No, no. I’m not closing up shop or anything. I am, however, pretty much staying offline for the next 48 hours. I’ll be online briefly to do about one hour of data entry work today and another half hour tomorrow night, but other than that, there will be no email checking, no blog browsing, no updating, nothing.

Right now I’m not even really looking while I type because I keep looking out the window every ten seconds to see if any of the vehicles driving by might happen to be the Canada Post truck stopping to drop off my much-anticipated copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows which my sister bought for my birthday.

As soon as it arrives I may as well cease to exist as everything other than reading will be done on auto-pilot. I’m going to find out if I can still walk around doing stuff with my nose buried in a book without tripping like I used to do when I was a kid.

I have to stay offline because I have done everything possible to avoid spoilers and I’ll be damned if I’m going to risk being spoiled now (and I don’t intend to ruin it for anyone else when I finish it). I didn’t even go online last night, choosing instead to finish re-reading book six to remind myself of all the details.

And so on that note, I’m off to quickly do my work so that I can get down to business whenever my book arrives. See you on the other side!

Growing up, my sister and I were just far enough apart in age to have trouble getting along. With five years between us, we had a whole world between us. We had our great moments too, of course, but we also fought pretty much daily. By the time I was a full-blown teenager she was at an age where she wanted to copy all that I did, said, and wore and I was at an age where imitation WAS not flattery.

It wasn’t until we were much older that those five years didn’t seem to matter anymore. Then we got along, talking about anything and everything, borrowing clothes (I borrowed every sun dress she owned when I went to Mexico, for instance), and doing fun stuff like the time my friends and I snuck her into a goth club when she was still only 17 years old.

Now she’s one of my best friends. Even though she lives two provinces away and I can’t just call her anymore to ask her if she wants to come over on a boring Saturday afternoon, it hasn’t changed anything else. We still talk on the phone even if it’s not as frequently as it used to be, we email each other several times a week, and she’s still the first blog I race to when I see in Google Reader that there’s a new update. It makes me frustrated now, to think of all the time we wasted growing up, blowing time on yelling at each other, throwing cups full of dishwater at each other, and carefully laying down masking tape on the floor to divide the shared bedroom at my grandmother’s in the summer while screaming at each other to “get off my side of the room!” every ten seconds.

We were lucky in that we actually spent a lot of our weekends and summers together in the same circle of friends, sort of. My best friend up north had a sister the same age as Amanda so ironically we did spend a great deal of time together. We just bickered a lot while doing it. Every once in awhile, we’d have a great moment like the clear night one summer down in Vermont on vacation when we both sat on the rocks beside Lake Champlain and I told her everything I knew about astronomy and she asked more questions, and it was so nice. The next day we probably threw rocks at each other. If only we had had more of the good moments instead of fighting with the person who was so important.

Hayley and Breanna have a little over three years between them. Sometimes I wonder if it would have been better to have even less time between them in the hopes that there would be more camaraderie and less fighting. I doubt it though. I guess it’s just part of two people being forced to grow up with each other in one small space. I still hope though that as they get older they’ll be close enough in age to be, well, close.

They have days where I am amazed I’m not bald what with all the hair-pulling I do in frustration as they poke and prod each other, scream and cry, throw things, hit each other, and drive me up one wall and down the other. Some days it seems like every single time I leave the room to do something frivolous like wash the dishes or cook supper the two kids who were miraculously quiet two seconds ago are suddenly both screaming at each other – and for me.

But they have their great moments too. Times when Hayley shares her food or toys without prompting, times when Hayley asks Breanna to come play in the ball tent with her, times when Breanna walks over to Hayley and gives her a big hug, and times when they are just so damn cute my head could explode.

Hayley loves to “put Breanna to bed” and playing Mom. She’ll give Breanna a pillow, a stuffed animal, and cover her with a blanket (which is how you know Breanna’s not actually going to sleep because GOD FORBID you cover her up if she’s going to bed). Sometimes she’ll sing a lullaby to her, other times she’ll climb in beside her and snuggle her.

I hold on to those moments because these days they’re fleeting. We’ll see if they become more common when they’re older. It’s my big hope that they realize what a great friend they have long before my sister and I clued in.

——-
I have two reviews up today. I did a book review for a great fiction novel called Lost and Found and I also did a review of one of our favorite toys around here, some of the animals from the Noah’s Pals playset. Go check them out!

Tonight, after supper, Hayley asked George if he would play ponies with her. George asked how you play ponies and her answer was, “you just take them and do whatever you want!” He said okay, so she ran to her room and collected a handful of her My Little Ponies and brought them out to the living room.

