Summer Recap - My Crazy Summer

The weather now is definately starting to turn colder.  I have neglected to do any postings throughout the summer, like everyone,  being sooooo busy.  The summer was filled with the usual fun stuff; beach, trips, swimming, Canada's Wonderland etc.  I finished the summer off with taking the last 5 weeks off from work & the girls and I hit the road for a road trip to New York City - a ten hour drive from here. Here are a few pics from our "crazy" summer:

Avalon is our little mermaid - she is ALWAYS swimming - loves the water!!! I swear she has gills.

Trinity & Douglas had their fill of the beach in El Salvador - they were a bit more difficult to drag to the beach.  Douglas spent HOURS doing his artwork this summer. 

Port Dover, Ontario - Too busy on Canada Day - the beachfront was PRIME real estate!

We managed to find a spot!

 A cool addition to his hand tatts.  This was the Girls' Father's Day gift by a cool Tat artist in Toronto.

An old pro at Tats!

Out for Lunch at "Bennies".

 Go-Karting near us - so this became Avalon's passion this summer as well.  Not a cheap hobby.

 Avalon in Lake Ontario - let's hope she doesn't grow a third eye!

 Long Point Beach, Ontario  Nice clean, white sand. 

We had Season's Passes to Canada's Wonderland - had to get the obligatory pics. Trinity is in the green sweater! Day out with her friends.

                               Peace Out! Bye for now Beach Fun!

Trinity's Graduation

We recently enjoyed Trinity's graduation from Elementary school (Gr. 8). It was held in the church attached to her Catholic school. Unfortunately, they rush the grads through to accept their diplomas with their backs to us & I took horrible photos - but at least it was something.  But, the dance was great - she had a great time!  The next day she enjoyed a fabulous house/pool party with all the grads! So now the scary part - my baby entering HIGH SCHOOL!!!! Douglas has already bought a baseball bat to fend off the boys.

Avalon with her big sister that she looks up to so much!

Trinity with her Great Aunt and my Dad and Mum (her grandparents).

Douglas/Daughter dance.

Canadian Cheerleading Nationals

The end of Cheering Season FINALES - the Canadian Cheerleading Nationals!

We all headed to Niagara Falls VERY VERY early in the morning on both Saturday and Sunday - tried to find the coaches - uh oh, they were MIA on the first day until the last minute! The girls scrambled with their warm ups and no girl was dropped during the performance (it happens!). 

I resent having to pay $70.00 for the family to walk through the doors of the convention center to watch our athlete - my theory is that we already pay enough in athlete fees throughout the year for them to do the cheerleading in the first place! On top of all those entrance fees, there are then pictures and DVD's and t-shirts to be purchased! They have a popular t-shirt that the vendors sell - I love it - it reads (all in bling): "She cheers! I pay!"  That about sums it up!

It is a fabulous sport to watch - I could spend the whole day just watching those amazing stunts!

We also had a fabulous time at Clifton Hill at the arcade and rides (pics of Trinity and Daddy enjoying the amusements), but unfortunately, it rained the entire weekend!

Canine Love Affair?

This is Thumbelina - our six year old Chug (Chihuhua/Pug).  She is a little girl. She is an only child, so therefore very spoiled.  She had a Siamese Cat sister for over a year named Ophelia, but unfortunately we had to find a more peaceful home for Ophelia when Thumbelina got fed up with her.

This is Tequila - our apple headed Chihuhua from El Salvador.  He is a little boy. He is just over a year old. He is also an only child - but spent his life running around El Tunco chasing after deer, turtles and iguanas!  

The two of them met a few weeks ago for the first time.  Tequila introduced himself by trying to mate with Thumbelina's face - "Hola Senorita!". Thumbelina is getting used to Tequila.  Tequila just wants to play all the time and lick Thumbelina behind the ears - Thumbelina cannot really be bothered with him and when she has had enough of his attention, she really lets him know! He goes off running with his tail wagging and then comes back for more!

Here they are competing for treats!
*As you can see from pics we are still moving in - very slowly lugging boxes from storage into our house - still no artwork on walls and "minimalist" look for now! (Hard to move when you work full time and the weekends are taken up with Cheerleading competitions!)

