All That I Am Thankful For

Today is Thanksgiving so it only seems fitting that I take a moment to look back and reflect on things and thank the universe for the plethora of things that I have to be thankful for. 

I spent Thanksgiving on my own this year, completely by choice. I had several invitations to dine with others or head home but I opted to decline them all. I know what some people might think. Why would I willing opt to spend Thanksgiving alone when some people out there would give anything to not be alone today. Well that's one of the things I'm thankful for - that I have the choice.

Given the stress, anxiety and emotional roller coaster that the past month has been, I needed time to myself to decompress, relax and re-focus. I also wanted to save my remaining holiday days for Christmas. Yes I miss my family terribly and would have loved to have spent the weekend with them, but I fear that I wouldn't have been much fun to be around as I'm kind of stuck inside my own head at the moment. And my decision to stay here saved me from what has been described at "horrible" gravy.

Anyhow, I cleaned and did laundry today and I cooked and baked. I made cookies this morning (thank god I only made 1 dozen because I nearly ate them all) and then I made an apple pie and cooked a Prime Rib roast to perfection. So there are two more things I'm thankful for - that I can afford groceries (granted prime rib is a rarity and only when on sale) and that I know how to cook and bake for myself and that I like to do so. I guess that's 3 things to be thankful for.

I spent some time sitting on my balcony this afternoon (thankful for a warm fall) and watched the chickadees eat sun flower seeds and watched some orange ladybug fly around and climb on the balcony (and me for a bit too). It was very nice to just spend a few moments doing something so simple yet something that made me smile. So I am thankful for the simple pleasures in life.

I texted with a very great friend who lives very far from me for a while this afternoon and heard about the adventures of her day and what the week holds in store for her family. So that made me thankful for the technology to so seamlessly communicate with someone 2 provinces away. And it made me thankful to have someone as wonderful as her in my life. I am thankful that I have a set of friends that let me be myself. Even when I'm at my worst, I know I have a few strong souls to depend upon. And for that I am thankful.

A 3 year, 8 month and 1 day voyage will be coming to an end this week. For all that it's taught me and for all the great people I've met along the way, I am thankful and I am most certainly thankful for the new adventure that lies ahead. I'm hopeful for that one too.

And most importantly of all, I am thankful for my cheering section back in Southern Ontario. My family, especially my parents. It's funny. Some days I think that they don't get me or understand me at all, yet that never seems to stop them from giving me their 100% support and having my back no matter what I decide to do. Not only am I thankful for them, but I'm blessed to have them too. 

Now it's time for me to head to bed. I have a very long short week ahead of me. I need to figure out how to impart 3 years, 8 months and 1 day's worth of knowledge and wisdom onto someone else. And clean off my desk........

Good Night and Happy Thanksgiving!

Sarah

My Mom's fall mums from 2011

Sunny Saturday, Spring Cleaning and Strength

I haven't been in much of a blogging mood lately and frankly, I've been too damn tired. So I decided I'd better log in tonight and get some words on the screen. Thanks to Daylight Savings Time, I'm going to bed an hour later than planned. To off set this, I shall attempt to sleep in an extra hour tomorrow morning. Not sure if it will work but it's worth a try. My mother tried to tell me that clocks go back an hour tonight instead of going an hour forward. I think she was just trying to find a way to sleep in an extra hour tomorrow.

I had a pretty darn good day today. One of the best I've had in a while. The sun was out and that seemed to be the key. I stood on my balcony in the sun for a bit this morning and it felt glorious. I'm in spring cleaning mode too. I had originally planned to stay home and just clean all day but this afternoon I decided that it was too nice to stay home all day so I escaped for a bit.

Before I left, I managed to get the dishes done, a load of laundry done and some dusting done. I then went downtown, had a Beavertail, walked around the market, taking in the wonderful sunshine, stopped at the butcher and bought a beautiful New York Strip for dinner and then came back home. I did some more cleaning once I was home. I tackled the greasy vent cover that's in the hood over my stove. Thanks to Pinterest, I got it clean without any effort. Just some boiling water and baking soda. Amazing. I also got the burner inserts clean that way. My stove is spotless (for now). I got the toilet cleaned and my bookshelf dusted too. I was on quite the roll. I really do love Pinterest. I was standing in the kitchen, holding the filter and trying to figure out how to clean the damn thing when suddenly, magic words popped into my head. They were "go check on Pinterest". I'm so smart! The answer was there and it worked and now I have a clean filter. Yay!

