mouse in the house

this summer at fintry we had unexpected guests. a family of them, actually.

our first day, i walked into a ground floor room and saw charles staring intently at the carpet. seconds later, from behind the bookcase scampered a mouse. it looked like a fieldmouse, really long back legs, round large ears.

my dad and i set up the mouse trap (a humane one, that traps the mouse, not one that has poisoned food or breaks its neck) and figured in a couple of days the problem would be over. it wasn't.

at night, the mouse would come out and hide around the refrigerator. we weren't sure why. the kids thought it fantastic, and cheered for the mouse. the adults couldn't capture it (although we tried while mum stayed in her room with the door shut) until one day we met the mouse's achilles heel, her son, jackson.

mandy called it jackson, my kids called him gus gus. he was, admittedly a very cute mouse. one night, we surprised mama mouse as she was carrying jackson in her mouth and when she saw us she dropped him in surprised. mandy scooped jackson into a tin. she began making plans to take him back to edmonton with her. (as one would). she kept him in the bathtub that night, hoping that the mum would come to collect him and get caught in the tub herself. i stayed out of it, because i sensed no good was coming out of the situation. jackson's shrill little squeaks were quite heartrending and rent the night.

at 3am, charles got up to do a wee, and found jackson and his mum in the tub. he started filming their reunion when it was cut short…mama jumped out of the tub, effectively leaving her orphan son alone again. sucks to be you, jackson. but we figured she had six more kids to worry about.

have i mentioned jackson was tiny? so tiny that the next day he escaped. mandy still isn't sure how. possibly when she was on the plane with westjet asking if jckson could fly on the plane in her pocket, like a mosquito, or if she would have to buy him his own seat. or get a carrier.

he did disappear though. this is what i meant when i said no good would come of it. that night, sela came downstairs and said, "i just saw gusgus. we was upstairs looking for food." she wasn't scared, just disappointed that i wouldn't give her food and sad that she didn't see more of him.

for the next week, i saw little of mama and nothing of jackson. but one night, i had just turned out the light and i heard a rustling noise. sebastian was sleeping in the room with us, and sela in the single room next to the twin beds room where carys and jasper were. and then something scampered along my arm and i realised it was the fricking mouse. there had been pellets in our room for a few days so i wasn't too surprised, but still! the cheek to come out while i was in there!

i jumped up and turned on the light. saw a flash of tail. immediately put pillows around sebastian. crept out, closed the other bedroom doors. walked back into my room and pulled a pillow off sebastian, and pulled the pillowcase off the pillow. opened it. my priority was to get the mouse away from my son,  but if it came near him…i would be waiting. my swing is pretty good and there was a wall nearby.

the mouse took the easy way out and ran. i followed her and was impressed at how briskly she took the steps. then again, i must have seemed like the hound of the baskervilles.

when lita arrived, we told her of the presence of jackson and his mummy. she looked at me and said, "is mandy gone?" and i said, "yes".

"do you want me to kill it?" she asked and i said, "yes".

a couple of nights later, mama mouse foolishly wended its way into pams room. silly silly silly. pam WOKE UP LITA and asked her to come upstairs and kill the mouse for her. lita grabbed a huge iron spatula and was on the job.

no luck.

again, pam sighted the luckless mouse and sent lita on the hunt. and again, nothing.

charles saw the mouse a couple more times in our room, but he got no further than anyone else did.

now, are we wrong to be killing one of God's creatures? mandy was upset that we were trying, but honestly, rat scat isn't so healthy to be around. and that mouse would have walked over my little boy if i hadn't stopped her. therefore, i don't think my actions were terribly wrong. i was actually quite proud of myself.

does this seem hypocritical given i am the welcome wagon for geckos?

not only am i mean, but i am crafty

charles can attest to the blog headline, and in a few years it is my hope that my children will second, third, fourth and fifth the statement.

but, my defense will be, to quote harlequin (and really, who doesn't?) "i did it for love".

as you know, les enfants, with the exception of sela are not vegetably-inclined. actually, they are not overly fruit adventurous, with the exception of sela, who eats blueberries like they are m&m's and enjoys pineapple and strawberries and rockmelon and raspberries and laichees, etc.

while it was fun to take a summer hiatus, now we are back in hong kong and i am back in mummy whip cracking mode. and because i don't want to take on a few BIG issues, i decided to have a few small victories first, to make me feel good and warm me up. a facial for the soul.

