San Francisco...DAY FIVE

What a day!  We got up bright and early this morning and Greg went out to get our rental car.  I was hoping he would come back with some snazzy convertible, but instead he pulled up in a red Toyota Camry; I have to say, it is a really nice little car though, and Greg made a good point in saying “you would be cold in a convertible, Grandma!”…yes, I would!  We took off with our Hertz GPS telling us to go this way and that way to get out of the city - I am not really sure why Greg even bothered programming it because he wouldn’t listen to anything she was saying!  We had to play “Red Light Green Light” for a while too because the street lights here are not like the ones back home – they are not hanging above you, they are only on the side where the pedestrian lights are.  Greg came close to going through a couple of red lights because he didn’t even know there were lights, so I became a backseat driver and had to tell him to go and stop!  Once we got out of the city we took out my brother-in-law Luke’s hand drawn map (he is the one who suggested we take a trip down the coast) and set off down the beautiful California Coast.  The roads along the coast are amazing – well, I suppose it’s really the ocean just off the road that make it amazing – but you should see it, it’s fabulous!  We finally got to the one place Greg couldn’t wait to see – Pebble Beach (the golf course) and 17 Mile Road.  We found a parking spot and headed over to the shops and restaurants and we even got to go into the Club House!  Greg bought a couple of shirts from one of the shops and we met a very nice lady working there who was chatting with us and told us that we could go to the 18^th Green and take pictures on it.  She said “don’t be shy, it’s open to the public”, so we thought we would go check it out.  We headed over to the club house and followed the directions given by the nice shop lady.  I am not sure if I have EVER seen such beautiful views than I did from the club house and I am not sure if I have EVER seen such hoity-toity people in my life and I am not sure if I have EVER been so self-conscious of myself!  We walked out onto the area that is just off of the 18^th Green and all we saw and heard were the worlds best dressed and some of the richest eating on the patio of some very fancy restaurant – which I don’t think we would even be allowed into – and there we were standing with our shopping bag and camera!  Greg asked if he should go over and stand on the Green so I could take a picture but then we both realized that we couldn’t stand out more at that point, so we just snapped a quick picture of the course itself and headed out.  I had to go to the bathroom though and saw them as we were walking past the restaurant.  I pushed open the door and there I saw two ladies, dressed to the nines, so I just slunked into one of the two stalls and closed the door, but it wouldn’t lock!  I couldn’t hold the door because the toilet was set too far back and I figured if I stuck my foot out under the door to hold it, Muffy and her friend might just call security or something!  I just took the chance that nobody would walk in on me and see a commoner peeing in their clubhouse!  After I had flushed, I looked back and couldn’t believe it – the toilet paper was stuck to the inside of the toilet!  What was I to do?  Leave the paper stuck to the toilet or flush again??  I could see some very fancy shoes, which were probably worth more than my whole outfit (and I was wearing my best outfit that day),  and once I heard them click their way out of the bathroom I flushed again and got out of the stall quick!  When I was done washing my hands I looked for some paper towel, but instead I found rolled up towels and a hamper to throw them into!  How posh!  Once I found Greg loitering in the halls, we checked out some of the trophies and I took Greg’s picture with some big crystal looking thing and a golfer’s picture behind it.  As we were leaving the Club House, a very nice lady who was working there told us we were allowed to enter one area and sit down to look at the view – but I think she could tell how uncomfortable we were and she gave me the sweetest look as if to say “I know exactly how you feel being in this stuffy place and I totally understand why you want to run as fast as you can to get out of here”, so we politely said thank you and left!  Once we were out of the golf course, we drove past the rest of the gated houses and ended up in the small town of Carmel where we thought we would get some lunch.  There seemed to be nothing but art galleries, fancy shops and even Tiffany’s & Co., so we figured that we should probably just keep on going and find somewhere that wasn’t quite so uppity.  We drove to some town where they had a fresh food market (just past the fields where I believe they were picking strawberries) and stopped in to get some food.  Let me tell you that if you have not eaten California Strawberries in California from a little food market like this, you are missing out!  They also grow Almonds here – who knew! – I have never had such fresh, soft almonds in my life!!  Sooooo good!  We snacked on that until we drove up a winding road to Big Sur went to a restaurant  where we had lunch overlooking the Pacific Ocean from way, way up high! 

After our tour of the coast, we drove back to Mountain View, a town just outside of San Francisco because we had tickets to a Kenny Chesney concert.  Greg wanted to go more than I did, and really only to see Billy Currington open for him, but I thought it might be fun too….boy was I wrong!  The concert was supposed to start at 7:00 p.m. but we, along with thousands of others, didn’t even get parked until after 7:00 and then had to walk for about 10 minutes and stand in line for another 25 minutes!  I have never been to a concert where people seemed so willing to stand outside partying instead of going inside to see the show – perhaps because all the concerts I have been to in Canada are in the dead of winter!!  Some of these girls in their Daisy Dukes must have been frozen by the end of this outdoor party though, because I was chilly with my jacket on – and trust me, I wasn’t wearing any Daisy Dukes!  Once we had our seats I got to watch more PDA’s than I would have liked to, but what was worse is that they were between some old lesbians and some greasy couple!  Once the concert started we watched Blake Shelton and actually quite enjoyed him, but once Kenny started and the whole crowd stood up…well I couldn’t see a darn thing and so I just sat back down.  I don’t think Greg was having the time of his life either, so when he suggested we leave only four songs into the concert I jumped at the chance!!  We were amazed by the number of people who were also leaving…sorry Kenny!

