The in-laws were gone to Mexico for several weeks and have thankfully let us borrow their house for a while.  It’s a good thing because our propane tanks froze on the way in.

We haven’t done a whole lot of touring while we’ve been here, but have visited with family many times.  We also bought a used snowmobile and have had the chance to use it a few times when the weather was in the mid minus teens.  The girls have fun with it.  They’ve actually ventured outside more than I or Kevin have.  They actually built a fort out of flax bails and pulled some of their cousins behind the ski-doo on gt snow racers.  Lots of fun.

So last weekend we went out as a group to Celebrations dinner theatre to celebrate several of our February birthdays.  Tom’s (whose 74), Jo-Jo whose 50 and Carole and my 40th.  It was a great show and we had lots of fun.

Monday was a busy day for me…I drove out to Steinbach to surprise Carole with a few things for her birthday and then came back to the city so I could decorate Jo-jo’s desk at work.  I had it prearranged with her boss that I would come in after she left.  Boy, was she surprised when she got to work on Tuesday.  Her boss also brought in lunch and gave her the afternoon off with an appointment to get a massage.  What a nice boss.

Later this week, I decided that the girls and I needed to get out for some excercise, we went over to Pan-Am pool.  This is where they have competitive swimming and diving.  They even have the PanAm games held there.  We had fun.  The girls really enjoyed jumping off the platforms.  We jumped off the 2.5 meter and the 5 meter, anything higher and it was closed.

This past Friday I also had us booked for a tour of the Winnipeg Mint.  I remember taking a tour when I was in elementary and thought this would be good for the girls to see as well.  Kevin wasn’t able to join us because he had a lot of work to do. The girls learned lots about the different coins that the mint produces and what they are made of.  How they get made and we also got to see a gold bar.  How much it weighed and how much it was worth.  A good tour to take if you’re ever in Winnipeg.  Canada has another mint located in Ottawa where they produce the larger specialized coins.

Well, with the cold weather comes nasty colds.  Gina and I have been sick for the past few days.  Stuffy noses, raw throats from coughing so much.  I hope it ends soon… I hate being sick.  Good thing I don’t get sick often.  I hope our germs aren’t spread to Kevin and Melanie.

We have Gina registered for her horsemanship lessons here in Winnipeg.  She was supposed to have her lessons in Orlando…but because we had to leave she got screwed out of it there.  She starts on Monday and she’s looking forward to it.

We are also heading to Calgary this coming weekend.  We’re there for two weeks for sure…maybe three.  So we’re hoping to see all of our friends when we are there.  I hope the weather is warmer than in Winnipeg. :0)

That’s about it…not much going on except trying to stay warm.

Have a good week

Nicole

We had some friends from Calgary come out to play in a baseball tournament at the Wide World of Sports in mid-December.  They didn’t do so well…but it was quite the experience I’m sure to play at such a park.  Had a chance to hang out with Sid and Margot and catch a Cirque du Soleil show with them and go shoot some pool in Old Town in Kissimmee.  Did some shopping and had lunch with Margot.  It was nice chance to get to know her a little better.  Unfortunately didn’t get to visit with any of the other crew…but we will some more of you in March when we’re in for a week or two in Calgary.

Next came our family.  Carole and Darryl and the crew showed up on Monday the 17th.  My Mom and Tom were supposed to arrive the same day but there was a storm in Toronto that their flight was cancelled.  They arrived Tuesday instead.  Better to have them here safe and in one piece…than not.

So never a dull moment with the family.  We did so much with everyone.  We had a dinner the first night at Midievil Times to celebrate my niece’s birthday.  It was fun to see the look on everyone’s face to know there were no dinner utensils to eat with. :0)

From the next day forward, we did Discovery Cove and the dolphin swim, Seaworld, Busch Gardens, Magic Kingdom, lots of shopping, Universal, Islands of Adventure.  There were many fast roller coasters and crazy rides that many of us did.  Even Tom braved his way onto many of the coasters.  I think we all had fun at the various parks and each left with liking one park over the other.  We have our favorites…mostly Discovery Cove…or any of the parks that Anheiser Busch owns.

