They're home!!!

Doug and the boys are home. They are a little more tanned than when they left but otherwise they look the same as they did before they walked out the door Friday at noon. Doug and his boys went camping as a Father/Sons affair this weekend. They borrowed my parent's Kombi and went to MacGregor Point on Lake Huron for two nights. This is an annual event for the three of them to spend time alone and away from friends and family and they have been planning it for weeks.

Speaking of planning, this weekend was all about talking about the plans we have and friends have in the coming months. I spent Friday night with my sister. We spoke a little bit about the plans we have for our Run/Walk next weekend to raise money for Breast Cancer research.

***** If you would like to sponsor me for this event then just click here and make a donation to sponsor me. I am running/walking in Guelph, Ontario. *****

Other plans she and I discussed included the wedding she and Chris are planning for next year. They have booked a location (other than their house, in case of inclimate weather) and now have to contact an officiant. I asked if she knew what she was going to wear so that I could plan my wardrobe but she does not know as yet.

My friend Amy and I talked about our plans for family vacations next year. I thought we were the only ones planning to go to Disney World with the boys. Her Mom and Dad surprised the whole family with a trip to Florida for next spring. We are not going until next winter (2008) AND IT IS a **HUGE** SURPRISE for the boys so PLEASE do not say anything. We will not be able to afford to take any vacation time until then (although Doug isn't really eligible for vacation time until next June with his new contract) but that's okay because it will take us until then to save for our trip.

We are SO excited!! We have wanted to take the boys on a major vacation for a long time and this opportunity presented itself so we are going to jump at it. Maybe the year after we will be able to save to go to Calgary if Jennifer and Nino are still living out there. I would love for the boys to see the western part of Canada. It is so different than here and I know they would have fun. Cross your fingers for Calgary, Alberta, Summer 2009.

I am taking the boys to Maryland next month. A friend is traveling from Phoenix, AZ to Washington, DC. Another friend is going to be in DC from her home in NJ. Another friend from PA is talking about joining us. All of us have a couple of friends in VA. So, Fergus, Quinn and I are going to drive to Germantown, MD to stay with a friend and her family. It is going to be a great reunion for many of us. We are also hopeful that our friend from IA is able to join us but she hasn't committed yet. What travelers we are!!

Other that the run next weekend and MD next month we don't have any other major plans around here. Doug is working crazy hours so he and I might plan a date in the next couple of weeks, IF he can spare the time for hanging out with his wife.

What are your plans in the next few months???

It looked funny so . . .

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) - Blackie Rabbit

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) - Moose Tracks Oatmeal

3. YOUR "FLY Guy/Girl" NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) SLee

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) - Orange Whale

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) - Marie Fergus

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) - LeeSa

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink, put "The") - The Brown G&T

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) - Sam James

9. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) - Soap Lego

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother's & father's middle names) - Elizabeth James

As I look at it I realise it doesn't read as entertainingly as it did for my friend. Oh well. It *is* still fun.

Good Monday to you

Well, I need suggestions. I have just found out that my hours at the hospital are about to be cut . . . AGAIN! I love, love, love what I do and what I teach. I get a HUGE rush out of speaking in front of large groups. I love being able to take time with each group to get to know some of them a bit to be able to answer their individual questions about birth.

In a community where the population is in a steady rise, there are fewer people taking prenatal classes or wanting to. Some are vying for the few spaces in the free classes offered by the region. Most however, just do not.

What should I do now? I am having some thoughts (especially as I try to prepare to re-apply for school this winter) that perhaps I should do something small and local. Some of my other thoughts suggest I try to follow my desire to do more public speaking. I wouldn't even know where to begin to step into that role. I would love to write more. (Or start writing again.) I know writing wouldn't be a paying gig (as much as that would be lovely) but it may the catharsis I need.

The boys don't know how stressed I am about this. I am keeping it pretty mum at the moment as Fergus would really worry if he knew something was bothering me. I have hardly spoken to Doug about it because this is the car photographer's busy season. They are out until all hours every day shooting pictures of the new cars coming out.

I should tell you, because I think it is incredibly funny the idea of it all, that "they" (Toyota) will bring vehicles in on truck under the cover of night and drive them into the studio at Toyota. Bill, Doug et al. get a few days to take all of the pictures Toyota needs for their advertising and then they load the trucks back up with the vehicles and away they go.

If they have to take shots on location and the vehicle image has not been released to the public as yet, the trucks take them to the location site for shooting and then load them up again. Neat for Doug. He has had a chance to drive some really nice Toyota and Lexus products that aren't even on the market yet. Seems hilarious to me though (who could care less about the new vehicles coming out) that there is all of this secrecy.

