BusyTuesday

Today turned out to be a rather busy day. I wasn't home most of the day and when I was home I was busy doing things. And when I wasn't busy doing things I wasn't feeling like messing with my camera and pictures so the photo blog will be tomorrow.

What was I doing today? Well, I started out the day catching up on Outlander from Sunday night and trying to finish Clue 3 of my Game of Thrones MKAL. I still don't know exactly what I'm making but it's looking more and more like either a cowl-necked shoulder warmer or a poncho. I'm not finished with the clue yet but when I am I'll do my best to get a picture. It's hard because my needle cable is short and it doesn't show off the work very nicely.

After spending a little time being lazy I got ready and headed out to the shoe store to look for some spring-type shoes. I have a cute pair of flats that were very comfortable to wear last year but when I put them on their year they hurt my longest toe on my left foot and I'm not sure why. Either my toe grew or the shoe shrank. I was bummed that they were uncomfortable to wear this year because shoe shopping for me in a time-consuming adventure.

Shoe shopping is fun for most people but not for me. I have bad feet. They are long and skinny with high arches. Because of lack of wearing supportive shoes at various times in my life I have developed plantar fasciitis in my heels. If you don't know what that is, it is when the pad under the skin of your heel becomes inflamed and very sore. My sister has it so bad she had to have surgery where they drilled holes in her heel. Thankfully mine is not that bad! The best way for me to keep it from acting up is to make sure I have shoes that have good arch supports as well as good heel cushioning, and if the shoes lack either of those, then they need to have room for me to stick in my lovely arch supports.

Finding shoes like that takes a while for me. I have to try on the shoes and if they feel like they are pretty comfortable then I have to see if my arch supports fit in them. Today since I was looking for a flat/ballerina type shoes I kept having problems whenever I would stick my arch support in - the shoe wouldn't fit right in the heel. After about an hour (and probably the sales clerk thinking I was going to steal something) I finally found a pair that should work. I say should because even though they seemed okay in the store they may not feel the same when I try them again tomorrow. I will give them a try inside tomorrow so if they don't work out I can return them (so glad the store has a return policy like that!)

After shoe shopping. I met C downtown for lunch. I had a yummy bowl of seafood chowder that came with two delicious biscuits. After lunch it was off to the grocery store for me. I had just enough time after that to come home and put the cold things away and then I was off and running again. I had to pick up the kids early to take S to the optometrist. She had her vision checked at school recently and they sent home a note asking me to have her checked by an optometrist. So I made her an appointment and the eye doctor checked her eyes today - her vision is fine and he didn't notice any major problems. Since I had never seen her showing any problems with seeing I figured she was fine but it was better to know for sure.

Once we were finished at the eye place we had time to head out to find sunglasses for the kids. J has been asking for a pair of sunglasses and S managed to misplace the ones she had been wearing. We found a pair for each of them that they are happy with. With acquiring sunglasses complete we headed off to S's hair appointment. She had asked me the other week to take her for a haircut and today was the first day I was able to get her in. Her hair was over halfway down her back and it was getting to the point where it just was hard to manage. She cut off about 6 inches of hair so now it's a few inches below her shoulders. It is long enough that she can still put it up in a ponytail but short enough that she can wear it down without it getting in her way. She looks really cute with her new haircut!

Finally it was time to come home! By this point I had a raging headache. The kids played while I took some stuff for my headache and made myself a cup of tea. I had a few minutes to drink it while catching up on what happened in the world today and then it was time to make dinner. Homemade chicken tenders, peas, and good old mac-n-cheese were on the menu tonight. By the time supper was done and cleaned up, I had no energy to work on photos. Tomorrow I have my own hair appointment and I have to pick up an item or two for the raffle basket for S's school and then I am coming home to work on downloading my pictures. I am curious to see how they turned out. Now I am going to go relax and finish my GoT knitting clue. Good night!

I'm Back!

I made it back from my weekend away and what a fantastic weekend it was! We started out Saturday morning with taking the ferry across to Nova Scotia and we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was sunny but a bit cool with the air off the water. Once we exited the ferry we had a pretty drive up to Cape Breton. Along the way we saw a white tailed deer which we haven't seen since we left Virginia as well as a bald eagle.

