I Wear My Sunglasses At Night

I'm feeling a whole lot better than I was the last time I posted :D The house is still pushed way back and I still miss everyone, but Ontario is starting to feel a little more like home. Sorry there haven't been any photos for a while. There's been a bit of a lull where I haven't taken any actually, but I promise I will on Tuesday when Lincoln has his first day of school!

I can't believe my first child is starting school, already! It seems like not so long ago we were having his 1st Birthday with the train cake, and so many gifts we could hardly haul them home in one vehicle. He's gotten so big and grown up all of a sudden.

He's absolutely THRILLED to be starting school. Today was actually a very exciting day all around, so allow me to begin at the beginning.

This morning was my first morning at GoodLife, the gym I'm volunteering at. I was actually supposed to start on Tuesday this week but I wasn't feeling all that well so I didn't end up going in.

Since I know a few of the gals from my former gym read this, I'm going to talk a bit about the Child Minding here. Their room is smaller than the Airdrie one, about the same width but shorter, and they don't have a fenced off area for the tiny babies. It's open pretty much, except a bit of a desk area with shelving that is recessed into the one wall.

They don't have any of the complicated paperwork that we had either. Only one group sign-in sheet that is different from the one I am used to. They don't keep individual files on the kids either, which I find a little unsettling due to the medical conditions/allergies some kids have. They don't even write that on the group sign-in sheet.

Also, they only have one person on per shift, and volunteers are allowed to be by themselves. In fact, they don't have any paid staff for Child Minding, it's all volunteers and their CSM is the 'coordinator'. They don't have staff meetings, and most of the volunteers have never even met each other. Since the gym is co-ed they also have at least one male volunteer that I know of as well.

No communications book or having to enter stats or anything like that. We don't have a cleaning checklist and they don't have regular toy clean (they clean the toys that got slobbered on at the end of the shift and that's it). Also they have carpet! The girl who worked with me today didn't know who vacuums it though. I'm hoping they have cleaning people.

They don't have a change table, you have to change kids on the floor. They don't have shirts (yet, apparently they are getting some) and they don't have a very rigid dress code either. The child minding doesn't get nearly as busy. Her and I had 7 kids in there today and she said that was pretty busy. The most they've ever had at once was 11. I guess that's why they only need one person in there per shift. They have similar hours to ours though, except only open until noon in the mornings instead of 1pm.

The club itself is 2 floors, each being about the size of the GoodLife in Airdrie. They even have the RPM classes with the bikes. Many more classes in general since they have no shortage of instructors. They also have a larger selection of free-weights and benches and stuff to go with that. I don't think their group ex room is as big, and they have more offices. The GM here is male, and I haven't met him yet.

To get into the club you have to check in or else they have those 'gate' things with the rotating bars (like the kind they have at the gates to Stampede and stuff like that) and it won't let you in if you don't swipe your card. If you're a staff person you can bi-pass them though.

I got my membership card already, although I can only ever use it at that club. I don't see that being an issue at any rate. Everyone seems nice there, although apparently I am the oldest volunteer. All the other girls (and guy) are students I guess, they have to put in so many hours of volunteer work for school.

Their club is mainly populated by men it seems. Most of the people who use the child minding are instructors or trainers. It's kind of weird to get used to, they are so laid back compared to what I am used to, LOL.

Anyway, after we finished at GoodLife, I took the kids over to Lincoln's school to drop off the last of his registration papers. As it were, his teacher happened into the office while we were there and so we got to meet her. She is a tiny little thing, and late 20's I'd say. Seems very nice, and Lincoln seemed very excited to meet her.

I got all the info on his first day. We have to get him there bu 8:45am when the bell rings for school. Everyone goes into the gym for O Canada and prayer (being a Catholic school) and then the teachers call off their students, and march them off to their classroom. Once we get him settled in and find out what school supplies he needs (we don't get a list until his first day apparently) that's our cue to leave! I'm not sure that I will be able to handle it, HA HA.

