Where is everyone?

July 30th has finally arrived. The day Maritimers have been waiting for for a very long time. U2 is playing Moncton tonight and I'm not going. It feels like I may be the only person left in Saint John today.

I would love to say that I'm devastated not to be there. I actually am quite bitter not to get to see U2 in concert since they are way up there on my -bands I want to see live- list. But as much as I want to see them play, I have zero interest in attending a concert that I have to stand/sit in a field with 80 thousand people. I'm short so I can't see over the people in front of me. Getting there and back would be a nightmare of traffic proportions. And to make it worse... It's POURING today!!

I guess this is as close to U2 as I'm going to get this time around....

If I'd known there was seating I may have reconsidered going. This was taken when we went to the zoo which is just down the road from the site.

I hope all my friends have a great time and you get your socks rocked off. I hope the break in the rain I'm looking at out the window is a sign of the night to come. And when they play 'One'

please sing REALLY loud so I can hear you. I'll sing along.

I'm being cyber-stalked.

I thought it was a little creepy when Facebook started suggesting sites to me based on the words I had used in my status update. I'm pretty tolerant when it comes to these type of breaches of privacy because I just choose not to get worked up about the sliding level of what is accepted. Having said that, the FB suggestions where boarding on 'over the line', even for me.

Today something happened that makes that creepiness seem like nothing. I went shopping and bought a couple things at Old Navy. The cashier asked for my email address and I said no and that I didn't want to get ads or anything and she completed the sale. Then when I got home I checked my email. Sitting in my inbox was an email from Old Navy with a copy of my in-store receipt. The email says I requested this which of course I did not. Their computer obviously recognised my credit card number from previous website purchases and sent me the receipt as a way to get in touch. The email tells me that by receiving the email I have subscribed to get their email ads and promos too. They're sneaky. I now have to respond to the email if I want to get off their list. I can imagine they end up with quite a few new names on their mailing list by pulling this on people.

I'm thinking I may email them and make a complaint but I would bet that somewhere on my Old Navy Online Profile I've agreed to allow this type of thing. I didn't read the fine print so it really is my own fault. Even so, extremely creepy!

A beautiful sight

This is the confirmation that it was a really great day.

Yesterday we took the kids to the zoo in Moncton. Everyone had a good time and despite the 20 minutes deluge we had to hide from mid day, it was a really nice day. The highlight was the pony rides.

The petting areas where also favorites.

Face painting is always fun, at least for the parents.

Isaac was a little overlooked on this trip since he's not really old enough to appreciate the zoo. He seemed happy enough to ride around in the buggy all day.

The end of the day. Too tired to walk, eating the rest of the lunch they were too excited to eat at lunch time

 My favorite animal of the day.

Settling in

We have been south for almost a week now and we are finally getting settled and feeling at home. We've been busy enjoying being with family and taking advantage of all the perks the south has to offer.

Oliver, true to form has just slid into the our new way of life as if nothing has happened. He's having an amazing time hanging out with Erik and they are like the best of buddies. He's learned so much from his older cousin in such a short time I think Nick is going to be shocked when he gets here, he's changed so much already. I love that every night he's asleep within minutes because he's so tired from his busy day. I love that he gets in the tub every night because he's dirty, not because it's part of our routine. This is the way he should be living.

Isaac is having a little bit harder time getting into the new routine. My normally very happy baby who never cries has cried more in the first 4 days than he has in his whole life. The last couple of days he seems to be getting back to his old self so things are looking up. He is also crawling on all fours (instead of on his belly) and has begun walking around furniture just a little bit.

As for me, I'm loving being here. I've almost peed myself laughing with my sister and I'm really enjoying watching Oliver play with his cousin. I've had a couple kid free evenings which were lovely and I'm going shopping tomorrow. I can't wait. One thing I find amusing is how little I've been near a computer in the last 5 days. Funny because if I lose my Internet connection for an hour in Pang I'm losing my mind. I love that I have so many better things to do. So I'll be out of touch some over the next few weeks but I'll do my best not to drop off the face of the earth.

I leave you with some pictures of O and Erik having tones of fun.

YUM!

Oh fresh fruit how I missed you. Now this is breakfast!

Ready to go

So you'll notice that there is only one square left without an X on it which means..... ONE SLEEP LEFT till the boys and I head out. I'm soooo excited. And strangely, I feel like I'm packed, everything is done and I don't need to have my usual frantic, panicked final 24 hours. So much so that we're actually going out to a barbecue tonight.

Other than the obvious reasons for wanting to be down south (warm weather, grandma's, kid free time, beaches, playgrounds, movie theaters, shopping.... ) I'm super excited to be spending the next 6 weeks with my BFF, my sister, Courtney. There is nobody in this world who I laugh with more and I miss hanging out with her so much. Court is my little sister by seven years but I always refer to her as my little big sister. She's the one that's always keeping things together when we're doing things. She's much more direct and decisive that I am, both qualities I wish I was better at. And she's just fun.

Taken by Jen last summer while I was prego.

