My vacation is over!

I’m glad we went to the Camping Park, we had a great time away from the traffic, busy streets, neighbors knocking at our door, malls and specially the house work.

This was our vacation house for 5 days. Two bedrooms, bathroom with shower, kitchen and living room, TV, fridge and a fan.

We spend a lot of time in the pool but the high temperatures prevent us from spending even more time in the pool.

With two active children it is almost impossible for me to rest. When one is quiet the other requires attention and vice versa.

I didn’t read the book I took, I was able to make 4 Sudoku’s puzzles and check two magazines.

On our last full day in the camping we were invited to participate in a Walk along the river through a tough vegetation. We walked for 4 hours, dad had to hold Catherine most of the walk due to the rough ground conditions, Dani hold himself very well and did the walk very happily. During the walk we were able to bath in three river beaches, we even jumped from ropes into the river…it was fantastic.

The walk ended up on a waterfall, in a absolutely beautiful green scenario from a very beautiful river and vegetation.  The view was breath taking!

I didn’t take the cell phone to the walk therefore no photos were taken. One of the guides took a camera but I’m still waiting for the photos to be emailed to me.

We ended up the walk with several scratches, feet and legs were the most scratched due to the vegetation.

As soon as we arrived at the camping park from the walk we all went to the pool to a deserved bath!

This was an excellent experience that I hope we can repeat soon. The only negative point…the bell from the local church bell giving the hours and half hours day and night.

Today it will be the last day I will have access to Internet. Tomorrow morning we are leaving for a few days out of here, I’m really looking forward to it.

The Laptop will remain at home and my cell phone provider doesn’t provide Internet service so I won’t be able to check my email or read blogs.

I hope I regain energy during these days so that I can write more posts than I’ve been writing these last weeks.

I’ll see you all next week!!!

My kids were requesting it for a long time so last Friday we had a Circus in town and the three of us (dad is not very fond of Circus) were there. Dani went to the Circus five or six years ago but he doesn’t remember it so I can say this was the first time for both.

I was a little afraid of Catherine’s reaction to the Tigers because she is afraid of cats and dogs (and other moving animals and insects) so when the Circus started and the tigers came to the cage I said to myself: this is it.

As soon as Catherine heard the initial music she started shivering, she hid her head on my chest and grabed my arms. The tigers came into the cage and she refused to look at them. It took me a while to convince her that they were like cats, just a little bigger and that they were not coming out of the cage. She started looking at them after a while and even smiled but she continued to shiver and grab me until the tigers left.

Then came the clowns, jugglers, dancers, snakes, crocodiles, ponies, ostriches, more clowns and other artists and she was thrilled with all the show.

Dani liked the show but as usual he was always moving from his seat, talking and well…the usual.

Circus is quite expensive therefore this was a show we won’t repeat for a while. I regret not having taken the camera to take a few photos but what really matter is what we saw…live.

Big decision. As we have the beach 15 minutes away from here and we don’t have money to go to the south of the country where is warmer and better weather, we had decided to spend our vacation at home.

Camping was not on my plans, I have one very active kid and my daughter is only 4 so camping with a tent was out of question. A friend told me about a few camping parks in the mountains, where we can find cheaper prices because it is away from the coast. I did a little search on the Internet and we decided to rent a Bangalow on a camping park in a mountain, near a river and with a river beach.

Next Saturday we will be staying on a Bungalow for 4 people, with bathroom, kitchen, TV, fridge and also access to a big pool, soccer field, activity field and several possible activities like canoing, fishing, etc.. We will also have all the other facilities that a camping place has like a coffee shop, barbecue, laundry room and much more.

This is the first time we will be “4 on vacation”, this is the first time my daughter will be away from home so I don’t know how she’s going to react.

I hope we can have a quiet and relaxed time. Although I could, I’m not taking the laptop with me, I believe I’m not going to survive without it for 6 days. I’ve already set my vacation dates on Payu2Blog (I write for them on other blogs) because I can’t write any assignments on those days.

My son talked about taking is PlayStation 2 but…no, I said no PS2 are allowed there (I lied…I know).

What I’m taking are: board games, cards, puzzles, coloring books, activity books and magazines. Family activities, quiet and rest are the things I will be looking for.

September is less than two months away as well as the time to renewal my host subscription.

Last year I was really reluctant to have my blogs on a paid host but after chatting with several bloggers about it and reading several blogs and forums I realized that own domains and own hosting for my blogs was the best choice. Choosing a host provider was not difficult, I read several reviews and I decided for the one that had a low monthly price and that was offering quality service.

Today, while checking Web Hosting Geeks, I was happy to find that my web hosting company is #1 on the Top 10 Web Hosting, I have no doubts about renewing my subscription with them again.

Almost every day we receive e-mails informing us of new web hosting providers but, how good are they? Web Hosting Geeks is a reliable source of information when we are looking for web hosting reviews. This site is very useful because it shows us rates and reviews from several hosting providers. We can check what each one offers, how much it will cost us and what is the rate it has among the subscribers.

If you are looking for a web hosting provider for the first time or just want to change to a better one definately you should take a look at WebHostingGeeks.com, read the reviews, check the rates, see the offered services and choose the web hosting provider that you feel will serve you better.

Really good news!!!!

Today my son did the scan to his axilla to check on the node he had and it is a normal node, called reactive node. The doctor said it was great that the node swelled because it was a sign that the body was defending itself from an infection or inflammation.

The node has perfect size and it’s PERFECTLY NORMAL.

One of my problems that prevents me from going on a long car vacation is that my car is too old and has many problems. When I have to go somewhere far from where we live I’m always afraid that my car will break on the way. Renting a car has already crossed my mind.

