Rainy

These were my tulips on Apr. 27 when everything was sunny. It's been rainy and/or cold since Monday and the rest of the week is supposed to be the same. Not so good for tulip viewing :( They like the sun, so do I.

James was sitting on my lap at the computer as I downloaded a batch of photos and he wanted me to take one of him. On my lap. So he laid back and I took it. I told him he would look upside down but I could rotate it (using the 'gimp' photoware we have). He said no, he likes to be upside down! So there you have it.

On the sunny weekend, on Sunday, Kim took me to see the Kingston Symphony. They played 'the planets'. My favorite was Jupiter.

My stomach has been very grumbly these last 2 days. I don't feel sick or anything- it's just noisy!

Tonight, we have a 'with' meeting at Rustle. (Hopefully, my stomach will not be so load to drown everyone out!)
Tomorrow, there is an end of year BBQ at James' Pioneer club.
Sunday is James' big birthday party at the Playtrium. 8 children not to lose!

Fire hall

It was so funny to hit 'new post' when it said '1000 posts'.

In the morning today I went with James' class to the fire hall. The trip itself went quite well. The kids all had loads of fun and I learned a LOT more about James' classmates.

Catie's mom was also helping out. I had met her at Catie's birthday party. At that party Catie had impressed me so much with her maturity and how she took care of the guests. Today Catie seemed totally different. After the kids got their coats and shoes on they stood against the wall. Catie and Anika were playing around. Madame spoke VERY sharply to Catie, telling her not to do that again. I was very surprised at the tone. I looked at Catie's mom. She neither seemed surprised or upset. Later, Madame told me that on a previous field trip Catie's mom had helped and Catie had played around and the mom had not said anything. Evidently Madame was showing how it should be done.

Before we left also we had to find Noah's boots. Noah was crying. He had only been at school an hour and his boots were gone. Madame didn't think he should be crying, but looking. Riley had put on Noah's boots (on purpose, I think, to make Noah upset) and took them off when found out. Riley was not reprimanded though.

In the fire hall, we divided James' class in 2 groups. Catie's mom took one group and Madame and I took the other. Catie's mom seemed to do a fine job with the group she had. Both James and Catie were in my group (as well as 5 others). Catie clung to Madame the whole time so I tried to keep track of the other 6. They asked lots of questions and seemed to like to touch everything.

Madame said she wasn't 'brave' enough to put James in a group away from me. I'm not quite sure what she meant by that.

She also said that she was taking bids from grade 1 teachers to put him in their class. She thinks he's pretty bright and I think she likes that he listens to her.

It was very interesting to see him interacting with his friends. It was also interesting to see the difference with the girls and boys. The girls I could easily start conversations with (except Catie) and it was easy to get to know them. The boys were difficult. I don't know if it was how they relate to strangers or just how they relate in general.

Happy 1000!

The cake was a combined 1000 blog post and James' birthday cake as I didn't want to buy a cake in the plastic containers that you can no longer recycle so I had to choose the biggest size to get it in a box, rather than plastic.

Sarah seemed pretty happy with the cake.

So did the kids.

I always manage to catch Bob reading at parties. Hope it's not that we're boring!

And I even got Al in a photo. The crazy thing in this photo is the background- the kids in the background are playing the shove an unsuspecting person in the closet. It apparently was great fun. You should have been here (if you weren't!). You could have gotten shoved in a closet! Who wouldn't want that. And so that was the party. And as Paul said, Any bad excuse for a party is a good one :) (or something like that). Thanks to everyone who came and helped celebrate and thanks to everyone who came in spirit as well :) I'll probably have another party when this turns 2000. Give me another 3 years or so.

Party like it's 999

We had a great time at the 1000 blog post party. I turn 1000 on the next post, which will be pictures from the party :)

The day was nice at the start and I managed to get 3 loads of laundry hung and dry (though not put away before the party!) But it did rain during the party and we had to stay indoors, but it was still fun!
There were lots of kids which kept things busy, but I think some adult conversations were still managed.
I tried to keep on top of offering people drinks but I'm not sure how well I managed. I hope everyone felt comfortable enough to use my fridge!
Thanks to Jordin and Sarah for helping with the cleanup.

Now the boys are watching hockey night and I'll finish the cleanup.

Chickadee swarming

Today starts out as a beautiful morning! My first tulips are out. James and I were in the backyard and there were a swarm (flock?) of chickadees in our yard. They were very cute.
The forecast is thunderstorms for the 1000 blog post party, but we can always party indoors!
Also a good day for a book sale- check out Rustle for that!

Happy birthday Omi!

It's my grandmothers birthday today! My mom is in Holland for the celebration. I hope they all have a great time.

