Seasonal Highs and Lows

Highs

The Christingle Service - the children were all adorable.  There aren't many young children in our church but they all put so much enthusiasm in to their Christingle Service, it was a joy.

Boxes - which translates as our container finally arriving and being delivered.  I have my things!

School Christmas Services - today.  KS1 with Harriet at 10:00am and KS2 with Katarina at 10:45am.  Harriet hasn't slept well the last 2 nights through sheer excitement over her acting debut.  That girl is a born actress.  Katarina was a little more subdued, mainly I feel because she didn't really have an active role in her assembly and that it was a lot more low key, some poems, some readings and carols.  Richard and I appreciate what a great school our girls attend.

Doughnuts - I had a jam one with my coffee this morning.  Yum!

Crops - if I'm lucky and get myself organised, a chance to scrap all day on Saturday, to meet some new friends and get some quiet(ish) 'me' time.

Lows

Boxes - too many in too small a space.  Did I ever tell you I get claustrophobic?

Christmas Cards - I haven't written any yet.  I've received some, which is amazing considering that I haven't even properly got my backside in gear and told everyone our new address, but I have yet to write even one.  I've made them, well over 30 or so anyway, just need to find 5 to sit down and write them.

Boxes - too many in too small a space!  It's driving me crazy... I feel like I repeat myself...

Flu - recovering from but too slowly for me, especially at this time in the year when I feel I have so much to do.

A brief post

Just to let my one reader know that I am alive and well!

The Gauger family arrived on British soil on 5th November, everyone seemed to be so pleased to see us, the whole nation even went as far as setting off a barrel of fireworks to welcome us back!

Internet access is a little sparse, as you can see with no posts since 31st October, but with only Richard's laptop and he using that for work I don't get much opportunity which is a shame as I have lots to tell and some great photos to upload too.  Oh, well, I'm hoping that my pc will arrive sometime during the next week or so, my bed wouldn't go amiss either, and life can start to take on some semblance of order.

Oh, before I go I just want to say "Happy Birthday Connor!".  I feel terrible as I forgot but in my defence all my life is stored on my computer or calendars and these are "in the container"!  This has become a standard saying in our house, if we need anything you can guarantee it's "in the container".  I'm sure I've forgotten other things, appointments, birthdays, events and if one of these happens to be you then please accept my public apology.  I'm sure I will be suitably embarrassed once I turn on my computer and all the reminders pop up.

So, until I can update on a more regular basis, adieu...

Puss in ... pumpkin?

Well, I caved, I didn't intend to do much towards the whole business of halloween but today I succombed to pleading from my children and bought a pumpkin.  And as I have nothing else to do, I mean it's not like I've got the removal company coming in tomorrow to pack me up is it?

Anyway, here it is in all it's glory.  So far our "trick or treaters" have been mightily impressed which makes me feel that the effort was worth it, LOL!

Happy Halloween

I know, I know, this is not usually a festivity I celebrate, but when in Rome...

It really isn't that big a "deal" here though, you know.  In fact, our church yesterday threw a Halloween party, partly so the children could have some fun and partly as an outreach to the rest of our community.  The children had so much fun, and me?  I got a great photo opportunity!  Here are my angels before they went off to the party: (there are more photos in the appropriate photo album)

Happy Birthday Hubby

Yesterday was Richard's birthday and because we are up to our eyes with preparations for the move back we didn't really plan on doing anything special.  We did go out for supper with the children though, to Montana's, a favourite of ours.  The girls were especially excited as they know what happens to people who celebrate their birthdays at Montana's - this:

Of course like father, like son:

And here is my man and his children:

Happy birthday, darling!

A good sign?

On early mornings and lack of sleep

Well it's just about 6am and since about 4:50am Richard and I have both been awake.  Both just lying in bed, ignoring each other, trying to get back to sleep, you know the routine.  Eventually at about 5:30am I spoke, stating the obvious, "I can't sleep" to which he replied "me neither!".  We then had one of those lovely chats that you can only have at that time in the morning when it's cold and dark outside and you're snuggled up in bed feeling like you are the only 2 people awake.