so, i declared out of the blue to charles in our post dark knight shopping expedition, "get the ingredients for smoothies…tomorrow we start". and with that, i grabbed frozen spinach and chocolate powder.

every morning since, the kids have been enjoying chocolate smoothies that include: blueberries, bananas, strawberries, spinach, yogurt (sometimes), milk, ice and chocolate. i am debating throwing in some flax seed, but am scared to see the results.

it is a small victory, but a good one. it is not teaching them that vegetables are delicious, but hopefully they will learn that later in life. right? please?

if anyone has any other suggestions for other vegetables we could drop in there, we're listening. sebastian caught me thawing the spinach and asked what it was, and charles answered, "vitamins". no lying in this house! i will post the best recipe we find, if you want. in the meantime, this is working really well and we're really grateful. for a while there it seemed the only way we were going to get vegetables into jasper was if we laced his bobs and socks with celery string.

ballet shoes and birds nest

magnificent charles is watching the opening of the olympiads on television and i am sneaking off during the chinese opera to update. they are doing a great job. i feel sorry for vancouver and other host countries to come…who has the money to splash out on ceremonies like this?

i have given in to the begging and pleading…and i have signed carys and sela up for ballet classes. the cost is exorbitant and the uniform is more than their school uniform, but i wish you could have seen their reactions when i told them i had signed them up for classes. i was told how much i was loved, how happy they were and then sela said in a demanding voice, WHEN CAN I GO? WHEN CAN THE TRIPLETS GO?

oh did i mention that jasper is going as well? charles is not thrilled, but if jasper doesn't like it, he can drop out.

now the trouble of the girls hair. the teacher insists that hair is pulled back into a bun, but neither carys or sela HAVE enough hair to constitue a bun. i can barely get a bunch for sela! in a serious conversation, while she was dancing and piroetting and crashing, i told her we would need to put bobbie pins in her hair. if possible, her grin split even wider and she exclaimed,

CARYS, DID YOU HEAR THAT? BARBIE PINS IN OUR HAIR!!!

happy happy days.

pretty much as we left it

if you remember correctly (or want to scroll down to view the appallingly few posts i have made since june to read for yourself), we left hong kong in typhoon weather.

guess what we returned to?

it was a good return to life as we know it. i love love love hong kong and in creepy and typhoony weather, with warm wind and rain whipping around you and the roads deserted, life is very very good.

yesterday charles and i decided that we would escape the demands of domesticity (we're still on holidays!) and spend some "us" time. can i just go on the record as saying that taking four kids on holiday enhances one's natural snappiness? (especially charles', not mine). we had a good summer, but it was full on. i only read seven books if that is any indicator.  

at 9.45am, i said to charles, "let's get out of here and go and see the dark knight." he thought this to be a fine idea (and let's face it, it is a great idea), so we raced off, got dressed and trotted into the rain. of course there were no other people on the roads, but hey, there were no vehicles either. how were we going to get to cyberport? my brilliant charles dashed up to the hospital and eventually flagged a taxi that was letting someone out, but since it is illegal to pick up passengers in typhoon eight, the taxi kept it's metre running which meant we ended up paying $50 for a $17 fare. oh well, that's life.

the movie was very good, very dark and multidimensional, very unlike all the other batmans. there was so much more than the goodies and baddies in there. in case you haven't seen it, i will leave it there, but i will say that i loved seeing hong kong in the movie. what a huge bonus it is to see your city (the dry sky version), on the big screen, gorgeous and fascinating.

we did some grocery shopping (i was hankering for cous cous, charles just wanted plain greens, and the sausage supply in the house was getting a bit low so we picked some up for the kids) and then we headed home. 

it was still typhoon eight. we managed to hang out with the kids for a few more hours, and then at 6.30pm i realised i was falling asleep. i barely remember threatening to cut sela's hair but i am pretty sure i did. and i went to bed and now it is 4.30am and i have been awake for two hours. sebastian and jasper are awake as well. GOOD HEAVENS.

would i do it over again just to have that canadian summer? yes i would. i would change parts of the summer, but we'll do it again.

and at the cottage, life is near perfect

…ohh, the weather will be cold, predicted the naysayers when they heard we were to be in kelowna in mid july.

kiss my jlo folks, it is brilliant here. the kids are tanned and happy, and i, who have managed to read five books and attend two garage sales (not bad when you are in cottage country!) scored four danielle steele books for 1.00 and have read them all. i also read a peter lawford biography, so my trash level is pretty high.

