some rejuvenation

I just had the BEST 5 days off, it was  a little hectic as we had more guests arrive on top of our resident guest, and with a service dog - 3 year old huge and a little overwhelming Dexter.... but it was great. It was hanging with best friends time, it was family time and condo planning time and dog hair time. There was an overflow of dog hair in the house.

We bbq'd, we hung out on the day of torrential rain that sounded so loud outside, we blew away the cobwebs on the following hot days, we drank too much wine, we swam in the pool. It rocked....

It was 5 days of rejuvenation with the important people in my life, in the most important place called HOME and I even finished my first ever painting furniture project... It turned out very well and I require photos to post on here.

We also made these little apples for the teaches for the girls last day of school. Its messages in their handwriting stitched on:

Happiness is home time in a NS summer.....

in summary

Its the first really hot hot hot day of the year and the girls are in the pool for the first time this season and it struck me that my children are going to grow up in a completely different world to the one I grew up in, in the 1980's in the UK. Some things are similiar, some far from it.

Very different:

• They have a pool, for them its normal to be able to go and hang out in the pool in the summer.
• They ski in the winter, theres a ski resort up the road, granted its no Whistler but it has runs and chair lifts and snow and its an all singing, all dancing ski resort.
• They have a basement that everyone watches warily when theres a monsoon outside and theres often someone in the subdivision that fell victim to basement flooding.
• They live in a subdivision in a community. We had villages, towns and cities.
• They swim in beautiful lakes off of lifeguard watched beaches with jetskis and speedboats destroying the peace from time to time.
• They live in a large detached house with a separate family room. Only my richest of rich friends as a child has a separate family room and they ended up going to Roedean School for Girls.
• They have Z's where we had S's - eg: finalize
• Z is spelt Zee and not Zed, water is warder, not warter
• They travel to school on a yellow school bus wearing non school uniform every day.
• They can travel to the US of A in a car, watching movies on an Ipad and stopping for a drivethrough slushie.
• Walmart is a normal part of life.....
• BBQs are an everyday feature, even in the winter.
• Ticks are a part of summer, as are mosquitos, blackfly and the wham bam of the screen door.
• White Christmas is a given, along with the cutting down of the perfect family Christmas tree from the Christmas tree lot. 

Somewhat similiar:

• There is also a local outdoor summer pool where they have swimming lessons in the community. When I was 8 I swam in an unheated outdoor pool at school and got changed, shivering, in a little wooden changing hut. Bingo on the outdoor pool, the hut and the  unheated pool bit.
• We have dogs, I had dogs as a child, dog hair is a fact of life in this house.
• They swim in the sea and the water is clear and the ambience peaceful, as children we would sometimes have to brave the brown cold water off of Brighton with its pebble beach, or if we were lucky Devon or some such beautiful spot.
• They live in a world where rust exists on cars. That was perfectly normal on a 1982 Ford escort.
• They play outside until the street lights come on. We did that too, even in Brighton

In summary they seem to have the best of my childhood in the best of today (sans ticks!). I couldnt have wished for more, for them.

June? what really? so wheres the heat?

I am here at work, making my way through a homemade Greek salad and contemplating my very sore muscles from Saturday mornings combat 30 workout and listening to chilled out "driving though the Keys" music. Its cool outside, way too cool for my June liking actually. Its been rather blissful but its gone back to shit today weather wise and its put me in a rather bad mood.

In fact its been two rainy Saturdays in a row which lined up reasonably well with plans to go to the cinema. We haven't been to the cinema this much in the three years we have been here but there is an abundance of good childrens, adults can cope with , movies out this summer.

Last weekend we went to see Maleficent and it was all of the Disney magic that I love. It was also an excellent way to spend a rainy afternoon. This weekend we went, again on Saturday, again in the rain (pppfffttt!) and watched How to Train your Dragon 2 - uber sweet and now we all want a glow in the dark real Night Fury called Toothless for Christmas.

Trailers showed previews of A Dolphin Tale 2 which is coming out in September ( a must see!!!!) and Planes - Fire and Rescue, due out on July 10th, its on the list cant wait etc etc

SO..... now we are officially enjoying spending vast sums at Empire Theatres and STILL waiting for the real heat to show up. I am tempted to move South, like now. I am starting to think that this summer will not show up and before we know it we will have slide straight into November without realizing that the waiting is now in vain.

I am wanting to get back to the beach, feel the sand on my toes, dip in and out of the warm ocean and watch the shadows change across the sand as we waste the day away breathing in the sea air and listening to the sound of water lapping..........

what I have been up to

I am feeling really behind on my blog life. I have logged in and read others but not posted but heres a little snippet into my life lately:

1. Bootcamp
I joined a bootcamp and tonight will be my 4th session. I am really hugely loving this. I am not sure if its because actually I am fit enough to cope and so I can actually enjoy pushing myself instead of it being torture or if its because I have finally found my thang. Its like being back in pony club minus the unco-operative, highly excitable crazy ponies.
Its a team spirit and its personal too. When we are running shuttle runs I can be in my own world whilst being aware of my "team mates" around me. I love the fact that its variable impact, so those bursts of high impact are an adrenalin buzz and easier than pushing through a long run.

The other night we were running through the trails and I could just see myself in the silence of the lambs and about to be stopped by an FBI guy, coming to give me the message to come and see some highbrow investigator who wants me for his team.....