After we finished there I took the kids over to Wal-Mart to get Lincoln a backpack and a lunch kit. Even though we live nearby, I'll probably send him his lunch to school on Tuesdays and the Fridays that he goes, because of my volunteering. He doesn't seem to mind that idea at all and asked me already if I will pack extra snacks for his friends (which he hasn't met yet, he he, so cute).

He picked out a Superman backpack, and I got him a nice insulated lunch bag. Sydnie is totally beside herself that she doesn't get to go to school yet, so I bought her a princess backpack that she picked out and I plan to make her a lunch to take to the gym in it on the days Lincoln takes a lunch to school. That seems to have pacified her for now. Next fall she will start Junior Kindergarten (JK) and will be going full-days as well, twice a week with the occasional Fridays. I'm not sure what I'll do with myself with both kids out of the house for two days a week. Maybe sleep, Ha Ha, or read. I could have hobbies again! Yippee!

Once we got home from Wal-Mart they put on their backpacks and practiced school. Sydnie wanted to eat her imaginary lunch every five minutes and Lincoln just wanted to ride around on the imaginary school bus. He's disappointed by the way that there isn't a school bus for him. One of his favorite shows is Timothy Goes To School, and Timothy rides the bus, so he should too damnit! Actually he didn't say damnit, but I'll bet he would if he liked the taste of soap more.

We also wandered over to this restaurant supply store in Kitchener to take a look around. It was a little warm today so being in the air-conditioned Nitro was more appealing than being at home all day. Wow what an amazing store! I know exactly there I am going first once we get into the house (which will probably be, oh, I dunno, maybe November 2010 at this rate). Many neat things to see there, and the prices were fair in my opinion. Way less than a department store anyway.

On Sunday Jay is taking me to the big antique/flea market in Aberfoyle (a little town next door to Guelph) so that we can look at some furniture and stuff. Melanie, our neighbour here, bought a really beautiful, solid wood desk there for $40 bucks last weekend. It needs to be sanded and refinished, but it's just such a nice desk. I'm going to keep an eye out for some furniture pieces for the new house, since we are going to have a few more rooms to furnish than we had before.

It might seem crazy to buy furniture right now, but we have lots of room to store stuff in the basement here. Plus the flea market closes for the winter and I'd at least like to take a look. If we really fall in love with something I don't see the harm in picking it up now. 2/3 of my stuff is in storage anyway, who cares about adding two or three additional things to it.

We booked our plane tickets for October! I'm really excited about that trip already. We're flying into Calgary and renting a car, then heading to Regina for a few days to visit Jay's grandma for her 100th birthday! Next we'll go to Edmonton to see Jay's family and then to Rocky Mountain House for my family and Thanksgiving dinner. We head home, out of Calgary, on Thanksgiving Monday. The whole trip will be a whirl wind I am sure.

I think this update is rambly enough for tonight :) I hope all our family and friends have a great long weekend! Take care all.

XOXO

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

It's really difficult moving so far away. I don't recommend it to anyone if you don't have to. It can be very lonely here. Jay is back in Calgary for the week on business and I am feeling quite sad about being so far from friends and family. Paul and Valerie do live quite close but I don't think I could find their place on my own. I'm not confident enough with driving here yet, besides venturing around Guelph which I am getting quite good at.

Yesterday I had an interview at the GoodLife Fitness here (the same gym chain I worked for in Airdrie). I applied for a volunteer position there, and they very gratefully signed me on. I start Tuesdays, which will be really nice for the kids and I. The gym is open 24 hours so I can go work out whenever I want, late at night or early in the morning. I feel that this is a good move towards making friends and getting out more. Also going to the gym will be good for my weight loss (I'm down almost 20 pounds since the beginning of June and quite proud of myself).