The reasons why we aren't sleeping are fairly obvious but to top it off Noah is having real problems sleeping through at the moment.  Today also we reach our final hurdle in the continuing saga of selling our house.  There are 2 things that we have to do to complete our side of the contractual bargain.  First was to have a UV filter fitted, which was duly done on Tuesday.  This basically filters all of the water coming in to the house from our well and sterilizes it, at a whopping 14 gallons a minute, can you believe that?  Apparently if you turn your hose pipe on and run it at full blast it will only pump out water at a rate of 6 gallons a minute.

The final thing we need to do is take yet another water sample and have it tested and provide a certificate showing it has a clean bill of health, ie. there are no longer any bacteria present.  Now, the filter should more than do it's job as the amount of bacteria present are minimal but.... if I've learnt anything in the last few weeks it's to expect the unexpected.  The nice water guy came yesterday and took the sample and we should hear later today whether it's passed it's test.

I don't do early mornings and am a person who needs her minimum of 8 hours sleep but it's so hard to find at the moment.  You just lay in bed thinking about the million and one things that need to be done.  So, here we are, sitting at our his and her computers.  Me updating my blog, answering emails, him, typing up a list of electricals and other stuff we need to sell as we can't bring it back.  Just 15 more sleeps...

All systems go

I know, I've been a bad, bad blogger but life in our household has been extremely trying the last few weeks and by Monday of this week it was touch and go whether the sale of house would proceed.

But the great news is it will and because of canadian home purchase laws the contract is now full and binding and we will be closing on 4th November.  We are all so excited.  I won't go in to details of our well water woes (also known as 'www') partly because it's very convoluted but mainly because I'm just sick and tired of talking about it!

The scary thing is that it has taken so long to get to this point and has been touch and go for quite alot of that time that we haven't felt inclined to start to get anything organised.  We are therefore now faced with having to do a lot in a short space of time.  Oh well, it will be worth the extra bit of stress in the long run and soon we will be back where we belong and can get on with living our lives.

And I've already booked myself in for my first return to the UK crop at PaperArts  on Saturday 12th November!  I'll have nothing to scrap with but I think I might have come up with a solution for that little problem.

That's all for now folks but I should hopefully be back on track now and updating a little more frequently that is until my pc is taken away from me, probably more like ripped from my hands, and wrapped and packed.

Water, water, everywhere but not a drop to drink!

I have a headache.  I need to take a headache tablet, but I can't.  The problem is, though I have a well full of water, running water in my house, two baths full of water, until I get to the store to buy bottled water, I can't fill a glass and take my tablets.

Why is this I hear you ask?  To cut a long story short our buyers have now had 2 water sampling tests done and there are apparently bacteria present.  Now I say apparently, not because I think their tests are wrong, but that it is extremely easy for the sample to be contaminated at the time of it being taken by the person taking it, in this case their realtor.  Now we are not unfamiliar with this.  When we were buying this house last year we had a water sample test done and it came back with a result of coliforms (bacteria) present at a rate of 4 mpn/100mL (don't ask me what it means but it was fairly low and we were told at the time that it could be a sampling protocol or a lab problem.  We retested and the results came back even lower, 1 mpn/100mL.  At the time we weren't overly worried, our mortgage wasn't in question (any  coliform result can mean that mortgage will not be granted) so we decided to go ahead with the purchase and just keep an eye on things.

We then retested the water again in April in advance of our putting it on the market, thinking that if there was going to be any problems then we would rectify it before putting it on the market.  The results?  Absolutely clear, coliforms, absent.  No worries we think.  Everything's fine we think.  Never, ever be relaxed about anything is my new motto.

The frustrating thing is that the water tests they requested and carried out don't actually tell you how low or high the coliform count is.  The results just say 'present'.  I mean what help is this?  Is this a similar problem to last year or a really major problem?  There is quite clearly nothing drastically wrong with our water.  We've been drinking it now for over a year and can honestly say we have not been ill, and believe me if there were massive coliforms present in the water, we would be ill.

