Canada - Day 2

So begins day 2 in Nova Scotia, Canada. I told a tiny fib on my last post about the two pictures taken out of the hotel room window. We had been trying to get a picture of the Canadian flag flying outside our hotel window. It looked very pretty with the night sky in the background, but we were unable to get a good shot of it. So, instead, here it is flying in the morning light! Quite a pretty view from our room window.

We loaded up the van and started our 5 hour drive to North Sydney. But on our way out of Halifax we got side-tracked with a stop at the Citadel.

The British established Halifax along the eastern shore of Nova Scotia in 1749. Fortifications defended the naval base from its earliest days. The harbour defenses are known as the Halifax Defence Complex and consist of the Halifax Citadel, York Redoubt, Prince of Wales Tower, Georges Island and Fort McNab national historic sites of Canada.

The changing of the guard reenactment was quite impressive. Especially when they swished their kilts as they made sharp turns in their marching. I know there is a "proper" term for sharp marching turns - not kilt swishing - but, it is late at night as I type and the term escapes me!

I like bagpipe music.

Have you ever wondered what is worn under a kilt? I know this question is asked jokingly all the time, but inquiring minds do want to know these things.

Nope, still don't know!

Is there a Sam in there?? Samuel was so funny. It was quite cold when we first arrived, the wind was really blowing. Samuel didn't know how to express that he was cold, so he kept telling me, "Hot, hot!" He was very happy when we pulled up his hood and tucked his hands into his pockets.

"Have you every been a fishing on a bright and sunny day,

And seen the little fishies swimming in and out the bay.

With their hands in their pockets and their pockets in their pants.

Have you seen the little fishies do the fishy wishy dance?"

Not quite sure what bought that song on, but.......

The guy on the right in the white jacket was hilarious. They were trying to get people to come and watch a musket demonstration, and people wouldn't co-operate. We were standing obediently near by, but everyone else kept milling about aimlessly elsewhere!

Quote from the guy in the white jacket.

"I can assure everyone that the most interesting thing that is happening in the Citadel is happening right here in 5 minutes.

There is absolutely nothing happening where you are standing, it will be terribly exciting at this very spot in 2 minutes

Corporal Jones (can't remember real name) gives a very good tour, but not half as interesting as what will be happening right here in 1 minute. Leave the tour now."

Samuel found a way to warm-up. He ran up and down the embankments. We had to keep a close eye on him because he also wanted to climb down the other side, and it was a very, very steep drop!

Yep, up and down, up and down. This became a running theme through our trip!

Here comes Joshua hurrying up some stairs. What could he have been up to????

Joshua wouldn't have locked his sister in the stockade would he? No, not Joshua!

Here comes Jessica hurrying up the stairs after her release.

Up and down. Up and down. Up and ...........

View from a lookout point

Trying to get a family picture. Samuel not co-operating.

I wonder what they are plotting, discussing or possibly discussing a plot??

Strolling the walls.

Looking out over Halifax

Jessica giving me her Mona Lisa smile

Demonstrating how not to fall down the side of the Citadel.

After leaving the Citadel, we made our way out of Halifax and started the long ride to North Sydney. We all kept commenting on the beautiful leaves and their colours. It has been a long time since we had seen Autumn leaves. The leaves in Florida tend to stay the same!! It was a beautiful drive. We stopped for lunch, stretched our legs and then headed off again.

After driving for quite a while, we stopped off at a place called Auld's Cove to visit a gentleman that Joshua had gotten to know there by the name of John Pettipas. John owns a place called Pettipas Market. They also serve traditional style Acadian lobster suppers. Now, Joshua did not tell us that John also had a restaurant, or we would have had our lunch there. Let's see, lobster or hamburger? Lobster or hamburger? Hmmmmmmh.

Here we are in the kitchen. John is on the far right.

John is very good to the missionaries and Joshua always enjoyed visiting him. Although, they did get off to a rocky start! Apparently, when John found out that Jim is a lawyer, he called him a "money grubbing, ambulance chasing lawyer." He later apologized and now that he has met Jim, well, now he knows that Jim has never chased a ambulance in his life, they go much to fast.

John Pettipas sure can talk.......and talk and talk. But, what a wonderful guy. Whenever the missionaries would leave, John would shoot off some fireworks. He did the same for us, much to Sam's delight! We were also given some delicious apples, postcards, a flag and ice-cream! The back of a brochure telling about John's market says,

"A friendly hello to a stranger

A warm wave goodbye to a friend"

This statement is very true. In fact, not just of John Pettipas, but everyone that we met on our trip.

