Happy Birthday Famfa

One small interruption in the night, not from any small people but from the persistent rain. Huffle and I did our usual run around the house at great speed shutting all windows.

Today it was my birthday, and what a fabulous day I had. Yesterday I was feeling a little sad that I would be away from all the people I knew and loved (apart from Huffle and the boys of course) but I woke up to lovely emails, Facebook messages, Whatsapp and text messages. Plus a load of cards hidden behind the clock.

I lay in bed and worked out what age I was. I have lied for years so I didn't really know without working it out. I panicked, I am not good at maths and added an extra year on, so I felt a little better when I realised I was actually a year younger. Still a shock though!! The kids had made me cards and I opened theirs first with them watching. Smallest's card was of a round face which he informed me was not the walmart RollBack face which said 'Happy birthday Mummy, oh you're not my Mummy! and on the other side it was full of drawings of Mario and Luigi, the ghost and various characters from Mario brothers. Small's had a smiley face on the front which again was NOT the rollback face! Huffle had bought me a lovely Japenese Blood Grass and that sat on the table (love them).

Then I opened my present from Huffle - an IPod Docking speaker. It is wireless and Bluetooth so it means I can have it upstairs in the loft or downstairs in the basement whilst exercising and still play radio or the IPod or my phone - perfect, and it's really loud WAHOOOOOO. The kids bought me two bracelets (one of which Smallest said he picked especially for me but I I know he is fibbing because I bought it myself ha!, and some bulbs to remind me of our English Village garden. They are called Arum italicum and our neighbours Hairy and CogCog grew them and gave us some. Ahhhhh a little bit of old home.

I was also surprised to find that where I work, they had posted onto Facebook a link to a newspaper article on MrsM and I gardening at the Fairmont Royal York and there were plenty of photos of me on there. Yay fame at last. Well that wasn't it....... I later found out that I I was on the front cover on the local newspaper. I have yet to see the photo or the paper but someone I know has put it aside for me to see in the week.

I didn't open anything else and got the kids away to school and wished Huffle lots of luck for his English test today. He left in plenty of time (or so he thought) but hit horrendous traffic on the way and panicked about getting there in time. Still, he did get there on time and queued up with the United Nations. He felt he did well and expects to pass. He managed to talk about Beefy Botham for one of the questions and was very happy with that! He came home and we got to spend an hour or so together before the kids came home.

I went off to knitting this morning and was welcomed through the door with "happy birthday song", a cake and a pot cake trinket box with a lit candle. We all ate cake and had a good laugh. They are such a lovely group. RudeTrude had made me a lovely Fall cake which was full of fruit and apple and had a cream cheese icing with skor bits. It was very thoughtful and lovely. I didn't actually achieve anything at knitting because El undid it back to a hole she found and I struggled with the heel but I enjoyed it and they made me feel very special.

I left knitting to come home for my date with the cooker engineer. He didn't actually turn up until 3pm, changed the glass and two circuit boards. I told him I hoped I never saw him again and he said he didn't take offence. While I was waiting for him to turn up I skyped Aunty Miaow and we had a really good chat and catch up. It was lovely. Then I skyped Moo as she was trying to get through at the same time. We had a lovely chat too. In fact I was on to them both for about an hour and a half!. I told Moo I was going to put my music on loud and dance around the kitchen while I tidied it but Huffle turned up so we had a piece of cake and a cup of tea, then the engineer came. I opened the rest of my cards. I had $70, forty daffodil bulbs, a phone charger (for days when I need to take photos all day and can charge the phone without electricity - well that's everyday then!), animal tattoos (which Aunty A informs me every girl needs) and a compass for my car. I still have to find a bracelet from Moo which I haven't chosen yet.

As the Engineer finished, the boys got home and we got ready for swimming. We all went to swimming lessons. Both did really well. Both suffered with the chlorine today. Once they had finished and got changed we went for dinner at the Tin Mill. Smallest got to try ribs for the first time. He kind of liked them but wasn't happy about getting his hands all messy. Small had a burger. Huffle and I had a lovely carrot, orange and Ginger soup and we shared a leek and mushroom tart and fries. I had a cheeky red wine. Just lovely.

We came home, the boys watched a bit of TV and then went to bed.