We had a late lunch in a local restaurant near where we were staying and it was quite tasty. After that we checked into our accommodations for the weekend. We found a place that has 6 cottages to rent - two with 2 bedrooms and the rest singles. The cottage was perfect for us - it had a nice big porch, a grill, and a kitchen. We had taken most of our food with us so we were able to prepare meals there. The cottages are located on 200 acres of land and the kids had a blast exploring the woods. We just turned them loose with a few warnings and they had the best time. They were constantly asking if they could go into the woods. We went with them one time and were surprised at how far away they actually ventured.

On Sunday we went up to Cape Breton Highlands National Park. We were hoping to spot a moose or two but no luck. One trail we wanted to go on was closed because Mamma Bear was very protective of her new baby and the rangers really didn't want anyone getting attacked by a bear. The ranger recommended another trail for us although she did warn us parts were snow covered. Luckily we remembered to bring along boots! We hiked the trail (it was short) but saw lots of signs that moose like the area but the moose were elusive. The signs said that early morning/dusk are the best times for moose spotting. Maybe next time we'll get to see one.

We stopped at an amazing overlook to have our picnic lunch. We had a few of the mountains as well as the ocean. It was quiet up there (well, except for the kids) and the views were awesome. Afterwards we went to another trail to go hiking. This one promised us a waterfall at the end of the hike. We trekked through snow and wet to find not one, but two beautiful waterfalls. It made the hike worth it to see how beautiful nature can be.

After that we were pretty worn out - too much sitting around this winter. So we headed back to the cottage and made supper while the kids ran around in the woods. After supper we for a walk through the meadows and woods behind the cottages hoping once more to see a moose. No luck again! But we did see a very large hare. It is the biggest hare I've seen in the wild. Now we know what the coyotes like to eat (no, we didn't see any coyotes either).

The drive home today was pretty - it was filled with sun even if the air was cool. The weather all weekend was beautiful. Originally there was a chance of rain Sunday but all we had was sun. We took the ferry home along with a lot of other people! And if we needed any more proof that PEI is a small place, S ran into a friend from school on the ferry. It is fun to live in a place where so many people know each other.

When we arrived home we found that S's friends had decorated the driveway for us with Welcome Home messages. They also left dandelions on the porch although they had closed up by the time we got home. It's the thought that counts. It was nice to know we were missed. I really do love the neighbourhood we live in.

I do have a lot of pictures of things from this weekend, I just haven't downloaded them from my camera yet to see which ones turned out good. I will do that tomorrow and hopefully do a photo blog tomorrow, Wednesday at the latest. Tomorrow will be a busy day with some after school things and I need C's help editing some of my pictures so I may not get them up until Wednesday. I will do my best for tomorrow though!

A Glorious Friday!

Today was an absolutely beautiful day. J went to school in shorts and S changed into some as soon as she got home. She had a blast playing with all the neighbourhood girls from the time she got home from school until supper, which was at least three hours. J got invited over to a friend's house and we haven't seen him for a few hours. Right as I typed that I got a message from his friend's mom saying the boys were out playing hide and seek with the other neighbourhood boys. I love that we live in a place with so many kids!

I had a busy day getting ready for tomorrow's trip. I did four loads of laundry (although two of them were rather small), packed clothes for the kids as well as myself, and started getting the food together to take with us. We're staying a few nights at a cottage that has a full kitchen and a grill so we're going to take food with us so we don't have to eat at restaurants so much. Also, that will allow us to make sandwiches to take with us on our adventures.

S has all her toys packed up and ready to go. J still needs to get his stuff together. If he doesn't get it done tonight he'll have to be quick in the morning since we need to leave early. We're going to take the ferry from the island over to Nova Scotia. It will save us a lot of driving in the car and J has never taken the ferry before. The rest of us took it last year when we went to S's doctor's appointment in Halifax.

In addition to getting ready for the trip I also made S an appointment to get her vision checked. They checked it at school and since it wasn't quite 20/20 they want us to have a follow up with an optometrist. I also finally got S signed up for summer soccer. It will only be one weeknight a week so that won't take away from beach time too much. Hopefully she'll end up on a team with some of her friends. I know she won't be on the same team as one of her friends because their birth years are different, but there's a chance she'll end up on a team with at least one friend.

