Happy Birthday Bro!

Nat and Karrie
Happy Birthday brother of mine! Hope you are having a good day :)

I'm having a quiet evening as the boys have gone with Al to see Jake's (his son) hockey game. James is mega-excited. Here's another picture of Karrie- she seems to be the more photogenic one:



When I dropped James off at school, he wanted to go into the K-1 yard to play. I said fne- run along. But he got upset when I wouldn't come along. And did not go. A little boy came up to james and said hi james, but james said nothing to him and the boys face fell. I felt terrible that James was that rude but the boy soon ran off and found other playfriends. I told James that he wouldn't have any friends if he acted like that. But suddenly DUNCAN arrived. Duncan is a little boy who has a frontenacs backpack and a frontenacs hat and they go to basketball together. After a bit of fussing he went into the play yard to find Duncan. And I got to see the James without me - running and playing. It was nice.

James also brought home his first report card! He did well, but he needs to work on writing his 's' the right way round!

I made muffins tonight while the boys were out and this time I forgot to add the chocolate chips, which is far less of a serious error than forgetting the baking power. I have very nice apple cinnamon oatmeal muffins.

Tonight they are saying 30 cm of snow, so I will be counting on the bus to take me in the morning!

Windswept

It was very windy all day. My dreams from 4-6am were very windswept too. Garbage and recycling containers were littered on my walk to Queen's as it was their garbage day.

Myron's knee was miraculously better so he took James to daycare. I had an early morning class. Worked like crazy all day- don't think I stopped for lunch.

My boss at RMC has in the last few days landed me 2 big contracts- one for 12 hours/week paid by Queen's and one for 21 hours a week paid by RMC. If I can't work all the hours now (which I can't when I'm allready working 30-40 hours/ week!) he's ok with me working extra in the summer. So, it's bit overwhelming already!

We had a WITH meeting at Rustle tonight, which was a really excellent meeting. It was great to heat others viewpoints. Especially Paul - he put things so clearly. I did my marking while I was listening and finished all of Section O!

A crucial ingredient

Today when I listened to the news they listed some school buses that weren't running and James' school bus was not listed. I also (earlier in the year) had signed up for email notifications if the bus was not running. I did not receive an email. Myron walked James to school (James normally only takes the bus home) - in spite of Myron having a hurt knee (he has no idea how). I called Myron from the bottom of the hill on Alfred st. as I was close to his stop and it was about 4pm- the pickup time to tell Myron that I could meet the bus. This is when Myron told me that there was no bus, James was still at school! So, Myron managed to meet me near Nelson + Concession and I gave him the groceries I had picked up, then I RAN to the school and got James. I expected to find him crying, but he was fine. There were 3 other kids in the same position, so I guess having company helped! It was rather a crucial ingredient to know that there were no buses today. And it wasn't really bad weather so I'm not too sure why they cancelled!

Also, I made muffins this evening, but left out the baking powder. I think that was a crucial ingredient!

Fly, baby bird

I have been trying to find things for James to do to establish his independance, but this so far has not been working out for me. It seems my baby bird is not keen on flying.
On Sunday, Thomas was blowing up balloons (baptism=festival!) and James wanted one, but he didn't want to go up to Thomas on his own. It's not that he doesn't know Thomas. He does. It's not like Thomas is scary. He's not. Thomas really wasn't part of the equation. It was James who wanted Mommy or Daddy to be with him. It's not like he had to go far, Thomas was about 2 rows up, but he wouldn't do it and he was reduced to tears that he didn't have a balloon. He got over it, but he didn't get a balloon!
I look for safe opportunities to stretch my baby bird.

This morning I took the bus into RMC. It was actually not a bad morning- I thought there would be freezing rain, but it was ok. The C bus that I take was late but the bus was very good and asked my connecting bus to wait. And it did. Our bus was about 4 minutes late getting in (which for a 15 min route is a lot) so I was very impressed that the connector bus waited for me!

My boss got me a huge new monitor for my office. It's really wild to see my work so large!

The OHL smiles on James

When James and Myron arrived at the Memorial Center "within 1 second" (according to James) an OHL official came up to them and gave them free tickets to the game. I guess he thought James was cute and that if you make the fans young, you keep them. Unfortunately for him, James is only a fan of the winners, and Kingston lost, sooo. Still he enjoyed the game and is currently enjoying the all stars game.

