Wow. Neglect

Apart from the fact that I have been absent from...oh March...wow. I can honestly report that you haven't missed much.

Here is a very short recap

April: it rained - as only April does
May: House on market - sold within a week!
June: last month of school - craziness ensues! Baby Charlotte is born!

Prize winning post exam note :)

Baby Charlotte Grace!

July: a.k.a - why did I decided to do SO much - took an AQ course online, taught grade 12 university English in summer school AND packing!

So there - in a nutshell - you are caught up !

My house is a disaster zone of boxes and bubble wrap, oh and the odd doggy poop - apparently Blondie is quite upset about this move.

On Wednesday we get our keys, Thursday the A/C, appliances and gas man come, Friday I move the contents of the fridge and SATURDAY (one week from today) the big truck comes to move us.

I am ecstatic. Although this is our first home together as husband and wife, the first year here was 6 months of in and out hospital visits, ambulance calls, hours up at night sick. For me, the great memories are always clouded with the bad ones.

imagine the possibilities of that kitchen....

Now to stop procrastinating and start packing - thank God my mom is coming today to help!

Family Packed weekend

BUSY weekend!

On Thursday I was all excited for a night away and as I jumped into a very late shower, Dave was entertaining our "fur children"...

When I got out, this is what I found...

On Friday, my mother and I put the roof down on her convertible (all with many jokes to 'Thelma and Lousie') and drove to Buffalo for some light outlet shopping before turning right around and stopping at our destination - a lovely resort/spa in Niagara. This is one "perk" of her job - she is often invited out on these "fam" trips, "fam" to represent "familiarization" to check out a venue, hotel or other location. This is all to basically wine and dine her into using their facilities for one of her company's big events. My mother works for a very large communications company and she is the director for events in the business sector. Or as I like to call her "the head honcho for parties". Luckily I got to tail along on this trip because it involved the Shaw Festival, and my father was not interested. We were definitely treated well to our dinner and then swept away to see "An Ideal Husband" an Oscar Wilde play at the Shaw Festival. I loved it- I walked away with an excellent stage English accent saying things like "quite so" and "shall we to supper?" We entered our room, tired from a very full day to a lovely arrangement of chocolate covered strawberries, and sugar cookies. I divulged to my mom that if I were in her position I would be easily persuaded to hold events at any location as long as they treated me to chocolate covered strawberries.

The next morning we ate an amazing breakfast and had I not left my phone in the room I would have taken a picture of the glorious breakfast buffet. In my mind I imagine the dining area of heaven to be quite like our breakfast area - white crisp linens overlooking an amazing patio, smells of freshly brewed orange juice and coffee, wafts of pastry breads and breakfast meats pile together to entice every molecule of your being. The white plates of varying sizes offer a strike contrast to the brightly coloured fruit that topples them.

Since we woke up late (God bless the inventor of the "blackout curtains") we were quickly whisked back onto a bus and headed to Hillebrand winery for a tour and of course - an another amazing meal outside.

Pointing out the grapes, with my glass of Trius sparkling wine.

View from my spot at lunch - glorious.

Not to be outdone by my view, Dave sent me what he was looking at...

(yes our cat is on a leash - he loves the outdoors, but we are afraid he will run away, so we just use it as a precaution and we NEVER walk him.)

Mother and daughter team. You can see the resemblance.

Full to the brim, we said our goodbyes and headed back into the convertible back home.

Sunday was the 8th annual family picnic - and as annual as the picnic, came the rain - we still pressed on as usual. As I munched on peppers, greens and fresh tomatoes I laughed with cousins and then spent some great quality time playing with my little 2nd cousin Kyla, letting Dave fend off all the family members saying "you're next!"

Zio with Kyla.

In a wink, we were back in the car off to Dave's parents for an early dinner - which we, still full from the picnic, did not eat - instead we played with our nephew, and watched Blondie play with her cousin Maurice.

My artistic photo...

Some models are so hard to work with..

I am realizing that summer is almost over - we are days away from our 1 year anniversary which will be spent in Florida and I still have so much I want to do!

SLOW DOWN SUMMER!

Summer days, drifting away...

Oh Grease - Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong era, I dream of a world where everything is musically represented with choreographed moves, not the High School Musical type, but rather more the Bye Bye Birdie, or West Side Story type.

But I digress...

With the arrival of Blondie I have completely forgot to mention all the other fun summer activities/plans that have been underway.

If you remember, I had created some what of a summer wish list - now although "get and train a puppy" was not visible, it was definitely apart of our planning but left out to avoid the obvious focus that a puppy brings. I can hear my father's voice "no, no dogs, they are hard to train" yet I know he is thinking "YES PLEASE!!"

So now in mid July (I refuse to admit that it is close to being over) here is my small update.

1. Beach Volleyball: we had our first meet last Thursday and our team was pumped. I joined this team of 8 knowing only 3 people and this seemed to be the case with the entire team. I enjoy meeting new people but was beyond nervous to play a team sport with them. Especially one that I play so very rarely and have minimal skills in. Regardless we were fast with jokes and full of laughter in just a few short moments that would last the entire 2 hours. By the end I was covered in sweat and sand but felt elated. I missed being on a team.

