed up. I quickly scanned the area for signs of rotting food or otherwise, and other than the usual and constant sand/grass/crumbs, I couldn't see anything.
Then one of my daycare kids C went back inside to use the bathroom and came back out to inform me that he saw another one! ((shudder))
After we all came back inside, I searched the whole kitchen. I looked under the table, under the baby booster seats, under the doormat, in the track of the sliding door, the air vents and even climbed onto the table to look at the top of the blinds and to see what I could see! I swept and swiffer wet-jetted. I took out all the garbage, bleached the green bin and took out all the recycling. I still can't figure out where they were coming from. Why, if they were coming from the garbage (the likely place) were they all the way over on the other side of the kitchen?
I am so beyond grossed out right now, and I am compelled to finish this post and go upstairs to check around for more.
Too be continued..............................?
Let's hope not!

Summer Days

Hey, long time no see! LOL! It's been a week or so since my last post, so that's not too bad, right? Things around here have been busy as usual for summer. The daycare is busy of course, with the 2 yr old, Kadybug everyday, the two P brothers, C&E (5 & 6.5) and nearly 2 Miss Mack. I haven't had the almost 3 J, thank God! I'm hoping his mom is toilet training him as we speak! And C (9) and his sis A (6) have been away for almost 4 weeks now due to their mom having back trouble and being home from work, and also they have been at camp. I won't have to deal with them until the last week of July! HOORAY!! C is a huge pain in my ass, as you may know. And A is ok, but being the only girl and a bit of a princess (too good to play with the boys) she drives me nuts by following me around all day! Miss Mack doesn't come everyday, but she is a good playmate for Kadybug. The numbers are nice for now. I'm not looking forward to adding two more...sigh.
So L and R have been ok so far. Not too many, "I'm BOOOOOORRRED"'s yet! They both had upset stomachs in the middle of the night a few days ago, and I thought we were going to have to deal with a stomach virus, but they seemed fine the next morning. Then last night L had diarrhea and was complaining of stomach pain, and also he was burping up horrible rotten egg smelling sulphurous burps! The smell was disgusting! I can't imagine how nasty the taste was. (TMI?) R has had this before, twice actually and he ends up puking a couple of times after a few hours, a horrible rancid smelling puke (I know, puke stinks but this is beyond gross). I have no idea what it is, other than researching on the internet and finding out it may Giardia. Anyway, L was distraught when I told him he may end up puking. So I got him very reluctantly to drink some baking soda mixed into water (it was recommended on several chats regarding this egg burp, and it couldn't hurt so why not?) Ok, if you've ever tasted baking soda in water ladies, you'll know it has a very, VERY familiar taste....relating to oral sex....s'all I'm sayin'...
I also decided to go against medical advice and gave him a teaspoon of Pepto. They say now kids shouldn't have it, because of the same dangers as giving them Aspirin, but I had it all the time as a kid and I'm fine. Plus, he didn't have a fever, so I wasn't too worried about him getting this Reye's syndrome. And it seemed to help. He slept all night, and ate breakfast, but I'm not going to say he's cured until he goes to the bathroom again.
Monday this week I had an unexpected day off. It was really nice. I was only supposed to have Kadybug, but her dad wanted to spend the day with her (Awwwwwwww) and so she stayed home. My mom, nan and nephew T came over, and we took the kids to the splash pad. It was so nice to spend time with T without his mom around (sorry N, I did miss you though...). Kids are always different without their parents around, mine too, I'm sure. Instead of being sucky and clingy to Mommy, T took my hand and led me all around the splash park, smiling and laughing with me. It was so cute. Then later when we got home, he and L went upstairs and played together. That was sweet. Usually I see R being the more "brotherly" figure to his cousins, but it was really great to see L in that role.
After they left, I took the boys to a local public pool and we went swimming. So, lots of water Monday! I'm wondering if L picked up some bacteria or virus from one of those places....I've had a weird itchy rash on the underside of my right arm since...hmmmm....