so why am i typing when the cottage is so obviously computer free? BECAUSE I AM IN KELOWNA WAITING FOR LITA”S PLANE TO COME IN. it is embarrassing to tell you how excited i am to see her, but i am going to anyway. i am thrilled, smiling and even washed my hair for her. how i have missed talking and rolling my eyes with her. the kids are ecstatic and very grumpy that they have to wait until morning to see her.

thresholds that have been crossed in the almost two weeks since we have been in paradise (it has rained once for those of you keeping track,,,and we loved being indoors)…
– sela and i jumped off the dock together

– sela jumped off the second tier of the lighthouse!

– we have seen owls, bunnies and beavers (ha ha)

the kids arent complete water animals, but that is okay,

they have been terrible at times too, but that is to be expected. and you would all be so impressed with the junk i am letting them eat. and of course i am eating it too (lead by example, churchill!) and as a result, i rather resemble churchill in profile.

our last days with charmaine were wonderful. how i love that girl.

i am starting to think about heading back to hong kong, which unbelievably we do in 9 days. wow. where did time go. i am trying not to get depressed. wish me luck. what do i have to look forward to??? remind me?

bliss

i haven’t written, and it’s not because i haven’t had access to the internet.

but we have been so busy.

it has been wonderful. the girls and i have been visiting with charmaine and her kids two or three different places a day, one of them always a playground. (a small side effect is that i am sick of swings). we have been to the beach, springbank park, two spalsh pools, various playgrounds, port stanley, a railroad trip, the cinema (wall*e and kung fu panda), and garage sales!

unbelievably…the kids have gotten along really well. i can’t believe it. if my kids had to share their home, parents attention and toys for a whole week, they would be very cross, i suspect. but mac and maddy have been so accommodating. charmaine and i look at each other and are realise we are pretty lucky.

charles arrived yesterday (poor fellow) and the boys immediately ran to the atv’s charmaine and jim have, and they jumped on and began driving around. what a welcome! sebastian and mac went canoeing with their daddies after dinner, while charmaine and i were in charge of putting the youngest four to bed.

the girls were thrilled to be reunited with their male counterparts, and i was greeted with “hi tess!” from jasper and “hi mummy, i want to ride that” from sebastian. i feel so necessary to their lives.

it is good to be with charmaine, and it is tough to look across the room and know i won’t be doing this for a while. it was good to have jim and charles finally meet, i just wish that charles was a little less stressed right now. the boys were apparently not on their best behaviour while they were in toronto and that led to some hurtful comments and tough times for charles. oh well, the boys have been relatively good while they have been here (i say relatively because jasper got up from bed four times last night, and then in the middle of the night, he joined us. all very bad behaviour).

so i apologise for the silence. it has been so hectic, but it has been so great. the kids have loved being here. in the house, they can run up and down the steps, jumping is allowed, two long yogurts at a time if they like, we have baked banana bread, and there are always fun excursions planned. we went to an organic farm and picked veggies one day.

we’re all tired at the end of the day.

tomorrow, we leave for kelowna. stage three of the holiday begins.

will post more soon. again, apologies.

xo

compromise – and its all good

where did i leave off ?? sunday?

monday was a big day because it marked jasper, sela and carys’ first day of day camp. the minute i knew we were coming to toronto, i had looked around for daycamps. when you don’t drive, you need a daycamp. last time we were here it was embarrassing how much we depended on others, and after a lifetime of bumming rides and being dependent on others timetables, i have a wish that my children don’t suffer from that, and that when we visit, other people don’t have to adjust their lives too much to cater to us.

my SIL looked around for us, and i looked around, and i found what i thought to be an excellent day camp put on by the city of toronto, and even better, it was within walking distance of doug’s place. so every morning, i wouldn’t need to ask people to drive the kids to day camp, i could just walk them there myself. YAY! while there were some who were really apprehensive about the programme and the facilities, i prayed like mad and had a really good feeling about it. it was a day long program, starting at 9am and ending at 4pm.