2. Rowing: Twice a week since the beginning of July I have made my way of the usual 45 minute drive into the city (in traffic, an hour or more) to sit in a boat with 7 other people and have very little control on how the boat moves. This team sport requires all 8 rowers to move in synchronized time in order to keep the boat balanced and moving. It is an incredible feeling when it happens, you swiftly move through the water almost parallel to it, however the opposite is not just choppy, it's terrifying as you tilt toward the water or your blade gets stuck and the end of your oar jabs into your chest. My position is bow or number 1, and along with number 2 we make bow pair - the toughest positions. This is the worst position for someone with control issues. I can see the drunken caterpillar before me as I hear "in 5 strokes, bow join in". I know I need to follow 8, the stroke seat, but there are 6 seats between us that distract and change the boats movements. Once I join in it's full mayhem, my boat rocks and I begin to accept that I will be going into Lake Ontario- an act that not only I fear, but actually deters from my focus of trying to row. I grow furious as the coxswain points out "bow you are not feathering!" - really!? this is what you want to point out. I begin to list out in my head what every other person is doing incorrectly - this is probably what is throwing off my "perfect" stroke.

If anything, learning to row has taught me I need to give up my control, I can only control what I do - and in focusing on everyone else I am not even doing that.

3. House changes (painting, shelving, general decorating): Dave is taking a week stay-cation in August - our plans to go away were gladly pushed aside once we got Blondie and instead we are going to work on making those small (I use that term lightly) changes in the house. However I think we will readdress what "must be done" and what is actually feasible.

4. Recipes: Dave is mastering bread making, and added bagels to his repertoire! I am focusing on the BBQ - it may not be once a week but we are trying! I want to tackle one from Mario Batali. His orange book calls to me even as I sit here.

5. Books: stay tuned for my reviews at the end of the month for widely talked about The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Steig Larson and Generation A - Douglas Coupland.

As for the rest...well...there is still a month or so to go !

I need a summer camp

First week of my summer and I have to say I am finding it difficult...pick up your jaw from the floor and let me explain.

Ever since I could remember my summers have been scheduled.

I was given a choice of camps, but the only stipulations were that

- I could not be inside the majority of the day

- It had to be a full day program with early drop off and late pick up

- I could go to as many camps as I wanted BUT in total it had to span the entire summer (with some time off for family holidays etc)

So I would scour the town summer guide for the best camps, offering the best programs - pool days, field trips to the zoo, water parks and the clincher - the "end of session shows".

At a young age I joined the camps my friends attended - one of the fondest memories being of Mrs. Lee's art camp. For one week (if I remember correctly) 10 girls would take over Mrs. Lee's art basement and backyard to paint t-shirts, jean jackets (all the rage) among other things. Art was not my strong suit - but since a lot of my friends including my still best friend Jennie were signed up, so I was compelled to go. I would pout and beg Jennie to help me with my painting, and if i could find these masterpieces you would be able to see a clear difference between my work and the young budding artist in Jennie (or at this time in our life - Jenny). I put up with the art for the small theatre we did - for the session Mrs. Lee would create a lunch murder mystery - featuring a royal family, costumes and even an afternoon of etiquette lessons. To this day, I still maintain excellent table manners and I am usually the first to instruct others of which fork does what or what each glass is for.

Paired with this I joined a camp on Seneca campus and often did two back to back sessions of two weeks. After one summer made a good circle of friends that I would go on to spend 4 consecutive summers with - and later meet two of them 8 years later in University. It was here that I found my love of the stage and writing.

Summer to me was not about cottages, or sleeping in, or pool play dates. It was about making new friends, spending the day laughing, rolling in the grass, group games with a much needed popsicle break. It was about team sports, tie-dyed shirts, baseball hats and backpacks with a extra shoes, a lunch I often swapped or shared and loads of sunscreen that I never applied.

The day would end and I would spend dinner regaling about the day's event, who's who and maybe even who I had a crush on.

Now, years later I approach my first "summer off" and I have no scheduled job to attend, I have 2 teams that I am apart of - occupying 3 nights of my week - and I still miss the steady schedule of a summer camp.

Summer Days...So CLOSE

This summer I want to do a lot, so I thought it would be best to publicly announce, to those reading at least, my amazing-super-awesome summer list.

So without further ado and in no particular order

- Paint the spare room

- Alphabetize my books

- Install stainless steel shelves in the kitchen

- Join a beach volleyball team Signed up - start in July, one game a week!

- learn how to row Hopefully getting signed up to start in July, once a week AND a Regatta!

- Paint the kitchen

- Paint all 3 bathrooms

- Extend the patio

- Frame the basement

- Complete the wedding scrapbook

- Make Europe scrapbook

- Tend to the garden

- Go visit Nicole in Kelowna

- Continue weight training 4-5 days a week

- All inclusive vacation with friends

- Read 4 books (minimum) Between July & August

- Take Kyla swimming

- Visit with Ivan, be the best summer Zia ever!

- Try a new reciepe at least ever week (one sweet, one savoury)

- Maintain the blog with photo evidence

- Get a job for September!

....

I am sure I will add to this - but I think it's quite a hefty start to an amazing summer!

I hope to revisit this list throughout the summer and then once again at the end to see how I measured up!