Life in Aylmer Quebec

I couldn’t resist putting up this picture of Meg enjoying a fresh garden tomato! I’ve never met a kid that loves tomatoes the way she does. Every day she is out there looking for a ripe one to chow down on.

Heatwave this week, so I think the kids and I are going to grab our suits and head to the beach for a couple hours. The water is not so bad, and they like it because they can at least touch the bottom! The pool is nice, but they prefer the beach. I hope this weather will keep up throughout next week, when we go to Silent Lake. I can’t wait to go!

Monday.

I usually hate Mondays, for various reasons. The house is a mess after the weekend, Todd goes to work so I’m on my own with the storm front, no money left till payday, etc…

This Monday was so sweet. Todd took the dayoff, weather cooperated, so we spent the whole day at the beach. Sun, swim, good food, and more swimming. I’m exhausted, so is everyone else. But it was important for Todd to see how stressful sometimes my days can be!!!! Haha. We had such a nice time, I wish we could do it more often. I’m going to try to make a point of making Sundays totally kid/family day! I remember as a kid, we used to play board games as a family, after a Sunday brunch. It was always fun. This was the best Monday ever!

Lately, we have made a lot of purchases. Fridge, stove, van, and little things like goggles and fins, I’m starting to wonder. Have I actually married one really good guy, or is he trying to buy us off? And the latest Harry Potter is on its way, ‘a present’. I really wonder cause sometimes the man is just too good to be true.

Then again, there are times when I would gladly strangle him!  So I should savor it when I don’t!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture because it was gobbled up by greedy little people. I didn’t even get to see it, except on the vine! Oh, well, there will be a lot more. This was a Stupice, and apparently quite good. I wouldn’t know! Everything else is still very green, but if we get the warm sunny weather predicted, then in another week or two we should have lots. Just in time for us to go to Silent Lake!

We are going, Todd’s company is aware of his vacation, so that’s all good. And he’s pretty exited, he got the job at DND. What they will do without him at PWGSC, who knows. He’ll probably get a call from them, begging him to come back. But he was ready to leave. He’ll have to go shopping (which he just loves!!), and get some dressier clothes, and learn how to salute the generals properly! But overall, I think he’s looking forward to a new challenge, and hoping that the people he will be working with aren’t as unenlightened (the nicest way I could put it) as some of his previous colleagues! So things are good.

The kids are back from Grandma Monica’s, and noisy as ever. It was so peaceful and quiet while they were gone. Now hurricane and tornado are kicking up the dust again! But summer is going fast now. Emma will be starting Grade One before she knows it. She is looking forward to it, and seeing all her friends again. She had two birthday parties this weekend, and another one coming up this Saturday. And one of her good friends spends the summer with her mother down in the States, so her Dad is throwing a party for her when she comes home in a few weeks. Emma’s has more of a social life than I do!

Todd and I did go see the new Harry Potter movie while the girls were gone. It was kind of disappointing, to be honest. Another movie we recently saw on TV, Danny Deckchair, was way better. It was an Australian flick, really quite cute and funny. I’d recommend it over Potter.

And we recently celebrated our seven year wedding anniversary. Very weird, to think I’ve been married for seven years! And not too itchy yet!

Well, the kids and I are thinking of going to the beach for a swim and a picnic, so I have to go pack a little lunch. It’s turning into quite a warm day so the beach should be pretty nice!

You have to look real close, but it’s there.  The proud symbol of all that is Canada.  Sleek, silky, big toothed, big tailed.  Yes, I am talking about the beaver.  What says Canada more?

My old grade school friend, Ryan and his lovely wife,  Bettina, and amazingly quiet children, Alicia and Robin, are visiting in Canada, and allowed me to play tourist downtown Ottawa today.  It was so nice to see them, and to tour Parliament.  That is something I haven’t done in ages, despite living here.  And I have to say, Bettina and I had a little anti-Bush rant, which was rather refreshing.  Most people either don’t care, are so sick of it, or are oblivious.  And what can you say about meeting up with old friends?  You either know how it feels, if you’ve done it, or you don’t.  It’s special.

My girls are visiting with Grandma Monica, which is fortunate or unfortunate, depending on how you look at it.  It’s nice and quiet, but I miss them like crazy.  And they would have had fun meeting Ryan and Bettina’s kids.  But what can you do?   We might get a chance again, when they come back from the Sault.  They have a couple days in Ottawa again, before heading back to Denmark.  (Ryan and Bettina, that is.  Not ready to send the girls away yet!)  We’ll see what happens.

Well, the tomatoes are growing.  Nothing ripe yet, but we’ve had so much rain, and cooler than normal weather, that nothing wants to ripen.   But we’ve been getting work done in the yard.  Todd trimmed the hedges, I’ve been ripping out trees (with me bare hands!!), and it’s looking good.  Better than it ever has, except for the first year we were here.  I’ve got my little table outside,  Todd and I have had dinner out here a few times (how romantic), and now I can sit out at night, and surf the net.  Thanks to Todd, who bought me this fancy laptop, and set up this wireless network thingy, which allows me to go anywhere in the yard and still be connected.  Some guys say it with flowers, I just happen to have a sweetie who says  it with technology!  Not that I’m complaining, mind you.  I can grow my own flowers.  There’s no way I’d be able to figure out all this techie stuff on my own.  I would still be writting letters, if it weren’t for him.

Well, before I get too mushy, I’m gonna sign off.  I’ll try to put up some more pics on Flickr soon.

Thanks for listening.

I am sitting outside in my  backyard, feeding mosquitoes, and wondering where the summer has gone?  I know, it is still the beginning of July, but we have done one week of a ‘vacation’  …i.e. back to the Sault.  And now we may or may not have a week at Silent Lake.  We’ve booked it, payed for it, but Todd may be changing jobs.  If I don’t get to go, I will be one grumpy person.  How selfish that sounds.  But we spend so little time together as a family, and maybe I feel it worse because I’m still a SAHM, but I was so looking forward to having my husband and my kids together, with no phone (yes, still no cell) no computers, no internet, etc…for an entire week.  Just us, in a tent and in the lake!!!  The heat that usually knocks me out has not hit yet.  It’s been really mild, but no rain to speak of.  So I haven’t lost all of my energy yet.  But weird as it sounds, I’m already thinking of Christmas.  And waiting for a really good thunderstorm.  Haven’t seen one in a while, and I do love them.  And the kids love my stories about Thor, which are very interpretational myths.

That’s the update for now.  Mosquitoes are vicious tonight so I’m going in.