Tonight Sandy and I are going to a city-wide worship thing. I don't know where. Sandy invited me and she's driving, so I assume she knows.

Saturday is the 1000 blog party. Burgers and ice cream cake at my place, if you can make it!

Sunday, after Church, I'm going with Kim to the Kingston Symphony. Terence Dickinson is supposed to have done something astonomy-related with the music. Not quite sure what I'm getting into but Kim wanted to go.

Next Sunday is James' birthday party at the playtrium. Him and 7 other 3-6 year olds. Eeeee. The thought makes me a bit queasy because I know I'm responsible for not losing them all! But I know all of the children pretty well, except for one, so hopefully it goes well.

We have Zullys car for a couple of days while he's at a conference. It makes me feel odd to walk out to my driveway and see a car there. I keep thinking- why is there a car there. It seems so odd.

Party time set

For the 1000nd blog post party, I'm going with this Sat. around 4:30pm. Let me know if you want to come (if you haven't already) so I make sure we've got enough burgers. I've got the time ok-ed with Jordin. Still waiting to hear back from Bob's publicity secretary. If you want to meet Bob, this may be your big chance. Or not, as the case may be.

Kim and I went shopping on Monday. I got to spend a lot of money! We went to Walmart and I spent over $200- basically on supplies. I booked James' party at the playtrium. I wanted to hold it on Sat. May 3rd but they were all booked up that day, so I ended up having to book the Sun. at 2pm. Also got James a cool b-day present at toys-r-us: a hockey/soccer net that has a goalie that moves randomly (or you can remote control him) Too funny- I think he's going to love it.

Summer surprise

We were surprised by summer today! (27 degrees!) I was completely not ready for this. I didn't even put sunscreen on James until mid-afternoon. James and I spent the afternoon hanging out in the backyard. We spent some time in our hammock. Most of the time he spent climbing around and playing games but at one point he lay down beside me and we had this conversation:

J: When you die you'll see God, right?
Me: Right
J: And when I die I see you and God, right?
Me: Right
J: And when Myron dies he'll see all of us?
Me: Yep.
J: And we'll all be underground?
Me: Well....maybe not underground, maybe in heaven
J: But we'll be able to talk to God everyday?

Scores

Generally, James gets a lot of his math knowledge from sports. He loves sports and adding up the scores, so it's easy to keep him interested that way.
We had this conversation this morning:
J: (in his game the Generals had 50 and the globetrotters had 11) For a 50 plus 11 game what is the lead?
me: You mean how many points is the team leading by?
J: Yes
me: That would be 50 minus 11, so 39
J: I don't want you minusing stuff, I want to know how much they are leading by
me: Well I was finding the difference in the points
J: They got 50 points
me: Yes, well, I was just taking away the points the other team got to see the difference
j: They have a 50 point lead
me: (goes back to laundry, what more was there to say?)
a few minutes later the score is generals 50, globetrotters 20
J: they have a 30 point lead, because one has 50 and one has 20
I guess he understood what I was saying after all!

Last night, he wanted to sleep on the couch so he could fall asleep watching the soccer game. But he woke up disoriented at around 1am. That meant he woke us up at 1am. He went right back to sleep, but it took me a long time. sigh.

Plowed

Last night I was plowed over, not by a car, but by a nasty sore throat. It was sooo painful to swallow! By the morning, it was somewhat better. At RMC (in a environmentally protected environment) it is fine, so I'm thinking it may be an allergy and not a cold. I guess we'll see. I would take allergy medecine, but it upsets my stomach, so I'll live with it as best I can.

James showed me after school how he did the jump rope for heart and he REALLY CAN SKIP. I was impressed. He's not fast but he can get it done, one skip at a time. Thanks to everyone who supported him!

Kim came by in the morning to drop off her recycling (cause she lives in the boonies, she has no recycling) and she drove me to rmc. We're going shopping together on Mon. Which means I'll have to head into work on Sun aft. to get a bit accomplished so I can take Mon. off.

Plans for the party are a meal of burgers, hopefully with DQ ice creamcake as well. So far I have jordin and bob (they might bring their families too, if their families are nice to them) on the 'real' person guest list. Haven't picked a date yet, but I'm hoping for next week!

U6

Signed James up for soccer (U6) on Tuesday nights.

Almost got flattened by a car running a red light. Newsflash- you are only supposed to turn left when the way is clear- not when you have a pedestrian and a RED light! (She was stopped at a red light. The pedestrian green light goes on first so the pedestrians can cross without being flattened, in theory anyway)

If I had a party for my 1000th blog post, who would want to come?

