Pish Posh, Oh My Gosh!

Europe: You can keep the Winter - Ontario is enjoying the "Spring"!

2012-02-06T14:42:00.000-08:00

(photo credit: Studiolit)
The Purty Northern Lights in Canada! I really don't want to jinx anything but who can't help think that we are so lucky to have had such a mild "winter" thus far. We have not even had to use our snow shovel once! It snowed sparsely a few times in January, but the rain washed it away the next day. Douglas and Trinity have yet to even wear a winter jacket! (I ran out the other day in flip flops!Okay, so I'm pushing it - but my little piggies were just fine! ) Europe - you can keep the winter with you! Pretty soon it will be March time - which is pretty much the end of "our" winter anyway!

New York City Road Trip

2012-01-20T09:42:00.000-08:00

Our summer was so crazy and stressful here in Ontario (one day I may therapeutically write about it) that I took 5 weeks off work and took the girls on a roadtrip to New York Cty! Wow! What a city! We absolutely loved it!! We stayed on Staten Island, drove to the ferry (which was a short 5 minute drive) and then took the ferry over to Lower Manhattan!

We took a bus tour of the city which was all encompassing - so many landmarks were covered. We went to all the different boroughs of the city, saw where some famous and infamous people lived, site of the twin towers, the beautiful architecture of the most famous buildings - everything you could imagine and I am sure we only scratched the surface.

We loved Times square the best and spent a great deal of time there.

We drove there in my sister's Toyota Yaris - it took 10 hours to drive there. Guess how much it cost in fuel to get there? UNDER $40.00!! So, my next vehicle is going to be a Yaris! It was a beautiful drive, the roads were straightforward and in excellent condition.

We walked and walked from 8am until after midnight.

We were so impressed with the city we are making plans to definately return in the future with my hubby - just have to work on getting him a Visa!

Summer Recap - My Crazy Summer

2011-10-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

The weather now is definately starting to turn colder. I have neglected to do any postings throughout the summer, like everyone, being sooooo busy. The summer was filled with the usual fun stuff; beach, trips, swimming, Canada's Wonderland etc. I finished the summer off with taking the last 5 weeks off from work & the girls and I hit the road for a road trip to New York City - a ten hour drive from here. Here are a few pics from our "crazy" summer:

Avalon is our little mermaid - she is ALWAYS swimming - loves the water!!! I swear she has gills.

Trinity & Douglas had their fill of the beach in El Salvador - they were a bit more difficult to drag to the beach. Douglas spent HOURS doing his artwork this summer.

Port Dover, Ontario - Too busy on Canada Day - the beachfront was PRIME real estate!

We managed to find a spot!

A cool addition to his hand tatts. This was the Girls' Father's Day gift by a cool Tat artist in Toronto.

An old pro at Tats!

Out for Lunch at "Bennies".

Go-Karting near us - so this became Avalon's passion this summer as well. Not a cheap hobby.

Avalon in Lake Ontario - let's hope she doesn't grow a third eye!

Long Point Beach, Ontario Nice clean, white sand.

We had Season's Passes to Canada's Wonderland - had to get the obligatory pics. Trinity is in the green sweater! Day out with her friends.

Peace Out! Bye for now Beach Fun!

Trinity's Graduation

2011-07-20T08:49:00.000-07:00

We recently enjoyed Trinity's graduation from Elementary school (Gr. 8). It was held in the church attached to her Catholic school. Unfortunately, they rush the grads through to accept their diplomas with their backs to us & I took horrible photos - but at least it was something. But, the dance was great - she had a great time! The next day she enjoyed a fabulous house/pool party with all the grads! So now the scary part - my baby entering HIGH SCHOOL!!!! Douglas has already bought a baseball bat to fend off the boys.

Avalon with her big sister that she looks up to so much!

Trinity with her Great Aunt and my Dad and Mum (her grandparents).

Douglas/Daughter dance.

Canadian Cheerleading Nationals

2011-06-17T09:03:00.000-07:00

The end of Cheering Season FINALES - the Canadian Cheerleading Nationals!

We all headed to Niagara Falls VERY VERY early in the morning on both Saturday and Sunday - tried to find the coaches - uh oh, they were MIA on the first day until the last minute! The girls scrambled with their warm ups and no girl was dropped during the performance (it happens!).

I resent having to pay $70.00 for the family to walk through the doors of the convention center to watch our athlete - my theory is that we already pay enough in athlete fees throughout the year for them to do the cheerleading in the first place! On top of all those entrance fees, there are then pictures and DVD's and t-shirts to be purchased! They have a popular t-shirt that the vendors sell - I love it - it reads (all in bling): "She cheers! I pay!" That about sums it up!

It is a fabulous sport to watch - I could spend the whole day just watching those amazing stunts!

We also had a fabulous time at Clifton Hill at the arcade and rides (pics of Trinity and Daddy enjoying the amusements), but unfortunately, it rained the entire weekend!

Canine Love Affair?

2011-05-16T15:08:00.000-07:00

This is Thumbelina - our six year old Chug (Chihuhua/Pug). She is a little girl. She is an only child, so therefore very spoiled. She had a Siamese Cat sister for over a year named Ophelia, but unfortunately we had to find a more peaceful home for Ophelia when Thumbelina got fed up with her.

This is Tequila - our apple headed Chihuhua from El Salvador. He is a little boy. He is just over a year old. He is also an only child - but spent his life running around El Tunco chasing after deer, turtles and iguanas!

The two of them met a few weeks ago for the first time. Tequila introduced himself by trying to mate with Thumbelina's face - "Hola Senorita!". Thumbelina is getting used to Tequila. Tequila just wants to play all the time and lick Thumbelina behind the ears - Thumbelina cannot really be bothered with him and when she has had enough of his attention, she really lets him know! He goes off running with his tail wagging and then comes back for more!

Here they are competing for treats!
*As you can see from pics we are still moving in - very slowly lugging boxes from storage into our house - still no artwork on walls and "minimalist" look for now! (Hard to move when you work full time and the weekends are taken up with Cheerleading competitions!)

FINALLY BACK IN CANADA!! Whoopie!

2011-05-03T12:46:00.000-07:00

After just over two years of debacles and every hoop and bloody brick wall you could think of - my husband FINALLY landed back safely on Canadian soil and literally kissed the ground when he did!

Even at the last moment of leaving El Salvador there was a major hiccup - the Immigration officials photocopied all his Immigration paperwork just prior to him boarding the plane and forgot to give him back a document that was a letter he was given from Canadian Immigration that said he HAD to present the letter upon arrival to Canada. Douglas left in the morning hours before me so when he landed in Costa Rica and did not have the letter, he immediately phoned me and I immediately went to the Immigration office located inside the El Salvadoran airport. They were beyond unhelpful - they refused to tell me who had photocopied his documents, refused to look in their photocopier even. I had to escalate the issue as my plane was about to depart - so I had three Delta employees standing with me telling me they were holding the plane for me, the Immigration officials saying their boss would be "up here in one moment" - after 10 mins of waiting I ran down to the Immigration office to find the Manager sitting at his desk with his arms crossed doing nothing. The ensuing conversation was not good - he was so unprofessional and refused to help at all. During my entire flight I kept thinking that they would probably just deport him back to El Salvador when he arrived in Canada without that letter, or at the very least, hold him overnight until it could be sorted out with Guatemala in the morning.

Thank Goddess - when he landed in Toronto, the Immigration official had some common sense and understanding and it was sorted out with no problems.

Our two daughters and my parents were on hand at the airport to greet Douglas and Tequila (our little Chihuhua)! Big hugs all around!

When I landed that evening at 3am (after my plane sat on the tarmac for 3 hrs) Douglas was the only one left standing.

He has been having lots of fun with hitting all the food places he had craved for the last two years - yes his life revolves around food - slim guy stores it in his hollow legs.

Two years without his Tim's!!! Tragic!

We have been running around furnishing our house as well as getting him set up again to do hair in an in-home salon - so that has been fun!

Semana Santa in ANTIGUA

2011-04-27T13:18:00.000-07:00

We did more running around at Immigration offices and had the restriction on my husbands' passport lifted. We crossed over into the Guatemalan border for a few days of Semana Santa in Antigua! Antigua was beautiful - reminded me of Miami with the pretty colours - but colonial. The temperatures in Guat were much more comfortable than El Salvador. This was a very touristy place to go - not your typical Guatemala I know - but I really wanted to see it as so many people I know in Canada love to visit Antigua. The bus ride was 5 hrs to Guat City and then another hour to Antigua in traffic. We just drove through Guat City - which reminded me of Mexico City.

This is the famous Arch. Loved the cobblestone paths everywhere - like so many colonial towns in El Salvador and our roots in England have these gorgeous cobblestones everywhere - loved them but after walking on them for nine hours in wedges we were ready for serious foot massages at nightime!

Many fab churches!

Everyone in our fam loves Mango with salt, lime and chili sauce! Mangos were everywhere!

Purple people everywhere and a procession coming right at us!

Gorgeous carpet made entirely of rice that the purple people are about to destroy!! Saw about three of them.

Oh, don't I look so "holy" - my palm decor that the local villagers made in front of the gorgeous yellow church - only $1.50 each. It made it back to San Salvador a little worse for wear!

Villagers making the Palm crafts to hold during the mass/procession.

Our hotel was right around the corner from this gorgeous church.

View from our Hotel room - stayed at an awesome little boutique hotel that I would thoroughly recommend, "Casa Christina".

My favourite "float". We spoke with one of the ladies afterwards and she said it was quite heavy to carry. They carry this for hours around the town route.

Close up of the devotion/exhaustion. Love the veils - gettin' their Mary on!

Loved all the indigenous villagers! Their clothing is very thick though - that surprised me.

We really loved all the beautiful crafts and colours - went a bit crazy - but hey - we're admitted shopoholics! We were dissapointed about the silver jewellery - for some reason we thought it was supposed to be a great place to find silver and we didn't find much of that. We did lots of bargaining - which is of course the Latin American way!

Wading Through the Red Tape

2011-04-12T16:08:00.000-07:00

I've been in El Salvador for over a month now to assist my husband in leaving this country. I didn't expect it to take this long - but fortunately no bribes were needed and our resolution was favourable - we just needed to have patience on court dates being changed at the last minute (like when we have already got up early & are at the courthouse & then are told of change).

We have submitted our petition to have the restriction on his passport removed & are hoping there will be an answer by this Friday so that we can book our flights to return home to Canada next week. We are looking forward to getting back to our Canadian life - although Douglas thinks we should stay here another few months as I hardly eat anything here & then would have a slim figure! Ha ha I think I've had amoeba dysentary since I landed.

We have enjoyed many daytrips all over the country & this has been wonderful since the only thing I like in the city is the historical core.

We attempted to go to Guatemala on Sunday but the lawyer flubbed & the restriction was still on the passport so we had the embarrassment of sitting at the Frontera for an executive bus to take us back to San Salvador. We had paid $73.00 for the tickets & were told they would not reschedule or refund. Douglas kindly asked the Supervisor for an exception - & lucky enough they decided to offer one comp ticket if we purchased another - so we did so and are looking forward to an adventure in Antigua for a few days this Saturday.

Melting In El Sal

2011-03-25T16:50:00.000-07:00

I am reminded by my brother in law that this is hottest time of year here in El Salvador. I actually handle the heat a bit better than Douglas, but yes it is still extremely hot down here!

We are staying in a quaint little "Guesthouse Hotel" that does NOT have a pool in the city near Metro Centro Mall - and the close proximity of food is our saviour at the moment. However, sadly, we are "mall rats" and absolutely sick of Mall food at this point - we eat there almost three meals a day - except for a few comedors that we have visited on the side of the roads - so that has been about 11 days so far!

With the vehicle sold (because he thought he was out of this country and back in Canada on the 9th) we are left with taxi cabs or our legs. We walk to the Mall almost every day. We take cabs to other locations. I have walked all over the neighbourhood and taken photographs galore of the surroundings, which I will post as soon as I am able - currently they are trapped in the iPhone and I am on an ancient computer at an internet cafe.

We await the date of March 31st - our appointment with Government officials and hope that everything will be resolved on that day and that we will be flying home within a few days afterwards - our lawyer is extremely hopeful and tells me this will be so - but with our luck I take EVERYTHING with a grain of salt and will be cautiously optimistic at the moment.

Why are there no public pools in this hot city? The only one that we can find is the Military one - which we are fortunate to be able to use only because Douglas´ family is a Military one.

