... funny things are everywhere

Catch-up post... and Broadapalooza

So it's been a crazy month and a half since I last blogged.

The school year finished amid the usual June frenzy... the boys had great report cards, but not all went as smoothly as I would have hoped. Still, we got through it, and we are now settling into the comfortable pace of summer holidays.

Thomas turned 13 and is playing squash for the better part of the summer. There may be a wee bit of tennis thrown in as well.

James is playing a lot of tennis and hopefully competing in a few tournaments as well.

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And I started the summer with a trip out to Saskatoon with Cynthia, Carolyn and Katie... to visit Michelle and her family. Broadapalooza 2013. We ate, drank, laughed, sang karaoke, saw The Hip in concert, ate meat off giant swords... told stories, sought advice and rejuvenated our souls for yet another year.

Every girl should have a bunch of Broads in her life.

Love you guys! BNIASW

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keeping my eye on the prize...

Ummmm... remind me again... what's the prize?

It's crazy here. Here we are at the end of October, and I've done nearly nothing that I've put on my To Do list. You know, the one that exists only in my head because I'm too scared to actually write any of it down. Because to do so would potentially set me up for failure and/or disappointment.

No, not really. That last part is 100% not true.

It's not.

N.
O.
T.

Not.

I am not afraid to commit. I am not afraid of failure. I'm just too danged busy chasing my own tail around in circles to do anything about it.

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James and I went to Toronto this past weekend. We were gone for 37 hours in total: including 12 hours driving there and back; about five hours visiting with family; and a few hours playing in a tennis tournament. Well, he played... I did the Tennis Mom thing.

My mom and dad were up from Nova Scotia, and my Aunt Shirley and my cousin, Tiffany, were in TO from Hong Kong. Even though our time with them was short (just a few hours), it meant a lot to me to be able to see them.

* Tiffany, Shirley, Mom, me and Dad

* me with my cousin's son, Aidan

Chinese food = yum
Tennis tournament = fun + good effort + goal setting opportunity

James played well at the Rookie event in Burlington. He won the matches I expected him to win (and he didn't mess around or lose games in winning those matches), and he lost in the quarterfinals against a boy he could have beaten, if he'd managed to stay focused and keep his nerve up. But that's something that he needs to work on. He knows that, though, and I think he may finally be ready (emotionally, mentally...) to take on that challenge.

Or so he says.

But I'm trying hard not to be a CRAZY tennis mom.

Trying. So. Hard. ;)

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Anyway, just before we left TO for Ottawa, we made a detour to a Lego store...

* James indulges in a pick-a-brick binge.

Life is good.

I need to remember that.

Often.

home again, home again...

The boys and I are in the middle of our week-and-a-half-long vacation in Nova Scotia. I'm loving the fact that my mom and dad are retired now and have lots of time to spend with us. :)

what I did on my summer vacation

We are home. And not a moment too soon. I think we were all getting pretty tired of sleeping on hotel beds, mattresses on floors and fold-out sofas. Not that we didn't appreciate the hospitality extended to us. Really, we did. It's just that getting home after being away... well, nothing compares to it.

What we did.

1. Saw some dear friends.
2. Went up the CN Tower.
3. Hung out by the ocean.
4. Read books.
5. Crashed a Class of 85 reunion.
6. Visited numerous theme parks.
7. Ran.
8. Played tennis.
9. Took pictures.
10. Ate too much.

Places visited.

1. Toronto.
2. Montreal.
3. Digby.
4. White Point.
5. Moncton.
6. Montreal. Again.

Pictures to follow.

I'm back...

... and I think I'm finally recovered (mostly) from the 12-hour time shift. I've been back since Wednesday, and it's taken me this long to get my sleep back on track. *sigh*

I still haven't had a chance to edit photos to share on flickr, but I don't want to wait until everything's perfectly finished to share; otherwise it might be mid-July before you see any of my pictures! Since next week's going to be crazy, with my return to work and my participation in a four-day tennis program after work (what the heck was I thinking?!), I thought I'd post a pictures here to start.