We continued our drive to North Sydney. We arrived at the Demyere's home later than we had planned, but they were waiting for us and welcomed us with a delicious hot meal, friendship and comfortable beds for our tired bodies!

Sally-Ann

So good So good

Last night my husband and I had a date night planned. We had this night planned months ago and Jim even came home early from a work seminar in Indianapolis so we could still go.

Joshua and Jessica were drilled on how to babysit their little brother. Great care was taken all week so we would not have a repeat of the Bob Seger incident. Jim is a HUGE Bob Seger fan. Bob rarely tours anymore, so when Jim heard that Bob was coming to town he had to go and see him. It just so happens that the concert date fell on my birthday. Unfortunately, Samuel was injured the day of my birthday, so a parent needed to stay home with him. Guess who??? That's right, me, me, me!!! So, who went with her Dad to see Bob Seger - someone she had never even heard of! That's right, Jessica. Jim had a great time. Jessica had a deer in the headlights look when she walked through the door. To many old people rocking out in skin tight clothing, was a shock to a teenagers psyche. It has been over a year and she still shudders when you say "Bob Seger Concert". Jessica did enjoy the music, just not the sights around her! This was the great Bob Seger Incident of 2007.

So, that being said, nothing, I repeat, nothing was going to spoil this date night.

What concert did we spend outrageous amounts of money on. Who was it that was worth every penny at the end of the night? Who caused my husband to bust some white boy moves in front of 14,000 people? Who performed their first professional gig 42 years ago in Tampa, Florida?

Neil Diamond

Now, Jim and I aren't huge Neil Diamond fans, but we do enjoy listening to him now and then. We just thought that he would put on a good show and that we would enjoy it. He put on a excellent show!! We really had a fun night. People watching was a hoot and we loved singing along with everyone else.

It can all be summed up with a quote from a Neil Diamond song, "Sweet Caroline". SO GOOD, SO GOOD, SO GOOD. It was so good that Neil sang that song twice!

Sally-Ann

The Journey Begins....Canada Day 1

This was the day that we had waited for. Sometimes it seemed that this day would never come! We were finally going to get Joshua and bring him home from serving a 2 year mission for our church. For 2 years we got to speak to Joshua on Mother's Day and Christmas Day. We could e-mail every week and of course packages and letters went back and forth. Even though I am very happy and proud that Joshua served a mission, it was never-the-less difficult at times for this over-protective Mum!

We were scheduled to fly out of Tampa, Florida on October 10th at 6am. This would mean we had to leave our house at 4am. The night before, Jim set the alarm, we had everything packed, all we had to do was get up, get dressed, load the van and head off down the road. What is that saying about the best laid plans?? The alarm didn't go off. We woke up at 4am, that was the time we were meant to be leaving! We discovered that a family of 4 can get out the door in 15 minutes when the motivation is strong enough even with sloth children in tow! We made it to the airport, settled down to wait for our flight and eventually we taxied down the runway heading towards Halifax, Canada.

Samuel has a fascination with airplanes, buses and trucks. Whenever he hears or sees one he repeats their name, gradually getting louder and more frantic until you finally say, "Yes, it is a airplane!" He doesn't give it up! So, now we are flying from airport to airport and there are airplanes, buses and trucks everywhere! While sitting at the Boston airport waiting to taxi out to the runway, Sam had the window seat. "It's an airplane, it's an airplane, airplane, airplane, amazing, airplane, truck, airplane, it's an airplane!" I had to say airplane along with each of his airplanes. Also had to say, "Yes, it's amazing." Great relief when we were actually in the air!!! All that said, Samuel was very well behaved while flying. Only one melt down at the airport and quite frankly, I was ready to fling myself down next to him! More about that at the very end of our journey however!!

We flew from Tampa to Atlanta, then to Boston and finally to Halifax. The airport is undergoing construction, so we had to walk and walk and walk and walk to get our rental car. We don't have huge amounts of luggage when we travel, but we have enough to make it a major deal to get it from one place to another. The first thing we noticed was the wind and that it was quite "brisk".

