Well hello to anyone who is reading this!  I've been gone for a long while now, thought that I was gone for good and yet here I am.   I hope everyone is well and I hope too that we can re-establish contact.  All the best to you all.

Hi, I just thought that I'd post a short one before I finally head off to bed.  I was on yesterday for quite a while, really thought that I was getting a handle on how to navigate on Minti, and  well, I find out today, that I don't.  I had read some posts of nell18-3, Marglr, and a few others, commented on some, can't find anything today.  I don't know if I'm just not finding it all, not looking in the right place or, was I in error when I thought that I'd submitted some stuff.  I guess its all to keep me humble!  I get on these veins where I sort of congratulate myself that, Hey, I am really getting to know how to use this old computer, when, WHAM, it hits me, NO, I DON'T!!!  I've been trying to hook up with some sites that can give me some short term work, one of them I've been trying daily for nearly 3 weeks, no luck, e-mailed the company, they didn't know what I was talking about the first time, wouldn't even respond the second time I e-mailed which was about a week later, so I was just about to pull my name off their list and thought that I'd try ONE MORE time.  Lo and behold, tonight it worked, got through, completed the paperwork that I'd been trying all this time and now I'm good to go!  Anyway, if you think that I'm being uncharacteristically quiet, its not for lack of trying!!  All's well, just having computer confusion! 

My two older girls are home for the day, their school has a service project that would have kept them out of town for the whole day, which would have meant rescheduling some appointments that are hard to get so instead they will be home for the day and we are planning to get some Spring cleaning done!  Now if I could just hve both of them get out of bed....Once they hit Jr. High age they sure need their sleep!  I guess too it would help if they would just go to bed for once BEFORE they turn into pumpkins!  The air feels heavy, we are supposed to be getting some rain today, I wish it would just come already.  I have asthma and can sure feel it when its holding out like this.  Once it comes, I can already breathe better.  Seems to take some of the tension out of the air, I don't know, but it'll be good when it comes down.  One of our poor neighbours had to come over for water yesterday evening.  She was just starting to prepare supper when she found that their was no water!  There is a new house being plumbed at the end of the crescent and somehow they sprung a leak in the main and that whole street was without!  It'll be strange having a house there.  My husband grew up in this town and its always been a field.  Kids would fly kites there, use it as a short cut to get across the railway tracks.....Now there is this huge house there, the kids can,t watch the train from our house anymore because the view is totally blocked and its so strange to have a new house being built on one of the oldest established areas in this town!   Some of the older houses have been sold and there is talk of condos being built in their stead.  I guess things have to constantly be changing!  There is so much construction on in town that it is expanding by leaps and bounds.  Its hard to believe that there will be enough people to fill all of the housing that is being built.  It makes me feel almost claustrophobic, esp. since before moving here  I had always lived in some sort of rural setting except for a few years late teens/early twenties when I lived in the city (Winnipeg) to have a decent job.  My dream is to someday be able to live in the country again, of course, by the time we manage finances for that we'll be too old!  Ah well, I can dream!   

We put the air conditioning on today for the first time this year.  I'd been running it in the van for a week or two but the house hadn't been too bad!  Today with the oven on we just couldn't hack it anymore!  Registered all 4 girls for swimming lessons today, to the tune of almost $200.00!  Hoowhee that's a lot of money!  I just hope that they all become lifeguards or something to make use of all this training!  My youngest, who is 5 will have her first session this year.  She already swims like a dolphin so I don't think she'll have much trouble starting.  She loves anything like this that gets her to feel like a "big" girl! 

Our second oldest is on a swim team so she already is making great strides in her swimming.  She's quite excited since the Summer games are being held in a town a half hour away next summer and she stands a good chance to be eligible to compete.  That is one of the nicer things about living in town (a small city, actually), they have so many opportunities available to them.  I grew up in a rural setting in Ontario and we lived too far for my parents to think that it was worth it to get involved in anything!  Also, we had a riding stable and I was expected to work at it from  a young age, never time to do much else anyway.  (Whine, whine!!)   Anyway, I sometimes complain about living in town, but when there are so many things like this available to them, I'm glad that we are able to give them those things!

