Meow Update

We were at the old house last night. I begrudingly try to go over there some evenings. Of course the girls don't even come inside anymore to help me, it is pretty much a shell with a few boxes here and there, but looking very bright inside now! It was painted with a fresh coat of white paint everywhere, as opposed to the yellows and the wallpaper etc. that we used to have.

When I arrived at the house, the girls immediately ran over to the house across the street to check on the kittens, only to discover that they were gone! The poor little Mother Cat was sitting in her little "box home" that the girls made for her. The girls told me that the Mother Cat was very sad for her kittens. I'm not quite sure how they guaged this.

I just got off the phone with the SPCA (Animal Control). They did indeed come by and pick up the cute little 2 week old kittens from the porch, but left the MOTHER!!! I cannot understand how an organization against animal cruelty would do this. I feel so bad for that poor Cat, to have her babies ripped from her as she is nursing them! So, I have made arrangements, whether they like it or not, to bring the cat there this evening to hopefully reunite her with her babies. The girls are pretty sure that they will be able to point out the kittens as they spent a lot of time looking after them the past little while.

Meow!

We moved out of our house at the end of August. It is under renovations and currently uninhabitable. We moved to the beautiful city close by to us, that we used to live in 7 yrs ago. The girls were extremely excited. They started at a new Catholic School - so new uniforms had to be purchased. Trinity went into Grade 7 and Avalon went into Grade 4. They are settling in well. It was the first time that their Daddy was not there to walk with us to school on their "first day back".

This Immigration beuracracy "ticks" me off. I never would have imagined that we would be apart this long. I have a conference in Victoria, B.C. at the end of this month that will take up my time, but I am in the midst of obtaining a sabbatical soon to fly down to see Douglas.
The girls and I are debating about whether to surprise him or to let him know of our arrival date. He knows that we are planning to come down in October or November time, but that is all that he knows. He is soooo looking forward to seeing us.

The other day the girls and I were back at our house that is being renovated and my girls discovered these little adorable kittens with their Mum nursing them across the street. Unfortunately, their Mum is a stray and a single Mum as well - no husband to be seen! ha ha

They are only a couple of weeks old. So adorable! The girls made a little home for them in a cardboard box and fancy leopard furry material, fed them and gave them water. Our local "nosy neighbours" caught wind of the plight of these kittens and called the SPCA. I don't know if they were picked up yet, but I hope they will get nice homes.

The Summer of Music

This past summer was filled with music and concerts. Shiloh is a 16 yr. old Canadian singer that was on the National circuit this summer and my daughters, Trinity and Avalon, travelled far afield to see her various concerts. They were also very excited to meet her and she even signed Avalon's sock monkey!

We finished the summer off with the Britney Spears concert at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton. It was a great night for the three of us! We boogied and screamed! We enjoyed it all!

"Copps" is just past the blue sign that says "Farmers Market".

Avalon did not want her picture taken, but never mind that, she was happy to be going to see Brit!

My proverbial 11 yr old going on 21! Off to yet another concert!

Shiloh signing autographs at the first of her concerts that they attended. Love the false eyelashes!

Trinity getting Shiloh to sign the sock monkey at the last concert they attended! Avalon takes it with her everywhere!

Camping Trip

Our first camping trip without Daddy. I felt so guilty when telling him of the plans, as it would normally be a little "family camping trip" for us, but of course he was very happy that the girls were having a great busy and fun-filled summer.

We spent the entire "summer" waiting for the perfect opportunity to find an extended block of time to go away for the camping trip - however, the weather was a constant downpour of rain, tornado warnings and just miserable weather. So, we had to throw caution to the wind and just go! We drove through the beautiful northern countryside and also through Durham, where a Tornado had hit just a few days before. It was interesting to see the path of destruction so clearly and up close.

Sauble Beach at Twilight.