The logistics of taking an extended "vacation" down here have been quite complicated. My family is looking after our children, we speak with them every day and listen to Trinity begging to come down here every day to be with us (she takes after me and has the travelling itch), Avalon is too busy with cheerleading and playing on the computer etc. to text us 20 times a day and call us three or four times a day! I am also missing my University classes in the evenings - this is a problem to keep up with - so I will have to do some speedy catch up when I return to Canada. My employer is extremely understanding of the situation - they have been fantastic! We now have two return flights to Toronto cancelled and needing to be rebooked - I am afraid to ask what the price is going to be as we are now going to be stuck booking them the minute we are able to leave for the first flight out.

Despite the circumstances, we are enjoying I guess what you could call a "second honeymoon" - being able to reconnect after so much time apart without screaming kids in the background - for soon the reality of our lives in Canada will resume. The first thing Douglas wants to do is get his "double double" from Tim Hortons and order "Swiss Chalet" - yes his never ending pit of a stomach is what his life revolves around !

Road Block Again

2011-03-19T15:33:00.000-07:00

I am typing this from a Guesthouse Hotel in San Salvador, El Salvador. I flew in last week to join Douglas and hopefully haul him back with me to Canada.

He experienced a slight "hiccup" when just clearing through Customs on March 9th to return back home to Canada. Therefore, we are awaiting the red tape to de-tangle and will then be on our way to Canada. We are hoping only a couple of weeks more.

The visit of Mr. Obama to El Salvador will be closing government offices on the 23rd and 24th, which so happended to be the date (23rd) that we had an appt with the government office to start the de-tangling. So, we wait now. The next appt is in the second week of April - we are hoping to get one a bit sooner.

The weather today is a balmy 100.4 - I am melting here. I took Tequila for a 10 minute walk and chugged down 2 bottles of water in the process.

El Salvador is GREAT for my diet - I always lose weight here - I really don´t feel like eating in this weather - just drinking water all day!

COMING HOME!

2011-03-09T05:23:00.000-08:00

Finally all the things are sold - bought the ONE WAY ticket on Monday for Douglas. After a minor glitch of the travel agent booking it to fly out of San Diego - we were on our way with the proper ticket. I thought it was a stroke of good fortune when the agent said that she had found one with no problem for the very next day for only $800.00. So, after going back and forth finally found one for $1300.00 - he flys to Costa Rica first, sits in Costa Rica for 5 hrs and then on to Toronto! YAY! It's going to be a long day for him and Tequila.

Everyone is very excited - he will have many people greeting him at the airport. We are just about to make a billboard sign to embarrass the heck out of him! I've booked the next week off on holidays for me and the girls. He has just made it to the airport and paid $500.00 for his overweight baggage.

So, this El Salvador saga lasted almost 2 yrs. So much for Immigration saying it would take 6 months. It has been an incredibly expensive two years with travel, the girls (especially Trinity) have grown up so much since he has been apart from us. I will always have bitterness towards the Canadian government for their ineptitude. They are still not finished processing him after two years for his Permanent Resident Card. We are hoping to receive the status in early 2012. The entire Canadian Immigration department needs a very in depth analysis of it's weaknesses.

Finally a Resolution!

2011-02-12T22:10:00.000-08:00

When Douglas applied for a Visitor Visa to come home to visit us, I received an email a week later from Guat City saying that it was denied due to the Security Clearances being needed first. Well, that is the last frontier that we are waiting for until he receives his Permanent Resident Status. The only problem is that the security clearances are out of our hands as the cogs work very slowly up here in Canada to process said clearances.

The local police station took 5 weeks to process after numerous visits/calls to the station. The RCMP check in Ottawa took a total of 7 months to process and the last one in Calgary is on it's 9th week now. You see a clearance must be obtained from every place that he lived in Canada. After this last clearance is done only one more remains and that will take approximately 6 months to process. So, we will not be able to send the completed police clearances down to the Immigration department in Guat City until approximately August 2011.

I have a templated email that I have been mailing to the Minister of Immigration, Jason Kenney, almost every day for the past two years. In that email I explain the situation, the ages of our children and politely ask for a 10 minute meeting with him in the future to discuss our options. I have NEVER heard even a templated response from his office in either Calgary or Ottawa.

When I received the email of decline, I wrote back a VERY long email once again explaining our situation. I was SHOCKED that I received an email of response a day later explaining that in light of the situation, they were looking at "options for our family and would be in touch on Monday". That email arrived on the Thursday. On the Monday (& it was in the morning!), I received the JOYFUL email that explained that the Immigration Manager had issued a SPECIAL PERMIT for my husband to return home while they continued to process his paperwork!! I cannot begin to express how excited I was. I couldn't pick up the phone fast enough to tell him the great news.

A few days later and he was exciteadly enroute to pick up his permit when he had his little "fender bender" (see earlier post). He still managed to pick up the wonderful permit!

He is now in the midst of packing up his life down there - he has quite a bit to sell. Our house is currently on the market for sale as we finished the renovations (FINALLY!!!) in December.

There was absolutely no sense in him ever being processed for his PR status externally, and issuing this permit while they have not completed his status only proves my point - but that is the way our hopeless Canadian Immigration department is run.

We all sleep better at night knowing that he will soon be back up here with us again in time for Avalon's next birthday and Trinity's Grade 8 graduation! It will be interesting to see how he assimilates back into the Canadian way of life and also interesting to see how Tequila (his little chihuahua) & Thumbelina (our little chug) get along together - I don't have a good feeling about that.

Snow Storm - YAY!

2011-02-04T23:11:00.000-08:00

We had a snow storm - it was forcasted to be a real doozy! It wasn't quite as bad as we though it was going to be - about 25 cm of snow, squalls at time and the roads were slushy and slick - but nothing we are not used to in Canada. Our winters seem to be getting shorter and milder. It was nice to have a "snow day" - all the kids's schools were closed as well at the University that I work at - so that was a nice mid week break!

He Described it as a "Fender Bender"

2011-02-04T21:19:00.000-08:00

This is what happens when you TRY to email your wife and drive at the same time!

So, the car will be out of commission for a few days! On the bright side, the body shop/mechanic bill is 70% less than what it would have been up here in Canada.

Continental Airlines Customer Service

2011-02-04T19:47:00.000-08:00

When Trinity was flying from San Salvador, El Salvador to Houston, Texas, we were concerned that she would not catch her connecting flight to Los Angeles on time - you see she had only 1 hr and 8 mins to deplane, find the baggage terminal, collect her bags and then make her way to the next airline. There is a monorail at Houston, but it is a very big airport, and with her being alone and only just turning thirteen, we had some concerns.

She handled it like a pro though and was able to find her baggage and connecting flight with no problem - she made it there within 5 mins to spare.

I was concerned that I had not heard from her when she was in Houston, so I phoned the only Continental number I could find - it was a cargo bay not even in the Airport. A lovely woman by the name of Jocelyn helped us immensely, as she got in touch with the main Terminal, confirmed she had just made it to her plane in time & even sent a message to the flight staff in LA that gave her the message as soon as she arrived in LA. The message was "Turn on your iPhone". ha ha Thanks for the exceptional service Continental!

Last Minute Trip to El Salvador

2011-01-25T21:47:00.000-08:00

Douglas' father in El Salvador had a stroke last week, was hospitalized and not expected to survive. So his family in Canada quickly flew down to El Salvador. We have plans to travel to El Salvador at the end of February/beginning of March and I am currently busy training someone, so unable to fly down. Avalon is glued to my side, so it was a great opportunity for Trinity to meet the cousins she has not seen in absolutely years; and since the airline would allow her to travel alone (& she has experience doing that) we scrambled and hunted around to find a good priced flight for her to go down.

She flew down there last week to be with her Daddy. His father died this past Saturday morning. It's ironic that they do everything so slowly in El Salvador, but not for their dead. The viewing was on the same day and finished close to midnight. The military funeral was the next day! That would have been about 4 to 5 days later here in Canada. I think it so much better for the family to get the business of the funeral done quickly.

Trinity and two of her cousins!

Trinity eating her favourite - mangos!

Cute little Tequila - our little demon!

City Scenes from Nomad Nights

2011-01-25T20:57:00.000-08:00

CN TOWER

Cheer For the Cure 2010

2011-01-25T20:26:00.000-08:00

We recently attended the "Cheer for the Cure" in Oshawa - competitive Cheerleaders from all over - all ages and skill levels. This time nobody was "dropped" during a stunt!

All the cheerleaders waiting for their trophies!

Avalon with her trophy!

And now a final word from Trinity...

Maybe I should start drinking?

2011-01-15T23:36:00.000-08:00

Canada Post finally delivered my "GUARANTEED 7 day delivery with receiving signature" envelope to Douglas in El Salvador - it took them 47 days to deliver it!!!

When Douglas went to the Canadian Consulate last week for the umpteenth time ( I guess 5th time at that point), he was told that they would NOT accept the money order that says "Receiver General of Canada" as it was supposed to say "Receiver General FOR Canada". They are both prepositions people!! What's the problem?

Douglas didn't ask for a supervisor - I would have insisted if I were there. Perhaps it's a man thing? (To not ask for a supervisor). I had to phone the Consular from Canada - turns out he was a nice guy who just landed there from Ottawa - who had a brain and couldn't understand why the front desk clerk would not accept the money order. So, again the next day Douglas had to drive back to the city and FINALLY, the sixth visit was the charm! Now we just sit back and hope that his application will be approved.

The security clearances are in Calgary and taking longer than anticipated. They were due to be completed and in my hands two weeks ago. However, when I phoned last week I was told they are still processing the paperwork.

So we sit and wait for the bureaucratic civil servants to dust off their files and do some work. My sister is in a similar situation with civil servants. She submitted her applications and all necessary paperwork nine months ago - she was warned last week that because of their incompetency in taking so long, they probably would be rejecting the application and asking her to submit all updated paperwork again. We have a serious incompetency problem in this country with our public sector employees/services.

Holy Confirmation

2011-01-01T22:41:00.000-08:00

The girls attend a Catholic School and just recently Trinity had her Holy Confirmation. It was quite an eventful church service - one of the Confirmandi vomited all over himself and the girl sitting next to him and another fainted into the arms of the Bishop, holding his robes while he threw all the hosts all over the floor. Once the hosts are blessed, they cannot be thrown out. So, all the priests were down on their knees picking up all the hosts from the ground and then dispensed to the congregation. I guess the alternative would be for the priest to eat all of them himself - yikes!

Trinity with her Sponsor - her Nana (my Mum).

Plans Abated - What else is new?

2011-01-01T01:37:00.000-08:00

We delayed purchasing tickets to fly to El Salvador for December due to the fact that we were quite hopeful that Douglas would be getting a Visitor Visa for 1 year to return to Canada (and then of course be processed for PR status while in Canada) in time to be with us for Christmas. We started the process in November - every time he went back to the Canadian Consulate in Canada he was told a different story and different paperwork thrown at him. The Visa documentation I sent him on November 19th via GUARANTEED Canada Express Post NEVER arrived, despite having it traced! Goddess knows where that ended up. Oh well, whoever has them - hope you enjoy the photos and magazines and fortunately the money order will be useless to anyone as it is addressed to "The Receiver General of Canada".

So, he will return for the fourth time on Monday to apply for this Visitor Visa yet again - the first three visits he confirmed with the clerks that it would take only 5 to10 business days to process - unfortunately, on the fourth visit he was told their website was "wrong" and that it would take 4 weeks to process! Ay Carumba!

So, we are in a "holding pattern" for now. I found great flights for January and February - but will wait to see if he is able to come back up here to Canada by beginning of February.

So, while his Christmas was very quiet in El Salvador - ours was very busy and loud with family/friends and lots of young ones running around - oh and lots of shopping marathons! Good times!!

A nice long paid break courtesy of the University was much appreciated! Love you McMaster!

Our little corner of the globe avoided any major snow storms - although all around us they were pummeled with the white flakes! We just had a bit of cold and very light dusting of snow and ice.

Oh my! Avalon looks quite devilish!

Thumbelina needed a new jacket for the cold weather! She doesn't like them!

But Thumbelina loves Avalon's sock monkey!

Trinity is loving this artist - Angelina Wrona - from Ottawa!

Avalon is a tea fanatic so I couldn't resist this little novelty duckie that helps to seep the tea leaves into her tea!

Avalon joke at Christmas was "Oh, sorry I haven't shaved my legs today!" - she got these cool furry leg warmers from Santa.

Out for a brisk Christmas walk.

YAY! A New Sink!

2010-12-06T21:03:00.000-08:00

Yay - the new sink is installed! It's a miracle! Something actually done on time! The new salon is up and running and it's even better than the one before - great location and in the middle of all the action! I will post pics as soon as I see it up close!

Only in Latin America...

2010-12-04T21:37:00.000-08:00

We just moved our Hair Salon location in El Salvador to one more visible and right on the main street of Playa El Tunco - just a few paces from the old one. Only after all the salon furniture had been moved into the new place and handing over the lease money, does the landlord inform my husband "Oh, by the way, the water only works from 8am to 12 noon every day."