So, no it's 'shock' the well time, which means that it has to be heavily chlorinated, left to 'stew' for 12-12 hours before we start the long process of syphoning off the chlorinated water and letting the well refill again and eventually, hopefully, flushing all the chlorine out.  How long does this take?  We are having the water guy back out on Tuesday to test whether the chlorine is out of the system and take a new water sample to be sent off for testing. 

From what I can gather until the water is out of the system we can't use it, at all, not a tap, not a toilet flush, no laundry, nothing.  I mean it could upset the good bacteria in the septic tank, couldn't it?

Now that would be the biggest irony after all this wouldn't it?  We flush the well but the bacteria are still there but in the process we accidentally syphon it off in to the septic tank and it kills all the bacteria which are needed there!

My last page?

It's getting closer.  Closer to that sad time when I must pack up my scrapbooking stash in preparation of the next big move.  Not to be seen again for what will this time be quite a long time I feel.

So, last night I sat down and did a LO.  It was a fairly quick and simple one but I'm pleased with it.  It's a photograph of all the children taken outside the Maritime Museum in Bermuda.  All of the Bermuda photos hold such great memories for me, I really loved this holiday and we all had such a lovely time.  Not something I thought I'd say after spending a holiday basically all by myself with just the children.  But no, it was truly lovely, relaxing and just, well, just plain great!

So will this be my last page in Canada?  Or will I be able to fit in another one or two to three before the dreaded day comes when I have to pack it all up?  I say me because I don't trust those big burly packers anyway near my BasicGrey, KI, Urban Lily, actually why don't I just say, they aren't getting their big paws anywhere near my paper or cardstock.  Can you imagine how they'd pack it?  LOL!

Good news - no, Great news!

We've sold our house!!!  Woohoo!

This has been by far one of the most stressful weeks this year so far.  I've never experienced so many highs and lows within such a small space of time.

Our house has been listed since the middle to end of May this year and whilst we have had many, and I mean many, viewings we just weren't getting any offers.  It was frustrating to say the least as we also weren't getting any negative feedback either so we didn't feel there was anything we could actually do to improve our situation.  Any comments we did have back as reasons for not buying our house were things like "the house is too far from the lake", which short of physically picking up the house and moving it down the back yard 50 metres or so, we couldn't do much about.  We eventually did the only thing we could do and that was to drop the price!  This had the effect of causing some interest and in the last few weeks we've been averaging 2-3 viewings a week, sometimes more.

Last Saturday a couple (first time buyers) came to look the place over, they liked it so came back the next day, Sunday, and were here for 2 1/2 hours!  They said they would write up an offer on Monday.  Monday came and went, no offer, Tuesday came and went and by 5pm there was still no offer.  Our stand-in Realtor called to say that she was expecting an offer from them that evening but hey, I've got someone else who wants to look at the property this evening, between 7:45pm and 8:15pm?  So, off we troop with the children to Dairy Queen for desert.

At around 10:00pm our Realtor calls to say she has received an offer and will be round shortly to go through it.  We are cautiously excited.  We shouldn't have been.  It was an horrendous offer, way short of the asking price, especially as we had already dropped substantially.  To be perfectly honest we were quite insulted as they had insisted that almost any item not screwed down was included in the deal and still offered less than they knew we paid for the house last year!  An hour of ranting and raving later and we decided to sleep on it.