I decided to volunteer twice a week. I get a free membership for me, plus use of the tanning beds if I want (which I don't since they fade my tattoos). I also get either a free membership for Jay or free childcare for one of the kids while I am working out. Jay isn't sure that he would use the membership, even though there is a GoodLife club right in his office building, but I don't see myself dropping the kid(s) of there while I work out either because I never did when I worked at the Airdrie club. Sooooooo I am going to get Jay the membership anyway and if he doesn't use it then I'll have it changed into free childcare for Sydnie or something.

Still no news on the house, but my new friend Melanie and I were talking today (the kids and I actually spent the day at her house with her two boys so the kids could play and she and I could visit) told me that their possession date has already been pushed back 2 months and she is expecting them to push it back again any day.

We had a really great visit so I probably shouldn't be complaining about not knowing anyone here. It's just because Jay is away and I am missing him and I talked to my mum today and I am missing her too.

The kids seem happy though. They loved the play date today and Melanie and I have plans to get the kids together tomorrow too. Lincoln starts Senior Kindergarten (SK they call it) in less than two weeks! My baby starts school! Ack! He's excited but Sydnie is furious that she can't go too. It's going to be hard on her so I work at the gym on the Tuesdays so that she won't be so lonely. Thursdays we'll just have to come up with some fun girls-time activities that she and I can do together. Maybe I'll start taking her to the pool or look into some play groups for kids her age.

We sure miss everyone back home though. I'm really looking forward to our visit at the beginning of October.

Building A House Can Result In Homicidal Urges

I could strangle someone at Reid Homes right about now.

Jay and I got a letter tonight informing us that our tentative possession date has been pushed back...

TO FEBRUARY 28th!!!

Do you want to know how I feel about that?!??!??!?!

I'm so upset and angry at the thought of having to live in this townhouse over Christmas (with all of our decorations packed into our garage which now looks like a sardine can filled from front wall to back wall, floor to roof, with boxes). It's so very disappointing. I am aware that these sorts of things can happen when you build, but they assured us that they RARELY have to push back possession dates. I guess we get to be the special lucky ones!

It's still puzzling that the estimated time necessary to complete construction went from November 15th all the way to the end of February. That just doesn't make any sense and just serves to make me angrier. I can see having it pushed back a month, even two months, but three and a half??!?!?

I'll keep you guys posted. There is still the tiniest glimmer of hope that we'll be moving in sometime before the end of February, but I am not optimistic we'll make it in before Christmas. We're going to see what can be done.

Miss you and love you all!

And I Heard, As It Were, The Noise Of Thunder

I'm so sorry that I haven't posted an update in a while. We've been keeping busy here with new house related stuff. Also the kids made some friends a few doors down and so I spend most of my time outside watching them all playing. Their mother, Melanie, and I have become friends, which has been wonderful for me since I still don't know anyone here. They are building a house two lots up from ours in the new area, so we'll still be neighbours after the move! She has 2 boys, who are 6 and 2, and the kids just love playing with them. Melanie's house is going to be done before ours and she has given me a lot of really useful information and questions to talk to the builder about.

They haven't broken ground on our house yet, but last night we took a look at the semi-final drawings and made any last-minute changes. We are really pleased with how it looks, I really can't wait at all. The drawings have already been submitted for permits, and since none of the changes are major as soon as they get city approval then the contractors can get to it.

We also had our appointment to pick everything out as far as cabinets/floors/etc during the past week. That, of course, is my favorite part!

The designer was really awesome and didn't try to push us into any upgrades. She commented on how easy we were to work with because we already knew what we wanted and there wasn't a lot of standing around trying to decide.

In this house I decided to go with dark cupboards. They will be espresso brown (basically a dark coffee color) and the counters are a medium brown/black/white combination of faux granite. We picked a really gorgeous porcelain tile for the main floor, which will go in the kitchen, entry, and bathroom. It's sort of a textured charcoal with some brown in it. You'd swear it's slate if you didn't know better. Really fantastic.

The carpet will be berber, a really light sort of pale honey color with a tight weave. I chose a color called Bamboo Shoot (which is a medium green shade with yellowy undertones) for the main floor. The basement and second floor are going to be a cool grey color (basically so that I can easily paint over it myself down the road) and our room is once again going to be black.