I started the kids on their new summer workbooks. L is not too happy with that, of course, seeing as how he hates school so much, but he needs it the most. The P Bros don't mind, especially E who is going into SK. He has already flown through the first part of his book. I'm going to have to get him another! R and L got thicker ones, containing much of the Canadian Curriculum. It's not the Ontario curriculum, but whatever. As long as they're learning/reviewing something and it's not too American (meaning history, spellings and currency) then I'm happy. We usually do this in the summer, and start off with gusto, and that wanes and fades. It's a lot of work for me, having all these kids needing help and all being different levels. I really don't know how home-schooling moms do it! One kid, yeah, maybe two, meh, but more? I couldn't do that full time!!
Today I was supposed to have a follow-up Dr. appt. for my cyst problem. Not sure if I blogged about that or not.... Anyhow, about a month and a half ago, I was in terrible pain and went to the ER thinking I had a kidney stone or something. Turns out ovarian cysts. I was told to go to my doctor and have him make an appt for a U/S in two weeks. I laughed hard at that, and it wasn't because I was stoned on morphine either. Our Dr. NEVER has appts. As you can tell, my follow-up appt was for more than a month later - today. However, due to the fact that I couldn't get the day off, I have had to cancel it. I tried to ask the parents to find alternate care, but I made two big mistakes:
One, is that I neglected to ask them right away. It just slipped my mind, so I ended up asking them last week. Kinda short notice.
Two, is that because I was an idiot, I felt bad about asking them for time off at such short notice and I ended up telling both sets that if they couldn't find alternate care to "not worry about it". I sort of figured that at least one set of parents would be compliant, and that would help me out, but of course, Murphy's Law, neither one of them did. Well, actually, the one set of parents I'm pretty sure completely forgot to try. Typical.
So last night I debated and debated and this morning I debated and debated. Take five kids to the Dr. with me? Or cancel? The baby is no prob. She's easy to take anywhere. My two, fine. But the P Bros? They are good boys but combined with my own two lately and they have been quite the foursome to handle. Very rambunctious and loud and giggly and silly and at times, a little out of hand. I really didn't know if they would behave being left in the waiting room by themselves. It wasn't something I felt comfortable with. Plus, my truck only fits four kids. R would have had to ride in the front seat, something I don't mind if we're just going around the corner to the school or the local beach, but not for a +20 minute drive through town. I can't turn the airbag off in that vehicle.
But cancelling means that I don't get taken care of. I feel alright now of course, but something tells me that this is more of a chronic thing rather than a one-off. And cancelling means no appt again for months. Sigh.
So I called this morning and cancelled. It wasn't worth risking my child's safety or my own sanity. I called around 9:15. The office opens at 9, but apparently they don't answer the phones until 9:30 (WTF?). These people drive me nuts. It's like they try to work as little as possible, and get max. amount of money for it. Sheesh. So they are open Tues, Wed and Thurs from 9 to 4, that's only 7 hours, and really it's only 6 hours because they are closed from 12 to 1 for lunch! They are only open from 9 to 12 on Fridays. On top of that, they don't answer the phone until 9:30? Why? How do they get any business done. It's no wonder we are struggling in our city with sooooo many people without regular healthcare.
Anyhow, the thing that pissed me off was that when I called and listened to their long message before I could leave mine, I heard them say that I would be charged a fee for a missed appt, or one cancelled with less than 24 hrs notice. WTF?! There is no way in hell that I am paying any God Damn fee!! It's not like they couldn't fill the missed appointment. I'm sure anyone on their very long list of patients waiting for appts would gladly take my place. If they send me a bill, I'm going to rip it up and mail it back to them. They make me wait all this time for a simple appointment, and then they have the nerve to tell me I have to pay a fee for missing it? NO WAY.

Laundry Tips

Do you know what this means??

Spring is finally here! I love that I can hang my laundry out to dry now! I love the smell of freshly air-dried laundry, it reminds me of home and childhood.

My mom always dried our laundry outside, except for in the winter of course. It saved (and still does) energy and money too. Sure, our towels were a little rougher and our jeans a little crinklier, but we grew up with that and didn't know any different.

Now I love that I am helping the environment just a little bit more, and saving my energy costs. I don't like bugs landing on my laundry, but it comes with the territory unfortunately.

