I'm Making the Switch

I'm switching to over Wordpress and true to my indecisive nature it only took me 7 months to do it.
If all goes well I won't be posting here anymore.
Here's the link where I will be: http://debbiemomof2.wordpress.com/

P.S. My Fun Monday post for this week is below and I'll still be receiving those comments.

Happy Birthday!!

We have two young friends whose birthday it is today. L (a boy) is turning 10 and M (a girl) is turning 6.

Happy Birthday!!

We love you!

Fun Monday

Fun Monday's assignment this week comes from Deb's Melon Patch. She asked us to:

Show your favorite place to relax. It can be a chair, corner, ledge, or limb. :) Get out those cameras and take pics or just write how you feel when you are in your "zone".

I've been thinking for a few years that I'd like to create a place in the house. A kind of Zen place that is special. I could go there to pray or meditate, and I could decorate it with things that I cherish. It couldn't be a whole room because my house isn't big enough. Perhaps just a corner? At any rate, I haven't gotten around to it so I take my moments where I can.

In the summer my favourite place is my couch swing. It's a Canadian Tire special and it's about eight years old. In other words, it ain't fancy! But I love it. It's where I sit to read, talk on the phone, and watch the kids play. Sometimes all four of us squeeze on there (and it is a squeeze - Adrian and I are not small!), swing away, and suck on Popsicles. My favourite memory was the four of us doing just that one evening while it was raining. We were sitting around the fire when the rain began. The swing has an awning, so we huddled in there roasting marshmallows, and talking. The kids still talk about that night.

My second favourite place is this hammock below. We got it as a wedding gift. It's getting a bit ratty but it's still holding up quite well. It's gotten a lot of abuse - I mean - use, too. We have this huge play centre but every kid that comes over is drawn to this thing like a bee to honey. They pile on there trying to flip each other off. Adrian, the kids, and I have had some of our own flipping matches, too, actually. Obviously, that's not relaxing. What is relaxing is having the children cuddle on there with me and read. Lovely times. Again - not fancy, but I'm not a fancy kinda gal I guess!

Both of these spots are subject to mosquito infestations! A hammock isn't relaxing when you've got mosquitoes trying to bite your ass! That's when we retreat to the house and use the couch.

More Swimming and a Burn

Silly me. :(

Going Batty

A couple of nights ago I went to bed early and was sleeping peacefully, when Adrian came barging in. He’d been downstairs watching a movie. “There’s a bat in the house!” he exclaimed. After I recovered from being jolted awake, I was suddenly thrust into terror. A bat!!! In the house??? How? I reacted quickly…by hiding under the covers. Adrian came back in the room asking for the nets I'd bought the kids for pond dipping. He thought he could try to catch it. I stayed under the covers. “Now it’s upstairs!!” he reported, helpfully. I was royally freaking out at that point. What if it finds it's way into our room? I got up and quickly shut the door and then returned to my post under the blankets. What if Adrian doesn’t catch it?? I’d have to deal with the thing the next day. “I’m gonna open the door and see if it’ll fly out!” he called. Oh God. Please fly out. Please fly out. “Yup. It flew out”, he said.

Sigh. Relief. But then I couldn't sleep. I kept imagining more bats. No. There couldn't be anymore, right? Even though we didn't know how the one bat got inside in the first place. An hour later I finally eased myself back to sleep. The next morning I was telling my friend, L, about it and she nicely informed me that her aunt once had a bat infestation in her house. Apparently, they were all in her attic. Great! Now when I walk into a room (especially in the basement) I can’t help looking up to the ceiling for a bat that may or may not be there. Oh yeah. I’m getting Adrian to look in the attic this weekend.

TGIF

I haven’t worked outside of the home in eight years – since R was born – and I’m getting the feeling that when I do back someday it’s gonna be a difficult transition. Why? Because I’m so happy today is Friday and J’s horse camp is finally over and I don’t have to get up early (7:30!! – which I know isn’t that early in the real world) to drive her. Everyday. Because they only go to school part time I usually only have to get up early twice per week. It’s a tough life, I know.