Dirt Pie

This lovely looking floral arrangement is actually a dirt pie from Raphael's reception. Not sure how much Raphael enjoyed but it was GOOD. The service before it was really good too. I was glad to be at Kelly & Jason (&Elijah &Raphael) 's special day.
In the picture, you can also see Michelle taking a picture and challenging me to a race to get the pic on facebook first.
You can also see gummi worms crawling in the dirt.
It was a lot of biking that day, but with the whole weekend overall, it was the first time that I felt kind of normal for a weekend, even if it was tiring :)

James has become increasingly talkative. He had lots to say this weekend. And he made me take buses all over the house. An interestingly supportive conversation occurred when I had just lost at 'Staries' (a game I play on facebook). He told me "Good you got to level 10" and then something else equally supportive. I am not sure where this came from as generally when I play he says something like "You're going to lose!"

After dinner today, (new Texas steak recipe) James and I went out for a bike ride (well, he biked and I ran after him) and either he goes faster than last year, or I am way more out of shape as I had a hard time keeping up with him. I'm hoping it is the former, but figuring if it is the latter if we do this every day it won't take long to fix that!

Rocky Road Cheesecake

I made this for our lunch today- it was good!

James' tongue looks a lot better today, I am glad to say!

Myron's foot still hurts so I had to take James to basketball. Then I had to hurry and get everything ready for the lunch. We had a lot of fun with our friends at lunch.

Gerald is coming to pick Myron up for dinner, so I'm not having to make one tonight. James and I are having wraps for dinner with leftover turkey.

James is jumping rope for Heart on Thusday. If you would like to sponsor him (they send an income tax receipt) his page is here

Playoff

James' toungue looked worse last night- I guess it was having some swelling. There is a red section and a couple of white sections where I guess he bit through some skin on the toungue. It looks nasty. (Sorry Bob, I know you're queasy about the details- but some people like to know, I think) In the morning, it still looked bad, but not as bad as the night. I sent him to daycare with 'emergency freezies', as they are the only thing that really make him feel better if his toungue if hurting.

He is over the MOON with the playoffs. He loves that there are games on every night.

Myron had a meeting with a guy from the insurance today. A scheduled 2 hour meeting. I don't know how it went yet. The guy makes house calls. Myron has a hurt foot, so I guess that's a good thing - he couldn't have gone anywhere!

Yesterday, when I came home from work, I thought the house smelled great. I thought Myron had made something good for lunch. But then I realized that is was MY dinner that I put in the slow cooker that morning. Nice.

Tomorrow, James has basketball in the morning, then one of my coworkers and his family is coming for lunch. I am planning English muffin pizzas so that each person can top it the way they like. Myron is supposed to go to Gerald's for dinner with the boys, but I don't know if that will happen with Myron's injury.

Sunday, Kelly's Raphael is being dedicated so I'm heading to her church for 9:15am and then to Rustle after, then back home to go to Jo's for Raphael's reception.

Looks to be a busy weekend!

Tongue injury

James came home from school with an injured tongue. It looks quite nasty, like he took a bite out of it! He said he hit it while he was swinging on the monkey bars. He said they gave him ice at school, but he didn't know who it was that gave it to him. This apparently happened at first recess and he did manage to eat his munch just fine. But dinner? Didn't go so well. He couldn't chew the chicken. The cucumber and rice went down ok though. Now he's eating freezies for dessert.

At work I am crazily trying to sort through marks. My marks are due in on the the 24th so I'll likely be under a bit of pressure until then.

I am normally quite TERRIBLE about remembering birthdays as my birthday calender tends to be on the wrong month and even if I DO remember someone's birthday, I'm never sure of the sort of thing they will appreciate. But I remembered Melissa's birthday today and popped by the A&P to pick her up something to celebrate. I found new 2 bite brownies with rainbow chocolate bits. I had never seen this before. Melissa was quite happy with my choice :)

Change

Today, while waiting for the school bus, a policeman drove up and blocked off the road with pylons, then drove away. It was quite funny to watch the people coming down Alfred St. and being confronted with the pylons and being unsure of what to do next. (they had to go down a side street to the next street- there was work being done on the traffic lights at the intersection)
We also saw a big bird of prey circling over us while we waited for the bus- maybe we looked good to eat?
While we were getting ready for school, Gerald called and said he won tickets to a Sesame St. Thing at the krock on Sat. and did James want to go? And he needed an answer SOONER than later. This threw off my whole morning routine, somehow and I ended up leaving the house without breakfast and almost forgetting to start the dinner. James was also up at 2am, which might have something to do with my alertness. How come HE never seems any worse for wear for being up at 2am?
The PLAYOFFS started yesterday, much to James' delight.
I also changed my shampoo today- from Sunsilk to Dove grapefruit and lemongrass. I'm liking that change!