Baptism Day

Today was a special day at Rustle. Baptism services have got to be my favorite service. I think God smiles down as people dedicate themselves to Him. I posted some other pictures on the Rustle blog
I particularly liked this picture which was of a song (they were interspersed with the baptism)- brandon is singing in the picture and there is a picture of Stan and Josh and Diana on the powerpoint and I love how Joel and Cameron are holding hands. Still.

My baptism was in the Summer of 1991. I don't think I understood what it meant before I got dunked but when I came up, I did feel cleansed and I felt God's smile.

The boys are at a Fronts game. I got home about an hour ago and have spent the time on the computer (I ate lunch too). I should do some stuff around the house to get ready for the next week, or nap now! Free time whoo hoo! I've got a roast in the slow cooker so preparations for dinner will be minimal.
James has planned out the meals for the week. I told him we had to use chicken for Mon/Tues and it had to be in a slow cooker because it was frozen, so he didn't want to plan that meal, but he's planned out the other ones, 1 night of mac n cheese, 2 nights of meatloaf that he wants to put on nachos. Hopefully, if he picks it, he eats it! For tomorrow I'm planning 'one pot easy chicken' which has potatoes and carrots done in the slow cooker with the chicken. That should do us for 2 days :)

The boy ,the bed and the board

I could only take one picture as the camera was about out of batteries, but this is James 'posing' with his new bedsheets and new magnetic board.

Ready for dinner?

The pizza crust is done in the bread maker and I was going to make the dinner but it's 4:30 and both boys are asleep! I guess it'll be a late night tonight.
We had a busy day though- the boys did basketball from 9-10, then we went to the cat center and did some shopping. The boys were home for 1pm but I stayed a couple hours later. James' big find was this NHL magnetic board that you can put the magnets for each team in rank order for their division and when the stanley cup comes around it's got a place you can set up to show which teams play which in the playoffs. I'll post a picture when he has it done up. James also found NHL bedsheets on sale for $17 in Shoppers- only one set left! So James did quite well:)
I stopped by Rona on the way back to pick up a new toilet seat- the last one only lasted 6 months!
I can't believe they are sleeping when I am ready to eat!

Serious talk

Last night, after I put James to bed- he was lying there a while and then he started crying uncontrollably. I went to confort him. As I held him I knew that this crying was because of something troubling him. When he could talk again, he said he was scared of fire and that he would lose his toys and his house if there was a fire. I told him that if that happened, we would get the same toys but newer. I told him that he didn't need to worry about things that hadn't happened. He's such an adult in what he worries about sometimes.

"I never read the sports section before James"

James' teacher left me a message at work and home yesterday, but I didn't get it until after the school was closed, so I popped by the school this morning and she told me she wanted James to start doing a home-learning program. She was going to give it to 2 of the kindergartens and some of the the grade 1's. I think it's like homework- some extra reading. She wants it to be a 'warm fuzzy' for him not a stressful thing, so there's no time limits, etc.
After she told me that she also told me that she never read the sports section of the paper before James, but as he ALWAYS picks the sports box for doing show and tell, she needs to read the sports section to get new pictures for the show and tell box. He's doing show and tell today- it's his favorite task for Thursdays.

You saved my life!

When I got home yesterday, Myron was on the phone, so James herded me into his bedroom. I sat on the bed while he was playing a hockey game(also on the bed). Then he told me about how he had been playing with Myron and had fallen and Myron had caught him, just as his face was about to hit the ground. He was "this close" (space between his fingers) to hitting the ground. Then Myron came in the room. James ran to him exclaiming "You Saved my LIFE!". It was pretty funny. Myron explained to me after that James had somehow jumped OVER him while he was sitting on the couch and he saw a bum go flying past him and he realized he had to catch him. With a 5 year old you have to have pretty good reflexes!

The sad hockey card story

I didn't write the story at first because I thought it might be too traumatic for my brother to relive. But as neither he nor my mother remember the story (well, they will, but either it wasn't too traumatic, or it was SO traumatic they have repressed it), I will write it:)
My brother and I collected hackey cards as kids - I remember playing many games with the cards and some sort of puck- maybe a penny?. My collection plateaued much earlier than my brothers' as he proved a much more dedicated collector. He had this really cool box that had a cardboard insert that seperated the teams (like they separate wine bottles at the LCBO, but card-sized). Now I'm not sure what shape the cards were in as they played many a game of hockey and I'm not sure what prompted him to give up the collection but I seem to remember a man came by the house and he sold it for $20. This was like, 20 years ago, so my memory is kind of foggy, but it's just kind of sad that it was all gone, just like that.