We had bought our GPS with us, but for some reason it would not work for the city of Dartmouth. That meant that we didn't know how to get to the mission office to pick-up Joshua. We called the office and got the directions that we needed - so we thought! With a traffic accident backing the highway up and directions that sent us the wrong way, we didn't get to the mission office until about 4:30pm.

Joshua came out to greet us. If I had been more on top of things, I would have a photo of that moment to add here, but I don't, so this picture will have to do. Words can not describe how good it was to hug him and to see him. He looked good to my tired eyes! There was one thing that I wasn't expecting however! Joshua had an accent. I guess I have never spoken to anyone for Nova Scotia before and I didn't realize that they had such a strong accent. All the Canadians I had spoken to before all sounded very American (my apologies if that is upsetting to any Canadians reading!).

We drove to the Mission President's home and retrieved Joshua's luggage. We met President and Sister Jacobsen and visited with them briefly. Then, after a few loops around the neighbourhood courtesy of our out of wack GPS, we headed off to the hotel.

We stayed at the Westin Nova Scotian. It has just been remodelled and apparently, it is supposed to have a view of the water. Maybe if we had headed to the roof......Anyway, we settled in and relaxed for a little while. We had Italian for supper (In Nova Scotia, it is breakfast, dinner, supper). There was a statue of a half naked woman in the corner of the restaurant. Samuel, we don't know why, insisted on calling it Jesus. Joshua introduced us to "Wunderbars" - "Nectar from the Gods and worth its weight in gold". To quote Joshua.

You shall now be awed and amazed with the very first photo we took in Canada. Are you ready for this? You may ask yourself, "Why?" I know I do! Brace yourself. It is a doozy.

And, just in case that wasn't earth shattering enough for you! So ends our first day in Nova Scotia, Canada. A wonderful feeling to look at all the sleeping figures squished into the hotel room and know that our family is together again.

Sally-Ann

Is That Shrimp In Your Pants????

We arrived home from Canada very late Saturday night. I will blog about our trip throughout the week. Actually, as soon as I figure out how to download the photos from my husbands camera! It was a wonderful trip and it is good to have Joshua home with us again.

In the meantime! I was sitting in the car, reading the newspaper, waiting for Jessica to finish early morning seminary class this morning so I could take her to school, when.......Have you ever had a heading in the newspaper make you do a bit of a double take?? This morning I did. I was just glancing over a section of the newspaper when, "Man Caught With Shrimp In Pants", caught my attention and raised my eyebrows a tad.

Apparently, a gentleman aroused suspicion at a local supermarket, and when confronted, pulled two bags of frozen shrimp from his pants. He tried to run away, but was tackled and held until the authorities arrived.

Sometimes I just have to wonder why people do the things they do. Maybe he had a craving for shrimp. I wonder if he had an unknown accomplice that made their escape with cocktail sauce for dipping the shrimp hidden in their clothing. We will never know. Was the shrimp returned to the frozen food section? Or was bagged for evidence? The wombats are stomping around my belfry a bit today! I tried to find a picture that would go along with this blog, but alas, none was found.

Sally-Ann

Chocolate Chip Cookie

I love to cook. My family has grown quite used to being experimented upon. Although there are quite a few recipes that will never be tried again, there are some that are family favourites. This is one of them!

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1 cup shortening (I use a stick of butter flavoured Crisco)

2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 1/4 cups flour

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Cream together shortening, sugars, eggs and vanilla until creamy

Add flour, salt and baking soda

Stir in chopped nuts and chocolate chips

Using a cookie scoop, drop on ungreased cookie sheet

Bake at 350deg. for approximately 10 minutes - remove from oven when they start to brown

Enjoy!

Sally-Ann

You may live next door to a redneck if......

My husband was rather concerned when he saw the title of this post. He was worried that our neighbours may see it and recognize themselves. To this comment I laughed rather rudely and maybe a tad to long. It is a risk I am willing to take!

We have been extremely lucky with neighbours over the years. There have been a few odd ones here and there, but they have always been very friendly, considerate, law abiding folks. The neighbours on the right of us moved in a few months ago. It has been interesting to say the least.

In a previous post I mentioned a strange sound coming from their backyard that sounded like a bicycle pump on steroids. My daughter came into the house the other day after jumping on the trampoline. When she jumps, she can see right into our neighbours yard. We have a wooden fence that surrounds our backyard, the previous neighbours painted their side of it blue. Jessica observed that the fence now has bright neon green splats all over it. They paint balled the fence. Why, we know not. Why, in the middle of the night when people are trying to sleep, we know not. My husband was away when this first started to occur. One night we were sitting in the living room and the strange whoooommmpp, whoooommmpp noise started again. When my husband asked what the heck that noise was, my daughter and I calmly stated, "Paintball tournament."

