A Spot of T

So, it’s Friday night and what’s going on in my life? This week we all suffered from a bug that lasted 2 or 3 days. It slowly made it’s way from person to person in this family… some sort of flu… sore all over, chills, total exaustion, stomach cramps, and a constant feeling of nausea without going over the edge (of the toilet). My stomach noises were LOUD! Anyway, glad it’s over and everyone is now on the mend.

As I write this, by husband Rick, and our son Bobby are downstairs watching the Blueman Group DVD. It’s so loud I can hear it all up here at my desk. I’m not complaining, I love their music. Here’s a picture from the fall of 2006 when I took Jen (pictured on the right), with Sydney (on the left) and her mom to NYC and we saw them live in concert.

Well, wouldn’t you know that the big Blueman group show is coming here to our fair city this summer… and of course we have tickets to see them! This concert will be a lot different than the one we saw in NYC - I hear it’s the whole orchestra. Should be interesting.

The weather is suppose to be sunny and warm this weekend for a change. Among other things, we’re planning on painting our 4 adorondak chairs. I’m thinking of some bright colours… like yellow and orange?? Right now they are lavender and green… we shall see. Stay tuned for pictures of the finished product

This is cool and shareworthy. Plus, it’s tres simple for both windows and mac users. I have so many digital pics hiding away in files. Now they can be seen!

How to do it:

In Windows, click the Start button, and then choose Control Panel/Display. In the Screensaver tab, choose “My Picture Slideshow.” You can then choose the folder you wish to feature. Took me 5 seconds to set up.

If you use a mac; in System Preferences, click Desktop & Screen Saver, and then choose the “Pictures Folder” screen saver.

We’re all allowed to brag once in a while, right? Please excuse me but I just can’t help myself…

You all know that Bobby, (my middle boy) is recently back from university for the summer. He’s been planning his summer job all year. He’s taking business at UNB Fredericton and I have come to realize that entrepreneurial blood definatly runs in this family! He’s started a business with a partner called Student Power Washing Solutions. They’re doing marketing like old pros, pricing and buying equipment, and planning their summer hours. So far they have thousands of dollars of work booked for the summer. Pretty cool, eh? Here’s their flyer:

To all mother’s and mothers-to-be reading this - Happy Mother’s day today and all days. As we know, motherhood is a 24/7 vocation and we need all the help and encouragement we can get!

For me, today is turning into a day that is about being a daughter just as much as it is about being a mom. First, we went to church and now we’re just leaving to go and visit my mother-in-law who just got out of the hospital. My hubby and kids just made a huge pot of seafood chowder - We’re taking some to his mom - and then having my mother and father over for dinner and a celebration with my kids.

Just wanted to share this image. These are the words my daughter wrote inside her card to me last mother’s day. They really mean a lot to me. I am certainly a very lucky mother - in many ways.

Finally posting more pictures from Dubai. I have hundreds. We did so many things, but here are a few highlights. The city itself is unbelievable but it is hard to capture it all in a few pictures, so I’m not going to bother.

This first picture is the view from our hotel room balcony. Small boats, called Abras, take you from place to place on a man made water way system. It felt like being in another world. The tall hotel in the background is the Burg al Arab - a 7 star hotel. It really was spectacular. It is built on a man made island. We went there for dinner twice. Once to a seafood restuarant “below sea level”. The walls were huge aquariums filled with tropical fish.

This next picture is the beach at our hotel. The water, the Arabian Sea was warm but the waves were quite violent, making swimming toughB, but fun!

The beach attendants prepared our lounge chairs and came around throughout the day with cold faceclothes, popsicles, pineapple sticks, and cucumber slices for your eyes. They also sprayed our faces with evian water, and offered to clean our sunglasses - not for tips.

This picture is from our balcony at night:

When we were with the World Tourism people (about 600 of them) we went on a desert safari. These are what our tables looked like - we sat on cushions. There was entertainment - belly dancers etc. camels to ride, hooka pipes to smoke, henna tatoos, and palm readers. The food was amazing - buffet tables with chefs from around the world. It was an amazing evening.