Hayley took one of her ponies and, in that high pitched voice all girls seem to use when making dolls talk, said, “Hi there! How are you?” to George’s pony.

George made his pony chase hers while making loud farting noises. Every time Hayley tried to get her pony to talk, George would lift his pony’s tail and make a louder fart noise. Hayley was almost crying from laughing so hard.

Breanna, who had been sitting on the other side of the living room, ran over and starting crouching down, making loud fart noises while shaking one of the other ponies around.

And me? After I wiped my own tears of laughter, I announced, “I AM *SO* BLOGGING THIS!”

One more reason for me to eventually acquire and learn to use a sewing machine – turn an adult sized shirt into a child’s dress.

This is fascinating to me. Go to this site and click on portfolio. Then choose one of the thumbnails, and when the photo loads, put your mouse on and off the picture to see how touched up celebrities are. Click the photo to close. It’s amazing to see how all these perfect people aren’t actually perfect; I know we know this logically but it’s still a big shocking to see it so blatantly.

On Saturday afternoon, while George was out for a bit, I took a long, hot shower. Okay, it wasn’t THAT long, I do have two kids, but it was long enough to give my hair a good washing and conditioning. When I got out, I didn’t just rub my hair with a towel and call it a day – I used the hair dryer, I busted out the heat-activated shine enhancing gel, I used a big round brush, and I actually (gasp!) styled my hair. I even used a touch of hairspray and I can’t even remember the last time I did that!

When I put Breanna down for a nap, I came out and sat on the living room floor with some nail polish. I painted my toenails a vivid red, and my finger nails a soft, sparkly pink-white shade (then I did the same for Hayley).

After supper, I put my contacts in, put on a bit of eyeshadow and eyeliner, and threw on a long flowery skirt, a black tank top, and a pair of shoes that would show off my red toenails.

And THEN George and I put the girls in their car seats, whisked them over to his parents’ house, dumped them off, and left. On a DATE. We went on a date. Just the two of us, no kids, no friends, just us. Do you know the last time we went on a date with just the two of us? Do you? Because if you do, I would love for you to tell me because I can’t actually remember. *

Where did we go? HELLO, DO YOU NOT REALIZE WHAT WEEKEND THIS WAS?! We went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, duh. And I nearly peed myself from the excitement of finally seeing it. I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, but in general, I loved it tremendously and although they left out a few things I would have loved to have seen (no kidding, the book is over 800 pages long, of course they couldn’t include everything or else I’d still be there), overall I thought they did an amazing job and I loved it. Also, it bears noting that Daniel Radcliffe is becoming a better actor with every movie.

When the movie was over, I babbled excitedly, filling George in on the extra stuff that didn’t make it into the movie (not that he wanted to know, being perfectly happy to live life without ever reading the books, that heathen) and talking about how I am – no joke – setting my alarm for 7:30 next Saturday so I can be up at the store when it opens at 8 am to buy the final book. If my kids were a bit older I would very seriously head downtown and park my ass at the big bookstores for their midnight release.

Anyway. Dork, I know, but I love me some Harry Potter.

On the way out from the theater, George called his dad and found out the girls were still up, which I had expected since Hayley never sleeps if she can avoid it and Breanna had napped until 4:15 that afternoon, and told him we’d be there in about 45 minutes. We swung by to see our friends Dean and Joanne so that I could meet their new puppy. Since Joanne made such a fuss over how nice I looked, having made such an effort, I got her to take a picture.

After a quick beer with them, we headed out to pick up the girls. Breanna was very jolly when we arrived but was also very happy to see me arrive at the door. Hayley insisted on putting on a brief show so she sang for us before we finally headed home. Breanna conked out within five minutes, at 11:30 and Hayley hung in there until just about midnight.

I love being with my kids and I love going places where they’re welcome too, like last weekend when we went up north – family fun is definitely a big priority. But I have to say that getting all ready for a date like I used to once upon a lifetime and just going out somewhere with George is something that I enjoy and really need to do more often.

But not until after next weekend when I’m done my reading marathon and find out who lives and who dies at the very end (SOB) of the Harry Potter series.

* Oh wait. I remember. The last date we went on together like that was when we saw Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban back when Hayley was about a year and a half old. We missed seeing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire because I was busy pushing Breanna out of my body the same day I was hoping to see it. I am nothing if not predictable, right?

If I didn’t live in a place where we still got one last ditch snowfall in May, I would love to own a porch house.

I thought that this was fascinating, but alas there is no slit in my medicine cabinet.

I have a book review up in my review blog that you should check out if, like me, you’re someone who likes using Google to figure out what’s wrong with you or how to treat something, because this book is like having Google in your hands!

