Home Sweet Home

I never understood why my parents were so eager to get home after a holiday - we're on holidays! Fun stuff, eating out, no work or school. Well I think I finally get it.

When I was a kid, all I cared about was having fun and doing new things. I had absolutely no responsibilities on vacation, and I thought that neither did my parents. I now know how wrong that is. When you are adult on holidays, you always have to think about...are my kids eating properly, getting enough sleep, how much is this costing us, why is this bed so damn uncomfortable, why can't I have just a few moments alone with my spouse, where the heck are we going to eat next meal, why is this hotel room so dirty, is it safe here?

We were away for 3 weeks to Europe and I was so happy that is was over. I love being there, don't get me wrong, but there are so many things I missed about my home. How clean and spacious it is, how comfy my bed is, having all my clothes and beauty products, the list goes on.

The trip started out just fine, aside from come crappy weather. We stayed a week at Lake Balaton in Hungary, we just love this place. It is relaxing and just comfortable. We rented an apartment there and that was great, it was clean and fairly spacious, the owners were wonderful. Then we moved on to Budapest. Due to not wanting to be there much, this stay had been shortened to just 3 nights. My husband's grandmother passed away while we were there, and we were 2 hours too late to see her one last time. It was a difficult time. There has been some family tension and her death made us have to spend a lot of time with his family. The stay in Budapest this year was very trying. We then stayed 2 days in Germany which was great, except for the fact that the hotel screwed up our reservation and then overcharged us. I'll get my money back, not to worry. We flew to Barcelona next. It's a beautiful city but VERY loud. Our apartment was ok, a bit on the small side. The bathroom however was not up to par - I know that I am picky, but this would have made anyone cringe. My lovely husband cleaned it for us, I can't thank him enough for that. We stayed in Barcelona for a week, and it was nice, we had 3 beach days, thank goodness, I really needed that sun. We did the touristy things and it was ok. But that last day, all I could think about was home.

The flight home was long, we got up at 3am Barcelona time, flew to Munich at 6am, had a 6 hour layover in Munich and then flew to Calgary at 2pm ish. By the end of that night, we had been up for over 24 hours straight. My daughter got a bit sick on the plane, the wonderful Air transat stewardess gave her a ginger ale and an orange. I have never seen her so happy to see a piece of fruit! I had been sick for about 3 days by then, tummy troubles, cramping, back pain. I am still not over it. Anyway, we got to Calgary, our luggage was delayed by an hour, and by then I just wanted to go home. We hoped in a cab, and he drove us very slowly home!

When we got home, we immediately stared the laundry, I am still working on it. We ordered a pizza, and my son passed out on the couch as soon as he was finished chewing. My husband, the nut, went to his soccer game, they won. I went to bed, spent yesterday in a haze. I was out long enough to get groceries and some gravol for my poor tummy. Came home, fell asleep in the backyard, came in the house, fell asleep on the couch. I had been marinating steak for supper, but no one wanted to cook it, so we had take out. And then we all went to bed by 10pm. I feel pretty crappy today still, but at least I don't have to go out.

To sum it up, I totally get why adults can't wait to get home. I have never been so happy to sleep in my own bed and enjoy my clean house. Until next vacation, I am so happy to be home!

The Princess and the Pea

I finally have to admit it, I have become a princess. Now if you ask my husband, he would tell you that I have been a princess for a very long time. But that is just not true. I am not high maintenance, I am not that picky and I don't spend money like a princess.

I realized the other day that I am a princess when my sun glasses were a millimeter off, they weren't open quite the full amount, and I was so bothered, I had to take them off and adjust them. Some other clues that have lead me to this decision were a small rock in my shoe, a thread that had come off in my sock, and my pillow placement being just a hair off.

I cannot tell you how much it irks me when things aren't "just so".

I have also started to carry my bag differently, if you watch me next time you see me, you'll know what I mean. I carry it less like a football and more like a thing of beauty. My taste in clothes has become more dressy, I can wear some heels, and my taste buds are more refined. You might think that I am turning into a snob, but no, I have been a snob for many years, only the princess thing is new. I swear, if you put a pea under my mattress, I would feel it.

