Connor's puzzle piece!

Connor's puzzle piece!
Connor is a "Racing for Autism" hero!

Friday, March 30, 2007

Reflecting on what could have been...

Okay, so first I will "snack" on my words from my previous post about my glorious pony ride. My upper inner thighs at the hip joints and my left inner lower leg are not exactly happy campers this morning...LOL I was starting to seize up a bit yesterday and today I'm definitely sore. It was worth it though! I've signed up to ride again next Wednesday with Mae this time! The kids are off school now for two weeks as this is the big spring school holiday in the U.K. Tim has to leave on Sunday so it will just be me and the kids until the 10th when my Mom is returning to help me. I swear I have the best parents on the planet! They are, once again, putting their lives on hold to make sure I am okay and able to manage my life here. Tim and I are both overwhelmed by the support we have received from them ever since we left Canada in 2000. They both deserve a gold star. :o)

So, as for reflecting, today should have been the day the money exchanged and keys were handed over to the new owners of our house. Sigh. We would be off to the hotel awaiting our flights to Canada on Sunday. I'm trying to stay positive but there was a knot in my stomach when I woke up this morning. I just want to go home. The kids seem unaffected by all of this and they just accept things and move on, as kids do. Thank goodness!!

I sent an email to our local BBC radio station this week and they called yesterday saying they wanted to have me on the show this morning but I never did get called back. My email was in relation to a topic that they were discussing and as I was sending my email there was communication read out from another caller in an "anti-immigration" vein. I added to my email how sick and tired I was of the negative attitude in this country to foreigners/outsiders and I added that I couldn't wait to be back in my much more tolerant home country. Now of course, not everybody here is racist and racism exists every where in the world but there is a simmering intolerance here that is disturbing at times. I feel very sorry for people from the U.S. who live here because, in my opinion, they are treated quite poorly. I am lumped in with them because of my accent and people seem to change their opinion of me instantly when they hear that I am, in fact, Canadian. Funny how they were distinctly unfriendly to me one minute and then very interested to speak to me the next. The war in Iraq has had a very negative impact on the lives of U.S. natives in this country and that is unfair. Why anybody should be judged because of the accent and their country of birth is beyond me. Narrow minded and ignorant sums it up. It is this negativity that I will NOT miss when I return home. Now that said, I have met some wonderful people while I have lived here and I will shed tears and suffer heartache when I finally have to say goodbye to them. The host of the show this morning seemed to be distressed that so many foreigners were saying that they find the U.K. to be very unfriendly to outsiders and I must echo this sentiment and I agree that this is probably particularly true for those from the U.S. (Then again I met a family who moved to Oxfordshire from the north of England and left two years later because they found everyone her so unfriendly and insular, go figure!!) I have found it, overall, difficult to get to know people here, to break through the barrier of being "different". As far as I'm concerned, and it's taken me a while to form this opinion, it's their loss!! I am a "people person", I love meeting new people, I'm fascinated with peoples lives, stories, history, etc. (I always pity the poor soul who gets stuck sitting next to me on an airplane, hehe.) If they can't be bothered to speak to me because I'm foreign, then they can "sod off" as they say! I think back to when Delsin was starting toddler/playgroups and I could attend these session for 2 hours and not one person, other than the staff, would speak to me. I stopped going and then changed my mind because I didn't want Delsin to suffer as a result of me feeling insulted. At a group that I attended locally, the staff approached me and introduced me to a lovely South African lady and asked if I would chat with her as she was feeling a bit isolated. Gee I wonder why, could her skin colour and accent have anything to do with that? I think yes. She is lovely, university educated, intelligent, funny, and all those narrow minded twits lost out on meeting such a fantastic person. Again, their loss. My older boys have been harassed for their accent, been told to "go back to their own country", called "Canadian bastard", and are genuinely confused as to why they can be subjected to racist comments and behaviour and I have no answer for them. The schools took the opinion of it being a "he said/he said" situation and since they didn't actually witness any of this behaviour towards the boys then they can't do anything about it. I get this instant image in my head of an ostrich with it's head in the sand.
I've heard rantings about the "damn Poles & Eastern Europeans" invading the country and living off the taxpayers and taking jobs away from the Brits. Give me a break, they are obviously willing to do work that the locals won't consider and if they are being hired "under the table" then that is the fault of the employers, not the workers. Others say they are all a bunch of criminals, so does that mean that the prisons are full of immigrants then? I think not. Most immigrants come to any country to have a better life and many need help to get started, of course, and it pays dividends to the host country in the end when they become tax-paying contributors to society. The world is such an interesting, colourful, dynamic place if you let yourself be open to other people and experiences. There was another interesting point that was brought up during the show that immigrants are expected by the Home Office, in this country, to learn the language and adapt to fit in to the local culture. Pity this doesn't always work both ways. When we lived in Belgium we ended up in an area full of ex-pats, many of them from the U.K. Our children all went to local Flemish speaking school and Tim and I accepted that we should learn the local language to communicate better with teachers, merchants, doctors, etc. etc. We took language lessons provided by Tim's company and I know that other courses were readily available and some ex-pats took advantage of this as well. There was, however, a very arrogant attitude among some of the Brits that "everyone here knows how to speak English, so we have no problems communicating". That isn't exactly the point though, is it? You are in their country, being paid your ££ salaries, paying your taxes in the U.K. but living a very comfortable life abroad so you would think the least you could do would be to make an attempt to learn the local language. Some did but some couldn't be arsed. Very hypocritical don't you think? I will take back many positives from my time here and try to push the negatives to the back of my memories. I just needed to get some of my experiences out of my brain.

