Spring

Thanks, Marlene for the explaination of the penalty. I think I get it now. I might understand it if I see it happen and may be able to explain it to James. But don't count on it too much!

The weather finally felt like spring today, which was good. Myron and I were in children's church this morning and it was still a bit grey, so we hadn't planned on taking the kids outside. But the kids kind of planned on going outside. I couple of the kids were a bit forceful about it, but we said that we weren't going out, that they could ask their parents if they wanted their parents to take them out. Then they were annoyed at the parents who wouldn't take them out.

After we got home from Church, I hung the laundry out and then Kim called to say Zullys hotel had no hot water and could she come over for a bath? So she came and bathed and we had a nice chat (after she was done the bathing that is). We are going shopping on Wed. to hopefully get the stuff I need for James' party next weekend.

I have a light work week this upcoming week so hopefully I will be ready for the party. Tomorrow I'm at RMC.

Penalty

I am having to learn the penalty rules for hockey now that James is an avid fan. And I think I'm learning slower than James. I have no idea about the scenario that you made a comment on, Marlene, but I'm sure I'd be just as confused as James if the goalie just up and started leaving in the middle of a play. James watched the first period of the Ottawa game tonight and I'm taping the rest.

I made some chicken/carrot/pasta soup the other day and Myron said it looked store bought. I took it as a compliment from him, but I'm not sure I want my soups looking store bought! They certainly don't have the salt of store bought ones.

It was a kind of dreary day today. I tried to clean most of the day, hoping the weather would get better, but it didn't so James and I went out for a bike/walk in the rain. We went over to Annette and Gerald's new place. They weren't there but it was good to know they are still within walking distance.

In

My marks are in! I breathe a sigh of relief. I'm not looking at anything to do with my course for a bit. The phys server crashed shortly after I sent them. I hope there's no relation. Maybe I should call the girl I sent them to to make sure they arrived!

The rest of today I'm doing difficult computer things for RMC, like designing new background for our webpage. When I get done writing this anyway.

Yesterday, James slept in and so I dropped him at the daycare about 9am. I was hoping to drop him earlier because I wanted to get my bloodwork done. When I got to the bloodwork place, there was noone in line, so they helped me quickly. I was in and out in about 3 minutes. But I was glad I had not taken my bike, because my arm really hurt after and I couldn't have biked safely.

I worked for the morning on the conference. My regular RMC boss was kind of peeved that I was working on the conference at my desk. I said I could work upstairs. He said he didn't care, but wanted to know if they were paying me if I was working downstairs. Um. I charge them for the time I work for them and you for the time I work for you. I couldn't believe he thought I was charging him for the time I was in the office but working for someone else. I was really stunned that he thought that!

Last night, I started a new kindergarten math book with James because I didn't think he was being challenged enough with the daycare work. We had a good time together.
James is also pretty keen on learning French. He learned all the months in English recently and now he is trying to learn them in French. I learned that I am going to have to brush up on my French if he's going into french immersion because even the months were all cobwebby for me. He's really keen on learning the French stuff because I think he wants to feel confident with it before kindergarten arrives.

I taped the ducks/vanc hockey game last night and he watched a bit of it this morning but he is having a bit of difficulty with the home/away jerseys because the last time he saw vanc they were blue and so they looked kind of like the ducks black so he was really confused as to what team was which.

In the last vanc game, James was pretty funny when the TB pulled their goalie to try to score, he cried. It took a LONG time to explain that they were doing this for strategy and not because they didn't like their goalie or something! It backfired on TB anyway.

James woke up at 5am this morning for some reason. I took him back to bed and he slept until 8:30am, meaning we got off late this morning too.

Marked

I am trying to process mt final marks and of course today my mark server went down, so the guy who runs it fixed it tonight. He was also MSNing his students about the exam he's giving tomorrow which i found funny. Dedicated though.
I am almost done the marks and should be complete by Thursday and that will be the end and I will take a break from my Queen's work for a week if I can!