Tonight I watched the movie "The Other Guys". It was horrible. So I watched the first half of Mall Rats to make up for it. I'll finish watching it sometime tomorrow. I'm hoping to continue my cleaning spree tomorrow.

Adding to my good mood today was that I booked 2 trips this morning. Nothing overly exciting but I'm happy about them. The first is in April. I'm going to Montreal with my old friend Michelle. We're taking the train from my house, which is awesome since I love taking the train and it's a great trip from Ottawa to Montreal (and faster than driving). The best part is that I used some networking skills to get us a LUXURY hotel room for a very budget friendly price. I'm very excited. I can't wait to see what kind of shenanigans we get up to when left to our own devices in Montreal. This is going to be great.
The other trip I booked was just a train ticket home for the May long weekend. My bday (a kind of big one) is one the Thursday before the long weekend and my Great Aunt's 80th bday is the Friday of the long weekend, so I'm heading home to go to her party. I'm really looking forward to seeing my family. I haven't seen them since Christmas so this will be great. I hope the weather is nice.

Since it's actually 12:34am instead of the 11:34pm that my clock says, I really should get to bed. I have a lot more cleaning ahead of me tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be warm but cloudy and maybe some rain in the late afternoon. Perfect cleaning or book reading weather. I have a couple of books that need to be read so we'll see what happens. I found a very yummy sounding scone recipe on Pinterest too that I might attempt. LOL. This truly was a good day. I'm starting to feel like myself again and I really don't have the words to explain how amazing that feels. It's more relief than anymore. The days are getting longer, the shadows are weaken. Step by step, I'm walking back out of the darkness and into the light again.The birds chirping this morning is the kind of sound that makes my soul smile. We're not totally out of winter's grasp yet but we're close and I'm experiencing a strong sense of relief and accomplishment. I've made it through another winter in one piece, coming out into spring, just a little bit stronger than I was when I went in late last fall.

Good Night!

Sarah

My favourite sign of spring: Lily of the Valley

Home - The Other One

I am back in Ottawa. My 2nd home. Cambridge will always be my first home, since that's where I was born and raised and where my parents live, but Ottawa is where I currently live and is a city that I quite love. So I am home, again.

My train ride was good. I got good news while on train #1 - it was becoming train #2 when we got to Toronto. Awesome. It used to do that and then Via changed their schedules and I used to have to lug my bags down into Union Station and get into line to come back upstairs an hour and a half later onto the Ottawa train. But seeing as my train #84 was morphing into train #44 in Toronto, this was good news. Even better news was that I was already on the right car and only had to move up two rows and across the aisle. My train from Kitchener has "free for all" seating as in "find whatever seat is empty and take it" while the train from Toronto has "assigned seating", just like airplanes. Despite the fact that I could remain on the train, I opted to get off in Toronto and stretch my legs and walk through Union Station. It's nice being able to do that and not have a huge amount of luggage with you. So I left my bags on the train and into the station I went.

This is where I got good news #2 of the day: the bathrooms on the departure level were re-opened! Union Station is under-going a major renovation project. As a result, the bathrooms on the departure level have been closed for over a year. This meant that you used to have to walk up the ramp, past the ticket windows, down a long hallway and into the "great hall" to find the can. Very annoying. But not anymore! The new bathroom is quite nice but the soap was a little tricky to figure out. A nice old lady told me how to work it. Go figure.

We left Toronto on time but kept running into "train traffic" and had to slow down. By our first stop in Kingston, we were 10 minutes late. The freight trains were causing congestion on the tracks. One rather long freight train that was on the track beside us in Kingston was actually blocking a crossing and appeared to had been like that for some time, judging by the huge line of cars at the crossing and watching them try to turn around. We ran into a switch issue just before Smiths Falls and were stopped for some time. The train ended up getting into Ottawa 50 minutes late. Not too bad.

And OH MY GOD! There's all kinds of snow here. It's crazy. I'll have to take a picture of the snow in front of my apartment building. It's crazy.

