Happy Birthday Charlotte!

Dear niece of mine is now 7. My how time flies.  Once again I was asked to make her birthday cake.

She requested a bright purple, rainbow cake.  I obliged.

Ta da!!!

Road Trip with a Toddler? Why not!!!!!!!!

As I type this blog posting, I (and the boys) are in our car heading towards to the Canadian border.  Hurricane Irene is heading this way but no hurricane is nearly as scary as taking a toddler on a road trip I say!

Lets go away Rob says…..

Our most loved day care provider goes on vacation for three weeks every summer. Rather than look for alternate arrangements, Rob and I decided to take the time off to spend with the boy.  We did not foresee a gap in my employment so the original intention of going to Mexico or some other exotic locale had to be shelved for the time being.  Instead, we spend quite a bit of time at the family cottage…K playing in the kiddie pool while Rob and I stared at the lake.

Subsequently, we decided to retile the fire place.  Alright, alright I DECIDED to retile the fireplace but I do have Rob’s endorsement that it was a good choice (see previous posting).  After a few days of this exciting and yet oh so frustrating task, Rob proposed that we “get away for a few days”.  I jumped at the chance being a  supportive spouse who fully realized that if he didn’t get the chance to “get away” I would be in the proverbial dog house.  Moving on….Rob suggested Lake George in New York State.  “Sounds great!” said I – not having ever heard of it but …well see previous point.  So, we packed up all the things we needed (re: diapers, diapers, more diapers and hey….diapers!) and headed south.

The sound I will hear while going insane…

The town of Lake George is located in the Adirondack mountains, five hours away from casa Campbell-Renaud.  We didn’t tell K this before strapping him down in his car seat as we know what he sounds like hysterical….it aint pretty.  So I counted. A full hour from the house the whining began … “ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma mamamamamammaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.” (As an aside I couldn’t wait to hear this special word….be careful what you wish for!). For the next three hours to entertain the child we played – and sang along to – Raffi and both CDs of Silly Songs.  Combine the sound of “mamamamamamaaaaaa” and the vocals of Silly Songs together and…..INSANITY!!!!!!


Here is a picture of K before the insanity began...

This drive is HOW long???

Lake George

We finally arrived in Lake George and what a sight! It’s a gorgeous 32 mile long lake smack dab in the middle of a national park.  Added to this natural wonder is my favourite thing in the whole wide world (no, not coffee)  KITSCH!!!!! Wax museums!!! Indoor amusement arcades!!! Tacky souvenirs!!! I LOVE IT ALL!!!!!!  We checked into the EconoLodge (only the best for us!), let K booty scootch around the room for a while and headed out in search of dinner.

What the HELL is that?!?!

After walking the strip in Lake George we decided on the Moose Tooth Grill for dinner.  I admit, I was drawn by the kitsch and the fact that it had ‘grill’ in its name. I have the mistaken belief that anything with ‘grill’ in the name should be good. I was wrong. Oh so very very wrong.

Rob ordered the tenders and tips – chicken tenders and beef tips – with the plan of sharing it with the boy.  I ordered crab cakes and a side salad.  While we waited for our meal we listened to the sounds of loons, owls and wolves on the restaurant sound track. Did I mention the ‘grill’ was a cheap ass version of the Rainforest café?

After a while, our ‘food’ arrived.

Lets start with my meal shall we?  The side salad was iceburg lettuce with a few cherry tomatos (maybe four?) and a few sliced cucumbers on top. No carrots, no nothing.  The crab cakes were more like warmed up tuna salad masquerading as crab. Gag worthy.

And then there was Robs meal…..

We don’t know what it was. We don’t WANT TO KNOW what it was.  Bloody diarrhea anyone?

Good thing they gave K a cute hat to distract us…

Beach anyone?

The next day we headed down to the beach with the boy.  Before we departed we headed across the street for breakfast. It is there we learned that Lake George’s motto should be “come for the Lake, not the food”.  Rob ordered a blueberry muffin.  It was greasy. We are pretty sure it was deep fried. The waitress did offer to grill it for him…but he declined.  On the up side we did get to see what the Jersey Shore cast of characters will be like in about 40 years by observing a table of elderly folks from NY at another table.

But back to the beach…..it was fun!!!!

