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"

Ever Notice When you Make Plans...

So when I was doing the Friday Fill ins, I had planned to take the boys to the beach. We started out with that plan, and things were going well. I had managed to crawl into bed at like 244am! after getting sucked into The Tudors? It was the first time I saw the show and I'm already sucked in, because well it left me hanging. Now I'm either going to have to work on finding this show at a regular time or maybe it comes in a box set or something? I'll have to great googly moogly that one.
So I slept like a rock, and at 7am Hubbie rolls over gets up with 2/3 boys and tells them "Don't wake mom watch some cartoons" and he took off for the yard sales. He did well, but over spent on stuff we don't need. I'm going to have a yard sale his yard sale finds. He found some books for the boys on animals, Sharks, Frogs and dinosaurs, great stuff for next year. The details, labels and so on are great. I read the first 4 pages of the frog book to MJ and I learned about Frogs I've never seen or heard about before. So we got the kids, lunch, I did more dishes, got more laundry upstairs,. this falls in the "let's" Category. He brought me up the big basket of wet clothes and I was going to hang them. I procrastinate. I read, I comment on a few things I like, I pay some Packrat, I collect some 101 eggs, or few ,and have my tea and next thing it's 1pm and people are asking me if we are going anywhere? uh yea, just let me get showered and dressed.. more procrastinating. The deal is set, Hubbie offers to hang the clothes for me, and I head to the shower. SCORE! So I get out of the shower the house is clean, the kids are happy, but sucked into Spy Kids 3.... and I go get dressed. Ready to go.
It was 330pm before we left the house, and it was cool today, not beach worth, not even sand castle worthy. We drove to the local DQ and bought the kids some Soft Serve. They were happy as clams at a beach. Also the price of the beach pass? it's gone up 24.00 this year! it was 50$ last year, and this year it's 74.00! it will cover all provincially run parks for the summer buttttttttt 24.00? but we do it for the kids. They will have memories for a life time. Hubbie also found some sand toys at one of the yard sales. I guess someone had bought them for last year but never used them, they were still in the mesh bags. Got to love impulsive shoppers. We go through a lot of sand toys here between the kids and the fox they get a lot of wear and tear. even the Tonkas.
So tomorrow we will again plan the beach run. I've got the cooler in the car tonight, I have the buns ready to make sandwiches tonight and I'll throw them in before church, and we'll drive Straight from church to the beach! They have changing rooms there, I'll pack their play clothes in the van too.
I wonder if I can managed to get out of the bed in the early morning and get some muffins made for the weeks lunches? Then again Hubbie is out tonight with some of the "guys" (which means guys and girls) from work. (Networking for the next big home improvement project?) No,we couldn't get a sitter, so I'm home, and he's out. Anyone have a babysitter they can spare? This is the part I miss about living close to our families.

This is last week's Beach Trip picture. I'll have to get another one this week to compare the green. So much better then snow.

Happy Saturday, Recovery update

The biggest plus of my recovery is that I'm getting to sleep in, and when I say sleep in you know that means nothing after 9am but still it's later. The Hubbie has been getting up with the kiddies. I Love it and yes I might even be staying in the bed longer then I need to but come on, someone else is on the job, why waste that?


Today I got up at 9 and the boys were fed, oh well easy remedy for that one Box of Cereal, and healthy Milk. I have to be sure to give AJ the skim milk, he gets belly aches when he drinks 2% or Higher and luckily he's the child that wakes up last on the weekends so it's hard to get it wrong, when he ROLLS out of his room, Nintendo DS in hand.
So here I sit drinking my tea...I'm a new addict, I found out this past year that I can't drink Coffee anymore, I get MASSIVE pain. I was on acid blockers for about 3months to fix my poor stomach, as long as I keep eating well though, I don't need the blockers. I wont be telling my dr that though! and I do take about 10 at a time in my purse just in case I have a Being BAD Day. I've got to say this sitting home not lifting or over walking is really not helping my weight loss. I think Weight Gain is going well though.
What's been going on here lately?Me nothing, I've done nothing. Oh wait I did sneak down yesterday to the basement and put a load of dark clothes in there. I Did not carry the clothes down, or take them upstairs. It worked out OK. The laundry was down there and I just had to push buttons and move the clothes 1 at a time into the machine. I wont be telling anyone I did it, cause once they figure that out they'll figure they don't have to. This morning I got TJ to open the machine and pull out the clothes for me, wet clothes are heavier then dry. He did a great job! This boy learned to do laundry at a VERY early age. oh wait this is is a story!Maybe I've already told it?... (scanning archives...)nothing mentioned that I could see
When TJ went to Kindergarten he LOVED the water, LOVED it! was the best place ever. Recess ROCKED his world, he'd go out in the playground and start digging and driving trucks around and of course sit in the puddles! oh the teachers were not pleased, I wasn't pleased. Splash pants? yeah they don't do much for sitting in the puddles. TJ would come home (the Hubbie would pick him up)a nd he's BE COVERED in wet and mud. I had to wash his jacket, splash pants everything right down to his undies, ever single day after school. I finally got smart. I said "TJ you go down stairs, put all your clothes in the washing machine. I'll give you the soap, you poor it in, and you sit here"(pointing to little red chair) until the clothes are washed, then you come get me, I'll help you get it out of the machine, you will put it in the dryer/on the clothes line depending on the season, I think it was too cold that time of year. The punishment of course was the sitting on the chair waiting for the washing machine to stop. We managed to nip it in the bud by a week later, he could get 3 days out of his jacket by then, buTTT grade 1? yep it started again as soon as fall hit! boys and Mud! but the plus of all this is that he knows exactly how to use the washing machine and dryer. My plans for kids doing all the slave labour in the house are working splendidly... (insert evil laugh).
So the wash is dry now. AJ is now off to clean his room, and MJ can raid the fridge all on his own successfully. I put the milk on the bottom door shelf in the fridge and premade him a sub yesterday. Today he ate that while waiting for me to wake up and the cereal to be served.
This weekend we are going to get into a more organized slave labour chore chart and plan. I can't be doing everything, and I've still got 1+month of healing. I am getting back to feeling normal though. YAY!!!

also if your interested... It rained A LOT lastnight, this is before the rain got going fast!