Our hardwood is going to be maple, stained a sort of dark antique brown. If you've ever seen Japanese Maple hardwood, it's sort of like that. Really beautiful.

The outside of the house is going to be reddish-brown brick half-way up. There will be a grey/red/dark mixture of stone on the front of the house, and the siding is going to be tan with cactus green trim. It's going to be different from all the houses near to us since they all picked brown-tones for the stone and trim.

My kitchen isn't going to be nearly as large as I am used to, which is unavoidable since we extended it as much as possible. We also won't have a pantry since the fridge/freezer we bought is 5.5 feet wide.

Here's a photo to give you a better idea what it looks like:





We do have a cold-room in the basement which seems to be standard around here, so I will have lots of room to store canned goods and anything dry. I can also keep extra small appliances downstairs, because we have a very large storage room were I can keep those sorts of things.

This new house isn't going to have a dishwasher either (save your lectures, we already decided) because we were quite content without one in Airdrie. We don't have one in the rental here either so it's really not a big deal.

We went with the same stove/oven as last time:





I still love stainless steel. Then again I am not the least bit disturbed by looking at finger prints all over it. I've found those Windex multi-surface wipes are also awesome for cleaning it. One quick wipe and all the finger prints are gone.

Once the builders start breaking ground over at the lot I'll be posting frequent photos of the progress. I'm skeptical that we'll actually be moving in during November, and Melanie from next door says that they have already pushed her possession date back by just over a month. It really doesn't matter at any rate. While it would be nice to be somewhat settled for Christmas, I don't care all that much.

As for the old house, the deal is going through with the people who made the conditional offer. They can't close on it until September 15th, but it's alright. We already received the money from the company for the guaranteed offer, so when the people who bought the house take possession we will get the extra money that they offered us.

So, all in all things are great here. We are making some friends and I already mentioned to Melanie doing a babysitting exchange sometime, just for a couple of hours in the early evening, since they don't know anyone here either. I thought maybe we could take turns watching each others kids from about 6-8pm just so that the other could get away for dinner or something. Even that much of a break is wonderful. The kids are usually playing outside together during that stretch of time anyway, so she thought it was a good idea too.

I can hardly believe that Lincoln starts school in just a few weeks. He will be going for full days on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then the occasional Friday. He's excited and can point out his school to me every time we drive by it. Sydnie's nose is out of joint though because she wants to go with him.

I don't want her to be too lonely so I am going to look into volunteering at the gym here on the days Lincoln is in school. That way she'll have a few hours of playing with other kids and I'll still get my free gym membership. The gym here is open 24 hours but it's also co-ed. I think it will be worth it anyway, since I'll be able to work out anytime, and I think if I volunteer twice a week I can get Jay a free membership too, which he can use at the gym right in his office! Since it's all the same gym chain.

So that all sounds really good to me.

It's been cooler here the last couple of weeks which we really appreciate after that intense heat wave. It still gets fairly warm in the day but it cools off just right during the night.

I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Ottawa Or Bust

Our trip was a huge success. We all had a fantastic time, we saw a lot of different things, and got in a lot of visiting with Tina. She was our super-awesome tour guide and showed us all around the city.

Our first day there we went to ByWard Market, which is exactly like it sounds, a market place which is mostly outdoors. There were many tents set up selling everything from fresh produce to clothing and jewelry. The kids weren't all that interested of course. I bought some really excellent tea there, and some beads for my dreads.

Next we walked to The Rideau Canal, which recently became a World Heritage Site. They have skating there in the winter and a lot of boating in the summer. The lock system is so neat to see.

The National War Memorial was right there as well so we stopped for a look. It's a very large monument, and right in front of it is The Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier, which actually has human remains under it.

After spending some time there it was off to Parliament Hill. We took a lot of great pictures, and Tina had a lot of interesting tidbits to share about the buildings. We didn't take the tour this time, but perhaps on our next visit.

