Hospital visit on the long weekend....yuck!

Last evening, I ran into problems with my ear... pressure built up during the afternoon, and then around 8:00 or so last night, it burst like a dam! Not a nice feeling, one that I can't remember experiencing before... kinda freaked me out! We are fortunate to have a Dr. in the Family, so a quick call to Ottawa and Dr. Shawn was on the phone, telling me this is kind of a normal condition... explains to me when it burst like a dam, it discharges right through your eardrum! Not to worry Dad, he says, it will heal! I said "ehhh?"

He recomended I go and see someone today, so we were out the door at 9:00 heading to the walk in clinic that was of course "closed" due to Canada Day Long Weekend. We decided (while biting our lip) to head up to the Woodstock Hospital, and check out the hordes of people surley at the ER. Well, seems like everyone was too excited about it being a long weekend, and it only took us 1/2 an hour, in and out, after seeing a Dr. He told me the exact same things that Shawn had told me...(do you think they get together on this stuff?) Inspected my ear, and said, "wow, lots of dishcarge" and then abruptly wrote out a slip for some anti-biotick and sent me packing. Judy and I were quite pleased at only having to spend 1/2 an hour there... she came along for my moral support, I tend to turn into a whimp when I get sick.

The weather here continues to be very hot! Crazy hot actually today. Next few days are all the same!

Rick made a comment on last nights blog, about a trademark now at the bottom of the blog that says "Posted with Blogsy". (Not much gets by Rick...) Yesterday I noticed on my iPad under the App Store, that I had some updates to down load. One of them was Blogsy. They made some changes to the program to help you load pictures and videos and a few other things... Three guys developed this program, and listen to their customers and react to the comments and suggestions they make! At least the updates are free! The program only cost $5.00, and if you have an iPad, and want to blog, you will soon be using Blogsy! I like it!

Till tomorrow...

Posted with Blogsy

Getting ready for Canada Day...

The roads were all busy here in Ontario today, as the official kickoff to the long Canada Weekend got people out and about!

Ok, so our roads might not be quite a bad as the picturer above, they were very busy, and good to see a lot of RV's out and about! Our Park will be full for this weekend for sure! Our Park will have a big Bingo Game on Saturday night, and on Sunday, we will go and watch the fireworks!

After 3 years of constant use, our front door lock simply came to the end of it's life. It is a deadbolt assembly on our door, and I was able to pick up a new one at good old Canadian Tire for $15.00! All is good again. Pretty exciting day right!

Judy went into Woodstock to do some shopping and stopped by and picked up Kristina and Gwenny to help her spend all her money!

Gwenny sure seemed to be in a great mood again, and was waiving and talking to all the people in the grocery store.

Not a whole lot more on the go today, simply too hot again to do much of anything, and I still have some of this cold left that I am trying to get rid of.

Till tomorrow...

Posted with Blogsy

Hello… Boss… It’s too hot, I can’t come in today!

Well, I figured that worked the other night when I phoned in sick… but might not be able to get away with it tonight…rats!  It sure was hot here today!  Mid 30’s and too too much hot sun… you had to be in the shade, nothing else would do!

Kristina called at 10:00 this morning, saying “help, it is too hot, and we need a pool… do you have one???”  Yes, we have a lovely pool at our park, so out they came for the day!

This is what we did a lot of today, sitting outside as in the pic below, drinking lemonade!  Gwenny had her princess hat on, as she is one!

Just give her a pool and a ball, and she is off to the races…

Our park owners, Ron and Jane, have been starting the decorating for Canada Day!

Below Gwenny goes for a dunk… she just loves it!

This is what Patra did all day today!

Have to thank Rick over at Rick & Paulette's RV Travels who put up a great blog on how to do a complete backup of your computer on your external hard drive… as it turns out, it is very simple to do of course… however, I don’t know why it is I have to read one of his blogs before I actually go and do whatever it is he is talking about!  What’s with that???  Anyways, thanks Rick, we now have both our laptops backed up, and our iPad is backed up on some cloud somewhere floating over South America right about now!

RIP RIM   Must say too bad about RIM, a local Waterloo based Company, that sells the very popular Blackberry!  I cannot believe how fast they are falling out of grace with the public and the stock markets!  Last week, they laid off 2,000 employees in Waterloo, and tonight 5,000 more.  As far as I am concerned, they are done like dinner!  Even though they currently have 2 Billion $$$$ in the Bank, it will not last as far as I am concerned.  Move over Nortel.

Till tomorrow…

Back to 1/2 speed today...

Yes, I am feeling better today, not 100%, but starting to get there... this bug can set you on your butt... be careful out there!