Anyway, I guess that's my humour at the end of a more sobering message. Please send your career suggestions to me as soon as possible!!!!

A neat quiz

I was sent a link to a neat quiz in which you choose the topics that are important to you and prioritize them relative to the upcoming American election. (It is an American site) I have now determined (or at least the computer has) who I would vote for IF I was an American and IF I wanted to vote in their election.

My Results were as follows:
Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich (D)- 95.24% match
Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel (D) - 77.78%
Illinois Senator Barack Obama (D) - 76.98%
New York Senator Hillary Clinton (D) - 73.02%
Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards (D) - 69.84%
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (D) - 68.25%
Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd (D) - 66.67%
Delaware Senator Joseph Biden (D) - 65.08%
Businessman John Cox (R) - 46.03%
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) - 38.89%
Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson (R) - 32.54%
Texas Representative Ron Paul (R) - 30.16%
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R) - 28.57%
Kansas Senator Sam Brownback (R) - 19.05%

If you want to check this quiz out for yourself or try it yourself then click here.

What's new here??

Not a lot and yet . . . so much.

The world around us has returned to "normal." The schoolyard behind our house is full of screaming children again as they are back to school. The boys are busy trying to decide what clubs and sports groups they want to participate in. We are back to going to the library on a regular basis. We also need to find some great fieldtrips to plan since Fergus is not returning to Shady Grove this year.

We celebrated the last long weekend of the summer by traveling to my BIL's mom's place. She, Liz, lives between North Bay and Huntsville so is about a three hour drive north from here. They live on a small body of water, Eagle Lake, and while it is inhabited by cottages and houses on one side, it is crown land on the other. That means that it can't be developed any further and will stay nice and quiet. There aren't many watercraft on the lake other than a couple of boats and some people out skulling.

At night, once dark, you can hear the wildlife across the water on the crown land. Some of it is really easy to identify and some of the noises we heard were unrecognizable.

We were invited to a lake party while we were there too. The boys had a chance to play with other kids instead of hanging out with adults all weekend. They weren't too sad to be with adults though. The adults took them fishing, swimming, out of the ATV's, etc. You know, stuff only parents can do and activities we don't have access to here.

We came home on the Sunday evening. Doug had a lot of work to do for Horvath so we came home to allow him all of Monday to work on it. It was going to be a smooth ride straight home since we didn't leave Liz's place until after 9:00 Sunday night. We were going to be ahead of the long weekend traffic.

Wow! Were we wrong! We had a tire go flat as we traveled at 120 km/hour on the highway. Two sleeping children in the back seat. 11:30 at night. What would we do? Find ourselves grateful for the 24hr roadside assistance that comes with our new cars is what. I called Volkswagen and they sent someone to help us change our tire while the boys slept on. Thank goddess for the full-size spare in the boot of the car. This meant we could drive more than 50 km. on the tire. We were still more than 50 km. from home.

After that adventure we were glad that the rest of the week was totally smooth. We did go raspberry picking on Tuesday but otherwise, nothing really exciting.

Last night we had company. Friends, Dan and Catharine, whom we haven't seen in MANY years, live in Orangeville (about 35 minutes from Georgetown). They came by with their 5 year old daughter and had coffee and dessert. Doug and Dan were friends when they were in grade school. We haven't seen them since we all left the Collingwood area just after we got married.

What on tap for this week?? I don't know. Hopefully I will make myself spend time sitting down and working on the Grade 12 Biology course I need for my school application.

Where has the time gone?

My brother, Nathan, just arrived and already he is getting ready to leave tomorrow. Tomorrow evening, August 31st, he will fly out of Toronto and between the distance and the International Date Line he will arrive home in Taichung, Taiwan on Sunday, September 02nd. How's that for crazy.

He was here last night for the night and I will see him again tomorrow before he leaves. It was fun to watch him with my boys today. Fergus is such a Lego-nut, just like his Uncle Nath. Quinn likes it too but mostly because Fergus loves it and he loves whatever Fergus loves.

A day at Wonderland

Despite my allergies and my swollen and crusty eyes, I am delighted that Doug was able to take Tuesday off work and spend the day with us. We spent the day at Canada's Wonderland and although Quinn is not fussy on crowds, he managed to have the time of his life. Fergus too! We waited to go to this amusement park, located about 40 minutes from our place, until both boys were old enough to ride on some of the bigger rides.