Wednesday dawns, the plot thickens.  Our Realtor calls their Realtor (hereinafter called the 1st party) and explains how we are less than happy with their offer, explains our reasons why and reports back that he now understands why.  Our Realtor then calls us to say that the second viewers (hereinafter called the 2nd party) the previous night went very well indeed and that they would like to come back to view the house in daylight this very afternoon.  If they like the house as much as they did the previous night they are going to write an offer there and then!  Woohoo!  Meanwhile, the 1st party's Realtor calls to ask if we are going to counter offer "my party will go higher!".  Shortly after our Realtor calls to say that the 2nd party, loved the house and are currently writing an offer.  Double Woohoo!  Now, get this, 10 minutes after that our Realtor calls again to say the 2nd party wrote the offer, signed it, put it in an envelope and sealed it, left their Realtor and within minutes called and said they wanted to hold off putting the offer in.  Woonot!  Apparently they did not want to get in to a bidding war, which I can understand, but this was very frustrating as to be perfectly frank if their offer had been a good one we would have accepted it because the 1st party had really got our backs up!

So, back to 1st party for us and the counter offer which we drew up around 4:30pm and gave them only until 7:00pm to accept or reject.  They took it to the wire and we had to wait until 7:00pm on the dot for their phone call but accept they did.

So whilst we are all feeling quite euphoric at the moment it is being balance out by the sheer and utter terror of having to pack up and move countries (again) all within the space of 5weeks!!!

Watch this space, I'm sure this isn't over yet...

Happy Birthday Winsay!

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Winsay
Happy birthday to you!

It's actually Linsay but Noah has trouble pronouncing his L's and as we have now acquired another friend called Lindsay it can get very confusing around here, so Winsay was born!

And what better way to spend your birthday than getting together with your friends and scrapbooking?  No, there is no better way, except we won't be scrapbooking but will be finishing the Christmas cards we started last week.

Hurricane Ophelia or just a storm in a teacup?

Apparently Hurricane Ophelia is en-route to Nova Scotia!

I say apparently because there is really no mention of it on the  Environment Canada - Halifax Weather website and you'd think there would be, wouldn't you?  I mean it's being mentioned on the news, on the radio, it's even being discussed on the Kindred Creations online scrapbooking community boards.  But no mention of it in the 5 day weather forecast?  According to todays 5 day weather forecast, Saturday, which is when Ophelia may reach us, is supposed to be:

Cloudy. Periods of rain beginning in the morning. Risk of
a thundershower late in the evening. Amount 15 to 25 mm. Wind becoming
east 20 km/h in the morning then increasing to 30 gusting to 50 late in
the day. High 20.

Will we have a hurricane or not?  After much digging around Environment Canada I did manage to find a satellite picture of Hurricane Ophelia along with projections for the most predicted path of travel, which can be found here.  Now don't forget that this link is being updated at regular intervals so by the time you read this and then click on the link the situation could have totally changed, which will leave me looking not a little stupid and totally make a mockery of all I have written in this post!

As of writing this, Hurricane Ophelia is not even correctly named, officially she is now Sub-Tropical Storm Ophelia but it is possible that she could briefly regain hurricane strength today as she is still over warm water.  Is it just me and the way I think, but is anyone else imagining Ophelia lounging on a cloud, resting, having a nap so that she can feel stronger when she wakes up?  No?  Didn't think so...

Anyway.  A sub-tropical storm doesn't sound too bad, does it?  The winds may only reach gusts of up to 90km/h, see that's much better, isn't it???

So in summary, Hurricane Ophelia who is no longer Hurricane Ophelia but Sub-Tropical Storm Ophelia will move in a north-east direction along the coast of Nova Scotia and somewhere along the way could once again become Hurricane Ophelia but will change once again to Sub-Tropical Storm Ophelia, hopefully, before reaching coastal Nova Scotia.  Phew!

I don't mind as long as it doesn't interfere with the  all day crop I'm planning on attending on Saturday!

And finally I am going to show you this current satellite image because I like it.  As usual just click on the thumbnail for an enlarged view.  Oh, and Ophelia is the big orange blob, lol!

Gone to scrap

At long last I have managed to get down to some scrapbooking.  It feels like forever since I've got my cardstock, scissors and glue out to play.  I blame the children!  They and their school holidays severely upset my artistic timetable.

And what is even better than creating a LO?  One that just comes together, simply, easily and you just know is right.  Richard and I were talking earlier about how Katarina, when she first started talking, always said 'kenzu' instead of thank you.  We thought it was so cute and even when she started saying thank you properly we still used to say kenzu sometimes because it was funny.