Really? Seriously?

Apparently they are now trying to work out a solution with some water pump configuration.

EL SALVADOR POSTAL SERVICE - NO MAN'S LAND

2010-12-03T14:39:00.000-08:00

I've put my leave of absence from November 30th on hold yet again! Reasons? Well, trepidation for the challenges of living in El Salvador; job prospects for a non-spanish speaking person, education system for the girls - so in a nutshell the financial hurdles are the main reason.

We have been working very hard to get a Visitor Visa for Douglas to come back here for a time - really hoping for Christmas (if it is approved at all)!

I sent some important Immigration documents with a money order for $100.00 U.S. via Canada Post, Express Post, Guaranteed with signature upon delivery over 10 business days ago. It was guaranteed to be delivered within 7 business days. It was a small envelope and cost me about $55.00 to post.

I have sent a few letters and packages to him in El Salvador and only ONE ever made it to him - it was the most boring item I had posted that miraculously made it. So, am I surprised this "guaranteed" delivery didn't make it?

Let's just say that we all kissed the package farewell before we handed it to the Postal person. I don't blame Canada Post - in the tracking it shows it as having left Canada safe and sound and on time.

Now they are instigating a trace on the package in El Salvador - which I am told can take up to 2 months to do ???

The money order is another problem to be dealt with! I have to pay to have a trace put on that now.

So, in in the interim. I was going to wait a few days - see if anything is found under a rock or a palm tree and then if nothing found, I plan to drive to the airport and pay a stranger waiting in line to fly to El Salvador to carry my small envelope to San Salvador. I think that is the safest way.

Come on El Salvador - what is wrong with your postal service?

We Met KAT VON D!!!

2010-11-25T17:29:00.000-08:00

We bought her new book - she signed it and also signed Avalon's sock monkey and Trinity's cast. She was just as beautiful in person.

Too Many Kartwheels!

2010-11-25T17:15:00.000-08:00

At Cheerleading practice, Trinity broke her ankle. She is hobbling all over - but at least she blinged out her cast!

Cheerleading Competitions

2010-11-25T16:45:00.000-08:00

The girls belong to a local competitive Cheerleading troupe. They have competitions all over - some will be in the U.S. - so we are looking forward to those. The girls' did well at their first competitions - their teams placed 1st and second.

Our little Avalon is third one standing from the right.

Trinity is the first one standing on the left hand side.

Our Baby is a Teenager!

2010-11-06T22:37:00.000-07:00

Our bootiful baby recently officially became a teenager, although because of her love of fashion, hair, & makeup it feels like she's been one for a while. Trinity is a joy to have as a daughter and we love her with all our heart! She practically grew up in a salon, with Daddy giving her highlights starting at age 7 - so she has had years to develop this quirky lollygoth cutesy style of hers. She is a leader and not a follower with old-fashioned values like her mama - so I hope that sustains her through the "teen years"!

Trinity wanted only one small thing for her birthday - an iPhone 4. Ya, just a small little thing. I broke down, against all my years of telling her she was too young for a cell phone, when I decided that the "face time" feature would be great for her and her Daddy to use, since Skype didn't seem to work so well for us!

Trinity's Aunty baked her a wonderful cake (this is Trinity's #1 favourite cake). As her Aunty GB was driving it over to our place, her daughter had the very tall cake (about 5 levels) on her lap. Everything was fine until they went over a bump and the cake "slipped" out of her daughter's hands, did a complete flip, and landed upside down on the dashboard! She managed to salvage some of it - it still tasted divine - but she had to drive home with chocolate frosting all over the dashboard and window! ha ha

We celebrated Trinity's birthday as well with her friends and went to Canada Wonderland's "Halloween Haunt". It was in the evening from 7pm-midnight. It was chilly, especially whipping through the cold air on rides, but a great time was had by all.

Historic House Event

2010-11-06T22:08:00.000-07:00

We went to an event at an Historic house built in the mid 1800's in Burlington. We usually go there at least once a year. It's a nice modest farm house, usually with ladies downstairs baking apple pies and such from scratch. We went for a tour of the house one weekend and had a blast making floral arrangements for $3.00.

The well in the kitchen is covered with glass for us to see it clearly, but it is a bit freaky to walk over it.

The kids had a blast getting airbrush tattoos.

Good Fun!

One Less Brick in the Wall

2010-11-03T20:11:00.000-07:00

Well, it only took the RCMP a little over 6 months to process his fingerprints (she says sarcastically). Apparently, if his fingertips were here in Canada, they could have done this in 24 hrs, but because said fingertips are down in El Salvador, and because the Immigration officer that processed his removal was an ignoramous who did not inform us that he should do the prints while his fingertips were still in Canada, we had to submit the fingerprints by ink the old fashioned way.

So, finally after numerous emails, calls from our MP to their offices, phone mail messages never returned by the RCMP, the day has finally come that we have received the documentation from the RCMP. I think I should have a party. Now the next couple of steps will take the next department anywhere from 6-12 months to process.

Then and ONLY then can we even submit all this to the Immigration department in Guatemala City - so right now, the Immigration person handling our file is sitting in limbo waiting for the LONG DELAYS of the various CANADIAN departments that take sooooooo long to process! I mean, really, I don't understand why it takes so long to process this paperwork.

Oh, this is soooooo draining.

BLOG ACTION DAY 2010: WATER

2010-10-15T21:38:00.000-07:00

After living in the day to day among the local people of a third world/developing country, we had the unique perspective of experiencing water on a different level.

Today thousands of bloggers from over 125 different countries come together to write about water issues in their communities around the world today. Please visit change.org - a really interesting website. Some interesting facts from the website:

Every WEEK nearly 38 thousand children under the age of 5 die worldwide from unsafe drinking water and unhygienic living conditions.
Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of diseases and kill more people every year than all forms of violence including war.

WATER IS A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE. WATER IS A GLOBAL ISSUE.

In Canada we do not have true poverty. We are fortunate to live in a country that does not lack water and the water that we do have is filtered through sanitation filtration systems. A study conducted last year in a Toronto paper investigated whether the municipal water supply is safe - some municipalities had "safer" drinking water than others. Some had lead in the water due to old lead pipes in the older homes, prescription drug toxins and bacteria were found at different levels, but the overall message was that the water was safe to drink.

I read these facts today that really blew me away: The basic water requirement for one person is 50 litres. The average Sub-Saharan consumption is 10 to 20 litres per person/per day. In Europe it's 140 litres per person/per day. In Canada, the average consumption is 335 litres per person/per day. I was reading all the "tips" to conserve water. I absolutely understand the need to conserve and I understand that we waste a lot of water here. Bring in the rain barrels! I swear I will turn the water off when I am brushing my teeth, but I cannot turn the water off in the shower when I "lather" - that ain't happenin'!

In most of the world, water is not in such plentiful supply.

It's trivial, but in El Salvador, we couldn't even use the running water from the faucet to brush our teeth. The smell of the water and the warnings of impending "yellow teeth" from Americans were heeded.We also would never have ice in a drink, shaved ice treats or anything that was washed in water that was not from a bottle. (The latest movement in diminishing plastic bottles, thereby reducing oil consumption etc) is not even on the radar in El Salvador. Bottled water is a necessity in this country.

In wiki - it states that 90% of the surface water is contaminated and that the industrial waste water spews into the creeks and rivers without being treated. The photo above is where the locals do wash their clothes and themselves. Running water is not available in the shanty villages. There are some wells, but most women and some men can be seen walking along the roadsides with their vessels on their heads carrying water back to their homes.

If you are lucky enough to have running water - it's not unusual for it to be turned off for days - especially during the rainy season. The limited filtration systems can't take the muddy waters, so hence the water turn offs.

To turn your water off for a couple of days is to experience a fraction of life experienced by most of the world's population. In the first world countries, we should be very grateful for the running water in plentiful supply.

The Simple Life in El Salvador

2010-09-06T00:23:00.000-07:00

Trinity and Daddy lived in an isolated Rancho by the ocean for a couple of months until it became apparent that they really needed to move on.

Douglas found a new place to move into in July right on the ocean where all the little bohemian beach villages are located. The social networks are all you have in these little villages - so we enjoyed meeting travellers from all around the globe - in particular some really nice guys from Israel and a fiesty Swede. It's a very cute little place where everybody knows every one in town. There are cobble stones - where you have to be careful not to break your ankle while walking and a main "pedestrian street" covered in sand where all the surfers walk with bare feet down to the ocean waves. The ten foot cable was apparently stolen not once, but twice, and thus we had no cell or internet service for a good part of a month. I will have to remember to pack a cable in November.

Our little Casa/Rancho is very cute, but has some challenges in the "kitchen" area, namely that it is an open area where insects and animals can forage.

We love the pool!!!!!! Avalon has become a Mermaid!

The view of the coconut tree from our living room. There are deers, turtles that Tequila loves to dig his paws into, geckos and parrots and a little baby possum that forages in the garbage every night!

The salon looks great - I brought up suitcases filled with products to sell in the salon. Some images of the Salon:

Some images from the village Playa El Tunco:

The tides were very high, so unfortunately, there were only a couple of days that the girls were able to swim in the ocean.

Goofy Kissface!

We went to a very interesting little colonial town in Northern El Salvador - Ataco. A bit dicey with the directions, but three hours later up in the cloudy mountainous region, we finally found it. It was worth the drive:

My sister asked me why he was crying - I think because the milk gives him the runs and the butter tastes like crap - sorry El Salvador I just had to get that out of my system!

Unfortunately, we were traveling in the dark on the way home and had a flat tire. It was a bit scary - we limped along the dark highway on the rims looking for help - there isn't exactly the CAA that we could call for help. As we were arranging through our cell phone for a taxi to find us and bring us back home (we were about 2 hrs from home at that point), we happened to come upon the Policia. As we pulled over to them on the curb, they then took off. Douglas flashed his lights and honked his horn to no avail. We limped back onto the highway again and pulled over to the curb when we came upon the Policia again. Apparently they were chasing down some gang members when we had pulled over. They dealt with their situation, told us it was a very dangerous area where gang members can form lines to stop traffic and pull innocent victims over. So after that reassurance, we paid them to change our tire to the donut, as Douglas has only ever done that once, and then off we went back on the highway. We made it back home late that night in one piece. Of course it was all my fault because I "love to gallavant around" - well true. So, the next daytrip will be better planned and we will find a hotel to stay in overnight!

We ventured to the Muelle - fish market down by the pier of La Libertad. The "major" town about 6 minutes down the road is stuck in a 1960's time warp, dirty and run down, but quite interesting. We especially loved the filleting of the sting rays by the ocean.

The girls and I just made it back in Canada to the balmy temperatures of 10 degrees! Just in time to run around getting their uniforms and "back to school" paraphernalia in order. Trinity was with her Daddy for over three months and was ready to come back to Canada. Unfortunately, besides swimming, surfing, and watching movies on TV(no cable), there wasn't much else to do. She was always wanting to go to the malls of San Salvador - but this became an expensive past time. Avalon was there for the month of August and thoroughly enjoyed all the swimming - we had to beg her to get out of the pool in order to go to the mall or grocery store.

I am now counting the days until November 31st, when we will be back with Douglas in El Tunco.

Got Hair?

2010-08-17T06:57:00.000-07:00

Finally after only a couple of months of waiting for a Salvadoran Hydro employee to connect hydro to the Salon - it is up and running!!!

Douglas goes by the nickname of "Onyx" - hence the name of the new Salon. The salon is located in Playa El Tunco.

Two Peas in a Pod

2010-08-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

The sisters together again after almost three months apart! Douglas took these pics inside the Salon - "Onyx Hair Studio". Yesterday was a fantabulous day - not only because Avalon arrived safely in El Salvador, but also because, after two months of waiting, the HYDRO was finally installed in the salon!!! Yippee!! The salon has been painted, furnished and decorated - ready to go since June - so this is wonderful news. I sent down all the marketing brochures and business cards with Avalon - so now he will officially open the salon this Friday!

I Managed to Pry her from My Hip

2010-08-10T16:28:00.000-07:00

It took a little convincing from her big sister, but Avalon finally agreed to leave my embrace and travel to El Salvador ahead of me by ten days. (So, I'm childless for 10 days? What will I do with myself?)
We left at 2am for the Toronto airport, handed her over to the escort and her flight took off on time at 6:30am. For some reason they didn't charge me the $60.00 fee for the bags - perhaps because I was already paying the $100.00 unaccompanied minor charge?? Anyway, I certainly didn't point it out. She was flying in first to Atlanta, Georgia to get her connecting flight to San Salvador.

