Well hello there!

Well it's been a busy summer - I've lost 30 lbs, jogged 15 km a day, my skin is perfectly clear, I look 10 years younger, the kids have been a joy to have around every single day, no bickering, it was almost too difficult to drop them at camp the few weeks they were there...

Yeah, no.

Not that it's been a bad summer, it's just been - busy. Busy in ways that have not involved any of the above-mentioned fantasies...

Busy in:

- finally going to small claims court for our settlement conference and paying the *(&*#&@*^(%#*^@_*#^%_^#*^_*^# contractor a couple of hundred dollars to go away. And spending the last 6 weeks feeling like a complete and total chump. But - he lied. He lied lied lied lied lied at the settlement conference (did I mention that we were the 4th in a group of people at a certain time and I had to spend close to two hours sitting in the waiting room with him? UGH). I didn't feel too badly when I left the court - I felt like I had taken the moral high road, he was a liar and a cheat and was going to continue to lie and cheat and obviously had been in this situation before and know how to muddy the waters - I would much rather be an honest person who was taken advantage of than be a slimy bastard like him. But it still stings that he walked away with even a dime more of our money. I just decided that he wasn't going to be fair or honest and the judge was about to decide that we had to go to a full small court trial - at which he could have lied further and who knows what would have happened. Slimy nasty beast. I just don't understand people who lie like that.

- two kids on holidays... overall it's been great. We've had lousy weather so it hasn't felt as much like summer as we would have liked. No sense in crying over bad weather. I'm nearing the end of my summer patience though - the bickering is getting to me. And J has not had any activities in August and is getting a little... she's a bit of a pain in the ass. Stu was at camp this week with his BFF (who lived on our street and then - sob - moved a 10 minute drive away). They both did swimming camp (different weeks) Stu did hockey camp (the last day they had a game and they "announced" them as they came onto the ice - too cool!) and J did ballet camp for 6 mornings over two weeks. Lots of packing lunches, snacks, bathing suits and sunblock.

- vacation! We spent a week in Prince Edward County, about a 20 minute drive from Picton. Loved the area. Ate lots and lots of good cheese, drank good wine and cider. There is an amazing new cheese maker there called Fifth Town that claims to be the greenest dairy in Canada and makes only Goat and Sheep cheese... great for this cheese lover with a cow's milk problem. Downside of the vacation had to be the really bad beds - hard as a rock, creaked so much if you so much as moved a limb (rolling over and/or getting out of bed woke the rest of the household. No joke.) It was wonderful to have Marc all to ourselves for a week (cell phone OFF! Only checked once a day!! No laptop!) We had the most beautiful afternoon at the Dunes beach at Sandbanks Provincial Park (gee, I should be linking all these things...)

- trying to start getting ready for back to school in 10 days. I am so certain that we are making the right choice moving the kids. Stu had been getting in our bed every night from March to the end of June. The day after school was over? He started sleeping through the night again (he's still up too late and wakes up too early, but you can't have it all, right?). I really had no concept of how much he hated going to that school every day. My poor little man. The kids in this area are really intimidating to him - we went to a local park with a splash pad last week and there were 4 kids (3 girls, 1 boy) of a certain background there, yelling, screaming, pushing, shoving, generally wreaking havoc as children of a certain background in this area always seem to be doing (with no parental supervision even though the two younger girls appeared to only be about 6) and Stu just really hung back, walked around the periphery, tried not to get involved... even Julia didn't want to go near them. This must be what he felt like every day at school. So I am glad we are changing schools. But can I confess something? I'm scared too. I'm worried about my kids fitting in, about them making new friends and being happy - and also about ME fitting in, making new friends and being happy... I've spent a lot of energy in the last two years to do what I could to settle us all in this neighbourhood and especially in the school and now I'm starting all over. Ugh.

- looking at houses... no, we are not moving. But I am quite disenchanted with our area. I feel like a fool for not seeing it before we bought this house last year. I am also dreading the drive to and from the new school - it will be about 20 minutes each way (could be more depending on traffic). When Marc is home he will take Stu in the morning and I will take Julia at 12:00 and be there to pick them both up at 2:30. Which doesn't leave a lot of time for doing much if I wanted to come home (not to mention the gas) and Marc is already scheduled to be away a lot in September. So a move closer to the school was so tempting but unfortunately far too far out of our budget. Our budget that just got a pretty serious overhaul in order to possibly afford moving sometime in the next couple of years.

- trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up - or more specifically a job that I can do mostly from home when Julia starts full days in September 2010 that will enable me to be home at the end of the day for them and be here in case they are sick etc... Everyone is telling me to start free-lance translating from home but my degree seems a million years ago and I am very intimidated. I need a lightning bolt (or some very good suggestions... anyone got any??)

- eating. Guess what? When I am: stressed, bored, irritated, worried, tired (etc... you get the idea) I EAT. I had been doing well with losing weight (I was down 23lbs in May) but I've fallen off the wagon and gained about 7 over the summer. I still weigh as much as I did 9 months pregnant. Bleah.

Other than that... hmmmm. Not much. Where on earth did the summer go??