9am the next morning, we walked up to the correct location and signed the kids in, were shown to their cubbies, and met their instructor, an ECE graduate and full time city worker, kyle blackman. what a fantastic guy. obviously gifted with children, he bent right down and chatted wth the kids right away. there were other kids coming in, so i took them all to the bathrooms, which were impeccable. another good sign, i thought.

the doors opened, the kids ran in, i waved goodbye and they waved. no one ran over to give me a hug, but they did blow kisses.

i was hoping to spend the day looking for books with penny, but the day got delayed and we left the house late. living in a city like this really makes me say…if only i could drive and really makes me frustrated that i cannot!

we had an okay lunch, and a very very quick browse for books, and then a really fast pick up of groceries, and then zipped back to pick up the kids, who came racing out. they’d had a wonderful day! and i smiled. YAY!

we got back to the house and then boom, it was time to start working on dinner. penny made most of it, and then keith came and did the bbq’ing. i just made dessert and was the right hand woman, and did a lot of washing and clearing up it seemed. i was in the kitchen a lot. doug’s girlfriend marnie and her granddaughter, phoebe came for dinner, and it was fun. i like marnie. she is savvy, very well informed, and a lot of laughs.

the next day was canada day. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA! we spent the day on the boat, and then later had a bbq, celebrating cousin galen’s birthday and charles’ birthday which is later this month. we didn’t leave the island until 7pm, which did not bode well…so many late nights! of course my kids are demanding that they don’t go to sleep until it gets dark…this is the problem of living so close to the equator. the sun sets by 7pm and the cranky kids get all demanding that they don’t sleep until it is dark. another reason never to take them to yellowknife. can you imagine them in that northern summer sun?

sebastian slept over at galen’s, they slept in a tent. i guess the fireworks kept them up for quite a bit of the night but otherwise, it was a good evening!

the next day, anne, marnie and i went to lunch at the restaurant at the top of the ROM. it was a huge disaster. pricy and pathetic options and puny. when i saw my goat cheese salad entree i said, “couldn’t they have added three more arugala leaves and made a round 20?” i mean, folks, this was BAD. and the cost! three of us, no drinks, one appetiser, three entrees, no pellegrino, etc…over $110. needless to say, under the tip category, i wrote, “GOOD LUCK”. really.

but it was a good story and we had lots of laughs. the snippy little waiter just added to it. he was ridiculous.

thursday night, anne, charles and i went out for dinner with her friend christopher to a divine restaurant called on the fifth. fantastic. a great rooftop place. pricy, but worth it…go go go !

friday, we had a day that i call just about perfect. there were some blips, but overall, a perfect perfect day. we went to centre island, where there is an amusement park, and the kids rode rollercoasters, (jasper sat wtih me and burst out crying and plunged his head into my hands and prayed the entire time), rode cable cars, trains, live ponies, froggie hoppers, swan boats, log boats, mini cars…oh it was a fantastic day. i bought the kids little candy rings to make the wait in one lineup seem shorter..sometime i am a smart mum! it was an expensive day, but hey, that’s what it’s all about.and then, tired and tanned, i decided we hadn’t had enough…lets go to CHUCKIE CHEESE! the kids were ecstatic and cousin bronwyn was so jealous she begged off going to the cottage to come to CC with us! it was great to have her there and she got me hooked on a game where you have to choose briefcases with monetary values in them. GREAT GAME. the pizzas we bought were terrible, but it was a fun evening, we had a great great time.

and saturday, while doug, penny and bronwyn left for the cottage at sparrow’s fart, i asked charles to delay his departure for a while…i wanted the kids to experiment a real canadian event…GARAGE SALES!

charles agreed and we just drove around the area, where there were plenty. and i bought a bag of my little ponies for $3, two light sabres for $4, a life jacket for $5, a new franklin book for .25, and a few other things. a great day. then the boys left, and it was the girls and i. we walked up to the corner grocer, where they selected a dinner roll, chocolate milk and candy bars for dinner, and then we went to the dollar store where they chose new barrettes. we went home and i gave them pedicures, they played with their new ponies while i packed, and then i made dinner and we watched cinderella infront of the television with dinner. we had showers, into pajamas, and then boom, we were in bed. i finished the book i was reading (WHILE I WAS GONE, by SUE MILLER, excellent). then it was morning.

i made breakfast, i took them to the park and we played adn watched dog training classes. it is a hot cloudless day. a beautiful one that i wish the girls will remember. there are so many things about this summer i want them to remember. the feeling of family of being loved by so many people. on the way home, after drinking from the water fountain (still a novelty for them), we blew dandilion fluff into the sky and made wishes, and they picked clover “here mummy, a beautiful flower for you” and handed it to me. such a great morning.

