Thinking Outloud

Just letting you all know that here in Canada it’s a long weekend.  Canada day is Sunday, July first but a lot of the companies around here are taking Monday as the holiday which turns it in to a long weekend for most of us.  As my husband is off tomorrow, Sunday and Monday we will be headed out first thing in the morning to try to get a good weekend in for camping.  The kids are quite excited as this weekend it’s suppose to be warm and sunny so hopefully they will get a lot more playtime out of this weekend then they did last.

I’ll be back sometime Monday and I’ll be sure to pop in and let you all how everything turned out.  Until then I’d like to wish you all a very happy Canada day.  And for all you guys in the states, I would like to wish you all a happy July fourth in advance.

Good friends are hard to come by for me.  I don’t know why this is.  I am a very friendly and outgoing person, but when it comes to getting closer to someone else it usually takes me quite a while.  But, when I do finally develop that friendship they usually last forever.  So, this is why I am quite sad to report this, a very dear friend of mine is moving away.  It’s funny but I’ve known her and seen her around for the past three years, but it’s only been since this past year that her and I have become close.  So, close in fact that I am able to call her a very dear friend.

But, the time has come for me to say goodbye.  Her husband travels and gets transfered a lot through his job and he was transfered again.  This time they are headed out of the province and going to visit will be darn near impossible.  But, we have promised one another that we will keep in touch through e-mail and letters.  As I know that she sometimes does drop in here to see what I have to say about life, I just wanted to wish her and her family the very best and I look forward to hearing from her real soon.  Also, can’t forget my little “buddie”.  I will miss blowing flowers with him and I look forward to many, many pictures of him and his growing up years.  I hope he never forgets his “mim”.

Now that were back home and dry from our very first camping trip for our family I would like to report that we all survived and are still in one piece.  It was quite an interesting weekend to say the least and here are some recaps.  First of all we were unable to leave on Friday night as originally planned as my husband got home late from work.  So, we headed out Saturday morning under cloudy skies.  The weather forecast was calling for light showers so we thought we would be safe.  Boy, were we wrong.  As soon as we got there and got the trailer all set up it started to rain.  It poured for the entire afternoon and all night.  So, the kids were unable to play at the park or go swimming and we were stuck in our trailer the entire time.

I felt bad for them as I thought they didn’t have a good time due to the rain but thankfully kids can make their own fun.  They both said they had fun and would like to go again.  So, we are going to try again this weekend, but if they are calling for showers of any kind I don’t think we will be headed out.

It’s hard to believe that another school year has ended.  So, I’d like to report that the children did awesome.  My daughter will be headed off to grade 4 in the fall, my youngest son grade 2 and my oldest (fingers crossed) grade 12.  Can you say “old”.  lol  So, as a special treat for the two younger children the entire family will be leaving on a weekend camping trip today as soon as my husband gets home from work.  The kids are so excited as this will be the first time they have ever slept in a camping trailer.  My youngest son was so excited about today that he couldn’t get to sleep last night until well after 10:30 pm.  Oh, to be a kid again.

So, this means I won’t be online very much on the weekend, but I’ll be sure to let you all know all about the trip and how much fun we all had over the weekend.  Now, if I could just get my butt in gear and finish my packing!

Both of my kids had a very special day today at school.  My daughter who is almost done grade 3 gave her teacher a present.  The present was a coffee mug and a stuffed bear.  I was just our way of saying thank you for the great job she did during the year.  Well, the teacher gave the bear back to my daughter and asked her to keep it as her gift to her for being such a great student.  You will never realize what this did for my daughter.  This was probably the best thing her teacher could have said to her.

My son who is almost done grade 1 received a little surprise of his own.  His teacher sent him to the principal’s office (not because he was bad) and the principal wrote his name in the “good book” plus gave him a sticker, pencil, and five coupons for free ice cream treats from our local dairy queen.  The teacher and the principal told him he received this honor because he is so kind and caring toward his classmates and friends.  Again, this really boosted my son’s self confidence and he was extremely happy that the principal said such nice words about him.

So, like I said, this was an awesome day for both of the kids and I really can’t thank the teachers enough for their kindness directed at my children.  And it kind of makes me proud to see how the school feels about them and to think that maybe I had a small hand in their upbringing, kindness and good behavior at school.

As I am sure that everyone is aware, yesterday was father’s day.  My husband and his father had a really good day with lots of presents and kisses from the kids.  It was kind of a sad day for me as I lost my dad to cancer almost three years ago, but with the kids running around and being excited for the day, it did take some of the sadness away.  We bought my husband’s father a gift card from his favorite store and the kids each gave him a quarter.  We had a barbeque which was very tastey and the kids got to play with their aunt.  So, I have to say all in all it was a good day and I hope all you fathers out there enjoyed your day as well.

My husband’s sister lives about 1000 miles away so she isn’t able to get home as much as she would like.  And she would like to come home quite often right now as her mother is pretty sick with stomach cancer.  Well, today I got a phone call from my husband’s father that she had arrived home Tuesday night.  She didn’t tell anyone she was coming.  She just showed up.  This was a very nice surprise, especially for her mother.  She didn’t know if she was going to have a heart attack or cry.  Thankfully all she did was cry.  So, it was good for all of us to spend some time with her and since she isn’t leaving until the middle of next week, I think this will perk his mother’s spirits up.  So, although I think it was a wonderful surprise for the entire family, I think it was exactly what the doctor ordered for his mother.

This week my husband is on vacation and it started out exactly like I thought it would.  He has already started to bug me.  Having him home is worse than having the two younger chidren at home.  For some reason a forty year old man requires a lot more attention than a six and eight year old combined.  It’s almost like he doesn’t know what to do with himself if he is not headed out the door to go to work.  But, I’ll show him. lol  I have lots and lots of work that he can do if he is that bored that he has nothing to do but bother me.  Just like a little kid.  You have to find things for him to do.  So, I think if I find enough work for him to do, he may stop bothering me so much or he might just get tired of me telling him what needs to be done and he may go find something to do on his own.

What is your experience like when your hubby is home for a week?  Does my story sound like your own?

My daughter’s class at school learned how to tie dye.  They had so much fun with this little craft and the finished product turned out very nice.  So, when she brought it home and showed her younger brother what she had done and how nice her shirt looks, he decided that he wants one of his own.  So, later on today I am going down to our local dollar store to purchase some fabric dye so he (with my help) can make one of his own.

I have to laugh as this craft of tie dyeing has been around for years and I can remeber when I was their age and did this myself.  So, it is amazing how some things from our youth come back to haunt us.  And I’m sure that I drove my parents as nuts as my two kids drive me when wanting to try something new.  So, it’s off to the dollar store for me and later on tonight I will be up to my elbows in dye.

I have finally figured out how to use my digital camera, but unfortunately haven’t figured out how to upload it on to this site to show you all a picture of it. I will continue to try to get this all sorted out, and when I do I will definitely do a post and let you see all my hard work. This computer stuff is a little frustrating as I was already to show you all my handywork and then for some reason I can’t upload the picture.

If any one here has some tips or advice they could give me to be able to accomplish this I would be most appreciative.