Tired Mama.com

Texting is fun :)

I love texting.

I realize that's a dumb thing to love, but when I can get a text from my fifteen year old daughter, who is away on a five day school trip, that says,

'I'm alive. FYI.'

It just makes my day.

It also makes me realize that I'd better get on-line and buy her an international text plan to cover the next five days or we're gonna be broke.

Some how I doubt I'm the only one she's texting.

Sigh.

Lazy Hazy Days

We are at the cottage.

It is uh, drizzling.

My boys are out fishing in the rain.

My girls are doing crafts in the cottage, out of the rain.

I’m in the cottage out of the rain too. I just finished reading the first of the seven Henry James books that I brought to the cottage as I’m trying to get some of my summer reading done before my classes start in September. It took me about six weeks to read the first book though so the idea of getting through another six books in the next two weeks isn’t looking too promising, unless of course we get a lot more rain.

So far spending time at the cottage in the rain hasn’t been too hard, as a matter of fact it’s been almost relaxing, as I don’t really have much to do and the kids have been busy amusing themselves and their father.

Yawn.

I should go and read or something but I think I’ll take a nap instead.

I could get used to this.

I'm going on a summer holiday

Have I mentioned that my kids are slobs lately?

Have I mentioned that we've had too much rain here?

Yeah? Several times? Okay.

What else is going on? Um...

On Saturday we're leaving for a two week cottage vacation. This means my eldest will have to pull herself away from her texting and MSN'ing for a few weeks and my younger two will have to sort out how to play with each other for a few days without bickering.

Sounds like a good time.

Me? I'm taking a book and parking myself on a dock in a Muskoka chair. Tired Papa can BBQ and run the boat, I'm doing nothing.

Blissful, peaceful nothing.

With three kids in a small space.

And a forecast of rain.

Yeah.

I'll be sure to let you know how it goes. 

I'm not going away. Honest.

I was going to write a post here about how we're going away on my kid's school break vacation but I was at a dinner party a few weeks ago and someone mentioned how stupid it was to write about going away on a blog where anyone could read it and then come over and rob you.

Okay.

No one at that party knew that I blog. After this comment I didn't tell them either.

So, now what do I do?

I'm thinking I won't blog about my trip until it's over.

But really, no one who reads my blog is going to rob me anyway so I think I should just talk about it. 

Right?

Shoot.

Okay, so I might or might not be taking a vacation soon. 

Yes, it's some place warm. 

Maybe.  

I'll tell you about it when I return.

If I go that is. 

If I go that is and leave big guard dogs, high tech security alarm systems and ah, a trio of really big football (pistol-packing) players living in my house to protect it.

Yeah, that's it.

Oh, for gosh sake,I've got nothing worth stealing anyway.

Come on over robbers, the beer is in the fridge but please; don't attack the nice family who really are watching the house and feeding the cat and guinea pig while I'm away. 

That family's got a uh, bazooka.

Yeah, a big one too. Watch out for them, they're dangerous. 

Sigh. 

One week ago

Last Friday I looked out my hotel window and saw this.

 

I can't take a picture out my current window to show you in comparison though because it's dark out and because my office window is half buried in snow.

Sigh.

If you don't mind I'm just gonna pretend for a while that if I looked out my window I would see this again.

Yep, denial is good.

I'm back...

Well, it seems I can be replaced.

And guess what? This is not bothering me in the least.

Tired Papa and I went away and left my trio with my thirty-something niece for the past four days and everyone survived.

I got some sun and time alone with Tired Papa, and when I came home tonight the kids were all alive and happy.

It was a win-win.

Darling niece? If you're reading this, I just want to say, I owe you.

Thank you.

Summer 2008

 

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

This is Bala, Ontario. Bala is a lovely small town close to where we rented our cottage this summer. (Click on it if you want to see a larger picture.)

We were there for two weeks, just the five of us, and the time went slowly enough that I felt like it was summer vacation, but just fast enough that I didn't get bored.

We had some real family down time there and now that we're back into the thick of things I'm glad that we did.