She arrived safe and sound - when she phoned me she said that she "was practically sitting in high class" because she was one row behind the 1st class passengers. They kept offering her food on the flight, which she kept declining and then finally relented and said she would have some "M&M's" - ha ha.

Daddy and Trinity (and Avalonka the II - Trinity's second Iguana - the first one died) were there to meet her. After she doled out the envelopes filled with money (like a little Santa Claus), Trinity decided she really wanted to go to her favorite mall in San Salvador! (Now how is it that Avalon has a better tan than Trinity?)

Summer Projects

2010-08-10T16:19:00.000-07:00

Our house is still “packaged up” in storage, still vacant and the contractors are STILL working on the renovations that snowballed and took on a life of their own. At the end of August it will be exactly one year since I started these renovations – apart from having a gorgeously fresh new house all updated to the nines, is the fact that the sour real estate market that existed when I started the renos is now a very positive seller’s market in my area. The interest rates are very appealing right now as well. It is practically a brand new house now. The renovations were extensive: brand new flooring throughout, wallpapered/freshly painted throughout, new lighting fixtures, new furnace, new water heater, new appliances, new skirting boards, new decks, new balconies, new kitchen counter tops, new cabinetry, new sinks and faucets throughout, entirely new bathroom, foundation repaired (yes flooding due to all the rain storms was a set back), chimney repaired, etc. We tried to do what renos we could ourselves to save the money – thanks to my handy parents! So, now in light of the fact that we have about four months before I would leave for El Salvador, the heat is really on the last contractor to finish up the last reno that is taking place on this bloody house so I can pop it on the market and get it sold!!

Trinity is still loving her time in El Salvador – although she does miss her sister. But no amount of begging will seem to pry Avalon away from my hips to join them down in El Salvador. Avalon is busy this summer attending a Theatre Arts Programme at Theatre Aquarius in another city that is close to us – Hamilton. She is becoming a “Triple Threat – Dancing, Singing and Acting” and all up in her own koolaid!

Avalon and I are flying down to El Salvador in August for a three week visit. I will now use it as an opportunity to start applying/sorting out work permits, resident status, (whatever it is we need to transition smoothly), research affordable schools for the girls and get them registered in a school. Thank god for the internet in assisting us with planning this stuff.

Douglas thinks that he has found a nice little Bilingual Parochial Private All Girl's school for them, so we will be able to investigate it further when I am down there. From what I can ascertain, the Public School system in El Salvador is substandard; some schools not able to even afford desks or books for their students, so unfortunately this is not an option. As well, they don’t speak Spanish, so of course that would have been an extreme challenge for them. They attended Bilingual (English/French) school up here in Canada, so we were hoping that it would help them to pick up the Spanish a bit easier. The admission fees for a Bilingual Private School in El Salvador are a few thousand, depending on the school and the fees range from $4000.00 a year all the way up to $15,000.00 per year. Yikes!

Douglas is in the process of trying to find a larger home for us near El Tunco - one that isn't so isolated and "open concept" that invites all the bugs and scorpions in. Trinity is having fun looking through all the homes and telling me all about them and which one she prefers.

African Lion Safari

2010-08-06T23:15:00.000-07:00

We have season's passes to African Lion Safari - so we have been trying to get our money's worth and have been quite a few times now. Besides a water park, animal shows, train ride etc., there is the actual "safari" where you drive your vehicle through animal enclosures - but really we are the ones enclosed in the vehicle watching the animals roam free.

The baboons are the best! They jump all over your vehicle - sometimes they poop on it! They always sit on the side mirrors hoping you will feed them a morsel. We were naughty and fed them a granola bar.

Queen Birdie

King of the Jungle having a nap!

An elephant ride - her name is Lilly!

We drive past these sunflower fields on the way home - we had to refrain from picking them!

Update on Fingerprints

2010-07-19T05:23:00.000-07:00

So I finally received a return phone call from the RCMP. It took 8 emails and 4 phone messages before I received this phone call.

This RCMP officer told me that although they had received his information April 5th, they did not assign it to anyone until June 18th. From the date of June 18th it will take in EXCESS of 140 days to process!!! So I guess that RCMP officer that I spoke with over 3 weeks ago did lie to me then. I am such a fool, I didn't ask his name. He had told me that we should be recieving the fingerprints in 1 week's time. So this "limbo time" is at least four months long - I daren't think of how much longer it may actually take. The most annoying thing is that if he were here in person, he could have done his fingerprints electronically and it would have taken them 24 hours to process.

I explained our situation again and asked politely if there was anyway of speeding it up a bit for him, since the majority of people requesting fingerprint clearances are living in Canada. Unfortunately, she was not one of these people who is able to think outside the box and have a bit of a heart. I have emailed my MP to see if they can assist at all in speeding this up, but I don't have very high hopes for this.

Once we receive these fingerprints, the next departmental application has a noted waiting time of 6-12 months, although in a phone conversation with them, they assured me that it would probably be a 6 month waiting time. Once they have completed their processing, it then all goes back to the Guatemala Immigration department - at that office I am completely in the dark as to how long it would take them to finalyze his Spousal Application. His medicals expire in September, so we are now going to have to redo these again! So bloody annoying.

Obviously this saga is taking much longer than we had originally anticipated. The inefficiency of each Department that we come up against and rely on for processing has forced my hand. So, I have arranged for an official "leave of absence" of one year starting on Dec. 1st, 2010 so that we can all be together as a family while we wait for Douglas' Canadian Permanent Resident card.

Red Tape Frustration

2010-07-08T06:47:00.000-07:00

When I bump into friends and acquaintances who ask if Douglas is back yet they're surprised to hear that he is still awaiting his Canadian Residency papers in El Salvador. It's now been about 15 months since Douglas left for El Salvador and we re-submitted his Immigration papers for Spousal Sponsorship. Every step in this process has been like pulling teeth from a lion. Douglas got a major run-around when trying to obtain a fingerprint screen/criminal check in El Salvador (you would think he was the first person to ever request this!), but Canada is no better.

The Immigration office that we have to deal with is the one located in Guatemala City. On numerous occasions I have emailed them, faxed them, and sent letters via snail mail to check on the progress of the application. I have never got a response from them. We have only ever heard from Guat Immigration office ONCE in the past 15 months. The only reason I even know that they sent a letter to him in El Salvador was because, periodically, I have our Member of Parliament get in touch with the Guat office to check on the status of things. In February, they apparently mailed a letter to him (which he never received) asking him for a page full of various documents etc in order to proceed. Some of these things were police clearances.

I had to obtain a local police check for him - five officers, many visits/ phone calls to the station and many weeks later - finally obtained the piece of paper to say that he was "all clear". What was the big problem? Well, it seems that it was against protocol to search the database and release a form saying "No criminal record" unless the person (Douglas) was actually physically in front of them. I explained over and over that I didn't even need to see the form, I just needed them to do the check and mail it to the Immigration dept in Guatemala. I submitted all sorts of documents from Immigration Canada showing proof that he had left the country as part of this whole saga, provided four different forms of ID copies NOTARIZED by the Canadian Embassy in San Salvador, his fingerprint form notarized by a Salvavadoran police station - I was still coming up against a brick wall. So, short of cutting his fingertips off and having them mailed back to Canada, I had done everything I could. I think in the end, they got tired of me harrassing them - finally the day came that I was able to cross this off my "to do" list - they released the police check. YAY!!

Next step was the RCMP check for all of Canada. Acccording to the website, processing times are "in excess of 140 days". I sent our original fingerprint form from El Salvador via registered mail over 3 months ago, so got in touch with them via phone message and email to make sure they have the file and are working on it. After numerous emails, I finally received a response that went like this: "No, we can't locate his file, but it doesn't mean we don't have it." Ya, I know, sort of unbelievable for a government organization - but wait, no maybe it is believable. I kept persisting, explaining that with each month that passes, it is another month that we are not together as a family. I have received three emails in total from them, all of the same template, all saying the same thing. I have left numerous voicemail messages as well. Finally received a call three weeks ago from an RCMP officer who confirmed that they had the file and I should receive the documents in about a week. Then two days ago, I recieved another response from them via email (from an email I sent weeks ago) saying the same thing - "no, can't find it, doesn't mean we don't have it though." So, which is it? As I have not received the documents, again, I have started emailing and leaving voicemail messages demanding that they just clear this up and confirm once and for all if they have the documents. I would hate to think that we have just wasted three months on this and have to start over again, but I would rather not waste ANOTHER three months waiting to find out. So, with regards to Douglas' Immigration status - he is "approved in principal" and we are in a holding pattern tied up in red tape. For how long is the big question.

"Orange Alert" in El Salvador

2010-07-02T10:49:00.000-07:00

Before she left Canada, Trinity had asked Douglas if she should bring her "Wellies" (Wellington Boots) with her to El Salvador. He had told her not to, as her feet would get too hot inside the boots. Too bad we listened! The poor kid has seen an exorbitant amount of rain & storms since landing there. Tropical storm "Agatha" was first and then the remnants of "Alex". The country experienced flooding, mudslides, some deaths and an "Orange Alert" was called by the government.

The casa was built very quickly - & me thinks building codes are not the same down there! Unfortunately, every time it rains heavily, it leaks into her room. So, Douglas is sweeping the water out every day - hopefully, when the rains ease off, it will be repaired.

The little village they are living in - Playa El Tunco - experienced quite a bit of damage. Erica's restaurant was left "lopsided" due to the high winds and the "sitting area" behind the cafe, Dale Dale, apparently was swept away in the storm into the ocean. Apparently, the other day the water was almost up to their knees in some parts of town. So, there is rebuilding all around them right now that impedes Douglas from actually opening the Salon. Otherwise, the salon (Onyx Hair Studio) is furnished and ready to go!

Douglas & Trinity sent some pics to me through the iPhone of the water levels. In the first picture of my cutie petutie, you can see how there is very little water (note her Iguana clinging to her purse) - then in the next picture I have doodled an "X" to indicate the exact place that she was standing only a few days before (in the first pic) with the low water level. Wow! What a difference!

Sound of Music Festival 2010

2010-06-30T20:35:00.000-07:00

We love to attend the "Sound of Music Festival" every year in Burlington. It is touted as being one of the best 100 festivals in Canada. We started the annual Thursday to Sunday Festival off with attending the big concert - Vancouvers' "Mariana's Trench". We were squished with 25,000 other people that wanted to hear them! The sea of people in Spencer Smith Park was unbelievable. I'm surprised nobody fell in the lake!

Little people like Avalon couldn't see much and didn't much like being stuck in the crowd! But she did enjoy the parade with all the floats and marching bands galore and the carnival rides!

We loved the Caribana festivities the best!

There were lots of vendors (love my vendors!) - these roses look real - but they are actually wooden!

Avalon always loves the rides - a bit difficult when she is an "only child" now! Hee Hee - I had to join her on some rides. Those carnival rides are so expensive! They work out to be about $5.00 each!

Three days of riding the rides - a busy weekend filled with fun, but we really missed her "sister-in-crime,

Trinity"! It's hard being an only child - especially when you need a partner for the rides!

Rumblings

2010-06-23T20:26:00.000-07:00

Well, this will be pretty boring to all you Latin Americans - but here in Ontario today we had a rare occurrence - we had an earthquake and it was the "talk of the town". It measured 5.0. It's epicenter was in Quebec and felt all the way to Ohio. I was in my office in a very large concrete/steel University building, sitting in front of my computer when everything started swaying including me in my chair, my computer, the plants and pictures on the wall. It was a bit surreal and I thought for a second that perhaps I was not "right" and my equilibrium was "off". That is, until someone shouted out "Does anyone else feel that? Is this an earthquake?". So, it was the excitement of the day. There were some buildings evacuated as well, but no damage or injuries reported anywhere.

Father's Day 2010

2010-06-23T06:54:00.000-07:00

I was trying to find a half decent image of JUST my Dad, or my sister and I with my Dad. We had such a busy fIurry of children around us on Sunday during our "Father's Day Dinner"(great dinner!), that I forgot to get a snap of us with our Dad only. I have so few images of my Dad not without my Mum. They are an adorable couple that is ALWAYS together. So, here is a pic of MY wonderful Daddy!

A Very Memorable Fathers Day for Douglas !

2010-06-21T21:32:00.000-07:00

I was really relieved this year that Douglas had Trinity with him for Father's Day. This is his second Father's Day in El Salvador. They had a great day together, but incredibly memorable! When I was speaking with Douglas he told me that he had decided to go to bed early that night as things always happen in three's right?

First thing that happened was he almost drowned in the Pacific. They went to a different part of the ocean where there are tidepools and caves. Now, swimming in the rough El Salvadoran coast is a very big concern for me - many phone lecture/warnings have proceeded Trinity flying down there. Apparently, they were being pulled into this tide pool. Douglas threw Trinity to the shore area; she got scratched by the rocks on her tummy and apparently while Douglas was then trying to get to shore, she kept thinking that her Daddy was going to die on Father's Day! He managed to get to shore.