THANK YOU FOR ALL MY LOVELY MESSAGES. YOU HAVE MADE ME FEEL VERY SPECIAL.

 

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Don't cry over spilt milk!

It seems that when a certain person (not naming any names but it wasn't me or the kids!) posted my blog last night, they posted it to the wrong one. Well it is there now. I suppose I shouldn't be so greedy and stick to one!

Apparantly Small had another nose bleed in the night. He said he got up to go to the toilet and bumped his nose on the door!!?? It wasn't bad and he didn't feel upset enough to wake us.

Everyone left me to it this morning and I cycled to Power Yoga. Phew, I got to tie myself up in some interesting knots. I was a crow, a tree, and an ouchy mess.

Cycling past the cornfield

Then I cycled to school to drop off Smallest's agenda that he forgot and cycled home where I tipped a bottle of water in my bag all over my yoga mat, towel, my phone and keys. I grabbed my phone as quickly as possible and dried it off. Hopefully I got there in time. I have already had it replaced once because it got wet inside but that was from when I dropped it in the snow. Honestly, they are a great phone but don't you think they could be better protected. I never got on with the otterbox or whatever it was called, it just broke! We were watching 'would I lie to you' last night and they were talking about when Dermott o'Leary was a teenager and someone asked him if he texted a girl or spoke to her. They were all laughing because we didn't have texting then. Lee Mack said before texting we pressed our faces up against the window and shouted!

No walk in the forest for me today as NoCustard is busy and it's not the same walking on your own. Shame! The rest of the morning I spent tidying, showering and emptying the dishwasher etc.

After lunch I went for a trip to the Supermarket. I bought all my toiletries and a couple of Christmas presents for the kids. Well their birthdays are over now so I can concentrate on Christmas. I popped to the Thrifty Shop to give some toys away and then had a peak inside. Not much there today but I got some cheap binding tape which I use for bunting.

Lovely tree, lovely colours, very autumnal

The mailbox was full when I got home. Two more packages for Small. My lovely friend MrsChappo sent us some Freddo Frogs yum yum and Aunty Miaow and Uncle Tuc sent Small some special cooking utensils for flipping pancakes and making scrambled egg. Very cool.

They are called Sir bakealot

While I putting the shopping away I opened the fridge door and the milk jumped out and spilt everywhere, nightmare. Later when Smallest opened the fridge it happened again. Milk everywhere. This time we had to get the mop out, it was THAT bad!

I sat on the porch and read my letter from MrsChappo (love snail mail). The sun was shining and it was really warm again. I started a new sock for Small for Christmas and waited for Smallest to come home. He was late and I was just starting to worry when he arrived. Apparantly the bus took a different route home today to drop someone new off. Small was at football try-outs so we got in the car and went to the library. Then we realised it wasn't library day so we went to see Smallest's friend instead. He stayed there while I picked up Small and then Smallest was dropped off later after a good play.

I made dinner, Small built his Lego and then when Huffle came home late we all ate. I had my first birthday present to myself today - Heinz Baked Beans. I bought myself two tins as a treat and had half of one tonight.

We all played football and then the kids watched TV.

Huffle is having a horrible time at work and is under a lot of pressure. Tomorrow is his English Test for our 'Residency'. Last night he listened to a practice test. One of the questions was "which mode of transport would be best used in a short journey". WHAT?! Worrabout yer legs mate! Or mebbe al tek the buz! Gerron a 'orse? Giz a croggy?

 

 

 

 

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Pollen Poo

I learnt an interesting fact yesterday whilst at work. Bees do not poo in their hive. They can go for up to three weeks without pooing and when they do, they come out of their hive. Their poo is yellow and is practically pollen. Well isn't that interesting? I have written this in English, not Canadian. Otherwise I would have put poop and washroom!!

All slept well. Smallest seems to have lost his barking cough. Small still has a croaky voice and did get up to say he felt very sick but we sent him back to bed with positive thoughts and the realisation that the nausea may be because of all the party food and NOT strep! We told him he was ten now and that he had possibly grown out of strep. Hope that helps. He woke up feeling better but still with a gravelly voice.

Huffle went to work but had a terrible day as he has a lot to deal with at the moment. Poor Huffle.