To make things better, we have kids that are close in age so we have so many things planned for the next few weeks I hope we have time to do it all. She does have a job that she has to work around which really gets in the way of things. Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow night my sister! I can't wait. Love you.

Product Review

Crayola Colored Bubbles



This is the commercial that they show on TV. Of course, the reality is a far cry from what they show here. Nick's mom sent some of these bubbles and I was very excited about them. I'd seen the commercial and they looked like so much fun. In my opinion, they are duds. The bubble solution is super thick and the bubbles don't blow easily. Then again, I'm not a very good bubble blower. Even trying to use the wind to blow them for you made a few little tiny ones but nothing worth getting excited about. I will say the colors are spectacular and the product is very washable which is good because they make a HUGE mess. I don't have a problem with mess when it's made having fun but the mess to fun ratio is not high enough for my liking.

Thumbs down.

Notice the solution on the steps because pouring it out was so much fun.
Tank walked through it and tracked it all over the house.

Build and destroy

Rainy Saturday morning + the remaining TP from 3 sealifts ago + a bored 2 year old

= hours of destructive fun. Although as usual he got bored after about 45 minutes so the hours I thought we'd get didn't happen. O would have been just as happy stacking up 3 or 4 rolls and kicking them over since for him that was the fun part. We did manage to get a few good towers going before he knocked him over.

 
This was the most impressive attempt. The goal was to make it as tall as Daddy. And in case you're wondering... 105 rolls, 3 years and counting. Yeah, I WAY over bought.

The cupboard is bare

It's getting to that time again where the shelves of our sealift room are getting very empty. I spent some time condensing everything in to one shelf in the other room and this is what we have left.

We did our own sealift this year when we were on our way back from Florida. We went over board on some things and we have of course realised since that there are things we completely forgot. I'm looking forward to all sorts of things like my new cookie sheets. Nick went a little crazy at Toys R Us so I think O is going to be a happy boy. I'm trying to convince him that we should save some of it for Christmas but we'll see if his excitement gets the better of him.

The boat is due to arrive the first few days of August so we'll have to wait till we get back from our vacation to enjoy all the stuff we have coming. I also made a big mistake by packing all the summer clothes we wore in Florida in the crates thinking that we would have them back long before the time for our vacation. In the crate is also my purse, sandals and bathing suit. I guess I have some shopping to do. Oh, poor me!

Sharing

Tonight I caught Oliver sharing his yogurt with his Isaac. I love it when I catch them doing cute things like that. It warms my heart to see Oliver being so caring.

I guess he was still hungry.

I'm told by Kara that I should enjoy this while it lasts. Her boys are about the same number of months apart as mine are but her youngest is Oliver's age. They are fighting, wrestling, arguing, screaming, throwing dirt, generally torturing each other and causing chaos. Fun times to come. In the meantime I'll enjoy these little moments.

On a side note: for my family and others who've mentioned being annoyed with it...I have removed the word scramble from the comments page. You can now leave a comment without having to tax your eyes and brain trying to get the letters right. I've also added a Facebook 'Like' button to my posts. Not sure why but I saw you could do it and thought I'd give it a try. Feel free to use it if 'Like' what you read.

Get crackin'

I have no idea if cracking eggs is something that all two year olds can do but I think it's pretty impressive. He rarely gets shells in the bowl and I can't say the same for my egg cracking skills.

Quote of the day.

My biggest laugh of the day thanks to Oliver: When I went to change his diaper he told me...

My poop's EEE-NOR-MOUS. Most enormous ever seen.

The kid is too funny.

Question #13

Favorite purchase ever made- My Enell Sports Bra

I know. It's a strange answer for this question. I'm sure you'd expect me to say something fancy like my camera right? If you are a large breasted woman who has ever gone jogging in a sports bra that you bought at Sears, then you get it. Trust me, this is the last work out bra you'll ever buy.

Oprah was on her show one day claiming that it was the one she wears. I figured if it worked for her I'd give it a try so I ordered one. It's UGLY to say the least and it has 11 hooks so it's a challenge to get in to. But let me tell you, it will hold the girls like nothing you've ever worn before.

Thanks Oprah!

  

Highlights from our Canada Day

Raising the flag on the newly refurbished flag pole.
Much better than last year with Sebastian holding the flag above his head.

Jackpot! Isaac gets something from the candy toss.
We're not sure if someone gave it to him or if the stroller was in the
right spot to catch it as it fell.

My favorite part of the day as always: The Parade.
As usual there was maybe 20 people watching but there was lots of participation.
I heard it was about 50 cars and vehicles piled with people.

Junior and some of his friends joined us on the drive.

I love this shot. If you look closely you can see the long
line of cars behind us.

The boys hard at work flippin' burgers. The line was LONG.
I waited over an hour to get our lunch.

Oliver killed time by playing with the kids an he never once came
looking for me. I'm not sure if his independence is a good thing or a bad thing.

Some chose to have seal rather than burgers.

Festive little guy.

My filthy boy stops playing in the dirt and has a hot dog.

We had a really great day celebrating Canada's birthday. I hope you did too.

Happy Canada Day