The second thing that happened was that Douglas was stung by a scorpion! Ya, panicville. Where is the closest medical clinic??? Oh, only 1/2 an hour away in San Salvador. His hand flared up for a bit, but it was okay later on as the evening went on. So, this past week has been filled with bats landing on the kitchen counters, poisonous cane toads under the chairs, scorpions running around on the kitchen floor and huge bugs flying everywhere. Hence, why he decided it would be safer to go to bed early! (But, hey, at least he has Trinity and a great ocean view!)

Can I bring him home?

2010-06-21T21:15:00.000-07:00

First came the email with this adorable picture of herself and this cute little chow/boxer cross. Then she phoned me and "Mummy can I buy him?" ensued for 10 minutes! Trinity and Daddy were at Metro Centro where the dogs are sold outside on the street by all kinds of people. They went home empty handed - thank goodness!! (But of course, he is adorable!)

And Making Even More Friends

2010-06-14T21:38:00.000-07:00

Trinity really wanted an Iguana. So, her latest little friend is always on her shoulder on a little leash. She named her Iguana after her sister, Avalon's little "pet name" - AVALONKA - we Czechified it!!

Trinity Is Making New Friends!

2010-06-08T15:39:00.000-07:00

They are apparently all DEAD though!

Road Blocks

2010-06-04T21:11:00.000-07:00

Douglas and Trinity have been running around for days now getting the salon equipped and set up. It requires driving into the Capital city, San Salvador. There are two roads that take you out of El Tunco - one was impassable due to a bridge being wiped out in the "Agatha" storm and the other road was blocked with mattress', furniture and a mass of impoverished people. I can't make out what the sign says - perhaps demanding some government intervention to assist them rebuild? Would make perfect sense, but El Salvador is unfortunately a very classist society, not exactly a socialist country.

Early days in Trinity's Adventure in El Salvador

2010-05-31T20:39:00.000-07:00

It's early days still, but I thank goddess for the technology of the iPhone and new media to keep Trinity close to me. I speak with Trinity the old fashioned way (on the phone) and via email, exchanging videos and pics from morning until evening! I have to ease into this being apart from her.

She is settled in to her new casa with her Daddy - a little Rancho on the Pacific coast with the ocean on her doorstep. They have 24/7 security and it is a gated community. She has her own room and her own ensuite washroom. The rest of the casa is very open concept (read no walls). The beauty of nature is all around them, however so are the mosquitos! Hence, a mesh screen is being installed tomorrow to help them out with the challenges of these pesky critters. This is their new casa:

Cane toads are also all around them - these things are pesky Toads all over Central America - apparently they breed by the thousands. When they are threatened (for example when Tequila is growling at them), they spew a poisonous liquid at their target. If it is a dog for example, the dog would probably die. In fact, Douglas knows someone who had a dog that died as a result of one of these toads. So, Douglas is on guard trying to protect little Tequila from being harmed by one of these toads.

They sent me this picture of a toad over their shoulder one evening when they were sitting at the dining table having dinner.

I don't think they even know whether it is a cane toad or not, but it freaked them out nonetheless. Douglas has the casa decorated quite nicely for Trinity, but then for those who know him, what else would you expect?

Her straightening iron has not been touched - I think she realizes it is a lost cause and is making good use of her hair clips! So, she is adjusting to the humidity, heat and rain!!! It has rained almost every day since she arrived. They were fine during the "State of Emergency" that was called due to tropical storm "Agatha" that hit land in Guatemala. She is enjoying being with her Daddy, being off school of course and hopefully learning some Espanol! They are running around right now trying to get cable, wifi, & phone connection but everything down there is on "El Salvadoran time" - so "manana" is the prevailing attitude. I don't think Trinity minds though, she is enjoying her little adventure and keeps telling me that she is not coming back until her Daddy comes back with her!

Our Baby off on an Adventure!

2010-05-27T20:31:00.000-07:00

Trinity left this morning for El Salvador. She made it on the plane by the "skin of her teeth". Her bags were all overweight (which we expected - $160.00 later), then the Flight Agent informed me I needed to pay an additional $123.00 for an "unaccompanied minor" charge (which ended up being great because they escorted her from security gate, extra attention on the plane and then handed directly to Douglas - he had to sign for her like the precious package that she is).

Now for the "cherry on top" - when I handed them the permission letter I had written, I was then informed that the rules changed 2 weeks ago with El Salvadoran immigration and it had to be notarized. The desk agent phoned down to El Salvador and they informed her that if she arrived with the letter not notarized by a lawyer, they would deport her right back to Canada. So, where do you find a lawyer at 8 in the morning in Toronto? After much running around, a lawyer was found - he was 20 minutes away; he spent all of 3 minutes signing my letter and sealing it and then took my $160.00 CASH and slipped it in his pants pocket. So, $430.00 later, Trinity was finally on her way.

Douglas was of course over the moon to receive her in El Salvador. She is tentatively booked to come back in September, but she may stay longer, we shall see!

Mothers Day 2010

2010-05-18T20:19:00.000-07:00

Me & my wonderful Mummy! My Mum does have eyes - that sun was strong!

Me with Avalon & Trinity and my handmade flowers!

(Not the greatest pics, but oh well, what are you going to do?) We had a busy Mother's Day, as we also celebrated two family birthdays, my sis and her daughter!

The Nomad Returns

2010-04-22T20:16:00.000-07:00

The Nomad landed safe and sound today bearing many gifts for all from her travels. Air Transat was horribly disorganized; phoning them contradicted the information on the website, GB camped out from 3pm until the plane finally boarded around 2:30 am and then finally flew out after 3am UK Time.

So great to have her back with us again, but I am going to miss those 60+ daily emailed videos and picture updates!!

Still Stranded in UK

2010-04-20T19:14:00.000-07:00

We just received an email around midnight UK time from my sister (we affectionately call "GB" because my daughter, Trinity couldn't pronounce her name "Geraldine") - the subject line said simply "Gatwick Reopens" (which is one of the London airports) and when we opened it, it said simply "GB go home?"

She is missing her hubby & kids, but geesh, she is having a great time galavanting around the countryside of England. She has galavanted all around the downs of Sussex, train rides all over England & been in the Yorkshire moors in Bronte country.

We have been trying to orchestrate the reprotection of a ticket from here as she was getting the runaround over there. We were bounced around from Expedia to Air Transat back and forth for hours as each one INSISTED the other is to co-ordinate the rebooking! A lesson in patience to be sure! However, they didn't know that I have been dealing with the Canadian Immigration Department for almost 20 years!! They met their match!! Anyhoo, there is of course a huge backlog (I read 7 million stranded), so we are hoping in the next few days that we may see the wandering Nomad again with all her tales!! We don't feel like she really left though - the constant contact to us through the iphone and ipad. At last count it was 63 emails just for today alone with pics & vids today - ya she hasn't lost her "papparazzi" touch!

Here are a few pics of what she sent me today:

Missing someone?

A car for me!!

A house for me!

Ha Ha - kids liked that one!

Snicker Snicker

This cross is from the 600's. !!

GB was in Haworth (Bronte Country) for a couple of days and visited the Museum and Parsonage etc. This is the church that Reverend Patrick Bronte looked after.

I was very jealous! Years ago on a trip to England I wanted to see Haworth - I must have taken a train near there up to Scotland, but for some reason I didn't stop there!

Holy Crap!

2010-04-20T19:13:00.001-07:00

I cannot believe I typed "cuz" in that previous post - wow too much texting eh?

Stranded in London

2010-04-16T23:44:00.000-07:00

My Sister Geraldine (GB) was in Wales at the University of Aberystwth (try saying that three times!) last week. She is studying for her Masters. She was due back in Toronto today - it is her youngest child's (Freya) 2nd birthday today!

Unfortunately, she is stuck in London along with the thousands of others! We have a betting pool going on here at this point as to when she will return.

She is an iphone and ipad fanatic (we call her "paparazzi" for a reason!). Apparently walking around the UK with this ipad has garnered her a lot of attention - she has had dozens of people ask to have their picture taken with the thing & offered her money to buy it, as it is only available in the U.S. right now. She has been keeping us up to date through daily videos. Unfortunately I couldn't fathom out how to get the videos saved from the emails to the hard drive, otherwise I would have posted one - cuz my Sister has a great sense of humour, so they are quite funny.

Weekend Birthday Getaway

2010-04-16T23:01:00.000-07:00

In honour of Avalon's birthday (yes, any excuse to get away!). The girls & I went away for the weekend to good ol' Niagara Falls. Yes, we love going there! It's only about a 40 minute drive away. It was incredibly busy with "wall to wall children" - I even asked at the front desk if there was a "children's convention" in town. Nope, just the long weekend with families coming out in droves to Niagara Falls.

Cosmic Cars

Clifton Hill

We stayed in a hotel near the action of Clifton Hill and The Falls, ate lots of chocolate covered strawberries, spent lots of money playing in the Canadiana Midway, eating in the great restaurants, people watched, rode the rides, and went in all the Museums and Haunted Houses on Clifton Hill. We walked until our feet almost fell off and then topped it off with renting a horror film in our hotel room! The next day we put our battered feet to the test again, crossed the border (which is right there!) and went on a shopping spree in the U.S. I scored a great necklace that I had eyed in Target a few months back and didn't buy at the time. It's 14 kt gold with natural pearls. When I saw it last, it was on sale for only $50.00 - this time it was on sale for $12.00 - bargoon!!!

Wearing my Bargoon!

My new boyfriend has eyes only for me!

Like she doesn't need more sugar!

I think it was a memorable birthday for Avalon - especially since she managed to talk me into going into the "old school" haunted houses and boy - they were actually pretty scary!! She loves to be scared to the max. The entire time we were in the "Haunted House" she was buried behind my butt holding onto my jeans waist. At one point in a dark hallway (& I do mean dark), something above us rattled and she dove on the floor for protection!! She came out of there loving it though and wanting to go through again!!

Going into the Canadiana Midway.

Avalon's Birthday

2010-04-16T21:43:00.000-07:00

My April Fool's baby turned 10! At the time of Avalon's birth I was working in a Management position of a New York City Financial Services firm. I had accepted the position at 8 months pregnant without my employer knowing I was pregnant - I did so by hiding myself under big winter jackets, voluminous business jackets and sitting behind huge desks. I'm sure they must have wondered, but I'm not petite, so it wasn't exactly THAT obvious. Avalon was a very co-operative child - she decided not to inconvenience me and hence she was born on the Saturday and I went right back to my full time position on the Monday! (As an aside, I had widwives for both my kids and I thoroughly recommend that experience.) I felt allegiance to the company as I had been there to start the business up in Canada along with a small group of other Managers and the money was very good! I could have taken the 6 month maternity leave, but Douglas was also doing some schooling so that would have interfered and again the money was very good! Douglas & I were on completely opposite shifts so our kids were always with one of us or our extended family.

We had the family party on April 1st to celebrate my fiercely creative child's birthday (she wants to be an actress and we have no doubt she will achieve this), but tell that to my car battery - it decided to die on me as I left the office. As a result, I was delayed in picking up the ice cream cake and getting back home to get my "party dress" on. Eventually I made it home to Avalon & family - but it was a bit of a late starting party! Since a lot of our family are just little ones they had to get to bed at 8pm - so it was short and sweet. One of the prezzies that Avalon got that she really loved was a wooden box from Nana & Grand Dad filled with loonies and toonies. She got some cute little "lolly goth" clothes as well that look so adorable on her!

Pics from Mexico and El Salvador

2010-03-27T20:21:00.000-07:00

50 Pesos for a Puppy - the kids begged all night long!

What do you think these are? They are cashew nuts!

Trinity and Tequila

A Happy Coconut

Avalon at "Dale Dale" Cafe in El Tunco - owned by fellow blogger.

The professional bra fitter at the Mercado.

Douglas climbing down.

Car Vandalism

2010-03-24T18:32:00.000-07:00

Douglas was bored and sent me this email today from his iphone of his car having some work done on it. He parks it on the street outside his house - someone tried to break into the lock of the car on the driver's side of the door, but couldn't quite get in. I think the same guy came back for more a couple of weeks later and tried the driver's side - again no luck getting in. With no locks on the passenger's back doors, how does one get into the car? He had to climb into the trunk of the car! Ya, quite a sight. So, here he is getting the locks fixed on the car only to park his car on the same darn street where it keeps getting vandalized!