Myron had to work late (he's still not home) and so around James' bed time, I made him a deal. I got him ready for bed and we read books and all. He didn't seem very tired so I told him he could stay up and play cars while I had my bath and then he would have to go to bed right after. He agreed to this, as it meant he could stay up later- no way he's turning that down! So I'm running the bath and I guess I couldn't hear the phone because James came running in telling me that Grannie was going to send him money for his birthday! He was pleased. When he was in bed, I tried to get out of him what he actually told Grannie (ie. did you tell grannie that you are answering the phone because your mom is letting you play on your own while she takes a bath?) He said he told her that his dad was at work. So I'm hoping she assumed that I was around somewhere.

I'm going to try to get to bed before midnight tonight. And have my blood taken in the morning.

Signed

The night went ok, though I didn't get to bed until 1am. So another 5 hour night. Which is ok. Not great, but ok.

Today I dropped by the school to sign James up for kindergarten. I wrote a request on the form that he be in Rebecca's class, which they seem to be ok with fulfilling, which will make James feel much better. Though a few minutes before I arrived Rebecca had been whisked off to the hosiptal with a dislocated shoulder. School can be dangerous! This doesn't make me feel any better!

Then I had a meeting that seemed to indicate that I will have a lot of work to do in the summer because we are integrating the new windows vista into our course for the fall.

Then I biked home, stopping to buy some more meal replacement beverages for someone who is still not on solids. The only problem with the beverages is that Myron drinks more than 1. So while some people may use them to diet, it does not work if you drink 3 meal replacements to replace 1 meal!

Doctors are smart

She said not to nap, and I did and I suffer the consequences. Last night wasn't so bad, but my heart was all racey today, so that's not so good. I'll have to listen better.

Al, I'm not sure how much I've healed in relation to babies. It's been almost 5 years now and I feel like I'm no better. That I think back to the time in the hospital and don't know if I could handle it all again. I'm glad you were able to be there. A coworker posted a photo on his door of a baby, so I assume his wife had one but I can't walk by there anymore.

I made leek and potato soup for dinner but James tried it and didn't like it, so he ended up having canned pasta and fruit cups. Myron ate the soup and some meal replacement beverages and some of the cheese pie. He's got a work pizza party on thurs and claims he will be ready, but he hasn't been able to eat much solid food yet.

My house smells like fish

Too many fish sticks have been cooked in my house. Not as bad as real fish, I suppose. I don't like fishy smells. Luckily, it is getting warm enough we should be able to open the windows soon.

Because of my nap, I stayed up until 1am, but I was able to get to sleep at that time, so that was good. I woke up at 6am, so 5 hours. Not great but not bad.

I am now on my way to my last copying meeting. Most of the students are not contesting the process, so it should go relatively smoothly.

I let James stay up late to watch 'the amazing race'. He brought his blanket and his water and cuddled up on me and I popped him in bed at 9pm and he promptly fell asleep.

Jaws

Myron woke this morning with some swelling, so he stayed home from Church. His jaws are still pretty sore, but he has been eating fish sticks, so that is keeping him relatively happy along with chocolate ice cream. I made him a cheese pie for when he's up for that (I know Al- you said I shouldn't!)

The service was an exciting one with the dedication of Oakley and Rachel and Jason and baby August (who Al had to call Everett because I think he couldn't deal with calling a child a month. James was a bit confused by the name as well as he has just leaned his months.) Rachel looked great. I can't imagine looking that good after having a baby only a few days ago. I was still really, really puffy 6 days after having James, but then after that I peed it all out in one day. I had some massive water retention. I missed the dedication because it was in the second half of the service and James wanted to play outside with the Sunday School. The space behind Rustle is really excellent for kids.

In the afternoon, Myron sent me to get more fish sticks and so I got to have a lovely walk as the weather was quite wonderful. I guess I bought a lot at the grocery store because it was all really heavy. So I came home and took a nap, which was exactly what my doctor said NOT to do. No naps, she said. Not that I normally have them. But we'll see how the night goes.