The Beaches in Ontario are so beautiful. Unfortunately, because there are only a few months of hot summer weather, the surrounding towns are not able to be built up much with the dining and entertainment that you would find down south in the Bahamas and in other beautiful "beach places".

There were quite a lot of us on the trip - and many little kidlets running around. Iveta (my cousin's soon to be ex-wife) and Avalon under the Sauble sign at Twilight after our "mad dash" to buy tarpaulin to cover the tent in case of rain. We made it back to the campsite just in time for the first few drops of rain!

Toasted (Avalon loves them BURNED!) marshmallows were on the menu for breakfast as well!

Marshmallows also came in handy for Aunty GB to throw at Trinity!

We spent our entire days at the beach on the golden sand. The waves were great fun. There were even some die-hard surfer dudes enjoying the Lake!

Trinity, my little surfer girl.

$45.00 well spent (for the boat) - we had a great time with this poor boat! We managed to wear it out though and it left the campsite deflated from a small puncture wound.

We found this little church on the way back home and signed their guest book.

A wonderful trip with lots of adventures - racoons raiding our food at night and then fighting just outside our tent for Iveta's Czech Sausages, Korean curries at Susan & Vlad's site, running from skunks, spending 2 hrs trying to make my veggie hot dogs to then have Finnegan accidently sit on them, being harrased by the owner of the camp site, trying to explain to the local kitchen help that omelletes and toasted Westerns are actually the same thing - minus the toast, (but they still "can't serve Omelletes because it isn't on the lunch menu and it doesn't matter that you arrived during breakfast time at 10:45am and waited on their wait list until 12noon - we still won't make them"), ice cream galore, sand and surf galore, watching satellites and stars in the open sky and listening to a wailing Freya (1 yr old) all night long with her sun burn! Yes, never a dull moment!

Queen of My Castle

(Cawdor Castle, Scotland)

I'm taking a quick break in front of the computer, as my Mum is on her way over to help me move more furniture and packing boxes out of my house. I took the house off the market at the beginning of July in order to renovate from top to bottom; new kitchen, bathroom, floors and paint throughout and as the house is 100 yrs old, work on the outside as well. I am in the middle of renovation chaos - well I am not exactly doing all the hard work. My wonderful and talented Dad is putting down the hardwood floors and contractors are doing the rest. Just packing everything up and moving the furniture into storage is enough! I am hoping to have the renovations completed by September and then put the house back up for sale. Surely with a fresh new house for sale, it will sell soon and the girls and I can then make our trek to El Salvador!

Monsoon Summer

This is why it has been so difficult to plan a camping trip this year! It seems almost every day we have had rain, storms, funnel cloud warnings etc. It has been a horrible summer (weather wise) - not a summer at all!
Yesterday, the Police directed us to reverse off the highway due to the flooding of said highway! We were still diverted through a flooded area, so we had to drive through it; the waters went up to the top of the wheel wells - we prayed we would not stall. Apparently the forcast for August is much of the same!

This Weekend Should be Fun!

Pin-Up posing and make up Workshops. Burlesque shows!!

Crazy in Limbo Land!

Special note to Albertan Immigration officer, who 18 years ago interviewed Douglas & I together and seperately: this Sunday July 12th was our 18th Wedding Anniversary. Happy Anniversary to us!

This Monday July 13th is three months without my husband & children's father. Boo hoo! Shame on you 'Immigration Canada'.

The girls and I speak with Douglas once or twice a day, every day. We no longer cry when saying goodbye - the girls loved that and used to poke fun of me all the time because we had a habit of having to say "bye, bye now" through our tears about seven or eight times before we finally hung up - rotten kids! We still say "bye" about that many times, but no tears - making progress!

The phone conversations are somewhat limited because I find the connection line is usually not the greatest-perhaps due to the "rainy season" down there? We are phoning him on his cell phone, so perhaps that has something to do with it. It certainly is not the same as speaking in person, but it is also as if he is still in close proximity because we talk about him all the time and talk to him every day.