I stayed at home and did load after load of washing, drying, ironing and sorting. Two lots of 'accident' bedding plus I washed Small's bedding, as well as the normal washing. That's a lot! I also ironed a ton of Huffle's tee-shirts (I don't normally do any of his ironing but I was feeling generous). I watched Downton Abbey and Peter Andre whilst ironing. (I'm not a huge fan of Peter but we used to watch the Katy and Peter reality TV show so I wanted to see what he was up to). I also ironed all of Small's bunting ready to sew it.

I stopped for lunch and sat on the porch. The weather was glorious again today. 24* and very warm. In the afternoon I got on the mower and did all the grass, front and back. I mowed over all the leaves, much better than sweeping and raking I thought. I still had to do a bit of raking but only one wheelbarrow full of grass. Then I raked and swept the leaves off the drive. That was a big job. How many leaves can fall in a few days? It's ridiculous. I took loads down to the bottom of the garden.

I had time to do a bit of knitting and sat on the porch and waited for the boys to come home. Today I have been having lovely text chats with Everett and Yahoo. Just a general catch up. Nice.

When the boys came home they sat and played on Minecraft (one of Small's birthday presents) before they had their showers, put their clothes away and set the dinner table. I made a roast dinner. When Huffle came home we all ate and then played football.

Smallest tells us this is a Katydid and it makes an Electric kind of noise. We don't know why it climbed up our screen bit he just sits there.

 

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"Penguin's got a massive nose!"

HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY SMALL

His birthday porridge (he gets his requested croissants at the weekend).

Smallest got up in the night after another accident. Is he worried about something or is he just drinking too much (he did say he refilled his night drink!). Both Huffle and I got up and changed all the bedding. Of course, Small woke up too. I didn't sleep too well. I kept thinking about how I was going to do the cake!

Huffle worked from home. I went to work. Jan and I worked on another part of the garden today, clearing Salvia (which I came home with) and mahonia of which there was far too much. We worked hard as usual and stopped for coffee and compost cookies (interesting they had ground coffee, pretzels and corn chips in them). We replanted up some of the area we cleared. I came home about 12:30 to get a start on Small's cake and prepare for our party.

Huffle and I had a quick sandwich before I did the cake. I have to say this is the worst cake I have ever made. I swore a lot. I threw things around. I was not at all happy. I have never liked wrestling and I wasn't overly happy with the figures I made yesterday but I thought the ring would be the easy part. Oh no! The chocolate fingers didn't stick in the cake and the liquorice laces didn't stick to the chocolate fingers. Jon Cena's arm fell off, then his legs, his ear and finally his head. Ray Mysterio's head fell off and his hand. I managed to join them together but they weren't as they should have been. It was a complete mess. However, when the boys first saw it they both said "wow, that's amazing". Fair enough. I knew it would taste okay because I have been testing it throughout the whole process.

Small took the 24 small cup cakes to school and they were received very well. He says no one ever takes in homemade stuff. ha!

I made two pass the parcels with forfeits and wrapped Small's presents. The table was laid out with the cake, balloons, party horns, presents and cards. Huffle had put up the bunting earlier and we had a huge Union Jack at the front door. I managed to get a shower in before Small came home. As soon as he got off the bus he saw the flag and was very happy. He came in, loved his cake and started to open his cards and presents.

Grandma skyped and she watched him open stuff and sang to him. Moo skyped and chatted about what he had. Then we put Moo in one corner of the table and skyped Grandma again and put her in the other corner and then we lit the candles and all sang. It was funny.

Aunt and Unc Pear skyped and then HB skyped too. He is a popular boy and has had loads of email, whatsapp and Facebook messages - THANK YOU EVERYONE.

We played pass the parcel, ate our pizza whilst watching the 1966 batman film. Too cheesey for me. We had Angel Delight, Jelly and Ice-cream and the boys had a small piece of cake. It's huge, we will be eating this for the rest of the year! The boys got bored of batman and played with Small's new Pokemon cards.

PILE ON!!!!

Small came home with a very gravelly voice. He will be doing another salt gargle tonight.

We are all shattered.

