Random Tuesday Thoughts, Wednesday?

I woke up this morning and thought for sure it was Wednesday, I then saw the garbage in the driveway and the Random Tuesday Blog posts! so it MUST be Tuesday. If you're ever puzzled on a Tuesday, just head over to Keely's and you'll know exactly what day it is, well if it's Tuesday.Yep just clicked it myself, there she is Tuesday!




So of course I'm back from Vacation and you can tell vacation is over for sure... Laundry, yep! dishes, yep, garbage day, Cat is clingy, yep! We're home.

Critter count this Critter Count comes from the Island. The boys were at the cottage and running after bunnies with carrots because Grandpa-da said "if you catch one you can keep it" Well you never saw 5 boys and 1 girl run so fast holding carrots. Then I hear "well the bunny didn't want the carrots so I ate it" AWESOME!!! we have vegetable eating... Go Bunnies.

BBQ's are great, and you know the food taste even better when your brother is doing all the cooking. He did a wonderful job. Yummy! Chicken Burgers, hotdogs, Sausages, steak and I think I even saw some cheese on Sausages? nothing says getting fat like BBQing Every piece of Meat you can find...  Bunny was smart enough to run away from the BBQ.

Cowboy hats! are an awesome investment. I bought one for AJ for a birthday party that was a Cowboy theme, and he's been wearing it ever since. NO sunburns on his face! it's the perfect size.

Chocolate did not make an appearance in my vacation. I know right? what's a vacation without chocolate but well I made up for it in Thick Molasses cookies with cream cheese frosting, Carmel cream cheese dip and granny smith apples, Burgers, island Pizza, and there may have been a huge tray of nachos... I totally should have asked them to box half of that up. oops! TJ did give me a hand with the nachos that were not covered in Jalapenos. hehe

Tea. I did Miss my daily tea, there was tea, but I had a tendency to raid the molasses cookies instead of the tea pot, or the tea needed a partner? oops! I'm expecting a 3lb gane this week for the altar of truth.

Brothers trapped in a car for 7+hours? Can make a lot of noise and annoy the poop out of each other easily! "MOM! he's making a noise." =" Put on your mp3 and headphones and the noise will go away" "MOM! he's kicking my seat" ="so pretend it's a Rollercoaster cause here comes a HILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL" yes the island roads are a bit roller coasterish at times, complete with missing rails also known as pot holes and missing areas of pavement.

Did I mention the Island pizza? yummy!

Did I mention beaches? oh wait you need pics... hang on...oh only 110 on this card. there were 116 on the new card.
Boys on the shore one of the wonders of the world Salt Lakes.

Big Pond...isn't it!

Atlantic Ocean

And The Largest Fiddle in the World? Or so I'm told. There is another large Fiddle not far from my home here but this one is about 3 times bigger I think.
The Fiddle plays a large part in the Musical Culture of the island, as well as the Bagpipes, Guitars, Drums, and I think one night I heard the Harmonica coming from a neighbours Garage.

And what would a night out walking with the wife be? without a picture of her butt? yes this is my Kyooty  and shrinking Butt! :) Never going to trust that man with the camera...

I'll keep hunting up more pictures for another post. There was another Beach in there but we left the camera in the car, but you saw the River last summer right? Yeah you saw that? August I think last year...


Happy Random Tuesday... oh AJ survived the other Atlantic Ocean beach... like this...

Father's Day Meme! TAG!

Thursday Evening, I was sitting here all reading along and went over to visit Karen over at If I could Escape. (I know she understands me, she's got boys too!) She has started a Father's Day Meme and asked me to join along. I'm starting this typed up tonight but I'll get MJ's answer in the morning and update.

1. What does Daddy wear for work?  a jacket, glasses, that's it? oh Shoes, what kind of shoes? His Shoes.
2. Where does Daddy work?In the Orange Place
3. What’s Daddy’s job? WORK, Computers?
4. What does Daddy do at work?  computers
5. What does Daddy do at lunch?eat at work, what? Anything. (good point)

Hubbie works in IT, I call him my "personal IT guy" but really? he does a lot of everything for a lot of people with a Company here in town. I'm not sure just how much "info" I'm allowed to reveal. (snicker) He's that guy that everyone goes to when everything goes "crazy" and they say "Fix it" but he doesn't seem to get the gifts that I remember he used to get? Some of these guys did help put up our roof last Spring, so maybe that's the Thank You?