We drove back to San Francisco and arrived at our hotel around 11:00 p.m. for our very last sleep of the trip!  Tomorrow will be our final day in this very wonderful city, but I know we will be back again!

SJ

San Francisco...DAY FOUR

I really don’t think of myself as “high maintenance”, even though Greg likes to refer to me as that quite often, but maybe I am a little bit.  I don’t mean high maintenance in the sense of needing my hair and nails done all the time, or needing fancy things like clothing and cars…but here is where I become a little high maintenance:

1.       I like the weather to be just right – not too windy, cold, hot, rainy, etc.

2.       I don’t like most things on menus without tweaking them a little

3.        I don’t like my environment to be too noisy

4.       I like a nice soft bed, with soft pillows and plush blankets

5.       I like my clothing to be comfortable – at all times

6.       I want to eat when I am hungry….and I don’t like to wait!

This morning after I woke up in this rock hard bed with a sore back I was hungry and wanted to go eat…so we went out in search of some good breakfast and found a bar called Jack’s- something –or- other in the old Cannery building (a very famous building in San Francisco), and had the best breakfast ever for only five dollars!  They didn’t have many things on the menu:

·         Eggs, toast and your choice of meat

·         Coffee

·         Juice

That’s about it.  I finally joined the “Clean Plate Club” today with this incredible breakfast!  I do believe we will go there again tomorrow morning, and most likely Saturday as well.  After our breakfast we walked out into the cold, windy weather and headed to the Hyde Pier – the pier that was once the only way into San Francisco, before they built the Golden Gate Bridge – where we got to climb aboard some very old ships that they have restored and made into museums.  We saw an old Ferry boat that is incredibly beautiful, a sailing boat that might be one of the most impressive things I have ever seen and an old tug boat, which I didn’t feel very steady on, so I didn’t spend too much time on that one.  The old sail boat was from the 1800’s and it had pictures and movies that you could watch and it was still filled with the original furniture and such.  A great thing to see here.

After our boat tours we headed for the Hop On Hop Off tour bus and traveled to Union Square where all the shopping is.  You name it, they have it: Louis Vuitton, Prada, Tiffany’s & Co., etc., etc. and Greg asked if we should check out some of these shops – not because he had any intention of buying me a diamond from Tiffany’s, but just because we are one of the 2.5 million tourists to come to this city and that is what tourists do.  I said no way because I have already experienced the “Pretty Woman”  scene in Vegas, you know when you walk into a very expensive shop and the people working there turn around and walk away not even giving you the time of day.  I have realized that you have to look a certain way (very high maintenance) to be taken seriously in those stores, and when you walk in holding city maps and comfortable shoes, that is a dead give away that you are just a tourist coming in to gawk. 

Only three blocks away from Union Square is the Tenderloin and in the Tenderloin is a little restaurant named “Dottie’s True Blue Café”, and I have been waiting to go there this entire time!  I watched the episode of “Drive-in’s, Diners & Dives” on the Food Network and this place was featured.  This little café only seats forty people, but after being in there I would have to say that number is a little high!  We stood in line – like they said we would – on the sidewalk for about a half hour.  We were told that on Saturday and Sunday, the line goes right to the next block and it will take up to two hours to get a seat!  As we stood in line, we were greeted and quite entertained by a very flamboyant middle aged man who was wearing a leather vest with a diamond tiara broach!  We eventually got two seats at the counter and had to decide just what to eat.  We had front row seats of the owner cooking right in front of us, and it all looked so good it was nearly impossible to decide what to eat.  I opted for the “True Blue Plate” – bacon, eggs, toast and potatoes – but I regret not getting the French toast with fresh fruit that the people next to me ordered.  My meal was so-so, but the toast was Jalapeno toast (and that was not mentioned on the menu), so I didn’t eat that.  After I ate all I could of my meal, I decided to order some coffee cake that was made fresh that morning by the owner – he bakes all the baked goods that morning – and they warmed it up and poured icing on it!  It was gooood!  If you want to check out Dottie’s online you can just Google “Dottie’s San Francisco” and it should take you to YouTube and show you the clip from the episode it was on.

We walked back to Union Square and caught the bus to come back to our hotel.  At about 2:30 p.m. we walked into our hotel room and I was so tired that I needed a nap!  My head hit the pillow and I didn’t wake up until almost 6:00 p.m.!  We are going to go out for supper after American Idol tonight and check out the night life in San Fran, since we haven’t been out at night yet!

