The fog is lifting...

Well, it has been a bit...I just haven't been in the mood to blog without just being bummed out.  The weather is definitely changing to fall.  It is much less stifling hot during the day, we are actually having alot of rain and it is getting crisp at night.  One of the pretty things is the mist/fog that forms on the land behind our house.  I took the picture on the left looking off our back porch.  The picture really doesn't do it justice but it is pretty.  We are actually going to turn off the AC to conserve energy and see if we can just use the cool air to cool off the house.  The energy here is different rates at different times of the day.  So in the summer the most expensive energy is during the main part of the day when you want to use the AC and it is cheapest after 9 pm.  In the winter it is most expensive at night when you want to run a heater.  Smart for them...sucks to be us! 

The other pic is of a Blue Jay at my bird feeder.  I have an aunt that I visited in Michigan that had a bunch of bird feeders and I always said that when I got my house, I wanted a bunch of bird feeders.  Well when we first hung it up, the crows were all over it but then we let it go empty and now we have filled it again and it looks like we have a bunch of Blue Jays.  I guess they are mean birds but they sure are pretty.  I now have hung my second one..a hummingbird feeder, we will see if we can get some hummingbirds.

The girls start school the Tuesday after Labor Day and we are all ready.  We went down to Kingston yesterday and did a little school shopping.  Both girls got a new outfit and we explored a new mall and shopping center with some friends.  The one thing that is funny here is that it takes twice as long to get anywhere because the speed limit is slower.  Although we have  noticed that speed limits are more a suggestion here or maybe more of a minimum than a limit.  LOL!  Next week we meet with their guidance counselors and get their schedules and then 9th grade orientation is on Wednesday.  Then we will finish up the supply shopping.  What is interesting is that the supply list is pretty small and generic.  So we need pencils, pens and paper...not 6 black pens, 12 #2 pencils and 7 reams of paper.  Kind of cool!  We haven't heard about the bus yet although the girls think I am the bus.  I called to find out the status and I found out that the bus driver will call us before the first day of school and let us know a pick up time and place.  Very casual, very laid back.

We found out that Smiths Falls has a hockey team and I guess that they are pretty fanatical about their team.  They are building a new community center for the hockey team that should be open in about a month.  From what we are gathering, in the winter, everyone hangs out at the hockey games so we have looked into getting season tickets.  Wil and I love hockey and I remember when the Gold Kings were in the Springs, I loved going to hockey games even the time I got hit by the puck in the chest.  So that will be fun.

We had our door bell ring the other night and it looked like 2 police officers walking up the steps.  As I lost the panic of what have the girls done (they were gone), Wil answered the door.  It was the fire inspector.  They were doing their annual fire extinguisher inspection.  They were even carrying batteries to replace batteries if needed.  You got to love living in the small town.  By the way our fire detector not only beeps but yells fire in English and French....lol.

Other benefits of being in Canada...we get So you think you can dance and So you think you can dance Canada.  We get American Idol and Canadian Idol.  We get US News and Canadian News.  Negatives, take all of the single dollar bills in your wallet and turn them into coins.  Canadians paper money starts at $5.  Everything else is coins a $1 is a Loonie (because there is a Loon on it) and $2 is a Toonie.  Talk about a heavy change purse.  You can end up with $20 in change really quick.

I think that is it.  I enjoy having a house I can mess around with, I am trying to figure out how to get my flower garden started without a ton of money and I look forward to getting some projects started once the girls are in school.  I am quite lonely and it will get worse when the girls aren't around but if that is the worst of it..so be it.  I miss you all!

Excitement and Anxiety

Well, today is the day!  Today we leave for Paris.  We will fly out of Ottawa on a quick flight to Montreal, then we have a couple hours of layover and we leave Montreal around 8 pm.  With the time difference, we arrive in Paris at 8:45 am.  I have been trying to get up early the last couple of days to start to adjust to the time change.  Last night, I didn't sleep well at all and had some horrible dreams so although my alarm was set for 4 am, I was up at 3 am.  Ick! 

