August already ...
I can't believe it's already August. Summer goes way too fast.
Owen is at the cottage, has been for almost 2 weeks. He's having a good time, from what we heard when we chatted with him earlier this week. We also got pictures of him climbing a tree, which looked like fun. :-)
Mack and I have been busy cramming in a bunch of "grown-up" things - lots of dinners out, watching tv shows we're behind on, and then we were away to Montreal last weekend. Our trip there was really good, seeing three days of music performances for a big music festival. I didn't stay till the bitter end each night, but we were there from 2 pm until 10 pm each day, with lots of walking between the stages. Saw lots of good music, performed by some awesome groups, and the weather was lovely - no rain at all. We also spent the mornings doing some exploring around Montreal - one day to Atwater Market, and one day to Old Montreal.
Work has been fairly busy for both of us, but we're both wrapping up our work today, and will be driving east to the cottage starting around 4pm. We'll stay overnight near the Quebec/New Brunswick border, and will continue the rest of the way tomorrow. It's do-able in one day, but we arrive pretty late when we drive all day. I think we're both anxious to see Owen again, truth be told. Well, and to be at the cottage - looking forward to our visit there. I have a bunch of library books lined up to put on my kobo, and I expect to get a lot of reading done during the vacation. We're also taking a bunch of veggies with us, as our veggie basket the last few weeks has been full of really good stuff - zuchinnis, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, turnips, carrots. And since we're not eating at home much, all those veggies will travel with us!
While there at the cottage, we'll be making a side trip to Pictou Island, just off the coast of Nova Scotia. It's where my brother-in-law and my future sister-in-law live, so it'll be nice to see their new house, and meet her family. Looking forward to that.
Going back a bit, since I haven't posted since early July ... Owen had some good camp experiences in July. He enjoyed the Eco-Zoo one, and we all enjoyed the Farm Camp he did the following week, because it had a focus on cooking. The kids prepared their own snacks each morning and afternoon, and he brought home a recipe book too. And it was really cool snacks - sushi, dumplings, tabouleh, homemade crackers with cream cheese dip. And on the last day, they made homemade pasta and sauce! We've since made two batches of dumplings at home - the second one turned out better, which was probably because I had Rebecca helping me. Owen helped a bit with the first batch, but with just one pair of hands, it took too long to get them all together, and they ended up dry, cracked, and kind of rubbery. But the second batch were very tasty!
Then the third week of camp was Bike Camp, which had some ups and downs. First of all, every day he came home with a new injury - he fell, a lot. Off of jungle gyms when they were stopped, while walking across the parking lot, and yes, while riding too. He also came home completely knackered each day. But he slept well, and woke up with me each morning, in a good mood, and overall he had a good time there. But one of his "injuries" early in the week was an insect/spider bite of some kind, which had large red puffy circles around the bites - about 4 inches long, this puffy red area was. I gave him Benadryl each night that week, and it didn't make much difference. By the Friday, both Mack and I decided to deal with this a little more forcefully, since Owen was going to be flying out to Halifax in a few days. So, I kept him home from Bike Camp on the Friday, and I stayed home from work, and we went to a walk-in clinic. They gave us a stronger antihistamine, as well as some antibiotics, and by the Sunday morning, his shoulder looked tons better. So, that was an exciting change of pace for us!
And in other medical news - I'm still dealing with an awful earache/ear infection from the cold I had in early July. I've been to three doctors (different walk-in clinics because my family doctor was away) and had three different antibiotics - one was a general antibiotic which didn't do much, one was just antibiotic drops which would have been better if the ear ache wasn't caused by a cold, and finally this third round (which I'm still taking) which is is targeted specifically for sinus/cold related ear infections. I'm only a few days in, and although there's some improvement (my ear popped, and I can hear for the first time in three weeks), my ear is still quite painful, especially in the mornings. I'm trying to avoid taking pain relief for it, though I am doing warm/hot compresses, which help a lot. Here's hoping that finishing this round of the antibiotics finally results in ... well, some results! LOL!
Before our trip to Montreal, I bought myself a new iPhone, which made me very happy. My old phone (which was probably 6 years old?) was becoming very flaky, crashing, unable to do certain things, etc. It never would have survived our weekend at the music festival, trying to take pictures, and texting with Mack. So, new phone - fancy new camera, awesome new apps like one that tracks how many steps I take during a day. I can even load Facebook on my phone again! I couldn't on the old phone.
I guess I should get going - I've got some more packing to do, as well as walking over to the library to pick up a few French books to read with Owen. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer, and keeping cool!
