August Update

Well it'’s been so long again that I'’m not really sure what all I have done in the past half month.

The boys and my sister and Del have been home half a month now; I've been spending a fair amount of time with them. So cute! I can'’t believe all the things that Ty can do now and he talks NON STOP. My mom says that he remembers her of me when I was that little. HeÂ'll talk to anyone and make up random absurd stories. Back in 1986 when we flew over to Germany for a visit I told the guy sitting next to me all about my purple husky. Ty makes up some pretty good stories too!

Went down to Brantford again in the meanwhile too. Had lunch at the Mongolian Grill, which does indeed use a real bus to create their inside bus seating (Jamie had to write to head office to verify this), bathed his cats and watched some football.

Went up to Sturgeon Falls with Bobbi as well. Nice drive up there, very beautiful and I can imagine it only gets more beautiful in the fall months. Stayed at a cabin on Lake Talon (I believe that'’s the name) that was very nice. Though a tree fell across the picnic table late in the evening. That was a little scary, but certainly could have been a lot worse.

Del's stepfather had a heart attack at the end of last week. He seems to be alright now, they performed an operation right away (can't remember the procedure'’s name) but now they are doing a bone marrow test as they think he might have some sort of disease as they can'’t figure out why his blood is so thick. Jim's a great guy and I know heÂ'll pull through fine.

Tonight went on a customer appreciation dinner cruise hosted by 105.9 Jack FM and KICX radio stations. It was on the Island Princess on Lake Couchiching. Very nice. A little chilly towards the end, but it was ok. It was a steak dinner with very good salads. Neither my boss nor I really knew anyone, but we still enjoyed ourselves. And I won a prize! I won a $20 gift certificate to Mountainview Mall in Midland. LOL, everyone thought it funny that I would win a gift certificate to another mall (The announcer couldn'’t pronounce my last name but the sales manager substituted the name for Orillia Square Mall). What most of them probably don'’t know is that Mountainview is also a RioCan property. Ah it'll be good for a drive and it'’s beautiful out that way, I'’ll make a day of it.

Am I missing any other news? Not that I'm aware of. Oh, though I did sign my one year contract at the start of the week, and the plus side is that my new rate of pay started on August 13th, and I thought it wouldn’t start until the end of my old contract at the end of September.

And if you are bored, you can check these links. Melissa sent them to me as a reminder of our Thailand Adventure Tour we took back in 2004. Best trip I'’ve ever been on yet! Need to plan another soon!
Riverside Restaraunt! Mmmm
Jungle Tree Houses! (And boat houses)

Welcome Home Huffmans

Tanja, Del and my nephews arrived back safely and without difficulty (other than the usual airport hassles) this afternoon.

Once I got home from work my Mom and I went over to their house to get dinner ready. We bet a dollar on when they would be home. I lost the bet as they got home just before 7:30pm which is what my Mom had guessed.

I have to say I'm a little relieved (relieved isn't really the right word, but I am happier and feel more complete now that they are back). I missed not having them around. I know it's not completely fair to say, seeing as they were only gone two weeks and in the past I have been the one to leaves for longer periods of time (i.e. Scotland and Japan), but I am happy that they enjoyed themselves, that the boys got to spend some time with their Great-Grandparents and had an overall good trip (though my sister said it is quite sad because my Grandfather's Alzheimer's has gotten so bad and my Grandma isn't doing so great either).

Dinner was good, my Mom had made Del's favourite dinner (a type of German potatoe casserole) and the cake was a hit! Ty especially loved the money in it, which I knew he would.

My sister is great. And she's so fortunate - she's got two amazingly beautiful, sweet boys and a great husband as well, she deserves it all and anything else that she should ever desire. The sap in me is so happy for them that is sometimes brings me to joyous tears when I see them together as a healthy, normal and very loving family. I hope that one day I'll experience the same joys. It is just so pure and innocent and just so right, I'm so happy for them.

After getting home at about 9:30pm I took Asili for a drive and went to get a coffee at Timmies. By the time I drove around back past my sister's to go to the Timmies in Gravenhurst five to ten minutes after we had left theirs, all the lights were already out. They were beat as they'd had an exceptionally long day of traveling.

I'm going to go enjoy the rest of my coffee and read the book I currently can't put down.

Welcome Home Cake

Well here is the cake I made for my sister, brother-in-law and nephews' Welcome Home dinner tomorrow night.

I'm excited to hear about their trip and to visit with them!

