my teenager is trying to kill me ....

its true!! i have a 14yr old and she is working hard at being a teenager!! OY!!!

she had gotten into wee bit of trouble at school and that lead to her phone getting taken away ... and THAT lead to me finding out about a WHOLE BUNCH of other trouble she had gotten into ... OY!!

SOOOoo... now she is offline and under house arrest ... its like having an infant all over again; she has NO priviledges like staying home alone or going out with friends (she IS allowed to have friends in but she's stubborn and hasn't yet - you're loss, kiddo!)...she's constantly with me - all sullen and cranky ... fun times

remember, peeps, there is a reason why some animals eat their young! i have started carrying a picture of her when she was a baby to avoid this

call me if you have extra wine ... or tequila

Post Vacay BLAHsss

so we're home ... BLAH! we all decided that we should have stayed but well, you know, life goes on ... the good news is that we are gooing for christmas next year for 2 weeks! YAY!!!!! (the bad news, its more that 365 days away ... BLAH!!!)

lets go back a bit ... out last few days were wonderful! Some of us went Zip Lining and some of us Surfed (more) ... we had our Last Supper at our favourite restuarant, Barba Roja. We even got to have a quick drink with Todd the Surf God! And our Last Breakfast was at the beach watching the tide come in ...ahhhh!!

Some thank yous are in order - one to my DAH for "making us go on vacation"!! My kids and my parents for making it nothing but fun and interesting. Kimberly Barron from BuentaVista / Tulemar (Property Manage Plus) who MADE our trip ...all the emails and phone calls and last minute changes that she managed so well! Todd Pequeen of Manuel Antonio (aka Todd the Surf God) (but who's real calling is as an RMT) who handled our kids amazingly well and really taught them to be better surfers and swimmers. Bless your heart for making them sing Christmas Carols while surfing!! ALL the people we have grown to love who cook for us and make our meals AWESOME and fun!!(most of all Eliott, HappyHappy's "muchacho"!!)

i need to hobble off to my regular life now ... back to the hockey rink tonight!!

(unfortunately i had a "pinky toe meets wooden bed" incident while collecting all the girls stuff off their deck so i am hobbling ALOT but as Happy Happy pointed out, its a good thing it happen at the END of out trip! (i know, she's right!) but holy hanah, am i ever in some pain!!!)

Costa Ricaaaahhhhhh!!!

So, we are in PARADISE!

I wasn't infavour of a second holiday to CR this year but the kids schedules and DH's schedule dictated that December was the time to go instead of March ... so here we are!

DAH is a fisherman at heart so all holidays must include some sort of over-the-top fishing ... Costa Rica definitly has that! this is our 3rd trip in 2 years ... the kids can surf and DAH can fish; its hot and casual so we are ALL happy ... (well excpet for DLU but i am pretty sure its just a ruse ... way deep down she still likes us! lol!!!)

The kids have been surfing lots! Our local friend Todd the Surf God is awesome with them and a great instructor! Its always one of my favourite things to watch them surf! DLU chose to observe (read: lay-out on a chair) but at least she was with us one of the mornings!

One of the things i love so much about this country is how laid back everyone is! Dogs are fairly popular as pets down here and everyone takes their dogs to the beach and out for walks. Don't think there aren't strays here too, but even they seem to be looked after! The first day the kids surfed i spent about an hour enjoying this dog at play in the surf - she really truely ENJOYED her morning romp! She had a collar so she is a pet, but her people were either still in bed or much further down the beach ... she didn't bother anyone and no-one bothered her....

This morning Buddah and i are hanging together with "Abuela y Abuelo" while the men folk spend some time with their daughters horseback riding! woo hoo!! so Adios for now and we're off to the beach ... (i am going to MAKE that boy hang with his mama!!! xoxo)

xod

Who gets YOUR kids??

so this is a bit of a touchy subject but here it goes ... who gets YOUR kids?

i dont mean, in case of death, who gets your kids? i mean who gets to determine who gets access to your kids? how do YOU decide who gets your kids?

or do you?

What happens if you are assigned a teacher or principal who you don't connect with? or who you feel is not a positive influence to your child? how do you deal with that?

Please dont think i am teacher bashing because i am not! i know first hand what a demanding job it is to be in the classroom. i am simply looking for some insight as to what to do if you don't think your child has the right educational guidance...

Follow mine, i'll follow yours

... simple concept and it falls in line with my "being a good friend" philosophy!

BUDDAH!!!

so ... the boy scored tonight at hockey ... as usual, i WASN'T there ... sigh ...

Seriously, he plays Defence so his opportunity to score is slightly lower and because i am a single parent this week he is the easiest to farm out (his hockey is LOCAL where as the girls is FAR AWAY)so i had to go to a 2 hr practice instead of Buddah's game ...

I went to his game on monday, i even TOLD him it would be ok for him to score on Monday while was there ... nope, he scored TONIGHT!

(I am SUPER THANKFUL for my friend Leo, who very kindly texted me during the game tho! THANX LEO!!!)

... I think maybe DAH is going to be incharge of girls' practices for a few weeks when he (finally) gets home; i want to go watch the boy PLAY!!!

who asked you????

so, my girls moved hockey clubs this year ... where we live there are a few girls-only clubs but not as many as for boys ... like 1 per city ... so you do the math ... when they play games there is travel ... that is just part of it. life.

(now HappyHappy DID go play with the boys one year but it was AWFUL ... for her. at the end of the year she said if she had to play with the boys again, she was quitting. thats HER. i get it. i play hockey (or used to) because of my friends ... anyway, so she went back to a girls only team and played on 2 teams last year. now this is a kid who is a naturally gifted athlete ... she's good at almost everything she does - i say everything becasue we did do dance for a few years and decided thats "wasn't for her" - ok, lets be honest, she was there for the costumes only 'cause anyone who knows HappyHappy, knows she IS going to be a Princess when she grows up - ... but i digress ... it was clear that is was time for her to make the move to a more competitive program ... we checked out a few clubs and made some calls (including to the one in the town where we live but they were full) and in the end, she ended up with North York Storm (and so did her big sis) ...)

we skate out of York U ... we don't live near there ... this is a decision we made based on what was BEST for OUR girls. sometimes you make sacrifices for your kids, right?

well, lately, i have had more than a few people actually say to me "you're crazy for doing that!" ... or "you're crazy to do all that driving" ...or "well, i WOULDN'T do that for my kids" ...or "why can't she just play with the boys?"

well, i am SICK of justifying our decisions to people. WHO ASKED YOU????? (and while we're at it, why don't you shove your opinion down someone's throat who actually asked for it!?)

(ok, you KNOW what i really REALLY wanted to say, dont you??? but i think one F bomb this week is plenty ...)

my point here is why can't we all just have WORLD PEACE? (and dont worry, when i want your opinion i will hunt you down so you can tell me how cRaZy i am!!!!)

Peace Out!