If you are looking at getting an outdoor clothesline, I thought I'd give you some tips on drying your clothes outside. (Yes, I'm totally out of blogging ideas!!)

1. Start your laundry early in the morning. I try to have my wash finished by at the latest 10 a.m. If it's really hot in the middle of summer, this doesn't matter as much, as I've hung my laundry out at 1:00 or 2:00 and still had it dry by the end of the day.
2. Don't use Oxy-Clean in the laundry. One year I was throwing in a scoop-ful with each load to help get out all the stains the boys seem to always get. Once that laundry got in the sun, the colours in the clothes started to fade more and more. It wasn't until my sister pointed it out to me that I realized the culprit behind my not-so-colourful t-shirts.
   
3. If you're doing a load of whites, I find you don't need to add bleach. You can add some Oxy-Clean in then, and the sun will do the rest of the brightening for you.
   
4. I put in a little extra liquid fabric softener. It helps with the crunchiness.
   
5. Watch the forecast. If it's going to rain later in the day, get your laundry out earlier.
6. Shake the clothes out as you take them off the line!! Sometimes bugs hide!
7. If you decided to hang your wet clothes out late and leave them all night, you could end up with earwigs inside.
   

That's all the tips I have for you. As you can see, I have an umbrella style clothes dryer. It sits in the ground in a post-holder. I take it down every winter and store it in the garage. These types of lines can be expensive, but I've had mine for at least 8 years now, and it's still going strong. It's well worth the cost.

Early Spring?

This week has been cold, cold, cold. But there has been quite a bit of sun, so that evens it out in my book. I used to hate winter. I dreaded and loathed every minute of it. But these days, I am finding I like it, maybe even love it a little bit.

Of course I do hate what winter brings, the never-ending viruses and various bacteria infecting our household. But on the plus side, the allergies are at the low end of the spectrum. However I am finding that as the boys get older, they seem to picking up fewer bugs than they did the year before. Geez I hope I'm not jinxing myself by saying that! Perhaps their immune systems are getting stronger? Man I hope so! Don't get me wrong, we still get sick PLENTY around here! It's just that instead of 10 colds per year, we might be down to 3 or 4. So that's good, right?

But back to winter and all it brings.

Snow.

I am loving the snow. I know, I don't have to shovel it (DH does that as I insist I don't know how to use the snowblower and it scares the heck out of me!) or drive in it but it's pretty and above all, fun. The boys have had a blast this year tunneling out caves and forts in our giant snowbanks framing the driveway. And of course there's the skiing.

Ah, skiing.

've only been twice this year, but I love it. And so does the rest of the family.
We would go more often but here are the problems:

1. It's expensive even just for lift tickets.
2. We really only have weekends to go as I work until 5 every weekday and DH is in school sometimes until 5 or 6 o'clock. We could night ski but if we couldn't leave until 5 at the very earliest, that puts us at the slopes at 5:30, on the hill around 5:45 and would only give us an hour, hour and a half of skiing time before we had to go home to bed! And, where would dinner fit in?
3. Only having weekends is difficult as some weekends have been way too cold (in -20's with wind chill!), some we have been sick, and some we have other commitments.
   

So that's why I am hoping that winter lasts a long, long time this year!! We may only have one or two more opportunities to ski in ideal conditions before spring hits us. This coming week the temperature is supposed to go above zero! Yikes! Not good for snow! And that's when things get ugly too, as in dirty and sloppy and just gross outside. It makes it difficult for me to get to school and back with babies, as I can't pull the sled over the many bare patches, but I also can't push a stroller or easily pull a wagon through all the still snowy/slushy patches.

Then there is the clothing. I do love winter clothing, indoor and above all, outdoor. I love that I can hide my body through all the layers. There's no showing off rolls or love handles when you have about four thick layers of cotton/polyester/wool/various materials on top of it! And I don't have to worry about shaving, or the fact that my veins are popping out extra nicely on my legs today, or that my skin is as white as a vampire's.