Wow, I guess I had more to say on that than I thought! That radio host should be glad she didn't have to speak to me after all...LOL Don't get me wrong, I don't regret any of my time abroad, it's all experience and we have some brilliant memories to take back with us! How fortunate for our kids that we were able to bring them abroad. We left Canada with three kids and we are going back with four, we are extremely lucky people. I am not a spiritual person but I do believe that everything happens for a reason and we gain so much from our experiences in life, good and bad. My life is much richer for the last seven years abroad and one thing that has never changed is my pride at being a Canadian!

Right, time to 'carpe diem'! I must admit, I'm so NOT a morning person so this has been bliss to sit around in my jammies, drinking coffee, listening to the radio, checking emails, surfing the 'web as all the kids ended up on an "inset" day from school today. Now must get Cammy out the door for a day out with friends and Mae & I are off to Oxford with my U.S. friend and her daughter. Tim is working, poor guy he is very stressed with his work load right now and dealing with the time change means he works later into the evening. I'm sure for Connor is will be a day of geeking on the PC and Delsin will choose to indulge in some DS time and lots of Cbeebies! :o) Did you know the Teletubbies are 10 today (learned this off the radio show this morning too!)? **shudder** Mae was obsessed with them as a
baby/toddler but she she may also have PTSD as a result. Funny story--------> Mae had a Teletubbies calendar above her change table in her room and she loved all the pictures, except for one! What possessed the makers of a product for young children to include this is beyond me! On one page was a "felt drawing" photo of the "scary lion" with the rhyme, "I'm the scary lion, with the big scary teeth, I'm scary on the top, and I'm scary underneath". Geeze! It scared the crap out of Mae and she would burst into tears every time we walked into the room. We finally had to flip the page because she would just scream and cry. We still tease her about it and she gets upset when we start chanting the rhyme. PTSD courtesy of the Teletubbies! True story!

Have a great day all, hope life is grand where you are. Do me a favour and send me a buyer for my house if you have a few spare moments! LOL Love to all.

Laura :o)

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

A glorious morning...

Well, actually, it started out like any other morning with the usual chaos of getting four kids up and ready for school!! Cam is ill so he is home and Mae had a dentist appointment so that had to be dealt with first. Then came the glorious part...a half hour ride out on a pony in the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside...bliss! I really needed to calm my soul after all the moving turmoil and this was just the tonic I needed...thank you Jo-Jo for suggesting I book in for a ride, great idea!! I went out on one of the morning "ladies" rides and met a lovely group of women and we were lead by our fearless leader Fizz and Jo-Jo tagging along as well. My gorgeous boy "Max" was kind to me and my legs don't feel as wobbly as I expected after four months or so OUT of the saddle. Tomorrow I may be eating these words, hehe. :o) I managed a few trots and even decided to go for it on two canters, the first definitely not very elegant, hahaha! I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else today and feel so much better for it.

Now back to reality and our house sale STILL being in limbo. A young couple had "repaired" the sale "chain" last week but they decided to pull out yesterday. Fabulous. Another buyer has come in to take their place but of course the spineless estate agents won't give anybody any type of guarantee on time frames for exchanging contracts. No contract, no sale. Welcome to my life since the 12th of JANUARY. The system here is doing my head in. Your house is sold, but not really. For f&%ks sake. I'm getting near the end of my patience. Yesterday my boys should have left the country with Grandpa and the rest of us should have been joining them on Sunday. I'm just so bloody frustrated with all of this. The only good thing is that I am DONE with my estate agents next week and I've been investigating some of the "for sale by owner" websites and will give them a go before we even think of another agent. There are no guarantees no matter what we do. What a messed up system this is. Blah.