I did try and get pictures for my blog, but couldn't get them without being to conspicuous. I think they would have wondered why I was hanging over the top of the fence, camera in hand, saying, "Why? Why? Why?"

So, you may live next door to a redneck if you have experienced any of the following.

• Each morning as you make your way to the kitchen to make your children's breakfast, you are greeted by the neighbour's pit bulls as they sit at your dining room sliding glass doors.
• Your fence has huge gaping holes that the above mentioned pit bulls have chewed so they could get to your glass doors.
• You repeatedly tell your neighbours about the pit bulls and each time you do there is a different story - they belong to a friend who is in prison, we are looking after them for him, they belong to my mother and are going back to her tonight, we are sick of them as well and are taking them to the animal shelter.
• The pit bulls make a break from the animal shelter (yeah right), chew another hole in our fence and slobber all over our glass door again.
• There is at least 10 cars parked next door at all times. At least 2 of them have "For Sale" written on the back window. One must have the front window smashed in. They all need mufflers, this is even more obvious at 2am. They ALL have excellent stereo systems and speakers, also very obvious at 2am. They all also have car alarms (???????), the alarms go off at least twice a day or night.
• There are at least 3 permanent residents. All others, and their cars, rotate through at an amazing speed.
• Brawls break out occasionally in the front yard. It is strictly a hair pulling, face slapping affair with words that would make a sailor blush. I watched the whole thing peeking through my bedroom blinds.
• One gentleman who lives there, I truly cannot understand a word he says. To be fair, he doesn't understand my Australian accent either. Though, he did move so fast he had to hold up his falling down his rear end shorts when I raised my voice at his blank stare and said, "Get your dogs out of my yard now or I am loading them into my car and I will take them to the animal shelter for real!"
• They hang their clothes over our fence to dry. I really had to resist the urge to push their clothes of the fence.
• The once very tidy, cute house is now overgrown. Screens off windows, trash piled up and strewn all over.

When we have spoken to our neighbours, they seem very nice. I think they want to be good neighbours. I think they just don't know any better. They are getting better. They aren't as loud for as long in the wee hours of the morning now. After seeing us out working in our yard yesterday, today they picked up some of the trash and mowed their grass.

Maybe we can paintball together? If we unpatch the huge holes in our fence, we could have quite a paintball range. Maybe not. When I read some of the other blogs out there and the wide open spaces where some of these ladies live, I think YES! that is for me. Then it will be just my laundry hanging on the fence!

Oh well. Appreciate good neighbours and good friends.

Sally-Ann

You jump and you jump and you jump and you STOP!

One of Jessica's most favourite things to do in the whole wide world is jump on our trampoline! When it is time to take a break from homework, housework, or just lazing around the house type of work, she jumps!

One of Samuel's most favourite things in the whole world is to jump! He jumps around the house, he jumps off things, he jumps on the bed, he just jumps and jumps. His most favourite place to jump is our trampoline. Sometimes the first thing he says in the morning is, "Jump? Jump?" He is devastated when it is raining and can't jump.

Just goes to show that siblings that are 14 years apart can still have something in common.

Sally-Ann

One fish two fish red fish blue fish

Jessica has quite a few things that she participates in over the year and as a family we attend related events to support her and enjoy her talents. Sitting through harp concerts, road shows, school open houses, parent teacher conferences, etc., can be very difficult for a active little boy. So, today, I thought it should be Sam Day.

We had yearly passes for the Florida Aquarium for a very long time when we first moved to Tampa. But after visiting it many, many times and also going there on many, many school field trips, we were "aquariumed" out for a while. Samuel has never been, so today I took him for a visit!

What could possibly have Samuel sitting so still and concentrating so hard??

This stingray was part of the sea shore exhibit. It kept swimming right by Sam and as it went by like this, it would flip water up and make a splash. This kept Sam sitting still and enthralled for 10 minutes!

Never smile at a crocodile......or in this case, a alligator!

I tried for several photos to get Samuel to look at me and say, "CHEESE".

Missed the smile

and

"CHEESE" again!

AND AGAIN!!!!