I was up from 3-5am this morning and now I'm pretty tired. I have a class in about an hour.

Ray

Al gave James a Ray Emory hockey card. James sleeps with it. Ray's looking a bit battered now. James wants me to buy him hockey cards. Tells me the dollar store has them. I told him the sad story of my brothers' hockey card collection.

I have a quiet afternoon because the boys have gone to a hockey game at the Memorial Center. Probably not a big turn out there because of the football game (which I am taping) but James was very excited. What a hockey fan. For the outcome of the game- he's hoping it goes to penalty shots, because he's never seen that before!
I'll do some housework. There's always lots to do!

Listening to Hayley Westenra- what beautiful voice.

Swapping

The clothes swap was a lot of fun, mainly for seeing the people more than the clothes! It was neat to see Astrid and Muirgan more grown up and wonderful to see Bonnie who is only a few weeks away from having #5. Annette went with me. We have so much in common in our current space in life.

We have had the computer back for 10 days and this weekend we went over our 3 Gig download limit for the month. And why you may ask? Well, James has figured out how to download hockey videos from nhl.com and apparently they are pretty high bandwidth! We'll have to call on Monday and get our bandwidth extended (since we are already over) and try to get our child to cut back on the hockey videos!

A marking free weekend

For the first time in many years, I have the weekend after my students handed in their error worksheet free of marking. I finished marking the 300 last night and watched Numb3rs while waiting for Kim. She came by on her way to her midnight shift to pick up her vegetables.
In the morning, James and Myron went to basketball while I finished up some other things for work and made the Stuffed Cabbage Casserole. It was an interesting recipe- I hope it tastes good too!
In the afternoon I made double chocolate cookies. Very nice.
In the evening, while the boys watch Hockey night in Canada, I'm going to Rachel's for a clothes swap.

On the cusp

I am very close to finishing marking my papers for the week! I don't think I've ever finished before the weekend in previous terms!
I found a super recipe in one this amazing cookbook that Karrie got me for Cabbage Roll Casserole that I hope to try tomorrow.

Waiting for dinner

At Pioneers, I am not quite sure what the assignment was but the kids drew pictures of themselves and their families and household chores. I saw Tara's and she drew a picture where she was washing the dishes (I only saw it breifly so I'm not sure if there were others in the picture too). James drew a picture of Mom Dad and James. Dad was making dinner, Mom was washing dishes and James was "waiting for dinner"
I laughed a lot at that and wished I had that chore!

Year of hockey

I found 2008 Hockey calenders on sale for $2 at SDM and have decorated our house with them, knowing that James would love them and I would need to know dates.
Yesterday, I felt like I hit the wall of work as I had an 8:30 class and a 2:30 class, with heaps of marking in between. We ordered pizza, which we also ate tonight.
Today was better with only one class, but it was a big one!
Now I've got to get back to my marking...

Seasonally appropriate

I am finding it hard to dress seasonally appropriately as a) I am not quite sure what the season is and b) my classroom temperature does not conform to the alleged season. My classroom is pretty warm- it gets hot once all the students are in it, so I can't wear sweaters and my shirts that are thinner tend to be more summery. So today I wore a tank top with a thin cardigan and that seemed ok. But why do I have sweaters if I can't wear them in the winter??

Campus security, you'll know me by name soon

I had 3 classes today. One at 8:30, one at 11:30 and one at 3:30. The 11:30 one was where the excitement was. My boss had finished her intro, when a girl put up her hand and said that her partner wasn't feeling well. And indeed, she had looked fine at 11:30 but now as it was nearing 12 she looked very bad. My boss told me to go to the office and call an ambulance. Now why I was going to the office when we have a phone much closer to the lab, I don't know. I went to the office and it was closed as it was 3 minutes past 12. I wasn't quite sure how to call 911 from a phone you have to code out of, so I called the security emergency line and told them I needed an ambulance. The guy who answered asked me some questions about what was going on and then suggested that he send Queen's First Aid to assess the situation. By this time my boss came down to the office (I had to leave security on the phone while I unlocked the door for her!) and she thought that was ok. It took only about 10 minutes for them to arrive and they were really great with her. They decided it was low blood sugar or something and they took her home to lie down and get something to eat.