Luckily this doesn't affect anyone but me...... and my husband. He is the one that has to watch me prance around with my purse, take the imperfections away from me before I have a moment, and buy me the new clothes. I don't think he minds, he may have a different story, but he is wrong.

I have truly become "one of those women". A trophy wife, if you will. A lady who lunches. It's not my fault, my husband wanted me to stop working, he gave me all control over the finances, and he wanted me to be happy. I am very happy as a princess! He even calls me princess, but I am not sure he means it the way I take it. It's not a bad life, quite nice actually. Just be wary of any new signs that I may be taking it too far. You know, a gold cigarette holder, calling everyone darling and wanting to be waited on hand and foot. Now would some one please get me a dry martini!

Spice Wellness again...

I know this is the 3rd time I have posted about this facility - but I have a really good reason. I went for a massage there the other day - I joined the massage a month club - it gets me a massage a month for only $65. That is a wicked deal as massages are usually $100 and up, for a good one. So I got there and there was a new person for the massage, not David! So I was a bit disappointed until she started. Her name is Tammy, and I swear, she might even be better than David. She bruised me up a bit trying to get a knot out, but she got it. Not many people can claim that they can hurt me during a massage, but she did. It was still worth it. She also did a really good job on my feet.

I've had a tune up for my feet with laser treatment, and I think I am going to have to do that more often. With getting older, no jokes please, running, playing soccer and doing all the other stuff I do, my body is in constant pain. Between massages, laser treatment and some Tylenol and Advil, I should be able to manage. Just don't make me give up any of those remedies!

9 days and I can't get off the phone

I have precisely 9 days until I leave on my summer vacation, and I can't seem to get off the phone! Did I leave everything to the last minute? No, but changes happen and I am the lucky one that gets to take care of said changes.

We've reduced our Budapest stay to 3 days, which I have mixed feelings about. I love Budapest, but the family there drives me crazy. So in reducing the stay there, we add an extra day to a little village right outside of the Munich airport. Now why on earth would we do this? Well this little village happens to have great shopping and the most amazing indoor water park. We found it by accident last year and the kids can't wait to go there again. Besides, we love villages. They are so cute and quaint, they are not crowded and we can walk everywhere. We stay in this town every year because it is so close to the airport, and we just fell in love with it the first time we stayed there.

So 9 days left, I have to clean the house, I am doing the laundry, and I have been on the phone for over and hour! I have changed one hotel reservation, I still have to do another, I can't get through to Telus to cancel a free channel, and I have to talk to visa to see where the heck my company visa went! My neck is killing me from holding the phone to my ear. I wish I had a hands free set for the house, but I don't.

I am finally off the phone after I had 2 different calls going and now I am free to clean the house, wait for more calls to come in and try Telus again. This day has not gone according to plan as of yet. Ahhhgg. I'll try to keep it together. If you see me today and I am muttering....just 9 more days, 9..9...9 more days, that is why!

What a crazy week!

This week started out nice and easy but went into full chaos by Tuesday! Soccer every night, but not just soccer, boot camp and field trips, soccer out of town on a weeknight. Total chaos. I am happy to announce that the crazy week will come to close for us tomorrow night. It starts again on Saturday, but for one blissful night, I have quiet, family time. Thank goodness.

This week I applied for the Top Travel Blogger of Calgary. Unfortunately I didn't make it to the top five and get myself into a spot that I could have been voted for. The good news is that I am ok with that, I even voted for one of the people that did make it. I think the thing for me was to not make it in necessarily, but to just apply. It was a non paid position, but the winner gets free tickets to events and restaurants all over Calgary, and then they blog about it. I would have been good at it, but I am not bitter or upset at all.

One of the reason's that I kind of wanted that spot was just so that people saw my stuff. Yeah, it kind of bugs me that I have very few followers and that my blog is not all that popular. I mean really, shouldn't I have gone viral by now? How does that even happen anyway? Some of the things that go viral are just....for lack of a better word...dumb. There was a girl singing a song, I won't name any names as I have forgotten hers, but I didn't think she was all that good. And she sang a song that had words that I don't even think she knew the meaning of. I don't think she knew the real meaning of the song for that matter. But she was a kid and she sang, big deal! That went viral? Come on!