This vacation seems like it happened a long time ago but in reality it was only three weeks ago that we were there.

This represents my 'lazy hazy crazy days of summer' for 2008.

I'm thinkin' it was nice enough to warrant a repeat visit for 2009.

They can fly

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Okay, we're still on vacation so I'm not putting together a story to go with this picture.

Let me just say, I love this shot and I'm going to spend the next few days trying to figure out how to use my camera to get more like it.

For those of you who are e-mailing me, I'll get back to you on Tuesday. Hugs to all.

Oh, and try not to sunburn your noses this weekend, it hurts.

Yeah, I'm warning you about this based on my own recent experience. Rudolph and I are twins I tell ya and no, it's not a good look. 

Have a great long weekend!

At the cottage - Day Three

I am not a fish person.

My hubby and our son have been out fishing a lot on this vacation, I'm okay with that as hubby says that he's having a lot of 'guy/bonding' time with our boy. That's a good thing.

Up until yesterday morning, all I've had to do is send along a camera and ohh and ahh at the fish pictures that come home.

I can handle this. 

But yesterday afternoon my son decided to fish from the cottage dock. Hubby wasn't around and the girls and I were having a good time watching my son try and catch, what looked the same little green shiny fish over and over again. He couldn't land the silly thing though as the fish kept spinning off the line and making a break for it.

Then, of course, he reeled in the little green shiny fish.

Youngest daughter completely flipped out and ran off into the woods screaming about how her brother was 'hurting' the fish.

My son starting yelling about how he couldn't get the hook out from the fish's mouth so he couldn't throw it back in the water.

Eldest daughter ran and filled a pail with water to put the  fish in while I tried, while not touching the fish,to get the hook out of its mouth.

Great. It was two minutes of major yelling on the dock by a bunch of lunatic city folk.

Then, with a mighty spin the little shiny green fish, obviously disgusted with our ineptness, flipped itself out of the bucket, spat out the hook and landed on the dock.

I reached out, flipped him back into the lake and he swam away.

Yeah me. I am not as big a wimp as I thought I was.

Oh, and for any of you who might have been fishing on the lake and had a good laugh at us?

You're welcome.

At the cottage - Day Two

We rented a boat this week to use while we’re at our rented cottage.

I must admit I always knew that my hubby liked boats, but I didn’t realize the extent of his passion until I saw him this week with his son and a boat.

My two boys have developed an almost unhealthy attachment to our rented little white and blue power boat.

Today they’ve been tubing twice, been water-skiing a dozen times, been cottage 'gawking' on the boat and they even got up at 6:30 this morning to take the boat out fishing.

They have now just announced that they want to go out to dinner, you got it, by boat at the restaurant across the lake. They’re all excited because this particular place has boat docks for its patrons.

Whatever.  It means I don’t have to cook so I’m up for it.

I’m enjoying seeing them so happy but I must admit I’m a little concerned about how they’re going to feel next Monday when the boat needs to be returned to the marina we rented it from.

I think they’ll handle it all right, but I wouldn’t put it past my hubby to try and buy the darn thing.

Boys and their toys.

Sigh.

I kinda get it, but I just gotta say when it comes to having passions - shoes are MUCH cheaper.

At the cottage - Day One

 

Bright and early yesterday morning these guys were waiting at our front door. Good thing I had a few hamburger buns left from dinner last night.

Obviously who ever had rented the cottage previously had been feeding them too. The kids were thrilled that they would eat right out of their hands.

I just hope come winter, when everyone has gone home, these babies know how to fend for themselves.

Now, after we leave, I"m gonna worry about them.

Sigh.

Creepy

This is a garbage can.

It is currently located in the children's amusement park section of the Canadian National Exhibition.

I'm sorry, I know it's supposed to be fun but I think it's just scary looking. I think I would rather litter than go near this thing. Shudder.

I think my fears stem from my two older brothers dumping me in a can like this when I was about six. They wanted a picture of me with just my head peaking out from the clown's mouth. Yep, I was scared for life.

I think I'm gonna go and call my two brother's and yell at them about this. I mean what's thirty odd years between siblings?