Mice

Yesterday, I worked at RMC and Myron was even well enough to go to work. I loaded James into the rickety wagon and was about to take him to daycare when I saw this:
Little-bit-dead mouse
James commented he was a 'little bit dead'. I went to work and had a REALLY annoying day because I got a new computer and had to transfer my old computer and of course there were glitches and I'm still annoyed so I'll stop thinking about it.
We got back home and I was taking down the laundry and James told me the mouse has come back to life! (Myron had flushed the dead one down the toilet, so this was not the same one) This other mouse was not moving much, but was definately alive. I put him in a box- as seen below:
Little-bit-alive mouse
And Myron and James took him to a field and set him free. His back legs weren't working too well so I'm not really sure how long he'll survive but anyway- he'll have more of a chance than sitting in out driveway! They may have been adolescent mice. They seemed small compared to their feet.
On another note, I haven't heard the mice in my house in a few weeks!
I'm pretty tired still- Myron was up playing video games (so he's feeling pretty good), he was up once to go to the bathroom and his snoring woke me once, so I was up 3 times in the night but at least it's better than a baby in that I don't need to get up, I can just go back to sleep.
I did a lot of laundry today, washed dishes and cleaned the stove. I also filled out the school application for Rideau.

Monitoring

With monitor in bathroom mirror (you have to look close to see it and the electrode wires going under my shirt)
Close up
The last couple of days have been pretty busy. Yesterday, I had to get my heart monitor hooked up and then had to walk around with it in the little bag that you see above. It had electrodes attached and pasted to my skin. Gerald said when he had one they had to shave his chest hair. Eww. Glad I didn't have to go through that. The lady who put it on seemed to indicate that I could 'play squash' or 'go to the gym' with it. Unfortunately, those are not 2 activities I do. What I really wanted to be able to do was 'bend over' or 'go to the bathroom', neither of which I found terribly easy without dislodging the electrodes. It was also difficult to sleep with all the wires and electrodes and all.

I had a dishonesty meeting yesterday and it went fairly well. It was quick at least. The cases seem pretty clear cut, for the most part.

This morning, I returned the monitor before my conference meeting, had the meeting, then got picked up by Kim to drive me to pick Myron up. When we arrived he wasn't out of surgery yet, so I sat to wait and Kim went to get groceries. When he came out of surgery I sat in the recovery room with him. He looked 100x better than the rest of the people in recovery. They looked really sick. Myron looked fine. And the funny thing is when he's drugged up, he likes to talk. A lot. And he wasn't supposed to talk because he was supposed to clamp down on the gauze, but he was so funny it was worth it. He said he planned to play computer games when he got home (he did, while I went to get ice, now he's sleeping with ice on his head). He talked about how much he LIKED the nitrous oxide. How it was sad he was going to get his jaw broken in Ottawa when it was so nice here. (He's actually getting it broken in Toronto, but he was a bit delusional) It's too bad we have to pay all the travel costs when now he thinks he would be happy here.

I got our food box from Al today. He seemed pretty excited about the program, and it will be gream for the neighbourhood. I gave Kim the onions, mushrooms and garlic because I never cook with those, as well as the lettuce because I had just bought some, but the rest I'm pretty excited about. There's lots of fruit in our house now.

I've been trying to decide what to make for James and I while Myron is convalescing. Tonight we are having soup and garlic bread. Though likely I will have salad and garlic bread as James tends to eat all the soup. And I'm happy with salad.

Tomorrow I'll make chicken. I might make leek and potato soup if Myron feels up for it on the weekend. He wants me to make some jello and pudding for his dinner tonight. His lunch was a Harveys milkshake. He has also drunk a can of Ensure so far (again chocolate flavour) I asked Kim is someone could live on chocolate. She seemed to think it was doubtful, but I think Myron is up to trying it!

Did they kill Judge Judy?

A special news report on the Virginia tech shootings was on in the Judge Judy timeslot. This led James to think that Judge Judy had been shot.

James has hockey mania. I let him stay up to watch a game. Al would be proud.

I went to see the dr. yesterday, but she didn't seem to know what was wrong with me. They had suspected blood pressure from talking on the phone but I was at 110/66 which they say was very good. And everything else she checked seemed normal too, so they're going to run some bloodwork and tomorrow I have to wear a heart monitor like Lesley did. To a number of meetings. So I just sent Lesley an email asking for advice. Mainly on what to wear. They'll put it on at 11:30 tomorrow and then I have a meeting at 2 on Academic dishonesty proceedings and then a conference meeting at 9:30 the next morning. I have to be at the dentists at 11 to get Myron in recovery from the wisdom teeth fallout. Kim is going to drive me over. We're going to try to get groceries too as his dentist is right by a grocery store. We won't take Myron to get the groceries, obviously.
The doctor did prescribe some sleeping pills, but I only want to use them if I really need to.