Sam LOVED playing on the big sea shells. He also loved the touch tank. Wish I could have taken some pictures of him touching the star fish and other various underwater creepy crawlies, but, if I had let go of his "gentle" hands to snap a picture, there would have been death and mayhem at the touch tank today.

These are called "Sea Dragons" and are from Australia. Ugly little critters, but fascinating!




















We had a wonderful few hours at the aquarium. Many of the exhibits were closed for renovation, so we are looking forward to going back and exploring them when they open next month. They used to have a area called, "Explore the Shore". It had a splash area and several activities for children to participate in. The last time we were there, it was getting a little tired and worn. They now have a new area that is wonderful. I didn't take Samuel there today because we didn't have a towel or swimsuit for him, plus, I think there would have been major despair and wailing from my little boy when it was time to leave! That will be another thing to check out next time.

So, I will leave with a quote from Dr. Seuss.

"One fish

two fish

red fish

blue fish

Black fish

blue fish

old fish

new fish

This one has a little star.

This one has a little car.

Say! what a lot of fish there are.........

Today is gone. Today was fun.

Tomorrow is another one.

Every day,

from here to there,

funny things are everywhere.

Sally-Ann

For all the Mothers

San Diego

Jim is out of town for the week. He is in San Diego for a business conference. Sooooo, that leaves me holding down the fort at home. Perhaps the part that is the most difficult is the mornings. We get up at 5am in our house, why you may ask?? Jessica has early morning seminary at church every school day. They meet for 50 minutes and each year they have a different area of scriptures that they study. After that, I drive Jessica to school - through rush hour traffic - only to sit in a mind-boggling car pool drop-off lane full of sloth children slowly getting out of their parents cars and then meandering across the paths of cars trying to vacate the car pool line. That is made worse by ever-changing never-ending road construction!!! All with a 2, almost 3, year-old in tow.
A part from the fact that he insists everything is a fish, Sam is very good through all of this. It probably would even be better if my neighbours had not kept me awake last night doing who knows what in their yard. Sounds like a bicycle pump on steroids kept emanating from their house. Jessica and I think we have solved the mystery and will elaborate tomorrow!

Jim told me last night that he had complimentary eye mask, ear plugs and lavender linen spray in his room. Huummph! Cotton balls do not stay in the ears very well and do not mask the noise of a bicycle pump on steroids. No time to find eye masks, I just slap a whole pillow over my face. As for the lavender spray - last night it was eau de poopy butt courtesy of Sam.

So for all you hard working busy Mothers out there, here is a little something that was sent to me quite a while ago. I know it appears that I have gone You Tube mad, but I haven't!! I bet you have all said at least one of the phrases in this piece! Enjoy!!

Sally-Ann

Hilarious!

While I am on the subject of Josh Groban, I found this a while ago on You Tube. Make sure you listen to it all the way through, because, in my opinion, the funniest part is the chorus. Even my husband cracked up!

Sally-Ann

One of my Favourite Things

One of my favourite singers is Josh Groban. In January, 2005 Jim took me to one of his concerts for my birthday. It was wonderful. I missed Josh Groban singing on the Emmys last night, so, where do you go when you miss something like this?? You Tube of course!

A little about me - or maybe to much??

Thought I would take a moment to fill you in on my family.

I was born in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. I was adopted. I have a brother, Graham, who is 16 years older than me, and a sister, Gayle, who is 15 years older than me. After graduating from high school, I worked as a receptionist for a trucking company until I was old enough to go to nursing school. I graduated from nursing school, and worked at the Mersey General Hospital until I was 21. Then I went to Perth, Western Australia and served a mission for my church for a period of 18 months. That is where I met my husband.

I finished my mission in July of 1985. Went back to work at the Mersey General Hospital. Wrote to Jim who was still in Perth. We got to know each other very well through letters. Jim gave me a boomerang with what would be my married initials engraved on it - SAP (Sally-Ann Purdy - not literally sap!!) - so I would always come back to him. Jim finished his mission in March of 1986 and went back to Rapid City. I flew to the USA and after a brief stop in San Francisco, went to Rapid City around 15th March. We were married 1st April, 1986

We moved to Provo, Utah where Jim attended BYU. Decided to have a baby, got pregnant, reality set in, moved back to Rapid City until Joshua was born.