Anyway, talking and reminiscing about this made me want to scrap the memory, after all this is why I do what I do.  So I immediately went through my photo storage boxes to find an appropriate photo for that time period.  This photo is one of my favourites and I thought it was apt because it almost looks like she is bowing as if to say 'thank you'.

It's a departure from my usual style but I have to say I am
really pleased with this layout.  It's very simple but that's just the
way I like it.  It was inspired in part by one of Renee Pearson's recent blogs, which was recommended recently by Michelle, (Renee's blog can be found here), where she talked about how legendary designer Roger Black
considers red, black and white the perfect colour palette: striking,
readable and in perfect contrast. And partly because I recently
acquired a copy of Heidi Swapp's 'Love Your Handwriting' book and I am
slowly trying to learn to love my handwriting!

The most wonderful time of the year!

Yes, it's that time of the year again - school is back!  Woohoo!  It will come as no surprise to my family and friends that I have found my first proper experience of the long Canadian summer holidays a little trying to say the least.

When we arrived in June last year we took the children out of school a week before we arrived and so I knew that we were all going to be at home together for quite a long time, 13 weeks in all if I remember rightly.  However, having just moved to a new country we had so much to do, not least of which was buying a new home, that the time really did just fly by.  Before I knew it the first day of school arrived and they were off!

This year we obviously haven't had all those other things to keep us busy.  Here they usually break up around the 3rd week of June but don't go back until the 2nd week of September, 11 weeks in all (and yes, I've counted! LOL!).  This is basically twice as long as the UK school holidays which I found to be plenty long enough for the girls.  Now, I know most Canadians put their children in to a couple of summer camps, sometimes more, but this wasn't an option for us, or at least I was hoping it wouldn't be!  Having put our house up for sale in May we really didn't expect to be here over the summer or if we were then only for a part of it and we thought that this would be spent frantically trying to pack.  Obviously we are still here so they could have gone to camp.  {me now kicking myself}

Considering the length of time they've been home we have had a good summer break together but I knew the girls were really looking forward to returning to school, mainly I think because they would be attending a brand new school.  Last year the girls were bussed to an out of district school, Rockingham Elementary, and this wasn't ideal, largely in part due to the fact that they had to catch the bus at 7:30am.  Ugh, me and early mornings do not a good mix make.  The sub-division we live in has now grown sufficiently to necessitate it's own school and so Kingswood Elementary was built and completed in late August this year, yes the end of last month!  The school was pretty much ready by the skin of its teeth, or should that be bricks?  And the bus pick up time?  A far more civilised 8:13am, yeah!

Here are the girls, all dressed up (just click on the thumbnail for an enlargement), excited because they have new lunch bags, new backpacks and new clothes!

Don't they look smart?  Obviously I have lots of the obligatory "Back to School" scrapbooking photos!  I was very proud of my girls today.  The both had great first days and came home so excited and chatting about their days.  And the best part for them both?  "No homework yet mum, not till next week anyway!"
             

And we're back

Landed in Halifax at around 9:30pm on Saturday evening but by the time we had gone through the rigmorale of customs, collected our luggage and driven home it was almost 11pm.

It's amazing how tired we all still seem considering that there is no jet lag to overcome, Bermuda being in the same time zone as Nova Scotia.  So, due to the feeling of complete exhaustion I will keep this first posting brief.

Suffice it to say we had a fabulous time and I will share all with you over the next few days.  I have managed to upload some of the many photos taken into an album, which you can find in the right hand column, so you at least have something to look at and can get a flavour of the holiday.

Will catch up with you all soon.

And they're off!

To the sunnier climes of Bermuda, pink sand and turquoise waters here we come.

So this is just to say that I won't be blogging about anything for at least the next week or so.

But in the immortal words of Arnie, "I'll be back!"...

Before I go - Me from A-Z

Read a couple of different people's entries on this meme and decided that before I leave you all (all?) that I would have a go at answering it and give you something to think about.