2. Mothers Day
Yesterday was Canadian Mothers Day and it was rather lovely. It was conveniently part of a weekend of late nights and quiet relaxed early mornings. I am also rather fortunate that my two adorable girls are older now and less demanding, so they do what they want to (play with Monster high or make up some world with safari animals, or log on and feed their moshi monster, or go next door to their little friend, or tear up the neighbourhood on their bikes) and so it was a quiet peaceful couple of mornings, with me and Love it or List it Vancouver and a coffee.

So I decided to go to visit Peggys Cove with a couple of my friends who are mothers but we went sans children. This is because whilst I so very much love it there, in my mind its so much more enjoyable when you aren't having to watch your small adventurer like a hawk as they insist on going into the black rocks "death zone"

We got there about 1.30pm and lay on the rocks for a couple of hours and watch the waves crash and pound and the sunlight sparkle on the water. It went from warm yet misty to warm and sunny and the sound of the waves was sublime. We also whiled away the time watching some numpties climb around in the areas clearly marked as highly dangerous...  idiots. I wasn't terribly keen on being witness to their demise as they were dragged out by the undertow, should they be caught out.

We got back around 5pm to a hearty meal and a new log pile where Paul and pals had dragged the 4 cord that had been residing on the drive since the mid week into a tidy and effective log pile, all next winters heat stacked and waiting.

Had a bit of a result at the weekend too, was walking the dogs past a neighbours house just as they were taking down their pool and in short, we are now the proud owners of their solar heating system - I see potentially 6 weeks more pool time this year!

girls birthday weekend

The girls had their birthday sleepovers this weekend. Their birthdays are not actually on the same weekend but we decided to go through this particular pain on the same weekend due to Easter. We are coming to the end of the second sleepover and in exactly 2 hours and 8 minutes our final overnight guests will have gone safely home and hopefully peace will descend on this party house.

From the point of view of effort involved, this has been low maintenance. Pizza, chicken nuggets (homemade of course) and fries and a cupcake cake and a movie for both on both nights followed by hot cinammon rolls for breakfast and some PJs and thats all that was required.

Its been fun.
Weather update - I think mother nature is having some sort of emotional crisis, and its still cold and it snowed in the week - WTH!

good weekend

Its been a great weekend. It started well on Friday by me being able to leave work at 5pm sharp and more importantly, leave it there. Work hasn't visited once this week end.

Saturday was a rainy day, cue drive down to Bedford Commons with full intentions, complete with budget to buy a lamp for the downstairs bedroom. It NEEDS a lamp, we have a friend coming to stay next weekend and there is nothing worse than having to get out of bed to turn a main light off. So me, myself and I set off and found exactly nothing remotely like what I am looking for, which is something like the blue one below:

But I did find the Easter egg aisles in Walmart, again. I had made a decision in the Walmart in NB to buy only Lindt and Kinder easter eggs for the hunt this year, no more of that God awful North American chocolate, so price was not the driving factor, but rather quality of taste. So anyway, I bought all my Easter eggs and therefore managed to spend $70 very quickly - WTH! But quality was the focus, that Lindt will be savoured!

Last night we went to a friends house for our first NY road trip planning meeting. I so love that we can drive to NY. Its awesome to me to have that choice. No more planes required to go to the US, we can just drive! So we huddled around a Thai and Chinese takeout and planned., I know that we are leaving at 4am and have a breakfast stop planned at 7am the other side of Fredericton, NB. The rest was in a bacardi breezer haze so I am not actually sure of the rest, but hey I am not the only one in the roadtrip, I am sure all will be good.

Today has been a wonderful weather day and hence I have been OUTSIDE. We had a family bike ride and the dogs have enjoyed two walks. Its been wonderful to be outside.

my gratitude list.

Its been ages since I was last on here, I guess I lost my mojo but today I feel the need to write a gratitude list and here it is, all the things I am grateful for, in no particular order:

1. My husband, hes my very best friend and in the last couple of years I have come to realize exactly how very precious he is.

2. My children, my two girls fill me with joy and wonder. Its just incredible to watch them grow up and be part of it.

3.Bravery, I am  a pretty brave person in many respects (not the horror film variety though), I love to travel, love change, love all things new and fresh. I am lucky, I know.

4. My friends, I love them. I am so lucky and so grateful for them.

5. My family. For years I kind of viewed my extended family as being of the messed up kind. But now I see that I am indeed fortunate to have so many people, many who are unrelated to each other as such, that love me and are my family.

6. The summer. I LOVE the summer especially here in NS. Its amazing and today its warm and sunny out after a LONG winter and I am so very happy because of it.

7. Florida. I Heart Florida big time and my family do it, so that's even better. We all adore Florida and one day, hopefully soon we will have a pad there to call a second home.

8. Horse and dogs, I have a special affinity with these two animals. I had horses once, we have dogs now, maybe one day we will have both simultaneously.

9. My wedding and engagement and anniversary rings. Love them.

10. Books, stories, movies, blog posts. Every written or acted piece that gives me that escapism that we all need.

11. My house. I love it. Its got an amazing ambience and its my soft place to fall. My Sunday morning, my Friday night. It holds all my furniture that's been collected over the years and keeps us all safe and warm all winter...

12. Dr Phil. He rocks!

I could go on forever......

Happy Sunny Monday