Emma and I had quite the conversation on the way home from church tonight.It seems that 8-year-old girls can be quite catty to one another, and she was filling me in on a few squabbles that have taken place at school recently.We talked about how some people can seem crabby and argumentative, but that it’s a good idea to not take it personally, since you don’t know what’s going on in the other person’s life.I said, “Who knows?Maybe she’s just having a bad day because her mom yelled at her that morning” (a scenario I’m quite sure Emma can relate to).And this is how the conversation went after that:
Emma:Well, I think I know why Suzi (not her real name) is kind of crabby…she had an operation on her arm a couple of years ago.
Me:Oh, and she’s still upset about it?
Emma:Well, now she has a fake arm.
Me:I’m sorry… did you say a fake arm??
Emma:Yep.She has one fake arm and one real arm.Once, we were in gym and she smacked me with her arm and I was like, OWWW!!! And she said Oh, sorry about that Emma.That was my fake arm.It has metal in it.
Me:(a little dazed) OH…and does it look like her other arm?
Emma:Pretty much.It has veins in it, but there wasn’t any blood in the veins until March Break.She said she had some blood put in on March Break.
Me:Well, I guess all of that would make you crabby once in a while. (I don’t know…it was hard to know how to respond after the whole vein thing)
Emma: Well, that and also she lives with her aunt…her mom drinks.
Me:OH!!
Emma:And her dad too.
Me:OH MY.
I'm not quite sure what to make of all of it, really. I think we'll add her to our prayer list. The part about living with her aunt is probably a sad truth, unfortunately. But I think i need to check out the arm for myself!
The onset of winter means a lot of things...early sunsets, blankets of clean white snow, pretty ice-encrusted tree branches, and sadly, hawked up phlegm all over sidewalks and parking lots wherever you go. Is there anyone other than me that is totally grossed out by this? In trying to get from the door of the grocery store to my car in the parking lot this morning, I felt as though I was navigating through a mine field. Because here is my dilemma: Do I keep my head up, and then avoid seeing all the puddles of...stuff (but risk walking blindly through it), or do I keep my eyes on the ground (BLECH) and my shoes clean by skirting the nasties?
I suppose people are just generally more productive over the winter, but holy cow. Try a decongestant, for crying out loud.
Happy New Year! I realize that's a little lame, considering we're looking at February in another 24 hours or so. Although it was Chinese New Year on Monday, so maybe i'll just impress all 5 of you who read this blog with how culturally relevant i am.
I have missed my blog, but it's been hard to find the energy for it. Christmas was wonderful, but i have to say that it pretty much sucked the life out of me, and i spent as many days of Christmas break in my pajamas as i possibly could. And then i spent the first few weeks in January scrambling to catch up with everything work-related. If i was to summarize my activities over the past month or so in just a few words, my list would look something like this: work, pharmacy, school, pharmacy, work, groceries, pharmacy, laundry, work, school... you get the idea. And of course, there's FACF (Fish and Chip Friday), my weekly excursion to Captain George's to pick up dinner for my parents. Oh, George. Why do you not deliver?
But enough about all that. Blah, blah, blah...I'm busy. Who isn't?
We are getting ready for Lauren to go to Quebec on Sunday for her skiing/snowboarding trip. She's beyond excited, and i'm trying not to hyperventilate about the thought of her driving 6 hours away from me. Well, that and the image of her hurtling down a mountain on a couple of fibreglass sticks. Oh man. Get me a paper bag.
In other news, Lauren has started guitar lessons, which she is finding to be great fun. And it looks like it will be a 2-for-1 deal, because Will is watching what she does on it and teaching himself.