Okay, enough of that before I lose my calm mood from my mornings activity!! My kids are good, Tim is here this week, I have lots of friends lifting up my mood and I have a roof over my head...STILL...LOL I know things could be worse so I'm trying to stay positive.

I've had a glimpse into the "Aspie World", as I call it, last week. As hard as it is to believe, we can often momentarily forget that Connor is autistic. When things are going well and he is calm and happy, he is just like any other kid. He is so chilled out at the moment and it's lovely to see. It's little things that he does/says/thinks that remind us of how different things can be in his world. Last Friday, as we are trying to rush him out the door to school, he announced to me that he had cleaned out his, normally bulging, pencil case and had left "an assortment of pens shaped like starships" on the table for me. Huh?? After he left, this is what I found on my dining room table---------->
To you and me these are just pens, caps, pencils, highlighters, erasers, compasses, etc. and to Connor these are a great opportunity to make "starships". Fantastic!! I think this world must be a great one to live in and maybe we could all benefit from a visit from time to time. I had another small glimpse into how things can become very unsettling for Aspies at Connor's youth group last week. A boy who had been dropped off suddenly came bolting our of the building and headed up to the road obviously distressed. Connor and I stayed with him and tried to convince him to come back inside and I was obviously worried about him being too close to the road. Thankfully his Mom had just turned her car around an came along a moment later and we flagged her down and she was able to calm him. It turns out his "subs" money for the group had fallen out of his pocket in the car and he was completely distressed about this to the point of being in tears. Seems amazing that something that wouldn't faze the average person, maybe just annoy us that we'd lost the £1, can completely distress an Aspie. I only brought this up because I received a lovely handwritten thank you note in the mail from this boy's Mom for our efforts to calm him and our willingness to stay to make sure he was okay. The two boys have become great pals and we now have an invitation for a "play date" over the Easter school holidays, how wonderful.

Well, I've blathered on enough for now, must get on with the rest of the day. Delsin needs to be picked up then it's off to collect Connor from his school. More dentist appointments for me and the boys and Mae is off to the stables for her weekly riding lesson. Never a dull moment.

Hope you have a glorious moment of your own today!

Laura :o)

Thursday, March 22, 2007

The waiting game...

Still no real news to report on the home-front, we now are in sit-and-wait mode! Our property is being re-listed in the papers tomorrow and we are working with the people who tried to buy our house before the chain went disastrously wrong. It will come down to a race to see who we can find to buy our house and will commit to exchanging contracts first. Easier said than done, but I'm trying to stay positive that the right person is out there whether it's someone I already know of or someone entirely unknown to me so far! My agents will hope we can broker a deal with the original buyers because I've given my notice and will be leaving them in less than two weeks time. I don't think one agent is any better than the other but I feel we need a fresh start and new perspective on things. I did manage to express my disappointment to the agent we are currently dealing with on the phone yesterday and that did make me feel a bit better. I may as well have been talking to a brick wall, but I was able to get some stuff out that was really bothering me. I did receive a second phone call a few hours later with a much more subdued, dare I say even a bit apologetic (?), agent but it doesn't change how I feel we have been treated through this whole process. I'm still feeling disappointed and hurt by everything that has transpired and I imagine I will feel that way until I have a signed contract followed by the money in my bank account so that I can get out of here!!

Tim made it home safely last night and Dad left early this morning, he should be getting close to the end of his journey by now and I hope the day went smoothly for him. I'm jealous that soon he will be giving my furry friends lots of love, fuss, and scratches. Sigh. I'm please that he and Mom will get to spend some extra time together, they have been separated so much over the last few months in order to help me get by with Tim being gone so much. I don't know what I would have done without them during this very tumultuous time in my life.

Another busy Thursday, as usual, this is the late night for Mom and Mae as we had swimming and ballet classes after school. Tim got to hang out with his boys tonight and Delsin has been his little shadow today. He has missed his Daddy. Cam and Mae did their second week of "survival" swimming at school so I had more soggy sets of clothing plus regular swim gear to contend with tonight. Never a dull moment around here. Connor has his usual "okay" day at school and seems to be getting on swimmingly at the moment. It's hard to believe they have only one week left of school and then it's the Easter two week holidays, it seems like just yesterday it was the half-term break, yikes!