I am not sure yet were we are going to eat tonight, that is still undecided, but we might walk to Little Italy and check out some of the restaurants in that neighbourhood.  We will watch American Idol, I will get my Steven Tyler fix for the night and then we will be ready to rock’n’roll!!

SJ

San Francisco...DAY THREE

You know the feeling you have when you have the day after your have gone horseback riding for the first time in 15 years or done aerobics when you are really out of shape?  I have that feeling today!  I can hardly walk and I am so incredibly tired!  I realized that walking around San Francisco all day and then going to Alcatraz – which by the way, walking up to Alcatraz from the ferry is the equivalent to climbing a 13 story building – is not a good idea!  Not only are my legs aching, but my hands are soooooooo sunburned that I really probably should seek some medical help.  The good news though is that I didn’t wake up until 9:30 a.m. today, which was much needed but didn’t seem to make a difference – I was still sluggish all day!  This vacationing is an exhausting past time…good thing I don’t do it very often!

Once we got up and moving today, we went out to find some breakfast and went to some so-so diner and then found the “Hop On Hop Off” bus tours and bought some tickets and caught the bus just before it left.  We had no idea where we were off to, but to our delight it was Sausalito, just across the Golden Gate Bridge.  We had about one hour to spend there and it reminds me of my very favourite place – Hornby Island, B.C. – it was a great place to see!  Once back in San Francisco, we were taken around to some of the same places we saw on our tour yesterday, but we finally made it to one of the places I really wanted to go to – The Ferry Building – a marketplace that is downtown and not much of a tourist attraction, much more of a local market place.  There was one place in the market that I really couldn’t wait to visit, a small bakery named Miette (which means “little crumb” in French).  I bought a cupcake and some souvenirs to take home with me and took a whole lot of pictures of this bakery.  One more thing most of you probably don’t know about me – my biggest dream in this world would be to open my own bakery like this one!   I was just smitten with this little bakery.

We hopped back on the bus after our Marketplace visit and headed back to Fisherman’s Warf because we were just spent – and it was only about 4:30 p.m.  We thought we had better eat some supper at that point because we knew that once we got back to the hotel, there would be no leaving for the night! There are so many places to eat in this city, however knowing just which ones are worth going to is not always that simple.  We decided to go back to on place we already knew and love – Bubba Gumps!!  Let me tell you just what the USA does way better than Canada…FRIED CHICKEN!!!  I am so in love with the fried chicken down here!  Once we were done with Bubba Gumps, we dragged our tired butts back to our hotel, which is about a 20 minute walk on a good day, and once we were back in our room, I put my sweat pants on and climbed into bed!  We watched a movie and now have American Idol playing as I type away.  As soon as I lift my hands off this keyboard, I will lay my head down and close my eyes until tomorrow morning.  We have a big day planned for tomorrow with lots of stuff to still see and not that much time left.  There are a few walking tours we would like to take, as long as our legs will hold out for another day or two, and we still haven’t had the chance to ride the trolley cars, so hopefully that will all happen tomorrow! 

Good Night!

SJ

San Francisco...DAY TWO

Day Two of our San Francisco adventure stared with a very early wake-up call…my bladder!  5:30 a.m. and I had to pee (now I have to say, I didn’t have to get up any other time through the night, so that is a good thing), and once I got out of this rock hard bed I have to sleep in, I didn’t want to get back into it.  Greg says I am like an old lady and maybe he is right about that – an 86 year old trapped in a 34 year old body – but what a spunky 86 year old I am!  Since there isn’t much to do at 5:30 a.m. in San Francisco (at least not much that I know of), I decided to shower and go to the hotels gym…yes, I actually brought my running shoes and sweat pants so I could take advantage of this facility.  Down I went to the gym with my book in my hand, thinking of course I would exercise in style like I do at home…think again!  I stepped into the gym and saw that all of the machines were standing upright, none of them were recumbent bikes like I have, but that is okay because a bike is a bike, right?  Wrong!  Apparently I haven’t really been exercising at home all this time because I could feel my legs burning after just five minutes on this upright bike…unlike the good feeling in my legs after 30 minutes at home.  I made it for about 15 minutes on the bike and then another 15 on the treadmill, just so I didn’t look like too much of a loser coming out of the gym only minutes after entering it (just in case there were any people watchers in the hotel lobby at 6:30 in the morning).  Our next stop after getting ready to go out for the day was to our free continental breakfast which was not that good, so I ended up having a banana, a piece of toast and a chat with my new found friends – two sweet 80 something ladies who were on a tour bus leaving for Rio tomorrow  morning.  After chatting with my friends we set off for the day and walked down to Fisherman’s Warf, where there was nothing happening since it was only 7:00 a.m.  We walked around aimlessly until we found a tour place where we inquired about a city tour (and the lady told us we would see the “Full House” house, which made my day!), and we decided that we would take the two hour tour that started at 10:00 a.m.  Now we just had to find something to do for the next 2 hours and 45 minutes!!!  At 9:00 the double decker bus rolled to a stop and we quickly ran to see if was time for the tour to begin…nope, we still had an hour to wait…ugh!  The fantastic tour guide told us we could relax in the sunshine on the top deck of the bus if we wanted until the tour began, and because we had absolutely NOTHING else going on, we did just that.  We sat an people watched for the next hour until the tour started.  If you are ever planning a trip to San Francisco, I would highly recommend this kind of tour around the city.  We saw the Golden Gate Bridge, Nob Hill, China Town, the Tenderloin District, Union Square, The Painted Ladies (houses), etc., etc.  Once we rolled back into Pier 39, we had just enough time for a quick lunch before we would then board the boat bound for Alcatraz!!  We went on the tour among the hundreds of other tourists that decided today was the day they wanted to visit The Rock and is a very interesting place to see! 