We still sit in "Limbo Land". When will this real estate market turn around? I am fed up with trying to have this house constantly clean just in case there should be an agent who wants to show the house at the last minute. I miss Douglas' OCD approach to cleaning! We have only had three showings since Douglas left 3 months ago. The listing was about to expire, so I have taken it off the market again (as I felt it had sat for too long thus far, which had become a detriment) and have now advertised it again privately. Of course it is attractive to sell privately, as we would not have to pay the exorbitant real estate commission fees. Hindsight is 20/20 - Douglas & I are kicking ourselves because we turned down an offer of sale we had when we advertised it privately back in January. The purchaser was going through a nasty divorce and her offer was on condition of her selling her house, which was located in a small village. In light of the market conditions, we felt it would be hard for her to sell. "If we only knew then, what we know now" - she ended up selling her house very quickly, purchased one down the road from us and moved in mid April! I'm busy creating and entering the ads that will hopefully bring a potential buyer to the table.

So, what is it really like in "Limbo Land"? I look out at my back deck and miss my deck furniture that I sold last year thinking I would not be here to see the Canadian summer in light of Immigrations' threats. The girls and I are always busy and "on the run" with my family all around us as well. They are entertained every day and are just soaking up the summer holidays, even though our weather has been so horrible lately! We feel sorry for Douglas though; he has had a bit of a culture shock and of course misses us.

I got an inkling of what it must feel like last week. The girls went to my sister's house for a sleepover. So when I came home that evening it was so quiet in this house (also note that my girls are not quiet children, they are very loud and spirited)- it was a very odd feeling knowing that nobody else would be in the house until the next evening. I cannot remember when or if that has ever happened in the past. I am very rarely alone. When I finally toddled off to bed, I got very little sleep, as I was very spooked every time our Thumbelina (our Chug) would leap out of the bed and growl menacingly at the top of the stairs. I spent most of my night up and down the stairs - I don't know what I would have done if the alarms had gone off anyway, I would probably be frozen with fear. Our house is about a hundred years old, and Douglas swears there is a ghost in this house. So, of course, I then started thinking about that scenario all night! I ended up just watching season III of "Big Love", which I am addicted to, for the rest of the night. I digress - it really made me think about Douglas being without us and how very different it must be for him down there.

However, he is doing very well at the Salon. We worried about the prospect of hair styling down there, when his sister told us that haircuts are $5.00 a head! Thankfully he is leasing in a high end area where the price of services is comparable to what we charged up here in our Canadian salon. The summer season is a bit slow as the Embassy people go on holidays and make their moves abroad and new Embassy families move in. The majority of their clientele base are Ex-Pats.

His life has become very boring - home/work/home/work. He has attended the odd BBQ and nightclub and has made a few friends. The delicacy down there seems to be 'eggs and beans' - ha ha! Douglas is great with cleaning, to the point of obsession at times, but doesn't enjoy cooking, so every time we are on the phone with him in the evenings, it seems that he is again cooking 'eggs and beans'. How sad!

There were a few things that he had to get used to - traffic/driving conditions, the heat, the showers, the safety and security issues and the "manyana" attitude that prevails.

Traffic/driving conditions: I would never describe him as a "careful driver" up here, weaving in and out of traffic, so it must say something when he tells us that there appear to be no rules to the road and it is "every man for himself!". He avoids driving downtown where the craziest traffic jams exist!

He arrived during the blistering heat wave and it was very difficult to deal with, he is now used to the heat, but I would imagine the air conditioned vehicle, house and salon assist! He has also made himself get used to the cold/tepid showers. Of course, with the beautiful weather this is much easier to become used to.

He is not the greatest with directions so he is a little apprehensive about going into the "wrong neighbourhood". He still stays very close to his house for this reason. He definately lives with a heightened sense of security, which is something we would never even blink at over here.

