Time Again For a Little Catch Up

I have become a terrible blogger. My posts have become far and few between. I get emails in my inbox from time to time from random readers telling me to get my butt in gear and post more often. You would think from the lack of activity on the blog that my life must be so boring lately that I haven't had anything to blog about. That is not the case, although what I wouldn't give for some boredom from time to time. So here is a recap of what we've been up to around here:

My super fun home party business job was really slow after Christmas (and into the spring) so I decided to apply for a job with Statistics Canada and from late April until early August I was a government employee. While it wasn't the most glamourous job it was definitely interesting. I'm bound by an oath that prevents me from talking about much of the experience but I will just say this: Think about what you are wearing (or not wearing) when you answer your front door before you open that door.

It was somewhere in the late spring that I bought a new weight scale that hates me and I found that I had gained about 25lbs in the last year and was apparently oblivious. This new revelation brought a pop detox, a iced capp cut back and more attention to my portion sizes and listening to my brain when it says "WHOA, you've had enough. I know you like the taste of it but step away fat ass". I'm not sure that cutting back on my iced capp consumption right before school let out for summer was the best idea.

June brought the end of school and the beginning of the end for what was left of my sanity. For some insane reason I thought it would be a good idea to enrol the boys in daily swimming lessons in a different town at 10 o'clock in the morning for 2 weeks. The thought behind that was it would force us to get up, get dressed and get moving everyday. I forgot that I am not a morning person -not even a little bit.

Little Bear went to sleep away camp for the first time ever the second week in July. I was so nervous about this I couldn't drop him off and I couldn't sleep for the first couple days. It didn't help that X told me that Little Bear cried when he left him there. However, when I went to pick him up at the end of the week he was crying again but this time because he didn't want to leave. While Little Bear was away Papa Bear decided this would be a good time to (finally) tear out the old panelled walls and drywall in Fuzzy's room and Fuzzy could sleep in Little Bear's room. Half way through this project which ended up much bigger with the closet falling down and having to be rebuilt and the floor also being replaced, the wheat in the fields was ready to be harvested. I would just like to point out that I KNEW this was going to happen and the whole reason I choose the second week in July for Little Bear to go to camp was because that is the week week we are typically in wheat harvest. The result was the 2 boys bunking up for a little over a week to Little Bear's disdain. In the end Fuzzy's room turned out fantastic and well worth the wait.

At the end of July and into the beginning of August the Bear Family took our summer vacation again in Niagara Falls. We visited the Niagara Zoo and stayed at a hotel with it's own water park. The boys had a blast and while they will likely outgrow that particular hotel water park I think that I wouldn't mind staying at a similar place with a larger scale park. The boys were having so much fun that I almost didn't care that I had to squeeze my squishy (25lbs heavier) body into a bathing suit in front of strangers.

In August the boys did round 2 of daily swimming lessons since I obviously hadn't learned my lesson the first round and am a sucker for punishment. The fact that 2 out of the 3 boys passed their swimming levels validates driving with 1 eye still shut every morning. There likely would have been a third round of swimming lessons if I had been able to foresee that X was going to renege on his promise to the boys that they could come to his house for a full week. How I didn't see that coming I don't know.

Towards the end of August the boys really started to get sick of each other and resorted to non stop fighting that started as soon as 2 of them had their eyes open until the last 2 fell asleep at the end of the day. The result was an my increased dose of Extra Strength Advil and really focusing on the number of days left until school went back in.

The end of August also brought one of the biggest storms we have had since I have lived on the farm. I still swear a tornado touched down in our back yard. Papa Bear says it was a down burst of wind or some crap but that doesn't seem a big enough deal to completely take out our pear tree, throw our trampoline (which was anchored down with cement blocks) across our back field to rest in a mangled heap in the trees on the river bank, push a grain wagon hitch first across the field, take out the other half of the large tree that got struck by lightning a few years ago, break of a huge branch of another tree that would get tangled in and snap the hydro line that runs from the house to the drive shed, break off another branch that would hit and dent Papa Bear's truck, leave the boys' climber in need of repair and split a huge crack in probably they biggest and most mature of our trees so that it had to be cut down because of the danger it posed to splitting completely and falling. It was probably the scariest weather I have encountered.

At the beginning of September Little Bear went off to start Grade 3 and Fuzzy to S/K. As much as I was looking forward to them going back I must admit that once they were gone I missed them. Not enough to wish another 2 months of them being home but I do miss them when they are at school. September also brings the busiest season for work which I am so looking forward to. I love my job and the busier I am the longer I can put off having to look for a P/T job.

That about brings us up to date. Sorry this post is so extremely long but there was a lot of stuff to catch up on. I'm hoping to get my groove back and not leave my readers with such large gaps between posts. I'm also hoping to bring back the occasional "Wordless Wednesday". I miss blogging regularly and I miss reading comments from my readers.