Jim is from Rapid City, South Dakota. He has 2 brothers and 1 sister, Jim is the baby of the family. Jim finished 1 year at Brigham Young University before he went on a mission to Perth, Western Australia. He is an attorney, has his own law practice - The Purdy Law Group.

Joshua was born 10th July, 1986 in Rapid City, South Dakota. He is currently in Canada serving a mission in the Canada Halifax Mission. We are very, very excited because we get to go and get him the 10th October!!! Joshua attended 1 year at BYU and plans to go back next year. Joshua is very talented and smart kid. He plays the piano and tenor saxophone.

After Joshua was born we moved to St. Paul, Minnesota. Jim attended undergrad at the University of Minnesota and then went on to law school.

Jessica was born 21st March, 1992 in Maplewood, Minnesota. Jim was in his final year of law school. Jessica was a bit of a surprise. We had given up trying to have another baby and had began the process of adoption, when...ta da.....I became pregnant!! Jessica is another smart and talented kid. Plays the piano, harp, violin and steel drums. Loves to read, write and draw. If you have been reading my previous posts and happened to be wondering, no, we have yet to find a harp that doubles as a car!

After law school, Jim joined the Air Force and was a JAG - Judge Advocate General. He was in the air force for 6 years. 4 at Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota and 2 at MacDill AFB here in Florida.

I will mention our 3rd child from time to time, but not a lot. Emma was still born on 23rd April, 2004. We had thought that 2 children was going to be it for us. We were so excited when we found out I was pregnant. I was a high risk pregnancy, but never thought anything would go wrong. It didn't until the end. She was a full-term baby, perfect in every way. Emma is part of our eternal family, but until then, she is in our hearts and in our thoughts always.

After having such a tough time getting pregnant with Jessica and Emma, Sam was no trouble whatsoever. After bed rest in the hospital and a emergency C-Section, along came Samuel Wilton Purdy on 29th October, 2005. I have posted quite a bit about Sam already. He keeps me young, he keeps life an adventure and he keeps me exhausted.

Well, that is the outline of my family! There is of course, much more to us than these few ramblings. Hopefully, you will keep coming back to my blog so I can learn from you, and maybe you can learn something from me!?

Sally-Ann

Book Winner Announced

I am sorry that it has taken so long to announce the book winner! My youngest was sick last week and everything was put on the back burner to run him back and forth to the doctor. Now he is better and making up for the low key week he had, everything is in overdrive this week!

But, without any further ado - the winner is!!!!!!

Here is the hat we chose to use for the drawing!

Here is the hat with the names!

Exciting isn't it!

Here is Sam taking off with the hat and names!

See how quick he is? I could barely snap a photo and he was gone.......


After retrieving the hat and the contents of the kidnapped hat, the winner is......
Aimee Carter

I hope that you enjoy the book!

This is Thursday.....

The first photo was taken at "Story Book Island" in Rapid City, South Dakota this summer, his cousin, Zion, is sitting behind him. The 2nd was taken the night we arrived home from vacation. A cell phone, a "ookie" = a happy boy

I just tucked my little boy into bed. After reading 20,000 books, complete with funny voices, brushing his teeth and snuggling him in with kisses being blown to me as I go out the door - I think we have sleep-off.

Thursdays are very tiring days. I take Samuel to Kindermusik at 10:10am every Thursday. I used to take Jessica to Kindermusik when she was the same age. It has changed quite a bit since 14 years ago! Jessica's Kindermusik teacher was quite old. In fact, I asked Jessica what she remembered about Kindermusik and that is the first thing she said, "The teacher was old." The only other thing that she could remember was the extremely steep driveway that led up to the teacher's house. This was in South Dakota, so in the winter it was quite an adventure getting up the driveway! Jessica's teacher didn't get on the floor and play like Samuel's teacher! Jessica would sit on my lap, listen and follow all the directions. She would play the instruments when she was supposed to, she twirled and tiptoed on cue. They had cute hobby horses that they would ride around galloping to the beat of a song. All in all it was very satisfying and enjoyable for her and me.