Fergus has decided he isn't as fussy on the roller coasters as his father and brother. I, on the other hand, like both feet planted firmly on the ground.

I will post a few pictures here but am planning to add quite a few to my Facebook account for those of you who are on Facebook.

My brother is coming here for a visit tonight and my mom will pick him up tomorrow. Rhonda and I are planning to meet mom, dad and Nath before he goes to the airport on Friday to head back to Taiwan. Here's hoping that he is only there for one more year. It's nice to have him on Canadian soil again. I really don't like it when family is so far flung.

Take care

Pictures I wanted to post

to show some summer fun in the sun! These are taken at the cottage of our dear friends, Stephanie and Bart. We were able to spend time with them and other wonderful friends from Georgetown! We are so blessed to have such an incredible group of friends here in our community.

It is well and truly ALLERGY season!

This lovely image is what my face looks like these days. It is how I seem to be handling ragweed and goldenrod this year. They do finally start to open around noon or so. Can you imagine what they would be like if I didn't make sure to take the Claritin, Benedryl, Dristan AND Opticrom everyday???

It must be the weekend

Life has become crazy again.

The boys finished their swimming lessons for the summer and Fergus is thrilled that he earned not one but two swimming badges. He had been in a class with his best friend and his instructor was having Fergus do the same skills as Adam (who had moved a level ahead this summer while taking lessons that Fergus wasn't around for).

Quinn didn't get his badge but he is swimming like a big boy now. He needs a little more skill with adding his breathing to his front crawl stroke but again, I am astounded at how much he has progressed this year. He was working on his dives yesterday at the end of class.

Last night my client called to let me know she was being induced that evening (as her cervix was dilating without contractions and her first labour was two hours) so I had an idea what I would be doing through the night. There was only one catch. My brother was flying in this morning and I was to be fetching him from the airport.

My brother, Nathan (aka: Nate, Nath), in case I haven't mentioned this before, has been living in Taiwan since January 2004. He hasn't been home since then and I was the one to pick him up. How we managed to have a baby and STILL get me to the airport on time is beyond me. My dad was going to fill in for me if I couldn't get Nath on time but I was to call him by 3:30 this morning to give him enough time. The baby arrived at 3:20. Could she have cooperated any better if I'd asked??

My boys are over-the-moon that Uncle Nath is here. The first thing Quinn wanted to know was whether or not his Uncle Nath would be interested in playing Wii with him. What? Video games and Uncle Nath?? How fast could he get into my room to find the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game???

We have both only had a few hours sleep but are glad that he is here and are having a great time catching up.

and it will be LAVERNE????

Your Score: Penny Marshall

Your film will be 60% romantic, 41% comedy, 31% complex plot, and a $ 41 million budget.

Your romantic comedy-drama of a life is now in the hands of Laverne. We almost put Ron Howard in this spot, but we figured you wouldn't want the part of your dad played by Ron's little brother Clint (who's in EVERY one of his films). Penny will hire Squiggy, instead. She directed A League Of Their Own, Big, Awakenings, and Riding In Cars With Boys among few others.

Link: The Director Who Films Your Life Test written by on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

I am LOVE

You are The Lovers

Motive, power, and action, arising from Inspiration and Impulse.

The Lovers represents intuition and inspiration. Very often a choice needs to be made.

Originally, this card was called just LOVE. And that's actually more apt than "Lovers." Love follows in this sequence of growth and maturity. And, coming after the Emperor, who is about control, it is a radical change in perspective. LOVE is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can't understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. This card indicates that the you have or will come across a person, career, challenge or thing that you will fall in love with. You will know instinctively that you must have this, even if it means diverging from your chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it you will never be complete.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

40 years wed

No . . . not Doug and I, silly. My parents. Today marks their 40th wedding anniversary. An extremely auspicious day in our family, as you can well imagine. It also happens that today is my brother's 31st birthday (Nathan) and it is the birthday of a very dear friend of mine (Karen) from here in Georgetown.

Add that to the fact that Doug celebrated his birthday 13 short days ago and I would seem to have surrounded myself by a large number of Leos. Curiouser and curiouser. I don't know what that means but I do know that they each hold very special places in my heart. My SIL - Chantel, my UD, our friend Matthew and my friend Diana are in there too. The list is endless of special Leos that I know.

But I digress. Yes, today is the 40th anniversary of my parental units, Don and Colleen and to celebrate we invited their siblings (two of whom were able to join us -- Aunt Dorothy {and Uncle Des, who hosted} and Aunt Eleanor {with her husband Eion}), cousins, and friends of the past 40 years to join us as we raised a glass to toast the happy couple. It's kind of cool to see them so happy and so obviously in love after all of this time. They make it look so easy. I am sure it isn't but it gives one food for hopeful thought.