Once we got back onto the boat to come back to San Francisco, I noticed that I had burned the tops of both my hands and my arms just past my wrists!  You may think this is no big deal, but for me it is because another tidbit of information about me that you may not know is that I have Vitiligo, an auto-immune disease that causes me to lose my pigment (you should just Google it though if you want to learn more about it), and unlike people who are very fair skinned, or have red hair and freckles, I have NO PIGMENT on many parts of my body, my hands included.  You may wonder why in the world I would spend a day in California and not wear sunscreen, and you would be right in wondering that…until you come to San Francisco and discover that it is a very different and deceiving climate here.  The wind is whipping so hard that it makes my eyes water, and the breeze (wicked wind) coming off the ocean is so cold that you actually have to wear a jacket – and if you are smart, gloves – so I didn’t think about the fact that even though I am shivering in my sweater with a blanket over my legs on the city tour bus, the sun is still very much the sun and in California, it is hot!  I will have to be much more careful for the rest of our trip and apply the sunscreen that I brought before we go out tomorrow!

After our trip to Alcatraz, we were on our way back to our hotel, shivering from the wind and limping from sore feet, Greg suggested we just grab a drink at the Hard Rock Café.  When we walked in I noticed how loud the music was and knew I was in no mood for that kind of noise, so I asked to be sat on the patio.  The sun was shining onto the patio and even though I had just discovered my sunburned hands, I asked to be seated in the sun – because I know how cold it could be in the shade.  Let me tell you that I didn’t know how freakin’ cold it would be no matter where we sat on that patio!  I shivered and complained that I just wanted to go, but I knew that Greg wanted to sit down for a few minutes, so even after he called me Grandma, I decided to stay put.  I ordered myself a $7.00 milkshake (I should have made it a hot chocolate) and told Greg that this Grandma needs to go on the kind of vacation that only lasts about two days and involves being driven around in a luxury tour bus!  We finally made it back to our hotel room at 5:00 p.m. and I am ready for bed!! 

This is Grandma Sara signing off and I will be back with another update from our San Francisco adventure tomorrow!

SJ

San Francisco...DAY ONE

Here is a little something you might not know about me…I am a terrible traveler!  By that I mean I really don’t enjoy travelling, which is why I do so little of it.  Despite this wee fact about me, as I type this I am sitting in a hotel room in San Francisco, USA!  Greg and I have wanted to see this city for a long time and the price was just right, so we took a trip.  I have talked to many, many people who have travelled to San Francisco and every one of them raves about this city!  I may be wrong, but I think we just saw all of what is considered the tourist part of the city in about 4 hours!  I am sure there is more to see, and we are planning on going on a city tour tomorrow, along with Alcatraz.  We walked from our hotel over to Pier 39 and had some wonderful fried chicken for me and shrimp for Greg at “Bubba Gumps” – a restaurant dedicated solely to the movie Forrest Gump – and let me tell you, it is a good thing I don’t live in the South and eat that fried chicken every day...it was GOOOOOOD!!  After supper I made Greg walk and walk and walk until we reached (more like found) Ghirardelli Sqaure!  Before we found it though, we were stopped on the sidewalk by a friendly man from New Orleans who was a shoe shine man who got chatting with us asking us if we were honest and if we thought that he was honest (the thought that he was not honest definitely was crossing my mind at this point!).   After he shook both of our hands and I checked my purse to make sure nothing was missing (he was that sketchy), he laughed and told us he fooled us, so we looked down and there he had squirted some goop on Greg’s shoes.  As I tried my best to not look like I was some tourist who just got duped,  Greg had his shoes shined…for a ten dollar tip – and the shoe shiner tried to get twenty dollars out of Greg – we walked away with our heads hanging low until we were in the clear and we just kept on walking and walking until…we finally stumbled upon I Ghirardelli Square, and it was like I had died and gone to heaven as I have been dreaming of this day for a long time!  We bought a few bags of chocolate (I got 72% dark for myself) and decided to come back another day for the Ice Cream Sundaes, as there was a line-up out the door. 

Now that I have told you about the four hours we have been here, let me tell you about getting here!