My work these last 2 days has been pretty busy on the conference, I have ignored my Queen's work, but I will get back on that tomorrow and hopefully accomplish a lot. Thursday, I have the one meeting but the rest will be a write off. Then Friday I'm back at RMC. Next week, I'll spend more time on my Queen's stuff as all the marks have to go in.

Ba-ack

James woke up this morning and said "It's snowing" then paused and looked and me and said "Why did it come back?"

Playing to win

James and Myron went to play hockey with Next. He told me when he got home he would tell me how many goals he scored. He plays only to win. Playing for the sake of playing is not an option for him. This is a difficult lesson to teach.

James listens during the songs as Church as the team sang a song after the service that they had done earlier and james immediately identified it as the 'gold' song (Houses of Gold)

My night was bit better last night, but I'm still pretty tired.

Tammy's cousin Ana died last night. Please keep Ana's son Joshua in your prayers + her family. It must be so hard to lose your mom at 17.

Hockey

James wanted to watch a hockey game tonight. As Myron was at work, I watched with him. Not caring much about the hockey itself (sorry Marlene and Al!) I was just looking at the players and thinking about the sacrifices their moms and dads must have made so that they could be there.

Party

The boys are at Taras party now.
This morning I managed to clean up James' room, clean the bathroom, wash dishes and clean a lot of the kitchen, hang laundry (had to use gloves, it's so cold) and vacuum the available floorspace. So it's a start anyway. I'm pretty tired!

Ring

I wish I could stop talking about my sleep, but it appears to be a major factor in my life right now! After the last blog entry I really was tired (the weird thing about this lack of sleep is that it is really hard gor me to 'get' tired) so that was promising. And I fell asleep really quickly. That was great. But I only slept for 1/2 hour before I was awake again! I'm getting as much sleep as when I was 8 months preganant, but I'm not pregnant at all! And at least I had a reason then.

Today James is going to Tara's birthday party. Myron is taking him, because Myron wants to go to the party. Yes, Myron is our party animal. I'm not sure if Sarah and Paul are expceting the big guest or not. Then he's going in to work for the afternoon and evening. Not sure I can stay in such a messed up house that long without 'fixing' it. Lorna asked about the stuff on the floor in the pic. Well, there is stuff like that on ALL my floors. He has taken everything from the house out so that he can organize it. 'Old school' cleaning, as Al said. And I wasn't goting to touch the stuff because if Myron messed it up, he should clean it up right? So I'm trying really hard to ignore it and only tackle my everyday tasks like washing the dishes and laundry and work around The Great Mess of 2007. How's that for drama?

I have been having interesting conversations with the students who have been charged with copying.

Myron is having his wisdom teeth out on Thurs. I have to remember to call them and ask when he will need to be picked up because the meeting I have is a pretty big one. It starts at 9:30 and myron's op is at 10. If they start on time, which I'm not banking on, I might have until 11? I have to remember to call them next week and find out. I think Kim is going to help us with the driving.

I had no mail in my RMC inbox this morning and that was a good feeling as I've been getting about 100 emails a day with regards to the conference. It's nice to actually be on top of it for a few hours.

Breathe

I actually had a good night for me last night.
These last 2 days at work have barely left me time to breathe. I had to try to fit a weeks worth of work in 2.5 days.
For the conference the early registration deadline is sunday, so I've heaps of work there and for my queen's course my student's projects were due today. So that made things busy, busy.
Rustle is now a location for the good food box. I think is a way of helping low income families get fresh food. They buy wholesale and so can sell the products at a reasonable price. Al was pretty excited about it. I hope people in the neighbourhood are interested in fresh fruit/veg not just chips and beer.
I saw 3 police cars in my neighbourhood today. It made me wonder as I rarely see them. Not like at Rustle where they are seen regularly.
If you can pray for Tammy's cousin Ana. She's not been given much time to live in her battle against cancer. She also has a 17 year old boy. See Tammy's blog for more details. So hard to take.

Rain

Rain is not helpful for an insomniac like myself who wakes with any kind of noise. Our house leaks a bit. I got 4 consecutive hours of sleep, which is rare, but I was so tired. When I woke at 4:30 I was no longer tired. I've been up for 45 minutes now and I'm getting tired, so I'm hoping for another hour of sleep. But I'll leave you with some more pics.
This is James at Port Dalhousie:

These are the seagulls that scared James at the Port. Yes, thousands of eyes are watching you.