On Friday George and I took the kids and joined our friends Dean and Joanne for some camping up north, like last summer. A friend of theirs had hired George’s band to come play at his party and we made a weekend out of it.

Camping wasn’t so much camping this year as it was just getting away from the city, but that’s good enough for me! We didn’t get up north until after 10 pm (and amazingly, the girls both stayed awake the whole drive and entertained themselves). Since it was pitch black – not much in the way of lights up there – the guy who was having the party the next day told us not to even try pitching the tent, and to just sleep in the house. Dean and Joanne took one room and we took the other, and that was awesome because I have pitched tents in the dark before and it is possible but it’s not fun.

I put Breanna to bed in the room and then joined the others out in the back yard where George had been asked to play some guitar. We sat around singing songs and enjoying the fresh air. Hayley claimed to not be tired but fell asleep before the second song; we let her sleep under a blanket in front of the fire for three hours and carried her in later. After midnight, everyone sang happy birthday to me and set off some popping streamer things over my head. I think it was after 3 when I got to bed.

And then Breanna and I woke up at 8:30 and ten minutes later I was drinking coffee down here while she threw rocks in the water.

That was AWESOME. I think I should be able to have coffee on a river bank every damn morning.

Hayley woke up about half an hour later and joined us, and we let George sleep in – until noon! Meanwhile we passed the time by going for a walk, skipping and throwing eight billion rocks, and relaxing.

In the afternoon we got the tent up and Breanna and I both tried to have a nap but we lasted all of 40 minutes before it was just too unbearably hot in there. I also spent some time visiting the neighbors who have the best set up for kids ever in their yard – enclosed trampoline, play set with swings, mini climbing wall, ride-on toys, pool, everything. The kids had a blast playing with their two kids who were the perfect age matches at 4 and 20 months.

We also spent more time by the water. Again. A lot. I loved it. Hayley constantly asked if we could go “skip” rocks and Breanna would ask “Wawa?”

By late afternoon, the band set up and was ready to get started. They played one set while some food was grilled up and then we ate before having the band play some more. Breanna wasn’t able to hang in there as long as she had the night before because of her short nap so I put her in the Baby Bjorn where she fell asleep for awhile. Unfortunately she got woken up twice and she was very unhappy about it; George spoke to the guy who owns the house and he said it was perfectly fine to put Breanna down in the bedroom again so I took her in there, and she settled immediately into a great sleep. Meanwhile, Hayley fell asleep in front of the fire again for another two or three hours – I’ve been wondering if I can build a fire on our balcony here at home and just let her sleep outside for the rest of the summer since she slept so well outside!

The band had been good all evening but by the middle of the third set, George passed that point of being “warmed up” and moved into “on fire” and it was awesome. By the fourth set, the lead singer had had enough because he had been out all night Friday, so he sat down with a beer and George sang the entire last set; he also made excellent use of his wireless set up and walked all around the yard playing his guitar. It was amazing.

Possibly one of the funniest parts of the night was when the cops showed up next door because they had built a bonfire and it was a little bit large. They gave the guy a warning to get it under control and then they came over to our side, listened to the band, which was quite loud, and mentioned how great they sounded. Then they left without giving any noise warnings. I had a good laugh about that.

When it was time for bed, I asked the guy if anyone was supposed to use the spare room and he said no, so instead of waking Breanna up to move her to the tent, I just slept in the room again while George and Hayley slept in the tent. I love tents and sleep quite well in them but the thought of maybe creating a situation where Breanna might stay awake screaming for three hours straight was not very appealing. It rained overnight and George said part of his sleeping bag got wet but overall it was okay.

In the morning, we took it easy and didn’t worry about rushing straight off to come home. After a light lunch, I took Hayley out in an inflatable kayak and we went down the river with a few other people. It was absolutely beautiful; it took us less than five minutes to drive back to the house once we got out at a bridge, but it took half an hour to get there by boat because of the way the river turns. I was wishing I had a waterproof camera because I would have loved to take eight thousand pictures along the way.

When we got back, we packed up and drove back home. It’s always a bit deflating to come home after a nice time away, but especially on Monday morning when I woke up and had to have my coffee at my desk instead of down by the river.

I have a ton of photos (50) over here if you’re interested. We had such a great time and I am so glad we went because we all needed it. The nicest surprise of all was the weather – the forecast all weekend was supposed to be non-stop rain and lots of thunderstorms. In the end, it rained a bit overnight both nights and we had a few sprinkles on Saturday, but it ended up being beautiful and on Sunday it was hot and sunny enough that I got a sunburn because I was very careful to put lots of sunblock on the kids but completely forgot myself. Oops!

Now I’m already looking forward to next time!