We had a really nice Christmas here in Orlando with everyone.  It’s not every Christmas where you’d be wearing shorts and going for a swim in the pool.  Speaking of pools, at Carole and Darryl’s rental house they had a pool in the back yard.  After supper and the gifts were done…people decided that Gina needed to be dunked in the pool a little bit…well from then on it was war.  Everyone got thrown in the pool…well I knew I was going to go in so I just decided to walk in rather than get dragged in (new jeans and all) my niece decided she’d change before being thrown in (smart girl).  The only ones that remained dry were Mom and Tom. (and don’t think Kevin and Darryl weren’t planning for you as well) Carole and I had to put our foot down somewhere.  Anyways…it was a lot of fun.

So on December 27th Mom, Tom and the older of the Kehler clan left for Winnipeg.  That left Carole, Darryl, Miranda, Janessa and Renae to be here until Jan. 04.  We did more of the parks with them and decided that we would stay away from the parks on New Years eve because it would be too jammed pack with wall to wall people. (We did that on Christmas day because that being Gina’s birthday as well and that’s what she wanted to do…way too many people)  So we did a waterpark during the day and had a mellow night at their rental house.

A week has now gone by since everyone left and it’s been hard getting back into the swing of homework and work.  It sure was great to see friends and family over the holidays.  I did say to Kevin…even though the weather was nice here…I think it lacked the holiday spirit that we usually seen at home.  In Calgary there are rows of houses all lit up with lights and in Orlando…not very many.  The parks were all decked out but it’s not the same.  I said to Kevin that if we were to spend winter in Florida again…it would have to wait till after Christmas.

Well, here’s the sad news about Florida…it’s now time to go.  Here’s how the story goes, before we even left for our adventure I had called US immigration and the person on the phone told me to find an immigration office in the states and go report to them and ask them for an extension.  I said, thank you very much and left it at that….well today when we went to immigration we were told we had to leave the US.  Turns out we would’ve needed to go three months ago and apply for an extension and paid 340.00 per person with no guarantee that they would accept it and they wouldn’t refund you the money if you didn’t get accepted.  Also, when you come into the US our passports should’ve been stamped…which they didn’t do at the border…so now we we’re kindly asked to leave.  So Kevin and I went out for a bite to talk about what we were going to do…we are leaving of course…but our trip isn’t over…we just have to suffer through winter like the rest of you. :0(

We will be leaving either late Thursday evening or really early Friday morning and heading up to Manitoba.  We’ll stay there for a bit, then drive back to Calgary so we can take care of some business, file our taxes, etc. and start heading east.  Believe it or not but there are campgrounds open in the winter and many that will open April 1.  So the trip isn’t all done…just delayed a bit.  We might attempt coming back to the US to finish off the east coast…but we’ll see how much time we have left after touring the east in Canada.  We’re all a little sad to leave Orlando and the warm weather…but we’re OK knowing that the trip isn’t over.

See you in the Peg’

Well, we love Florida and don’t miss the cold weather you all are having.  It’s green and warm and we have seen the odd shower.  The pool when we got here was nice and warm…but has progressively gotten colder.  We keep telling the front desk, but nothing seems to be working.  Our new friends are going to go up and ask them to turn it up too.  Hopefully if a few people go up they might do something about it.  Other people complain in the pool too.

