Rain, finally!

Cooling relief at last ... it's been an unusually hot July for us - temps in the high 20's/low 30's pretty much since we returned from England. Typically we get a week or 10 days of non-stop hot weather (usually during Stampede week) returning to much more pleasant temps in the low to mid 20's, no humidity to speak of, but this year, it's been non-stop heat and oddly enough, humidity! The tv weathermen reacted to by including humidex readings in their forecasts.

While we've had the occassional thunder shower here and there, they were short lived and nothing substantial, until today.

Andy and I have taken to sleeping in the guest room in the basement for this past month which has been a true blessing! The forecast for tomorrow is 24 celsius and with the cooling off we received this evening with the rain, maybe we'll be able to sleep in our newly decorated bedroom tomorrow night! Andy has been hard at work painting our ensuite bathroom and bedroom in the past week. We chose "French Cream" for the bathroom and "English Tan" in the bedroom. To say it was a hot, sweaty job is an understatement esp. given the fact that hot air rises further acerbated due to the way our bedroom windows open, we rarely catch a breeze, muchh less a cross breeze! We'd open the bedroom & bathroom windows wide open before retiring for the evening in the basement and it was amazing to feel the temperature in our home rise with each step I took up the stairs to our bedroom, even at 5:30 am the next morning!

While Andy definitely did the lion's share of the painting, last Friday afternoon I left work early and came home to give the ensuite a third coat of paint, getting into all the nooks and crannies around the tub, shower, toilet etc. which gave me a new appreciation for the work Andy had completed on his own working in "sauna like" conditions.

Sunday afternoon we helped Lyden clear out his bedroom - he's moving into Rachel's old room and we'll convert his room into a den. It was a huge sigh of relief when Lyden concluded purging his room of 10 year's accumulation of text books, old school reports, books, clothing he's worn out/forgotten about/outgrown. Boys ... who knew they could be such pack rats?! Imagine my delight when he pulled out his scrapbook of our trip to Cozumel in March, 1998. Lyden was in grade 6 that year and his teacher asked him to keep a scrapbook at present it to his class upon his return. I loved reading his entries, reliving the fond memories of our vacation through the eyes of an 11 (almost 12) year old boy. Good times. Good memories. Good reminder of how quickly time passes!