I must say that I admire the commitment that some of you have that you put time into your blogs, etc.  I check in almost daily, but to read various items AND to enter some thoughts often takes too much time for me.  My computer is always in demand, there are all the rest of my family members who are always queuing to use it too!  I have found a new site that lets you view movies fullscreen for free and my five year old is just enthralled! 

'Just wanted to let you know that I still care!  I just don't seem to have much free time these days.  I've been trying to do some work online, boy that is sure sporadic!  Every day of last week had some sort of appointments for AT LEAST one person in the family, usually it was More than one, whole days were used up going to the doctor, the optometrist, hair......my husband and I have one vehicle so coordinating getting him hither and yon and me to appointments can be a bit of a logisitical nightmare! 

We are having rainy days here lately, its wonderful, we need it if we are ever to put the garden in.  We have a garden with almost 4 times the square footage of our house!  Our house is 832 square feet,(yes, I know, rather small, especially with 4 girls and the piano dominating the {small} living room!!) and our garden is 3,250 square feet!!!  Last summer we grew enough to sell some at a market garden but I don't want to do that this year, I am recovering from some health problems and don't want the extra burden of dealing with food for others! 

I sometimes wonder how I'll get everything accomplished just for our family.  Right now we are eating only out of the freezer, using lots of frozen tomatoes for one of my favourite things, homemade tomato soup!  I'm trying to get it all emptied out before harvest begins again. 

Last year I wasn't well enough to clean the freezers out so I'm hoping that we can get that done once we've eaten everything useful out of it!  Today isn't anything special, just a Sunday, but we are having a smoked turkey for supper!  I can hardly wait!  I love all of the things that you can do with the leftovers!  Soups, macaroni and tomato especially!  Turkey pot pie!  Yum!  Tomorrow is swimming lesson registration.  My girls have been counting down to the day!   Well, I guess I've blathered on enough, 'hope you all have a good rest of the weekend, a great week and weather to suit your needs!  See ya!

Hi all!  I just wanted to say thanks to all of you who have asked to be friends.  I don't get on here as often as I like, but I do appreciate your interest. 

Tonight is my husband's night to do an activity with our two older girls.  The two younger ones and I stay home, watch movies and enjoy the quiet!  We are enjoying Spring now, the snow is melting and everything is puddles and wet clothing!  Oh well, it means summer is on its way! 

Lately I've been looking into online jobs, surveys etc.  I just can't seem to find anything that doesn't cost to take part in.  Everything has a membership fee or some sort of cash outlay.  If I had the money to do that I wouldn't need the job in the first place!!  I've heard that there are typing jobs and the like out there, so far I can't seem to hook up with anything like that.  That would be ideal for me, I'm not too ambulatory these days, I'm waiting on a new knee brace, so I could do something that wouldn't take me out of the house too much!  Argghh!  I guess I'll keep looking, wish me luck, please!

This is my first entry.  I wasn't sure what I'd write if I ever did but today was so nice that it bears talking about!  I have four daughters, 13, 12, 9, and 5.  My 12 year old wanted to do something nice for my birthday and so she brought me breakfast in bed this morning!  My birthday is on Monday  and with school it gets too rushed, tomorrow is too busy with Sunday School and so today was the day!  What a treat!  Eggs and ham, rye toast, grapefruit slices, lime juice, hot fresh coffee and all I had to do was sit up!  She brought it on a tray with a nice placemat that she had made on the computer, its great when they want to do nice things like this!  She then made nice breakfasts like that for everyone else too so I didn't have to look after anyone!  Well, if anyone reads this, I hope that you have a great weekend, mine sure started off nicely, so all the best!