I am so excited for this trip but at the same time I am super anxious.  It is my first long flight since I went to Africa with my dad when I was 15...that's a long time between Transatlantic flights.  It will be my first time in Europe.  It will be Tiana's first flight since she went to Australia.  It will be Tabitha's first long flight and actually it will be Tabitha's first time off of the North American continent.  It will be a long, boring, night flight and I am hoping the 3 of us will be able to sleep some otherwise it will be teenage boredom hell.  We get in on Tuesday and then Wil comes in on Wednesday.  So from Tuesday until Wednesday night, I am on my own in Paris with 2 teens and none of us speak French.  I know that most of them will speak English but I prefer to at least try to speak the native language but this time that won't happen.  I guess in the future I need to stick with Spanish speaking countries if I am on my own.  Although, hopefully I won't be traveling on my own for much longer.  Oh well, hopefully we will be able to get groceries and figure enough out to enjoy ourselves until our resident French speaker comes in.  Maybe we will just lay around and sleep for 2 days, that certainly sounds fantastic to me.  Actually it sounds like a dream to me...lay in bed, not have to get up for animals or school or work or anything....sigh, maybe Paris will be heaven.  Now if I can convince Wil to do all the cooking and cleaning...lol.  I am so excited to see him but at the same time it is kind of weird to think of being together.  It has been 7 months but it seems like much longer. 

Last night on  the Amazing Race they had to memorize this poem by Hans Christian Anderson:
"To move, to breath, to fly, to float, To gain all while you give, To roam the roads of lands remote: To travel is to live."

I love this poem and I really feel it deep within my core.  If finances it, I would travel much more but I have been blessed to be able to travel as much as I have. 

This next week, we will live!

Love you all and talk to you on the other side of the trip.

Hidden treasures

Well, we have been clearing our land.  When we got here only about 1 of the 2.1 acres was cleared.  The rest had weed that were about 5 foot tall.  Well we bought the lawn tractor but as we looked at it and walked it we found huge granite rocks and other obstacles so we realized we were going to have to clear it with a weed eater and see what is underneath and then go from there.  Well it is a ton of work.  We have been working on it and working on it.  Wil is borrowing an industrial strength whippersnipper with a steel blade and then he clears and then I come behind either on the push mower or the lawn tractor.  Well, the owner had said he had left a plow but we didn't expect what we found.  Isn't it beautiful...we are in the process of trying to identify it.  There is no name on it so it is a bit tricky.  I had already been planning to use some of the rocks we had found to make a circular garden area for bulbs and stuff but now I am going to make it more oval and larger to incorporate my new ornamental lawn piece.  Besides the plow, we have found lots of rocks, dead trees, bales of hay, a busted up chainsaw and some strips of metal...it is a variable treasure hunt.

Well, Tiana made the paper.  Here is the link if you want to see the article and her picture.  http://www.emcsmithsfalls.ca/20100812/events/Club+for+Youth+invite+public+to+Celebrate+Youth+Day+-+tonight.  She was pretty proud, as was I.

Not much else at this point.  I am struggling but hanging in.  I enjoy the slower lifestyle, it is hard not having any friends to share it with.  Until next time, I love you all.

Back in the states for about 5 minutes!

Well, Tiana and I are official permanent residents of Canada.  Several weeks ago we got notice that Immigration was ready to put our VISA in our passports.  So we mailed (with much nervousness) our VISA to Canadian Immigration.  It had to be in a certain sized envelope with specific things included.  The process was so specific and yet even though they were sent certified, the immigration website said that they are not responsible for lost or stolen passports.  Doesn't that just instill confidence.  I was sooooo happy to see them come back in the mail about 2 weeks later.  The VISA's were in the passports but in order to get the paperwork completed we had to see an immigration agent.  Now there were 2 ways to do that, make an appointment in Ottawa or cross a border.  We called many times to make an appointment and got a message saying that the call queue was so long we couldn't even get put into the queue.  Wil finally got through once only to be told it would take months to get an appointment, so we decided to cross the border.  Wil took the day off yesterday and we headed to New York.  We stopped on the Canadian side, went in asked if we could see immigrations and were told no, you have to cross the border.  So we drove over the 1000 Islands bridge, crossed into New York and then made a quick U-turn and headed back to Canada.  Stopped at the Canadian border and went into see Immigration.  We ended up seeing the same guy who told Wil we had to cross the border...how efficient is that?  Anyways, he asked us a couple questions and filled out our paperwork and stapled it into our passports.  Our cards will come in the mail in 4-8 weeks.  So we started the process the end of December, finally got all paperwork mailed in the beginning of March and spent about $2000 and finally it is done..YAY!  Check one thing off the list.