I had to deal with a number of people with regards to copying, which I suppose added more excitement, but not in any good ways.

It starts

Today I start a massive week. There are 8 labs to run and I have heaps of marking starting. At least it won't be boring!

James had a great time yesterday playing road hockey at rustle. he really was worn out after. I spent my afternoon at work. There was a tutorial. I had booked the room well in advance with the sole purpose of having the building open. However, the building was not open. I had to call campus security to come and open it!

Jan1

We left St. Catharines in a hurry on Dec. 31. We did a flying packing job and headed back to Kingston to avoid the predicted Jan 1 storm. And it was a good thing we did!



Today, however, felt like spring. I took James out biking after he got home from basketball and we hung out at some parks- one wet one with Sarah and Tara. Then we had some homemade pizza for dinner. I even got to hang some laundry out. Not looking forward to having snow and winter again.

Basketball

We signed James up for basketball in the winter. I wasn't too keen on it because it tends to be so cold to get around, but Myron said he'd take him, so they are off this morning. (though this morning is not cold at all!)
James wants to watch the Patriots game this afternoon and hockey night in canada in the evening. You might think he is a couch potato, but for him 'watching tv' merely means that the tv is on and every now and then he runs in to check the score, while he plays his games in the hall. Sports he likes. Myron and I cannot figure it out as neither of us like/watch sports (at least before he was born, there were never sports games on!)
I have to do my wrap up file for my course last term and I have to rewrite an appendix of our course manual today. Tomorrow after Rustle, I also have to work. I have to find some files for my boss, have a meeting about equipment and run an tutorial. And that's a Sunday. That is just a precursor for what this week is going to be like!

Is my family funny?

My cousins Tammy and Katie doing some kind of song and dance for Christmas:

James at Christmas

He did well today and I was planning on sending him to pioneers, but his head was hot about time to go and he was lying down, so I didn't send him. He perked up a bit afterward. He's not eating as much as usual, but he seems about 70% back to his old self.

Germ ridding

Last night was pretty rough. I couldn't seem to get to a deep sleep. James was up around midnight, but wasn't sick, just wanted company. I think my body might have been fighting what James had as it was alternately cold and hot, which seemed to be one of his symptoms. But I seemed fine in the morning, and I proceeded to start the germ elimination process, which to me meant washing everything in the house that possible could have been contaminated! So the laundry machine has been busy! I also washed a lot of stuff in the kitchen and started a mexican meat loaf, hoping that all of us will be well enough to eat it in the evening.

I kept James home from school, but so far he seems to be fine.

Myron is out at a dr. appt. Hopefully, after this we may have a date that he can return to work. He may also be on anti depressants. We'll see.

Sickness

James was sent home sick from the daycare and has been throwing up since 4:30pm (not much left anymore. Sorry Bob, I know 'throwing up' is a banned blog word, but the facts are what they are)

I am doing lots of laundry.

James was very upset when I told him I didn't think he could go to school tomorrow because it is his turn to do show and tell tomorrow.

Also, the computer is home!

Wind river

The wind was pretty strong this morning, so I took the bus in rather than walk into the wind. I'm getting soft. The river/lake was very choppy as we drove by!

I picked James up after school and he was very happy to have been back. Proud of eating his whole lunch (normally the carrots come back uneaten). He'd had a substitute teacher in the afternoon whose name was Mme James. He loved that! He told me they danced in gym class. He got out a hockey book from the library at school. I love walking and talking with my boy. Nice that it was so nice out yesterday.

Today we're having leftover soup from Sun. and I'm baking bread (I meant to put it on the timer, but I hit the start button instead of the menu button and once it started, there's no stopping it. I'll have to call Myron and remind him to get it out) then I'm heading to Rustle for prayer in the evening.

