Air Cadets

Last year Connor could hardly wait to turn 12 and join Air Cadets. The squadron here is very unorganized and within a few months he wanted to quit. Most of the older cadets did quit, leaving mostly first year kids. I told him he could only quit if he found a replacement activity. I wanted him to stick it out because he has a habit of quitting activities. He wasn't happy but he made it through the rest of the year. Last week he was selected to attend a two week camp in Trenton so now he is ecstatic. Today was their annual review and here is a picture of Connor in uniform.


Here is Connor and his proud grandmother.

Our Magnolia

We have wanted a magnolia for a long time. They can be tricky in our zone as the flower buds can be killed by a late frost. To make a long story short, I finally bought one late last spring and we have just enjoyed it's first blooms. It is a Yellowbird. Unfortunately, they don't last very long. I guess the consolation is that the lilac is blooming now so I can enjoy their scent while mourning the passing of the magnolia blooms until next year. That is one of the things I love about gardening - the everchanging sights and scents.

Long overdue update

Wow - It's been over a month since I blogged. I knew I would be very busy at work getting everyone's gardens ready for the summer but I didn't expect to neglect my blog for this long! My client load has close to doubled and my team is not very experienced though they are enthusiastic and learning quickly. I have also been very busy trying to restore the house to it's previous glory while we continue to clean up from the flood. We know have a 20 foot steel storage unit in our driveway and most of the contents of the house are out there. The basement has been drywalled and mudded and sanded. I spent Thursday priming and all weekend painting. Connor's room is ready to be floored and the flooring is on order. The last coat will be on the computer room and bathroom walls today. That only leaves the family room to paint and decide on the flooring for the computer and family room. Something totally waterproof would be nice! I will try and blog the before, during and after pictures when it is done.

This has been the quietest long weekend we have had since we moved to Wasaga Beach. The cool rainy weather kept the partiers at home or at least indoors. We heard lots of firecrackers but not very many sirens.

Back to Work

I started back to work today. I spent the whole day cutting down ornamental grass at condos. There were 9 of us and we are about half done. There is a lot of grass at this particular condo. All I want to go now is have a nice relaxing jacuzzi and soak those aching muscles. So this is a short blog and a warning to my fans that my blogs are going to decrease dramatically now.

More on Aprons

This is how they wear aprons in Cuba. Apparently us Canadians have the wrong idea. They are not for cooking - they are for dancing! Looks like a lot more fun doesn't it?

Update

For those of you who are wondering - I am still alive!  Kevin and I just got back from our first ever tropical vacation.  We went to Cuba.  The resort was in a biosphere connected to the  mainland by a 45 km causeway.  There were 3 other resorts and a marina and we think a military outpost but that was probably all so it was very quiet.  The only people allowed on the causeway are employees and tourists.  Private Cuban vehicles are not allowed.  We didn't get in as much swimming as we had hoped because all the days we were there were windy and yellow or red flag days (indicating danger level).  Kevin snorkelled twice, myself only once.  It poured on and off the last 3 days still it was a wonderful time.  We took a tour to a historic town called Trinidad on the opposite coast.  The driving is an experience in itself.  Kevin says the national pastime is dodgebus.  The bus will be barrelling down the road at 90 km and suddenly a dog, goats, cows, people (walking or on bicycle or horse) will be on the road.  Transportation in Cuba is something else! The people are friendly, clean but so poor.  I would love to be able to blog lots of or pictures but we arrived home to discover we were one of the 400 or so houses flooded on Tuesday and our computer is not currently working.  We knew nothing about it until we landed as communication in Cuba is also quite different
 than here.  So I am using Caitlin's computer which I am not used to and I have no idea when I will be 
on again.  All of the carpet and laminate flooring in the basement, except for Tori's room, was torn out and there are 9 industrial fans/dehumidifiers running.  They also removed the bottom 2 feet of drywall around the basement.  Victoria handled everything very well.  Connor found the water when he came home from school.  One of his friends mom's came over for 5 hours and wet vacuumed the basement.  It took Tori 2 hours to make the 20 minute drive home from school.  Then she rounded up and rented dehumidifiers and dealt with our insurance agent and contractors until Kevin's brother arrived.  He told them they could wait until we got home so they did.  So that's it for now.  

March Break

Didn't go as planned. We were supposed to spend a few days at my sister's in New York but Connor was sick and I thought it was mono and she didn't want us to pass it on. Late Monday we learned it was strep throat but it was too late to change our plans. So Connor had a few sleepovers and Kevin and Connor and a friend made a quinzhee. They didn't get to sleep in it because the weather was much warmer than expected the next day so it was no longer safe. We went for a short snowshoe. Tori worked some extra shifts and had a sleepover. Wednesday night Connor and a friend went to the Y. Some other kids (that they didn't know) started throwing balls at them, then stole Connor's hockey stick. Connor tried to get it back, tried to pry the other kid's fingers off then punched him so the other kid put the hockey stick to Connor's throat and threw him against the window. Connor must have blacked out because when he came too his other friend was lying on the ground beside him and he had no idea how he got there. I arrived to pick them up 2 minutes later and they were completing the official report. This was only the 2nd time I had left him alone at the Y. I spent much of the next 18 hours talking to Telehealth, the YMCA, the police and spent 5 hours sitting at the hospital. The "agressor" is most likely under 14 and can't be charged. I think it is just a case of boys being boys but due to the seriousness of the injury the police want to talk to everyone. Yesterday we went to LeBaron (for Kevin), visited Caitlin at the stable, visited Kevin's dad in the nursing home and took the kids 10 pin bowling for their first time. We had a horrible time finding balls that fit any of our hands. And we learned Tori can't bowl. Who knows what the next two days will bring.