My plants were very happy to see me and appreciated the water I promptly gave them. I made a curry pasta and shrimp soup for dinner and had a nice, long soak in a hot bubble bath tonight. That's one nice thing about being back in Ottawa: I have my own bathroom :)

Mom made it home past the round-a-bout. She followed a large truck though it figuring that everyone would stop for it. I agree, that sounds like a solid plan. Mom and dad enjoyed some more of the banana bread tonight too, as did I. I managed to get out of the house with a couple of slices. Dad's on his own if he wants more though. I miss them already. Watching tv isn't the same without having one of them in the room laughing along with it. And as hard as it is for me to admit, I miss watching Duck Dynasty. My parents got me hooked on those red necks!

Anyhow, it's time for bed. It's been a long day and I have to get my ass out of bed for work tomorrow. I think I can survive one day of work this week. Atleast I hope I can. I know it's a bit of a gong show there right now but I'm not going to let it stress me out. Just before I got on the train this morning, my mom gave me some great advice. She told me "Just breathe". And that's exactly what I plan on doing.

Good Night! (or Good Morning depending on when you read this)

Sarah

My wonderful parents :)

Time To Go Back To Reality

Sadly, today was my last full day at home. Tomorrow is my last day of holidays and I'm spending pretty much all of it on a train. My train leaves here at 9:15am and I get into Ottawa somewhere around 4:30pm. This is always the worst part of visiting. Knowing that I once again have to say goodbye to those I love, not entirely sure when I'm going to be home again. Before my dad headed to bed tonight, I gave him an extra long hug since he'll be up and off to work before I get up tomorrow. Mom's driving me to the train station so I get to say my good bye to her there. I guess they aren't really good byes as much as they're "See you later".

Despite the fact that both Mom and I sounded like we were trying to cough up lungs today, we got up and headed out for a bit. The cute little gift shop she wanted me to see was closed, so that was a bit of a bummer but we managed to keep occupied none the less and picked up some things for our colds and to make for dinner.

This afternoon we made banana bread. Last week my dad came home with a large bunch of ripe bananas from Giant Tiger. He was all excited because he only paid 97 cents or something crazy like that for them. Not per pound, just in total. I asked him if he planned on making banana bread and he said no. Then the stomach virus hit. The bananas did not get eaten. So last evening he looked at me and said "Are you going to make banana bread tomorrow?". LOL. I laughed and said sure. Mom and I pulled out some cook books and I hopped on Pinterest and we came up with 2 recipes to try. A Banana Cinnamon Swirl and a Banana Sour Cream one that we added raisins too and topped with chopped walnuts. Both turned out really well and the house smelt amazing all day. Dad gave them both his seal of approval. Which is awesome, considering I forgot the eggs in the 2nd one. Oops. Meh. It all worked out. The last time I was home I made a cobbler and my dad called me up and asked me to come back home so that I could make him some more cobbler. I'm leaving him some banana bread so that should hold him for a bit.

I got all packed this afternoon so I don't have to run around like a crazy woman tomorrow morning. Getting to the train station is an ordeal on its own. My mom doesn't like taking highways or major roads, so we go the back way to the train station. It takes longer but it works. The new problem is that they installed a round-a-bout earlier this year, which my mom now has to navigate. She hates them. She really, really hates them. I just close my eyes and pray when we go through them and once I'm on the train, I keep checking my email on my phone until Mom emails me and I know that she's made it back through and is home safe and sound. Then I relax.

This visit home has been a pretty subdued and quiet one, mostly due to the damn stomach flu knocking us all out for a week. But it's also been very stress free and relaxing, which is what I need. I know I'm going back to a crazy place, but I refuse to get stressed out about it. I may just switch my phone off tomorrow and forget all about work for the day. I should have done that today.

As much as I'm looking forward to getting back to Ottawa and my own bed, I'm going to miss home and my parents very much. I really miss just being around them. Both my mom and dad have said that they feel bad that we didn't get to go and do things but that doesn't matter to me. I don't really mind. I love just being in their company. Just being around them. Talking to them. Laughing with them (or at them as the situation may be). Just knowing that someone else is there, even if we're not in the same room or on the same floor. I enjoy  helping my mom out with the dishes and hiding utensils on her (my Gram used to do that to her too!) or making lunch/cooking dinner for my parents. It seems like mundane, silly things but I don't get to do those things very often, so I appreciate it and enjoy it when I get to do it. Even if they laugh at fart jokes and even though I'm somewhat convinced they're both going senile or they're insane, they're my family and I love them.   My parents are two of the best people you'll ever meet, and they're mine. I'm so lucky and so blessed to have them in my life and I will treasure every second I get to spend with them.

