Hurricane Irene

Last Sunday, after Hurrican Irene did a number on New Jersey, New York and the Connecticut shoreline, she made her way to Montreal. The wind and rain started late morning and made our lights flicker more than once, but we never lost power. Since it was such a gloomy day, Arabella and Jay made yummy, blueberry pancakes for breakfast.


I then made the delicious chwey blueberry oatmeal cookies that don't last very long in our house!

It didn't take too long before Irene to pick up and before long we had to brave the elements to head out to along planned dinner. We did not let Irene dampen our spirits and we had a great time at Lucy & Pascale's house (one of Jay's co-workers who are also from the States). The rain was coming down pretty hard on the drive and we even saw a tree that fell on one of Lucy's neighbor's house. Yikes!


Dinner was delicious and the rain did not stop Arabella or Charlie from enjoying the pool!


We are very thankful that our friends and family back on the East Coast made it through Hurricane Irene safely. And we are thankful that she went easy on us as well.

Sorry Mom

Last Friday night, I went and did something that you do not approve of. You are not the only one...Jay doesn't really like them either. In fact, he tried to scare me out of it at dinner before we left. You didn't like it when I did it the first time around 15 plus years ago and I know when I told you last Saturday that I did it again, you were not happy. But I can't make you happy all of the time, right??? This is something that I have been wanting to do for over a year, so it wasn't a snap decision, I just needed to really make sure I wanted to do it again and that I was sure of what I wanted done and where. So I finally got up the guts to do it and Lori went with me to hold my hand...actually she didn't, she was too busy documenting it with pictures and asking "does it hurt, does it hurt"? And as you can see from the pictures, it hurt (and it should, after all it is a needle putting vegetable based ink under my skin for all eternity), but not as much as I remember my last one hurting, but I think I have a pretty high pain threshold. (Remember I did have Arabella without any pain meds.) Anyway, I did it and I am happy with it and love it. It has a special meaning to me and I am glad I did it. I just hope you are not to disappointed in me...I love you Mom and I hope that you can accept my decision, that is all I can ask. And hey, at least it is not on my bicep or a tramp stamp on my lower back...right? And maybe, just maybe, by me having tattoo's, Arabella won't want any because she won't want to be like Mom!

And so it began...it wasn't too bad...
Yup, I was grabbing the table for dear life...my knuckles are almost white.

I kept telling myself that it was almost over...

And it is done! I love it!

PS - Thanks to my dear friend, Ivonne, for designing the tattoo!

The Shrine Circus Comes To Town

Now before I get into the post, let me just say that I am not a huge fan of the circus, I feel bad for the animals who are made to perform day in and day out and I just don't like it. But I feel a little more comfortable with going to the Shrine Circus since when I was growing up (and still today) my Uncle was involved with the Shriners and I know what a huge amount of good they do for children. Arabella was very excited when she saw the tents going up and couldn't contain herself the day of the circus! It was so adorable when she would talk about the circus and tell us what she was going to see at it. It was not a big circus, but just the perfect size. We had great seats and an even better time. It was priceless to see the smile plastered on Arabella's face the whole time. She even asked if we could go again!

Let's Get Outside...

even if it is in a downpour! Last week we had good and bad weather...it would be sunny, then cool, then downpour and then the sun would come back out. So in between rain showers, we got outside! I thought it was so cute to see Arabella in one of her princess dresses playing in the mud.

And in when it did rain, it poured, and we played in it!

Words To Live By

My friends, love is better than anger.
Hope is better than fear.
Optimism is better than despair.
So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic.
And we’ll change the world.

- Jack Layton, 2011

Parliament

I promised last week that I would post pictures of Parliament and, well, got side tracked with other things. Sorry...so now that I feel like I have a free minute to sit on the patio and enjoy the perfect warm weather while Arabella naps, I will try and catch up.

When we visited Parliament, it was not in session. I was really hoping that it would be but the Opposition Party's MP, Jack Layton , had just passed away. One bonus of Parliament not being in session was that we were able to see parts of the building that would not normally be open. It was an amazing tour and I still can't believe that the building is only a little bit over 100 years old and was ravaged by fire years ago. Until the tour, I thought that it was a much older building. The architecture is wonderful and it was very interesting to learn about the Canadian government system. Since we were getting so much information, it was a lot to process. And, I have always been interested in politics and have been wanted to learn about how it works here in Canada, so I picked up a book on how Parliament works. One thing that I do remember hearing over and over, is that the Canadian systems is modeled after Great Britain's system...and rightfully so since Canada is a principality of the UK and Queen Elizabeth is our Head-of-State.

I took a lot of pictures but won't share them all. Here are some of my favorites and when I finish the book on how Parliament works, I will let you all know!

Thursday's Thoughts

Hearing: The neighbor's air conditioning running (not sure why they have it one, it is the perfect day out) mixed in with the chirp/buzzing of cicadas.

Tasting: Chewy blueberry oatmeal cookies made from scratch and right out of the oven.


Seeing: The blue sky of early fall.

Smelling: See tasting above...I love the smell of the blueberry oatmeal cookies, YUM!

Feeling: Small pangs of sadness...Lori goes home tomorrow, Arabella starts preschool next week and a fight happened that shouldn't have.