Those are probably our most exciting news items at the moment. Although I did get a new cell phone. Interestingly, mine was recalled because it didn't meet the required safety standards. What was likely to happen? Maybe it would pinch my finger a little too aggressively as i flipped it closed? Make prank calls without my knowledge? Whatever the reason, it was a good deal for me, since i wound up with a nicer phone, complete with camera and MP3 player. So now i'll spend all my spare time listening to music and taking pictures of myself making funny faces to post on Facebook. ;)
1. The sweating 2. Snow that sticks to the shovel 3. Bits of driveway that stick to the shovel 4. The sweating 5. Steamed up glasses 6. Neighbours who stand around chatting as they watch you clear not only your driveway, but also your decrepit elderly neighbour's driveway 7. The drowned rat 'do i'm always sporting by the time i'm done 8. The sweating
Yeah, i realize that's only 8, but i'm too tired from shoveling to list anymore. So sue me. ;)
Eleven years ago tonight, I was in labour.Lauren’s birth was the only one of my three that occurred without any jumpstarting.I was induced with Will because he was 10 days late, and I was induced 2 days before Emma’s due date because she was bound to be late like the others.As a side note, all of my kids were born on a Sunday, and all on or around some kind of holiday weekend.In actual fact, Lauren’s birthday technically fell on a Monday, since she was born on the stroke of midnight.But whatever. We were just glad she wasn’t born in the van.Because she almost was.
I had been to my OB on the Friday, 10 days past my due date.He gave me the good news that absolutely NOTHING was going on, and said that he’d bring me in to induce me on Monday. So I spent Saturday and Sunday doing the nesting thing, washing everything in site and making sure I had everything I was going to need.On Sunday night I even took my stroller apart to clean it, and it was about then that I realized that the cramps I’d been feeling for an hour or so were actually contractions.I told Darren that I thought maybe I was in labour, and he of course wanted to go to the hospital immediately (about 25-30 minutes away).However, I figured I had time to finish my laundry, and so I just kept hollering “THERE’S ANOTHER ONE” every time I had a contraction.I can still remember him saying to me “That couldn’t have been another one already…it’s only been about 10 minutes since the last one”, and I said “BELIEVE ME WHEN I TELL YOU THAT WAS A CONTRACTION”.
Long story short, we eventually got on our way, after first dropping Will off at my parents’ house (and picking up Kimberly).I remember sitting at a red light across from the hospital and noticing that I was shaking.I said to Darren and Kimberly “hmm…I think I may be further along than I thought”.Uh, yeah.I got wheeled around to Labour and Delivery while Darren did the registration thing in the ER, and when the nurse examined me, she said “oooh, you’re 8.5 cm.Won’t be long now!”.I said (foolishly) “I’ll still have time for my epidural, RIGHT?”.Ha.My water broke about 20 seconds later and everything went into overdrive.Poor Kimberly had the door slammed in her face and my father-in-law had to run and grab Darren from the ER so that he wouldn’t miss it.And the whole time, I was lying on the bed saying “uh…I don’t think I can do it without the drugs.How about some Demerol, even?”.They pretty much ignored me.
Fortunately, Lauren popped out after a push or two, and all was well.It’s so funny to us that Lauren didn’t wait to be induced, but came all on her own.That is so totally her personality.She has always been a go-getter type.She wanted to do things all by herself and was tying her shoes before her 4th birthday.When she was tiny, she had definite ideas about the clothes she wanted to wear and would put together some fairly mind-boggling ensembles. She’s never been particularly shy, and I have some hilarious video of her sitting on the stage at Will’s nursery school graduation.He didn’t want to sit up there, and so she seized the opportunity when I was looking the other way.
Lauren is like my right hand.If I need something done, she’s the person to ask. Quite often I’ll be scrambling to finish some work in the morning, and Lauren will get up and get herself ready for school, and then she runs around and pours cereal for the others and helps Emma get her snack ready, brings agendas to be signed, etc, etc.She’s sweet and affectionate and nurturing and hilarious.She loves to play Rock Band with Will, and still plays babies and barbies with Emma.She has her huffy, snit fit moments, and we have had to outlaw any trading of personal belongings between her and Emma, since it inevitably leads to a knock-down-drag-out when somebody won’t trade back.But she really is a fantastic kid.