 

 

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WARNING - this could be a Health Risk

Last night we watched Doc Martin. We watch this via an Americian Internet channel and we have to endure lots of interesting adverts. Clear Teeth Alignment which goes over your teeth and puts them in line without anyone seeing. There is one about Shingles which tells us that everyone who has had chicken pox has the virus inside them and to speak to their Health Advisor (yes I can imagine they will be very happy with that). Dry Eyes - artificial tears but the side effects are burnt eyes, watery eyes, redness, eye pain, itching, blurred vision and they tell you not to poke yourself in the eye. Eyelash Thickener - Apparantly after the age of Forty, our eyelashes start getting less so you can make them thicker. Side effects are hairs grow in other places, colour part of the eye will likely turn brown, eyelids gets darker but may be reversible (then again it may not). Constipation - no apparent side effects but they do like to talk about it a lot. MSRelapse Pills - replaces injections but the side effects are slow heart rate, vision problems, liver and blood pressure problems, diarrhoea. It seems that in North America, if you advertise something of a medical nature, you also have to list all the possible side effects. How anyone ever buys anything is beyond me! Huffle and I have been very entertained by all these adverts.

I dreamt last night that part of our house that we had forgotten about had a theatre. I thought it might be a nice idea to use it to perform our Christmas plays! Anyway we rented it out to someone else because we couldn't afford it. There was a whole other house hidden behind a doorway that we had forgotten about. Ummmmmm. Any ideas?

The boys went to school (I told Smallest to ring home if he felt poorly and he said "I'll use the Canadian word though mummy", I asked what it was and he said "it's sick not poorly"). Huffle went off to work and I waited in for the the cooker man again. 8am to 12 and he arrived at 11:30. Nice man but talked a lot. I was silly enough to tell him I I didn't really understand how the indication Cooker worked and he told me, in great detail YYAAWWWNNNN. He has to come back on Friday to fit some new parts. I insisted he should come in the afternoon and after 1pm. I told him it was my birthday and I think he felt sorry for me so said it would be alright.

I spent all day making wrestling figures out of icing. I skyped Grandma this morning and she tried to help with colour mixing. I skyped Moo this afternoon and told her to get over here and help me but she wouldn't pop over just for the day!! She has a poorly mouth so it was hard to talk.

Don't laugh!

I finished the figures and started on the cake once the cooker man had gone. Two big square Chocolate cakes. One raspberry jelly. One Strawberry Angel delight. 24 small cup cakes with butter icing. A big bowl of Oreo Chocolate icing ready for the cake. A tray of flapjack. Today's work done. Tomorrow I will finish it all after work.

The boys came home and admired my handiwork, played outside, played upstairs and ate their dinner when Huffle got home, before we rushed them off to Beavers and Cubs.

Smallest asked me to take his photo on his own because he didn't like Small doing silly things behind his back and he wanted a serious photo,

Both clubs started at 6:45pm, one was in the Community Hall and one was in the Legion. Once dropped off, Huffle and I went shopping for a '0' candle for the cake and a few bits for the rest of the week. We drove home, put it away and Huffle went off to fetch Smallest who finished at 7:45pm. Huffle was once again asked if he would like to be a leader. NO THANK YOU!! He dropped Smallest home and went to fetch Small.

All the cake bits and bobs were put away safely till tomorrow and the boys up to bed. Small came down because he had a sore throat and did a salt gargle (this time last year he had strep, I don't know if that is worrying him or he is expecting to get it!). He went to bed, then came down again because he had a nose bleed - this time we couldn't blame Uncle Tuc. He bled over his rug and down the stairs. We stopped it and he went to bed. Huffle and I sat down with our tea at 9pm. We like it much better when we sit down at 8pm. Only an hour and we will be in bed, poor old duffers!

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Better than Grandma*

Everyone slept well. There was no barking from Smallest in the night and although he still has a cough he seems very well. One side effect from his steroid pills yesterday is his bottom smells rancid and his eyes are really red and puffy and very tired looking. We sent him to bed early again.

We had decided we were not going to go out but have a restful day, but being us that didn't materialise. The boys had showers, we had breakfast and then while they played on the IPad I sewed bunting for Small's bedroom and Huffle watched the football.

After we got ourselves dressed, we went out to our nearest forest. We call this one the Quarry as there is a huge pit at the beginning and we walk all the way round before going into the forest. Huffle says the pit was made by a Meteorite, I think it was a gravel pit!

