Last day of classes

Today is the last day of my lab classes. The students can come next week, but it is optional for them and I don't have to be there either!

Today I'm planning on making 'Egg and Cheese Stack' for dinner. We'll have to see if any of my family will eat it! I should plan a vaggie dish to go with it, but I'm still thinking!

Tomorrow morning we have Prayer at Church, then I have to do some serious grocery shopping. Then in the evening, Myron is planning on doing the Iron Chef with the Falcons. I am hoping because the boys are cooking that this means I don't have to feed him dinner on Saturday? (Any President Falcons in the know can feel free to correct me)

Sunday we have Church in the morning and then Myron leaves for his conference in the evening.
Monday I'm at RMC - on the way home I'll try to pick up some supplies for Myron to survive as on Tuesday James and I are heading to St. Catharines for a week of hanging with my parents and playing in the dirt.

I am still very sore from my injury lifting my 42 lb. heffalump on the weekend.Ow.
The weather is fine here- smells like spring!

Cheating and Taxes

For the course that I work on at Queen's one of my jobs is to review the output of a computer program we run on students' reports (a copycheck). So I spent the day dealing with people who copied. But I dealt with them rather efficiently and finished work at 3pm.

So I decided to do my taxes and write the gov't a nice cheque. Good thing I don't cheat on my taxes!

Yesterday, I went to Staples to buy a new memory card for the camera. Amazingly, they had the exact one I wanted on sale for 50% off- only $20. Now instead of being limited to 10 pictures before I have to download I can take 100. Here's to lots of pictures in St. Catharines next week!

Funnily enough, Myron will be at a conference in Toronto from April 2-4. James and I leave for St. Catharines on the 4th. Our train from TO to St.C leaves TO at 5:45. Myron's train out of TO to Kingston leaves at 5:30. So, we'll be at the toronto station at the same time (if our train is running on schedule)

Where you live

Kristin wrote about where she lives in Calgary in posts 'The Hood' and 'Sell house, Sell Soul'
(Kristin)
and Rachel has written about her move over at edeva.ca edeva speaks and yesterday about her neighbour in her blog (http://rachelerb.blogspot.com/). It was funny that she posted it, as I have been thinking about where we live a lot.
Not that we're thinking of moving or anything!
I'm just grateful that we don't live in the suburbs.
I would much rather live in an area with odd neighbours than in an area of whited sepulchers with perfect lawns.
It seems more real to me, more raw to live in an area where people have some struggles.
So I'm happy here.

I apply the same reasoning to blogs that I read. I read blogs of friends because I know them and am interested in their lives. But of the blogs of strangers, I seem to pick the raw ones. Laurie (Aunt Purl) is recovering from a divorce. Kristin has been having a rough go with her relationship since her baby was born. Rebecca's little boy died at only 10days old. Rebekah is the same age as James but has been through so much with cancer treatments and all (her parents write the blog)

I guess you could say that I appreciate the real and not the fake :) (not that there's anything wrong with living in suburbia and having a perfect lawn! just saying my preference is all :)

Back in the Saddle

When I picked James up from daycare last night, he was right as rain. No fever at all. Though I had worried about my decision to send him because I wasn't sure how the day would go, it all worked out.

Yesterday, I hauled my bike out of the garage and am now zipping around Kingston. I forgot how much time I save by biking! I only have front brakes presently as one of the back brakes broke and the bike store didn't have the piece I needed to fix it. So I bike pretty carefully!

99.4

James is on the mend.
His temperature was 99.4 this morning .1 degree shy of a fever.
He is still hot, but his cheeks aren't red like they were yesterday and he's pretty perky.
He WANTED to go to daycare today and because he didn't have a fever, that worked for me.
They said they would take his temperature during the day and if he had a fever they would need to send him home immediately.

Quiet

The house sure is quiet when the boy spends most of the day asleep and when he is awake he doesn't run around, just looks deep into your eyes.
He just had some dinner and is a bit perkier.
I had been using the Tylenol meltaways because that is what I had in my cupboard, but they didn't seem to be having much effect. I bought the Tylenol cough and cold liquid on my way home from Church and it seemed to have more immediate effects in bringing the fever down.
Also, because he was lacking in energy, I had to lift him on the potty. Lifting him off I think I pulled a muscle in my hip. Ow.

