Now that it's over I'll post about the mini-vacation I had last week. I had the whole house to myself...no husband and no kids for 6 full days!! I know I shouldn't seem quite so excited but you know I love my little family dearly and of course I missed them terribly but man, was I ever looking forward to that time alone!
I should backtrack and explain how this good fortune came about and has become an annual event. Tim's mom and dad rent a cottage every year and a few years ago Tim decided to take Emily. His sister, brother-in-law and kids also go. When Jesse was a baby and then a toddler I decided it would be easier for Tim just to take Emily and Jesse and I stayed home and did our own thing (usually went and stayed at my parents and got spoiled for the week!). The cottage is very high up in the trees with steep stairs down to the water, not very toddler friendly. Last year though, he decided to take Jesse as well but I couldn't go because of work and already scheduled vacations. This year and from now on I've decided that this will be his holiday with the kids and his family and I'm quite happy to stay home and get email updates, phone calls, lots of "we miss you" and 6 extra big hugs and kisses from Jesse before he leaves (Emily was ok with just one!).
Apparently the weather wasn't great this year but they made the best of it. They had a fabulous time! A nearby community centre had activities a couple days (making pirate hats, treasure bags and telescopes were a highlight) and a treasure hunt one night and a movie night another. They also still managed to go fishing, swimming and boating. Of course, checking for bears at the dump was a big attraction too!
On the way up to the cottage on the Sunday they stopped at the cottage of friends of ours, Jeff and Julie's. The two cottages are about 20 minutes apart and the one that my in-laws rent is actually owned by Jeff's mom and dad. Sometime I'll have to post more about Jeff & Julie...it will definitely be a good read!

For now I'll just explain that this is where the title of this post comes in and how I managed to torment Jeff without even trying! He and I don't get many opportunities to razz each other anymore since we moved to the big city so after all was said and done I really enjoyed this one!
I believe it was the Wednesday night last week and I hadn't heard from the kids since Sunday, other than a quick email, so I decided to phone them. I started about 8:00 that night and there was no answer. I kept trying about every 1/2 hour and still no answer. About 10 o'clock I started to get a little concerned. Without going into all the details of how I was PMSing and freaking out, I'll just carry on.
I tried to call Julie at her cottage just to make sure I had the right phone number and her line was constantly busy! Then I remembered Jeff had left Julie and the girls at the cottage and he had gone home for a few days so I tried him there, just wanting to check the number. First I get a busy signal and then later it starts ringing but NO ONE ANSWERS! I was going crazy! I gave up on Jeff and kept trying the cottage and then Julie...nothing..finally I went to bed around midnight. The next morning STILL no answer at the cottage and Julie's line is still busy. I knew Jeff would be at work early so I called him before I left. He asks me if I called him last night and I explained why I was trying to get a hold of him and everyone else. He says "well let me tell you about your little phone call"....
When his number was ringing and I didn't get an answer it was because he was outside in the hot tub and of course by the time he got to the phone I had hung up. He did *69 to see who called and knew he should know the number but couldn't place it. Then he did whatever you do to have Bell let you know when the other person's line becomes free and it will dial it for you. His phone rings a couple minutes later and it's a Bell message saying "the number you requested was free but has now become busy"..something like that. While I was repeatedly dialing everyone, he was trying to go to bed but his phone kept ringing every few minutes and giving him the same message! He didn't know how to cancel it so he finally had to DISCONNECT ALL THE PHONES IN THE HOUSE!!! OMG..I was laughing so hard by this time I thought I was going to have an accident! He was laughing about it too but I'm pretty sure he wasn't very impressed...I got him good..with absolutely no effort on my part!! He had finally figured out it was my number (put it in his Crackberry) but thankfully he didn't call me at 7 a.m. like he was going to to see what I wanted!

Bottom line of the whole thing:
- I WAS calling the right number, the phone just wasn't working!
- Julie's line was busy because she only has dial-up at the cottage and forgot to turn the internet off!

.....oops, sorry Jeff...tee hee!!!