TWO WEEKS IN

We have been at our new house for two weeks now on and off (we've been doing work at our old house as well).  So far...

• two bedrooms have been painted.
• three trees have been cut down.  I have a sneaking suspicion that the next time I leave town a fourth will fall.  Dear boys, if you touch that maple I am going to be very angry!
• we've been visited by Daniel, Olivia, and Waverlea twice.
• we've had two visitors from North Bay.
• I've hit the garage door post with one of the vehicles.
• Ian's got grease on our white carpet, fortunately I noticed this right away and got it out.  Ian wishes I was as good at noticing the side of the garage door.  
• we have a quarter of the two car garage cleared.
• we've come to the conclusion that we own way too much stuff.
• Olivia introduced herself to our Italian neighbors twice,once when she ran the kayak into their beach and then again when she ran the kayak into their fishing boat.  This all happened within the space of about a minute.  
• I met our Italian neighbors sans bra and in my pajamas.  It was four in the afternoon. (I was painting, don't judge.) We're making quite the impression.
• we've swum in the river every day.  It's not getting old.
• we wage battle with the Canada geese that like to come poop on our lawn every single day.  It is getting old. We're not winning...yet! I think this one is going to get it's own post someday soon. 

THE SCOOP

So I made an announcement today on Facebook and have been flooded with questions ever since which is understandable because it was a pretty big announcement.  So here's the scoop!
The rumours are true, we are moving back to the Muskoka area.  It all happened so fast that my head is still spinning.
When Matthew took his family and moved there a couple of years ago I was disappointed.  I saw his kids almost every day and although they were moving only an hour and a half drive down the road, I knew the time I spent with them would decrease significantly and that saddened me.  While I still get to see them fairly frequently it is mostly just stopping in for a few minutes as we travel through to other places. When Brittany announced earlier this year that she and Ben would be moving there as well with their two kids, I was anxious to make a move south to be closer to all my little grandchildren.
A couple of weeks ago Ian and I discussed  the ramifications of such a move and we determined that we would have a little look at what was available and think about it.  Two weeks later (yesterday) we signed papers to purchase a home and we move in June 26th.  Crazy!!!!!  So much to do in so little time and in between a trip to Hawaii.  I think I will be awol on here for a while as I begin packing and getting this house ready to go on the market.

Things I will miss:

• my friends here.
• our indoor swimming pool.
• an abundance of grocery stores (makes for cheap food).
• the community I live in (seriously the nicest people ever).
• the wildlife I see on daily basis.
• my backyard tobogganing hill (no more toboggan parties on family weekend : (

Looking forward to:

• more family get togethers ( I see a weekly family dinner tradition in the making)
• reconnecting with old friends.
• kayaking on the river.
• meeting my new neighbors.
• spending more time with our grandkids.
• being able to help out my daughter and daughters in law more.

5 SECOND RULE

I bet you think this post will be about food that has fallen to the floor and how long it can sit there before being deemed inedible.  In our house that 5 second rule can run into the 5 day rule depending on the age of the eater.  Personally, I wouldn't eat anything that fell on my floor because I know how often (or little) it gets cleaned.

Tonight we played a new game called 5 Second Rule.  It's a fast paced game where you are asked to name three things in a given category and you have 5 seconds to do it.   We had some good laughs as we played.  I'm a little concerned that Brittany and Emily do not know what a prime number is nor what a preposition is but they can be forgiven because like I said, it's pretty fast paced and had they been given half a minute to think about it they would have remembered.  The funniest moments of the night though came at Emily's expense.  When asked to name three countries in the northern hemisphere she quickly called out  Canada, USA, Europe.  Later in the game Brittany's category was professional basketball players. Steve Nash, Michael Jordan, and Jimmer were her answers.  Unimpressed, Emily asked Brittany "Yeah, but what's his first name?"
"I don't know." replied Brittany.
"Jimmer" I said "His first name is Jimmer."

*Emily is much smarter than I have made her out to be. 

TEENAGE DREAM

Just because I am a grandmother doesn't mean I have to act like one so when a couple of friends suggested a get together I jumped at the chance.  I'd forgotten how much fun it is to have a couple of friends come stay overnight.  We talked about boys (our husbands), how to do our hair (one said she would prefer a brush cut, seriously?) while we painted our toenails. We took silly pictures withWoody, proof that my persuasion skills are as good as Matthew's but I had to promise that there would be no posting of said pictures on either facebook or my blog. Darn!  We played games and I made an amazing come from behind run to win the Last Word...it's my blog so I can totally brag it up if I want... and anyway a game where you have to try and get the last word in? you know I am going to rock that one unless perhaps I am playing with Daniel. 

So it was fun to be a teenager again even if it was just for a night.  Oh, I almost forgot *wink* dancing in the basement.  It wouldn't  be a sleepover without dancing and dance we did.  Someone...it may or may not have been me... hooked up a hidden camera to capture an unsuspecting hoofer.  No promises were made regarding the release of such a movie so enjoy.  Heads have been cut off to protect the identity of the victim.
The Movie

CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES

So I celebrated a pretty significant birthday a couple of weeks ago.  I told Ian that I didn't want a big fuss made and that I preferred to mark the occasion by having dinner with the family which is basically what happened.  Some of the evening I am not allowed to blog about or post pictures of, which is a real shame but I will honour the request even though it is practically killing me not to share.

The table all decorated.