Fever

James was hot all night, though only woke once at 12:30. It was really hard to convince him to take the Tylenol, but he did and went back to sleep. He is still hot. He took a cool bath and now is lying on the couch watching Pride and Predjudice. He was very upset that he couldn't go to Church and to a Spiderman party planned later in the day. Hope he gets better soon.

From well to sick in 30 minutes

Around 4pm today James got whacked with a fever. At 3:30 I washed his face as it was covered in dirt from outside and it was not hot at all. At 4pm he had a fever. He just lay on the floor (I put his blankies down first). I gave him some Tylenol. He continued to lie on the floor and moan. We gave him his dinner on the floor beside him and he ate it all up, which is a good sign I suppose. I thought he would go to sleep after dinner, but no, he was not tired at all after supper- he got up and played- I could barely force him in bed. Which again, I suppose, is a good sign, but he still had the fever. He finally fell asleep at 8pm. I hope he sleeps well and is better in the morning.

Can you have too much Pride and Predjudice?

Today I bought the new version of P&P, making it 3 versions that I now own.
James and I were watching the old one with breakfast and I still found it riveting!
Can't wait to watch the new one!

I have one more busy week at work and then my life will be freer!

It's cold but the tulips are trying hard to peek out. It does smell like spring this morning! 

Signs of spring 

Cultured, but tired

Today, James and I were up at 5:30am. We watched Pride & Predjudice with our Honeycomb cereal. Nice bit of culture for me, though James claims they 'talk too much'. Not sure why he keeps watching, but he does, and it's great!

Tuesdays are still very crazy days- morning class at Queen's, stint at RMC and then evening class at Queen's. At least I get my culture it the morning! I'm very tired now though.

Tomorrow is a day off (though I do have some work to do- maybe James will give me some time to myself? We'll see) and at 3pm we will be heading to School to see the Junior Kindergarten.

Slop goes the Soup!

Sunday was a very sloppy day.

James dropped a 1L bottle of strawberry smoothie on the kitchen floor and it exploded all over the kitchen!

Then in pretending to be a kitty he decided to use the litter box, and peed in the art box.

Then in scooping himself some yogurt, made a decided mess on the kitchen table.

Today though, no slops :) Currently he is watching 'Pride & predjudice'. Joanna borrowed it and returned in, on which James thought if Joanna watches it, then so should I and so for the first time in 4 years, I get to watch it again :) Thanks Joanna!

We spent 2 hours at Rail-o-Rama and James didn't want to leave. However, as soon as I said it was time to go, he was okay with it, likely because he was tired. As we were going out he said he wanted a nap. (like that ever happens) He said that kitties need their naps. (He had been pretending to be a kitten earlier in the morning.)

At first James was shy when the man asked him if he'd like to drive the train, but he got over it. 

James loved driving the trains at Rail-o-Rama. He was very serious about his craft. 

James doing his Easter egg search. The giant Thomas 'basket' where he keeps his eggs is on his back. 

Eggs in a giant Thomas 'basket' 

Round and round

Yesterday, I did an Easter egg hunt with James. It was lots of fun- he loved doing the finding and now he is running around the house hiding them again!

Today, James and I are planning on heading to Kingston Rail-o-Rama. (a model railroading display at the Ambassador) He's a little bit shy about it- he asked me if there would be a lot of people there. But I think he'll have a good time when he gets there.

We heard from Marla yesterday that the cancer is worse than thought originally. Not good.

Fast food

When I was working part-time and had more time on my hands James and I would sometimes jaunt over to Harveys and share a kids meal. He would get the fries, juice and toy and I would get the hot dog. Worked well for both of us. What might constitute a meal for 2 for $4. We haven't been back since I started working full time in September 2004.

So when he started talking about McDonald's last night I had no idea where that was coming from. When he talked about it being close to Loblaws, I clued in to what he was talking about. HARVEYS. When we used to go to Harvey's. I understood. We talked about it and hamburgers a bit more.

This morning he wakes up and says to me 'I'd like to talk about McDonalds again'. Child of the fast food era, eh?

Favorite spot

This is James sitting in his favorite spot on the couch. Today we had fun having Franceen, Ron, Caitlyn and Sharon over. James decided Franceen was his friend and wouldn't let her go anywhere without him! We also went with Franceen and Ron to see the building our Church is thinking of buying. I forgot my camera for that, but it is pretty close to our home, so I may swing by it again soon and try to remember my camera!