I'm feeling a bit sad as tomorrow was supposed to be the boys' last day of school and then they would have boarded a plane to head to Canada on Tuesday. The moving van was supposed to arrive on Monday to begin packing our belongings. I'm guess I'm still smarting a bit over all of this. A year from now I will wonder what all the fuss was about, but for now I stew.

Well, off to get a few shows off the Sky+ while it's quiet and not too late, I have a bad habit of nodding off on the couch these days, guess I'm getting old and I'm just in denial. ER & CSI:NY awaits me!

Nighty night all,
Laura :o)


Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Safe and sound!

The furry ones made it safe and sound to Grandma's house last evening and survived their first night on Canadian soil! I woke up to a funny email from my Mom explaining the adventure to retrieve and then return them to her home and the introduction to "Bug" the resident feline on Buck Lake! I have to just copy/paste this bit from Mom's email------>

"Oscar rode up front with me. He had his head in my lap almost the whole way. Once we got on the Massassauga and lowered the window up went his head sniffing the air. I have had him out four times already and he finally had a very very very long pee on the last outing. He is a lot
more interested in heading up the road. He obviously smells things out there. I may end up with an arm pulled out of its socket tomorrow. He has toured the house a few times. On one occasion I went upstairs to find Bug on top of the back of the coach, back arched, hair raised making her look twice her size, teeth showing and hissing at Oscar. She treated me the same way. She since has come downstairs, saw both Oscar and Schat and has retreated under the staircase which I had not successfully fully blocked off. Schat has been in there as well but no action so far. Schat vocalized a lot on the way home starting with little peeps and then louder meowing. She has been on the prowl since we got in the house. I was going to keep her in the entrance area but she pushed the door open immediately. I am going to go to bed soon and let the
chips fall where they may overnight. I'll get Oscar out for a walk first thing in the morning. Talk to you tomorrow, love, Mom"

Too funny!! I have spoken to Mom today and everybody survived the night and Oscar doesn't seem the least bit interested in Bug although Bug is very wary of him! Mom took Oscar out for a walk and had the most amazing confrontation with some of the other neighbourhood residents...some young bucks! I guess they spotted Mom and Oscar as they walked out the door and rather than running away, made their way closer and had a staring-standoff with Oscar...yikes! The bucks would lift one front hoof and slam it to the ground staring at Oscar, then lift the other front hoof and repeat the ritual. I guess Oscar watched this with interest but didn't make a sound and actually sat down after a few minutes of this. When he stood up again making a larger movement the bucks then turned and with two or three hops disappeared from sight. What an amazing thing to see, shame Mom didn't have her camera at hand, she was cursing this the whole time but knew she couldn't make a move without scaring off the deer. Yet another crappy day on Buck Lake, I don't know how my folks can stand living there...LOL

We may have good news to report tomorrow on the possibility of selling our house if things fall into place tonight....**fingers crossed** I won't say any more for fear of putting the "whammy" on us!! Tim is arriving in a few hours so I'll be off to Oxford to pick him up and then up at 0:dark:30 to take Dad to Oxford as he is heading back to Canada earlier than planned since his trip with the boys scheduled on the 27th is no longer a go. Sigh. I just want to go home now. Blah.

At least I can never complain that my life is dull, that's something, I guess.

Laura :o)


Tuesday, March 20, 2007

My model dog...

Host unlimited photos at slide.com for FREE!



Jan has Oscar's pics up on her studio blog, here is the link to his slideshow if you want to check out my boy! ------------>

http://stuartbebb.typepad.com/stuart_bebb_whats_new/2007/03/check_out_my_sl.html

You can visit their business website at: http://www.stuartbebb.com or the blog at: http://stuartbebb.typepad.com

Oscar and Schat have been manifested by Air Canada Cargo and should be taxiing down the runway as I type this! Hope they have a safe flight and, as Jan said in her blog, they may need their warm jammies as it's supposed to drop to -15 tonight, what a shock to their systems!!

There has been more interesting information today about the sale of our home so I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic. More details to come!