Brittany and I spent the day in town while two of my lovely daughters-in-law decorated the dining room, made dinner and prepared a special surprise. I came home to find my sweet little grandchildren all dressed for a special dinner, the dining room decorated with flowers and a digital photo frame all set up with family pictures.  The paper flowers on the wall contained words to describe me with the names of the submitters included.   Some of the words written weren't all that surprising because after all,  I am pretty "amazing" and "wonderful"  that was why I was shocked when I found the word "humble" written on one... and why would a nice mormon girl like me find the word "cheater" on one and "thief" on another?  Probably because I have "cheated" death a few times and I "stole" my husband's heart.  Yeah, that must be it.   Actually, there are good stories behind those titles.  I have been known to cheat a few times at games but that  happened so rarely and only ever when I was losing (that is why it happened so rarely).  The thief title came after I took a poster from the toilet stall at the House of Blues advertising a band that was playing the next night.  I took it out of it's frame but my accomplice was the one that walked right out of the restaurant with it and her husband had the nerve to say I was a bad influence on her. sheesh!

Flowers sent from Daniel & Olivia

Anyway... it was a great day and I felt very loved by all those who took the time to write a few words describing me.  Thank you Olivia for doing all that.   The only thing that would have made the day more perfect would have been if Daniel, Olivia, and Adam could have been home for it.

I really would have loved to tell you all about my visit from Jack Sparrow but I have promised not to blog about it (I am probably breaking the rules by even mentioning it but I am bad like that)  and none of you would have believed it anyway.

So thank you to all who participated and helped make my birthday so very special.

YOU GOTTA HAVE...FRIENDS!

I couldn't imagine life without my friends. I have made some great ones over the years. They have enriched, and in some cases changed my life. 

There is the first new friend I made as a young adult.  We smoked lilac leaves once because we thought they smelled like marijuana when they burned. Don't ask me how I knew what marijuana smelled like. It was the 70's, enough said. (We did not get high but we did get headaches.) We drove around in her Toyota until it met it's untimely end when we ignored the red add oil warning light.  Who knew that failure to do so could actually seize an engine? Not us.  I have never been sillier with anyone and I could write a book about our many adventures.   She is the one of the most creative people I have ever met.  I stand in awe of her talents. 

There's the friend who taught me how to cook, bake, cross stitch, and sew, and helped make me the domestic goddess I am today (no comments from the peanut gallery). She's the same friend who also taught my son to say the  S H word when he was two. Well she didn't "teach" it to him, he picked it up by osmosis.  She loves my kids almost as much as I do and to this day they call her "auntie". 

There's the friend who coerced me into making fun of her husband's recent vasectomy by popping over on a night she was entertaining a group of friends to read a poem I'd written in his honour and to invite them to join the "Clip It" club.

"V is for vasectomy , that is what you had."

"A is for the agony, boy did it feel bad."

That's all I can remember. (Nobody laughed)  I guess they didn't think it was all that funny.  I did but then again, this same friend and I laughed all the way through The English Patient.

There's the friend I see only rarely because of the large distance between our homes but oh how I look forward to our yearly lunch date.  I honed my cheating skills at Uno and Trivial Pursuit long ago when we were all poor and she and her husband spent many a night hanging out at our place for cheap entertainment.  

I count you as a true friend if we have

• laughed so hard we've cried.
• taken part in some quasi illicit activity (like stealing a Dashboard Confessional poster out of a bathroom stall in the House of Blues).  Who carries a screwdriver in their purse anyway?
• pulled a prank or two together.
• pulled an all nighter (talking not drinking).

So thanks for the memories friends.  Let's make some more!

TOO MUCH FUN

Sincerest apologies  for neglecting my blog.  The excuse?  Well to be perfectly honest, I have been having entirely way too much fun with my family.  All the kids made it home for Christmas meaning my house was an absolute disaster (12 people here most days), my cupboards were overflowing with junk food( chips, cheetos popcorn, pop, cookies, chocolate, ice cream, sugary cereal, and the list goes on), and it was a miracle if I made it to bed before one in the morning.  We packed a ton of fun into the two weeks that most of the kids were home. Here are some of the highlights.

Pajamas: I was able to get everybody to wear matching pajamas for a picture to commemorate the fact that we were all home together for Christmas for the first time in a number of years.  Not one of them complained. Bonus

Rock Band: Possibly the most fun family gift we've ever received.  Ben owned the drums and Brittany and Adam played expert level on the guitar and bass.  Even the die hard Call of Duty fans got involved and miracle of miracles, dear hubby, hater of video games, had a go too.

Christmas Dinner: It was the usual Christmas dinner but soooo good. What made it memorable was the washing of dishes and cleaning the kitchen afterward.  I have the best husband in the world.  He thinks because the women put so much time and effort into preparing a big meal that it is only right that the men do the clean up. The women all headed downstairs to enjoy some conversation while the men remained upstairs.  I was concerned that it was taking them a long time and there seemed to be some shouting going on.  This is what I found when I went to investigate.  All of them were hanging out in my bedroom watching an exciting basketball game, doing the dishes during half time and time outs.  Notice that they still all have their jammies on.  Priceless.

New Years Eve: While our company had started to dwindle (Daniel, Olivia, Matthew, Kere, and their kids were gone) there were still enough of us left to celebrate.  It was a perfect moonlit evening with fairly mild temperatures so we bundled up and went outside to toboggan in the back yard.   We attahed LED lights to our clothing and had a blast playing like little children in the snow. We packed the LED lights into snowballs and had a glow in the dark snowball fight.  The effect was almost magical. We rang in the New Year by lighting a fire in the chiminea with the intention of making s'mores but we became distracted with lighting off firecrackers which will be the subject of my next post.
Good times!