Yippers. My middle child Bobby has arrived home from university for the summer. If I hadn’t seen him with my own eyes and given him big hugs, I would know anyway. Why - you ask? Because he has dumped all his belongings everywhere in this house. And I mean everywhere. The laundry room is piled high with I swear a whole year of dirty clothes (my dryer just got repaired thank goodness). The kitchen and mudroom are full of Bobby stuff too… Jackets, papers, luggage, etc. For years he’s tried to get away with using our kitchen island as his dresser, and the laundry room as his walk-in closet…. You’d never know he has his own big bedroom with all the trimmings… He’s up to his old tricks again! I’ve got his number and I’m not letting him get away with it this time. No way!

Oh - did I mention how much I love him and how glad I am that he’s home with us?

Not to change the subject but the Idol results were on tonight. I was sorry to see Brook leave but I guess her time has come. I was hoping Syesha would get the boot tonight instead. Everyone says that Bobby looks just like Jason Castro, the guy with the dreadlocks. I’ve posted two pictures of Bobby here. Let me know if you agree.

Tonight I went to watch my daughter Jenny’s volleyball game. I really enjoy watching volleyball. It’s a graceful, yet powerful sport, and a welcome respite from sitting in a cold rink watching her play hockey. In this picture, Jenny is the girl in the front row, far right hand corner. She’s very athletic - excels at whatever sport she plays - totally not like me, her mother.

Here’s a picture of us in Dubai - Just before we left our hotel to attend a party in the dessert.

Well, I’m home and “other the hump”. Whew. I finally feel normal. It’s been a long time since I could say that!

Our trip was incredible, spectacular, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We were treated like queens and went from one amazing activity to another. The city of Dubai and it’s people blew us away every time we turned around. To make matters even better, we laughed from the moment we woke up in the morning, until we fell asleep at night. We did a few crazy things too. Never once did we even think of turning on the TV, there was no time. Hence, my lack of blog entries but I will post more pictures when I can. Just brought them home last night on my jump drive as they were all on Judy’s laptop.

So, remember how I went on about my worries as to how my family would make out in my absence? Well, I was right. I came home to a mess. Here are some highlights:

1. Molly, our dog, stunk. And since she sleeps in my daughter Jenny’s bed, all her bedding reeked. I’m also pretty sure Molly also suffered a nervous breakdown while I was gone. She just wasn’t herself.

2. The kitchen sink had a leak and couldn’t be used.

3. Two toilets were plugged.

4. The dryer was broken and there were piles of laundry everywhere. My husband Rick informed me that he was wearing a old pair of MY underpants!

5. My mother-in-law was sick in the hospital.

On top of the jetlag and getting this house and all it’s people sorted out, I had to prepare for company, make hospital visits, and attend a shower on Sunday. Today I am finally breathing a sigh of relief and so thankful to be returning to “normal”.

So many reasons for not posting here like I had anticipated. Mainly too busy or too tired, or hard to get images converted on Judy’s laptop. We’ve been having an awesome time, learning so much about this place and speaking to lots of people who live here… and interesting tourists from around the worldRight now as I type this we’ve just had breakfast but back home it’s 2am and everyone is still sleeping!A few notes on these pics:The picture looking at the water with the hotel in the backgound is the veiw from the balcony of our room. Almost looks fake, eh? It’s the real thing. The waterway goes all through this complex and we can take the “abra” boat to get from place to place. The “Burg” hotel in the background of our veiw is one of the newest landmarks in Dubai. It’s shaped like a sail of a ship and slowly changes colour all night long. It is actually built on a man made island and boasts a golf range on the rooftop. Inside it is something else. We were blown away. Honestly. We ate dinner there in an underground seafood restuarant. Taking the elevator down to it was like a submarine ride.We’ve spent a lot of time going to the local markets - souks. Once you get downtown it is almost impossible to get a cab back so we hired our driver (Mohomoud) to stay with us for the day. He was such a sweet man, really took care of us helping us get good prices with the shopkeepers. OK - so we bought some local dress as you can tell from my outfit. Have I mentioned that we have barely stopped laughing all week? Of course we went to one of the malls here- the largest apparently outside of North America, called the Emerites Mall. We were not impressed. So much materialism and money here, everyone trying to out-do each other, similar to what we see in certain pockets everywhere. Of course taxi’s are readily available here. We were dropped off at valet parking at the mall with million dollar sports cars parked by the door.   An interesting fact about Dubai - They have a 0.0 % crime rate here. There is NO crime. None.  

Just a quick update to say sorry I haven’t updated. Too busy, but havin a great time. This place is amazing! Will update with pics tomorrow.