This is a good one when it is snowing. I have walked here a few times in different weather and Small had done walks here with cubs but we don't really know the route very well. Suffice to say, we got lost. We didn't take any provisions with us except a bag to carry the picked up fir cones! Silly us. We wandered off the short trail and ended up walking for miles. Poor little Smallest was terribly tired and thirsty and Small just ran out of steam and was hungry.

The boys foraging for fir cones. There were many different mushrooms here and Huffle wished he knew which ones you could eat so he could take them home and eat them.

Thanks to Huffle's compass reading skills he got us back to the car park without too much trouble. The walk was lovely, the trees were amazing and the wildlife abundant (we saw many fast moving caterpillars, a small snake, lots of butterflies and many birds).

We were all very hungry and went off to The Country Market for dinner. Not the most amazing place but it was close and quick. Huffle and I had Jacket Potatoes which are a very rare thing to find here and the boys had pasta. We checked out the 'Candy Store' where we found English Chocolate Teacakes (we are convinced they are English because the chocolate was so good). Next we walked around the market and found a Christmas present for Huffle and Smallest bought some go-go's. We have never been here this time of year and they had quite a lot of stalls, a bit like a car boot with lots of 'tat' but the main difference to Winter was that they had a singer. Ummmmmmm, interesting. I heard him sing 'hallelujah' in some kind of South American language. It was a bit 'pub singer' like. *The boys said that Grandma sang better - well if anyone has heard Grandma sing they know what we are saying!

We left there and picked up some ice-cream for Small's party and for our ice-cream cones back home and once home sat on the porch eating them. Nice. It was a really warm day today.

The boys and I cleared the leaves from the drive and deposited them down the bottom of the garden and Huffle painted the woodwork by the pool. The boys tidied their rooms and then played on the IPad and I watched Downton Abbey. Ahhhhh it's like a good friend is visiting - just lovely.

We had our tea in front of Iron Man3, just to finish the film off. It was very good.

 

 

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Poo in my shoe!

At 2am Smallest had been replaced by a Sea Lion and was cough-barking terribly. It woke the rest of the house up. He had also had a little accident. We gave him water to sip, Vicks on his chest, Tylenol (paracetamol equivalent) and opened his bedroom windows. We also propped him on pillows. He managed to get back to sleep and in the morning we took him to the doctors.

Smallest and I waited at the walk-in clinic while Small and Huffle went off to do some errands. They went to a book shop, two gadget shops, two supermarkets and then to pick us up.

We sat and waited for two hours, chatted with a Greek woman who had earache, a woman who split her lip catching a baseball and a woman from South of England, saw a nurse, got Smallest weighed (48 lbs) and his temperature taken on his finger and in his ear (which made him giggle). Finally we saw a doctor who checked his chest thoroughly which was clear, checked his temperature which was normal and then gave us a prescription for a one-off steroid to be taken with food. He said he had croup but that croup could be just a simple cough or a bad cough with breathing problems. He said if he had troubles breathing we were to take him straight to Emergency. We picked up a few bits for lunch and then met the other two outside.

We stood next to the car and ate baguette roughly spread with laughing cow (which is what we did when we first got to Canada because we didn't know where anything was! however it was much colder then). Then we drove to see the poo lady who let us have many bags of horse manure for free. She was lovely and comes from Liverpool originally. We met her through NoCustard. It was tough work shovelling poo into bags and loading them into the car. I wore my Wellies but Huffle only had his gardening shoes and because he parked too close to the manure pile, he ended up in it and the poo got in his shoes, ha ha ha!!

The pile of poo and the boys in the background talking to the lady.

Then of course, once we got home we had to carry them from the car to the veg beds and spread them. We earnt ourselves a nice big pastry and a cup of tea before we made our way to Garfunkel's gallery as she had an art exhibition this weekend. Huffle bought a card from her for me.

Biking back from Garfunkels - you can just see Smallest

We came home and Huffle and I made some more paths in the veg garden and filled them with bark etc. Looking good. The boys played on the IPad once Small finished his homework.

We had pizza and a film and watched Iron Man 3 which was a bit violent but the kids insisted it was fine. At 7pm Smallest said he could watch no more and said he wanted to go to bed. I told him it was 8pm and he was happy to go, we said Small would be up in five minutes, hoping that he would be asleep by then!

Hopefully he will sleep okay tonight.

Our lovely clematis again.

 

 

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