Family Reunification

2010-03-13T21:12:00.000-08:00

We have spent the last few weeks in El Salvador with Douglas. It has been absolutely wonderful for him and the girls - and me too. Our journey there was not a direct flight - big mistake! The first flight out of Toronto was cancelled due to a snow storm in Chicago. We then got a flight out the next morning to Mexico City - stayed there for a day/night and then got a flight out the next day to El Salvador. Avalon was so ecstatic to see her Daddy that she left her carry on luggage at customs and flew out to greet him - we didn't realize until that night that we were short a suitcase. Thankfully some good-hearted person handed in her suitcase to security.

We escaped the smoggy city and spent our time on the coast - we caught the Bohemian vibe of El Tunco and stayed in our favourite resort "La Roca Sunzal". It was HOT!!!! We stayed in the ocean and pool from morning to night. We had ice cream, limonada and palettas (popsicles) by the pool. We loved it so much that Douglas is moving out of the city and moving to El Tunco. He has leased space on the main vortex of this little "happening" place to open a funky little Hair Studio. Apparently, there is a real need by the locals for a hairstylist - they have to travel into the city to get their hair done.

I'm posting some pics of our wonderful time there. Just counting the days until we return. My contract ends August 1st, so it has bought me some months to see what happens with the ineptitude of this Immigration process.

Proud Canadian

2010-02-10T20:25:00.000-08:00

(Inukshuk at Whistler Mt. Summit)

I'm getting excited about the Olympics in Vancouver starting this Friday! We have been hearing for days now, the news reports that they had to truck in snow from other mountains and cancel some practice days due to the "spring" weather they were experiencing, and luckily they had a little snow fall today.

The theme song is sung by Nikki Yanofsky - a 15 year old Jazz singer from Montreal. I went to "youtube" to watch it again and found a long version of the song. It brings tears to my eyes when I watch it.
Click here to see video of Olympic Theme Song

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans!"

2010-02-06T23:11:00.000-08:00

John Lennon couldn't have said it better.

Our plans have been "stop and go" since Douglas flew to El Salvador in April. At the end of January I had just been lining up a 9 month sabbatical from my University position to begin at the end of February, busy keeping my eye on the prices of flights to El Salvador on the 'net, Douglas running around looking for a house for us on the coast and then "BAM" the opportunity of a promotion at work is offered. Now, let me try to convince myself again; with University positions comes tenure, security, benefits and perks - to be honest this has been an enormous - not the only, but definitely - contributing factor in our hesitation to pack up and move. The education of the girls has been the other very huge factor, when the girls are old enough to go to University, one of my benefits is that 90% of their tuition is paid for by the University! Yes, quite sweet!

Needless to say, it was a very difficult decision that had to be made. I was quite keen for the adventure of El Salvador, but surprisingly, it was my usually free spirited and "who gives a heck?" attitude husband that thought it might be better for us to stay up here for a bit and see how much longer the Immigration paperwork will take. So, I accepted the position on a 6 month basis & (will review the situation at the end of July); with travel plans modified, but still able to execute. I started this past Monday in my new position. My head is still swimming a bit with information overload!

I am so inspired when I read all these blogs of American women who pick up and move to Mexico or Honduras or elsewhere, when their husbands have been deported from the country or are awaiting Immigration decisions. There are so many challenges that they face and yet, they alter their lives forever by staying together.

I don't know if I have made the right decision, but I am relieved that 6 months will "buy" us a bit more time to see how quickly or not Guatemala City will process him. They received the paperwork at the end of November and our MP has said that they are apparently looking at the file again on March 2nd. Is this good news? I have no idea!

The girls and I fly out next week to El Salvador via Chicago and Mexico City. We have 6-7 hr layovers at both airports. Unfortunately, the indirect flights will make it a long journey to get down there, but the flights were a great price and I am a bargain hunter! We won't be back until mid-March, so Douglas can get a good look at his girls. It has been a long 10 months since he has seen them and they are soooo excited to be finally seeing him again.

Winter

2010-01-29T00:33:00.000-08:00

"Winter is the season in which people try to keep

the house as warm as it was in the summer, when they complained

about the heat!"

I don't want to hear about how hot it is in Latin America. It was - (minus) 20 with the wind chill today and tomorrow doesn't look much better - in fact next week doesn't look much better. Thumbelina spends her days curled up by the fire after her quick run in the backyard. We all have perpetual "hat heads".

Avalon started a trend with her "Sock Monkey" hat and gloves that she got back in October - unfortunately, now they are everywhere!

From the front seat of the car, Trinity doesn't like the heat blowing on her, so it's a constant battle between the two of us - turn it on, turn it off. I might have to banish her to the back! The winds have been so cold the past few days that I dread getting out of the vehicle to get gas, so I procrastinate until it starts beeping it's low gas warning to me. Every Tim Hortons' drive thru is packed.

At least, there are some pretty outdoor skating photo ops:

Chrismas & New Years Eve in my Little Corner of the World

2010-01-07T12:39:00.000-08:00

This Christmas was without Douglas - he was missed. The girls and I spent it at my Mum and Dad's house. It was wonderful, despite the cloud of Douglas being alone in El Salvador. Our weather was pretty mild this year - not like last year! Last year, the last day of school before Christmas break was cancelled due to a snow storm. We live by a lake - this is what the lake front looked like last year at Christmas time:

This is a lamp post by the pier.

The only snow this year was from the ice rink down by the lake.

This year my entire family and I celebrated Christmas with a wonderful woman from Prague, her infant and four year old child, who has come into our life - she is my couisin's soon to be ex-wife. She is going through an incredibly bitter divorce, but his adulterous affair was a blessing in disguise for her and her children. We have become incredibly close, speak everyday and get together a couple of times a week for fun with the kids. She has brought much love & drama into our lives! There certainly has not been a dull moment since April with Iveta around! Now, the joke is that we are "dating" since we are always together and sans husbands!

This was the year of the Sock Monkey for Avalon-she is obsessed with them - big ones, little ones, funky dressed up ones, necklaces etc. !! For Trinity, it was the year of electronics! (aarrgghh!)

My "hot date" for New Years - Iveta & her kidlets, my Sister and her kidlets and of course my kidlets. So, for those that have lost count - that is three adults, two infants and 5 other children aged 5-12. Yes, we are a glutton for punishment! My sisters' husband was smart - oops, I mean "ill". To ring in the New Year, we went to Niagara Falls, Ontario. We had a great meal at Kelseys on Clifton Hill...

gambled at the Canadiana Midway (we start 'em young)

saw the "Lights of Niagara" (Avalon fell down on the ice post posing) -oh look a picture of my sisters' arm holding her baby pram

and rang in the New Year with Fireworks! It was a great evening. We wound it down around 1:45 am on the GIANT Skywheel

where I remembered in mid-air how much I loathed it!! Nothing to grasp in a glass enclosed gondola that holds you 175 feet above the falls, with young children really interested in the gondola doors ("for the fifth time, can you please remain seated in the middle of the gondola before I have a panic attack, please and thank you") that keep us safely inside! Last New Years Eve, Douglas & the kids & I went to a Spanish Dinner and Dance - this year he experienced the authentic thing in Latin America with all the errant cohetes (fireworks)!

Snippets from El Salvador

2009-12-22T22:47:00.000-08:00

Tequila in the Pacific Ocean

Lunch in Suchitoto

Las Orchideas

La Fonda El Mirador

Observations of El Salvador

2009-12-18T12:47:00.000-08:00

It was like a second honeymoon with an incredibly sad, tearful (& I do mean tearful) ending. I cannot even begin to describe how wonderful it was to see my husband, Douglas and how heartrenching it was to leave him there. I cried on the way down in the plane in anticipation and excitement and cried on the way back. The darn flight attendant remembered me and just had to inquire about my visit - well, that was all I needed to burst into tears! Delays with the kids' paperwork continued, so I headed down by myself. Ironically, their paperwork arrived on the second day I was in El Salvador. We will be going down again in February, so now things are organized for them to fly.

I was prepared for a Latin American developing country and perhaps was a little surprised at how much I enjoyed it. We stayed primarily at his house in San Benito but did venture out to a few other places and stayed in beautiful resorts.

Some observations:

1. I could never drive in this city. I could not get over how disrespectful and lawless the drivers were (& yet, the people are so friendly) - anything goes. I don't know how it is possible that my husband has not had tons of accidents. The brave vendors walking in between the cars selling fruits etc. was interesting! The plumes of BLACK smoke from the busses was disgusting - environmentalism is not even on the radar down here. I did enjoy not having those canvas grocery bags & .05cent plastic grocery bags forced down my throat at every supermarket though. No seat belt laws seem to exist as I saw so many families pile into the back of the truck beds! Many potholes - the only roads that seem to be looked after are the ones going to the Coast. Almost killed ourselves on the way to Suchitoto - all of a sudden the highway seemed to turn into a two lane hwy - in looking at the video tape I still don't understand what happened. We didn't see any signs, just all of a sudden a car was barrelling it's way towards us! We also barely missed driving into concrete blocks that were set up on the hwy. - again no signs anywhere - just happened to be following another car in front of us in the dark and all of a sudden we are driving on the other side of the highway! Maybe someone could explain that to us - I feel we are missing something. Douglas has a great ride, but not for El Salvador. The rims and tires are very expensive and has had five blow outs in 8 months - at $140.00 a tire - time to get a jeep. Now, he is looking around for one. It was an adventure driving up the Volcanoe in his sedan!

2. The poverty intertwined with the wealthy and the poverty in the outlying villages was very sad to see. The glue sniffers on the street disturbing. Of course, there is no social safety net to help these people. Toronto has it's share of homeless, windshield washers and addicts on the street even with shelters and social programs aplenty, but what was disturbing was seeing the children. I kept thinking - "these kids should be in school getting an education, and here they are with no shoes trying to sell us a pen, gum or windshield wash!" Even with the free education that has been introduced last month with the new President, the financially challenged families still need the income that their children can bring in.

A young girl, probably about 11 yrs. of age, approached us one day in the MetroCentro Mall and handed my husband a slip of paper that said she was "deaf and mute" looking for money. She then turned to me, stared at me, and then turned to my husband and asked him "are her eyes real?" Ha Ha. Yes, it was quite funny. I did not see many blue eyes down there nor blondes - I don't know where all the "gringos" were hiding!

3. It is not a pet culture. I saw one other person with a dog on a leash and I saw many running about. I saw two cats the entire time I was there. This is the newest member of our family - everywhere Douglas goes, this doggie goes - everyone would point and say "I, chee waa waa" - Yes, just like that! It was hilarious! He carries him in a little bag and he just sits in there all day. His name is Tequila! A cross between a rat, a bat and a gremlin I think. He is such a cutie petutie!!

4. No tourist infrastructure and severly lacking in cultural activities. There is not much else to do in the city other than going to the Malls, but they are fabulous Malls - equivelant to a high end Mall in any other big city.La Gran Via was a great place (Mall and restaurants with outdoor patios - something like a Yorkville in Toronto.)

5. Amazing meals (I had many different fish dinners) at amazing prices. We had meals equivalent to a "Keg Steakhouse" meal for just under $50.00 - (I should note: we don't drink alcohol.)

6. Electronics very pricey. I would say 50% more than what I would pay in Canada.

7. Salvadoran people very friendly and polite, very sweet people!

8. Ocean was of course fantastic - again not Americanized - very raw and quaint. The below pics are from the resort we stayed at in Playa El Tunco - Rocha Sunzal - it was a bargain at $65.00 per night (breakfasts included).

9. Loved the "cheezy" cemetaries! (Looks like "The Dollar Store" vomited all over them.)

10. Homegirl, Mary, was everywhere! Love it! (Even at the Gas Station!)

11. Came across a Christmas Parade in Escalon. It was better than any Canadian parade I have attended. I loved the costumes, dancing and the interactiveness of it all.

12. The high crime rate keeps you sequestered in the gated communities and away from downtown and other areas, keeps you indoors at night. I didn't have the freedom to just go for a walk without thinking first of my safety and where I was heading. Also, it was so darned hot, I wouldn't want to walk more than a block or two! There is no lake or nice vista to really go for a walk to - just really the Malls. You really have to get out of the city to see the beautiful volcanoes and other spots, but you absolutely cannot live without a car. I would never ride the bus there - too dangerous and too packed! It seemed that just the poor would use the bus system. I had my jewellery on and felt safe with my "bling bling" - but again, we stayed in the upscale areas - if I stuck the camcorder out the window, Douglas would be quick to tell me to get my arm back in the vehicle. I wanted to see the downtown - particularly the mercado - but he has only ventured down there a couple of times and is leary about going down there. There is a lot of crime and being "foreigners", we are a target for petty theft/muggings. Maybe next time I can convince him!