And as much as I hate being cold, I DESPISE being hot! I can't stand it. It makes me grumpy and short-tempered and very uncomfortable. I can find ways to easily warm up, but cooling off is always harder. So the winter cold is ok by me. Preferable at least to the sticky summer heat.

So don't hate me, but I am NOT hoping for an early spring!

Roll on, winter!

What Would You Do?

Today I had a lot of running around to do. It certainly piles up on you when you have limited weekday time for that and only one vehicle to share as well.

So I was at the police station about to get my criminal record check done and I noticed that in the van parked beside me, a dog was shut inside. The windows were up, and the sun was out. Now I know it's not the hottest day today (25C is supposed to be the high, so it was probably about 23 at the time) but that is still hot enough for the vehicle to heat up rather quickly.

I always feel sorry for animals shut up inside cars. They can't open the window or door to cool off, and plus they are wearing a fur coat! How would we feel in that situation? Everyone knows not to leave an animal in the car during a sunny summer day.

It's not the first time I have seen this. Nor, I'm sure, will it be the last. But I've never had the guts before to really do anything about it. I'm not a trouble maker, or shit-disturber. I'm really rather a wimp. I avoid confrontation at all costs. So the thought of approaching some stranger and having words with them over this issue makes me feel a little sick and weak-kneed. Even if it is in defense of something completely defenseless.

And so my conclusion was that this time I wasn't going to be a wuss about it. I was going to "woman up" and do something about it this time. I went inside the station, and approached the desk.

Friendly-looking officer - "Can I help you?"

Me - "Well, you see I came in for my record check, and there's a dog completely shut up inside a van beside me..."

Officer - Stoney silence.

Me - Feeling rather awkward and uncomfortable.
"So, err, I was wondering if you could arrest that loser maybe put out a page or something?"

Officer - "He'll be alright, no one's been in here that long."

Me - Feeling incredibly stupid and meddling by this point. I mumbled something about how I just felt sorry for the animal and went on my way.

So that's my heroic effort and how it went down. Never again will I try that. I felt so idiotic. Not to mention I'm sure the guy who owned the van heard every word and probably felt pretty smug about it. He was probably thinking, stupid cow, who does she think she is anyway?

So I'm wondering if everyone else would have done the same, or left it? Would you have carried it further, or slunk away with your proverbial tail between your legs like me?

A Nasty Surprise

Ok, how nasty is that?!

I was innocently taking my laundry down yesterday, being the cheap-ass environmentally conscious person that I am. As I reached for that one peg suspending the grey shorts, what should my insect-phobic eyes spy??

EEEEKKKKK!!!!

I think you could have heard me scream ten houses over. All the boys outside with me turned to see what I was freaking out about. And being boys, of course they all wanted to touch it and save me from it...
NOT!

What is wrong with boys today?? L offered to whack it with the plastic golf club, but I declined, citing that I did not wish to rewash the garment in question due to bug-gut splatter. And I didn't want to "shoo" it away with said plastic golf club, for (my intense) fear that it would fly at me. Or anywhere near me.

As luck would have it, one of the parents came along at that point. She is a brave police officer, and she even wouldn't touch it! She did, however use the badminton racket to "shoo" it, at which point it flew from one garment only to land on another. She "shooed" it again, and finally, off it went on it's merry way.

So what was it, you may ask?

Well, I didn't look it up or anything, but I'm 90% sure that it was a cicada bug. They make that odd buzzing noise you hear intermittently in the trees during this time of year. We used to find them dead in our pool sometimes when I was a kid.

Sooooo disgusting! I may never hang laundry out again, to heck with the hydro bill.

I DON'T WANNA GO AND YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!!!

Sound familiar? Yeah, if you're a mom, it probably does.

But wait - here's the kicker..... it wasn't one of my kids saying this, it's ME!!

Yep, me. 30- ahemmm, mumblemumble- something years old and I am acting like a five year old. But I can't help it, I just don't wanna go!

Go where, you say?

To the cottage.

WHAAAAA???!!!

Now why wouldn't anyone want to go to the cottage? Am I crazy, you say? No.