Dinosaur

This is James displaying a growing dinosaur that Shieleen and Devaan gave him for Christmas. Apparently if you leave this in water long enough, it grows pretty big. The reason I actually took the picture was that he was in the bath with his hair soaped back and he looked so cute! The reason he was in the bath was because it was so wonderful and muddy out in our yard today, the boy came back covered in mud from head to toe!

Marlene wins!

I did some searching on the internet to try to figure out what I saw yesterday and I think Marlene came the closest in the contest! Voles are quite tiny- what I saw must have been about 6 lbs- I have posted a picture of a vole I saw in the same location, so it wasn't that. Otters have thick tails and I don't think they like water quite as cold as our Lake. What I think it was is an overweight muskrat. The think was pretty round. Must not be suffering through the winter.

My Mom should be in Holland now- I spent the night dreaming of being there with her!

A couple of weeks ago we were looking at Matthew 6 in Church and in our small group discussion on betrayal Sandy said that we betray relationships when we aren't being who we really are. I have been thinking about this a lot. It is often easier to be who people want you to be than who you really are. Thoughts? (There's no contest to this one :)

Flying

Today my Mom is flying to Holland for a week. Have a great trip Mom! We'll be tracking yor flight :)

On my rainy walk in today, I saw another interesting mammal swimming around the Causeway. It was big and brown like a beaver, but instead of a beaver tail it had a long skinny one. It was swimming in the water and would dive under the ice. Any ideas what this is?

Hi David!

Thanks for your comment- good to hear from you again. Your question 'how come you have young children that do dishes?' stymied me. There are young children that DON'T do dishes? Really? James does the dishes on his own (albiet, I have to wait until he goes to bed and then rewash them- his washing wouldn't pass health inspectors safety standards). He also does laundry and sweeps the floor. And if you don't let him, he cries. So you say all children aren't like this? Hmm.

Decisions

As a follow up to my Jan 29th post (Happy Birthday Shieleen) where I said I had some decions to make:
1. I decided to take the May/ June contract at work, but reduce my hours ar RMC so that James and I will still have one day a week together
2. We have decided to head to Moncton from June 15-23. I have booked the train tickets. We'll be in St. C in early April and again for another week somewhere in July or August depending on my parents' schedules.
3. No decision on this one!

My newest decision is about Junior Kindergarten. I have called First Avenue School to try to make an appointment to see their JK and there is also a Catholic School a couple of blocks the other way -5th Avenue I think, that we may look at as well. We live near 3rd Avenue- halfway between the 2!

Tuesday- the longest day of the week

Today, I left my house at 7:15am and I won't be back until 9:30pm.
I have a class is a few minutes at Queen's, then have to go to the Library to do some research, head to the ILC to drop off some papers, then head over to RMC to work for the afternoon, then back to Queen's for a 7pm night class.

This leaves Myron to drop off James at the daycare and pick him up at the end of the day and take him over to the Church for a pot luck/games night. At least they'll have fun without me.

Kim may be staying over tonight. She has to work until 8:30pm and then starts again tomorrow at 7:30am so she didn't want to do all the driving back and forth to Gan. She's working with some kids who have some stomach bug (puking) so I hope she doesn't bring that with her!

Yesterday, we went over to Paytons house. They only live a few minutes walk (we don't even have to cross any streets) and they seemed really happy to see us (even though I've only had one conversation each with the husband and the wife) They just had a baby last week and so when James wanted to buy a gift for Payton, I thought that was sweet. We bought a gift on the weekend and it turns out Paytons birthday was on the weekend too! James was really shy in their house and wouldn't let go of me, but I'm really hoping the visit broke a bit of the ice and Payton and James can get together more outside of the daycare. They are really good friends and she is such a sweet little girl.
Payton's mom was doing WAY better than I was at a week after the c-section and she even had an infection in her inscision and a blood clot in her leg. She looked great!