So maybe I am a bit bitter, but that's not because I didn't win a spot, it's not! It's just that I kind of want people to read my blog and have it make them think something new. Does that make sense? Well it's my blog and it makes sense to me, so there!

Ok, so I went on a bit of tangent, but that's how crazy this week has been. We've been eating supper at 9pm most nights, the kids haven't gotten nearly enough sleep, I am so confused all the time, I'm not sure where I am most of the day! And I think I forgot how to drive well. I parallel parked today and it was not pretty. I am usually so good at that! Tomorrow will be good, I will get my errands done and I will be one day closer to vacation. I will breathe and be calm, until the next chaos storm hits!

Fairmont Hot Springs

This past long weekend my family and I ventured to Fairmont Hot Springs. Being that it was May long weekend, it should shock you. I never go away for long weekends because I hate the traffic and all the people that go out and ruin my quiet time. But I went anyway.

We stayed at the Fairmont Lodge, it's on the same grounds as the pool and it is lovely. We've stayed there once before and stayed this time again as it is just a quick walk to the pools, the price of the pool is included with your room, and you even get bathrobes to wear over to the pool. The one perk we liked the most was skipping the line ups, we just had to let them know our room number and we get to jump the line! I love that. The hotel is basic, nothing fabulous, but I am not bothered by that. I never stay in a hotel room long enough to care other than about cleanliness. The hotel is clean, the beds are comfy, there is a fridge and a TV in the room. We also had a main floor patio which we ate breakfast on, and it's just nice to have a little outdoor space.

One of my favorite things about going to Fairmont is that I get to go to one of my favorite restaurants, The Black Forest (www.blackforestrestaurant.com). I love the German fare, schnitzel, red cabbage, and they make the best salad there! I always have the combination salad, it's 4 different salads, spinach, tomato, caesar and cucumber. I know it's sad, but I look forward to that salad!

The trip wasn't too bad as far as traffic went. We left Friday afternoon and came back Sunday which cuts out a lot of the traffic. The camper's on the road were annoyingly slow, but it wasn't too terrible. We saw lots of animals, Deer, Moose and Big Horn Sheep. We took some rockets and set them off on the Saturday. My daughter was enthralled by the deer carcass we found, along with other bones.

Overall it was a great trip. It's just nice to get away and relax. We go there twice a year usually, most of the time we go in the winter as it's nice to soak your butt in hot water when it's freezing out! But I think it's nice any time of year. This time, it was 32 degrees so we did get to use the "cold" pools too. They have 2 diving boards and I perfected my cannon ball on the low and even took it to the high board. Some 13 year old boy told me that I was awesome! He said that I won the splash contest by far! And to think that I was scared of the high board before.

Spice Wellness - A review

I bought a Spice Wellness voucher from Dealfind and I have just been there to redeem my services. For $49 I received a voucher for a 60 minute deep tissue massage, 3 ten minute whole body vibration sessions, a 30 minute detox ionic foot bath, and a 30 minute infared sauna session. I have done all of them with the exception of the foot bath and my third vibration session.

The vibration sessions are funny, you stand on a platform and the thing vibrates your whole body. It's supposed to help with building bone mass, improve organ function and waste processing, and improve blood circulation, among other things. It felt funny, but not in a bad way.

The sauna was a 30 minute private dry sauna. It was great. I read a book and sweated. The sauna is supposed to help with detoxification, ease joint and muscle pain, induce weight loss and more.

The real reason I bought this dealfind was for the massage. I love getting massages, I carry a lot of tension and since I work out regularly and play soccer, things tend to hurt. David was the massage therapist and I swear this was the best massage I have ever gotten. I have gotten a lot of massages over the years, and this was the hands down winner. He used a lot of pressure, used his elbows and forearms. He also did an amazing job on my feet. I have already booked my next massage with him. I like deep tissue massage and I got it. I just wish I could hire this guy to be my personal masseuse!

I do not have a clear idea of how well the other things work, but they felt nice and we'll see if they help with things. I can highly recommend the massage! The other stuff is new and interesting, so it can't hurt right? Next week I have the foot bath and another massage. I feel totally spoiled and all for the low price of $49! You just can't go wrong for that kind of money!!