 

YES! The heat is on once again! Ontario is heading right back into another heat wave with temperatures expected to be 34 deg. C. tomorrow and higher to come as we enter Canada Day long weekend! Love it! Sure looks like the people out on the west coast could use some of this, and it still appears to be damp out there...

Today was 29 deg. and humid... we decided to head into Town, and ran into Gwenny and her Mom, and decided to take a walk! While there are a lot of different hiking trails around, I wanted to do something a little different... we walked downtown! Imagine that! Downtown cores in many of our Towns and Cities in Ontario have taken it on the chin over the past number of years, thanks mainly to the big old shopping malls we all seem to love! Woodstock's Dundas Street, is very long, and holds lots of business... and I really enjoyed the walk today!

It is only a couple blocks from the house down to Dundas, and Gwenny was all decked out in a nice summer outfit, thanks to Jenn and Shawn in Ottawa, who sent back a nice bundle of cloths for Gwenny, that Paige and Emmie have grown out of!

While we made the hike downtown, we passed this nice home, with gardens out front that were second to none! Someone spends a lot of time outside!

Dundas St. is quite long, and while there are a few empty stores, most are full of business that seem to be doing alright as a whole...

 

Typical of many of our Towns, Woodstock is all worked up with nice sidewalks, and many planters that contains flowers and trees... makes for a nice downtown.

Above is the Woodstock City Hall... they spent all of last year restoring the outside of this building, and they did a terrific job, including keeping the right time on the big clock!

We were walking for an hour and a half, so decided we should stop in at the Miss Woodstock Restaurant, for a bite to eat... Why is it, that when a little baby smiles and waves at everyone in the place, they all have to stop and say hello, and pinch Gwenny's cheeks????

Gwenny couldn't make it home without taking a bit of a snooze... it is tuff being a kid!

After all this excitement, Judy and I headed home, where I took life very easy this afternoon!

Bring on the heat!

Welcome to Deb C. tonight, who recently became our 126th blog follower!

Till tomorrow...

"Hello... Boss? I can't come in today..."

Hmmm... it seems when we drove back from Ottawa yesterday, I brought something with me I really didn't want! A nice cold!

Had to phone the Boss today and tell him I was sick and could not make it in...

Lucky for me, I have a real nice Boss, and he said "not to worry, the blog will still be there tomorrow, and we will not even deduct your Pension Cheque a day's pay!" Perfect

Till tomorrow...

 

We headed back to Woodstock today...

 

Yes, we headed back to Woodstock today... over 600 klms. away... so it took us a little over 7 hours on the road! We really enjoyed our visit to the Hollinger's in Ottawa, and found it very hard to leave today...

Shawn and Jenn were up early and off to work, leaving the care of Emmie and Paige with Lita, the Nanny. It was really overcast in Ottawa, but the further east we headed, the better the weather got!

We brought back a gas powered pressure washer with us from Shawn's garage, and will use it to wash Chris and Kristina's deck in the next while...

On our drive today, we received a couple pictures from Kristina of Gwenny, (of course...) and she is right into playing in the sand these days in a new sand box they got for her...

Kristina was wondering how Gwenny got sand all over her face while playing, and soon had an answer to that question in the picture below... girls will be girls!

Of course we have to have one last picture of Emmie and Paige in tonight's blog... Judy took this one just before we said our "goodbye's"... Paige always has a doll or two close by... love it!

When we stopped in at the house to drop off the pressure washer, there was a box delivered for Judy that we picked up. A special delivery from the Government of Canada! Judy spent 18 years working for Revenue Canada, and Corrections Canada before retiring. They had a Ceremony to celebrate Retirement's, however our schedule did not allow us to attend, so they shipped the awards to Judy...

The Government of Canada sent one, and the other was sent from Corrections Canada... now, remember who we were hob nobbing with on the past weekend... yes, the Govenor General! Now check this out... the signiture on the Government Plaque...

 

Yes, that would be the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper no less! We are turning into a very Political Family! What is next... lunch with the Queen???

Anyways, congratulations on your retirement my Dear!

Till tomorrow...

 

Another great day in Ottawa...

The weather here in Ottawa has been fantastic since we have been here... lots of sun and warm! This evening, as I do up the blog there is some rain falling, but they need it here real bad!

This morning, we all relaxed and took life easy. Shawn and Jenn bought a new desk at Staples, so Shawn and I moved it down into the office and got it all set up. Next was some grass trimming and some wiper snipping to keep the house looking good!

I got Emmie to give me a few lessons on the iPad 3 for a while this afternoon!

 

I had downloaded an interactive Mickey Mouse Program onto the iPad, and she was showing me how to use it! She is only 4, but she knows her iPad's!

Shawn has let me try out a fancy wireless keyboard for the iPad that he has, it is a bluetooth operated little device, and works great!