So we’ve had some excitement this week.  Just last night we had a police chase last night in the campground.  Turns out some guys had stolen something and came down the street that leads right into the resort.  There is no way out except the way you come in.  They had police cars and they also had the police helicopter flying around.  Took them a while to catch him though…but thankfully they did.  There is also this strange lady living in her truck here (till the end of the week).  She has been told by people around her and the staff to leave everyone alone.  She comes up and talks to you and offers you cigarettes and she usually always has a beer in her hand.  She also collects things that are left behind.  Like at the pool the other night, some kid left a couple of pool toys and she grabbed them.  Gina the other night had put her hair elastic on the edge of the pool…and she grabbed it.  When you walk by her truck she has set up some kind of temple with these things.  She told me the other night she places her flags a certain way to keep the evil spirits away.  I think she’s got some voodoo thing going on.  It’s very weird.  I told Kevin that if she comes up to talk to me again…cause she’s already cornered me twice…I’m going to ask her if she wants me to pray for her. I usually do anyway when I jog by her site…but I don’t know what to make of her. All the kids know to stay away from her if she comes near them.  She’s already approached our friends oldest kid twice as well.

So today (Thursday) we all got prepared and went to Kennedy Space Centre for the shuttle launch.  When we got there it was told to us that it had been cancelled.  Shoot….well we decided to stay and do some of the activities there.  We tried the Space Shuttle simulator (that was kinda cool) we took off and went into space.  We decided we’d do some souvenir shopping today instead of trying to fight through it when we come back for the launch.  We also upgraded our launch pass to an annal pass.  It’s cheaper to do the annual pass then to come here twice.  It’s a pretty good deal.  So now it looks like they’ve rescheduled the launch for Saturday at 3:43.  Hopefully it’ll be a “GO”.

Well, that’s all I have to report so far for this week.

Have a great weekend

Nicole

We also went and had the girls “School” pictures taken at Wal-mart. I’ll send them home with Mom after Christmas.

We’ve met some nice people here at Tropical Palms. They are from Ontario. They are an older couple (He’s 63 and she’s probably late 50’s). At first we thought they had brought their grandkids to Florida, but they actually fostered these kids and since May have adopted them. There is a 15 year old, a twelve year old, an 8 year old and a 19 month old. They are here for 3 months. These kids are also homeschooled. They started off in the public system but then got all of the work for the next three months and the “Mom” is teaching them. Our girls and their kids love hanging out together.

We went for a tour of the cottages here that you could purchase. They had some old stock they wanted to sell for 50,000. They aren’t very big. Only 500 sqare feet. We love it here so I think we’ll be scoping out what sort of properties they have for sale. Probably won’t buy anything this time around…but who knows maybe in the future.

We bought some passes at Costco here for a great deal. They were for Universal and Island of Adventures. We bought a 3 month pass for 80 dollars. A 7 day pass at the park is 80…I think we got the better deal. Kevin bought a yearly pass because it comes with free parking and free kennel services. It also has other perks…but parking and kennel rank really high on our list of good deals. So we spent our Saturday at Islands of Adventure. This was great, the last time we were here, Gina wasn’t big enough for some of the rides. This time she is. We started off with the Incredible Hulk roller coaster. She was a little freaked out at first by the way it starts…but loved it. We went on it again several times. Our family loves roller coasters. We went on many of them at Six Flags in California. The ones at Six Flags are bigger and faster…but the ones in Florida are just as fun.

Today (Sunday) we went to a church service at a church called “The Rock”. It was interesting to say the least. We had to explain to the girls that some churches worship a little different than what we are used to. We’ve come across many churches that are different which makes us miss Centre Street even more. We will try another church this Sunday.  Anyways,  the service lasted longer then what we thought, so we just came home, had late lunch and did our chores. We all blogged and headed out later in the evening for a walk. We walked through Old Town and went for dinner at the Ponderosa. We love that restaurant…it’s good and it’s a cheap meal. We strolled back to our house and the girls played around on their computer until the neighbour kids came knocking on the door to go swimming.

Well the girls have two weeks to get three weeks of schoolwork done before our family comes out. Totally possible for them. With family coming and the pool right across from us, the homework will be done quickly I’m sure. I’m also hoping to get my all my Christmas shopping done this week. I’ve got most of it done, just a few things left. I know, I know…most of you are probably done. I usually have it started in November and finish up in the second week of December, so I’m ahead of myself this year.

