Its 6.32am on a Sunday morning and I am watching Dukie trot around the garden completely free and he looks SO very happy. Its a much nicer day already than yesterday when the fence went in and I am nursing my vanilla latte from my coffee machine and watching the sky change colour over one of the happiest dogs around.
We bought 8ft pre-treated fence panels from Kent and had them delivered on Friday in the downpour of the rain and got fence posts from a farm shop in Milford.


Paul and our neighbour Luc started to put the fence in around 7pm on Friday evening and worked with lights until about 9.30pm, they then re-convened at 8am yesterday morning on what had to be the absolutely coldest day possible. It was like we had been plunged back into winter.

Anyway they were soon joined by the rest of our wonderful neighbours and over the course of the day two yards were fenced and two dogs - Molly and Dukie became free to run for the first time.

I stayed in all day, well actually I went grocery shopping and then got home and made pizza for the work party and then hosted Lilys 5th Birthday party, which went, I think, really well.

A friend of ours came from Mahone Bay and had each little girl make a bracelet. The girls then played wildly around the house while I threw together some chicken nuggets and pizza and some cucumber, carrott and sugarsnap peas. We also had zesty lime chips and mango dip (for the grown-ups) , it was a blast. The wonderful Kimmie made Lily a Barbie Fashion Fairy Tale cake.

Once the party was done, and Paul had come in and showered, we then sat with Tracey and Nic and checked out our options for our Key West roadtrip next March. Happy Saturday.

Lily is nearly 5, the sun is shining and there is sadness elsewhere in the world

The weather has been remarkably different lately. We have had a couple of rainfall warnings and it really rained on Tuesday and at night but the humidity has also kicked in. The air is warm like in a bathroom when the bath has been running. I love it.

We had some pretty thick fog too yesterday, I left the house in what was like pea soup and then drove out of it at the airport into blue sky and sunshine. I could see it like a big green bank behind me, never seen anything like that in England, and then drive back into it again further down the highway.

The peepers are still chirping away like crazy in the evening which makes me want to go to sleep with the windows open, I so love the sound.

Today is bright and sunny and warm. Heres a shot of my drive into work this morning:

Today is the last day that my little Lily is 4. Shes getting so grown up now and everyday I love her and Chloe even more. Life with my family, with my children is just so good.

Talking of dear, sweet innocent children…..

Recently I have come across this blog whick breaks my heart. I wish I was in a position to do something about this, to take one of these children and save them. I know that if it was just me I would do it. But its not just me, I have a family and a husband and I am not sure Paul would. But, I am linking this in the hope that someone who can and wants to do something will.

The family who do this and who write this blog are just flat out amazing people.
http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/

Tuesday musing

Chloes birthday was great, she had a really good time. Her birthday cake was made by Kim and was designed by Chloe:

She had some friends come and watch a movie with her which was called A Dolphin Tale, which is a true story about Winter the Dolphin who now resides in Clearwater at a Marine Sanctuary. They run summer camps, Chloe wants to go and I am very tempted indeedy.

www.seewinter.com

Lilys birthday is this Friday and quite frankly I am at a loss as to what to get her. She doesn’t have a wish list, so I am off to Toys R Us today to see if something jumps out at me. She is nuts about Ariel but she does have lots of Ariel things, so I will have to look….

Paul purchased the material for Dukies fence yesterday – 17 pretreated fence panels, stacks of posts and a couple of gate kits. He is borrowing a trailer and hes going to pick it all up on Friday. The fencing begins at the weekend.

Its going to be one busy weekend as its also Lilys party, shes having some pals round for a bracelet party. Shes such a girly girl.

Today I didn’t want to come to work, I wanted to stay home with my family and wait for this rainfall warning to hit us, apparently we have between 50 – 100mm rain coming today. Its very windy, gusts at 70km/hr but it’s a warm wind, almost feels tropical out there.

I just want an at home day today.

I read an interesting post yesterday and one phrase stayed with me – written by a burns victim

~ “Every day is a blessing”

Chloe is 8

Its my Chloes 8th birthday today, so of course they got up at 5.15am! - I of course sent them back to bed until at least 6am (for goodness sake!)

Anyways she was super pleased to get $50 from Grandpa and some another $30 from Mrs Morriss and Omi and has extensive spending plans.