Now to pick 7 bloggers to do this meme?
Ann from AnnAgain
Mary over at A Simple Twist of Faith
Bex over at Adventures of The Griggs Boys
Casey, over at Half as Good as You.
Harmzie over at HarmziesWay <--2months? come on.. :p
Kooky, over at Hi Kooky
Lizzie over at Infectious Chatter

Happy Friday. 

The Ride to the Island

Warning this may be boring for some but I thought I'd write this down now incase some day I or they wont remember. I did it! really I did it! we left here at 1047am on the 25th and we arrived at the Cottage (an hour from the home where I grew up) at 6pm!

Hubbie is a great packer so I left the packing of the van to him while I piled more stuff into the pile to go into the van. I had 3 fears for this trip.

1. Bored kids, that they would be so bored with the trip down that they would start the "he's touching me, he's hitting me, he's looking at me... etc.." and I'd have to start the "If I hear one more complaint I'm pulling this car over and we wont go to the cottage, you wont get a vaccation and we'll go back home and watch paint dry" I didn't have to say that out loud once! I thought about it maybe twice, but they were not bored.
The boys brought a DSi- great for taking picture of other people's business, cars, trucks, trailers, transfer trucks going too fast, or pulling out in front of the mom when they shouldn't,and cool cars that go faster then mom's Van! They brought a V-tech laptop for MJ, he played game after game after game. AJ brought his ds (I think santa has ot do an upgrade on this now) and he played Mario continually. My only complaint is that his eye balls will wander off when he's done playing... oops. They also brought a laptop that Hubbie found while dumpster diving and fixed up. He cleaned it and made it run and put a map program onto it that doesn't need internet. He loved it! They could find all the roads that Mom was suppose to use and what was down the roads Mom didn't take.

2. Worry #2, was three boys and one mom going to the bathrooms. TJ is 10 that didn't bother me so much "go in there come out here and wait, don't move from that spot until I come and get you!" but I had to have faith that AJ could follow the same rules? ACK! that worried me. AJ always takes longer in the bathroom. I do not ever want to know why, really it should be a simple procedure. GO in, business, flush, wash hands lots,dry hands and leave?? no it's not for some reason. I then take MJ with me to the ladies, because well we still have that poo problem. It's not as disastrous as the Easter Weekend Trip though,(if you haven't read, it's like the 4th Random Thought from here...) well he did it! yep. We stopped our first pit stop 1.45hours from here, no need to "go" mini rest stops all around, back in the van. Next Stop was 3.5hours from here, we stop they all get out plan goes as is. Every one in and meet me here at the Pringles when you are done! excellent. MJ says in passing "I have a belly ache" I say "maybe it's that 1/2 lb of grapes you ate?, but we just let it go. only 3hours t the cottage. Away we go...
We had poo success on Sunday at the cottage. oh the excitement

3. My other worry is gas fill up! You can't leave kids in cars to go pay for your gas like our parents did, it's just too dangerous. You never know which idiot, especially the closer to the island you get, will have a cigarette* in his mouth while pumping the gas, or which kid will put the car into drive, or whatever so it's all about dragging 3 boys into the gas station to pay. At Stop 2 I notice there is a "full serve" sign,hmmmmmmm, maybe I should stop and get gas here? but wait the car is already pointed to the road to the island and I can make it ot he station before the causeway so I didn't. I got back on the highway and kept going. I get to the Place I want to stop and I stop it's self serve, so I ready my mind for the dragging in of 3 kids and then I see "pay up front, orrrrrrrr pay at the pump" ohhhhh pay at the pump you say? WOOOOOHOOOOOO! yep jobs done. Gas paid, me back in the van almost giddy and off we go. Over the Causeway, then to the Island.


So the 3 big fears didn't seem to be a problem. The rest of the trip going well We stop in the last"biggish" grocery store before the cottage to get milk and I buy a box of store brand Drumsticks, 4 pack, they all eat them and me and I sit in the car eying the government store, but didn't go in. It was there, I figured I was too tired to stop so we didn't. TJ was in charge of handing out the drinks and snacks. We didn't stop any where ot eat, he just kept sending the snacks forward.
I pull into the driveway of the cottage at 6pm and all is well. Van looked like this next morning complete with bunny looking to eat my tires?