It must have taken weeks to get paperwork sorted out for the purchase of his vehicle, drivers test etc. He had to readjust to that certain "manyana" attitude. I just hope the Immigration office in Guatemala doesn't have that same attitude!

Overall, he is very optimistic about life in El Salvador and thinks that personally and professionally it holds promise, (we are cautiously optimistic), but he is also waiting in limbo for when we arrive.

So, he still waits for us to arrive down there to spice things up! (I think I'll bring my lampshade hat).

CANADA DAY, EH!

July 1st was Canada Day - where we came together in festivals, fireworks and general merriment to "woop it up" and celebrate our beautiful country and being a Canadian! As a country we have a reputation of being very humble of our Nation and are normally not so boisterous in our National pride, but on this one day annually, we do seem to come together and show our patriotism.

"It is so easy to complain about the weather or the taxes in Canada, but move away and you'll find yourself complaining about the airfare to get back." Anonymous

I've had the good fortune of doing quite a bit of travelling and through those experiences have developed a strong sense of patriotism to Canada. When I travelled overseas, I was always proud to display my Canadian flag on my jacket.

N.B. - I would be amiss to not state that while reflecting on our country's celebration of our peace and prosperity (and in connecting with people through the "net" and "blogosphere"), I have (like the rest of the world) been watching closely the developments in Honduras. I hope that they can achieve peace and prosperity in the very near future.

Strawberry picking time @ Springridge Farm, one of our favourite haunts! It was quite muddy though; with all the rain we have been getting.



It started to rain like a monsoon again! Very hard to plan a camping weekend with all this bloody rain we keep experiencing! Normally so hot, our summer has fluctuated between tepid with lots of rain & funnel cloud warnings and then "heat alerts" issued with "cooling stations" being opened (in Toronto).
I guess this would be my "boob shot".

Father's Day 2009 Minus Father

Well, I'm very lucky that I still have mine nearby. My Mum and Dad (Granddad) joined us on the beach on Father's Day, but Douglas was of course far away.

We had a package of cool "Affliction" clothing and such ready to mail out to him to El Salvador, but after mulling it over, I decided to hold onto it until we get down there. You see lately I have learned that, suspiciously, the "good stuff" doesn't seem to make it there. I recently mailed him three packages in one day; one with swim trunks (perhaps next time i will send some thongs and see if those make it!), one with four boxes of cologne and one with 30 pairs of opulent chandeleir earrings (no, he is not into wearning these earrings, but rather was going to sell them at the salon). Guess which one did NOT make it to him? The one with the earrings. I can just picture some customs agent opening up a little kiosk of jewellery on her lunch hour!

Hey, look Douglas in Tokyo! ha ha
We taped some very touching singing/dancing performances for their Daddy for Father's Day. They are missing him, but are also so busy that the time apart seems to fly by. They spend much of their time discussing and making plans for their "adventure" in El Salvador. Trinity pointed out yesterday that we talk about him as if he has died. We seem to talk about him in the past tense. For example; "Daddy would have really loved the beach today", or when the cornflakes are on sale Avalon would say "If Daddy were here, we would have stocked up on those!". Trinity is often looking at the prices for flights and occasionally trying to convince me to send her down there to surprise him. So, on Father's Day we headed to the beach for the day. We were met with this menacing sign. Do we heed the warnings? Well, we haven't grown a third arm yet! The sand is shipped in from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, but not the water.

Our Foreign Affairs Minister and Hilary Clinton were recently at The Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls making a re-commitment to The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The level of toxins have dropped, bald eagles and other species have returned but there is still much more work to do to restore and maintain the integrity of the Great Lakes.

Avalon seems to have an aversion to carrying anything! Trinity carried most of the "stuff".

She even carries Avalon!! We stayed until dusk, when all the seadooer's and boaters had retreated back to their harbours. We look forward to the waves of the Pacific; the only waves here are the ones that the seadooers make!