It's time to log off and get to bed. It's going to be an early start to the day tomorrow. We like to give ourselves lots of time to get to the train station, especially if it's snowing in the morning.

Good Night!

Sarah

Mom and Dad back in August

Home!

I know, I know, I didn't blog last night. By the time I even thought of my blog, I was already in bed, all cocooned up in my blankets and there was no way that I was getting back out of that warmth again until I absolutely had to.

I made it home, safe and sound, with no thanks to Mother Nature. When I woke up yesterday, Ottawa resembled the inside of a snow globe. Steph made it to my house and while I was taking out the garbage and watering my plants, she was shovelling out the end of my street where the plow had made a nice pile from plowing the main road. When we were ready to go, Steph had me stand on the corner, in the snow and watch for traffic on the main road. It's 5am and we're in the middle of a snow storm, there's no traffic! But I did as I was told and I gave her the all clear and she gunned it out of my street, through the snow pile and onto the main road. YAY! I then had to run around the snow bank and get into the car.

Partway there, we saw police lights in the distance. As we creeped closer, we saw that both of our lanes were blocked by an accident. Thankfully, being insanely early and a snow storm, we were able to drive in the other lane and go around it all. It was a van vs tow truck crash. Steph said "I wonder who was the cause of that" and her husband and I both said "Tow Truck" at the same time. But judging by where the van was, I think it might have been the van.

We got to the train station at a good time. In fact, we beat the attendant to the station. Most people were huddled around the front door but it was in the wind. I stood by the back door, where it's protected and I could watch the snow fall. I also lucked out since this was the door the Via guy used and I was the first person to be let into the warmth of the train station.

Via Rail has come a long way in the last 10 years. They've introduced seat assignment and are fixing up their cars. But when it comes to holiday travel, Via sucks. The seat assignment goes out the window. They just tell everyone to "sit where ever" This really sucks if you're travelling in pair because it means that you might not get seats together. Anyhow, the boarding announcement said to get on at car 3. So we hustled there. An elderly lady and I had been hiding under a covered area until the train was ready for boarding, so we were one of the last ones to get to the car. Once there, another lady said to go down to where the man was sweeping, car 5. So we trudged through the storm to that car. I was the 2nd to last to get one. First problem - no more room for luggage. Despite Via advertising the hell out of their new baggage policy, people ignored it. So I told the Via guy that there was no more room for luggage. He said not to worry about it and to leave it on the floor and he'd take care of it. This is code for "I'm going to hide it somewhere and you're going to spend 30 minutes in Toronto searching the train for it". Sigh. Next problem, there was only 1 seat left on the train. It was in a 4-seater, with 3 young University guys. Oh hell no. I got back to the Via guy (who was looking increasing frazzled) and said "There are no more open seats on this car" and I put my hand on my hip for good measure. So he said "I can let you onto car 4, there are seats there". So I followed him into the oasis that was car 4.

Those of you who read this regularly know that I never get the new cars on the train. Call it a Christmas miracle, but Car 4 was one of the new refurbished cars. And it only had about 12 people in there. Ahhh. I ended up having 2 seats to myself until Coburg. It was great. I did got back to the other car and grabbed my suitcase and brought it onto my car, which had lots of luggage room still. I sat back and enjoyed the ride. I also gave the Via guy a tip when he came around selling food and drinks later.

Of course, when I changed trains in Toronto, I was back to crappy old cars but I didn't care anymore at this point. The ride was a smooth one and we got into Kitchener only about 4 minutes late. When I got off the train, I looked around and couldn't see my mom. So I waited a bit thinking she was having a smoke somewhere or was late getting to the train. I started to walk down the platform towards the parking lot and I finally see her pop out from the train station. I make my way over to her and give her a kiss and a big hug and then someone comes out the train station behind her - it was my dad! What an awesome surprise!