So then we drove to Kingston and went to Service Canada to apply for Ontario Health Insurance.  We were able to apply and it will be effective the beginning of November.  YAY!  Check #2 item off the list. 

While we were at Service Ontario, Wil asked if they had forms to apply for social insurance numbers.  Social Insurance numbers are similar to Social Security Numbers, except it is really only for work purposes and a couple of other things.  They are not tied to credit ratings or anything else.  Anyways, they said that to get the forms we would have to go to another government office or we could get them on line for $10.  So we made one more stop.

We went in to get forms and the lady said, "well there aren't forms, you just come in with birth certificates (which I had for immigration) and we get you signed up.  So we waited and saw a lady and she filled everything out in her computer and now Tiana and I have Social Insurance Numbers.  YAY!  Check #3 off the list.

It sure is nice to have all of this stuff taken care of, little by little things are getting checked off the list. 

Today, the girls are going to a water park with the youth center so I have a little extra time to myself.  I have a bunch of running to do and I am going to try to unpack a couple more boxes.  My goal is to be super productive today...I will let you know how that goes.

I forced the girls to go check out a youth group for one of the churches we attended.  It was at the youth pastors house.  They went and played sports for an hour and then went swimming at his house.  They said they had fun and they met a couple more people that go to their school.  It is for the Baptist Church in town.  I like it alot, very old fashioned, warm, welcoming and a gorgeous old building.  The youth group meets year round so that is a huge bonus.  I don't think the girls are sold on it but the youth pastor sure is trying hard.  He even called to invite us to a bonfire and family camping.  So we will see how it goes the next couple weeks.  We will definitely go visit again on Sunday.

I also found out this week that I am going to have visitors soon.  A close friend from Colorado is going to visit over Canadian Thanksgiving in October and then my sister and brother-in-law are coming later that month.  In the course of my life, people have always come to visit my family but I don't remember anyone coming just to visit me...don't I feel special!  But then again, now the pressure of entertaining falls on me...:)

Well I need to go get ready to drop the girls off.  Talk to you soon.  Miss you all.

Busy, busy, busy

I had a couple questions on my last post.

Here is some basic info on the CN tower: The idea of the CN Tower originated from the 1968 Canadian National Railway had a desire to build a large TV and radio communication platform to serve the Toronto area, as well as demonstrate the strength of Canadian industry and CN in particular. These plans evolved over the next few years, and the project became official in 1972. The tower would have been part of Metro Centre (see CityPlace), a large development south of Front Street on the Railway Lands, a large railway switching yard that was being made redundant by newer yards outside the city. Key project team members were NCK Engineering as structural engineer; John Andrews Architects; Webb, Zerafa, Menkes, Housden Architects; Foundation Building Construction; and Canron (Eastern Structural Division).  At the time, Toronto was a boom town, and the late 1960s and early 1970s had seen the construction of numerous large skyscrapers in the downtown core, most notably First Canadian Place. This made broadcasting into the downtown area very difficult due to reflections off the buildings. The only solution would be to raise the antennas above the buildings, demanding a tower over 300 metres (984 ft) tall. Additionally, at the time, most data communications took place over point-to-point microwave links, whose dish antenna covered the roofs of large buildings. As each new skyscraper was added to the downtown, former line-of-sight links were no longer possible. CN intended to rent "hub" space for microwave links, visible from almost any building in the Toronto area. The CN Tower can be seen from at least as far away as Kennedy Street in Aurora, Ontario, approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) to the north, and from several points on the south shore of Lake Ontario, 48 kilometres (30 mi) to the south in New York state in the United States.[original research?]  The original plan for the tower envisioned a tripod consisting of three independent cylindrical "pillars" linked at various heights by structural bridges. Had it been built, this design would have been considerably shorter, with the metal antenna located roughly where the concrete section between the main level and the Sky Pod lies today. As the design effort continued, it evolved into the current design with a single continuous hexagonal core to the Sky Pod, with three support legs blended into the hexagon below the main level, forming a large Y-shape structure at the ground level.  The idea for the main level in its current form evolved around this time, but the Sky Pod was not part of the plans until some time later. One engineer in particular felt that visitors would feel the higher observation deck would be worth paying extra for, and the costs in terms of construction were not prohibitive. It was also some time around this point that it was realized that the tower could become the world's tallest structure, and plans were changed to incorporate subtle modifications throughout the structure to this end.  On June 26, 1986, the ten-year anniversary of the tower's opening, high-rise firefighting and rescue advocate Dan Goodwin, in a sponsored publicity event, used his hands and feet to climb the outside of the tower, a feat he performed twice on the same day. Following both ascents, he used multiple rappels to descend to the ground.[8]

See  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Tower for more info.

