Quiet weekends are pretty good

Posted on October 27, 2009 by Sherry

I ended up having a fairly peaceful weekend, something that doesn’t happen often what with having two kids and all. George’s sister was in town after not being able to get out this way for awhile and the kids were both so excited. We went over to see George’s parents on Friday because his dad was celebrating his birthday. Although George had to go out I went with the girls and we had cake and tea, and Hayley got her belated birthday gifts from her aunt and uncle.

The crown that Breanna is wearing is from a craft kit that Hayley got as a gift. And isn’t it a shame that the kids obviously don’t like their uncle at all? I mean really. Can’t you just see how much they can’t stand him? (Yeah right. As you can see, they LOVE him.)

On Saturday they spent some time just doing the craft crowns and hanging around the apartment, followed by a quick trip to the Dollar Store with George. I had about an hour or so of peace and quiet during which I actually took a shower without having to worry about what anyone else was doing. Let me tell you, that’s a total luxury for me.

I was just about to start preparing supper when the phone rang and George’s sister invited the kids over to eat with them. That was fine with me! After they left I made supper for just the two of us (though Breanna requested that I save some stew for her – good thing I did, that’s what she ended up having for her snack!) and I actually ate an entire plate of food without having to get up to refill someone’s cup, break up an argument, or anything. Another fine luxury, eating a meal in peace.

George went to buy some red wine and to drop something off for a friend and I spent a couple of hours surrounded by practically no noise. There was no TV, no music, no computer games, no sibling bickering, nothing other than the usual neighborhood sounds of cars driving by and the occasional set of footsteps out in the hall.

After the kids came home and went to bed, George and I tried to watch Drag Me to Hell but we only got halfway through it before Breanna started coughing in her sleep so we stopped it there and finished it on Sunday night. (For the record, it’s seriously not worth the 90+ minutes of your life unless you enjoy horror movies that aren’t actually scary, are utterly predictable, and have cheap special effects. Seriously, I said that it looked like they only had a $1000 effects budget and George added that half of that must have been blown on pizza and beer. Really bad in this day and age.)

Sunday was another relaxing day and the kids went out with their aunt and uncle one more time for a couple of hours to wander around the mall and to get ice cream. I love my kids, but I must admit that it’s kind of nice to have occasional pockets of quiet time to myself here and there!

The weekend went by so fast. And unfortunately so far the week is dragging by. I could have sworn it was Wednesday today but it’s only Tuesday. Booooo.

*******

I’ve been suffering from a complete and total lack of creative inspiration. I had to force myself to sit down and write this just to try to break through it. I’ve also been neglecting my camera. I took a few photos while over at George’s parents’ house but I’ve been going days without taking a single picture, and even when I do they seem to sit on my card for days before I finally dump them to my computer and actually do something with them.

I don’t know what’s going on. I think I need to make myself carry my camera with me even if I don’t feel like taking any pictures, and just try to take a few shots a day until this block goes away.

A propos of nothing in particular, here’s at least one other photo that I took over the past week.

Breanna wanted to print out a blue superhero mask that she found online but I need a new ink cartridge so I couldn’t. She was disappointed so I drew one by hand, colored it in, cut it out, and gave it to her. She was thrilled! Other than the fact that it’s not green, she reminds me of Super Why.

It’s so incredibly frustrating to be a creative person by nature and to find myself completely unable to do anything. Let’s hope this passes quickly.

'Tis the season and all that

Posted on October 23, 2009 by Sherry

In my stereotypical Canadian way, I’d like to tell you about the weather around my parts lately and then complain about them because that’s what we do as Canadians. Although I know that many people consider Canada to be a land of ice and snow, we do usually have a decent Fall even if it’s not long enough for my tastes. I’d personally like Fall to last a very long time because what’s not to like? You get to wear warm sweaters but you don’t freeze to death, everyone starts making things like chili and apple crisp, and the trees explode into a symphony of colors. It’s my favorite season.

Lately though, the temperatures have been hovering more at early Winter levels. It’s been hanging out at the freezing mark early in the morning and only inching its way up a few more degrees during the day. Today Hayley asked me if I could give her a hat to wear because her head has been cold at recess and lunch. Yesterday it snowed (though at least it didn’t stick when it hit the ground) and I may or may not have said something inappropriate to be said around young children.

I know we can’t stop Winter from coming but it’s just too early. We still have to go Trick or Treating next Saturday and I’m thinking that all those jokes about Canadian Halloween costumes being designed to go over a snow suit just might be true this year. I’m feeling ripped off, I want my proper Fall back!