Zoom ahead 14 years. Sam's teacher is not old, a mere slip of a girl (just in case she reads this). Miss Aimee sings beautifully, and has energy to spare. We don't have to battle snow storms to get to class, just the occasional hurricane. Miss Aimee makes us take an oath at the beginning of each session that we will not be judgmental of the other Mummy's and Daddy's parenting skills. Today, I felt like we needed to add, "Please, please, don't judge my little boy harshly for his lack of social graces!" Sam rarely sits on my lap, does not follow directions all that well (he occasionally chooses to) and at times has been known to throw musical instruments through the air like missiles, push his classmates down as a greeting, pull dear, sweet little girl's hair........ Though, last week I did learn that in is a milestone for children to be able to avert their eyes and ignore you completely! Every Thursday my husband asks how Kindermusik went, for a long time I had to tell him that Samuel spent the entire time galloping or jumping around the perimeter of the classroom. Miss Aimee has a post on her blog http://delightfulsounds.blogspot.com/ that another parent wrote. I just reread it and I feel much better!

Sam loves Kindermusik. When we drive into the parking lot, he claps his hands together and says, "fun, fun, fun". Even though he rarely sings along in the classroom, at home and in the car he sings the songs all the time. The books are all well-worn and he now tells us the stories.

My children joke - well, I think it is a joke - and say that Sam is the favourite. No, he isn't the favourite, I have just learned a very hard lesson of how precious and how short every minute we have with our children is. I wish I could go back in time and be more patient, not so worried about the housework or getting this and that done. As I tucked Samuel in tonight I had the familiar pain in my heart and tears in my eyes as I thought of the little girl I wish I was tucking in with Sam. I can't help but think that our little Emma Rose would be a calming salve to our wild little boy. A yin to his yang. Sometimes I look back to check on Sam in his car seat and I get a flash of "there should be 2 car seats back there." But there isn't. So, I hold my little boy a little tighter, I read 20,000 books, never tire of repeating the phrase, "gentle hands", let the housework pile up, keep a stock of Oreo cookies on hand and I just enjoy his quirks, his singing, his hugs and kisses, his joy in life. I am doing what I love the most, I am a Mum to 4 wonderful children.

This post certainly did not go the way I intended! I was shooting for light-hearted and ...Oh well, a blog is for posting what is on your mind, and I guess I had a lot of wombats in my belfry today. Thursdays are tiring, but I wouldn't change them.

Sally-Ann

Labour Day with a mouse

With the forecast predicting thunderstorms yesterday, we decided to take a chance and go to Epcot for the day. The original plan was to be up and out of the house at 7:30am so we would be there when it opened at 9am. Well, we left at 11:30am, stopped off for McDonald's on the way. Or to quote Sam, "M - fries!" When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised. Not a huge crowd, we were actually parked close enough to walk from the parking lot to the entrance. It was hot, but not unbearably so.

You will notice in all these photos that we are in different clothes. Why you may ask? Camera malfunction yesterday. It couldn't possibly be because my family refused to co-operate and have their pictures taken, thus forcing me to use photos from other trips. So, I have decided to use the most flattering photos to tell of our adventures.

OK, so the above photo is cute

Sam's favourite thing to to at any theme park is to splash in the cool down areas scattered through out. This shot was actually taken yesterday just before we went home.

We all have our favourite things to do at the parks. At Epcot I enjoy visiting the different countries and learning something new. I enjoy browsing the gift shops, but rarely buy anything. I am not sure what Jim's favourite part is, but I do know that he likes the different rides. I do as well. Sam loves the water as I said above, but he also loves the Winnie the Pooh ride. Jessica loves to browse the gift shops and she also loves to buy stuff from the gift shops. Lots and lots of stuff. As for Jessica's favourite rides. She absolutely loves It's a Small World ride at Magic Kingdom! snicker, snicker, lol And Jessica loves to ride on the little kid rides with her baby brother.

Can you see the excitement all over her face? She can hardly contain herself!!!

It isn't often that you get to capture joy like that on film.

Sam, on the other hand, enjoys the merry-go-round

I may stand corrected, THIS could be Jessica's favourite ride.

It is always an experience to go to the different theme parks. It is a great opportunity to "people watch". You can always tell the people from Florida a part from those who are tourists from some other part of the U.S.A.. You can very obviously tell the tourists visiting from Britain and say, Italy. These observations aren't across the board of course, but almost! Many people are trying to cram every theme park into 7 days and the result is hot, bothered and screaming families. You see many different fashion statements and some cause a double take or at least a raised eye brow or two. Disney World needs to be taken in small increments - not all 4 parks in 4 days. I love taking the kids and seeing it through their eyes. Even a teenagers eyes as she rides in spinning teacup rides with her baby brother!

Sally-Ann