I haven't seen my family since August. I've gone longer without seeing them but any length of time seems long. So for weeks, all I keep thinking of is that one perfect moment when I get off the train and I get to see my mom and see her smile and I get to give her a kiss and wrap my arms around her. Whenever I was having a bad day or work was really stressing me out, that's what I'd think about. No matter how old I get or how independent I am, the second I get to rush up to my mom at the train station and hug her, everything feels right with the world again. The stress and anxiety of the trip just melt away. Tears of happiness spring to my eyes, my heart soars and my soul sings because I'm just so happy! And yesterday I got to do that twice!!
My mom was worried that the weather here would be bad so my dad took the day off to driver her to the train station, but she didn't tell me. I'm pretty sure that will be my favourite Christmas gift this year :)

After picking me up, we headed to Arby's for lunch and then stopped at a surplus store where mom bought me a meat thermometer and then we headed home. After a short rest, dad and I headed back out to do a little shopping. I got to check out the new Shopper's Drug Mart that was built in town and we ran into my grandparents along the way. I got to make my grandmother's day since she didn't know I was back in town yet. So that was nice.

We had a nice dinner, which mom made. I was just happy not to have to cook for myself for once! And then the 3 of us watched a "Duck Dynasty" mini marathon. OMG. That show is funny and those guys are insane. At 9 mom switched to Ghost Hunters and I almost didn't make it to the end of the show. I'd been running on just 4 hours of sleep. So I made my way to the even colder upstairs and got ready for bed. My parents' house is cold. I've mentioned this before. But the upstairs is down right chilly. It was crazy windy last night (still is this morning) yet the window in my bedroom is open a crack. Mom likes having fresh air. Being way too tired to fight with the window, I left it as is. But damn, it was chilly in there. I nearly froze to death getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. The toilet seat is so cold that you don't really want to sit, you're more inclined to just hover. And by the time I got back into bed and tried to get the covers on my again, I couldn't feel my fingers. Oh yeah, no hot water in the bathroom. You have to run the sink for a good 2 minutes before you get hot water. Brrrr.

I was the first one up this morning though and here I am, blogging. Or hogging the computer as my mother muttered and wandered off.

So I should wrap this up and go get some breakfast. Not sure what we're doing today other than braving the mall and Walmart for a few final items. This should be fun :)

Good Morning!

Sarah

Sleepy

For being a short week, it feels rather long. Perhaps that's due to how busy I've been at the office. It's bizarre. I run around all day but I don't actually feel like I've accomplished anything. Maybe I'll go in early tomorrow and try to get some filing done before the rest of the staff appear.

Today we had yet another farewell party. It's what happens when a large majority of your staff are on 90 day contracts. Anyhow, today's departure was my friend Stephanee. On one hand, I really have no reason to feel sad about it as I see her on a weekly basis. But on the other hand, I have gotten quite used to seeing her at work everyday. And for hitting her up for gum. And for having my back when dealing with difficult people.

On the bright side, when I bitch to her on the weekends about work/co-workers/general office insanity, she'll know exactly what I'm talking about :)

I'm rather sleepy this evening and my tummy is a little angry (too much hot sauce on my dinner I do believe), so this is going to be a short blog tonight. Besides, I'm still a little drained after last night's blog.

Oh! That reminds me, my mom called me this evening. My parents are having their house re-wired (they still have some old knob and tube wiring in it) and apparently, the people doing the work have been re-arranging the rooms and making quite the mess. They kind of have to and my parents knew this was coming. Anyhow, the computer isn't hooked up again yet so my mom has been calling instead of emailing. She called me tonight and said that the electrician had told her that he closed the doors to two of the bedrooms and that the master bedroom was accessible and open (my parent's room). He also said that he didn't recommend looking into the two other rooms. So what did mom do? She looked in the other two rooms. LOL. Apparently she can only get the door to my old room half way open because there's a dresser in the way. Mom said that both rooms were a total disaster. My response: I wanna see! Take pictures!!! Yes, I'm uber supportive, aren't I? They've got a new light fixture in the bathroom because the workers can't get at the wiring for the old lights without removing an entire wall. And the wiring in the old ceiling light in their dining room was so old and dried out, that it was flaking off! Crazy. I can't wait to go home at Christmas and see all the changes.

I'm going to log off now and head to bed early. I'm very happy that tomorrow is Friday. I'm thinking sushi for dinner :)

Good Night!

Sarah

Couldn't think of a good photo for this blog, so here's a picutre of Lake Louise instead.
(taken in 2007)

Improvements my ass...

For those of you who know me, you know that I take the train quite a bit. I'm talking about the Via Rail train here, usually between Ottawa, ON and Kitchener, ON. Over the last year, I've been on it about 11 times, including today. Via has been undergoing some major renovations. They're re-doing stations and the train cars amongst other things. It seems like they've been doing work on Union Station in Toronto for forever now. But the thing that I'm annoyed about, is their new cars.