We spent the weekend at AD and UD's house helping to prepare for and then clean up from the party. Fergus and Quinn were SO excited to see their cousins at this celebration too. My cousin Melissa, her husband Luke and their two children (Adia and Thomas) came to share in the festivities. Quinn knew they were coming and must have asked me 10 times when "my cousins" would arrive. I love that he loves them so much. It reminds me of the amazing and connected relationship my siblings and I shared with Melissa and her brother, Chris as we grew up.

It was a great weekend! Again I feel as though I am walking in a haze though as I hope against hope that life will slow down a bit. I am happy though. It was a great way to spend time.

We're off!

This Sunday my parents will celebrate 40 years of wedded bliss. My maternal aunt (AD) and uncle (UD) have planned a "surprise" party for my parents (which they know about and have helped to plan) and have enlisted the help of my sister and I. She is putting together cold cuts and I am responsible for fruit. Seems an uneven distribution of work, doesn't it?? I mean cutting up fruit can take hours. Just kidding. The fruit thing will be a breeze and she has to collect and put together all that meat. Hmmm.

We are going to travel north today to stake out a good place to set up camp at AD and UD's since it is taking place tomorrow and some of the friends (of my parents and of AD and UD) are planning to spend tomorrow night. If we wait until tomorrow to arrive then all of the good spots may be taken. Nah! They have a big property and the boys are planning to go today so they can hang out in the pool. Sounds good to me. (Did I mention AD and UD have a puppy to play with and a LONG driveway to bikeride on? Oh yeah, and all that property makes great hunting grounds when you are having "Nerf" wars.)

Next weekend we will celebrate Mom and Dad's 40th a little more privately with them. When they had their 35th we had a small (just Rhonda, Chris, Nathan, Doug and I with my parents) family dinner in a restaurant of mom and dad's choosing . This time we will postpone it a week in order to let the chaos of the past few weeks settle a bit and then will all get together next weekend for a similar feast.

Have a great and sunny Saturday and Sunday!

Finish to the long weekend

Yesterday was the Monday of the long weekend and we were determined to spend some time together as a family. After the hustle and bustle of Friday, Saturday and Sunday we needed some down time or time to reconnect. Jen and Nino had left Sunday evening and the house was back to the usual chaos and volume levels.

We started the day by Fergus and I reading some more in Harry Potter while Quinn played cars in his room. Once we were finished our reading and everyone was ready we piled into the car and went out to enjoy brunch together.

After brunch the boys wanted to go to Toys 'R Us to look for more Nerf gun ammo. They found what they were looking for and we were finished! Now what to do? As much as we would have loved to have been in Thornbury or Collingwood to be able to enjoy the large body of water -- it was pretty hot and humid here yesterday -- we did not have any desire to drive for two hours.

Then an idea dawned on me! We stopped at the mall in Georgetown and I grabbed two bags of balloons! The boys had no idea what we had planned. I locked myself in the bathroom and began filling the latex bombs with water.

In the interim I had spoken with friends of ours (Karen and Larry) to invite them to our home that evening for drinks. She had turned it around to invite us to theirs as they have a pool. Okay, that would work for us and the boys would be happy to have that wet activity to enjoy.

I called Karen again while I was in the bathroom. By the end of the call it was all set up. We would take the water balloons to their place and have a war in their front yard. It was GREAT! Sure, there was a mess to clean up afterwards but it was fun while it lasted. Two of their four teenagers were home and took part with us. It was a lot of fun!

We relaxed after dinner and played some cards while sipping scotch. It was the perfect end to a wonderful and yet difficult weekend. This weekend worked to remind us how blessed we are with our friends and family.

Life to return to normal??

When I crawled out of bed this morning to the sounds of AM 740 blasting from the radio outside, I knew things were on their way back to normal. I had been sleeping in the boys' room as my return to home at 3:00 a.m. (after a birth) meant that Fergus and Quinn were snuggled in with Doug.

This week has been busy, to say the least. I have been waiting for my client (B) to deliver as she was due last week, July 24. In the interim, client (C) delivered early (was due August 09) last Tuesday. I taught Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings and we worked to ready our house and our minds for Saturday's memorial/celebration of Henry's life. B was the client to deliver last night, or early this morning rather.

