how a full time job changed everything.

i miss this space.
like...i really missed it.
i never realized how blessed i actually was that i got to play and express myself here so deeply and for so long.
i feel so out of touch without this space.
i think of it constantly and come up with post ideas all the time but now my time to actually sit and articulate myself has diminshed a little bit. (case in point - i just realized, sitting here, that i work at 12:40 today instead of two! see - my thoughts are constantly elsewhere.)

don't get me worng - i love my new job. to some that may seem silly but to me it's great. in the span of 5 months i got hired, got my feet wet and got a promotion! i am running a little corner of the world and feel needed again. i know that sounds strange too, and i know that i am needed everyday in the running of things here but it's a different kind of needed.

and it feels great.

i do miss this space and i will be popping in from time to time but with the job, selling the house and family time it's harder than i thought.
a lot harder than i thought.
i always have this plan of jumping on here right when i get home from work and updating but then i just pushed off for someone elses plans of watching mindcraft youtube videos, checking out the lastest gossip on monster high or having a great cup of coffee & watching season three of downton abbey on netflicks - much needed un-wind time for me. then there's dinner to make, irish dancing to get to, borwnines to get too...you get the picture.
(i think the solution maybe my own laptop that i can curl in bed with??..... hhmmm....just a thought)

we have had some great adventures over the last couple of months which i have wanted to include y'all in so bad but unless i am sitting here at 3am it's just not happening.

there was our time in ottawa:

and then getting in the last skate at our place.....

and then it was spring break and we cheered tony on at his hockey game.......

and then the end of swimming lessons till the summer......

and then that time it snowed...AGAIN....

portfolio night at school.....

our one obligatory visit to the cabane a sucre....

someone lost another tooth....

tony played more hockey and won the championship......

spring FINALLY arrived and brought with it new bikes for our long-legged creatures......

and that time we put our house up for sale.

it's been a crazy ride these past couple of months and hopefully all the pieces will come together soon and maybe in the new house i can get a space for myself that i'm not in the back corner of the basement....cause really - who wants to sit back there?


i just realized this was my 500 post. seems kind of fitting.

case in point about life right now - i wrote this IN MARCH and am just putting the finishing touches on it today!my goodness.....

a unique problem.

 

so...i have a puzzler here.

i keep finding ladybugs all over our house - all year long.

what does that mean?

{are we alone in this?}

good bye dear friend.

summer summer summer...you are leaving us. you greeted us fondly and have wrapped us around your little finger showering us with sunshine instead of rain, hot hot days instead of cool, more than our fair share of days at the waters edge, allowing us to cool down guilt-free with as many jumbo freezies that we could, granting us many nights at the ball field and allowing us to practice the other nights, for a bounty of bike walks, a trip to the water slides and a most memorable trip to the lake.

slowly but surely you are slipping away. i can feel fall coming on strong like the guy at the bar smiling at you from down the way who you eventually give the wrong number to. the season you don't want around because that means you have to give up the last one, the one that brought you and your family so much happiness. i don't want it to end - we had so much fun exploring our area and even though i LOVE halloween, apple picking, the leaves changing colour, sweaters, pink rosy cheeks, all that fall does bring and christmas (have already started my christmas shopping) i am not ready to give up my hopes on summer just yet.

in this transition we are going to be giving up salads and grilling to make way for comfort food and braising. fresh fruit desserts are cast aside for rich spiced cakes. beer is...well lets not get carried away there! bathing suits retire for snow suits. t-shirts for sweaters, the light for the dark...you get the idea. we are going to be poised at the window's scanning the sky for the first signs of snow fall - that's what i am dreading. the snow...there is so much of it here i'm in awe.

now that we are settling back into our school routine and are putting the lazy days of summer behind us i am hoping to get back to my weekly organization of sorts and be more prepared for life. summer around here is a free for all and now it's time to get down to business. i am bursting with recipes and tales to tell as well as some new weekly series that i think will fit quite nicely around here. and of course there will always be room for the random thought or kid moment to explore, post and cherish. cause let's face it they are pretty cool kids.

as i sit here staring out the window to what i expect is one of the last remotely warm days preparing to soak up the sun at the park i am actually getting excited for what the fall and eventual winter will bring. i think i am now ready to say goodbye to summer and let the good times roll. thanks for listening.

 

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this weekend.

this weekend was all about canada.

 this weekend was all about best friends.

this weekend was all about brothers and sisters.

this weekend was all about running in the grass.

this weekend was all about family.

this weekend was all about having friends over for a barbeque and for bonding with new little friends.

this weekend was all about freezy tongues.

this weekend was all about sprinklers and trampolines. 

this weekend was all about glow sticks.

this weekend was a long weekend.
this weekend was all about 30 degree + weather.
this weekend was all about having ice cream cones before lunch!!
this weekend was all about perfecting the baseball hit.

this weekend was all about reveling in the husbands barbeque skills and eating every last bite.

this weekend was about the dog getting skunked and having to wash him twice - poor guy.

this weekend was all about dropping everything and dipping our toes in the lake.

this weekend was all about eating outside.

this weekend was about getting sunburned and not regretting it.
this was all about rootbeer floats - been so long since we have had them!! yum!

 
this weekend was all about family movie night and introducing the kids to the wizard of oz.

this weekend i felt the pulse of summer.
this weekend was epic.

this one.

this one is unique.

this one beats to her own drummer.

this one will not be stopped, altered or changed in anyway - a true original.

this one is so super sweet she will leave you with a toothache.

this one is head strong and stubborn.

this one has a fashion sense all her own. she actually did go to school dressed as above - there was no stopping her (then she told her teacher i dressed her!!)

this one is always crazy excited to be included - no matter what the event.

this one is wicked good at math.

this one can read.

this one is almost 6. (gulp!)

this one excepts everyone for who they are and always allows them all to join in.

this one loves her mommy and adores her daddy.

this one is awesome. she is so cool.

we left on a jet plane.

 

a year ago today we left. we said goodbye to vancouver - our lives, the only home the kids and myself have ever known, our friends & families - and bonjour to montreal. the best part was we got to see daddy after he had left for the east on january 21st - 4 months earlier. april 9th, 2010 was a good day.

i remember it like i was yesterday - no, like today. almost every detail is fresh in my mind. the anticipation, excitement, fear, the check-in at the airport, the smell, the awesomeness of the kids on the plane (it was a day i needed total cooperation and by some miracle got it), the guts to jump in front of the enormous taxi line looking haggard with two kids, 2 karts/6 suitcases and the need for help and no one objected! driving through a foreign city with a taxi driver telling me where we should be living rather than where we bought our house and finally driving up to the apartment hotel - where we will be staying for the next two weeks in the heart of the city - and ringing up to my husband and telling him that we made it and to come down and get us! (it made more sense for him to stay put after getting home from work and us grabbing a cab to get there)

on the plane being awesome.

having fun with daddy on the first night in the hotel pool.

since then it has been a worldwind of getting settled, learning, driving, laughing, crying, screaming, loving and living.

a year ago we left our old home to make a new home. and we have. whether it be our little country/city home, a hut in india or a villa in italy, home is where we four are together (well 5).

for now, this is home. and it feels like it.

image from direct source network.