We are 2 hours later than you...so I believe that is EST.

The girls and I have been volunteering at the local animal shelter.  We have mainly been cleaning cat kennels...we take the cats out, clean out litter box, old food, dirty blankets, wipe the kennels down, put in new clean stuff and wrangle the cats back in the kennels.  It really is rewarding to see the cats in their nice clean kennels.  The kittens are really fun to watch and it is neat to see the personalities of the different cats.  We have also walked some of the dogs.  Tiana and I each walked a beagle.  Tiana walked a little Jack Russell female who thinks that she is the alpha of all dogs.  Then I walked a black lab/great dane mix who they found with her head caught in a  beaver trap.  Tabitha walked a shepherd/husky mix.  I am still thinking about the job but I don't feel it is quite right...we will see.  I want to volunteer a little more and see how it goes.

Tiana and I got our passports back from having our visas put in them...so now we have to go see immigration to get the paperwork filled out and we found out the fastest way is to go across the border and come back.  So tomorrow we head to New York to cross the border and come back.  Should be a quick 4 or 5 hour trip but it is the fastest way to do it.  Then we will stop in Kingston and apply for provincial insurance so that in 3 months or so, we should have provincial insurance.  I tell you, I am soooooo glad that Wil didn't go so that he can help me with all of this STUFF!  I could have done it but it is so much less stressful for me knowing he can help.  Thank you Lord!

More later, got to get going.

Oh, by the way, the new fridge is helping things not mold as quickly, seems the other one wasn't turned up enough...duh!

Toronto or bust

Well, it is raining cats and dogs here, so I thought I would update you on what has been going on.  We have actually had quite a bit of rain lately.  Usually it rains really hard for 1/2 an hour and then stops and then maybe goes again later.  It is a nice warm rain, we have all had fun running around in it and not getting cold like in Colorado.  The other night we even sat in the hot tub in it...it was wonderful.  Today however, it is raining like nuts and has been for several hours.  I am getting concerned about the dogs going out in it, they don't like it and they have to pee sometime, hmmm.

Speaking of dogs, I haven't updated you on the dogs.  They are doing great and they love being around us all the time again.  Molly, the 12 year old, acts like a puppy sometimes, leaping and bounding as she explores outside.  She will wander all around the edge of the property for hours if we are outside.  Lizzy is more the inside dog but she will stay outside as long as she has to but is happiest curled up next to one of us on the chairs.  I am trying to train them to "go potty" on command.  Lizzy does really well but Molly seems to have her own time frame.  Lizzy is getting the hang of whining when she needs out but Molly is not doing as well.  Does this mean you can't teach an old dog new tricks?  Well I continue to try.

This week, the girls and I headed into Toronto for the Rhianna/Ke$ha concert.  I still am "driven out" from the drive across country but we did the 3 1/2 hour drive with no issues and got to the hotel safely.  The hotel had a waterslide so the girls had some fun and then we headed to bed for the long day to come.  We got up and headed out.  I didn't want to drive in downtown Toronto so we opted for a public transportation adventure.  We took a bus, a subway and a streetcar and ended up at Ontario Place.  This is an amusement park right by the concert venue and we thought it would be fun to hang out before the concert.  Well, the website was a little deceiving, what we found out as we were there was that mostly for little kids.  But we had fun anyways.  There were some great waterslides, a Walk on Water ball, peddle boats and some other fun stuff.  The girls even went on a couple of the kiddie rides for fun.  At the end of a long day, we settled in for the concert.  Ke$ha was good, very much a party atmosphere, then we waited over an hour for Rhianna.  I don't know if this is a new trend but I find it rude.  Maybe it is just a sign of me getting old but I didn't pay to sit for an hour of nothingness.  Anyway, she did make up for it and put on a fantastic show.  By the end of the show it was almost midnight and doing the public transportation thing didn't appeal to me so I decided to take a cab.  Well our cab driver got yelled at by a police officer for making an illegal u-turn, the girls were convinced we were going to die, and I think he was driving us in circles but much poorer we made it back to the hotel and crashed into bed.  The next day, we headed home with a small stop at the "Big Apple".  It is a farm that sells homemade pies and other stuff...kind of a fun stop.

