vacation...what it means and what it meant.

and so it is, vacation time, here in our little corner of the world. what does that mean? well, let's see. we are all booked up with cleaning and painting, as well as some time for fun & shopping. take yesterday, for example. we took advantage of sunday shopping in moncton. we hit costco, and loaded up on savings. we also had a nice lunch before heading back home. total time gone, 8 hrs, total $spent, a week's pay. but it was all good, it was in the budget.  we even bought a set of ball gloves and a couple of softballs to play catch. k says it is great exercise and we used to play. of course, our arms will feel like crap after the first few times, but it will be a fun way to get fit.

today is room dunging day. my room, aka the storage room, is getting a major cleaning out.  we have rules this time. anything that i have not used or even looked at in 6 months is either being donated away or turfed out! period!  i think i am ready for this clean sweep k&m style. will keep ya'all posted on that one.  r is also going to so his room in preparation for painting. with the amount of stuff we have planned for the week off, it is highly doubtful that we will get all three bedrooms painted as originally planned. 

tuesday we are going to purchase paint at the same place we got the paint last fall. they have scent free stuff. we went on saturday but found them closed, so took a chance at canadian tire to see what they had in stock. i could not get withing 4 feet of the open can, hence waiting until tuesday to get paint. and then we shall begin painting r's room. i am going to switch bedrooms after he moves to his own place, so it will be  a calming shade of blue. not light but not too dark either. 

tuesday we are also going to the patio stone store....where ever we can find a bargain. we are going to make a patio in the side yard. we have been going on walks around the park, and have seen many good ideas for one of our own. not liking process pictures, i will take some when it is completed. 

wednesday, mom and i have to meet with my ex-step-son, who is in charge of the local cemetery out there to choose a plot for the headstone and then make arrangements for the internment. this has been hanging over us since january. it will be done soon, and hopefully mom will be able to move forward as she has been doing. 

wednesday afternoon will be the completion of painting and the preliminary work for the patio. (weather permitting, of course).

that is about as far ahead as i want to go for the moment. naturally, there is room for change in the program but for now that is what the beginnings of this week are like. (i need a nap just thinking about it all).

so that is what vacation means for us. but what did it used to mean? remember packing up the car and heading to wherever for however long? long car drives with parents to far away places. motel rooms with starched white sheets and 'wrapped' toilets. meeting other kids at the motel pool and having fun until it was time to go to bed.  the year i was 5, i can recall us having a little SIGNET trailer. and that one summer it rained every-time we took it somewhere. i used to swim in the puddles. that trailer had a curse on it i think. one weekend, there was a flat tire, another weekend, the hitch broke somehow. and then of course, it always rained. thunderstorms so bad it scarred me for life. and then, that fall the trailer was gone. funny what you think of.

back during my married life, there were no vacations. it was all about the farm and work. we bought a camper one time, the type that slides into the back of the pick up truck. we used it once a year for 4 years. one time we even used it twice. always had to get back to do farm work, like haying or something. 

now i know that i have listed off things that we are going to do this week that sounds like work. but everything is relative. if you are happy where you are, and work together for the greater good, it isn't work, right? 

any special memories about vacations past i would love to read. so there, my faithfuls, an assignment for you. a tag if you will. just a short memory, let me know in my comment section that you have joined in. 

and on that note...i am off to do a bit of blog hopping and then it is time to begin the process of cleaning my room. ....  g'day.