Well that’s about it for us this week. We’re all healthy , all happy and loving the warm Florida weather. Hope you all have a great week.

Nicole

So from Birmingham we went to Montgomery where we pulled into a trailer park called “The Woods RV Park” .  It’s just outside of Montgomery.   We were welcomed there by a couple of nice people who work for the owners.  Unfortunately we had to go into the office the next day because we were having internet issues and the girls were having to go and hang out in the office most of the day.  Which wouldn’t be so bad but the owners had little puppies in the office with them.  This my friends, is a big distraction to our girls.  They managed to get some of their homework done and lots of puppy cuddle time.  I won’t lie…I went in for some cuddling as well.  We met the owners that day as well.  Just like us they are new to the RV park business.  They are celebrating their 5th year of owning the land and three years of running the campground. Well after some technical difficulties and rearranging of signals…internet was a whole lot better.

Originally we were only going to stay for three nights…but we decided to stay longer because we hadn’t seen anything here.  We did take an afternoon to go into Montgomery and visit Rosa Parks museum.  I’m getting confused with the different things that we’ve learned about her though.  In Birmingham it said that she was a timid 16 year old who refused to give up her seat…but in Montgomery she was in her 40’s…I think I’ll believe the one in Montgomery where it actually happened.  We also saw a bit of the city…but it’s very small.  When we returned we were invited to Thanksgiving dinner.  It was going to be pot luck.  Every year since they’ve been opened they invite everyone from the park for dinner.  It was great.  We met an older couple from Stony Plains, Alberta and we met other people from around the US.  This was there biggest turn out so far.  The owners also had their families come as well.  The girls were able to hang out with all the kids for the next few days.  They were outside playing for most of the time.  It’s good to see them outside playing.  We tried new dishes that they prepare in the south.  It was pretty good.  I got a recipe for one of them and I’ll try it out at Christmas.  Sweet Potato Souffle.
The next day we were going to go and do some more sight seeing…but we were invited back to the house for left overs.  We ended up staying all afternoon and into the evening.  It was like a big family gathering from home.  It was so much fun.  We did although had to leave on Saturday for Mobile, Alabama.  Gina was so sad…she was going to miss the puppies and Melanie was going to miss all the new friends she had made.  They all exchanged emails and addresses.  They are also making plans to come and visit to try some snowboarding and both our girls want to fly back next American Thanksgiving and have it with them.    It was a good-bye filled with hugs.

So we pulled into Mobile and the site they had for us was the lowest site on the park.  It’s also where they have sewage back-up problems.  Let me tell you the aroma around our trailer was not a pleasant one.  The ground was also soft and I was worried our trailer would sink.  Anyways, we spent the night there.  The next morning none of us were too impressed with the facilities.  They were disgusting.  It had two showers and two toilets for the entire campground.  The women’s shower had no door on it so the floor was soaking wet and for the men’s…well all Kevin said was “It’s disgusting”  he can usually take a shower in worse things than me…but even this was too much for him.  So we all decided to leave and head for Orlando.  Now we decided this after lunch so it took us about 8 hours to get to Orlando.  Which got us here at around 1:30 in the morning…but with the eastern time zone it’s 2:30 in the morning.  After we got things sort of set up, Kevin and I went for a swim in the 24 hour heated pool.  It was a great way to relax before hitting the pit.  Needless to say…were a bit tired today but it’s OK because it’s 29 and sunny and warm for the rest of the week.

Looking forward to spending time with our families and friends in December.