Cottaging - is that a word?

Today we're leaving on vacation.

We've rented a cottage up north and the kids and I are driving up early today while hubby is joining us this weekend.

I haven't seen the cottage yet, but it's got a dock and I've got books and red wine.

If the sun comes out and the kids will leave me alone for a few hours minutes a day I'm going to be very happy.

I'll let you know how this works out.

I don't think I'm going to have internet access up north but I have set up my blog so that it should post a few saved things while I'm gone. 

Enjoy the end of August and I'll 'talk' to you when we get home!

Red sky at night.

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

I missed Photo-story Friday because I was up north. So, one day late here's my picture.

My story?

Well, I could spend a lot of time just sitting on a dock like this one with a book. I just wish my kids had the same thoughts. My kids want to go up north to go fishing.

Fishing? Blah.

Still, if their Dad takes them out on the boat to do some fishing, then the dock is nice and quiet.

Quiet is good.

Can you hear the loon? 

My Turkey Joke

What did the turkey say to the computer?

Google, Google, Google.

Groan.

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends.

As for my Canadian friends, the border is only forty-five minutes away, who wants to go shopping tomorrow?

We can be at Target in under an hour and it's opening at 6 am!

Who's with me?!?

There are reasons why we don't camp too often...

On Monday night the five of us were all snuggled into our sleeping bags in our eight man tent at a beautiful Ontario provincial park when at 2:30 am the raccoons found the bag of garbage that we had forgotten to put away before we had tucked ourselves in.

Fighting raccoons are loud. Fighting raccoons at 2:30 in the morning two feet from your head are scary. Just ask my twelve year old daughter who I think aged another twelve years in that moment. It probably didn't help that I jumped up and disorientedly (is that a word?) in the dark, blurted out, 'Where are they? Are they in the tent?' Poor Jen, this is not what she wanted to hear - she went into hysterics. As she cried and I groped my way over to try and reassure her, I demanded that my husband Dave get out there and 'defend his family'.

It turned out a few minutes later that the reason darling husband hadn't already jumped out of his sleeping bag and run to his 'girls' rescue was because he was stark naked in his sleeping bag.

Just as I managed to find and switch on the lantern that hung over head, he climbed out of his bag and stood up to soundly smack his head on it. Great. I now had a naked man in pain, a hysterical twelve year old, fighting raccoons, a slightly bewildered nine year old, and a seven year old some how blissfully sleeping through all of this.

So, I was the brave one. I ventured out into the cold dark wilderness and by my trembling little light picked up all the garbage, put it back into the garbage bag then locked it up in the car. I didn't see anything but then I wasn't looking too closely either.

Once back inside and safe behind my nylon walls, I calmed everyone back into bed, but about half an hour later the raccoons came back. This time I threw shorts at Dave and demand that he get the 'heck' out there and do something as now both of my older kids were on my air mattress clinging on to me for dear life. I couldn't go any where if I had wanted to - and to be honest, I really didn't want to.

Again, my youngest is sound asleep, a little mountain of pink oblivious to everything - she is also sweetly sleeping 'star fish fashion' thus taking up three quarters of the tent. It didn't matter though as the rest of us were all curled up in a frightened little family ball in the corner.

Being the 'man of the family' Dave was forced to go out and deal with the scary things that were threatening his family in the dark wilderness. He actually did find the huge frightening creatures (or so he tells us) and with great skill, chivalry and brave acts scared them away. Our hero.

The next morning finds us eating breakfast at our picnic table while we congratulate ourselves on surviving the nights horrors. Then my youngest daughter looks up at the branches of the closest oak tree and spies three of the cutest little creatures I have ever seen.

She's found raccoons - but these are tiny things, roughly about the size of our six month kitten, with huge black eyes, sweet little paws, tiny little milk teeth and they are yawning and mewing at us as they play in the tree above us. They look about as scary as a teddy bear.

These of course couldn't be the same animals that had us cowering in fear the night before, those ones must have been ten times that size with massive fangs - right?

The reason we don't camp too often? We are wimps.