:(

I have a sore throat...I hope I am not getting a cold!!! I have had 2 cloves of raw garlic and several Cold FX tablets....so hopefully that will stop it in its tracks......I can't have the garlic tomorrow though or I won't be too popular on the plane ;)

I will NOT have a cold for this holiday...my sister phoned earlier to wish us Bon Voyage! It was midnight her time so I have no idea why she was still up!

Lloyd is making the children toasted sandwiches but I am not hungry.....

I finally found some pants (trousers) that fit me length-wise!!! In Walmart!!!! So I bought 2 pairs, a new bra and a little nightie type thing - a slip???? Not sure what you would call it..ot's a nice red shade that matches my robe and slippers :)

I'd post a pic of me kitted out in all my red but I might scare you all away from my blog lol!

stressing out

I am stressing out now...my sister told me to stop worrying or I will give myself a migraine, but Im expecting a migraine on Monday night anyway.......I am worrying about everything....from packing everything to whether they will let us on the plane, to whether we will get our connecting flight to whether the plane will crash to the house while we are away, to poor Charlie who will get so depressed on her own so much.......and then if I didn't have enough to worry about, Lloyd thought to mention that HE is worrying that we will oversleep on Monday and wake up too late to get to the airport...so that gives me even more to worry about.......

We are setting 3 alarms.....if anyone is awake at 3am on Monday morning feel free to call us :) make sure we are awake!!!! In fact I may call Mum tomorrow and ask her to call us at 10am their time to wake us up! Now THATS a plan!!!

Travelling with 5 children is no mean feat.....there just seems to be so much to think about....and because we are a blended (grooooaaaan) family we have those issues to deal with too......passport-wise and leaving the country-wise.......

At the end of the day the only thing that matters is the passports - and the letter giving permission.......everything else we can do without and buy in the US if necessary.......nothing is irreplacable these days - you don't even get 'tickets' these days do you?

So I am sure all will be fine and by Monday evening I will be sat by the pool with a nice cup of tea and an Imitrex ;)

But right now I could do with some VALIUM......anyone???????? I'm not even allowed to drink atm so I can't even mellow out tonight with a glass of wine :(

On the bright side....Lloyd says he's bought my birthday gift...he won't tell me what it is and he's taking it with us to Florida...although he says he doesn't need to hide it (??????) so I am clueless and excited! He says I'll love it.....

2 more sleeps......2 more days of panic!

The ice carvings.......

Here are the ice carvings from this years competition.....I don't know if it is because the sun wasn't shining or the light was bad or the carvings just weren't very 'polished' but they didn't come out well in the pictures at all......but then again I was practicing with a new camera - getting ready to use it on holiday - so maybe it was just the camera (or the photographer lol)

a few more pics

The children in (and beside) the ice castle.......

Slip slidin' away............

The children enjoyed the smaller ice slides at Ice on Whyte...I'm glad we got to go before we left for Florida.......we have been to them all.....the last 4 years.....

Ice on Whyte....

So, did any of you go along to Ice on Whyte over the last few days? We took the children today for a while. I wasn't very impressed this year....there were very few carvings and some of them were not very impressive....The turtle one was good and so was the serpent one.....there were two small kiddy slides that Abigail enjoyed but the boys wanted to go on the bigger slide and were not allowed because you had to be over 16!!!!!! How ridiculous is that?????

Still, it was nice to be out on such a lovely day...it was about -5c while we were there but with no wind it was lovely and I didn't need gloves or even to do my coat up.....

We persuaded Chris to have a go on the kiddy slide and the picture I got of him is really funny :)

Susannah loved the ice castle and Abigail went on that slide several times and liked the big throne......

We go every year so I am pleased we went but it didn't compare to the last couple of years at all....I hope next year is better.....

Yes!!!

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/

She's IN!!!! But do you think she will win????????? I hope so but the American public always surprise me with the way they vote...I think she would make a wonderful President BUT I am not sure the American public are ready to take that step. :( I hope they are!