We had a great flight – 1:13 p.m., which meant we didn’t have to leave our house until 9:00 a.m., so we got to get up at our normal time, spend some time with the kids before leaving, said good-bye to them and left for the airport.  We arrived in the city with lots of time to spare and parked the truck in the park’n’fly lot.  We were picked up by the shuttle and a few feet from our pick-up spot we stopped again to pick up some young ladies…and all I can say is thank God they were going to Mexico and not San Francisco…they were wearing matching shirts that said “Krista’s Bitchin’ Bachelorette Bash”…and they were giggling and talking about tequila and sunshine!!!  I have gotten so old lately, because the thought of having to spend any extra time with those girls made my skin crawl!  Once we got into the airport, we had some lunch, had a visit with a woman from Vermilion who was travelling to Dallas, and got into line to board our plane.  The plane was so old I was surprised that there were not ash trays built into the backs of the seats.  This plane only had two seats on either side of the cabin, which was good that I didn’t have to sit squished between a stranger and Greg, instead I found out that being squished between a wall and Greg is not much better!  Those seats are not made for the two of us!  Not only were we squished into these little seats, we were sitting directly on top of the plane’s engine.  It was so noisy that I thought my head might explode!  I couldn’t hear anything Greg or the flight attendants were saying to me and that only got worse as my ears started to fill and pop.  Did I mention that a plane older than my parents doesn’t come equipped with T.V.’s or movies to watch…nope, all I had to do for the three hours that felt like eight was to read or try to sleep even though I was in such cramped quarters and the noise was so intense, there was no point in even trying to sleep!  When we finally arrived in San Francisco, we had a text on Greg’s cell phone from Natalie, asking that we call home as soon as we land!  When I called her she said that Grace refused to go to dance class and she didn’t know what to do about it (Natalie was keeping the kids with her for the day until my Dad and Step-Mom were off work, where the kids will be staying while we are gone), so I told her to just leave it alone and let her miss the class.  Then I made the mistake of getting Grace to take the phone so I could talk to her and I made her cry her eyes out!  She said she missed me just sat there bawling…and Natalie was the only one to comfort her and Grace did not want any part of it!  By the time we reached the hotel however, she was all better!  When we left the airport, we caught a shuttle to the hotel and the driver made me second guess my choice to not wear my seatbelt!  They are crazy drivers here on the very steep streets of San Francisco!!  By the time we arrived at the not-so-luxurious Holiday Inn Express, I was so crabby that Greg was calling all the Crab Shacks around “Sara Shacks”!!  A little fried chicken and chocolate fixed my mood though!

SJ

I'm Leaving On a Jet Plane...

Follow me to San Francisco!  I will be blogging about my big trip each day that I am here! 

Enjoy the journey along with me!

SJ

Time to purge!

I've said it before and I will say it again: I have TOO MUCH STUFF!!!!!  Four years ago we started to build our "dream house" and for a while it was a dream...so much space, nice new floors, freshly painted walls, everything we ever wanted.  We have been living in our house for just over three years and my house now has too much space, scratched up floors, dirty walls, everything I thought we wanted.  I have been doing a lot of thinking lately, with the assistance of "Eat, Pray, Love" and some Tom guy on Oprah yesterday, and have realized that I just simply don't need everything that we have.  I am very good at purging things, so in no way am I am hoarder, but I just can't seem to purge fast enough.  I know that I tend to buy into the idea that I need the newest mop that Swiffer has come out with or perhaps that my kids need many, many new toys at Christmas, when what I really need is what I already have.  I was standing in my pantry today looking at all the stuff, that is not food, and couldn't believe how many Tupperware containers I have (and yes, I know I just had a Tupperware party - that is part of my problem) and I can't imagine ever needing to store that much food!  I have roasters, a toaster oven, bread maker, ice cream maker, milkshake maker, chocolate fondue thing, rolling pins, cake takers, cupcake tower, cake pans, cookie press, platters, trifle bowls, and the list can go on and on and on...and that is just in my pantry alone!  I need to change something. 

I have this small desire to have a garage sale, but I am not sure I want to spend an entire weekend sitting in my garage, plus the set up and take down of it (the reality of it is that I probably wouldn't be able to park in my garage again for about a month because all of the stuff that didn't sell would just sit there until I could figure out what to do with it).  Our local playschool is having a garage sale next month and all the money goes toward the playschool, which is where Will is going in September, and even though I will make no money on the stuff I shelled out so much money for, at least my son will benefit from this fundraiser.  I tried a Free Sale last year with a bunch of my friends and I was amazed that I still had so much stuff left over, even though it was all FREE!  If I am to donate to the playschool garage sale though, I have to make sure I do not go there myself...or the cycle will just start all over again.

I don't know if it is just the fact that it is spring and I have that instinctual need to get rid of stuff or if I have really had a change in my attitude of what is really important and how having so much stuff makes me feel way too full?