On the day of my departure (Monday), Immigration phoned Douglas to advise him of a package he needed to pick up at the Embassy. Inside it contained his "B" number (Permanent Canadian Resident Number) - so YAY - one step closer to him returning back home to us! I fear though, it will be another 8-12 months from this point on - their online stats show anywhere from 8 months to 22 months from point of receiving application in Guatemala City to point of completion of application.

I'm now back in the balmy temperatures of -3, while Douglas slugs it out in 31 degree weather! We will unfortunately be apart for Christmas this year thanks to Canadian Immigration red tape. :(

Fingers Crossed!

2009-11-21T22:03:00.000-08:00

Douglas' 23 year old file has finally been shipped and ARRIVED in GUATEMALA CITY (love you Guatemala! yay! Go Guatemala!! Best looking Immigration officers around!) late last week for the bulk of processing. This is a huge step in our Sponsorship application. If the timeline tables on the Canadian Citizenship & Immigration website are correct - from this point it could take as little as 8 months or as long as 22 months. I am hoping that his file will be in the 30% of files that were processed in 8 months. For some reason Mexico processes them at a rapid speed of 4 months!

We have been waiting for the replacement birth certificates for the girls to arrive in order to facilitate them having passports. They were sent in months ago and for one reason or another are still not processed - the latest was that they were returned to me after sitting on someone's desk for weeks on end, asking me to fill out the forms again and have them notarized yet again (at a cost of $60.00) due to the fact that I wrote the middle names above the place, instead of below the place where they were supposed to go.

We've decided that we cannot wait much longer for the certificates - I am flying out in a couple of weeks to be with Douglas for a bit as the separation on everyone, but most of all Douglas, who is all alone, is very daunting at this point. As soon as the girls' certificates arrive I can get their passports processed in about a week - so they will fly down then to join him as well.

Road Trip!

2009-11-12T13:25:00.000-08:00

The girls and I decided to go on an adventure. We piled into the mini-van and off we went to the cobblestoned, french speaking, gorgeous Ville de Quebec (Quebec City) for almost a week. In my opinion, this is one of the best cities in Canada. It is steeped in history. It was founded by Samuel de Champlain in 1608. We spent hours discovering the city and the historical buildings. We were fortunate to stay at the Chateau Frontenac (opened in 1893 - sister hotel of Banff Springs Hotel where many moons ago, right out of University, Douglas and I worked). I would thoroughly recommend a stay in this gorgeous hotel - the pool, spa and customer service was exceptional!

It was a twelve hour drive there (stopped for 1 hr shopping & 45 mins lunch) & then an 11 hr drive back (quick pull throughs to get gas and check on the tire that kept going flat!) The drive was gorgeous, didn't even feel like a long drive - all I can say is thank goddess I purchased them each a DVD movie player before we set off!

The view from our window of the courtyard below.

We took a ferry ride to Levis - the city across the St. Lawrence. View of the lower city & Chateau Frontenac sitting atop the hill. The girls have been in French Immersion since Junior Kindergarten - so they were able to order the meals in french and translate for me since it is not bilingual in Quebec City like every other province - it is completely french only. There are some people who speak English a bit, but it was rare to find and all the signs, menus, etc. are in french.

On our first day we had a gorgeous 45 minute horse & buggy ride throughout the city. Well worth $100.00. When I went to Quebec City as a teen - this was the only real solid memory I had of it. We went up to the Plains of Abraham - where the battle between French and English took place in 1759.

I love the lower city! We went on a 90 minute Lantern Guided Ghost Tour throughout the entire lower and upper city. Wow, was that ever a workout! We were up and down hills and stairs and the girls' little legs kept going! It ended with a monologue in a darkened Holy Trinity Church with one lone candle to guide all 20 people - apparently the most haunted building in Canada. We took dozens of pics trying to capture a ghost! There is one pic that Trinity and Avalon are sure shows a ghost hovering next to Trinity's shoulder.

Quite a few murals on buildings in the city - very intricate and gorgeous.

We couldn't leave without seeing Montmorency Falls. With trepidation, we took a cable car up and walked over the falls on the suspension bridge. Quebec was quite a bit colder than Ontario, as you can see from the pic! It was very unfortunate that Douglas couldn't be with us, but we speak daily so he got an earful of our travels and the girls and I have such wonderful memories from our trip!

Halloween & Dia de Los Muertos

2009-11-05T09:23:00.000-08:00

I'm so glad I took the time to take some pics of the fall foilage at the RBG last week. This morning I drove by this same tree (in the rain), to see that probably 90% of it's beautiful leaves have fallen off and it is now almost bare.

On Devils' night we went to the 8th Annual "Screamfest" located at White Rock Ostrich Farm, about 20 mins north of us. It was very much a scream fest! Live actors inside the creepiest haunted house and then "Jason" from the movie "Halloween" was waiting for us outside - he then chased us in the mud! Ya, it was so scary and fun that Avalon wanted to go in again. Trinity chickend out - oops - I mean, sat by the bonfire while we went through the house.

Waiting in line for our turn to get scared - old time horror movies played in the tent while we waited.

I loved this creepy guy in a cobweb!

This is a great idea when the kids don't behave.

I especially love this one!!

Avalon was a "Punk Pirate" & Trinity a "Red Tassled Cowgirl" for Halloween.

The houses around here are totally into the Halloween spirit - loudspeakers playing creepy music and all! Awesome spirit!!

With Trinity being a "Halloween Baby", we always seem to have a "Dia de Los Muertos" Party for her and this year was no exception! Fun times!

Cutie Petutie

2009-10-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

Douglas has been in El Salvador for over 6 months now without us and it has, of course, been emotionally draining. The poor guy needed a companion - so he decided to buy an adorable teacup Chihauhau - better than getting himself a girlfriend! He named him "Tequila".

I can just see it at the airport now - when Douglas comes to meet us, the girls are going to ignore him & make a big fuss about this little cutie petutie!

Building Art

2009-10-19T08:33:00.001-07:00

I just love these transformations. On the way to my office, I pass by these works of art. I absolutely love them! This Architectural firm's building was painted with irridescent paint and it just glistens in the sun.

I also love this wall - love the colours!

Thanksgiving

2009-10-18T22:30:00.000-07:00

While Douglas is dealing with torrential downpours in the heat (and no Thanksgiving dinner) - we guiltily enjoyed a day at the farm and then a wonderful dinner with cousins and other extended family.

Avalon & I on the wagon ride - it was a chilly day!
A pony ride through the farm for Anitcka.
Freya loved all the barn animals - and they loved her and the food she offered!
A trek or two or three through the "Haunted Maze".
Thumbelina wondering when dinner would be served.

Avalon made it through the long day, but was not her usual "Dennis the Menace" self. The reason for that? Unbeknownst to us she had come down with H1N1 (Swine Flu). She was so generous, that she gave it to her sister also. So, the week that unfolded was filled with two sick littled kidlets home from school for the entire week! I think I heard "Mummy!" every 10 minutes for the last week.

Acceptance Speech

2009-10-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

Excellent acceptance speech by President Obama, who never asked for this award. I think he found it difficult to accept the Nobel Prize, realizing that after only 8 months in office, he is just getting his "feet wet"; he was very humble and gracious. (Perhaps Europes' slap in the face to George W. Bush?)

Nobel Peace Prize: Canadians Should Be Insulted

2009-10-09T06:35:00.000-07:00

We all heard/read the news today - the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to President Barack Obama. I do not dislike the President. He is an eloquent speaker and has delivered excellent speeches around the world.

Also, in The Huffington Post today there are two articles entitled: "Obama to Accept Taliban in Afghanistan's Future" & "U.S. Considers Establishing Political Party for Taliban in Afghanistan". The articles outline how the President Obama is prepared to accept the Taliban to have some rule in Afghanistan.

With all due respect to President Obama, as a Canadian I am insulted that the Nobel Peace Prize would be awarded to him. Let me explain.

Canadian soldiers have been embedded in Afghanistan since 2001. The cost of this offensive military operation, until 2011, is expected to be $18.5 billion. More importantly 131 young Canadian soldiers have been killed and brought back to be driven in a hearse down our "Highway of Heros" as Canadians stand on the overpass bridges waving their Canadian flags.

A very interesting read that outlines the Canadian soldiers' liberation of the Afghani women from the Taliban and rebuilding of Afghanistan, is Christie Blatchford's "Fifteen Days", awarded the Governor General's award.

If you are familiar with the atrosities of the Taliban (especially against Women) and the hard work of the Canadian Solidiers who have carried the weight of Afghanistan on their shoulders since they were removed from power in 2001, you should be insulted.

The ideologies of the Taliban should never be allowed to have a voice or place in any society on this earth.

"Those who cannot learn from History are doomed to repeat it." (George Santayana)

Renos - The Ongoing Project...

2009-10-07T07:32:00.000-07:00

Below are the photos of the living room and dining room prior to the Renos. (Wide angled lens would have come in handy here, but you can get the idea.) It is very obvious that Douglas and I are addicted to the store "Home Sense". Note to self: look into Minimalism theories. The floors previous were black and had lost their shine and gleam over the last couple of years.

AFTER: Clean and bright with cherry hardwood floors installed on Monday. I'm very happy with them. They are also in the entry way as well.

Currently underway - the kitchen, bathrooms and entire upstairs. Should be done soon. In the interim, the housing market is making a slow recovery here - hopefully it continues to trend upwards!

Mother Cat

2009-10-07T07:27:00.000-07:00

Just as a follow up - we had great difficulties trying to catch the Mother Cat mentioned in previous entry. The poor hussy is still running around the neighbourhood somewhere! Hopefully the kitties will find nice warm homes.

Meow Update

2009-09-23T07:32:00.000-07:00

We were at the old house last night. I begrudingly try to go over there some evenings. Of course the girls don't even come inside anymore to help me, it is pretty much a shell with a few boxes here and there, but looking very bright inside now! It was painted with a fresh coat of white paint everywhere, as opposed to the yellows and the wallpaper etc. that we used to have.

When I arrived at the house, the girls immediately ran over to the house across the street to check on the kittens, only to discover that they were gone! The poor little Mother Cat was sitting in her little "box home" that the girls made for her. The girls told me that the Mother Cat was very sad for her kittens. I'm not quite sure how they guaged this.

I just got off the phone with the SPCA (Animal Control). They did indeed come by and pick up the cute little 2 week old kittens from the porch, but left the MOTHER!!! I cannot understand how an organization against animal cruelty would do this. I feel so bad for that poor Cat, to have her babies ripped from her as she is nursing them! So, I have made arrangements, whether they like it or not, to bring the cat there this evening to hopefully reunite her with her babies. The girls are pretty sure that they will be able to point out the kittens as they spent a lot of time looking after them the past little while.

Meow!

2009-09-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

We moved out of our house at the end of August. It is under renovations and currently uninhabitable. We moved to the beautiful city close by to us, that we used to live in 7 yrs ago. The girls were extremely excited. They started at a new Catholic School - so new uniforms had to be purchased. Trinity went into Grade 7 and Avalon went into Grade 4. They are settling in well. It was the first time that their Daddy was not there to walk with us to school on their "first day back".

This Immigration beuracracy "ticks" me off. I never would have imagined that we would be apart this long. I have a conference in Victoria, B.C. at the end of this month that will take up my time, but I am in the midst of obtaining a sabbatical soon to fly down to see Douglas.
The girls and I are debating about whether to surprise him or to let him know of our arrival date. He knows that we are planning to come down in October or November time, but that is all that he knows. He is soooo looking forward to seeing us.

The other day the girls and I were back at our house that is being renovated and my girls discovered these little adorable kittens with their Mum nursing them across the street. Unfortunately, their Mum is a stray and a single Mum as well - no husband to be seen! ha ha

They are only a couple of weeks old. So adorable! The girls made a little home for them in a cardboard box and fancy leopard furry material, fed them and gave them water. Our local "nosy neighbours" caught wind of the plight of these kittens and called the SPCA. I don't know if they were picked up yet, but I hope they will get nice homes.

The Summer of Music

2009-09-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

This past summer was filled with music and concerts. Shiloh is a 16 yr. old Canadian singer that was on the National circuit this summer and my daughters, Trinity and Avalon, travelled far afield to see her various concerts. They were also very excited to meet her and she even signed Avalon's sock monkey!

We finished the summer off with the Britney Spears concert at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton. It was a great night for the three of us! We boogied and screamed! We enjoyed it all!

"Copps" is just past the blue sign that says "Farmers Market".

Avalon did not want her picture taken, but never mind that, she was happy to be going to see Brit!

My proverbial 11 yr old going on 21! Off to yet another concert!

Shiloh signing autographs at the first of her concerts that they attended. Love the false eyelashes!

Trinity getting Shiloh to sign the sock monkey at the last concert they attended! Avalon takes it with her everywhere!