They keep posting updates, talking about all the wonderful changes to their cars, to make them more accessible and comfortable. I'm convinced they're fibbing. Out of the last 11 trips on the train, I've managed to score a "newer" car once. And that was going between Ottawa and Montreal. My good friend Cameron and his wife came to Ontario from Calgary at Christmas. They took the train. They also took the train down to Toronto to visit family. They managed to score new cars several times. WTF??? I never get the new damn cars. In fact, in June I got one of Via's oldest cars (and least comfortable) for the whole trip and then I got the same damn old style again today to Toronto!!

It makes no sense to me. For the 1.5 hour ride, I managed to get one of the pretty new(er) cars but for the 5 hour ride I get old and uncomfortable? Jesus Christ VIA!!!! No wonder you're losing money. If that had been my first time on a train, I wouldn't be in any hurry to ride one again. The least they could do is lower fares (it's peak season so they're all higher now). And given the frequency they've been having seat sales, I'm thinking they're having a hard time getting riders. My train to Toronto was pretty packed today though.

I wonder if they'll actually do anything if I email VIA? I'm a pretty loyal customer and I'm not happy. I can't say that they're known for their customer service either. I think it all depends on the crew you get on the train. The head guy on the train to Toronto today wasn't very friendly, but the lady on the train to Kitchener was great. Hit and miss.

Ok. That vent is out of the way. Thanks to Cam for coming up with the topic. Even with the uncomfrotable seats, my trip was good. My morning was a little rough as I discovered that I lost my bus pass at some point yesterday evening. Thankfully, I discovered that before I hauled my suitcase out to the bus stop. My trip was pretty uneventful. There were lots of families on the trains with very young children but I had my iPod so I was ok. My trains were also on time, so that made my 24 minute connection a very smooth one. According to my mom, my parents were almost late getting to the train station to pick me up and she's blaming my dad. Dad's defence was "I pulled in before the train did". LOL. Looking down the platform and seeing them there totally made my day. It really is one of the greatest feelings in the world.

We've got my step-nephew coming over for a visit and sleep over tomorrow. He and my dad are planning to camp out in the yard or basement, depending on the weather. I think I'm planning on kidnapping my mom and having her take me shopping. One of my favourite stores has denim on for 50% off, tomorrow only :) I'm going to need to be well rested for tomorrow, that's for sure.

It's been a long day, but a good one and I'm very happy to be home.

Good Night!

Sarah

Photo my mom took a couple of summers ago. This is from their backyard.

One more sleep!

Despite the fact that is after 10pm, I'm not all that sleepy. Why? Because I'm too excited to sleep. Why? Because I'm on vacation!! Woohoo! I'm catching a train tomorrow and I'm off. 10 whole days at home and I can't wait. Oh yeah, I need to finish packing too :)
I can't wait to get on the train. I have a 24 minute stop over in Toronto and that's it! I have a good book with me and my iPod is full of tunes and a couple episodes of Downton Abbey and I'm good to go. I really do enjoy taking the train. It might be slower than flying, but it is very relaxing. I love being able to sit back and listen to my favourite songs and watch the cities, towns and countryside go by.

I can't wait to see my mom and dad again. Since my dad is on holidays too, we get to spend the whole week together and both my parents will be picking me up at the train station. That moment when I get off the train and look up to see the faces of my loved ones is on my most favourite things in the world. I'm always so excited and seeing that excitement reflected back at me is amazing. The train ride in from Toronto is just shy of an hour and a half and I can barely sit still. By the time we've got to Guelph, I can hardly sit still in my seat!!

I'm really looking forward to being able to visit with family and to kick back and relax. I'm also really looking forward to our trip to the Stratford Festival to see "Much Ado About Nothing". I can't believe that my dad agreed to that one. I think we have a trip to the beach (Long Point on Lake Erie) planned as well.

It might not be as glamorous as Paris or as spicy as Vegas but home can be a very good place to go for a vacation. And it's much easier on the bank account too. I will do my best to continue blogging from my parent's house but I guess it all depends on if we're actually at home or not or if we're off, wandering Southern Ontario and getting up to all kinds of Shenanigans :)

Good Night!

Sarah