Have a great week

Nicole

The first couple of days we would go after the girls were finished with their homework…but some of the rides were always broken. It’s kind of old fashioned manual rides..but still fun none the less. So Wednesday we told the girls to go in the morning just after it opened and before all the schools arrived for their field trip. This way the rides that were always broken (and by broken I mean tires are out of air and there is no juice left in the motorized bathtubs). So they did and they had a really fun time. We took a tour of the cavern. It was not as big or as nice as the ones in Carlsbad. This one was had definitely been handled a lot more. The interesting thing about it was the different shades of colours as compared to the ones in Carlsbad. DeSoto caverns in my opinion are OK…but as you can tell I prefer the ones in Carlsbad.

So as you seen the girls had pretty good report cards so we treated them to crab legs at Red Lobster. They love crab. I’ll feel sorry for the guys who date them…because that’s where they like to go for food given the option. (Or I guess now you can ad Logan’s Roadhouse…but that’s a far trip to get there :0)

We also toured the Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham and boy what an eye opener. I new about the Mississipi Burning from the movie and new there was racism in the south but not to this degree. The museum did a great job of portraying many of the events that took place and provided lots of video for back-up. What a sad state of affairs. The blacks didn’t let segregation stand in there way of proving themselves to be just as competent or more so than the white folk. They had there own community built up of doctors, lawyers, dentist, etc. They were very successful. It was very sad to see what hurdles they had to go through to have segregation stopped. They were beaten, they were killed, they were fumagated, they weren’t served in restaurants, they were arrested for nothing, they were given less in any situation. If you were a teacher they had a classroom size of 43 as compared to the white teacher who had 24. In the hospitals for example, the number of infant deaths before would be whites 31 out of a 1000 and blacks over 60 out of a thousand. A bit of a difference. Roza Parks made a big difference in history for standing up to a white person and not moving from her seat in a bus that was designated for whites only from the middle row up. This girl was fifteen. The blacks boycotted the busing industry for over 6 months before the companies decided that anyone could sit anywhere. They had to do this because it was black’s that rode the bus the most…and they were losing a lot of money. I also love the idea of the black’s forming these sit-in groups at white only restaurants. I just couldn’t believe that this was all happening in the 60’s and into the 70’s. Where was the rest of the country when this was happening…where was the rest of the world? I was upset with what I read and saw. When we went to leave Kevin asked a security guard (who was black) if this was still happening. He was a very kind man but didn’t know what to tell us so he directed us to another gentleman who worked there and I guess was the historian. (He was also black) he was a soft spoken gentleman that talked to us about some other events that took place even into the eighties. He says that it’s not obvious to people in general…but racism is still subtle. Like you may not get a mortgage…because of your colour. It’s hard for us to understand how this can still be around…but even worse for the girls to see the fight they had to battle to become part of today’s society…they were shocked. I’m told it’s mostly in the southern states that racism still lingers…but who knows. People are great at hiding what they really feel.

Oh…yeah, forgot to mention that Tuesday while the girls were busy with school work and Kevin busy with his work, I asked a maintenance worker here for a rake. I hate sitting around and doing nothing…and frankly there is only so much cleaning you can do in a trailer that I decided to help the grounds crew do their fall clean-up. It was great exercise and I love doing it. It reminded me of raking the leaves at our cottage growing up. Kevin says I probably raked 3 acres. It was fun. I had a lady come up to me and ask me if I worked here. I said no, just camping here and wanted something to do. We chatted for a bit and she finished off by saying “that it looked great”

Last night we went and picked up some yucky KFC and had a picnic in the truck as we waited for the drive in movie to start. It was a small drive in theatre that had two screens (facing opposite sides of course) We went and watched the movie “The Bee movie” It was great and tied totally into what Gina is learning in science. Interesting to know also that bees are becoming extint which would suck because without pollination we would have no more fruits and vegetables, no flowers, no farmers fields of wheat/straw, etc. Scientists are checking to see that if it’s the waves from the cell phones screwing things up with the bees. I personally think it’s all the chemicals people spray in their yards and in their fields that have gotten into the bees bodies that are killing them. Just like in people…where with all the chemicals in our foods and in everything, people are getting sicker and sicker…be it more asthma, cancer, deformities, etc . It’s time to go back to the basics. Look at me turning into (as Kevin would say) granola munching, environmentalist. It’s just been good to see on our trip all of the pollution and the effects and think…there won’t be much of a planet for our kids or our kids kids left. Nothing too desirable for them will be left. So long and short…if you see a bee…leave it alone, it’s got a job to do.