I, for one, cant believe she is 8. I have had this child for 8 wonderful, occasionally trying years. I am so proud of her, shes so sensitive, so kind, so deep and so loving.
She so loves the ocean and all ocean mammals and also her dog along with horses and other animals.

Tomorrow is her party, so she has a dolphin cake coming and some friends for a cinema date with KFC, all about the nutrition here (not!)

An "us" picture post

Ok, I realised today that I dont have many pics of Mr Paul on here, so thought I would throw some up, as one can see he looks utterly miserable here in Canada. Thank God he doesnt. This was my dream and he was awesome enough to let me try it out, thank you and I love you.

Oh and one of Lily, this was on the way to the cottage last summer.

These ones are at the Pirate Festival in Mahone Bay at a rather lovely pub, where I of course had fish (I'm just so predictable!)

Chloe so loves to clean the pool. It never ceases to amaze me quite how many bugs throw themselves in every hour. Cant wait to have the pool up and running again.

Lily at my so favourite beach - Melmerby. The water is often so calm that its like glass and its warm, love it!

Ah Peggys Cove

The Peepers are out

Over the last two nights I have noticed a noise. Its the sound of hundreds of little frogs called Peepers croaking, they sound like ciccadas and I love that noise. We are now back to sleeping with our bedroom window open and I go to sleep to the sound of the Peepers. Spring has definately sprung and you know what, its not that bad.
The grass is going green, the sun is getting stronger, theres more rain, there no snow (yes!) and its very pleasant to wander around the garden in a t-shirt.

Age is but a number

Or is it?

OK so I am no longer mid thirties, that lasted for what felt like oh two minutes and now I am mid to late 30’s

I was early 30’s until I hit 35 to be honest so maybe that explains how I got past mid so very quickly.

People say age is but a number and you are only as old as you feel. Sometimes I feel young and then I spend time with ladies in their twenties and I realise that we do, in fact, look different. I do look older.

I think differently too, I am the same person I was at 24 but I am not too. I say what I think now, try to be honest even if I know that person will find it hard to hear, I am hoping that I am not judgemental or critical though as that’s a pet hate of mine. I am more confident at work now and in my own choices than I used to be. (I would love to be 24 again though quite frankly!)

I do have wrinkles and some grey hairs now and actually my hair is changing, its more wispy and ridiculous. I don’t have that young look in my face.

Earlier today I briefly thought about death and dying. My mum voiced her concerns about my lack of religious beliefs the other day as she worries about me after I die (shes SO religious now) and I got to thinking about my own beliefs. I know I am afraid of death and its potential finality as I like living. I also realise that I then quickly move on in my thoughts about this and I wonder do we all do that?

I did ask my work colleague about this and his flip answer was that it wont happen to him - I think he must be in denial!

Bryan Adams weekend

Had THE most amazing weekend. The weather was amazing which meant that the girls hung out in the garden ALOT with Dukie and had a lot of fresh air. We went to our first bonfire of the season at Luc and Lynnes and were there till late, the girls came and so did Dukie, great evening.

On Sunday I left at 3pm and Ruby and I went for our girls Sunday. First stop was check-in at the Delta Barrington and then we caught a cab to the Titanic Gravesite where they were holding a ceremony. We walked about a bit and saw as much as we could, it was uber packed. I saw J Dawsons grave, it was surrounded. Press everywhere, even a reporter from Oz.

We went for dins at Stayners - panfried haddock and cocktails and then made our way to the metro centre. It was still warm but getting a little misty, it was beautiful though, I so love Halifax.

Bryan Adams ROCKED the metro centre! He was flat out amazing, sang for 2.5 hours and it was just excellent! I loved every minute and was so sad when it was over. His voice was so strong and he sang continually, just switched his guitars, he has incredible energy - truly 18 till I die!

Awesome version of "I'm ready"
Bryan Adams ~ I'm ready ~ Halifax Metro centre April 15,2012

We got back to the hotel and 10.30pm, Ruby was famished and spent ages perusing her dine in options, her pizza turned up at 12.30am! I had to try it, it was Donair Pizza which sounds awful but was actually really nice!

Had a whole 4.5 hours sleep and then had a lovely expensive hotel breakfast - oatmeal, blueberries, English muffin - $20! I have dragged myself through work today and want to do it all again

a brand new weekend

We have a Keurig coffee machine! I am super pleased about this as now I can indulge in Cinammon Pastry coffee whenever my little heart desires. 

