So....

Here I am two weeks later, trying with all my might to eke a blog post out.

See that above? That is my day planner. No it isn't as full as some people's, I am sure. But it's busy for me.

I am not going to compete with anyone to see who is busier. Oh how I hate that. Your busy does not outrank my busy. My busy is my busy. (or something...)

I have always believed that we make choices and "the busy" is just another choice we make.

I made a committment. So I have to be busy. But, I don't necessarily have to like it.

My biggest issue is that I don't seem to have the energy to do the things I love to do anymore. My camera is dusty. This blog is dusty for goodness sake. Don't ask about the coffee tables.

Sure, if I never sat down to relax for five minutes, I would have the time. But without the relaxing there is nothing left for the creative energy to do the things I love. Without the creative energy, there is no creativity. With the relaxing there is no time. See my problem? Vicious circle.

Sure I could cut back on sleep but what purpose would that serve? None, I assure you. Life is too short to go through it sleep deprived.

The problem is, how can life be fulfiling without the things we love?

So.

This is where I am. Trying to figure it all out.

For myself.

I Must Read

I have always loved to read but I took a hiatus when the boys were little, you know, due to the lack of time thing. Oh and the fact that when I read I have a tendency to block out all other noise or activity going on around me. A bomb could go off and I would just keep on reading thinking I'll check that out when I finish this chapter.

Not really a good scenario when you have little kids running around, particularly one that knocks his own teeth out.

However, since they are now at an age where they are less likely to stick their finger in a light socket, I have taken my habit to a whole new level.

I devour books. On vacation last month, I finished the last book in the Harry Potter Series (Book 7 is BIG - caused grief with suitcase weights, let me tell you) and since I had run out of books, borrowed my mom's book.

I read Water for Elephants in 2 days.

I could barely put it down to eat and mix myself another drink.

I am pretty excited to see the movie which comes out later this month (Reese Witherspoon, yay!).

Now that was a good book. I can devour a mediocre book in 4-5 days tops.

I don't buy books. I am a huge fan of the library. Free and ample selection. I am all about that. I rarely re-read a book and we have a lack of storage issue in our house. Hence, no books.

Despite this we have boxes of books cluttering up our one storage space. Clearly I did not implement the no buying book policy soon enough.

When we returned from vacation I returned the last Harry Potter book (I really enjoyed the series and look forward to watching the movies) and the Jodi Piccoult book (I forget which one now) that had travelled to Florida with us and neglected to check out my usual 3-4 books.

This past week I was going into withdrawal.

I would sit down on the couch after supper with a cup of tea and go, now what?

I was reading the sale flyers in desperation.

It was bad.

Today, I visited my local library got a stack of completely new to me authors.

I am half way through the first book already.

To say I love reading would be kind of an understatement. It's practically like breathing to me.

He's....Toothless!

And also accident prone.

See that?

He lost is other front tooth.

Guess how?

It didn't get really loose and then fall out. Oh no. This is Kamden we are talking about.

He knocked it out. With his own knee. He has a dent in his knee to prove it.

Unfortunately I did not witness this marvelous feat. I mean not just anyone can knock out their own tooth out, especially with thier knee.

Our Kamden is talented.

Jack claimes it was a collision with the couch in which he doubled into two, likely to take the brunt of the impact. I guess he didn't account for a knee in the face.

Which conicidentally enough, he is aware can happen. He kneed himself in the forehead not too long agou while jumping around on the floor. I saw him do and yet, I still could not explain to you how he did it.

He cried that time. This time, no tears. He was a bit concerned about the blood. I explained that teeth bleed much less when they are ready to come out.

And see that mess under his nose? He did that at school. He was sitting somewhere and fell (I have no idea!)into some dirt or something. The story was not quite clear.

He does not get this from me. Oh no.

(No one mention that I had knocked both teeth out by the time I was 4, m'kay. It is our little secret. I didn't use my knee so it is much less newsworthy.)

I Miss This

I started blogging way back in March 2006 (wow, 5 years ago, time flies). For the next several years, I was an avid blogger, posting on this, that and everthing in between.

I loved it.
I developed a love of writing, of expressing myself. This, considering in my previous life I had despised any form of expressing my thoughts in any form of coherant manner, was no small acheivement.

2010 saw dramatic decreases in my post numbers. My heart just was not in it in anymore. I don't know why.

And now that I am working far more, my desire to blog has waned even further. It took me a week to post our vacation post, for goodness sake.

The other day, Kamden needed to bring a story about when he was a baby to school. The first place we looked to find one was in the blog book from 2006.

We laughed. We cried (from laughing so hard). And we lauged some more. (My writing was pretty laughable)

It reminded me of why I do this. Those memories are priceless and not a one of them did I remember until we read the post out loud.

I am reminded not only of the memories I am preserving but of the community I have missed while I have been absent from this world.

I miss y'all.

Obviously now that I am working, my time to read blogs is much more limited. At the end of the day, after working on a computer all day, I am not that keen on logging onto Google Reader.

While I was on vacation, I did have the time and I realized how much I missed reading my favourite blogs.

So what does this mean?

I hope it means that I will make the time to do something I love.

It's not a promise but it's darn close.

Our Trip

I know you have all been sitting on the edge of your seats awaiting the plethora of pictures from our trip south.

Or I am not delusional.

I will let you figure that one out.

I will cease the rumours right now. I am not 3 months preggo. I am, however, carrying the effects of several days of continuous tortillas and guacamole intake. I highly recommend it and the boot camps I have been pushing myself to the limit in to lose the "effects".

We have now been back in the Arctic for a week. The weather has turned somewhat spring like but you didn't hear that from me. Shhh.

Our trip was great. We were away 14 days, the longest ever. We wanted to space it out because we knew our kids (or us) would not enjoy back to back to back days at Disneyworld.

That whole phrase "Disney vacation" is a misnomer, in my opinion. Jay and I went to Disneyworld for our honeymoon. There is no vacation in tromping the asphalt and waiting in line at Disneyworld. Yes, it is fun, but a vacation is not what I would call it. More of an exhausting adventure. It's not African Safari but you get my drift.

Hence our taking 14 full days to do 4 days at Disney, one day at SeaWorld and one day at Discovery Cove.

Here is our conclusion. We went, we saw, we bought some Mario t-shirts. The end. We will not be going back.

For us, that was enough. As my prior post indicates, our boys were not over the moon enamoured by the whole Disney experience.

However, Florida was beautiful. The weather was fabulous. The house we rented was fantastic as was the pool located in its back yard. What we did love (boys included) was our two days spent at SeaWorld and its sister park Discovery Cove. (I am far to lazy to link but if you are interested, use that wonderful tool called Google)

SeaWorld, as you know, involves seeing all kinds of aquatic animals. These animals have long fascinated me and my boys share this fascination.

Discovery Cove was a completely unique experience. It is part of SeaWorld but requires separate entry. The park includes a snorkeling pool, a warm beach pool, a river, and if you pay extra, a dolphin interaction. Food, drinks and equipment are all included in the entry price. This includes beer.

It was worth every penny.

And Jack and Kamden loved it. They loved the snorkeling (Jack got the hang of it right away and Kamden was happy to play in the pool), they loved the river (even when I tried to swim with Kamden on my back - the lifeguard suggested a life jacket. Now, why didn't I think of that?) and LOVED the dolphin interaction.

We got a dolphin named Diego. I always knew dolphins were amazing animals but there is nothing like seeing it up close and personal. It was an experience of a lifetime.

So there you have it, a great trip, all said and done.

Back to reality. But it is a great reality so no complaints here.