Good and Bad News

My boss gave me some good and bad news yesterday.

The bad news...RioCan's lawyers don't feel comfortable offering me the full-time, permanent position yet because they are worried about being sued if they give the position away. So they are offering me a one year contract and then after two years they would feel comfortable with proceeding with things.

The good news...in the new contract (which will start at the end of September) I will get a $2/hour raise and they are also going to give me some sort of benefits package (my boss didn't have the exact details yet).

So it's not exactly what I had hoped for, was hoping they would figure out what they were doing one way or another, but it's not all bad either. Besides, then after two full years of experience I think there will be a whole lot more opportunities available to me.

I am definitely not going to stay here at my parents' for the year. With a year contract I think I feel secure enough to get my own place. Before, on my three and six month contracts, I didn't want to get my own place and then have RioCan turn around and tell me that the lady was returning to her position and then be without a job. Plus I know that if I didn't have this job I wouldn't be staying in this area (there really are limited jobs up here - well jobs that do justice to someone with any sort of education).

So haven't really worked out any sort of plan yet. With the trip coming up in October (which I finally did mention to my boss) I don't want to get my own place right now and then leave for 2+ weeks, so I will probably wait until November or December, January at the absolute latest.

Overall then, I think it's a pretty good thing! An alright way to end the work week.

On other news my sister, Del and boys return on Tuesday! I can't wait. Am making Ty's welcome home race car cake on Monday night, I hope it turns out alright. This will be my first character cake, but I have a fall back plan anyways....even if the cake doesn't look so good, Ty will be excited about the money as it's not only going to be a race car, but also a money cake!

I'm off to call my sister now as when my Mom talked to her a few days ago she hadn't heard anything about the latest terrorist attempts, and my Mom didn't want to tell her. But it's important that she does know so she doesn't have to repack their stuff at the airport. Not looking forward to telling her, but someone has to! Maybe by now they've heard however...I mean they must of, even though they don't watch TV there my Opa gets the paper everyday. But I'll still tell her about how things are on this end. I hope they aren't too nervous flying. Can't wait to see the boys again, I know it's only been 2 weeks, but after being away from them for so long while I was in Japan, I like to see them as much as I can. Plus I finally have got Ty doing the "SUPERSTAR" pose, so can't wait to see him do it again!

Miscellaneous Past Events

Well to start the Medieval Times was great! We had so much fun! It ended up being Jamie-Lee, Derek, Jamie’s sister and brother. I can’t wait to go again! Our red knight was cute, though in the end he fought to his death.

Saturday I went to the Leacock Sidewalk Sale in downtown Orillia with Heather as Margaret Atwood was in town for a book signing. I was pretty excited! I got her newest book of poetry, “The Tent”, signed, as well as “The Journals of Susanna Moodie” which she wrote and was illustrated by Charles Pachter who was also at the book signing so that one I got signed by both.


It poured so we didn’t do much shopping at the sidewalk sale, just went for soup at “The Soup Factory” (I love the place!) and then headed home. That evening I went over to Jamie-Lee’s and helped her make Derek’s birthday cake.

Monday night I went over to my sister’s after work to help her finish getting ready for their trip (they went to Germany for two weeks). The come home at the start of next week, and I can’t wait. I miss the boys! I’m making Ty a special race car cake for dinner on the day they come back. I called him on my lunch hour today, he’s so cute! He was telling me all about the boat they went on today and asking me what the surprise was when I told him I was making something special for dinner on Tuesday for him.

Friday night I went to see “Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby” with Heather and Al and then we went back to her place and had a bonfire, enjoyed some drinks, some Scotland chat and stayed up until 6am. I stayed up a few hours longer talking with her Mom who got up as we were going to bed, then I went in and slept for a few hours. Saturday we took Al to Gravenhurst to show him all that he’s not missing and went to Boston Pizza for lunch. I picked up Asili and we took the dogs to Couchiching Park. Sunday I slept and rested.

Yesterday I went to Rotary Mega Bingo with Jamie-Lee in Bracebridge. We had a lot of fun though we didn’t win anything. And I met Jamie at a plaza in town and when I pulled in she was talking to someone. It was our friend Ann-Marie from high school. Don’t think I’ve seen her since high school. She’s married and has an 18month old named Jacob who is so adorable! Huge smile! So we planned to all meet up soon.

There was so much more that happened between my last entry and this one, but I can’t remember. Meh, not really in a writing mood either, so I’ll leave it at that for tonight.