Trekking through the brush

After Church today, Kim picked us up and drove us out to Gananoque, where she treated us to a wonderful lunch of mini-meatloaves, mashed potatoes, carrots, celery and blueberry cheesecake. No need for dinner after this lot! After lunch we hung out at her house and then went exploring outside. James LOVED her backyard. It was pretty much all brush as they just bought the house and it's kind of like farmland. (I forgot my camera, but otherwise would have pics to show!) Anyway, James wandered off into the brush- there was a fence a bit out, so I wasn't too concerned. We could hear him crackling about, but I had no desire to join him in crackling through brush. He loved crackling about on his own. When it was time to go and get in the car, I called him and he immediately crackled his way back to me.
When we got home and were sitting together, he said to me "I listened to you when you called about the car, I came" I told him, yes, he did a great job listening and I was so glad he did. But, was he telling me that he really thought about not coming to me? Hmmm.

This morning in the service, Al took a bit of time to talk about starting a new Church plant in the north part of the city. This is what he had been talking about during our breakfast meeting. It seems like a big and scary project, but God works in impossible situations.
On Mar. 1, before the breakfast meeting, I had a dream that I was in a hospital or doctors office because I needed to get my blood checked. They did the blood test and said everything was fine and also that the baby was a girl and kind of fatty. In the dream, I was surprised because I didn't even know I was pregnant and happy and excited because of new life. I think the dream was refering to this new project. (Spiritual babies are still way easier that physical babies, I think!) I am not sure what the 'fatty' part means- a negative or a positive? Nowadays, fatty seems to be negative but as Franceen reminded me, when Joseph was interpreting Pharoh's dreams, the fatty cows implied prosperity and good years.

James loves to wash dishes. All the dishes in the drainer were just done by him when the picture was taken. He's doesn't really get a lot of the dirt off, but he's kind of good for a first rinse. He's also not wearing any underwear. He's on an underwear blockade. 

Big Boy Bed

The first thing James told me this morning was that his friend Lukie now has a Big Boy Bed and wondered, wasn't his bed getting old?
Peer pressure with relation to beds?

Today is looking like a long day. Myron has to go into work to finish up that paper and outside seems like a frozen wasteland. I'll see if I can convince myself to bundle James up and go shopping.
James and I are off to make muffins now- the kind he likes - no JAM for James.

Breakfast meeting

James and I watched survivor yesterday and so he didn't go to bed until 9pm (normally I pop him in bed at 8pm and he's asleep by 9, then he gets up at 6am) My one comment about Survivor for this week is that the dysfunctional tribe has really underestimated the younger women. They may not be so strong in the competitions but they are stong in getting their own way.
Then I attempted to clean the house while watching CSI and Without a trace. I finished all the cleaning when the shows were done and read a bit more of the Crazy like Chocolate book. Myron was out late writing a paper, so I didn't even see him before I went to bed.
In the morning, James got up at 6:30 and I got him ready for the day. He was pretty excited about Al coming to visit.
We visited with Al and he gave us hope for our outbuildings and told us about his spiritual baby/Church idea.
A very interesting breakfast indeed!

Marla's surgery

Myron's brother Mike called to say Marla(Myron's mom) had her surgery and she seems to be doing o.k.

Pick me up early

James and I had a nice James and Momma day yesterday. We started the day by reading Matt. 6 (the reading for Sunday). James played some video games while I washed the dishes. I was a day behind in the dishes. And yes, he really can play video games- but they are kind of educational ones- his fathers son anyway.We made Rice Krispie Squares. I ironed and he played in his 'birdcage' which is right by the ironing board. We had lunch, watch 'Judge Judy'. He watched some 'Corner Gas' while I read a cookbook. We cleaned a bit. Then I went to make supper and he had a pretend 'fire' in his room- which entailed him throwing ALL his clothes all over the room as well as my entire box of books that I just got from bookcloseouts.com. Then drove all his trucks into the room to build a pipe to rescue them I suppose. I made BBQ chicken pizza which turned out well. I did not do the dishes again! (I did a couple of loads during the day and got worn out I guess) Then I did his bedtime routine. When he was out I watched Criminal Minds and CSI NY, then went to bed reading 'Crazy as Chocolate' - one of my new books. I fell asleep around 11:30, woke up at 2am when Myron finished playing his video game, woke at 3am when James called out to me- I think he wanted to know if it was morning- it wasn't so I didn't answer and he went back to sleep. He called again at 6am and I let him get up. I was heading out the door at 7am and he said to me 'Pick me up early so we can spend more time together'. I kid you not. Direct quote.
Tonight we're having the leftover BBQ chicken pizza and baking muffins for our breakfast with Al tomorrow morning. Also looking forward to Survivor.