FINALLY BACK IN CANADA!! Whoopie!

After just over two years of debacles and every hoop and bloody brick wall you could think of - my husband FINALLY landed back safely on Canadian soil and literally kissed the ground when he did!

Even at the last moment of leaving El Salvador there was a major hiccup - the Immigration officials photocopied all his Immigration paperwork just prior to him boarding the plane and forgot to give him back a document that was a letter he was given from Canadian Immigration that said he HAD to present the letter upon arrival to Canada.  Douglas left in the morning hours before me so when he landed in Costa Rica and did not have the letter, he immediately phoned me and I immediately went to the Immigration office located inside the El Salvadoran airport.  They were beyond unhelpful - they refused to tell me who had photocopied his documents, refused to look in their photocopier even. I had to escalate the issue as my plane was about to depart - so I had three Delta employees standing with me telling me they were holding the plane for me, the Immigration officials saying their boss would be "up here in one moment" - after 10 mins of waiting I ran down to the Immigration office to find the Manager sitting at his desk with his arms crossed doing nothing.  The ensuing conversation was not good  - he was so unprofessional and refused to help at all.  During my entire flight I kept thinking that they would probably just deport him back to El Salvador when he arrived in Canada without that letter, or at the very least, hold him overnight until it could be sorted out with Guatemala in the morning.

Thank Goddess - when he landed in Toronto, the Immigration official had some common sense and understanding and it was sorted out with no problems.

Our two daughters and my parents were on hand at the airport to greet Douglas and Tequila (our little Chihuhua)! Big hugs all around!

When I landed that evening at 3am (after my plane sat on the tarmac for 3 hrs) Douglas was the only one left standing. 

He has been having lots of fun with hitting all the food places he had craved for the last two years - yes his life revolves around food - slim guy stores it in his hollow legs. 

 Two years without his Tim's!!! Tragic!

We have been running around furnishing our house as well as getting him set up again to do hair in an in-home salon - so that has been fun!

Semana Santa in ANTIGUA

We did more running around at Immigration offices and had the restriction on my husbands' passport lifted.  We crossed over into the Guatemalan border for a few days of Semana Santa in Antigua! Antigua was beautiful - reminded me of Miami with the pretty colours - but colonial. The temperatures in Guat were much more comfortable than El Salvador.  This was a very touristy place to go - not your typical Guatemala I know - but I really wanted to see it as so many people I know in Canada love to visit Antigua.  The bus ride was 5 hrs to Guat City and then another hour to Antigua in traffic.  We just drove through Guat City - which reminded me of Mexico City. 

This is the famous Arch.  Loved the cobblestone paths everywhere - like so many colonial towns in El Salvador and our roots in England have these gorgeous cobblestones everywhere - loved them but after walking on them for nine hours in wedges we were ready for serious foot massages at nightime!

                          Many fab churches!

Everyone in our fam loves Mango with salt, lime and chili sauce! Mangos were everywhere!

Purple people everywhere and a procession coming right at us!

Gorgeous carpet made entirely of rice that the purple people are about to destroy!! Saw about three of them. 

Oh, don't I look so "holy" - my palm decor that the local villagers made in front of the gorgeous yellow church - only $1.50 each.  It made it back to San Salvador a little worse for wear!

Villagers making the Palm crafts to hold during the mass/procession.

Our hotel was right around the corner from this gorgeous church. 

View from our Hotel room - stayed at an awesome little boutique hotel that I would thoroughly recommend, "Casa Christina".

My favourite "float". We spoke with one of the ladies afterwards and she said it was quite heavy to carry.  They carry this for hours around the town route.

Close up of the devotion/exhaustion.  Love the veils - gettin' their Mary on!

Loved all the indigenous villagers! Their clothing is very thick though - that surprised me. 

We really loved all the beautiful crafts and colours - went a bit crazy - but hey - we're admitted shopoholics!  We were dissapointed about the silver jewellery - for some reason we thought it was supposed to be a great place to find silver and we didn't find much of that.  We did lots of bargaining - which is of course the Latin American way!