*******

Last week, Hayley stayed home on Thursday and Friday because she wasn’t feeling well and had a low-grade fever. Of course everyone immediately thinks of H1N1 these days when someone has a fever but I don’t think that’s what it was because a) she didn’t have any other symptoms of that particular flu, b) despite being kept home again on Monday to be sure, she was actually fine by then, and c) both my kids have always gotten a low fever with every single illness they’ve ever had. Always.

Still, you can’t send kids to school with fevers so she stayed home and then we kept both the kids home from a birthday party on Saturday. Hayley was especially unhappy about that but she was still under the weather and we didn’t want her to spread it around. We also wanted her to get better so she could go back to school. At least they had some cake sent home for them, so that perked them up!

Meanwhile everyone around me (and I’m including myself too) seems to be sniffling or coughing or both. We’re back to that season of trading off germs from one person to the other, the joys of the school year. Between the frequency with which Hayley brings home colds and whatnot and the media coverage of H1N1 I’ve been thinking hard about the vaccine. I’m about 90% sure that we’ll all go and get it.

Still, whenever I hear points brought up about how fast-tracked this was and whether it’s really safe or not, I do stop and think about it for a minute. I think I’m still more inclined to consider the H1N1 virus to have a higher risk than the vaccine does but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to some concerns.

The vaccine is starting to arrive in Canada and Newfoundland has actually already done their first round, giving vaccines out to healthcare workers. I’ll be listening to the news to see how things go out there, if there are reports of bad reactions. On the other hand, hearing about the plans to postpone or cancel elective surgeries and the possibilities of turning hotel rooms into makeshift hospitals to be able to deal with the possible influx of H1N1 patients coming in re-kindles my resolve about getting the vaccine.

I’ve never been anti-vaccination. My kids were both immunized against everything except chicken pox. Neither had a stronger reaction than some crankiness and a low fever within the first 12 hours and I feel better for having protected them against diseases that could have killed them in a different era. But this one is different and it’s a little confusing, and it’s stressful to have to make a decision really soon.

What are you doing for H1N1? Getting the shot or riding it out?

The weekend already

Posted on October 16, 2009 by Sherry

A propos of nothing, these are the two photo poses sent home from the school for us to choose from for our Grade Two photo of Hayley this year.

I love them both – I’m so glad she really smiled big this year! – but we eventually decided to order a package of the photo on the right.

I woke up feeling a little bit surprised that it was Friday this morning and that the weekend was just around the corner. I guess I was a little thrown off by a couple of things, one being that it had been a four-day weekend so the week started on Tuesday. The other thing is that Hayley came down with some sort of bug and missed school on Thursday and Friday, so the whole week was just a big mess, logistically speaking.

I wasn’t able to send her to school because not only was she feeling under the weather, she also had a fever. I would be mildly concerned about H1N1 but she isn’t exhibiting any of the other common symptoms of the flu – besides, my kids get a fever with every illness. Still, fevers are not tolerated in schools at all right now because of concerns so there was no point. They just would have sent her back home as soon as it came back. Breanna’s been sniffly the past couple of days as well, so it’s just that season again.

The bummer about it is that friends of ours are having a birthday party for their daughter and son on Saturday but it’s looking like we won’t be able to make it. I don’t want to make anyone else sick, I don’t want the kids to be out if they’re feeling icky, and I don’t want them to get worse – especially Hayley since she’s missed two days of school for it. It’s too bad, I was really looking forward to it because it’s always a lot of fun, but hopefully we’ll see them soon. We’ll see how the kids are tomorrow and make a decision then.

On the other hand, it’s also George’s birthday on Saturday (old man!) so if the kids are still too sick to go, we’ll put them to bed and watch a movie together instead. I’m a little bit ticked off because we ordered a mic for George for his birthday (it’s not much of a surprise, he found it and asked me to order it since I have a PayPal account, but hey at least he gets exactly what he wants that way!) on September 30th and it still isn’t here. That’s totally ridiculous. I know it’s shipping from California but come on. It’s not like it was being brought here on foot.

According to the tracking info it only left the U.S. on the 7th, I don’t know why that took so long. And now it’s sitting in Montreal since the 13th but for some strange reason it hasn’t budged any closer to us. I know George is a big boy, it’s not quite the same as ordering something for a kid but still, it sucks to not have your birthday present ON YOUR BIRTHDAY, you know? From now on I’m only shopping from online retailers that use couriers because this postal service from the U.S. to Canada sucks.