I love the promises God makes in Isaiah 43, and my prayer for Lauren is that she will always know that she is the Lord’s:
But now, this is what the LORD says—
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
Isaiah 43:1-2
(The first picture of Lauren is from kindergarten...if my scanner was working i'd have put up a baby picture. How cute was she there, really? The others were taken within the past year.)
Several times as I've come down the off-ramp at the Kennedy Road exit from the 401, there has been a young guy standing at the intersection with a piece of cardboard in his hands. You've probably seen something similar. The face is different, but the same sad story is on the cardboard: NO JOB. NO MONEY. WIFE AND KIDS TO SUPPORT. Or something along those lines. A cardboard testimony, of sorts.
A few months ago, my sister sent me a video on Facebook, and I watched it again just the other day and was moved by it all over again. Real church people sharing their cardboard testimonies...who they were before Christ, and who they have become because of His grace. I love the honesty of it. I think we spend so much time trying to hide things from people, giving the impression that we have it all together. I know do it.
Here's the video. Go ahead and watch it. I'll wait.
We don't all have dramatic testimonies, like being a meth addict or a cancer survivor. But we are all the same because we need Him to change us. I saw myself in some of those testimonies, and it made me wonder what I would write on my own piece of cardboard. This is what I came up with:
Tonight was our Meet the Teacher BBQ at school. Is there anyone who really looks forward to these evenings? Don't get me wrong...it's not that I'm not interested in meeting the teacher, or seeing how the kids are doing so far. They're always so proud to show us their classrooms, and to introduce us to their teachers. We like that part. We don't mind squatting on the grass to eat our burgers, and we've learned to dress properly for the always steamy book fair in the library.
Basically, we just get somewhat irritated by the other parents. You know the ones, right? The keeners who nab the teacher for 15 minutes, even though the classroom is FULL of parents waiting to talk to her. Or the ones who holler at each other across the library while about 80 of us sweat all over our purchases in the the checkout line and listen to them discuss what shirt Connor was wearing in the photo montage. But this is not a post about that. So i'll stop there and do a little shamless bragging, instead.
It was a pretty good night. The teachers had nice things to say, and the kids are all doing great work, so we were happy. I was feeling a little sheepish about meeting Will's teacher because of a project he finished a week or so ago. Each student had to design a coat of arms, complete with a family motto. Will had asked for our help with the motto part, and I had laughingly suggested "Better out than in". Well, guess what he used:
Yep. We're all about bathroom humor around here. I laughed at Will's friend's motto, which was "What could possibly go wrong?".
Will also did an assignment about himself called "I am". Darren and I really liked it, because it was witty and smart, and totally him. I liked it so much that I decided to share it with you:
I am
I am smart and funny I wonder about gravity I hear everybody talking really loud-ish I see myself as an engineer I want unlimited food and video games I am smart and funny
I pretend to play guitar I feel hungry all the time I touch invisible stuff I worry that Pluto will randomly explode I cry when I cut onions I am smart and funny
I understand Santa isn't real (sob) I say good shows shouldn't be cancelled I dream that I'm super strong and can beat everyone up (even Arnold Schwarzenegger) I try to push myself wherever possible I hope I get good marks on my report card (wink wink Miss P!) I am smart and funny
This is Lauren displaying the autobiography she's been working on. So cute! The work displayed on the wall in the background included some more info about each kid, including their goals and dreams. Lauren had put down that she wants to be a teacher one day, which didn't surprise us. But what did surprise us was the section called "My Hero", which turned out to be US. She said that we always protect her when she gets scared and we help her with her everyday problems. Sweet, right?
This is a painting Emma did about home. The caption says "A house is a safe place and a cozy place". I love it . I like how she has really, really long legs in the picture. (I think the little short person next to her is her friend Omer. He made the little cutout person, and she stuck it on.) Emma's goal for the month in her classroom was to chat less. hahaha!
A highlight of the night for me was when one of the teachers mistook me for a student! Okay, he was probably just beeing nice and in all likelihood needs glasses, but still! I'll take it. =)