Jennifer and Nino arrived on Thursday evening, I picked them up on the way home. It has been great to have her back in town and to have some more time with him. We don't know him well but the boys have been enjoying their time in his company (admittedly they have seen more of him than I have since I don't play Wii as much as he does). It will be VERY hard to see her go home to Calgary again this afternoon.

My sister-in-law from Taiwan stopped by yesterday. I know, I know . . . that sounds almost impossible, doesn't it? She has been in Toronto for the month of July to taking a yoga course (she is a yoga instructor). She and her mom hosted a dinner this past Friday evening but we were unable to attend and I really believed I would not be able to see her while she was in Canada this time. She surprised all of us by stopping by here for a few minutes on her way to the airport and we managed to squeeze in a quick visit and a couple of hugs. That should hold me over for a while.

The memorial was lovely. Two of Christena's siblings arrived with their spouses and it was great to see them again. There was a car full from Christena's old church in Collingwood as well as a few womyn from her church here in Georgetown. My sister, Chris, my parents, Aunt Dorothy, Uncle Des, Aunt Eleanor and Uncle Eion also stopped by from my family to offer their support and share the celebration of Henry's life. We even had friends both from town and from Kitchener come by and spend some time with us. I don't know that we will ever be able to thank everyone adequately for their support and love over these last several months, weeks and days.

Douglas put together an amazing slideshow of photographs taken of Henry through his life. We played a lovely bag-piped rendition of "Amazing Grace" and took a few minutes to just stop and think about the impact Henry had on our lives. That was the most difficult part of the whole day but we did it while we had only family and close friends around and we had our little cry and went back to the celebration.

Doug is 36!

We were able to celebrate Doug's birthday this evening by having some steak and fries (his favourite) followed by a home made chocolate cake. The boys made cards for their dad and we gave him a copy of the "Monty Python's Holy Grail" DVD. Christena joined us for dinner too and it was a great chance to celebrate my wonderful and amazing husband.

We are home and working through it all

I need to start by thanking all of you for your support over the past several months and especially through this past week. Despite knowing that Henry was ill with a pair of diseases that would be relentless in their eventual destruction of his body and mind, it has been a surprisingly difficult loss to endure.

Jennifer has gone home for a week before coming back here this coming weekend to help us celebrate Henry's life. We felt a memorial held at our home would be most suitable for him and what we believe he would have wanted. We have invited our friends and family members to come and share their memories of Henry with us as we celebrate his 78 years.

Henry's obituary was placed in the Collingwood newspaper this past Friday (and can be read by clicking here) and Christena spent the weekend back in Collingwood and was able to go back to the church she attended while living there. She even had a chance to get together this afternoon with some of her old friends for the early afternoon before one of the women in the group brought her all the way back to Georgetown.

My sister-in-law is in Canada for the month of July and is heading back to Taiwan this weekend. She has been here studying more of her yoga (she teaches and has been studying in Thailand periodically since moving to Taiwan with my brother 3.5 years ago) and has been so busy from sun up to sun down that we have not yet had a chance to connect. I am hoping to see her this Friday evening at her mother's house in Cambridge. We shall see how preparations for Saturday are coming before I am able to commit to that social activity.

While Jennifer was back in Calgary for the weekend and Christena was off staying with her sister in Collingwood, Doug, the boys and I went camping with 6 other families from Georgetown. This is the 7th time this group has camped together and, while we all live in the same town, it is one of the few opportunities we have through the year to spend time together to reconnect. These are families we have come to know through my connection with the local La Leche League group in town. They are the women and families who gave us the confidence to parent Fergus and Quinn the way that felt most right for us, even when it was different than many other more mainstream parents.


Today was for getting our bearings again and trying to work at creating a new normal without Henry here. It was also about taking a quick trip to Guelph to meet my parents on their way to drop my visiting cousins at the airport in Hamilton. They are flying back to Doncaster, UK this evening. It feels as though they just arrived. the picture here is of my parents (the couple on the right) with my cousins, Sharon and Chris (couple on the left).

Tomorrow is about getting back to the paperwork that Jennifer was not able to finish or that she has left for me to work on. She took the bulk of the paperwork burden on herself and even went home with calls to make from Calgary. I asked if I could do some if it too. It feels as though I am helping in some way when I know that I am making a call that needs to be made.

Oh well, off we go. Tomorrow is another day.

He's gone

A VERY brief note to let you know that my father-in-law, Henry Gardiner, died this afternoon at 15h45. He went very peacefully and had an opportunity to spend time with everyone over the course of the weekend.

Thank you for your spoken and unspoken words of support over the past several months as Henry struggled both with Alzheimer's Disease and lung cancer.