This is the interestingly painted bathrooms at the port:

From our trip to the nature trail built on the dump. (my students tend to misspell the word 'trial' as 'trail' quite often, so as I wrote the word 'trail' , I glared at it)

On the cool boardwalk, by the pond, in the dump:

Photo overkill

I'm back! With just some of the pics from our trip- more to come.
James had lots of fun looking for eggs and we even found the missing blue one by the end of the week.

These next 2 pics are for my brother. James found your old soccer shirts and this one fit him perfectly. So sweet. But the funny thing was on the train ride home James was reciting to me which number Nat was on each shirt. (my brother was on a number of teams) So he was saying 'in the green shirt he was number 8' etc. As soon as we got home he changed into my old soccer shirt that was much too large. Apparently we are in the age where a number on your back is important.


The week went by fast. I think James' favorite part was learning to play shoebak (sp?). Too bad I didn't get a picture of that, as most people would have no clue what it is. It's a Dutch game with a large wooden structure.
But the week came to a close and we had to say goodbye.

The train windows were dirty but I managed this shot on the way home:

And while Myron managed to clean the bookshelves, he did not do much in the way of dishes. I'm guessing only 1 load the whole week. There were still dirty dishes that I had left before I went.

The whole house is pretty much a mess as Myron took everything out of the closets and didn't put it all back. And it's filthy but I can't vacuum because there's too much stuff on the floor! Next time I go away, I'm going to have Al housesit.
But I could not tackle The Mess when I got back because I was swamped with work. I told James- Mommy took a week off with you, now you're going to have to play on your own for a few hours while mommy catches up on work. And he was great. And I got on top of my RMC work, and sent my Queen's copying letters. It's all over but the crying now. I'll have heaps of work waiting for me at RMC, but that's for tomorrow to handle.
I am having a lot of trouble falling asleep and was up last night until 2 (though I did manage to finish a good murdery Peter Robinson novel. Though maybe I shouldn't do that sort of thing before bed- I don't think it kept me up any later than I would have been otherwise, just kept me more entertained.
And I have to stay up for another few hours to wait for the bread to finish. But I'm not going to push myself on the cleaning area! I'm pretty tired, but it was Myron who went to bed at 7pm. Just the thought of The Mess tires him out. Well, I didn't actually ask him what time he was up to last night- his tiredness may relate more to that. But I like to think The Mess scares him!

Frozen robin

My parents have a lot of birdlife around their house, but there is one robin that seems downright chilly with this snowy weather.
We have been on a couple of walks- to Port Dalhousie and today to what used to be a dump when I was a kid, but now they've covered it over and made nature trails. It still smells in places though:( But it's a interesting idea- to take trash and build new life on top. Kind of like what Jesus does with us. He takes our trash and builds His life on top. We are renewed on the inside, but there does seem to still be some trash hanging around and every now and then you can smell it again.
Kim has made some lasagne for Myron. Can't have him starving now can we?
My nights are still not very good, as James is quite active still at night. He talks in his sleep as well as almost falls out of bed. He's having a great time though, relishing all the attention his grandparents give him!

Bunny trails

James went on an Easter egg hunt today. He had a lot of fun, though we still haven't found 1 that my dad seems to have hid TOO well.
James and my dad are watching soccer now.
He's been playing a lot of basketball here, like he does at home.
I finished reading 'Jolie Blon's Bounce' by James Lee Burke. It was a murder mystery and quite good.
I had a bad night last night trying to sleep again, glad that I have a dr. appt a week Monday.
I just got an email that a meeting has been scheduled at the same time as I'm supposed to be the 'responsible person' for Myron's wisdom teeth coming out. So I'll have to call the dentisty people and ask if I really have to 'get' him there as he should posess enough faculties to take the bus there, you would think. He's not allowed to eat before the surgery at 10am but you wouldn't think that would make him so weak he couldn't get there, would you?'