How to outrun a Hurricane….

Ironically, this is our second trip to the US as a family and the second time that a natural disaster is about to happen in the same area.  The first time was the spring of 2010 when we went to Memphis. I remember sitting in our hotel room watching the water hit the windows while watching tornado warnings on tv and listening to tornado warning sirens going off while Rob noted that perhaps coming to Memphis during tornado season was a bad idea.  Now….Hurricane Irene….she is a-coming!  

Dear Irene is on her way and everyone in Lake George is in a tither.  So we are on our way back to our home and native land with Irene at our tails.  Sounds more exciting than it is.  What it translates into is a drive on a cloudy day – with chance of showers.

K is asleep in the back seat. Sweet sweet silence.  Poor little guy is tuckered out from all the fun he has had and his late night at the BBQ place (Smokey Joe’s – EXCELLENT FOOD!)….and maybe a little gravol to help him out.

Looking forward to family vay cay next year!!

Damn that Mike Holmes!

I want a beautiful house.  I blame it on all those Mike Holmes shows and HGTV.  And I have house envy. That’s right – I go to visit other peoples houses and hate them for having beautiful hardwood floors, granite counter tops and bathtubs that fit two.

Since I am between work contracts I have had plenty of time to watch all those home renovation shows and come up with projects to do in the house.  What can I say, it keeps me from eating bonbons while watching soap operas.  Project #1 was to clean all the baseboards in the house.  I finished the front hallway. Then got distracted…

I decided that the fireplace surround needed to be retiled. This wasn’t a hard decision.  The fire place had black tile with a black mantel. The room is bright yellow. It looked like a giant bee’s butt.

The husband, Rob “I got degrees so I could pay others to do this kind of work”, said to go to it wifey! And so I did…

Step One:  Pick out Tile

I took my pal Kimberley  went to Home Depot to look for tile one afternoon.  We found a sample of laminate flooring that looked similar to what we had in the sun room, picked out sample tiles, mixed and matched and found the perfect tile. Yay! Step one complete!

Step Two: Remove Tile

What this really should say is “get pissed off and remove tile.”  Luckily, a lady at my former work kindly obliged by insulting my son one day when we were visiting the office.  Next time I punch her. This time, I came home and removed all the tile from the wall in about two hours.  With Rob helping out with two tiles due to my overwhelming need to put big gouging holes in the wall.

Step Three: Pick out Tile

Upon reflection, or upon our friend Jeff pointing out that we could cut WAY less tile by using a 8x8 inch tile – Rob and I went back to the store to pick out new tile.  Couldn’t find any 8x8 tile except at Rona which sold the most hideous looking tiles I have ever seen. Deciding that I did not want bright teal tile was easy. Spending a few hundred dollars at a specialty tile store to buy slate tile was hard. Oh but it is so pretty!

Step Four: Repair Gouges in Wall

See step Two. What can I say, I was pissed!!!

Step Five:  Start Tiling

Step Five sounds easy. It was not!  We measured, remeasured and measured again.  Note that for some reason all measuring tapes are in inches and feet.  I work in metric. Oh, and I almost failed grade 10 math and promptly stopped taking it as a course.  Thank god for Rob and his mathematical/scientific mind!  He did the calculations and we started to tile.

Step Six: Call for Reinforcements

We quickly learned that this was a three person job. One person to do the tiling, one to criticize the person doing the tiling, and one to watch K who would sit at the French doors to the sunroom and cry “mamamamamamamaaaa”.  Once Poppa was convinced to join the fun, the tiling began again.

Step Seven: Kick Out the Perfectionist

Tiling a wall sucks.  The tile tends to slide down screwing up your grouting lines and those pesky tiling spacers insist on popping out.  We had to send the perfectionist out of the room and have the “good enoughers” finish the job.  Once Rob was safely cleaning the garage, my dad and I could focus on the job at hand.  First things first, got rid of the stupid spacers.  They were just an exercise in frustration. Nope, we found nails did just as good, if not a better, job.  Second, swear a lot.  Third, get a case of the giggles. This is mandatory.

So the tiling is done and now we have to do the grouting.  Ta da!!!

Step Eight: Pray

Now, I just hope they are all where I left them when I get back from Lake George…