MUNGO EATS Latin America

Half a week home, and things are starting to be a bit more settled.  The house is not quite back to normal, but I just couldn’t put off the overgrown flowerbed any longer.  It just made me sad to see it like this. 

Yes, believe me, there are flowers hidden in that mountain of crabgrass, and today I started working on exposing them.  The proper way to do this would be to dig out the whole bed, save the flowers, remove all the crabgrass and roots, and then replace the flowers.  Unfortunately, it is too hot to do this at this time.  The right time to do this is the spring, so for now, I will pull crab grass for the whole summer, and I will do the “right thing” come next spring. 

I worked on this bed for about 7 hours today, and this is what it looks like now.

You can see all the “stuff” I pulled out still on the sidewalk.  I told you there were flowers in there!!  The only problem is that there are not as many flowers present as I remember.  I guess not all flowers can survive being strangled by crabgrass…go figure!!  The most surprising missing item is a clump of chives.  I say it is surprising, because I usually spend most of the summer trying to keep the chives under control, they keep trying to start new chive clumps. 

So now what?  I don’t know if I should put in more flowers, or just wait until next year after the purge?  Oh well, I guess I will decide once the rest of the yard is cleaned up. 

By the way, we have added a few new creatures to the house.  Sara and Sean are the proud new owners of two mice, Onyx and Titch.  Mungo is not quite sure what to make of these new creatures.  He watches them sometimes, but he also spends a fair amount of time inhaling them and licking the cage.  Needless to say, the mice are not left alone with him, YET!

Sorry to have kept you in suspense for so long (as if you are all DYING to know how we are!).  We got back into our OWN house on Saturday.  I was expecting to get back in fairly late in the day, since we knew there were some cleaners coming, but we were actually back in at about noon. 

So how is it?  First of all, I have to say that I really missed our own space.  Even when our own space was only the size of a little tiny camper, it was ours only.  I don’t mean to say that I did not enjoy my time with our family and friends, I did immensely, but there is something to be said for having your own “stuff” and your own space!!  I am very grateful to be back home. 

The house is in pretty good shape, and nothing seems to be damaged at all, which is a relief.  The house was in a “lived in “ state when we left, so we really didn’t expect too much damage.  We had to reorganize a bit, obviously another family may have their own ideas about decorating and organizing.  I think everything is more or less back in “place” now. 

I am quite sad about the state of my yard though.  I am pretty meticulous about my yard.  I have tried to make it as low maintenance as possible, but there is always things like weeding that need to be done.  I am sad to say that I have ALOT of work to do in the yard to get it back up to it’s former beauty.  I told the kids I would pay them a nickel for every dandelion plant they remove and I fully expect to dish out more than $20.00 for this.  I have one flower bed in the back yard, which is now nothing more than a bed of crabgrass.  I will have to dig out any saveable plant, destroy all the grass and replant the flower bed.  It will be a heck of a lot of work.  There are other maintenance things to do in the yard that I knew I would be coming back to, like trimming the hedge and pruning the trees.  All in all, I say I will be very busy this summer. 

On a good note, Mungo is in heaven.  He cannot believe that he is allowed to run around outside, without a leash, heck without even a human watching him.  We generally leave the back door of the house open all summer.  I like the fresh air and the dog can come and go outside as he pleases.  Apparently, he pleases, because the first day he kept running in and out, all the time wearing this foolish expression of GLEE.  There is a small part of the yard which is only “fenced” by a rather thick hedge.  Mungo had figured out a way through the hedge when he was young, and low and behold, he still remembered the escape route.  So on my list of things to do today, is to somehow prevent his escape into the neighbours yard. 

So all in all, not a bad homecoming.  I am glad that I am not rushing off to a job this morning, because I think I have enough to keep me busy for a while, but still, it is good to be HOME!!

So, we are back in Calgary and back in the neighbourhood. We are staying with very good friends who live just a dozen blocks from our house. It is really nice to be somewhere familiar and ther could be no other home I feel as comfortable in, but I have to say it is killing me to be “that close” but not quite “home”!!

We do have good news though, and that is that we will get back in our house on the 26th, instead of having to wait until July 1st. Yippee, only 3 more sleeps!!!

In the mean time, I have been able to start chatting with and seeing some of my friends. Some live close enough to walk to, and some I have only reconnected with by phone, but once I have some transportation…watch me go. My “summer ride”, a Yamaha scooter, is waiting for me in the garage. I can hardly wait to hop on that cool machine and go for a ride.