Whatever it is that has got me to this place in my world, I will embrace it and let go of all the extras.

SJ

What was I thinking!?!?!

I did something yesterday that I very rarely ever do...took three kids to the grocery store.  There is a reason why I very rarely do it, but I will get to that juicy part of the story later, for now I will start at the beginning.

Saturday morning I was busy getting my house ready for yet another one of my famous home parties (I still haven't kicked the habit yet), cleaning, cooking, setting out chairs, etc.  My kids were very excited because everyone who was coming to the party was bringing between one and four children!  It was a very good morning that ran into the early afternoon.  The afternoon however was going to be even more exciting as I had been planning on taking Grace to the local movie theatre to see the original screening of Cinderella!  She was so excited, the fact that two of the families from the party were going with us was the icing on the cake for her!  I still had two little boys to worry about though as I really didn't think they would want to see that movie.  I found Mark a playdate (with the son and husband of one my party/movie friends) and thought that Natalie would be able to take care of Will while we were gone (Greg is out of town, just in case you were wondering why in God's green earth their own father couldn't have looked after them).  It ended up that Natalie was out in the field with the horse when I was hoping she could watch Will, so I asked him if he would like to go...and of course he said yes!  He had never been to a movie theatre before, so he was so excited for this new adventure!  The party wrapped up at about 1:30, the movie started at 2:00 and of course I had to pack up three kids, drive into town, drop Mark off at his friends house and get over the the movie theatre before we missed the any of the movie.  I made it there at 2:03 p.m.  We ran into the theatre hoping to have not missed anything good yet, and lucky for us we live in a very small town where the theatre owner waits for everyone to get there before he starts a movie!!  By that I mean he finds out if anyone is waiting for other people to show up and then waits for them to get there!!  Only in a small town!  We bought popcorn and drinks, found our seats (which were not hard to find since the only people in the theatre were Deanna and her daughter - Little Natalie - two of the people we were going to the movie with) and waited for Joeanne and Madison to arrive.  When the movie finally began, after the owner knew everyone had arrived (another group had arrived as well, to make approx. 10 people), it was about 2:20 p.m.  I guess I had lots of time to get there after all!!  Will loved the whole movie theatre experience...eating popcorn, drinking pop, checking out the bathrooms, the consession, the doors that lead to the lobby - all of this during the movie of course - and Grace loved it simply because it was Cinderella.  When the movie was done, we were planning to go to a Home and Garden show that was going on in town, but figured we only had an hour so we would maybe check it out the next day and we headed to a big garage sale going on about two blocks away at the Elks Hall.  Deanna and I walked with the kids - in the freezing cold, snowy mid-April weather - to the garage sale and saw that there was not a single car to be seen...hmmm?  We tried the door anyway and there it was, tables upon tables of stuff for sale!  The kids quickly found table full of toys and I spotted a few bikes and one fabulous scooter for Mark.  Deanna and I walked around a chuckled at some of the items for sale.  Grace bought a small gold clutch for her dress-up box and I managed to get the scooter for half price - $5.00.  I scooted it back to where my truck was parked and we headed off to pick up Mark from Deanna's house...this is wear it gets interesting.  We arrived and of course my other kids told him just what we had done...gone to the movie theatre...and that big bottom lip of his started to tremble and a tear welled up in his eye and he was upset that he didn't get to go.  Honestly, I didn't think he would want to go see Cinderella!  After the kids played for a while and I had a visit with Deanna, I packed up the kids again and told them we would go to rent some movies and get some snacks!  Mark was not only upset by the whole theatre thing, but he was now very tired which became very apparent to me when he was almost fist fighting with Grace as they piled into the vehicle.  We drove to the store were they rent movies and the kids happily picked out two movies each - thought technically Mark got three because when he picked up "The Goonies"  I was so excited and made him get it so that we could watch it together!!  I got two movies for myself, we paid and set off for some movie snacks.  Mark wanted to go to the gas station to buy the treats, but I explained that the grocery store would have a better selection and would cost a lot less - though in this small town of ours, the one and only grocery store can charge you just the same as a gas station for chips and pop!  The fact that we would be heading for the grocery store instead of the gas station made my already lip trembling, tear welling, upset son even more so...and it makes for the juicy part of this story...we arrived at the grocery store, pulled into a spot and before I was even out of my seat, two of my kids had jumped out of the vehicle, leaving me to retreive Will from the back seat while I made sure the other two weren't killing each other in the parking lot.  They were already pushing and shoving and yelling at each other and the thought of leaving them in the truck crossed my mind, but I didn't want to take the chance that Grace wouldn't be breathing when I returned, so I grabbed Will's hand and told the other two to smarten up and follow me in.  I grabbed a cart and Grace jumped right on the end of it - something I don't mind, if she is the only one with me - which them made Mark jump on the side of it and made me say in my sternest voice "get off"!  