Here's a sampling of my photos from Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Macau.

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I have lots of other pictures to share. And of course, stories... lots of those too. But it will all have to wait until sometime in July, when life slows down a bit around here.

Tomorrow's back to work day for me, and this week is the last week of school for the boys. A transition week, for sure, which means some crazy anxiety attacks and mood swings going on all over the place here. I don't think any of us are immune from the effects of this upcoming week! Eeek! Wish us luck! lol

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P.S. My week just eased up a bit... no after-work commitments for me beyond Monday. Yippeeeee!

a beautiful Montebello wedding

Jamie and Ellyn had the most beautiful wedding yesterday. We drove up to Montebello QC and stayed the night, partying until the wee hours (or in my case, partying until one of my kids wanted to go to bed!). We had a lovely brunch in the morning, and then Mike and the boys dropped me off at work at lunchtime.

Here are a few pictures from the very special occasion:

Chateau Montebello, a beautiful place to have a wedding.

 
 James and Grandpa John

Signing the register... making it official.

Andrew, Adam, Gracie and Jill :)

 
the only picture of me... an afterthought, after the decent lighting was gone. I hate flash photography. *sigh*

Mike and Gracie at the reception.

Gracie and Thomas, the next day.

There are tonnes of other pictures too, but this sampling is enough to get an idea of how HAPPY everyone was. Gracie was THE most photogenic of all the wedding guests. She was so cute... every time, after anyone took a picture of her, she'd run over to the photographer and say, "I wanna see!"

So this post marks the end of summer vacation in our household. It's been a busy but fun summer here. It sure seems to have gone by quickly though. I can't believe it's time for the boys to start school again tomorrow. *sigh* Wish us luck!

Toronto (part 2)

Okay, so we were in Toronto for less than 48 hours, but we sure managed to cram a lot of stuff into our trip. In retrospect, I am very impressed that my 7 year old managed to keep up with the pace... poor kiddo. :P

After the show and dinner on Wednesday afternoon, we took the subway and bus up north to Markham to visit my Aunt May. She had to work until 8:00 (which is James' usual bedtime!), so we timed our arrival at Pacific Mall to coincide. The three of us went to a Vietnamese place... James and I had a late night snack while she had her dinner. She got me all caught up on the family gossip (wow, my mom's siblings are an interesting lot!) while James played games on her BlackBerry. Even though we didn't get to spend a whole lot of time together, we all enjoyed the visit.

(ugh! that flash again!)

The next morning, James and I walked from our hotel to the CN Tower where we rode the super-fast elevator to the top.

...

Mike and I had been there before, but I don't think we paid the extra to go up to the second level. It was really clear that day, and we could see across Lake Ontario to the United States. We found a few landmarks while up at the top... our hotel (easy to spot, since it had "Sheraton Centre" on it!), the CNE fairgrounds, the CBC Building (right across the street)... and we found the general direction we'd travelled to see Aunt May the night before.

We stood on the glass floor...

... and then we asked some nice tourists to take a picture of the two of us together. :)

 

We shopped for some souvenirs at the gift shop (holy pricy stuff!), and then I managed to get this shot without getting too icky from lying on the ground. Not bad for a little point-and-shoot camera, eh? :P

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After that, we headed back to the hotel, grabbed our things and caught the train back to Ottawa. James read three new books we'd bought at Indigo, and he was VERY happy to see his dad at the train station 4.5 hours later. As for me, I was glad to see Mike and Thomas... but mostly, I was happy to have taken a very special trip with my littlest guy. :)

The hills are alive...

... with the sound of music. :)

James and I are back! We went to Toronto for a whirlwind trip... took the train to Union Station, stayed at the Sheraton (oooh-la-la, very fancy!) for a couple of nights, saw The Sound of Music at The Princess of Wales Theatre and did some other touristy things.