I get my van unpacked enough for the cottage and get ourselves settled. ohhhhhhhh the tired! The boys enjoyed their grandparents(there to meet us) and had a great night. I think the adults fell asleep before the kids though. MJ slept in my bed and upside down with his head by the fridge. (Fridge lives in the bedroom off the kitchen due to repairs in the rebuilding of the porch)

So that's the big drive I had my brain convinced was impossible without Hubbie and I did it! Now I could do it again, I could I know that part is accomplish-able(new word). A new Car would be nice though.


*cigarettes -so something the boys aren't used to seeing that much, it became a cause for discussion, "oh look they are smoking", is now like the dirty phrase of the generation, remember when it was "oh they are kissing, ewwwwwww"

Random Tusday strikes again

Without this little Pushy clickity Button up there for The Unmom I'd seriously never have anything to write about I'm sure. These little blips and Blabs are great. Thanks Keely
I've been trying to prepare for Easter Weekend. Easter with the family is my favorite kind of Easter, because I don't have to cook. I can contribute to the meal but I'm not in charge of the Star of the show meat! I'm not sure who is doing the feeding but I'll have to see. I did thought bake 2 orange loaves for the trip they are currently living in my freezer and may or may not defrost before we hit the island but it was hard not to eat them before getting there. Truth be told I baked a double batch of them, and I I mean the kids, at it the majority of it, OK so maybe I had a few more slices then they did. EASY recipe,so I re-baked another one last night. 1 is missing the "end" pieces because Hubbie found it cooling on the counter!

The boys are excited for easter, MJ came to me yesterday while I was stalking the markets for my Packrat application obsession, and says "MOM why are there Eggs in your closet?" My only response was they are for Grandma because the Easter Bunny doesn't bring her chocolate anymore. ACK! my sister suggested that The E.Bunny left them here for us to bring to his cousin Matty. It works for very loved hand-me-down clothes it might work for Plastic Eggs. The Truth of the story is that the Eggs are for Grandma's house. We aren't going to imply at all that the eggs are from MR E.Bunny, but they are from Hubbie and Me for a BIG hunt in my mother's yard. This is a first for me, usual most of my egg hunts are indoor events but there is no snow on that section of the island says my informants, soooo I'd like to do it outside. This will also protect Grandma's precious "not for babies/kids" furniture and knick knacks? Maybe? If it's Raining I'll just hand the eggs over to the kids, and my siblings will be so happy to see their kids covered in chocolate and sticky candy goo! :) When your the oldest you can do stuff like this. (ok I Want to believe I can do stuff like this and that I'm the boss)

I've warned Hubbie he'll be run ragged and need a break after the weekend to sleep! He's warn out enough from doing kid patrol during the nights. MJ is getting up way less then he used to, maybe because I'm not going in there? and it's harder to explain to Hubbie who's almost brain dead from lack of sleep, what he wants or what I usually do! I just go to the kitchen get cup of water, put it on the table, or hand it over, say here's water, go pee, and get back in bed. Hubbie do the "what do you want" stuff which just leads to MORE discussion and way longer up time. hehe (downtime in this case is preferable)

I'm not looking for the "trip to grandmas" the Trip part, it's a bit more then over the hill and through the woods, the extended version. My Friend Mrsbigblupete (one of my faithful followers and friend with Island living skills) says it's like being TRAPPED in a Tin Can hurling down the highway at 120kms hour itching to get to the END". We've had some successful trips, but it's those Stuck in the parking lot of a church at 12am trying to get the child to stop puking only 1hour from your final exit that get etched in your brain. Those trips though were 14hours from the island. Now we live 7hours from the destination. It makes a difference but the 2 children that know the 14hour trip are easy, they've been there and done that, their brains know how much longer it could be. MJ? he's only ever done the 7hour version. This 7hour version is if they get out, pee and get back to the car instantly. There are no stops along the way to just see the sights, no it's GET IN GET THERE AND GET OUT and kiss the ground. The stops are pee, gas, snacks if the driver is hungry for something other then what the copilot has packed. We will try not to resort to eating the frozen orange loaves.


for those playing at home "spring what's that?"




The kids Slide is now part of our water front property, April showers are in full swing. And what Canadian back yard isn't complete without Tim's Wrappers?