A smile on my face

The travelling went quite well. We left the house just in time to catch the bus to the train station. One of my TAs was on the bus too. When we arrived at the train station they said the train was running 15 minutes late. It was actually 30 minutes late into Kingston so we were at the station for well over an hour before the train came.
There was another little boy at the station- he looked tiny - maybe 2- but his speaking skills seemed to place him at 3. Anyway, he watched James being silly and seemed very confused. Like he doesn't see people being silly too often. His mom was contantly barking at him not to go in the via 1 lounge and then when the kid took his jacket off she said something like if you don't put your jacket on, we're not taking the train. That seemed like an odd threat to me, as I wouldn't threaten giving up expensive tickets for that infraction. The kid didn't put his jacket on and they still took the train (though he did have the jacket on before they actually got on) It seemed to me that the kid was smart enough that he shouldn't be threatened with things that can't be followed up on!
The train ride went real well, thanks mainly to a 'Cars' activity book that I picked up the week before the trip and a silly game that we got free at a restaurant in the summer.
We arrived in TO 45 minutes late and the train only had 15 mins to unload passengers, get cleaned up and load the new passengers on. Normally there is 30mins to an hour to do this. Luckily, there weren't that many passengers to get on and we got off relatively on time. Most of the passengers had not sat down before we took off though.
James was a barrel of energy on arrival. He always has such fun the first night. He stayed up till 10 and got up 7:30am, so I expect an early crash tonight. He already had some tears, so he is tired.
It's pretty cold and a bit snowy otherwise it would be more fun to be outside!

Easter trip

James and I are on our way today. I have to finish packing, deliver a package to Kim and do whatever I can to to clean the place up before we go. Then I'll have 5 hours of cars driving over me. James is pretty good on the train, so it will be fine. We'll do an Easter egg hunt in St.C and it will be great to see my parents again. Hope they recognize James as he's so big now! I think they are excited too.

Payback

I got the good copy of our taxes done and ready to file. I know Bob will hate to hear this but I am happy to be getting back a bit this year because normally I have to pay thousands and so while Myron normally got back a couple thou, I would have to pay the couple thou BEFORE his return came back which meant I had to save it up. But anyway this year I get a little bit back, so it is nice (and the amount I'm getting back wouldn't have earned much interest for the gov. believe me)

I have cleared off most of the work I had to do before I left, so now I'm trying to pack and get the house in order before I go. Karen should be working on the prayer letter now (she's keeping contact on the phone with me about the progress) so I'm hoping to get that all complete before I go too! In almost 24 hours the train leaves!

No vegetables here

I think I used the wrong word in the last post that caused Rachel and Dawna to think I am a wonderful person. Maybe I shouldn't have used the word 'prepare' Myron's meals as I 'plan' Myron's meals. I'll make a chicken dish today and he'll eat leftovers one day. But then what I do is I plan the meals that he has to make so that he has the supplies on hand (no supplies=no meals). He'll make a tuna gorp, which is awful to me, but he likes it and he only eats it when I am away because I can't take the smell. And I bought him some frozen stuff he likes, but I don't actually make the meals for the week I'm away, I just stock the house. However, I buy no vegetables, because that would be pointless. Unless I actually put the vegatables on his plate, the vegatables would not be eaten. They would just be a heap of rubble when I got back!

Fast forward

I am very busy trying to wrap up all the work that needs to be done. I finished most of my conference stuff this morning and just finished all of the updates for the cansmart site. Tomorrow, I will try and wrap up most of my Queen's stuff.
On the personal front, I'm trying to get all our stuff ready for our trip and all sorts of food ready for Myron so he won't starve while we are gone! Can't have that now. Tonight, A.J. is coming over from 6:15-7:30 as Annette has a meeting and Gerald has to work until 7 and there's a brief amount of time that doesn't overlap for them. I'm also hoping to send out the Rustle prayer letter before I go. Karen is writing the front page this month and said she was going to be done last night, but she also wasn't feeling well with a sinus infection, so we'll see.
My coworker left his keys in California so he can't even drive his car as he didn't have a backup key. He complained of having to walk everywhere. I just smiled.
James had a nasty cough this morning, but I gave him cough medecine and within 1/2 hour he was sounding better so I took him to daycare. When I got there, they said that (another little boy) Adam also had a bad cough so his parents were keeping him home. So I felt like a bad parent for a few minutes, but thought of all the work I had to do and the fact I don't get time off for a sick child, and then I didn't feel so bad. Hope he's doing ok.