While I was trying to get these two off the cart, Will is over in the cart area pulling out the big red car cart because he is determined we will be taking that cart on this wild adventure of ours.  I probably should have gone with my gut and used the big red car cart, but instead I went with what is "the right way" in the parenting world and stuck to my guns...Will ended up putting the car cart back and joining us in the normal cart...Grace still on the front, Mark still on the side and Will was now in the cart!  We tried to get through the door but Mark wouldn't quite fit, so I made him get off the side and since this is not fair in a seven year old mind, he tried his best to get his little sister off the front.  We stood next to bananas and I begged my five year old to not make me look like the mom who has no control over her kids (even though every single person in that entire grocery store who has ever had kids has had one of these moments) because all the people in the store would judge me and give me that what-kind-of-mom-are-you-who-can't-even-control-her-kids-in-the-store kind of look and I would have to hide in the cereal isle until my kids would smarten up and start listening.  We continued on with Grace on the front and Will inside and we quickly made our way to the chips and pop isle to get what we needed for movie night.  I then realized that it was almost supper time and in an attempt to not be the worlds worst mother that day, I decided that I should probably feed my kids something more than just chips and pop.  Hotdogs or pizza, that was their choice.  Mark wanted both and the other two wanted hotdogs, so hotdogs it was...and once again the big bottom lip was trembling and the tears were welling up in Marks eyes...because I told him that I was not buying both.  We made our way across the store to buy some buns for the hotdogs and ran into one of the nicest ladies I know from Kids Church and she was asking the kids if they wanted to come to the Palm Sunday service and be in the kids concert and what she got in return were daggers shooting out of Grace's eyes, Mark begging me to just get going because he was about to burst into tears at any moment and Will (always the happy one) pointing out every veggie in the store and asking if we could buy everything in sight.  I said good-bye to her, not promising to make it to the service and grabbed the hotdog buns.  I turned to go to the till so we could just get the hell out of there and for some reason I picked the till next to the balloon display...wrong move!  Will was no longer in my cart, but he was grabbing all the balloons he could hold and Mark (acutally being the responsible oldest child) was trying to put them back because he knows the rule of no balloons from the grocery store, but Will wanted no part of that!  Grace was still somewhere on or around the cart at this point, daggers still shooting out of her eyes when Great Grandma Webb arrived on the scene.  She came over to say hello and I am sure she was stabbed right in the heart by one of those daggers!  Will was on the ground at this point crying because Mark had shoved him down in an attempt to put all the balloons back and when I tried to take the stupid balloons from Mark he lost his mind and strarted crying!  Grandma tried to give the kids each a loonie for a treat (as if any of them deserved a treat at that point, but Grandma was just fresh on the scene), and when not a single one of my children took the money, I just took it, thanked her and said we will buy treats another day.  The woman at the till had rang in all our groceries and took my card which wouldn't swipe...and I didn't have enough cash since I bought Mark's scooter earlier that day.  I gave her another card and told the kids to get their little butts over to me that instant because we were leaving!!!  When we left the store, the snow was really falling and for some reason my children were freaking out that the snow was touching them (you would think that the past six months of snow would have them used to it by now), and Grace couldn't get her door open and Mark had to wait for me to buckle up his little brother before he could get in.  Once I had all the correct doors open, and all the kids in the right seats I told the older two to buckle their seatbelts so I could get this show on the road!  What I heard from the back seat made me want to get out of my vehicle right then and there and leave the children in the Co-op parking lot "I can't buckle my seatbelt" came from my not-so-angelic-daughter who can do up her seatbelt faster than anyone in my family.  The reason I wanted to leave is becsause I knew what was to come....a whole lot of screaming and crying and I just wasn't sure that my already frazzled mind could have handled it then.  Instead of walking away, I drove away.  She screamed bloody murder because she hadn't done her seatbelt up and the vehicle was moving.  I just calmly told her to do it up...but she kept screaming and screaming and screaming, so I did what any good mother would do and scared the crap out of my kid by slamming on the brakes!  She flew forward and in between her sobs and screams, she then managed to get her seatbelt buckled.  That always works!  I didn't realize however that slamming on my breaks would cause my case of diet rootbeer to open up and spill all over the floor of my truck on top of the bags of chips and hotdog buns!  The rest of the drive home was spent listening to Grace scream at Mark to stop looking at her and his giggles from behind me.  I did my best at ignoring her the whole way home and when we finally arrived and pulled into the garage I saw what any dog owner dreads to see...the garbage was tipped over and the bag ripped open...great!!!  Once the garbage was picked up, kids were in the house and I had picked up the rootbeer from the truck floor I went into the house and started to hotdogs to boil.  We put on a movie, ate some hotdogs and chips and by 8:00 p.m. I had three kids in bed and I climbed into my bed to watch a movie of my own.  Finally...peace and quiet!