Happy Tuesday,
Laura :o)


Monday, March 19, 2007

Bon Voyage Oscar & Schat

Another day, another sob-fest...sigh. I dropped Oscar and Schat off at the kennels near Heathrow this morning and they will be flying out to Ottawa tomorrow to be greeted by my Mom. I was actually doing okay until I was loading them up and Jan appeared red-eyed...DOH! Oscar breaks hearts wherever he goes and he has truly broken Jan's, and mine. I know, I know, I will see them again but it doesn't make it any easier to hand them over to strangers and know that they will be an eight hour flight away now. I stings even more to know that we should have been joining them in two weeks. Phuck. Jan then brought on more tears, but happy ones this time, when she presented me with a framed montage of shots from Oscar's photo-shoot. What a handsome boy!! Stu is truly talented and Jan is amazing at the editing and composition of the work that they do. Oscar's handsome face will be gracing our Vet's office where, hopefully, he will entice other pet owners to have a shoot done too. My star boy! Too bad we couldn't have had Schat immortalized, would have been a hoot to watch Stu chase her (my scaredy-cat) around the garden..hehe.

I will wait anxiously to hear from Mom that they have arrived safe and sound and in the mean time I can track them online! Ain't technology grand?

Please somebody send some **good luck** vibes my way? I need something to smile about for a change.

Laura :o(
My handsome Oscar!

My little Schatje!


Sunday, March 18, 2007

When you thought I wasn't looking...

When you thought I wasn't looking...

1. When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you sponsor a child and I wanted to sponsor another one.

2. When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you pet a dog and I wanted to pet one too.

3. When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you cook my favourite meal for me, and I knew that it was out of the kindness of your heart.

4. When you thought I wasn't looking, I heard you talk to Dad and I believed that you were friends.

5. When you thought I wasn't looking, I felt you tuck me in, and I felt very happy.

6. When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw Dad cuddle you, and I learned about love, but it's alright to love someone.

7. When you thought I wasn't looking, I looked...and I wanted to say thanks for all the things I saw when you thought I wasn't looking.

By Cameron T Taverner

I don't think I could possibly have received a better gift than that today. Pass the tissues.

Laura :o)


Happy Mothering Sunday

A very Happy Mothering Sunday to my fellow U.K. Mommas! In Canada we don't celebrate until May so this always seems to creep up on me and with Tim not being here this year it won't really be a big celebration. I got a lovely card from Delsin that he made at school and I was amazed to see his writing in the card, my baby is growing up **SOB**. It's just a normal Sunday around here, Mae is off to the stable and the boys, Dad and I will hang out here. I have more cleaning and sorting to do and I have to watch Mae's jumping lesson at noon. Life goes on in Bicester.

My heart goes out to two mothers who are not going to have a very happy day; knife violence has gripped London this week as two teenage boys lost their lives, one on Wednesday and one last night. It troubles me to see the violence that I still associate with being on the "other side of the pond" marring the U.K. Knife culture is becoming increasingly worrying and I can only hope that this will stop so that more mothers and families won't have to live the nightmare of these two families.

On a positive note, I have a several friends that are celebrating this year with gorgeous new babies to cherish, congrats ladies! They grow up so fast, the time goes by in blink, enjoy every moment!

Cheers from here,
Laura :o)

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Maharishi's Phucknuckel's Guide to Zen...

Jan sent me this one, it's killer and just what I needed to read this week!! Enjoy!

Laura :o)

Maharishi Phucknuckel’s Guide to Zen

1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either, just fuck off and leave me alone.

2. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a flat tyre.

3. The darkest hours come just before the dawn. So if you’re going to steal your neighbour’s milk and newspaper, that’s the time to do it.

4. Sex is like air. It only becomes really important when you aren’t getting any.

5. Don’t aspire to become irreplaceable. If you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted.

6. Remember, no one is listening until you fart.

7. Never forget that you are unique, like everyone else.

8. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

9. If you think nobody cares whether you’re dead or alive, try missing a couple of mortgage payments.

10. Before you judge someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you judge them you’re a mile away and you have their shoes.

11. If at first you don’t succeed, avoid skydiving.

12. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

13. Have you ever lent someone a 20 and never seen that person again? It was probably worth it.

14. If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.

15. Some days we are the flies, some days we are the windscreen.

16. Don’t worry; it only seems kinky the first time.

17. Good judgement comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgement.

18. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.

19. A closed mouth gathers no feet.

20. There are two theories about how to win an argument with a woman. Neither one works.

21. Generally speaking, you aren’t learning much if your lips are moving.

22. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

23. Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.

24. When we are born we are naked, wet, hungry, and we get smacked on our arse. From there on in, life gets worse.

25. The most wasted day of all is one in which we have not laughed.

Remember not to forget that which you do not need to know.