Here's the thing. First of all, the cottage is not our cottage, it's DH's Grandmother's cottage. 80-something (3, I think)-year-old-almost-practically-deaf-and-extremely-stubborn Grandmother. And during the summer months, she lives there. Is that enough for you yet? Ahh, but the plot thickens.

Now imagine further. Taking two boys with plenty of energy to a cottage where they may or may not be stuck inside (likely will be due to the completely CRAPPY weather we've had this summer!) and not allowed to touch much of anything, do much of anything and VERY LIMITED SPACE to play! Yikes.

But wait, there's more! Despite the fact that there are four bedrooms in this cottage, they are all very tiny as cottage rooms tend to be, very stuffy, and there is only one small main room and one bathroom for all to share. And that means not just the four of us + Grandma, it also includes DH's mother and ever-fragrant father (and I mean that in the most loving of ways, NOT!) Not to mention our dog (a 12 yr old mini-schnauzer) and my SIL's waaaaaaayyyyy too hyper and obnoxious dog as well (same breed). Gah.

So what's a person to do? Well, you can go outside and hunt for berries in the thick, mosquito-ey bush. Hmmmm, nah. You can go for a walk on the dusty road, where mosquitos are also abundant (for some reason they LOVE me, and L too, we must have sweet blood or something) and you have to watch out for traffic moving up and down the road. OR, you could go swimming in the frigid water. The lake we're on doesn't ever get higher than 75 at the most, and that's in the hottest of summers, I can't imagine what it's like this year but I'm a suck when it comes to cold water. Or you could play on the beach, wait, what beach, it disappeared this year when the water level moved up several feet. Two square feet of beach is enough for two boys to play on isn't it??? No, didn't think so. OR you could sit inside the cottage, trying to relax and read your book, but you'll either be #1) asked to complete some mundane chore, #2)be soothed {right} by blasting Musak (ok I don't know what else to call it, but it's the crap you here when you've been put on hold on the phone, or coming out of the speakers in Wal-mart or some such place) being played at full volume for the benefit of the hearing impaired (or soon to be...) or #3) die a slow death of heat exhaustion due to the temperature inside the uninsulated cottage. Or, you could try to watch tv on the three fuzzy channels that come in, or maybe a movie IF you're lucky.

Ok, enough whining, you say. But no, I want to whine more.

If I wanted to spend my very precious long weekend (first one of the summer, by the way) doing menial household chores by hand (I'm talkin' dishes here, peeps) then I would be happy to go. But silly me, I don't want to, guess I'm just weird that way. Why in hell would I want to go live like that, on MY TIME OFF when I can just stay home and have this wonderful invention called an AUTOMATIC DISHWASHER do it for me? Grrrr. Apparantly, in DH's family's world, we are still living in the 1920's, 'cause it's "women's work". WTF? Not what I'm trying to teach my boys.

Oh, well, maybe I'll just go for a nice long ride in the boat.

Oh, right, we don't have a boat. Unless you consider one powered by human legs one. Ya know, a paddle boat? Gee, fun. And oh so exhilerating on the ever-choppy waters that surround us.

Ok, one more whine (or two).

On top of all this really fun stuff, we also have to attend a wedding this weekend. Whoopty-freakin'-doo. I'm not a lover of weddings, as such. The boring ceremony, the even more boring and cheesy speaches, the questionable food, the uncomfortable clothing, the trying-to-make-small-talk-with-strangers, and yes, I'm effing cheap. I'm sorry, but if I wanted to spend a hundred or something dollars on someone, it's going to be someone I love, not someone I barely know. Good friends getting married, I'm happy. Close family, I'm happier. But estranged cousins, workmates/aquaintances, and cottage neighbours?? Nope. Can't be bothered.

But, we got guilted into going (as usual, DH has NO, ZERO, BALLS when it comes to standing up to his family, sigh), so now we have to go witness the third marriage of the next-door-cottage-neighbour at someone else's cottage that's almost an hour away from our own! Crap. Plus, we aren't supposed to drive there. We're supposed to take some shuttle bus they've arranged for due to the limited parking. So we can't leave when we want, we're stuck there for the day, or at least until the first shuttle leaves at 9:30 at night. And this is with the kids in tow.