Owen is at the cottage, has been for almost 2 weeks. He's having a good time, from what we heard when we chatted with him earlier this week. We also got pictures of him climbing a tree, which looked like fun. :-)
Mack and I have been busy cramming in a bunch of "grown-up" things - lots of dinners out, watching tv shows we're behind on, and then we were away to Montreal last weekend. Our trip there was really good, seeing three days of music performances for a big music festival. I didn't stay till the bitter end each night, but we were there from 2 pm until 10 pm each day, with lots of walking between the stages. Saw lots of good music, performed by some awesome groups, and the weather was lovely - no rain at all. We also spent the mornings doing some exploring around Montreal - one day to Atwater Market, and one day to Old Montreal.
Work has been fairly busy for both of us, but we're both wrapping up our work today, and will be driving east to the cottage starting around 4pm. We'll stay overnight near the Quebec/New Brunswick border, and will continue the rest of the way tomorrow. It's do-able in one day, but we arrive pretty late when we drive all day. I think we're both anxious to see Owen again, truth be told. Well, and to be at the cottage - looking forward to our visit there. I have a bunch of library books lined up to put on my kobo, and I expect to get a lot of reading done during the vacation. We're also taking a bunch of veggies with us, as our veggie basket the last few weeks has been full of really good stuff - zuchinnis, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, turnips, carrots. And since we're not eating at home much, all those veggies will travel with us!
While there at the cottage, we'll be making a side trip to Pictou Island, just off the coast of Nova Scotia. It's where my brother-in-law and my future sister-in-law live, so it'll be nice to see their new house, and meet her family. Looking forward to that.
Going back a bit, since I haven't posted since early July ... Owen had some good camp experiences in July. He enjoyed the Eco-Zoo one, and we all enjoyed the Farm Camp he did the following week, because it had a focus on cooking. The kids prepared their own snacks each morning and afternoon, and he brought home a recipe book too. And it was really cool snacks - sushi, dumplings, tabouleh, homemade crackers with cream cheese dip. And on the last day, they made homemade pasta and sauce! We've since made two batches of dumplings at home - the second one turned out better, which was probably because I had Rebecca helping me. Owen helped a bit with the first batch, but with just one pair of hands, it took too long to get them all together, and they ended up dry, cracked, and kind of rubbery. But the second batch were very tasty!
Then the third week of camp was Bike Camp, which had some ups and downs. First of all, every day he came home with a new injury - he fell, a lot. Off of jungle gyms when they were stopped, while walking across the parking lot, and yes, while riding too. He also came home completely knackered each day. But he slept well, and woke up with me each morning, in a good mood, and overall he had a good time there. But one of his "injuries" early in the week was an insect/spider bite of some kind, which had large red puffy circles around the bites - about 4 inches long, this puffy red area was. I gave him Benadryl each night that week, and it didn't make much difference. By the Friday, both Mack and I decided to deal with this a little more forcefully, since Owen was going to be flying out to Halifax in a few days. So, I kept him home from Bike Camp on the Friday, and I stayed home from work, and we went to a walk-in clinic. They gave us a stronger antihistamine, as well as some antibiotics, and by the Sunday morning, his shoulder looked tons better. So, that was an exciting change of pace for us!
And in other medical news - I'm still dealing with an awful earache/ear infection from the cold I had in early July. I've been to three doctors (different walk-in clinics because my family doctor was away) and had three different antibiotics - one was a general antibiotic which didn't do much, one was just antibiotic drops which would have been better if the ear ache wasn't caused by a cold, and finally this third round (which I'm still taking) which is is targeted specifically for sinus/cold related ear infections. I'm only a few days in, and although there's some improvement (my ear popped, and I can hear for the first time in three weeks), my ear is still quite painful, especially in the mornings. I'm trying to avoid taking pain relief for it, though I am doing warm/hot compresses, which help a lot. Here's hoping that finishing this round of the antibiotics finally results in ... well, some results! LOL!
Before our trip to Montreal, I bought myself a new iPhone, which made me very happy. My old phone (which was probably 6 years old?) was becoming very flaky, crashing, unable to do certain things, etc. It never would have survived our weekend at the music festival, trying to take pictures, and texting with Mack. So, new phone - fancy new camera, awesome new apps like one that tracks how many steps I take during a day. I can even load Facebook on my phone again! I couldn't on the old phone.
I guess I should get going - I've got some more packing to do, as well as walking over to the library to pick up a few French books to read with Owen. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer, and keeping cool!