Wading Through the Red Tape

I've been in El Salvador for over a month now to assist my husband in leaving this country. I didn't expect it to take this long - but fortunately no bribes were needed and our resolution was favourable - we just needed to have patience on court dates being changed at the last minute (like when we have already got up early & are at the courthouse & then are told of change).

We have submitted our petition to have the restriction on his passport removed & are hoping there will be an answer by this Friday so that we can book our flights to return home to Canada next week. We are looking forward to getting back to our Canadian life - although Douglas thinks we should stay here another few months as I hardly eat anything here & then would have a slim figure! Ha ha I think I've had amoeba dysentary since I landed.

We have enjoyed many daytrips all over the country & this has been wonderful since the only thing I like in the city is the historical core.

We attempted to go to Guatemala on Sunday but the lawyer flubbed & the restriction was still on the passport so we had the embarrassment of sitting at the Frontera for an executive bus to take us back to San Salvador. We had paid $73.00 for the tickets & were told they would not reschedule or refund. Douglas kindly asked the Supervisor for an exception - & lucky enough they decided to offer one comp ticket if we purchased another - so we did so and are looking forward to an adventure in Antigua for a few days this Saturday.

Melting In El Sal

I am reminded by my brother in law that this is hottest time of year here in El Salvador.  I actually handle the heat a bit better than Douglas, but yes it is still extremely hot down here! 

We are staying in a quaint little "Guesthouse Hotel" that does NOT have a pool in the city near Metro Centro Mall - and the close proximity of food is our saviour at the moment.  However, sadly, we are "mall rats" and absolutely sick of Mall food at this point - we eat there almost three meals a day - except for a few comedors that we have visited on the side of the roads - so that has been about 11 days so far!

With the vehicle sold (because he thought he was out of this country and back in Canada on the 9th) we are left with taxi cabs or our legs.  We walk to the Mall almost every day.  We take cabs to other locations.  I have walked all over the neighbourhood and taken photographs galore of the surroundings, which I will post as soon as I am able - currently they are trapped in the iPhone and I am on an ancient computer at an internet cafe.  

We await the date of March 31st - our appointment with Government officials and hope that everything will be resolved on that day and that we will be flying home within a few days afterwards - our lawyer is extremely hopeful and tells me this will be so - but with our luck I take EVERYTHING with a grain of salt and will be cautiously optimistic at the moment.

Why are there no public pools in this hot city? The only one that we can find is the Military one - which we are fortunate to be able to use only because Douglas´ family is a Military one.  

The logistics of taking an extended "vacation" down here have been quite complicated.  My family is looking after our children, we speak with them every day and listen to Trinity begging to come down here every day to be with us (she takes after me and has the travelling itch), Avalon is too busy with cheerleading and playing on the computer etc. to text us 20 times a day and call us three or four times a day! I am also missing my University classes in the evenings - this is a problem to keep up with - so I will have to do some speedy catch up when I return to Canada.  My employer is extremely understanding of the situation - they have been fantastic! We now have two return flights to Toronto cancelled and needing to be rebooked - I am afraid to ask what the price is going to be as we are now going to be stuck booking them the minute we are able to leave for the first flight out.

Despite the circumstances, we are enjoying I guess what you could call a "second honeymoon" - being able to reconnect after so much time apart without screaming kids in the background - for soon the reality of our lives in Canada will resume.  The first thing Douglas wants to do is get his "double double" from Tim Hortons and order "Swiss Chalet" - yes his never ending pit of a stomach is what his life revolves around !

Road Block Again

I am typing this from a Guesthouse Hotel  in San Salvador, El Salvador.  I flew in last week to join Douglas and hopefully haul him back with me to Canada. 

He experienced a slight "hiccup" when just clearing through Customs on March 9th to return back home to Canada.  Therefore, we are awaiting the red tape to de-tangle and will then be on our way to Canada.  We are hoping only a couple of weeks more. 

The visit of Mr. Obama to El Salvador will be closing government offices on the 23rd and 24th, which so happended to be the date (23rd) that we had an appt with the government office to start the de-tangling.  So, we wait now.  The next appt is in the second week of April - we are hoping to get one a bit sooner. 

The weather today is a balmy 100.4 - I am melting here. I took Tequila for a 10 minute walk and chugged down 2 bottles of water in the process. 