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Here he is, reading on the train on the way down to T.O. He reread seven of the Magic Treehouse books from his collection. It only took an hour or so... I guess we should have brought more reading material, but we were trying to travel light.

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We hit the shopping mall that first morning... you know, to get the buying of souvenirs out of the way. ;)

Indigo was BY FAR his favourite store at the Eaton Centre... it was there that he found this:

"I've been waiting for this Magic Treehouse Merlin Mission paperback for SO long now. I'm so excited. I can't wait to read it!" (I made him wait until our train ride back to Ottawa.)

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This was the highlight of our trip. We had great seats, about 20 rows from centre stage. I actually took NO pictures before or after the show (and of course, none during the show... although there were a number of cameras in the theatre, and people were being told, over and over, that cameras were not allowed inside the theatre)... this picture was taken the next day, when James was telling me that he really wanted to see the show again.

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Yes, it was fabulous production. The set was really well done, and the music was so... so... how can I say it? It was a real feel-good experience. They all had such strong, beautiful voices (even the five-year old who played Gretl), and the songs were all so familiar and comforting. The characters were different than they were in the movie... funnier and larger than life. I walked away from the experience, vowing to take James (and Thomas, if he's interested) to more live theatrical and musical performances.

We got to see my fellow 2peas Pubster, Lisa Kisch, perform. During the show, we spotted her as a nun and then as a party gal in a beautiful gown... and then as a nun again. She took us for a backstage tour afterwards. That was so cool... we got to see the costumes, the wigs, the scenery, the secret entrances and the hill that Maria sang on (which was also the mountain they climbed at the end).

We went for Thai food after that... mmmmmm!

(So sorry about the interesting skin tones we have, Lisa. I tried my best, but I'm no miracle worker with PSE. Have I mentioned how much I hate using the flash on that little Canon Elph point and shoot?!)

Thanks so much, Lisa, for making our Sound of Music experience even more special! :)

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I do have more pictures and stories to share, but I'll have to come back with another post tomorrow. It's bedtime for this tired traveller. Thanks for sticking with me 'til the end of this long-winded post. :P

wow, am I ever tired!

You know what? Nine workouts in three days is a lot, especially for someone MY age! :P

I didn't actually DO every little bit of every workshop I attended, but I'd say I did anywhere from 30-90 minutes of exercise in every single workshop I took. I snuck off to the edge of the floor to jot down a few notes from time to time, and I stood with a puzzled look on my face, staring at the feet of the REALLY nimble steppers around me when I got lost during the highly choreographed step workshops I attended. *sigh* I am SO not coordinated.

I travelled business class on the train for the first time EVER, and I loved it.

They fed us decent meals, offered us coffee and wine (many times!)... and they came around with gourmet chocolates at the end of the meal. Wow! Too bad I can't afford to travel business class on a regular basis. That 60% off post-strike sale that VIA held won't happen again, so I'm going to have to wait until someone offers to pay my travel expenses before I can experience VIA1 again.

While I was in Toronto, I stayed at the hotel right in the Rogers Centre (you know, the structure formerly known as SkyDome, home of the Toronto Blue Jays ball club). It's just around the corner from the convention centre where the conference was held... so it was super-easy to find, even for a directionally challenged gal like me. It made me giggle when my friend, Sharon, asked me on day one, "Are you sure you can find your way back to the hotel yourself?" Ummmm... I just have to find the CN Tower and I'm right there, right?

 

So tonight, I am doing laundry, listening to a new CD from yes! music and thinking about what I need to do to get ready for my next trip to Toronto on Tuesday with Jamesie. :)
 

pictures are coming...

Soon! I promise. :)

Here are a few to hold you over until I can organize them in a photo album.

Happy Friday! Have a great weekend too. :)

** Edited to add: Photos are up in a photo album here on my blog. There's a link on my side bar, or you can click here.