SJ

The Thick and Thin of it!

We've all heard women say that no matter how their body changes sizes (and shopping is no longer fun, but more of a chore), they can still by shoes because they never change in size...well, that is not true for me!!  I would rather go to a store and try to squeeze my buns into a size 14 than go shoe shopping.  My feet have changed size!  It is a well known fact to my closest relatives and friends that I have wide, thick, flat feet!!  I have no problem with the size itself, as that is only a 8.5, one of the most common sizes around, what I have a problem with is the width and the depth.  I am sure most of the young kids working in the shoe stores these days don't ever take a persons foot depth into consideration when helping them find shoes.  I have wasted a lot of money on a lot of shoes - including my fabulous Jimmy Choo's (though I bought them on Ebay, so it's not like I really paid a lot) - that seemed to fit for the 45 seconds I had them on in the store.  Once I take them home with me, spray them with a protector and put them on for a day on the town that I realize after about two isles at the grocery store - these are just not going to work.  My toes start to rub in all the wrong places, the shoe begins to dig into the top of my foot and I come home with sore feet and red blisters.  I can't stand the thought of wearing uncomforatble shoes, however there are two problems when it comes to wide, thick feet:

1.  Wide, thick shoes don't come cheap!
2.  It is not easy to find wide shoes (unless you are over the age of 87 or work in a hospital).

This leads me to my trip to the Lloyd Mall a few days ago.  They have a store named "Quarks", where they carry high end brands which have price tags that can make you laugh out loud if you haven't already hit the floor.  Here I find myself searching for the perfect pair of shoes for these two un-perfect feet of mine!  I looked at all the shoes, trying to decide just which shoes will be the most versatile for me (since I am only going to be able to afford one pair) and once I have it narrowed down to about six pairs, I ask the question that is always on my mind while I shoe shop: : "Do you have these in Wide"?  The asnwer is a big fat NO...almost as fat as my own feet!!  Okay, so lets go with plan B, what shoes do you have in Wide?  I ask.  She picks up the one and only pair that they carry in a wide width....and they are the exact same pair that I already have on my feet!  Of course they are, this is exactly the store I bought these wide shoes that I wear every single day, with every single thing!  I asked her to bring out the size that I needed, this time in black though since the ones I already have are brown.  I am not sure why I even bothered to try them on...but I did and of course they fit.  I was determined to find one pair of "cute" shoes before I left that store!  I tried a couple pairs of regular width shoes, but of course I knew right away they were not going to work.  Finally I found a pair of Hush Puppies (I can just see my little sisters face right now, red with laughter), with a regular width but a little bit of stretch and a price tag of only $100!!  I put the shoes on and walked around the store for about a minute...they seemed good.  I paid a hefty price for both pairs of shoes, but at least now I have two pairs of shoes in my closet. 

I wore the new pair of my old shoes all weekend, and of course they were wonderful - but I already knew they would be!  I put on the cute little Hush Puppies and wore them for about ten minutes before finding out that the top of my right foot is rubbing and the shoes are leaving indents in my feet!!  I will break them in though because I will not be wearing my "practical" shoes all summer long!!

SJ

Keeping up with the Joneses

Last night, Greg walked into the house with a brand new cell phone for me - an iPhone.  I was excited and anxious all at the same time.  What in the world do I know about a phone like that?  I can't even get music onto my little iPod without my teenagers help!  Of course the very first thing I wanted to do was to download some new ringtones - Aerosmith of course - but you think I can figure out how?  Every once in while my finger taps the right spot on the screen and the ringtone thing shows up, but heaven forbid my finger taps something else and I am so far off of where I was that I need the map app to find my way back!  I downloaded three songs last night where it said ringtones, paid $1.29 for each one and thought I was on my way to being a real computer geek...until I tried to make my phone ring Aerosmith.  I guess I did buy those three songs, but all I can do with them now is play them, I still have the silly ringtones that come with the phone.  Greg hasn't been much help to me with this whole situation, he has been busy buying (free) apps such as "Fart for Free" and "iFace Fat"...lovely!!  I downloaded a "Fashion" app for Grace thinking it was one where she could dress up a doll or something, but instead I guess she needs to know how to run her own business...oops!  I hooked the phone up to my computer today in the hopes that I could follow the directions I found on Google to getting some good ringtones and I ended up with 495 songs that my 17 year old daughter has on iTunes...I know about 67 of those songs!  Not only did I get all that wonderful new music to listen to, but I also got all the apps she had on her iPod, such as: "Sephora", "Make Up Tips",. "Tweet Deck" and my favourite "Mixology"...what in the world??  That is the one where you learn how to mix drinks like a bartender!!  Here is the problem...I don't know how in the world to get rid of an app once you have it.  You would think that Apple could spring for some instruction manual with all the money they must be making off of these fancy shmancy things they produce!!  There is a simple picture book of what my new iPhone can do, but no mention of how to make it do those things.  I need my nephew, Hudson, with me to walk me through all the in's and out's of this new world I have entered (if you don't know, my nephew is only 4 and really, really good at working iPods and phones). 

I am not sure if I am tech savvy enough to have this kind of phone, but if nothing else, I will look like the rest of the population now with my head down and my nose in an iPhone/iPad/iPod!!

SJ