A - Act your age - I'm 38 and have decided that I'm going to be fabulous at 40!

B - Breast size - Hahahahaha, did you really think I would tell you?

C - Chore you hate - Housework, probably no surprise that.

D - Dad's name - Roger

E - Essential makeup item - Generally never wear it but if I do then it's normally just lipstick.

F - Favourite singer - Oh, there are so many but if pushed then I would say at the moment it's Daniel Beddingfield.

G - Gold or silver - Silver

H - Hometown - I was born and raised in Plymouth, Devon, England but home is currently Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

I - Ice cream - I'm in love with Skors ice cream, yum, yum.

J - Job title - Mum but soon to be Scrapbook Instructor and part-time sales assistant at my local scrapbooking store, woohoo, now I won't feel guilty buying all my supplies!

K - Kisses, what kind do you prefer - Definitely kisses from my DH and closely followed by kisses from my children.

L - Living arrangements - 5 Bedroom home, set in around 3 acres on a lake.  Beautiful and everyone morning when I wake up one of my most favourite things to do is too see what 'mood' the lake is in :-)

M - Meat, favourite kind - Has to be a nice medium rare steak, preferably at Ryan Duffy's along with one of their amazing Caesar salads.

N - Number of kiddos - 3 but at times can feel like 6!

O - Overnight hospital stays - Oh, my, let's see if I can remember.  I spent a few days in hospital at the age of 12 due to an appendectomy, around 2 nights or so when I had my tonsils out, I was in for a few days before I gave birth to my eldest DD and a few nights or so after the birth and 1 night spent in hospital with each of my subsequent 2 children.  So in total that must be around, as a conservative guess, say 12 nights give or take a few nights.  Quite a lot really.

P - Packing habits - I have a list on my computer that I print off and check off as I pack the various items.  I amend it if necessary and up date the pc each time we go away, usually as one of the children gets older and we no longer need to bring a particular item, for example, nappies.

Q - Quote that you love - This can varies but my favourite at the moment is "I treat life with a pinch of salt, add a dash of lemon and a shot of tequila!"

R - Religion - Christian. 

S - Siblings - 1 sister and 1 brother, both younger.

T - Time you get up in the morning - As late as I possibly can, I'm so not a morning person.

U - Underwear of choice - Plain white cotton generally but anything really as long as it's comfortable.

V - Vegetable you can't stand - Sweetcorn, ugh!  Just the smell can make me feel nauseous!

W - Worst habit - According to my darling husband he tells me that I don't really have any!  LOL!

X - Xrays - I've had a few, mostly dental but I was involved in a very mild car accident in France during my teens and had x-rays taken of my foot and head.  I've also had various chest x-rays over the years.

Y - Yummy food you make - Neapolitan Ziti, which is a pasta bake dish with meatballs and salami and mozzarella and is delicious even if I say so myself!

Z - Zodiac sign - Not that I believe in any of that mumbo jumbo but I'm a Gemini.

All things stationery

I love stationery.  I find a certain
amount of comfort from purchasing new stationery.  I don't know when this
closet addiction came about but I do know that when I first started work, way
back when, nothing could beat the feel of going to the stationery cupboard and
picking out new biros, in red, black and blue, a crisp newly sharpened
unused pencil, a nice unblemished white rubber, a notebook which has never been
written on.  If I felt a little stressed a trip to the stationery cupboard
was guaranteed to give me a little "pick me up".  Now,
obviously, I don't admit this to just anyone so please let's just keep it to
ourselves!

I think this is probably part of the appeal of scrapbooking, buying pens,
paints, paper, cardstock is an extension of stationery.