El Salvador is GREAT for my diet - I always lose weight here - I really don´t feel like eating in this weather - just drinking water all day!

COMING HOME!

Finally all the things are sold - bought the ONE WAY ticket on Monday for Douglas.  After a minor glitch of the travel agent booking it to fly out of San Diego - we were on our way with the proper ticket.  I thought it was a stroke of good fortune when the agent said that she had found one with no problem for the very next day for only $800.00.  So, after going back and forth finally found one for $1300.00 - he flys to Costa Rica first, sits in Costa Rica for 5 hrs and then on to Toronto! YAY! It's going to be a long day for him and Tequila.

Everyone is very excited - he will have many people greeting him at the airport.  We are just about to make a billboard sign to embarrass the heck out of him!  I've booked the next week off on holidays for me and the girls. He has just made it to the airport and paid $500.00 for his overweight baggage.

So, this El Salvador saga lasted almost 2 yrs.  So much for Immigration saying it would take 6 months.  It has been an incredibly expensive two years with travel, the girls (especially Trinity) have grown up so much since he has been apart from us.  I will always have bitterness towards the Canadian government for their ineptitude.  They are still not finished processing him after two years for his Permanent Resident Card.  We are hoping to receive the status in early 2012.  The entire Canadian Immigration department needs a very in depth analysis of it's weaknesses.

Finally a Resolution!

When Douglas applied for a Visitor Visa to come home to visit us, I received an email a week later from Guat City saying that it was denied due to the Security Clearances being needed first.  Well, that is the last frontier that we are waiting for until he receives his Permanent Resident Status.  The only problem is that the security clearances are out of our hands as the cogs work very slowly up here in Canada to process said clearances.

The local police station took 5 weeks to process after numerous visits/calls to the station.  The RCMP check in Ottawa took a total of 7 months to process and the last one in Calgary  is on it's 9th week now.  You see a clearance must be obtained from every place that he lived in Canada.  After this last clearance is done only one more remains and that will take approximately 6 months to process.  So, we will not be able to send the completed police clearances down to the Immigration department in Guat City until approximately August 2011.

 I have a templated email that I have been mailing to the Minister of Immigration, Jason Kenney, almost every day for the past two years.  In that email I explain the situation, the ages of our children and politely ask for a 10 minute meeting with him in the future to discuss our options.  I have NEVER heard even a templated response from his office in either Calgary or Ottawa.

When I received the email of decline, I wrote back a VERY long email once again explaining our situation. I was SHOCKED that I received an email of response a day later explaining that in light of the situation, they were looking at "options for our family and would be in touch on Monday".  That email arrived on the Thursday.  On the Monday (& it was in the morning!), I received the JOYFUL email that explained that the Immigration Manager had issued a SPECIAL PERMIT for my husband to return home while they continued to process his paperwork!! I cannot begin to express how excited I was.  I couldn't pick up the phone fast enough to tell him the great news.

A few days later and he was exciteadly enroute to pick up his permit when he had his little "fender bender" (see earlier post).  He still managed to pick up the wonderful permit!

He is now in the midst of packing up his life down there - he has quite a bit to sell.  Our house is currently on the market for sale as we finished the renovations (FINALLY!!!) in December.

There was absolutely no sense in him ever being processed for his PR status externally, and issuing this permit while they have not completed his status only proves my point - but that is the way our hopeless Canadian Immigration department is run.

We all sleep better at night knowing that he will soon be back up here with us again in time for Avalon's next birthday and Trinity's Grade 8 graduation!  It will be interesting to see how he assimilates back into the Canadian way of life and also interesting to see how Tequila (his little chihuahua) & Thumbelina (our little chug) get along together - I don't have a good feeling about that. 

Snow Storm - YAY!

 We had a snow storm - it was forcasted to be a real doozy! It wasn't quite as bad as we though it was going to be - about 25 cm of snow, squalls at time and the roads were slushy and slick - but nothing we are not used to in Canada.  Our winters seem to be getting shorter and milder.  It was nice to have a "snow day" - all the kids's schools were closed as well at the University that I work at - so that was a nice mid week break!