Event

James took one of my Facebook Quizzes and found he was matched to Jerome Iginla. Since then he thinks he is Jerome! One time I asked who left cracker crumbs in my bed and -surprise- it was Jerome! He's always happy when Jerome scores too. He takes all the credit.

Yesterday morning Church was amazing. I had a great time. James also had a great time, though he was singing "I like to move it, move it" during the music at the start. I think he found it a bit slow. He also had a great time squealing with glee as Sean tickled him during communion. In the afternoon, he went to Tara's and I baked cookies and cleaned the house (which I didn't get to do on Sat. because it was too nice out and we HAD to be outside most of the time!)

Then at 6:30 I headed down to the Krock for the Impact World tour finale. The Krock was full and it was an amazing time. I liked the imagery the strength team used. Like they held up a baseball bat and said that your life may be hard like that, but that you need to come broken before God. And then the guy snapped the baseball bat in 2.
There were 2 single women sitting beside me with about 4 children between them (couldn't tell whose was whose). One woman took the 2 or 3 year old down (I assumed to the bathroom). The child reappeared a few minutes later. The mom did not. The child just played in the aisle. Finally, the other mom got up and took the child back to the seat- still no sign of the first mom. Finally, the first mom appeared in a panic. She had alerted security as she thought that she had lost the child. But no, he just came back to the area he knew. I guess the kid thought- if I go back where I came from, she'll find me there. Smart thinking on the kids part. But obviously not smart to leave the mom!

"I don't have anything to say"

So the Leafs are out of the playoffs? Doesn't stop James from having Leafs tattoos for hockey night in canada tonight!

James was very excited all day about being able to call his little friend Quinn. We were outside enjoying the (finally) nice weather until around 4pm. I also got to hang laundry! Yay. A very nice day indeed.

We called Quinn after he booted Oma off the phone. I called and talked to her dad first and he went and got her. I heard only james' end of the conversation:
Hi.(pause)
James.(Long pause- I think she's talking)
(puzzled)I don't have anything to say(pause)
I don't have anything to say- I'll call you back when I have something to say!

As James learns that you use the phone WHEN YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY!

Phone

James came home with phone #s for 2 girls yesterday! He's only 5. And he's not great at talking on the phone! Interesting.

Yesterday I worked for 9 hours, then went and met Kim and Rachel (I don't know her last name- not Rachel E.) and watched the dancing. It was really a great show. The fire dancer I had to hold my breath through so I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I had if I hadn't been worried he was going to burn the place down! It was pretty full. I expect tonight will be even more full as it is the skateboarders and bikes and stuff. Good for boys:)

Today I have to make some semblance of reason in my house. Normally I grocery shop for the weekend on Friday, but didn't get to do that last night. (got home around 10) So I get to be creative with meals. We'll have homemade pizza tonight as I had already planned all the stuff for that. For tomorrow, I'll have to see what we have in the freezer.

Jump rope

James' school is participating in the Jump rope for heart. (I think it is a fundraiser for the heart and stroke foundation, but also seems to be interested in teaching kids how important it is to be active)
I think that's great and all, but James is not coordinated enough yet to jump rope! I wonder if they have different activities for the little kids. Anyway, I'll support the little mite in whatever it is that he actually does!
There's supposed to be an online site that I can sign him up on to accept online donations and they send you a tax receipt. I'll have to look into that.
Tonight I'm supposed to be going with Kim to the World Impact Tour at the new downtown arena. She's going to call and say how last night went, and how we can find each other in the big arena! James and Myron went there for the Globetrotters and seemed to have a good time. (Though Myron said that there was a speaker partially blocking his vision- I thought this new arena was supposed to have good sight lines for everyone!) The came back with a Globetrotters basketball. The boy is racking up the basketballs! And his basketball lessons start again tomorrow.

Spike

James has taken a recent liking to showers. And after the shower he likes to 'spike' his own hair :)

Boots

The last 2 days I have left the house to go to work before James is up in the morning. Funny, considering he gets up at 6am on weekends. Isn't that always the way?
This puts an added burden on Myron as he has to get James ready in the morning. This morning the weather was relatively nice so I told him James should wear rain boots (as his winter boots would leak with all the puddles!) When James got off the bus this afternoon he was wearing MY rainboots! Apparently Myron gave him the choice between his (James') and mine and he picked my brand spanking new rainboots. Hilarious. He looked pretty good in them too :)
Tomorrow I run the last few classes of the term. I have one extra on Thurs but it's not a full class. That will be a change for me!
I worked out my security bugs at RMC and am official once again.
Myron got his report from his assessment in Montreal. Ask him about it if you want to know!