I think S is a little disappointed that we're going away this weekend since her friend's parents are planning on opening their pool this weekend. S really wants to go swimming. I reminded her that she will have plenty of chances to swim this summer. She thought the other girls on the street were swimming tonight but so far I've seen them out front playing so I don't think they are going to go swim. I think we're the only ones out of our group of parents that are going away this weekend. Everyone else will be having cookouts and hanging out in each other's yards all weekend. I'm sure there will be plenty more weekends like that in the months to come.

I'm almost finished with my Citron shawl. The pattern calls for five repeats but I decided to do six because I want to try to use up all the yarn. If I don't finish it tonight I'll have to decide if I'm going to take it with me on the trip or not. I have a cowl I'm working on that I had planned to take, I usually don't get a lot of knitting done on trips where we stay in hotels but this is a cottage rather than a hotel. It has a living room in addition to the bedrooms so I'll be able to knit even after the kids go to bed. That will definitely factor into my taking one or two projects.

I'm not planning on taking my laptop on the trip. I haven't tried blogging from my iPad yet but I may try this weekend. So, there may or may not be blog entries. If there aren't, then Monday when I'm back home I should have a lot to share - I hope!

Stay at Home Wednesday

The weather this morning was kind of grey and the wind was howling for a while which made it rather cold out. I decided it was the kind of morning to stay in and catch up on Outlander and work on my Citron shawl. I'm at the point in the shawl where at times I have over 400 stitches on the needle. Since it is all knit/purl over and over it made my carpel tunnel flare up. I haven't had a problem with carpel tunnel since I was working which was over 10 years ago. I haven't missed it!

I was hoping to keep working on my Citron shawl tonight since it is getting close to being done but I'm going to have to take a break from it tonight. I did spend some time today looking for a pattern to be my travel project and I found one that has a lot of potential. I think tonight I will cast on and give it a try to make sure that it will be good for our trip. It's got a variety of stitches so I'm hoping it won't aggravate my carpel tunnel more.

C asked me to do his laundry today since he had to work and I was going to be home. I did it because I didn't want him walking around in stinky clothes at work. I even folded his clothes and that's when I discovered that there is a gnome that lives in either the washer or dryer that turns clothes inside out. I swear almost every article of clothing was inside out. This is the same gnome that squishes up J's socks instead of them being straightened out. I need to find some gnome remover to take care of those problems. :-)

I did venture out this evening to take S to her Girl Guides meeting. They practiced their end of the year ceremony for the girls that will be moving up to the next level (Brownies). S will still be a Spark next year so she got to help with the ceremony by waving a streamer over the girls that are moving up. I hope this ceremony is a little calmer than the induction ceremony. The kids were a bit crazy during that one and it took away from the whole thing. The kids seemed to be behaving themselves during the practice so we can hope that it will be calm during the actual ceremony. We shall see!

Unexciting Tuesday

Yesterday and today have been pretty regular, unexciting days. Everyone was out of the house but me so it was quiet and I was able to start catching up on some of the shows I watch. I got some laundry done as well as went out to do some errands. Pretty typical days.

The weather today has been icky. We've had rain off and on throughout the day with it coming down heavy at times. I took J out for a haircut this afternoon and by the time we came home a thick fog had moved into our area. The grey day makes me miss the sun. Later this week the sun is suppose to come out and warm everything up so maybe then I'll be able to sit outside and have my lunch or drink my tea and knit.

Speaking on knitting, I've been working on The Hobbit scarf. I've made it to around row 120 out of like a billion rows. Okay, maybe not that many but it is definitely a lot. I've also been working on a shawl called Citron. It's all stockinette stitch so while it is a little boring to knit at times it's a great pattern to work on when I want to watch TV while knitting. We'll be traveling this weekend so if I haven't finished it by then this project will go with me. I will bring another project with me because The Hobbit scarf is not good for a traveling project. 

If tomorrow's weather is like today's I'll probably stay home and figure out what travel project I want to take and get it started. I like to make sure I start travel knitting projects at home so I can double check that the yarn/needles are the right ones for the project and that it's going to be something I like. I don't know if there are any yarn shops where we're going so I want to have everything ready before I go.

I have been thinking that I will continue to do my blog but I may not be posting every day. On days like today when there isn't much going on I don't think I'll make an entry. We'll see how it goes. So today is a short post but then like I said, nothing exciting is really going on. :-)

Happy Mother's Day!