One other thing about Alabama the countryside is very beautiful and the people here are really friendly and very polite.  It’s obviously how the southern states are.  It’s growing on me…I even answered Kevin, “yes, sir” when he asked me something.  :0)

We are leaving here tomorrow and heading to Montgomery, Alabama.  I’m looking forward to the Roza Parks Museum, the home and church of Martin Luther King and hoping to take a tour of the Hyundai manufacturing plant.

Have a great week.

gina-report-card.pdf

After a rough start Gina has improved drastically.   Her LA mark is a little low on the report card because the teacher was away sick in the hospital and hadn’t marked anything.  Her grade in LA is now 70%.

melanie-report-card.pdf

Melanie is doing well also.  We are proud of the girls for working hard at this new type of schooling.  It’s not easy jumping into a new way of learning.  It’s worked out better for us…not as much socializing (like in a classroom) but I think the girls are able to show their full potential this way.  They haven’t decided if they want to continue with this style of learning next year.  I think for the most part we will let them decide.

Happy reading.

Friday, Gina finished up homework in the morning and by afternoon the girls were getting all dolled up. I thought that perhaps we should go to Wal-mart or something to get their pictures taken. (Like a school picture). No chance…they could’ve taken their picture…but it would’ve taken 10 days to get them back. So we decided to go to the outlet mall because I remembered seeing a photo studio there. There again, no luck. I guess once we get to Orlando we can go get them done because we’ll be stationed there for a while. So we didn’t just waste our time out…we went and picked up a few things at Costco and grabbed a bite for dinner.

Saturday, today we went to Carnton Plantation. What a beautiful acreage this is. The fall colours are amazing. The house was very big. It was a two story home with four big rooms on each floor. The rooms were 20 x 20 in size, each with a fireplace. It had a very large entrance and hallway on the main floor. It did have a third floor…but it was never completed and it was more of an attic. Boy oh boy, lots of history took place here. The Carnton family (the wife) had noticed a troup of soldiers way out in the fields and so she had run outside the front door where she met an officer which it turned out that she had grown up with…anyways he asked her if they could use the house as a hospital. She graciously accepted…little did she know I’m sure of how bad it would be. There were over 2800 people in the house who needed to be looked after and 800 more out on the lawn. In those days, it made more sense to amputate then to try and save a limb. So they operated on people by the windows so they could just throw out the amputated parts. It is said that it was piled as high as the smoke house that used to be beside this house. As you walked in each of the rooms on the second floor you could still see the blood stains in the hardwood floors and in the bricks in front of the fireplaces. It was enough to send a chill up my back. They had some original pieces to the house, some was recreated and some was donated back to them from family members. Lady Carnton was known as The Widow of the south because she had cared for the sick and because of all the soldiers that were buried on their land. After the war was over, parents and families of the soldiers who had died there came to either reclaim their sons/husbands/brothers. She would either help them find them in the cemetery that they built or else sit and mourn with them. This cemetery is still there to this day. There is more to the story about the house and cemetery and the civil war, but you don’t have all day to read. There is a book out there called The Widow of the South if anyone is interested in reading about the civil war and about her. After the tour, we just went off and drove around to see more of Nashville. We stopped downtown and we walked around for a bit. We also stopped and went to a famer’s market there. We bought some fresh vegetables and fruits. We came home, cleaned up the trailer and did some laundry so we could be ready to go for tomorrow. We are heading a little bit south tomorrow. We will be by Birmingham, Alabama for the next week. Looking forward to our visit there.

Have a great week ya’ll