Catching up

So I said I would go back to my birthday but now it was so long ago, I am not sure it matters so I will give a brief summary.  It was a nice day, the girls gave Wil money to take me out to eat and Wil gave me a gift certificate for the garden shop I love.  So I went and bought a butterfly bush to replace the one that got run over by the lawn tractor and a hibiscus.  I also bought some indoor plants.  An aloe vera plant, a spider plant (every house has to have a spider plant), a Christmas cactus and a begonia.  Oh and some pansies.  So then I spent the rest of the day planting and potting and stuff.  Then Wil took me out to eat.  I was in the mood for Greek or Japanese. Wil put Greek into the GPS and we ended up at a neat little restaurant in Ottawa.  Good food, and just overall a nice place.  That was it, due to the delay in mail (somethings are taking up to 3 weeks to get here from the states) my cards from family were all delayed.  But I had one card from a coworker in the Springs that made it and I held onto that for dear life.  The others have trickled in over the last two weeks so it seems like my birthday went on for a bit. 

The girls started school on the 7th.  Their day starts at 8:00 (instead of 7:10 in the Springs) and ends at 2:10 (about the same in the Springs) with 45 minutes or something for lunch.  So they love that.  They seem to like their teachers so far and they are enjoying things being a little more laid back.  They are riding the bus to and from school.  The bus stop was a bit inconvenient, right behind the house but behind a bunch of trees, so they would have to walk around the property, but on Friday, the bus driver said that he would pick them up at the end of the driveway so that is nice.  I still can't believe we have 2 high schoolers in the house.

Tiana seems to have stumbled into a babysitting career.  She answered a flyer for child care and now has a job that pays 5.50 per hour 2 Saturdays a month at a house just a little bit down from our house.  She also found out that there are several families in the area that may be interested in her also, so she is excited to earn some extra money.

Yesterday we had a mini reunion at our house.  One of our friends birthday was Friday and he was coming up to help Wil with a couple things so his wife and I conspired to have a surprise BBQ.  So we invited 2 other couples.  One couple left the Springs 2 years ago and the other couple left last year.  So we all hadn't been together in over 2 years, and it sure did feel like old times.  Very neat couples and one of the wives birthday was earlier this week so we celebrated that also.  All I know is there was talk of us all renting a house boat next year and going on vacation together....how fun would that be!

So I should update you on the dog.  We did go look at the dog and she was wonderful.  I don't want to go into it because it makes me sad, but we did not get the dog.  It looked like we would and we brought her home to see how she did with our pups but it just wasn't the right time.  She was a fantastic dog, well behaved, played fetch, very mellow but it wasn't meant to be.  It was a very tough decision.

I am volunteering at the shelter and am loving it.  I am actually trying to get them to give me a part time job since I am there anyways.  It sounds like they are working on it but we will see.  I figure that with the girls in school, part time would be fine and it will give us a little added income to take the sting out of the budget.  Plus it forces me to get off my butt and out of the house.

Oh, I almost forgot, we went the the St. Albert Cheese factory.  We got cheese curd that were fresh, that day. WOW! WOW! WOW!  I have never, EVER had cheese curd that good.  It squeaked but in a different, louder way.  It was fantastic.  We bought a huge bag and 4 days later,  still squeaking and yummy.  It was awesome!

I think that is it for now.....have a great day and I hope to hear from you soon!