Kevin is working from home at this time, and next week he will start driving into the office. A year ago, I left two part time positions and I was hoping to return to these positions when I got back. I will be working shorter hours at one clinic and it seems the other clinic does not really require my services anymore, so I am very near unemployed. I am no really sure what I will be doing. I think I will worry about it once we are settled into the house again.

The kids have started reconnecting with their friends again. Sara was at her school at 8:30 the first morning back. She wanted to make fun of her friends, because they had to go to class and she didn’t. Trust my children to get in trouble in the shortest possible time. After she made fun of her friends, Sara decided to follow them in to the classroom to see what would happen. The school the kids attend is very small and so most people recognized her, except for her classmates’ teacher, who is new to the school. She noticed the “new girl” standing in the class and she asked Sara, “Who are you?”, to which my truly clever daughter replied, “I’m Sara!”. She probably rolled her eyes as well!! She was kicked out of the classroom at that time. She tried to hang around in the schoolyard, waiting for recess, but she was asked to leave here as well. Troublemaker!! Thank God she is going to junior high next year.

Anyway, just a few more days and the process of getting back to normal will be underway. I can hardly wait!!

Alberta bound, Alberta bound, it’s good to be Alberta bound!  Thanks Ian Tyson for those words.  It truly is great to be heading back to our home province.  With the help of our “chauffeurs”, Mom and Dad Vizzutti…aka my parents, we are finally on our way back to Calgary.  We were awake nice and early this am, and all piled into the Caravan, along with enough food to feed us for 3 days and enough Italian folksongs to make your head swim. 

Actually, I am kidding about the food!  We won’t be going back to our own house yet, but we will be in our home city.  I can’t wait!!!

We have spent the last few weeks on Kelowna reconnecting with family, and it felt more like home than anywhere we have been in the past year.  I have to admit, that I generally HATE the drive from Kelowna to Calgary.  I find it long and tedious, and actually stressful.  There are a lot of crazy drivers (you know…for Canada), along this road.  Today however, I was happy to take the drive, so I could see MY mountains (okay, maybe OUR mountains).  Man I missed these peaks.  My mom thinks I am a little nuts.  She says, to her, they are “just mountains”.  But look…, they are high and rocky and there are trees all around!!!!! 

We met a German couple when we were in Guatemala, that had already travelled through the Rockies on their overland journey.  When I asked them what they thought about the Rockies, they said that they got a little tired of seeing “all those trees all the time”.  One man’s “those trees”, are an Albertan girl’s “THOSE TREES!!!”.

Okay, maybe not everyone feels this way about the Rockies, and admittedly, before I was away from them for a WHOLE YEAR, they were just nice mountains to me too.  Now however, they will forever be know as the FABULOUS ROCKIES, in my eyes. 

We have been hanging out with the McLean grandparents for the last 3 days.  The weather has not been the greatest and most Okanagan natives are complaining that it has been a very cold spring.  It has rained for the past 2 days, on and off, and it has been cool by Kelowna standards, only about 15 or 16 degrees.  Yesterday we took advantage of a break in the weather to visit a winery.  Today we decided to head west in search of a more pleasant climate. 

We headed to Salmon Arm (actually, more precisely, Canoe) to visit Kevin’s Aunt Geneva.  Aunt Geneva is one of my favourite “acquired by marriage” relatives, although the list is pretty long.  She lives on a small acreage in Canoe, and I just love this little plot of land.  It is a nice mix of woods and field, and I think it is fabulous. 

Kevin has many fond memories of his time spent on the acreage as a kid, and he pointed out all the highlights to the kids today.  This was the first time, in their memory, that they visited the acreage.  I know Sara was there as a newborn, I don’t know if Sean has ever visited. 

After being fed a great lunch, the kids decided to explore the hayfield behind the house.  A fellow usually harvests the hay for Aunt Geneva, but he seems to have abandoned his duties, so the hay is grown slightly out of control.  The kids thought it was great that you could walk into the hay and “disappear” any time you wished.  Here is Sean…now you see him…

Now you don’t!

And the same disappearing act from Sara…here…

gone!

It’s amazing how a simple thing can bring amusement!!

Hopefully the weather will be a little better in the next few days and then we can do a bit more outdoors.  We are only in Kelowna for a few more days.  My Mom is planning on chauffeuring us to Calgary on the 21st (yeah, no more flights!!!).  Hopefully we can make the most of our limited time left here.