A tribute

It has taken me until now to muster up the energy to come back to this blog.  You see, one week ago, we celebrated the life of my dear brother-in-law who was taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age on Sunday, March 11th. Since then, we have been going through the motions of what we call normal life, but man, this has proven to be extremely tough.  I am fragile, emotionally fragile.  But it is not about me.  It is about a wife, 2 sons, parents and 4 siblings he has left behind.  How do they go on without Gary in their lives?  Without ever seeing his smile, hearing his laughter, seeing him react to things in his usual nonchalant way.  Gary has left a huge hole in our lives and in our hearts which will take an extremely long time to heal.  Thankfully we have many, many wonderful memories of this gentle and kind man that was put on this earth to enrich all of our lives.  For this, I am thankful.  I am thankful that he was part of my life.  My sweet Gary, may you rest in peace... until we meet again.  I love you with all my heart!

February blahs...

I just noticed that we are already into the month of March and that the February blues are still upon me.  The weather has been great considering we are still winter.  But I don't know what it is.  It happens every year so this year I tried to keep busy during February, at least during the weekends with lots of skiing and lots of friends visiting at the cottage.  But no... that hasn't really worked.  I have no physical energy to do anything yet I have piles of ideas and tons of little things to do.  Hell, I have boxes still to unpack and we've been in our new house now for 7 months!  What hasn't helped is that my dear brother in law is going through some hard times, medically that is, and I cannot help but worry about him constantly.  And Gord hasn't been very present due to this.  So, yeah, I guess that's why I'm feeling that I am just getting through day by day... often forgeting what needs to be done on certain days and mixing things up.  It's a wonder my kids are being fed and bathed  :)  You know what they say:  This too shall pass...

On to the next stage...

Alexia has graduated to a booster seat.  Finally!  Now this should make things alot easier. 

Funny story.  Last fall, when I came back from Hawaii, Gord asked me if it was a place for us to go as a family.  I explained that it would be best for us to go when Alexia is out of the car seat as there is a lot of in and out of the car when visiting Hawaii.  So, since then, Alexia has been asking about moving into a booster because she wants to go to Hawaii but we kept telling her she needed to eat more to gain more weight (Alexia is really not a big eater).  However, while she doesn't weigh enough to be in a booster, she is definitely tall enough so we moved her.  Guess who thinks she's going to Hawaii  :)

All ready...

... for the Royal Wedding!

Lost?

No, I am not lost!  I have been back from wonderful Hawaii for 3 weeks now but for some reason, I cannot seem to get a moment's peace.  I was hoping to post some wonderful pictures of our fantabulous trip but my PC is now at the Apple store being transferred to the new iMac we bought last week.  So the pics will have to wait till next week... that's if I will be able to figure out the Mac OS.  Hope springs eternal!  Anyway, if things keep up as they have been in the last 3 weeks, I won't have time to even play with it at all.  Between work, school and activities, there is hardly any time for sleep.  Here's how my Tuesday went for example:  Get up, shuffle kids to school, work late, inhale supper, take Cara-Li to piano lessons, help Cara-Li with homework, shuffle kids to bed, deal with the computer situation and it is now 11PM.  What the f***?  And through all that, I didn't even go to the bathroom once... no time!  Anyway, with November around the corner, things should slow down... one hopes!

A mish mash of things

Wow!  I can't believe it's been a month since my last post!  Frankly, I have not been in the mood and I been fairly tired lately.  Not sure what it is but I am fast asleep by 10PM.  It's also the end of the school year and the kids (and I) are done.  Where is summer?  When can I simply sit on my dock and sip coffee (or beer!)?  Soon, soon!  My next post will be about our cottage renos.  I hope to show you our before and after.

For now, here's what we've been up to.

We went to visit Gord's family in Guelph for the long weekend in May.  As usual, we took Friday off as well and had a four day weekend.  Road trip!  We spent Friday and Saturday in Guelph visiting with Mom and Dad and sisters too.  Cara-Li and Alexia got to spend time with theri 2 little cousins C. and N.  They always have so much fun together!  We were staying at the Holiday Inn, where kids stay and eat for free (I did not know this!), which had an indoor pool.  Needless to say, lots of time was spent there on Saturday as it was raining.  I did a little shopping as the mall was across the street.  And we had a really nice family did at a Chinese restaurant.  No, we didn't choose Chinese because of the girls but because Gord's parents LOVE Chinese  :)

On Sunday, we headed out towards Niagara Falls where we would spent the next two days.  On our way out of Guelph, I remembered that there was a wonderful Antique Market in Aberfoyle.  And I have been looking for two antique headboards for the girls' cottage bedroom.  Gord was NOT thrilled about stopping let alone having to jam 2 wrought iron headboards into our already full car but I made a deal with him.  Since I knew what I was looking for, we would leave as soon as I found it or maximum one hour.  I found exactly what I wanted, purchased it, stuffed it into our truck and were back on the road within 45 minutes.  Talk about speed shopping!  Unfortunately, I did not take a photo of the before but here is what they look like now after having them sand-blasted and painted (by moi).  Total cost:  $190.00.

After our Aberfoyle adventure, we made our way to Niagara Falls.  Since check-in at the Hilton is after 3PM, we decided to go to the American side first.  Well really, I just wanted to go shopping at Gymboree and Target.  Oh and a quick stop for lunch at Taco Bell  :)  After check-in, we met up with cousins C. and N. and Gord's sister for a swim in the pool (seems to be the popular activity during this trip) followed by an Italian dinner and fireworks at 10PM.  The next day, the girls finally got to see the Falls in their glory from the top, from the bottom (in the Maid in the Mist) and from the sky (from the giant ferris wheel).  I love Niagara Falls!  It's so cheesy!

Cara-Li has been taking gymnastics at school as a lunch time activity at school.  And last week was their Gala Sportif in front of the school with a presentation in the evening for the parents.  Much to our pleasure, Cara-Li was nominated along with 2 other children for the Best Athlete in elementary school.  She didn't win but we are so proud of her for being nominated!  And her gymnastics show was fabulous! 

We had the pleaseure of having N. ans S. over for dinner along with their daughter M. last Friday.  The girls played in the yard while parents got a chance to chat and sip some sparkling wine.  You know they're going to China next week to pick up their baby boy!  Yahoo!  Cara-Li was really great with the 2 little girls (they're the same age) but at one point one did not want to share with the other and well, all hell broke loose!  Tears were flying and the noise level suddenly got extremely loud.  The funniest part was Cara-Li's reaction.  She just looked at them and started laughing!  In fact, we all were.

Next, we went to a friend's 75th birthday party at the cottage where 150 people were present to help celebrate with him.  Lucky him.  Hope that I will have 150 friends at that age!

Alexia can write her name.  Is it just me or is that advanced for a 3 1/2 year old?  I guess we all think our kids are geniuses!

Funny view in my backyard yesterday.

Doesn't it look like we've been shearing sheep?  Seriously, good thing we had our friends over last weekend.  We CANNOT eat outside as these big chunks of cotton are falling out of our cottonwood!

We are renovating... the main floor of our house is a mess!  The roof leaked into our family room a couple of years ago and the ceiling has to be redone.  And we are added new pot lights while were at.  God knows what else I'll come up with while the guy is here....

Welcome!

Welcome to my new home!  Here we will continue our journey as a family of four.  Let me introduce the main characters.

Mom = Susan
Dad = Gord
Spring Roll = Cara-Li
Dumpling = Alexia

Come back soon for more stories!