We walked all the way around the center and east blocks. There is a 'cat house' beside the center block where a man has built a shelter for all the homeless cats of the city. He also feeds them and has them fixed and immunized. We saw a couple of cats as well as a very fat raccoon and a ground hog.

The five of us wandered along the back of the building where they have a lot of statues and monuments. It was a great history lesson. We got to see the amazing recently-renovated Parliament Library.

It was getting to be time for supper so we called it a day and grabbed a bite to eat at The Elephant And Castle downtown.

The beds at our first hotel in Ottawa were terrible. The next morning we checked out and made a reservation at the Four Points Sheraton across the river in Gatineau, Quebec.

After grabbing breakfast and picking up Tina we went to The National Arts Center. The kids really loved the huge spider out in front of the gallery. They were mostly bored while we looked at all the paintings, but they LOVED the contemporary art displays. There were some very odd installations.

We spent a couple of hours there before we drove across the river into Quebec. We had lunch at this little bistro and the menu was all in French. Luckily both Jay and Tina can read it so they read everything off for me. It was sort of odd that many of the signs had no English on them.

Our new hotel was right across the street from The Museum Of Civilization. Tina had been telling us about the amazing Children's Museum they had, where kids could play and touch stuff while learning about different cultures. That sounded perfect. We went over and they had a ball! I didn't think we were ever going to get them out of there. Besides the huge indoor portion there was also lots of outdoor areas for play and learning. We stayed right until the museum closed, the kids didn't want to leave!

The five of us went for supper although the kids were both ready for bed. We dropped Tina off and spent a few minutes at her apartment so that the kids could play with her cat, whom they totally fell in love with (the cat is not totally used to kids and was a understandably annoyed by them chasing her).

We got a much better sleep at the Sheraton. The beds were awesome.

Monday morning we had breakfast and then stopped by Tina's to visit before we had to leave. We had such a great time in Ottawa, and we were so grateful for all of her help with touring around.

The drive home was long, but the kids managed pretty well. We got them home and then into bed. I think they were mostly exhausted from all of the fun.

I made a slide show of the trip. It's fairly long, there are lots of photos. I hope that everyone else had a great long weekend!

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd We're Off!

Tonight we are headed towards Ottawa! We're only going half-way since we will probably be leaving late, once Jay gets home from work. We decided not to take the train this time. We're going to save that for a longer vacation, perhaps when we go to Montreal eventually. It just wasn't worth it for a weekend.

I'm very excited and I think the kids will enjoy getting out of the house. We have been without a second vehicle all week so the kids and I haven't been able to go anywhere. It's been too hot for them to be outside much so it's been a little stressful being cooped up in the little townhouse.

We did go out for supper the night before last, since it's way too hot to cook. Being in an air-conditioned restaurant was great!

So we are planning to go as far as Peterborough tonight and then stay there, and go the rest of the way to Ottawa early tomorrow. It's a 6 hour drive from here to Ottawa so we thought splitting it up would be our best bet, especially with the kids.

Jay and I have already been planning all of the things we want to see and do. We are going to check out the Parliament Buildings of course! Also the National Arts Center and the ByWard Market are on the list of things to do. Visiting with Tina is going to be the best part of course, although we aren't going to impose on her so we are staying in a hotel near her house.

I have my camera all charged up and I'll be sure to take a lot of photos of the kids and the various sites we see!

I hope everyone has a great weekend :) We miss you all!

The Heat Is On!

It's 33° C here today, although with the humidex it feels like 40°.

Do you know how hot that is?? It's 'make your eyeballs sweat' hot.

Normally I would be basking in all the fantastic heat and humidity, but an unfortunate side-effect of the temperature is that it makes my kids miserable.

This, in turn, detracts from Mommy's general enjoyment of the day, HA HA.

It has however motivated me to search for their inflatable pool, since the rest of this week looks like it's going to be just as hot. Keep your fingers crossed that I can find it and save a little of my personal sanity.

Keep Cool All!