Restructuring

I had a meeting on restructuring my course at 9. Myron had a dentist appt. at 8, not too far from James' school (which also starts at 9). As I wasn't sure if Myron would be done his appt. by 8:30, I arranged to meet Bob N. at the school at 8:30 so he could watch James while I went off to my meeting. It turns out that Myron did make it to the school for 8:30 so Bob then carried on to where he was going next (maybe Rustle?). It really is great that Bob and Karen live so close to his school and are such a support to us.

The result of the meeting was that the course is not going to be restructured this year, because the whole of first year is looking at being restructured for sept 2009 and it seemed silly to put so much effort into a change that might only be for 1 year.

Yesterday was a really long day. When I made it home James was still awake and needed lots of hugs. Today is a shorter day. I'm off at 3. Will pick James up at school at 3:30 and have a lovely turkey in the slow cooker for dinner.

Also (thanks for reminding me Bob) I did find the battery charger for the camera in James' luggage that I apparently forgot to unpack! So I can take pics again, but I have nothing from the playtrium adventure.

orange

We still have no home computer, so I can only update in breaks at work.

I have discovered that my pineapple intolerance that started in August seems to be a citrus intolerance and I have now eliminated oranges and orange juice from my diet to see what effect that has.

Today, my class starts with a bang. We have meetings tonight to introduce all 300 to the course. I just finished the presentation. Am waiting to hear back from my boss if it's ok.

James hurt his knee on Sat. running in a game. It was a really nasty cut and is still bothering him today. The game was actually quite funny (until the injury occured). He would eat a bite of cucumber dipped in ketchup (his new favorite food) and when he had swallowed, would stick out his toungue at me (survivor- style) and if it was clear then I would say "Go" and he would run to the front room and back and then it would repeat again. We did play the game again last night, however, James said it would be a walking game. (safer, but not quite as much fun)

Yesterday, James and I took a bus over to the Playtrium for his friend Yasmine's party. He had a lot of fun as his friend's Lucas and Adam were there as well. They all ran and ran! Kim picked us up and we did a bit of grocery shopping then we went home and had some Savory winter soup (new recipe from one of my Karrie-Christmas books) It was a soup with ground beef and lots of veggies. A keeper.

James wouldn't eat the mexican meatloaf I make on friday so he ate his leftover chicken strips from kelseys. But then the next day myron cut up the leftover meatloaf to put on his nachos and james was picking it off and eating it and he liked it. So he had agreed that if i cut up the meatloaf next time, he will eat it! One step forward for my meal plans!

I can't find my battery charger for my camera batteries, so while I should still be able to download my photos when we get our computer back (fingers crossed), I can't take any new ones until I find this equipment!

Settle down, Stephen Harper

On the drive back to Kingston from St. C, James was keeping an eye on the time and the distance, eager to get where he was going. When James would ask Myron a question about the time or disance and myron would respond with an '-ish', James would get very upset (eg. 200km-ish). James wanted precision. What we worked out to change his mood is that any time Myron said something with the -ish, James would say "Settle down, Stephen Harper" and then he would be giggling like crazy. James' mood could turn from upset to happy in a moment with this trick!

Yesterday, I was really dragging down tired. We went to Kelsey's (I love their taco salad), to Walmart (where I found the Welsh's fruit chews with real fruit juice in them hidden at the back of an aisle- they are the only chewy snack I've found whose first ingredient is not sugar!) and to the Cat center (I looked at the sale clothes but nothing was too appealing. The sales in St. C were way better. James used his Christmas money- $5 from Ida Rogers to buy a kitten calender- this morning he drew a line through each day that had passed so far. I never knew he would be so keen on having his own calender)

This morning I put a mexican meatloaf in the slow cooker. I got the recipe from a new slow cooker book I got for Christmas (Thanks Nat and Karrie!)

Hope my brothers flight out to NS goes well today!

Back

We arrived back on Dec. 31 ahead of the storm, but the home computer is in the shop so we have not been online. Myron is starting to get the shakes. It's hard for him to be without the computer!

We still have the rental car because Myron can't say no to salespeople. He is every salesperson's dream. So I got him to drive me into work in the -20 degree weather (otherwise I would have taken the bus for sure!). James is back in daycare today as well. Tonight we are going to Kelsey's for dinner (thanks to Nat and Karrie and their anniversary gift:) and then I think we will do some shopping as we still have that car, we'll have to make good use of it!

When we get the computer back I'll upload some of the 70 photos I took of the trip!