So I have mixed feelings upon being presented with my girls "School
Supply" lists.  On one hand, just think of all that lovely new
stationery I get to purchase but on the other hand... well, here is the list:

• 24 HB pencils sharpened (no eversharp pencils please)



• 4 pink pearl erasers



• 1 pencil case



• 1 pair of good quality scissors



• 3 large glue sticks



• 1 small bottle white glue



• 1 covered pencil sharpener



• 1 box of crayons



• 1 pkg. coloured pencils sharpened



• 1 pkg. fat unscented markers



• 5 large ziplock bags



• 1 box of Kleenex



• 2 heritage notebooks (orange: 12.7cm x 20cm: if you buy Hilroy, number is 42-511)



• 1 80 page Hilroy scribbler (no coiled scribblers or scribblers with tear sheets please)



• 6 green duotangs



• 10 red duotangs



• 6 yellow duotangs



• 1 pocket folder



• 1 activity book (puzzles, word searches, etc.) for rainy recesses



• 1 ruler 30cm clear



• 1 pkg. Xerox paper



• 1 backpack



• 1 pair of indoor sneakers to leave in school (no soles that will mark the gym floor please)



• 1 small plastic box (20cm x 12cm approx.) no larger please, space is limited in the desks



• **$10.00 will be collected for a School Agenda in the fall on the first day of school.  All students in the school will record their homework in this agenda.  It also serves as a message book between teacher and school.



• **Please label all supplies with your name (please label the duotangs on the inside front cover)

Now, a few things first spring to mind upon reading this.  How
many pencils do they expect the children to actually go through?  In my
experience 1 pencil is usually sufficient to see me through quite a few months
if not a whole year.  What is wrong with a run of the mill white
eraser?  When I read 'heritage' notebooks, I immediately think of
scrapbooking and old photos!  What is a 'duotang'?  I actually now do
know what this is as this will be the second year of the girls attending school here in
Canada but must admit I was baffled at first and actually had to ring the school and ask
(it's folder with metal strips that you file your work in).  1 pkg. Xerox
paper?  The government can't even supply the paper teachers need in order
to photocopy notes, letters, homework etc.  It is a crying
shame!  And finally on top of all of the above they also want
another $10.00 for a School Agenda.  Now silly question but do they expect me to label every sheet of Xerox paper too?

Now, you would be mistaken in thinking that the above list was for both girls
but you would be wrong.  This list is just for Harriet, I have a whole
other list for Katarina which includes most of the above, but not all of it, as
well as a large binder, an 8½" x 11" artist sketch pad, 1 protractor,
1 calculator and a headset for the computer.  Oh, and let's not forget the obligatory $10.00 for the School Agenda.

You can imagine my shock on first being handed these supplies lists last year just 2 weeks before the girls first time of entering Canadian school system.  But on the other hand there is no school uniform to buy, so I suppose this is the trade off.  I do think it is a sorry state of affairs when the education system in Canada is such that the school can't even supply a tissue to blow their noses!

It is therefore with mixed feelings I now go off to buy said items.  Although we both know I will thoroughly enjoy it too! 

The new Googling your name game

Ok, I did this just for the fun of it, without any intention of actually posting it in my blog, but after having seen number 4, well, I couldn't resist it.

This is a new version of the game where you Google your name and see who else out there has the same name as you and what do they do.  I first saw this on Michelle's (Scrapability) website, who in turn got it from Kathryn's (Gettin' My Kicks).  This time however you do a search in Google for "YOURNAME is", obviously inserting your own name in to the appropriate place, and you then list the top 10 responses back.  No cheating just because you don't like the answer!

1. Miss Julie is irate at the pregnancy.  Jean says Miss Julie is "too
   stuck-up in some ways and not proud enough in others," just like her
   mother. (Whose pregnancy?  Stuck-up?  Now my sister would agree if she sees this as she has always teased me about being stuck-up, I still insist, I'm just very shy!)



2. From the 1958 record, "Julie is Her Name Vol. 2" I like especially "Blue Moon"  (Apparently I sing!)



3. Julie is an IRC bot based around the Redland RDF framework. ... Julie is a Python IRC bot.  (Come again?  I'm a bot?  A Python?)