Getting on with it...

So after crying for two days, yesterday was the "okay it's happened, now we need to just get on with it" day. I've had such amazing support from people here who are reassuring me that this is just a blip and we will sell our house and be on our way before we know it. I wish I could be that optimistic but it's lovely to have people trying to keep me positive and focused. I snapped on the rubber gloves yesterday and started upstairs and will work my way down. I guess I'll call it "spring cleaning" so that I don't feel so deflated. Remember I'm trying to stay positive about all of this!! One of my wonderful friends offered to come around and help me clean, how amazing, but I actually found it therapeutic to scrub the hell out of my bathroom!! I know at some point I will have to lean on people for help and that is really hard for me, I'm just too damn stubborn.

Last night was supposed to be my girlies night out to say farewell as I was supposed to be boarding a plane on April 1st. I was, obviously, not up for it after what happened so my lovely friend Jan organized Chinese food and beer at hers last night instead while we watched the Comic Relief coverage on BBC. Not sure the viewing choice was the best as it's a fundraising event held every two years in the U.K. and interspersed with the comedy are clips from both the U.K. and Africa showing people living in and dealing with horrendous situations. How can you not give money, if you can afford to, to people after seeing their stories?? So tears were shed but tears that put things into perspective. Yes I didn't sell my house and my move is delayed, but my family is healthy, we have a roof over our heads, and we have wealth at our disposal. So many others just don't and it's shocking that we live in a world that can allow people to live in abject poverty, and in despicable conditions like was broadcast last night. Okay, I'll get down off my soapbox now!

I had another lovely thing happen yesterday that showed me just how lucky I am! Every day I walk my dog, Oscar, up to school with the kids and after dropping everyone off I head to the park with Jan, and Benson, and our regular doggy walking crowd that converge on the park daily. When I came out after dropping Delsin off, the usual suspects were present and I suddenly found myself surrounded by all these lovely people and their canine friends. Jan, seeking revenge after I embarrassed her on her birthday in said park (LOL), presented me with a wonderful photo of Oscar along with all his fellow canine friends and their humans from the past 3 years of park walking. What a joy to have this picture and once again the tears flowed. Oscar is still leaving next week, with Schat-the-cat, so Friday was his last regular morning in the park. I felt truly loved and I now have a wonderful memento of a daily ritual that was a huge part of my life here in Bicester.

So despite a crappy week, I know that I have found some wonderful people during my time here and know that there are many more happy memories to take back to Canada than the current frustrating events. I am one lucky lady.

So trying to stay positive and just get on with it! Canada is still there waiting for me and my family, it's just going to take a bit longer than I thought.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend. If I ever need anything to cheer me up, I need to look no further than here ---------->

The kids after their latest haircut last weekend!
Oscar after his last grooming session with Sandra!


Love to all,
Laura :o)





Wednesday, March 14, 2007

NOT SOLD...sigh...

So, the nightmare scenario has happened. Our "chain" has collapsed with "buyer number 3" changing his/her mind and pulling out causing all of the stress and worry over the last two months to multiply exponentially. We are devastated. The moving van was supposed to arrive on March 26th, the dog and cat are leaving next week (and they are still going to stay with Mom and Dad), the boys and my Dad were supposed to follow on the 27th and Tim, me, Mae and Del were supposed to be arriving in Kingston on April 1st (Mae says that's because "we're the fools"). Maybe Mae has a point. We were wary of this whole "chain" right from day one but were so happy to have sold for full asking price and we knew the people buying our place were so damn happy, hell we even have their mail already arriving here! This country SUCKS and I can't wait to see the back of it. So, many phone calls and emails later we have canceled everything in regards to the move and reinstated everything here that we had canceled like utilities, taxes, school placements, selling our car, etc. etc. I don't know how people sleep at night knowing the stress and pain they cause others by changing their mind. Why the English don't revolt and demand a revamp of the real estate system is beyond me. You hear stories like ours every day, yet on and on it goes. Our estate agents were terrible and sat on their laurels after having to do almost nothing to sell our house, they let this bumble on for the last 2 months and because of the complete inability of all of the agents to stay on top of things, this is the result. The only bright spot in this is that I won't have to give one red cent to our agents.

I'm not a happy bunny today. Poor Tim is trapped in Canada and feels so helpless in all this. To top it all off, I have to tell the kids after school that their lives are turned upside down again, poor little things.

I hate this,
Laura :o(