(I was interested to learn that the tracking number doesn’t change after crossing the border so I was able to easily find the package on the Canada Post site too. That’s at least helpful. Having it sit there for three days, not so much.)

He looks pretty good for a ~~senior citizen~~ ~~old guy~~ birthday boy, doesn’t he?

Hayley’s school was supposed to have a movie night tonight but it was postponed until another to-be-determined date and she couldn’t have gone anyway, what with missing two days of school and all. To make up for it, I offered to do a movie night at home. I made popcorn and put it in the little popcorn containers that we have (they’re so cute), spread out a blanket on the floor, and put on a movie. Hayley chose some Star Trek for the evening’s entertainment. Clearly the ~~geek~~ apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

It’s not quite the same as hanging out in the school gym with all your friends while only barely paying attention to a movie, but it went over well anyway.

In the meantime, here’s hoping I can keep the germs at bay. I have two meetings next week and no time for being sick! Please pass the Lysol!

Busy long weekend

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Sherry

Being Canadian, this past weekend was a long one. It was Thanksgiving so Hayley had both Friday and Monday off from school. Friday saw me scurrying around like a bit of a crazy person, preparing for company on Saturday. I worked and cleaned and worked and cleaned, and that’s about it for Friday.

George had to play that night, and I intended to get to bed early but I’m not particularly good at doing that if no one is around to shoo me off towards my pillow. Which is why, I suppose, I found myself – at 12:30 am no less – wiping down my kitchen cabinets, washing the kitchen walls, and cleaning the dust off my ceiling fan blades.

At 1 am I realized I was insane and headed to bed, except I heard a sudden knocking sound. The cat spends most of her time behind the washing machine so at first I thought she was scratching herself and banging her leg against the metal. Then I heard it again and looked out the peephole only to find two people I’ve never seen before banging on the door down the hall from us. One was a tiny little woman and the other was a very tall and burly man, the latter of which POUNDED loudly several times.

In all honestly, I’m sure it was the woman’s family, and maybe her phone wasn’t working and no one had heard from her in awhile so they had come to check on her. Still, I had no idea how they had gotten into the building since you need to be buzzed in, and they were freaking me out. It’s a sad state of the world today that while my first reaction was to want to open the door to inquire if they needed help or a phone or whatever, my second and more logical, safe reaction was to keep the door firmly locked. There are semi-regular home invasions in the Montreal area and while they are usually in houses as opposed to apartment buildings, I was taking no chances – especially with two kids in bed.

Eventually they left but I was pretty rattled (particularly since the woman came right up to my door and cocked her head as though she was listening for someone inside) so I didn’t really sleep until George got home. Whew.

On Saturday we had Hayley’s birthday party. We had wanted to have it the weekend of her birthday but it wasn’t in our post-holiday budget so we waited until now to throw her party; she didn’t mind. Since it fell on Thanksgiving weekend, one of our friends offered to roast a turkey and stuffing. It was delicious and a big hit. We also had George’s roast pork, my potato-onion casserole, rice, and mixed vegetables along with all the usual things (crackers, cheese, etc). There was definitely enough food! Another friend made a ridiculously amazing pumpkin cheesecake complete with Oreo cookie crust, caramel, chocolate ganache, and pecans. Gah!

Hayley was in heaven because most of her gifts were Barbie-related. She’s finally become super interested in playing with them which is kind of nice since I usually had no idea what to tell people when they would ask what she wanted as gifts. She got a Barbie dog grooming center, a beach cruiser, and a kitchen set, all for Barbies. Ecstatic! She also loved her cake. She wanted a beach cake since she had so much fun at the beaches in Halifax and that was pretty easy to do. I even decorated the “beach” part with some of the (boiled and washed) shells that we had picked up and a hand-drawn starfish. I also put a little Orca figurine in the “ocean” part of the cake. She was really happy!

On Sunday we went to George’s parents’ house to have Thanksgiving dinner. It was just the four of us, his parents, and a family friend so it was quiet but very nice. And really it’s never actually QUIET with kids, right? We ate a lot of good food, had some good laughs, and earlier in the afternoon I slipped out and took some pictures of the woods to capture the slowly changing leaves. I’m worried that we won’t have a particularly colorful Fall since the wind has been blowing the leaves off before they get super bright, but I’m still hoping.

It was nice to walk in the woods alone with nothing but my camera for company!

Monday was pretty quiet and one of Hayley’s friends came over to play Barbies, but everyone was tired so it wasn’t as exuberant as it might have been otherwise. I was really happy once 10 pm came around and I was able to put my feet up and watch some prime time television (oh okay, it was “CSI: Miami”) and then go to bed.