So that's the Saturday of my coming long weekend. Sunday, I'm sure will involve me desperately trying to escape from the other family members as much as possible while looking after my own children and my husband succumbs to the will of The Overlord Grandma to do her bidding, all this time, begging my DH to let us leave that night and not put us (and my back) through one more night of torture. But it won't happen, guarantee we'll be there till Monday. Tuesday I'll return to work and mounds of laundry refreshed and relaxed {yeah, right} . I am very seriously considering asking my darling SIL to drop me off at home when she leaves on Sunday (who, by the way, very WISELY decided to stay in the local hotel with her new BF instead of subjecting him to the hell that is this family and scaring him off early. Good for her).

Ok, so do you blame me whining a bit? Or do you think I'm a total wench, should suck it up and think myself lucky? And let's not forget all the other things that go along with going away for the weekend that always falls to the Mom to do: the packing of clothes, food, toys, supplies, and the subsequent unpacking of it all.

Ok, whining is over.

For now.

Let The Summer Begin!

Well, summer is not off to a great start. Our first day off school (yesterday, Friday, was a PA Day) was spent mostly inside. Which really sucks, because it was such a nice day. But poor L has had a fever now since Tuesday (just a virus, the doctor claims) and I was sick with his flu (or whatever) on Thursday, so yesterday I wasn't feeling terribly energetic either.
Hopefully this is not a sign of the summer to come!
We actually did pretty well this winter. Minimal colds, no flu (thank God!) and only a couple of ear/throat infections all around.
So I hope we are not going to be making up for our good fortune here during the summer!
The summer flies by so quickly! We have to pack in a whole year's worth of fun into only 10 weekends (maybe 11). That has to include cottage trips, amusement park trips, camping trips, beach trips, some sort of vacation (meaning for me, no cooking or cleaning, so ---hotel somewhere) and of course, visiting friends and family trips. YIKES! How do we do it, you say? We don't. We never really get to do all we want to do in one summer, and as much as we want to. These trips are on top of regular home maintenance and also home improvements to boot. It's really overwhelming to think of it all.
So you see, we just can't, can't, CAN'T get sick!!

Calling Cards

I am frustrated beyond all belief.

Being the anal-retentive mom that I am, I decided to make my boys "calling cards". I've realized over the past few summers, that it is very difficult to make playdates on those boring days, when you don't have the child's phone number, or last name, or know where they live! Last year, around this time of year, I got R to have his friends at school write down their phone numbers. But it is sometimes difficult to decipher a 6 year old's handwriting.

So, I decided to make calling cards for my two, and hopefully they won't get lost by the other kids' moms and my kids might actually be popular this summer.

I used Microsoft Publisher for the first time today. It isn't too hard to figure out, only getting it to print correctly was a bit tricky. I actually had some business card sheets lying around, but no matter what I did, I could not for the LIFE OF ME, get this DAMN thing to print correctly!! I'd print out a tester sheet first, using plain paper. But when it would turn out alright, I'd put in the thicker business card sheet, and BAM, it would come out wrong. The card would not line up with the perforated edges no matter what. ARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

So, I gave up, and I printed them on plain paper, and I think we will cut them out, and then glue them onto the business cards. Sigh......

Hot

I don't want to complain too much about the heat, but seriously, it's hot! I don't understand our stupid, effed-up Canadian weather! Two days ago we were all freezing, and now we're boiling! No wonder we're all sick all the time; no one's body can get used to that!

But we did have such a long winter, so I am trying to just enjoy being sticky and sweaty for once. And there are some advantages. The house was so hot last night (as I'm far too cheap to turn on the A/C in May!) that hubby and I played Wii bowling in our undies. Lucky I don't post pictures, eh? You can all imagine us as two gorgeous Calvin Klein-esque models, hee hee...

And then there is the other advantage... the kids and I all get to wear our new summer clothes finally! Isn't that a great feeling, putting on brand new clothes? Seeing yourself (or your kids) in something you've never worn before, unlike those damn winter clothes you've worn a THOUSAND times over! And the laundry piles get smaller too, with less clothing being worn, and less bulky at that.

Ahhhh, summer...