Swimming with Friends

J is at a horse back riding camp all of this week for the whole of each day. On Tuesday and Wednesday R had friends over to swim. Today we had the neighbours (Colours of Dawn) over. She brought her three girls plus two others that were with her for the day. R was so out numbered! He was the typically annoying boy, though, and kept splashing them and trying to dunk them. What he forgot though, was that there was five of them, and only one of him. Oh yeah. They ganged up on him good. And it was good, too. He had a blast.

R's friend, L.

Afternoon at the River

While J is at her horse back riding camp, I keeping R occupied doing play dates with his friend. His friend L came over yesterday, and they played in the pool. Afterwards we met his mom at the river with her day home kids. It's a lovely place to hang out with the kids. You do have to be careful, though, because the current is swift. We put our chairs in the water to be close, and to dabble our toesies, of course.

Tiger Cutie

Some of the older girls were doing face painting at the year end picnic for our home-school program. J (DD) loved it, but R (DS) wasn't into it.

Peter

I actually don't know how to find you. Could you please leave the link to your new blog? Thanks!

I forgot!!

So sorry for those who popped over to see Fun Monday. It totally slipped my mind. I'll catch it next time.

PS I believe the assignment was to talk about our favourite summer time activity from our childhood. Swimming was always my favourite as a girl. Everyday was spent at the pool, and I loved camping and swimming at the lake.

"Summer timmmme and the livin' is easyyyy..."

We have summer weather! Hoorah. And with that hot sticky weather comes days spent by the pool (and some time doing yard work), and less time on the computer.

Housework is a challenge for me normally because…well. I don’t like it! But I’m having a harder time these days keeping up with the house because we’re outside so much and when we’re inside I’m tired. Well, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

I might get a chance to get on here later today to catch up with reading and maybe even do a post. I hope you all are enjoying summer where you are.

I really do love singing that summertime song from which I stole the title for this post:

Summertime and the livin is easy

Fish are jumpin and the cotton is fine

Oh your daddys rich and your mama is good lookin

So hush little baby, dont you cry

One of these mornings

Youre goin to rise up singing

Then youll spread your wings

And youll take the sky

But till that morning

Theres a nothin can harm you

With daddy and mommy standin by

Happy Canada Day!

We enjoyed a wonderful Canada Day celebration last night at the family of Colours of Dawn. Awesome food, great conversation, and a delightful fireworks display. The kids had a marvelous time, too, and met some new friends. And the 15 minutes or so of torrential rain just added to the excitement.

I don't have any pictures because I actually forgot my camera. Someone (I think it was Peter)commented on my previous post reminding me to bring my camera. When I read it I thought: OF course! I NEVER forget it. And then I go and forget it. I was jinxed I tell ya!

I'm very certain that Dawn will show photos of the evening on her blog soon, and maybe Sirdar will too.

It was a great time, guys. Thanks again for having us!

We have another party tonight at some friends from the next subdivision. Looking forward to the food - uh, I mean fireworks - there too.

Pool Time

(picture from last summer)

I hope the weather smartens up soon. It doesn’t feel like summer has started because it just hasn’t been that warm.

Before I bore you to death with the talk of weather I’ll move on. It’s on my mind lately because we’re finally setting up our pool. It’s one of those large soft sided ones, and it’s a big pain in the butt to put up. We love it once it’s up, but it’s the before and after that I detest. I was a little worried that it wouldn’t be in that great of shape because we didn’t store it that well. It should be completely dry when it’s put away for the winter, but last fall I had some difficulty.

We drained the pool, which takes awhile. It is over 5000 gallons of water after all. Then I borrowed my dad’s wet/dry shop vacuum and sucked up the puddles. The next step is to use towels to finish drying the rest. Keep in mind that the sides are flopped down, so it’s quite an arduous task physically crawling around underneath the material. The first year I took the pool down this method worked like a charm. Last year, however, it decided to rain before I was finished. So, everything I had just dried was now wet. I proceeded to dry the pool again, but it rained...again! In the end, we just wrapped up the pool and put it away. The pool is fine, though. Not icky or mouldy. Whew. A relief because those pools aren’t cheap to replace.

So, now I have the pool out there waiting to be filled. It’ll be a couple of days before we can swim in it, and even then it’ll be verrrry cold. We’re actually buying a heater for it this year. It’s a wood burning type. Doesn’t that sound cool? Adrian found it online. I’ll show a picture once it arrives.