Its Saturday, girls are playing, I am considering breakfast options and todays housework.

Lilys Little brown tongue - a little evidence of choc Easter egg snack I think!

Sunny Saturday!

Paul is bending my ear about making a grocery list and tomorrow Ruby and I are off for a funpacked afternoon and evening:
Titanic gravesite
check into the Delta Barrington Hotel
Stayners Wharf for Panfried Haddock and a Fall Breeze
Bryan Adams in concert at 8pm!

Coolio!

a spending update

Had a marvellous trip to the dentist yesterday to get an old filling replaced. They were most concerned as to my comfort level and even gave me a pillow! I now have a white filling in place of the old metal one and it was ok. The injections were the same as Brit ones but the time taken and consideration far outweighed any British dental visit.

Last night was our second Lantz recreational meeting and I now have a budget to prepare for the year - shouldnt be TOO hard as I have all the actuals by month for last year and some control to take over banking etc. I LOVE being part of a little community like this thats coming together to look after our local ball fields and pool. It feels good to volunteer. Obviously I would much rather volunteer in something exciting such as Search and Rescue but being an accountant seems to have more use currently.

We have been able to tick off some items on our to do list, as seen here:
sunday-planning

So far we have got a new water heater in- tick
Bought a vanity and mirror for the bathroom - tick
Bathroom due to be fitted in the late Spring once tax rebate has been received - almost tick
Fencing is to be purchased for the yard this weekend and the planned installation date is the weekend of the 28th April - Dukie will be free to run in the garden after that -almost tick

So our credit card has taken a pounding just lately and its lucky that we can pay it off.

So I am feeling pretty good about being on time target with required spending on home improvement.

Once these little babies are dealt with we can then buy the next load of winter fuel in the summer to be stashed and pay for some summer camps and save like Billy-o towards our next March trip to the Keys.

Easter in pictures

I finally got round to uploading some recent pictures, these are pretty much of Easter weekend.

Lily spent some time on Saturday arranging her princesses into a school outside her bedroom door,I think they both view the landing as an extension of their bedrooms.

Note Dukies bed with sleeping bag pillow in the corner.

And Chloe spent some time playing on Charlie and Lolas webpage

And Dukie spent some time careering round the yard, notice all the unused wood pile behind him ,disguised as a blue whale

I spent some time cleaning but didnt get any pics of that - of course.

On Sunday we woke up to baby Easter eggs that required hunting:

 And all this gorgeous white stuff, we knew it was coming but it was still a bit of a shock

All that snow was gone by lunchtime

Easter and mis-mogs

Well Easter went well, and so did Titanic. Chloe was amazed by it and all she has talked about since is Jack and Rose and can we go and see the Titanic at the bottom of the ocean – pllleeeeaasse!

I put all the Easter eggs out at 10pm Saturday night once they were safely asleep and then silly me stayed up for a while reading. I thought that since they had gone to sleep reasonably late that they would wake up a little later, I was so wrong. Chloe was up at 6.45am bright as a button and then woke Lily and then they set off around the house before I could drag myself out of the covers.

It was all white outside due to a lovely dump of snow. I had to chuckle at some people back in England asking wtf was wrong with the weather here!!!! I wanted to send them the link to my “snow in April” pics taken in Surrey one year, not that long ago either. Dig dig dig at Nova Scotia by those people that believe its always cold here, they are the same ones who go rather quiet when it heats up in the summer and they are stuck with typical British summer time.

We had a fabulous Easter dinner with Doug and Stephen and the girls had a good time, I was super proud of them, they were so well behaved.

I have got the mis-mogs today and I have had chats with myself, firm ones in fact as all the things making me feel like this are out of my control and much worse things happen.

·         I cant change people, I need to move on

·         What happens with Pauls job can be dealt with by him, hes perfectly capable of this and doesn’t need my zealous input.

·         Sometimes I feel a little narked that we don’t have closer relationships with our parents and have childcare on hand. I mean I know we moved away but even before we did that, we didn’t have that support anyway. Grandparents to our children have never been the type to drop everything for them, my mum is too far away, my dad was…. Well not the right person. Pauls dad has been the best but even he was often not available. Maybe its just as well that its like this, maybe if we were all uber close then we wouldn’t have been able to emigrate.

