Hakuna Matata

Feels Like I'm Home

We're in Montreal! We landed on Friday night after a full day of travelling and we were pooped. After renting the car, getting the kids' carseats in and leaving the airport we were stuck in heavy traffic that took over an our to get to my mom's place. James and I both thought the same thing...how do people live in Montreal...with all the stress of traffic?!! But we soon got our answer this week. The city is awesome and has so much to offer. There are so many good restaurants, AWESOME shopping, absolutely beautiful old buildings, multiculturalism, etc....... People drive like maniacs but I've quickly re-adjusted myself to driving/parking like a Montrealer and avoiding the crater sized potholes lining almost every street! And people are so stylish. I love people watching here. I even went and got my hair cut at this funky salon by a gay guy named Yannick who was wearing a bright pink and black striped t-shirt and had hair that looked 'dirty' to me. The haircut I'm not too crazy about. It's quite different. But hey, it was a Montreal thing. And the supermarkets are awesome. The food looks/tastes so delicious that you want to buy everything. The fruit is so plentiful, sweet and cheap! We pay way too much for our groceries back home.

Anyhow it's great to be back in my hometown and to be hanging out with my family. The girls LOVE their cousins. Romy is the best babysitter. Whenever I'm over at my sisters' place, I get to drink coffee while it's hot, and talk with my sisters' without interruption. The girls just follow Romy around and she and her 2 brothers entertain them the whole time. How much better can it get, eh?

We've had quite a busy schedule since we got here. First we celebrated Romy's 10th birthday party on Saturday. Which was fun but nuts....since she had invited 13 other girls, plus my girls, plus Victor and Edouard. But between the arts & crafts, the pool, the shrieking, laughing, talking and eating we all had a great time. Then on Sunday, we celebrated Alex and Rachel's 3rd birthday. Again, it was crazy but we all got together, ate too much good food and had a great time. Even Godfather Silvano made it to their party all the way out here in Montreal. And since then we have been visiting family and friends, shopping, shopping and eating and just hanging out with my family. We are having a great time.

My sister, Joyce, took a week off work and came to Montreal too. So fun! And her belly has grown so much. She's usually super skinny and now she's not. She looks good, even though she keeps complaining that her face is bigger. Seeing my sister has been kind of a wake up call for me. All her clothes are too tight for her at the moment so I suggested that she try on one of my pants. And they fit her!! loosely!!! So what does that say about me? I'm the same size as my sister who is 4 months pregnant! And we are the same height so I guess I look like she does but I'm not pregnant. Before she tried on my pants, I had commented to her that her bum looked pretty big. But my pants were loose on her bum. So that means my bum looks bigger than hers?!!! Wow I really need to get a full length mirror soon. So this has motivated me to lose 10 pounds. I don't know how anyone can lose weight in Montreal. Everything tastes soooo good here. The boulangeries are fantastic. They have the best pastries and cakes in all of Canada. And James and I are pigging out at all our favorite old hangouts. James was trying to convince me at 11:30Pm last night that we should go out and eat some Shish Taouk. We love this Lebanese food and it's open till midnight. But I talked him out of it. We had already eaten really cheesy, meaty heart attack on a plate pizza for dinner. And we were still full.

The most special part of this week has been watching the girls bond with everyone. They just naturally bonded with Grandma, Grandpa, their aunties and cousins. And it's been great to have my sisters see all the quirky things that the girls do and say in person. Joyce left last night to go back to Ottawa and this morning the girls were really sad when they realized that she was gone. Rachel kept saying...I miss Joyce Poyce. So cute that they miss her.

So we have another dinner to go to tonight at my Uncle's house. My sister, Susan and her family will be there too so the whole gang will be together again to enjoy an evening together. Did I mention that I'm loving being home in Montreal?

Well I will post some more pics and stories soon. We were suppose to make a surprise visit to Toronto to visit James' family this coming Saturday but now it turns out that it's not a surprise anymore. I didn't know this beforehand...but Korean's don't like surprises too much.

Talk to you soon.