It is very easy to sync with your iPad, and is full size, so you can very easily 10 finger type on it, which is what I learned to do in Grade 9! I just didn't sit there like a bump on the log in School...

Jenn went searching on the internet this morning and found some pictures of Shawn at the CHEO Picnic from yesterday...

 

These pictures were taken off the 1310 News Website, and show The Governor General, David Johnston, and his Wife Sharon Johnston, getting their Teddy Bear checked at the BASH Tent at Rideau Hall.

If you go to the Governor General's web site, at www.gg.ca you will see one of the above pictures of the group on the first page! We now have a Celebrity Dr. in the Family! The Governor General, in his former career, of President of Waterloo University, also signed both Shawn's and Jenn's graduation diplomas from Waterloo!

This afternoon, we all jumped in the van and headed out to the Movies!

The kid's wanted to see the new Movie, Brave which was just released yesterday. We even got to see it in 3D no less! This is one of the first of the new movies Judy and I have watched in 3D, and we both loved it! They have made major improvements in 3D, that is for sure! It was a great movie, that we all enjoyed, and just as we were leaving out the door, Emmie said to Judy and I that she wanted to go back and see it again! Must have been good.

Back to the house to enjoy and nice BBQ'd steak dinner tonight!

Till tomorrow...

 

CHEO Picnic...

The City of Ottawa, and the Children's Hospital Eastern Ontario, (CHEO) put on an awareness picnic for the people of Ottawa at Rideau Hall today. Rideau Hall is the home of the Govenor General for Canada, David Johnston. First, we enjoyed a great pancake breakfast, at which I was too hungry to take any pictures...

There are many acres of Parkland included, and that was where the picnic was held.

As our Son, Shawn, is a Dr. At CHEO, he volunteered to help out with the picnic. He helped out in the BASH Unit... (bear amblitory surgery hospital) as a surgeon! Kid's bring their Teddy Bear in, get them admitted, and then see a "Dr." to see what can be done to fix their Bear.

Waiting for admitting above...there was a big line up of Kid's all day long!

Above is where the Dr.'s did their work...

Check out all the tents set up above for surgery!

Emmie's and Paige both wanted to take their Bears to Dr. Shawn for the visit!

 

This is one of the few times we get to see Shawn "at work"...it was great...a photographer from The Ottawa Citizen took pictures of Shawn checking Paige's Bear!

 

Soon, after we left Shawn to do his work, we missed the BIG story of the day! The Govenor General, David Johnston, His Wife, Sharon Johnston, and Maureen Harper, Wife of Prime Minister Harper, all brought Bears in the tent to be looked at, and they all went to Dr. Shawn for the visit! Of course we all missed this live, but we are trying to track down pictures, as all the media follow these people!

The Kid's got to meet Miss Teen Ontario at the Picnic...

Paige loved riding her horse! There was a bunch of rides for the Kid's and we did them all!

The OPP and Army had great displays, and I took Emmie's with me to see them...an OPP Officer shows her all the buttons on a new cruiser.

The little boy above liked this brand new artillery gun...I had a talk with a 23 year old Canadian War Hero, who fought in Afganistan, and showed me all about the gun, and what he did! It was amazing!

We got to see an armored car, and wear a helmet.

As you can tell, it was a very busy day for all of us! Shawn was tired after 3 hours of non stp teddy bear visits!

We relaxed this afternoon, with Shawn taking a couple hours to show me how to "REALLY" use an iPad! He uses one at the Hospital, and is a big time Techie when it comes to the latest gadgets. I now have a bunch of new iPad Apps.

Till tomorrow...

 

Mount Cascades Water Park!

It was a beautiful day here in Ottawa, and I received an early morning call from Dr. Hollinger, who had been working at the Children's Hospital for the past 24 hours. Lucky for him, he had a good night with all the babies behaving themselves, and he suggested we all pack up and head to the water park for the day! What a great idea!

 

Mount Cascades Park is a great spot, across the River from Ottawa in Quebec...

Lots of pools and slides to keep all amused!

It sure did not take long for Emmie and Paige to get in on all the action...

even Judy was acting young again...

We were able to rent our own private gazebo that we used to base our visit out of!

Paige has no fear on the slides...

Shawn and Emmie are standing under that big barrel, that kept spilling it's load...what a shower!

After we left the Park, we headed for Downtown Ottawa for Dinner out. Above is the tour boat along the Rideau Canal...

You always need a horse drawn carriage!

They had Ribfest going down on Bank St., and it was busy...we found a great Family Restaurant to enjoy.

The National Remembrance Monument...

 

Parliament Hill of course...

We had a heck of a day, and everyone is starting to slow down...

Welcome tonight to Michelle, our latest blog follower!

Till tomorrow...