So, I need to pull myself out of this funk of all the above and take more notice of my surroundings, brown and ugly as they are. Maybe Springtime in NS will always have this effect on me, Spring is terrible here, everything stays brown for SO long. COME ON Summer! At least I know that will be lovely and long and followed by a wonderful beautiful Autumn.

Bring back the ciccadas is all I can say

Easter weekend plans

Its been quite a busy week so far. Yesterday I did my Easter Egg purchasing at Walmart. I got a whole bunch to make a little trail around the house for Easter Sunday, I tried to stick to chocolate I know that the girls like - Lindt and Kinder and not too much of the North American stuff which we like the least in this house - tastes a little like doggy chocs. So anyway thats all squirrelled away for the weekend, I just need to get some baskets now for their little egg hunt.

Its the 100 year anniversary of the Titanic on April 15th and they are showing the movie in 3D currently. Chloe and I are going to see it on Friday with my friend Tracey and her daughter Lauren. Lily is going to hang with Laurens little sister Emily, all the girls are pals so its going to be good. I personally love the Titanic movie and Halifax has all the grave sites so I am looking forward to checking them out. Chloes very into the Titanic too, I am hoping she will be ok with the film, I think she will be. Theres also a museum here. I am not a museum person at all, but I shall go to this one at some point.

Last night the girls made their birthday party invites. Lily made Tinkerbell ones and Chloe made doggy ones complete with paw prints. It was good fun to actually make them, I am not sure it was cheaper but it was fun and we wrote them out with sparkly gel pens.

Also last night Paul joined the Hants Search and Rescue team and went to his first training meeting. I wanted to do something similiar but managed to land myself the treasurers role at the recreational committee. I am committed as I believe in the local amenities like the ball fields and the public pool but of course this is more sitting on my butt! Damn!

Going running with Dukie tonight and then a hair cut at 7pm - really looking forward to both. I am going to attempt to crowbar in some time between the two to eat Pauls spaghetti bolognaise as its just so good.

I am aware that I am behind in the pictures of us all area of this blog, I am going to attempt to rectify this soon!

Spring weekend

We started our Spring cleaning this weekend, I say we although to be honest Paul did most of the planned cleaning on Saturday as I was needed on the phone.

We completed the family room which included washing the covers on the couches and all the throws and the curtain and doing the long awaited ceiling fan cleaning.

We decided to target this room as it is not really impacted by the wood stove at all and as we cant really Spring clean whilst we are still using that, we figured we would start in this room. It was nice to actually do this work and of course it led to some re-arranging and discussion on replacing the sagging built in shelves at some point and repainting . It’s the only room we haven’t yet attacked with a paint brush.

Chloe went for a sleepover in the early afternoon and Paul, Lily and I took Duke for a walk around Grand Lake via a quick trip to Global Pet Foods to get his name tag. We also stopped in Canadian Tire (one of my weaknesses along with Old Navy , Gap and Banana Republic) for a couple more ceiling fans for the girls rooms. Lily doesn’t have one and Chloes is old and knackered. We also spied and purchased a red parasol for our outdoor table. It is beautiful.

Duke just loved his walk, he stayed with us, ran with Lily and even swam in the lake. He was so exhausted that he slept in the van all the way home. There was no one at the part of the lake that we went to and it was so lovely to have this time.

On the way home we decided to eat out at a local haunt called Bitars, it has mainly Italian food but we had never been there, so after a quick shower we set off out again and had an awesome meal. Paul had the Thai curry, I had the panfried haddock and Lily had fish and chips. I missed Chloe being there but she was hanging with Ruby and co and watching a movie so I knew she was fine.

Sunday was another gorgeous sunny day and I had breakfast out on the deck and then ironed my couch covers out there too.

The sun was warm and the air was fresh so it required some fluffy boots for ultimate comfort and a fleece.

We caught up with Pauls dad on the phone and then Chloe came back after lunch, Ruby and I head out to a Lia Sophia jewellery party and when we returned we all had some roasties – sweet potatoes and parsnips with some amazing barbeque pork and sausages. It was a good meal and a good day.

Easter is next weekend and I know exactly what to expect now from a Canadian Easter. Its good to be in a territory of some familiarity.