Well, Wil and I worked our butts off this weekend.   Saturday, we rearranged all of the basement.  All of the boxes got moved and all of the furniture got put in place.  Well almost all of it. But now we have a plan and we can start unpacking all of the stupid boxes that are driving us crazy.  Then yesterday, I did some more unpacking while Wil got all of the boxes out of upstairs and he dusted and cleaned the floors.  It looks so nice.  Man, drywall dust just gets everywhere and it is hard to clean.  It will take a couple cleanings to get it all clean but we have a good start.

Well I have more to say but I will end for now.  I would have gotten more written but I had half of this done and then the internet went down and I lost it all so I have typed most of this twice so the rest will have to wait.  We are volunteering at the animal shelter in an hour and then Tabitha has a dental appointment.  I will update more in the next day or so.

I love you all.

Is that a light at the end of the tunnel or a train??

Well, the rooms are almost done!  The room on the left is the family room and the room on the right is Tiana's room.  We started moving furniture in this weekend and so now we can start unloading boxes.  So hopefully in the next couple of weeks we can get these boxes out of the house. 

We took a break on Sunday and went to the Lombardy fair and had a fun time.  Much like the county fair, small but quaint.  The girls and Wil went on a couple rides including Wil and Tiana on the zipper which Wil didn't know was going to go upside down so he got a bit of a thrill and had loonies and toonies flying out of his pockets.  What a hoot!  Then we watched some team penning...very fun to watch in English and in French.  Then we went and waited for the lawn tractor races.  So as I am sitting in these little bleachers watching the tractors do their practice laps, I think "wow, they are flying and this little 3 foot fence in front of me isn't going to keep me safe if there is a wreck."  Briefly, I had visions of a lawn tractor flying into the bleachers, like a car race.  I chuckled but 3 races later, a guy flies around the track and rolls into the inner hay.  I got it on tape, then as we are watching again, same guy rolls into the 3 foot fence, off his tractor and his tractor lights the hay by the fence on fire.  Who knew tractor racing was so dangerous.  We laughed so hard although I think Wil and the girls would like to soup ours up to make mowing more fun.  We also watched a bit of the tractor pull and watched a guy slam his brakes on about a foot from the cement blocks that are at the end of the race.  Such thrills at the fair...who knew?

Yesterday, the girls and I went and volunteered at the local animal shelter.  We spent 3 hours cleaning cat/kitten kennels.  It was a lot of fun.  It is a no kill shelter and they get no government money so they run on donations and volunteers.  They have a job opening right now for a dog attendant that is 4 days a week.  I am thinking about it...but I am having a hard time thinking of going back to work right away since I had my heart set on not working for a year.  It would be nice to get out of the house a bit and a little extra income wouldn't hurt when butter is 4 bucks for a box equal to the 4 sticks in the states for 69 cents.  I don't know...we will keep volunteering and I will see what happens.  I wish it was 3 days and not 4 so I may ask if that is an option.  When we got back I started mowing the lawn with the tractor and then did most of the edging with the push mower while Wil continued to clear more of our land with the super whipper snipper that we are borrowing.  He would clear, and walk it and then I would go over the safe areas with the tractor.  We have a large chunk of it cleared, there are parts with huge rocks that we need to move out so that we can safely run the tractor over it.  Little by little it is getting there.  Oh, Wil was home because it was a Civic Holiday here.  Don't ask what that is but it meant everything was closed and Wil got the day off.

We had some friends that just moved here a week ago come up to see us on Sunday evening.  It was really nice to see familiar faces again.  We had a nice dinner and chatted before they had to head home.  I do miss seeing and talking to friends.  Hopefully we will have a local number set up within the next week so I can talk to people regularly again and maybe even skype soon.

The girls start high school on September 7 and they are looking forward to that.  This week the girls and I head to Toronto for the Rhianna/Ke$ha/Travie McCoy concert.  So hopefully it will be fun and erase my nightmare memories of being stuck in Toronto with a blown transmission.

I can't think of anything else...I love to get emails from friends and family so keep them coming.  I love you all.