as we walked back into doug’s yard, i pulled a deck chair into the yard and a long yarstick and told the girls to stand on the terrace. there were two items stuck in the tree, and i wanted to get them down. one, a styrofoam rocket of sebastian’s. the second, a ride on toy (not sure, don’t ask). well, it took only four tries and i got them both out. YAY MUMMY! and carys looked at me and said,

“mummy, i am so proud of you.”

honestly, i felt so proud of me when she said that! it was like the other day when jasper looked over at me as i was reading him a book and said, “mummy, i love you so much.” i love that my kids know these words. if they make me feel so wonderful, i wonder the impact they have on their tender developing selves?

and here i am writing while they play ponies ($3 garage sale ponies i might add) and i go off to prepare lunch.stage one of our summer is almost over.

bye for now.

hello again…charles is off catching up with some old friends so here am i.

friday night was the annual summer ball at the rcyc. i told you that i lugged my new red frock across the pacific, and i have to say, it was probably a mistake. i was one of the more overdressed people at the ball, not that overdressed is a bad thing or my dress was particularly showy. it was just that more people wore cocktail type dresses. i should have worn a chinese top and a long velvet skirt and orchids in my hair. (i now have the “POB” hairdo…looks okay).

i was really tired, so before the ball i took a nap and charles and anne took the kids to the playground. kids had a blast. then there was a bit of a frantic time when keys were lost and something else had been forgotten and needed to be delivered, but we managed!

it was a great evening. charles’ dad is the dancing king and marnie, his companion, is no slouch on the floor herself, so they were out shaking their stuff most of the night, and looking fantastic. charles and i were heroes at our table, because we won a bottle of wine for the table by correctly answering the 8 multiple choice questions.

charles and i danced quite a bit, but were home by midnight, or 1am. i think 1am.

the next day was a family bbq at charles’ cousin bob’s place. one thing i really like about charles’ family is the effort they make to stay in touch. twice a year they have these gettogethers, and everyone comes. it is really impressive.

bob and jay have this super pool and hot tub, and the kids were in there, and later, so were their parents! the food was divine.

as the afternoon waned on, the young kids went upstairs to watch shrek. about 30 minutes into th emovie, charles’ neice, bronwyn came out and said, “there is something wrong with jasper, he keeps scratching”. charles said, “oh that’s just jasper” (which is what i would have normally said), but my mummy siren went off and i went to see jasper, and the sight that greeted me was actually quite shocking.

he had been resting on the sofa, and someone had pulled a blanket overtop him to make him more comfy. unfortunately, it was the cat’s blanket and jasper is allergic to cats.

one eye was swollen shut. the other was red. he had white raised boils along his wrist, neck and behind his knees. his breathing was raspy.

i quickly gave him some ventolin and bricanyl and his other inhaler, and some warm water. kept him outside. took off his shirt. he really looked vile.

about one hour later, we headed home.

the next day, we went to another pool party, this time hosted by charles’ long term friend tim and his divine wife brenda. these are seriously great people. it was a super party and we were very sorry to leave. brenda had the party catered, but she had made all the food herself and it would have been rude of me not to eat it, right? it was just fantastic. fricking fantastic!

so, that was sunday. we came home, again, late, and the kids had their third late night in a row. they had slept through the night saturday evening, but what does that mean when they are getting to bed at 9pm and are used to going to sleep at 7.30? such wickedness.

oh boy, today i was in lulu lemon…a girl has to look good, right? remind me to tell you why when i get back…

xo

survival

we are in toronto. the worst of the jetlag is over and we are doing really well.

i spent today out on the water on doug’s (FIL’s) boat, and although i did nothing, i am tired, so this long overdue post will be a short one.

HAPPY CANADA DAY.

the night before we were meant to leave hong kong, i took my suitcases down to andrea’s. we held the “semifinals” of the summer suitcase there, where i pulled out every single item i was planning on taking and determined if it had the talent or was necessary for the trip. we managed to shave down quite a few items from the kids suitcase and from my own.

while there, we got the news that a typhoon was descending upon hong kong. a typhoon eight. andrea, teacher that she is, began crossing her fingers, as if the typhoon eight signal is raised at 8am, there is no school that day.

at 11pm, the typhoon three signal was replaced by typhoon eight. by midnight the wind was really blowing. i went to sleep and rested fitfully.