Camping Trip

2009-08-31T07:14:00.000-07:00

Our first camping trip without Daddy. I felt so guilty when telling him of the plans, as it would normally be a little "family camping trip" for us, but of course he was very happy that the girls were having a great busy and fun-filled summer.

We spent the entire "summer" waiting for the perfect opportunity to find an extended block of time to go away for the camping trip - however, the weather was a constant downpour of rain, tornado warnings and just miserable weather. So, we had to throw caution to the wind and just go! We drove through the beautiful northern countryside and also through Durham, where a Tornado had hit just a few days before. It was interesting to see the path of destruction so clearly and up close.

Sauble Beach at Twilight.

The Beaches in Ontario are so beautiful. Unfortunately, because there are only a few months of hot summer weather, the surrounding towns are not able to be built up much with the dining and entertainment that you would find down south in the Bahamas and in other beautiful "beach places".

There were quite a lot of us on the trip - and many little kidlets running around. Iveta (my cousin's soon to be ex-wife) and Avalon under the Sauble sign at Twilight after our "mad dash" to buy tarpaulin to cover the tent in case of rain. We made it back to the campsite just in time for the first few drops of rain!

Toasted (Avalon loves them BURNED!) marshmallows were on the menu for breakfast as well!

Marshmallows also came in handy for Aunty GB to throw at Trinity!

We spent our entire days at the beach on the golden sand. The waves were great fun. There were even some die-hard surfer dudes enjoying the Lake!

Trinity, my little surfer girl.

$45.00 well spent (for the boat) - we had a great time with this poor boat! We managed to wear it out though and it left the campsite deflated from a small puncture wound.

We found this little church on the way back home and signed their guest book.

A wonderful trip with lots of adventures - racoons raiding our food at night and then fighting just outside our tent for Iveta's Czech Sausages, Korean curries at Susan & Vlad's site, running from skunks, spending 2 hrs trying to make my veggie hot dogs to then have Finnegan accidently sit on them, being harrased by the owner of the camp site, trying to explain to the local kitchen help that omelletes and toasted Westerns are actually the same thing - minus the toast, (but they still "can't serve Omelletes because it isn't on the lunch menu and it doesn't matter that you arrived during breakfast time at 10:45am and waited on their wait list until 12noon - we still won't make them"), ice cream galore, sand and surf galore, watching satellites and stars in the open sky and listening to a wailing Freya (1 yr old) all night long with her sun burn! Yes, never a dull moment!

Queen of My Castle

2009-08-15T10:42:00.000-07:00

(Cawdor Castle, Scotland)

I'm taking a quick break in front of the computer, as my Mum is on her way over to help me move more furniture and packing boxes out of my house. I took the house off the market at the beginning of July in order to renovate from top to bottom; new kitchen, bathroom, floors and paint throughout and as the house is 100 yrs old, work on the outside as well. I am in the middle of renovation chaos - well I am not exactly doing all the hard work. My wonderful and talented Dad is putting down the hardwood floors and contractors are doing the rest. Just packing everything up and moving the furniture into storage is enough! I am hoping to have the renovations completed by September and then put the house back up for sale. Surely with a fresh new house for sale, it will sell soon and the girls and I can then make our trek to El Salvador!

Monsoon Summer

2009-07-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

This is why it has been so difficult to plan a camping trip this year! It seems almost every day we have had rain, storms, funnel cloud warnings etc. It has been a horrible summer (weather wise) - not a summer at all!
Yesterday, the Police directed us to reverse off the highway due to the flooding of said highway! We were still diverted through a flooded area, so we had to drive through it; the waters went up to the top of the wheel wells - we prayed we would not stall. Apparently the forcast for August is much of the same!

This Weekend Should be Fun!

2009-07-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

Pin-Up posing and make up Workshops. Burlesque shows!!

Crazy in Limbo Land!

2009-07-12T21:14:00.000-07:00

Special note to Albertan Immigration officer, who 18 years ago interviewed Douglas & I together and seperately: this Sunday July 12th was our 18th Wedding Anniversary. Happy Anniversary to us!

This Monday July 13th is three months without my husband & children's father. Boo hoo! Shame on you 'Immigration Canada'.

The girls and I speak with Douglas once or twice a day, every day. We no longer cry when saying goodbye - the girls loved that and used to poke fun of me all the time because we had a habit of having to say "bye, bye now" through our tears about seven or eight times before we finally hung up - rotten kids! We still say "bye" about that many times, but no tears - making progress!

The phone conversations are somewhat limited because I find the connection line is usually not the greatest-perhaps due to the "rainy season" down there? We are phoning him on his cell phone, so perhaps that has something to do with it. It certainly is not the same as speaking in person, but it is also as if he is still in close proximity because we talk about him all the time and talk to him every day.

We still sit in "Limbo Land". When will this real estate market turn around? I am fed up with trying to have this house constantly clean just in case there should be an agent who wants to show the house at the last minute. I miss Douglas' OCD approach to cleaning! We have only had three showings since Douglas left 3 months ago. The listing was about to expire, so I have taken it off the market again (as I felt it had sat for too long thus far, which had become a detriment) and have now advertised it again privately. Of course it is attractive to sell privately, as we would not have to pay the exorbitant real estate commission fees. Hindsight is 20/20 - Douglas & I are kicking ourselves because we turned down an offer of sale we had when we advertised it privately back in January. The purchaser was going through a nasty divorce and her offer was on condition of her selling her house, which was located in a small village. In light of the market conditions, we felt it would be hard for her to sell. "If we only knew then, what we know now" - she ended up selling her house very quickly, purchased one down the road from us and moved in mid April! I'm busy creating and entering the ads that will hopefully bring a potential buyer to the table.

So, what is it really like in "Limbo Land"? I look out at my back deck and miss my deck furniture that I sold last year thinking I would not be here to see the Canadian summer in light of Immigrations' threats. The girls and I are always busy and "on the run" with my family all around us as well. They are entertained every day and are just soaking up the summer holidays, even though our weather has been so horrible lately! We feel sorry for Douglas though; he has had a bit of a culture shock and of course misses us.

I got an inkling of what it must feel like last week. The girls went to my sister's house for a sleepover. So when I came home that evening it was so quiet in this house (also note that my girls are not quiet children, they are very loud and spirited)- it was a very odd feeling knowing that nobody else would be in the house until the next evening. I cannot remember when or if that has ever happened in the past. I am very rarely alone. When I finally toddled off to bed, I got very little sleep, as I was very spooked every time our Thumbelina (our Chug) would leap out of the bed and growl menacingly at the top of the stairs. I spent most of my night up and down the stairs - I don't know what I would have done if the alarms had gone off anyway, I would probably be frozen with fear. Our house is about a hundred years old, and Douglas swears there is a ghost in this house. So, of course, I then started thinking about that scenario all night! I ended up just watching season III of "Big Love", which I am addicted to, for the rest of the night. I digress - it really made me think about Douglas being without us and how very different it must be for him down there.

However, he is doing very well at the Salon. We worried about the prospect of hair styling down there, when his sister told us that haircuts are $5.00 a head! Thankfully he is leasing in a high end area where the price of services is comparable to what we charged up here in our Canadian salon. The summer season is a bit slow as the Embassy people go on holidays and make their moves abroad and new Embassy families move in. The majority of their clientele base are Ex-Pats.

His life has become very boring - home/work/home/work. He has attended the odd BBQ and nightclub and has made a few friends. The delicacy down there seems to be 'eggs and beans' - ha ha! Douglas is great with cleaning, to the point of obsession at times, but doesn't enjoy cooking, so every time we are on the phone with him in the evenings, it seems that he is again cooking 'eggs and beans'. How sad!

There were a few things that he had to get used to - traffic/driving conditions, the heat, the showers, the safety and security issues and the "manyana" attitude that prevails.

Traffic/driving conditions: I would never describe him as a "careful driver" up here, weaving in and out of traffic, so it must say something when he tells us that there appear to be no rules to the road and it is "every man for himself!". He avoids driving downtown where the craziest traffic jams exist!

He arrived during the blistering heat wave and it was very difficult to deal with, he is now used to the heat, but I would imagine the air conditioned vehicle, house and salon assist! He has also made himself get used to the cold/tepid showers. Of course, with the beautiful weather this is much easier to become used to.

He is not the greatest with directions so he is a little apprehensive about going into the "wrong neighbourhood". He still stays very close to his house for this reason. He definately lives with a heightened sense of security, which is something we would never even blink at over here.

It must have taken weeks to get paperwork sorted out for the purchase of his vehicle, drivers test etc. He had to readjust to that certain "manyana" attitude. I just hope the Immigration office in Guatemala doesn't have that same attitude!

Overall, he is very optimistic about life in El Salvador and thinks that personally and professionally it holds promise, (we are cautiously optimistic), but he is also waiting in limbo for when we arrive.

So, he still waits for us to arrive down there to spice things up! (I think I'll bring my lampshade hat).

CANADA DAY, EH!

2009-07-04T21:49:00.000-07:00

July 1st was Canada Day - where we came together in festivals, fireworks and general merriment to "woop it up" and celebrate our beautiful country and being a Canadian! As a country we have a reputation of being very humble of our Nation and are normally not so boisterous in our National pride, but on this one day annually, we do seem to come together and show our patriotism.

"It is so easy to complain about the weather or the taxes in Canada, but move away and you'll find yourself complaining about the airfare to get back." Anonymous

I've had the good fortune of doing quite a bit of travelling and through those experiences have developed a strong sense of patriotism to Canada. When I travelled overseas, I was always proud to display my Canadian flag on my jacket.

N.B. - I would be amiss to not state that while reflecting on our country's celebration of our peace and prosperity (and in connecting with people through the "net" and "blogosphere"), I have (like the rest of the world) been watching closely the developments in Honduras. I hope that they can achieve peace and prosperity in the very near future.

Strawberry picking time @ Springridge Farm, one of our favourite haunts! It was quite muddy though; with all the rain we have been getting.

It started to rain like a monsoon again! Very hard to plan a camping weekend with all this bloody rain we keep experiencing! Normally so hot, our summer has fluctuated between tepid with lots of rain & funnel cloud warnings and then "heat alerts" issued with "cooling stations" being opened (in Toronto).
I guess this would be my "boob shot".

Father's Day 2009 Minus Father

2009-06-26T13:31:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm very lucky that I still have mine nearby. My Mum and Dad (Granddad) joined us on the beach on Father's Day, but Douglas was of course far away.

We had a package of cool "Affliction" clothing and such ready to mail out to him to El Salvador, but after mulling it over, I decided to hold onto it until we get down there. You see lately I have learned that, suspiciously, the "good stuff" doesn't seem to make it there. I recently mailed him three packages in one day; one with swim trunks (perhaps next time i will send some thongs and see if those make it!), one with four boxes of cologne and one with 30 pairs of opulent chandeleir earrings (no, he is not into wearning these earrings, but rather was going to sell them at the salon). Guess which one did NOT make it to him? The one with the earrings. I can just picture some customs agent opening up a little kiosk of jewellery on her lunch hour!

Hey, look Douglas in Tokyo! ha ha
We taped some very touching singing/dancing performances for their Daddy for Father's Day. They are missing him, but are also so busy that the time apart seems to fly by. They spend much of their time discussing and making plans for their "adventure" in El Salvador. Trinity pointed out yesterday that we talk about him as if he has died. We seem to talk about him in the past tense. For example; "Daddy would have really loved the beach today", or when the cornflakes are on sale Avalon would say "If Daddy were here, we would have stocked up on those!". Trinity is often looking at the prices for flights and occasionally trying to convince me to send her down there to surprise him. So, on Father's Day we headed to the beach for the day. We were met with this menacing sign. Do we heed the warnings? Well, we haven't grown a third arm yet! The sand is shipped in from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, but not the water.

Our Foreign Affairs Minister and Hilary Clinton were recently at The Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls making a re-commitment to The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The level of toxins have dropped, bald eagles and other species have returned but there is still much more work to do to restore and maintain the integrity of the Great Lakes.

Avalon seems to have an aversion to carrying anything! Trinity carried most of the "stuff".

She even carries Avalon!! We stayed until dusk, when all the seadooer's and boaters had retreated back to their harbours. We look forward to the waves of the Pacific; the only waves here are the ones that the seadooers make!

Sound of Music Festival

2009-06-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately the weather did not agree with the Festival this year. It decided to rain in the morning and most of the afternoon. However, the "show must go on" and troopers that we are (and in desperate need of the thrill of the rides!) we sloshed through the mucky, soft grass to feed the addiction. We picked up the odd snow cone and cotton candy on the way and enjoyed the music. Lots of various musicians to choose from - crooners, pop, local, rock, jazz, soul, latin - you name it, it was there!

Look it's Cousin It!