Advantage Rent a Car is site that offers car rental at low prices. Advantage is a company that not only is available in the United States but also in some countries worldwide.

The site is very easy to navigate, has detailed information and answers almost all questions customers might have. A rate quote can be requested online, it’s really easy and free.

There are several featured specials available that you can check regularly for discounts, promotions and savings. Right now you can take advantage of a major discount, to be more exactly 50%, on luxury and convertible car rentals.

Car Rental can be a great solution for those that don’t own a car or have an old car that no longer can be trusted for long trips.

I’m officially on vacation!! I still can’t believe it. I won’t be working tomorrow and the other 18 days after tomorrow. Uauuu!!!

Tomorrow my daughter is going to school as usual and my son is going to daycare. I’ll have a blood test done in the morning than come home to do some blogging. I want to take advantage of tomorrow morning to write a few posts and try to organize my posts schedule for a couple of days.

I know that my kids are going to request all my attention. I only have 25 days a year for vacation so this is something we long for for almost a year. I really want to spend time with them although I also feel the need to have my own time even if they are around. So, I’m preparing some children craft ideas, movies and other children activities that can keep them busy while I do some of my stuff.

Having the pool at home is lots of fun but also time consuming. When they are in the pool I have to be near to prevent accidents, I don’t want to be on the computer while they are in the pool, I want to keep my eyes on them.

I want to keep up my blogging but I don’t want them to feel that they are sharing my time with the computer. I’m going to try to keep the computer away from me as much as I can. Well…if they are watching TV I can be on the computer…

I thought about not blogging during the vacation but I like it and I don’t want to lose the rhythm of updating regularly. I don’t have scheduled posts, no extra posts to use so I just have to keep writing when I can.

My husband will be on vacation only next Monday so tomorrow afternoon, Thursday and Friday my kids will be all mine.

Today it was the day to go, drive some miles and watch Noddy and The Treasure Map.

Today we had high temperatures, we are used to have a fresh brise where we live so going to the interior made us have hotter temperatures and a dry air. The complex where the musical took place had no air conditioned so we were all sweeting during the show.

The show started half an hour after the established hour, this is something I really don’t like because the children become impatient and it’s a little complicated to control them.

When Noddy and his friends arrived it was a blast. My daughter was speechless and impressed with all those animated characters she’s used to watch everyday on TV. My son was also excited and participated in the activities that were requested from the stage.

The clues to find what the treasure was were English words (the show was in Portuguese of course). The words were: “to work”, “as a team”, “much better” and “together”. Putting them in the correct order:

“Much better to work together as a team” - the message was: when we get together and try to solve something as a team is much better than alone. Friends have to speak with each other no matter what is going on, even in bad days when we are not in the mood.

I personally found the musical very interesting, I really liked it and I’m happy that my kids were able to watch them live.

It was not allowed to film the show but I was able to film 15 seconds movies (my camera doesn’t allow more time) without a problem. It was not possible to get close to them, only at the end of the show we were able to go near the stage so no photos with my kids and Noddy.

Here are some photos I took during the show:

I tried to insert here one of the movies I made but it didn’t work out. This was the first time I tried so I have to check what am I doing wrong.

Two more working days and I will be on vacation. Wednesday my kids are still going to school and daycare so that I can take advantage of the day to do a few things at home, Thursday they will stay with me while dad will be working 3 more days.

Once again we won’t be going anywhere, we will be staying at home, use the pool a lot and go to the beach.

We might have the visit of some dutch friends that are coming to Portugal for their vacation, they intend to go south so we don’t know yet if we are going to be able to get together.

These dutch friends travel a lot, last year they were in south of France for two weeks and early this year they were in Brighton, a city they want to visit again. They told us Brighton is an excellent city to spend a few days visiting, there are several attractions that please grown ups and children.

Near the coast line, Brighton has a Royal Palace, museums, giant sculptures, street artists, surf stores, well known clothes brand stores, theaters, music, beaches and much more. For accommodation there are condos and hotels some of five start and the 400 restaurants bring us all types of food.

My friends told me about so many Brighton qualities that I felt I needed to look for more information. WeLoveLocal.com is a site where we can find reviews and recommendations for several places and attractions we can visit in Brighton.

The real cool feature about this site is that you always have a Google Map on the right side showing the places you are selecting. For instance you want to go to the Riley Snooker Club, you search it on the site and when you click on the link to see the information available for that snooker club immediately the Google Map appears showing the exact location of the club, the streets around it, etc.. This is great when we don’t know the exact location  and directions to take, with the map we are able to check the streets we have to take to get there.

The WeLoveLocal.com has a Brighton Directory featuring local business listings. This is also very useful for instance to check where a car parking or a cinema is. All location are featured on the Google Map.

My friends are really impressed with the city, who knows I will be able to visit it someday.

My car needed some new parts, it failed in the annual inspection so we had to fix it. 380 Euros (+/-590 US$) was the bill and it only included the price of the parts, the handwork was for free.

Well…I guess I need a drink. See you…

My daughter is afraid of all type of insects and animals, she just freaks out, screams and cries when she sees an unexpected bug. What happened today is hard to believe.

During break time in pre-school she saw a bee, a beautiful yellow and black bee, was she afraid? No. She tried to grab the bee with her hand and she got stung on one finger. I really can imagine the pain she felt because when I was younger I was stung by 3 or 4 bees. My poor baby…

The hand still hurts and it’s swollen, I just gave her some medication for the pain and to reduce the swollen, I believe tomorrow she’ll be ok.

Well, two days ago she hit a iron bar with her forehead and now she has a black spot.

Well, what can I say, growing up is having a lot of experiences, some good but also some bad, all together they will make my kids more alert and aware of what is going on around them.