It's been a while!

Time is one of those commodities that I don't seem to have enough of - especially at certain times of the year. Evidently, this has been one of those times!!! That should also mean that I've got lots of juicy life's happenings to share with you ... but I seem to be drawing a blank. Brain worm I do believe that is called.

I see that my last post was in June - 2 months ago by my calculations. So what have we been up to?

July was very important to me. My brother whom I hadn't seen in the last 7 years came and stayed with us for 3 weeks.

It really is the first time I haven't tried to be the perfect hostess - I think it has something to do with age, maybe premenopause, or both. Normally I do it all. This time there were choices to be made - either have exotic yummy meals and hang around home while being waited on, or go shop and see the world. My brother Stewart chose the later - yeah! Waiting on folks isn't my thing, and apparently, I can't do what I used to in that area!

It was a whirlwind! We crammed 7 years into 3 weeks ... I think he had to go back to Australia to have a holiday from his holiday :) It's funny as it seemed like forever until he got here and then in the blink of an eye, he was gone again!


The first week-end he was here we went with good friends to Boston's North End - Little Italy, and followed some of the Freedom trail into town. I tried Boston Bibb - inside joke! And Stewart purchased Crocs for his souvenir. Sunday was the first 'shop' day - we kicked it off at the outlets. When Stew arrived he was wearing the same clothes we had shopped for 7 years ago ... only they were the worse for wear. Stew brought them over so I could find recycle them. I assured him that they were way past recycling!!! Monday saw us shopping at Costcos - this time shopping for eye glasses, very much needed eye glasses - 7 years is a long time to be wearing the same glasses ... and oh, it's a good thing they were titanium or they would never have survived!!! They were an interesting shape to say the least!!!

We saw a Book Report movie followed a hot delicious baked potato bar at a good friends for lunch followed by a 'playdate' and berry picking. We picked blueberries at another good friends - and it was the first time Stew ate freshly picked Blueberries! The berries are in my freezer waiting to be 'processed'.

We took Stewart to Nature Club and it was my turn to teach it. We went to Houghton's Pond, made bamboo fishing rods and attempted to fish. It's a good thing none of the kids managed to 'hook' themselves! The next day we enjoyed the day at Demarest Lloyd Beach .... my brother informed me he had already had his 'birth control' for a while. I'm sure it was quite a shock for him to be thrust into the world of 'playdates' and children without volume controls.

The following week we flew to Buffalo, NY to meet up with mum and spend a couple of days together with her. Coming home we went straight into preparing for Cody's, Fun in the Sun - Return of the Waterslide , birthday party. I think we went through close to 4 crates of booze and had lots of fun! We love spending time with our friends.

Then the last week we went to Plymouth to see where the Pilgrims first landed, Six Flaggs, another Book Report Movie followed by a wonderful birthday surprise at my good friends house. Ice cream cake, baked potato bar and lots of fun!!!! You see it was Stewart's birthday that day. And he was absolutely chuffed with his surprise celebration.

With not much time remaining, we still had the Rodger Williams Zoo to fit it! The Zoo is an awesome place to visit, but when you have a new camera, it's just one photo opportunity after another - he had to go back with something in that camera!!!

Friday saw the end of the visit :( So now we have memories and photos to help remember our time together ... now, also from this visit, a fish was born! Oh yes, during Stew's stay, he and Cody swam a lot in our pool ... I don't believe he realizes how profound an impact he had on Cody, but swimming was one area which motivated Cody to improve in. After Stew left Cody has been in the pool preparing for Uncle Stew's next visit (????????) . He's gone from now being able to put his head under water to not getting his head out of the water! He's a fish!!! And actually has taught himself how to swim. He's got areas for improvement, but truly an amazing transformation! I'm very proud of his personal growth.

August saw us commencing Homeschooling. As Cody is now 2nd Grade, the work load has increased considerably and as such takes us a lot more time to fit it all in. I managed to send in my Letter of Intent on time. Funny thing about that. I was on target to sending it in to the Public School Superintendent, until I got a letter stating that the deadline was September 1st. So I took the extra month - and got it in August 31st - one day to spare!

Our second week of Homeshooling turned out to be a treat! We had a weeks field trip to Washington D.C. We met up with Pierre's sister and her family there. Cody was able to spend time with his Cousin and we got to help celebrate Pierre's brother-in-laws birthday. There just wasn't enough time to get around and see all that we wanted to see! What we did see turned out to be rather ambitious!

So this last month - August - we've been getting back into our school grove, enjoying the weather, swimming, fitting in trips to the beach and plenty of ice-cream treats! As for September, we'll be busy again. This time in New Jersey/New York and then off to Canada ...

More adventures on the way!