by 6am, the typhoon eight was still up, and andrea, her children and mine were euphoric. andrea sent a message inviting the kids down to play if we wanted to get them out of our hair while doing last minute packing. we decided to divide and conquer, so adam came up to our place, while i took the triplets down to andrea and chad’s where we drank endless cups of tea and started mentally packing for andrea. it was a good morning. the typhoon signal was lowered to three around 11.30am.

the flight was on, but likely delayed. ths was not good news as we had a connector flight in vancouver.

we ate a final lunch with adam, pulled the luggage down to the car, loaded the car and the airport car (thank you amex) up, and headed off….goodbye 122!!

at the airport we got through no problem, and sat in the cathay airport lounge for as long as i could tolerate it. and then it was just too embarrassing to have the kids racing around while reading of delayed flights, so i took the kids fora  walk while charles relaxed for a bit.

our flight was called 20 minutes late, and we sat on the ground, not moving for 90 minutes.

needless to say, we missed our vancouver connector flight.

the flight itself was good. the kids watched horton hears a who a few times, and loved it, and then slept. i watched a few bits of tv, and one of my fave movies, MARS ATTACKS. i read a bit of a new book.

welcome to vancouver.

the worst part of flying is filling in time. the kids were so tired and we had a four hour layover. we were all tired and they were truculent and we weren’t parenting to the best of our abilities. thankfully, the majority of those people will never see us again and we boarded the flight to toronto, plugged in the portable dvd players, and were off.

we landed in toronto, no problems, collected our luggage, doug and carolyn (SIL) were there ready for us, and quickly we got to doug’s place. pajamas on and were in bed within 45 minutes of our midnight arrival.

unfortunatlely, the boys awoke two hours later.

the next few hours were grim, charles got up from 2.30-4.30 and i took the 5.45-onwards crew. charles was out somewhere, and somehow the lines of communication got crossed and it was thought everyone was having dinner at doug’s place that night. i was just planning on having tortellini and sauce (both store bought thank you very much), and throwing the kids to bed, but suddenly it was a longer issue. anyway, my sil made half the dinner, i made the other half, and we sat down and i made it through the dinner. the kids weren’t so stellar. but they managed.

more soon…friday was the ball. i have been walking about 10k.

sorry for the silence, but there will be more soon. it has been full on, lots of things have been planned for me but it should be a bit quieter now. xo

halfway to halfway home

sorry for the silence.

i am halfway to halfway home. home for the holidays.

assuming canada is home.

packing for the kids was easy. i went to the kids room while they were sleeping, pulled things out of drawers and shazam, that was done.

packing for me is proving to be a little more challening, shall we say. and time consuming. magnificent is really really emotionally tied to the royal canadian yacht club, where his family has so many memories and has spent so many good times. this friday night is the annual summer ball. of course charles was crazy to go.

tess, will you come with me?

personally, i think magnificent would have a better time without me. he could table hop and schmooze and catch up with old friends and not for one minute worry about what i was doing. (aka: sitting alone).

but, he claims he wants me there. so, i had to get a frock. and i have been tromping around hong kong island and kowloon looking for one for the past week. the theme of the ball is "beijing". i tried to find a dress with olympic rings on it, but there was nothing.

a lot of "traditional" chinese dresses are very beaded. i personally don't go for that look because i am neither a ballroom dancer or of that age where heavy beading is what i want to be wearing. so cross out that style.

which leaves the cheongsam. is a cheongsam formal enough to wear to a ball? hard to say. and what's to say that the waitstaff won't be wearing knee length cheong sams and if i am in a floor length i will just look like the head waitress?

so i discarded trying to firmly tie myself to beijing, and on friday found a gorgeous deep red gown (thats chinese enough i figure) with some black embroidering and beading. very occasional. it is a halter style, a line. i looped it over my head for the kids to see what it looks like and they said, "is it an apron dress, mummy!"

anyway, the apron dress, the shoes and the nylons not to mention the jacket take up a lot of room in my suitcase. you know me, i hate taking EXCESS THINGS in my suitcase. and dragging around the dress (THAT HAS CRINOLINE!!) for a few weeks is really righteously going to aggrivate me.

back to packing. it is just the last minute things. all the kids have field trips, i am trying take care of so many things. and i am going to be so ready to step on the plane, unwrap the girls' new strawberry shortcake colouring books, give the boys their new BEN 10 figurines and play away. and when the time comes, i will plug them into a movie and maybe even read my book.

i'm ready.