4. Julie is one sexy lady. Sometimes dressed in a partially unzipped wedding gown, sometimes in a black bikini, Julie is being exposed, so to speak  (Now, see that ONE SEXY LADY!!!  However I have only ever once been dressed in a partially unzipped wedding gown - and that is between me and my husband!)



5. Julie is an MP3 and OGG jukebox written in Python and C for UNIX systems. Julie is a client/server system  (What is it with me and Pythons?)



6. Jeff Probst says Julie is the “love of my life,”  (It wasn't me, I deny all knowledge of Jeff Probst... although there was that night 12 years ago... no, that wasn't him)



7. As many know, Julie is embroiled in a fight against City Hall regarding leaf blowers.  (I want to state for the record that I have nothing against leaf blowers but must admit that I do like the idea of being "embroiled" in something)



8. Yahoo! Shopping is the best place to comparison shop for Julie Is Her Name, Vols. 1-2 (Remastered)  (Back to the singing again, I presume)



9. At Passover dinner, Julie is secretly grateful for the chaos that ensues–but how much of it is she responsible for?  (Ooooh, I'm a little minx!)



10. Below, Elyse Sommer astutely observes that Miss Julie is a "lacerating power play".... Julie is a passionate young woman whose family history and wildly....  (Back to the passionate and sexy again, I see, obviously my true nature)

 

Hey, we’re going to …

...  nope, not Barbados, but somewhere even better, Bermuda!

In the immortal words of the Cat in the Hat, I’m soooo excited. For those of you who haven’t seen this film, you have to imagine saying it in a Manchurian accent, well at least in an accent to be found in the north of England. My girls just love all the different voices Mike Myers uses in this film and this is one of our family’s favourite lines and gets used by us all to express moments of, well, excitement.

Back to topic. Richard has to go to Bermuda, what a hard life he leads, as this is where the HO of the company he works for is based. His boss is away for 2 weeks and he has to cover for one of those weeks. Anyway, it turns out that one week is right at the end of the school holidays and I suddenly have one of those light bulb moments! Hey, why don’t we come too? So, flights are booked and we are off in just over 2 week’s time.

Richard was a little concerned that I would be on my own all day with 3 children, but my reply? I’m on my own all day with 3 children here; I may as well be on my own all day with 3 children sitting on a beach in Bermuda. I'm not stupid.

So, my checklist so far?

1. Buy guidebook - Check


2. Charge battery for camera – o/s


3. Organise P20 to be sent over from the UK via good friends - Check

For those of you not in the know, P20 is just the best ever sun protection lotion. This stuff is amazing. You put it on in the morning, it takes 90 minutes to absorb in to your skin and that’s it. No topping up during the day, even if you go for a swim and towel yourself off after. It’s a once a day application and you can then forget about it. It’s not sticky, so no more applying extra sun cream on the beach and then getting covered in sand. On the downside it is expensive but in my opinion it is worth every penny. I’ve been using it on the whole family all summer and we all now have healthy little tans, even our youngest can stay out in the sun and not get burned. Fabulous stuff!

And shall I let you in on a little secret? Want to know what one of my first thoughts were on going to Bermuda? What great photos I’ll be able to take and scrapbook later!  LOL! Honestly, I’m not obsessed, really, truly …

This is awesome!

I just discovered this song recently and I can't stop listening to it.  It's by a band called MercyMe and the lead singer wrote this song after his father died from cancer in 1991.  The lyrics just speak to me and I love it.  Oh, did I remember to say that I just love it?

Music Video Codes - MySpace Codes - Funny Videos

There goes my virginity!

So with this first sentence I've lost it, my blogging virginity that is!

I have been playing with the idea of doing this now for quite a while and finally decided to take the plunge.  I'm not sure where it will go, why I'm really doing it or how long it will last but perhaps I will discover the answer to these questions over time.

For now I suppose I am doing this primarily for my family and friends as a way of keeping in touch with them over the miles that separate us.  This blog is not intended to be a scrapbooking blog but no doubt that will slowly creep in and take over seeing as, in my husbands words, I am completely obsessed!

So, hello from me!