I want to wish all the mothers out there a very Happy Mother's Day! I hope you've had a good day!

My day started out with a tasty breakfast cooked by C. He cleaned up afterwards so that made it extra nice! Then I wanted to head out to see the bison at Buffaloland Provincial Park. So we loaded up the car and headed out for a 40 minute drive to the park.

When we got there we saw signs that the buffalo had been there recently - signs that made the kids giggle when they realized what was all over the ground. But we couldn't find the buffalo. We even trekked through some sloppy mud to see if they were in an upper pasture but no luck. We got back into the car and left. As we were driving down the road next to the park I thought I saw something big and brown in the woods at the bottom of the pasture. So we turned the car around and pulled into the parking area there. Sure enough, there were buffalo there, including a couple of little ones. C got a great picture:

I was teasing C about the picture because I swear that it looks like the one buffalo is giving him the stink-eye for taking the picture. The kids had a great time seeing real buffalo. Afterwards we stopped and had a treat at Tim Horton's. I tried their chocolate hazelnut donut - yummy!

This afternoon we went out for a late lunch/early supper at the local seafood restaurant. I had the seafood chowder (theirs is delicious) as well as a scallop burger. The scallops were small but very tasty. Afterwards we walked down to see the first cruise ship of the year:

It cruised out of port shortly after I took the picture. The kids were disappointed that although the cruise ships have started coming in, their favourite ice cream place isn't open yet. They can have an ice cream sandwich later. :-)

Since it's Sunday, the second clue for my Game of Thrones MKAL came out. The clue still has no indication of what our finished project will look like. It's a short clue and I had time to work on it between buffalo and supper so I'm almost done with it. I should be able to get it done before the show comes on tonight. Although GoT may have to wait until tomorrow night because the Caps play tonight and if they beat the Rangers they advance. I'd like to see that happen! It would be a great way to close out a very nice Mother's Day.

Monster Trucks!

Sorry I missed posting yesterday but we took the kids to see monster trucks and we got back too late for me to write. The kids had a blast! I haven't seen monster trucks since I was a teenager and C had never seen monster trucks before. When I was a kid my dad's company used to give away tickets for things and he would get us tickets for monster trucks. One time we didn't know where our seats were going to be and ended up over the tunnel where the trucks would come in and out. We spent the whole time shaking from the engines because they were so loud. For this time we made sure that everyone, kids and adults, had proper ear protection. And it's good we did because monster trucks haven't gotten any quieter.

For this monster truck show, there were only four trucks - the arena is small. There were also stunt bikes and two quad bike racing teams. The bikes and quads were too quick to get photos of but I did get photos of the trucks. I apologize for the blurriness but it's hard to get clear pictures with a smartphone when the subject is flying through the air. :-)

There were three competitions - wheelies, racing, and then freestyle. I wasn't able to get freestyle pictures because they were driving too fast to get much more than a blur. But here's what I got!

First up was Black Stallion. His wheelie was good but not the best in my opinion. I caught the picture right as he was starting to go up.

Next up was Bounty Hunter. His wheelie was the best in my opinion and the crowd agreed with me (the winner was chosen by the crowd):

Third was Red Barron. He did well but he was only able to make one attempt because he broke something on his truck. He was able to fix it and compete later but he came in last because he only had one chance:

The last competitor was Overkill Evolution. He went last because he is currently a world champion for monster truck competitions:

This is what the cars looked like at the end of the wheelie competition. They were intact at the beginning. Not so much now!

The next competition was a race to see which truck could jump over the cars the fastest. I thought S's eyes were going to pop out of her head as she was watching all this. She admitted she was a little nervous watching these big trucks fly around.

There they are, lined up for their races. Bounty Hunter - the yellow one in the top picture - ended up winning the jumping race. This is what it looks like when two monster trucks fly through the air at the same time. You see what S's eyes were popping? J had a great time too - he hadn't seen anything like that before either.

I didn't take any pictures of the freestyle competition but it was pretty exciting. I don't remember them announcing a winner but if I had to choose, Bounty Hunter would have won that competition too. It was an exciting night. The kids were exhausted by the time we left and S crashed in the car on the way home. It was a fun but tiring night.