This morning was rough since I was tired, had a wicked sore throat, and it was also freezing cold and raining out. Still, it was good to get back to routine again. It’s a short week so it won’t be too bad and it will be the weekend again before we know it.

I hope all my fellow Canadians had an equally wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! You can see all the birthday party photos over here and all the Thanksgiving photos are over here.

Why Roman Polanski can rot in jail for all I care

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Sherry

I wasn’t going to bother writing about this since other people have done it so well already, but honestly it’s been on my mind a lot and I can only rant about the same things here at home so many times before George reaches a point where I might find him on Priceline, looking for a flight to take him far away from my flapping mouth.

(I kid. Mostly.)

The main reason I need to say something though is because I’m still continually shocked at how many people keep defending Roman Polanski, saying that he shouldn’t be extradited to the U.S. after being arrested, saying he should be given a pardon for his crime over three decades ago. I can’t believe how many people think that what he did to a 13-year-old girl is okay now that it’s so many years after the fact.

Let’s just lay out the basic facts, even though we’ve all heard them already. Polanski’s victim was 13 years old and under the impression that she was doing a modeling shoot. He gave a 13-year-old girl champagne and drugs. He came on to her and ignored her requests to be taken home. He kissed her even after she said no. He raped her even after she said no. He then sodomized her after she said no.

Right. And people want him to be granted a pardon? Why?

I keep reading the reasoning behind it. The victim is a grown woman who wants the charges to be dropped. The problem is, it’s not up to the victim to bring about justice. It’s out of her hands now and while I feel for her because she’s tired of being drawn into the media circus and forced to relive it all, it’s a terrible precedent to drop charges just because the victim asks. Because then, in the future, as long as a rapist (or criminal of any sort) has enough money or power or threatening presence to lean on a victim, he will never have to pay for what he did. I do hope that they can keep her out of the court as much as possible and that it will be a closed court for her sake, but it’s not a strong enough reason to just drop this case.

Possibly the most ridiculous reasoning is that he is such a brilliant director. I’m sorry, what? What does someone’s talent have to do with whether or not they should face justice for committing a crime? If it had been a janitor who did this to a 13-year-old girl I seriously doubt that anyone would be saying, “oh hey, come on let’s give him a pardon! Sure, he drugged and raped a young girl but he’s such a good janitor, it’s okay to look the other way!” All the talent in the world does not give a person carte blanche to rape a girl. There’s no movie in the world that is brilliant enough to excuse the director behind it for raping someone.

Then there are other laughable reasons to let him walk free: He’s paid for it in notoriety, he’s paid for it because he was never able to come back to the U.S. not even to get his Oscar (gasp!), he’s 72 years old now and too old to be sent to prison.

Wow.

Paid for it in notoriety? Please. He still managed to film a great deal of movies with talented actors over the past 30 years. He hasn’t been living in a cave with Osama Bin Laden, he’s been living comfortably in France, continuing on with his career. I don’t see how he’s paid his debt to society with notoriety.

He couldn’t come back to the U.S. for an Oscar? Quelle horreur! I’m sure he spent just as many sleepless nights fretting about it as his victim did after she was raped.

As for his age, yes it is true. Being 72 years old is quite old to be shipped off to prison. On the other hand it’s really difficult for me to drum up a whole ton of sympathy based on his age when he never once considered his victim’s young age.

Then, in possibly the most disappointing defense ever, Whoopi Goldberg went and lost all the respect that I had for her – and it was a lot – by saying on The View that “it wasn’t rape rape”. Pardon? Not RAPE RAPE? What does that even mean? One, she was 13 and he was in his 40s. That right there is statutory rape to start with. And then there was the, as I mentioned, repetition of the word “NO” that she kept using throughout the ordeal. I don’t know where Whoopi Goldberg learned about rape, but where I come from No means No and ignoring the No means rape. In fact it means “rape rape”.

On and on it goes, people wringing their hands over how terrible this whole so-called witch hunt is. People complaining that it was sneaky and underhanded for Switzerland to arrest Polanski when he was under the impression that he was attending a film festival (you know, with his poor flailing career that was so undermined by all that notoriety) and how that was just unfair. OH CRY ME A FUCKING RIVER. Because it was all about being fair when a girl who was under the impression that she would be photographed for an issue of Vogue ended up drunk, drugged, and raped.

Poor Polanski. Poor Polanski MY ASS.

I don’t care how old he is now, I don’t care how many years have gone by, how much he paid his victim, how brilliant he is on set, or how much he might claim to have been unaware of the girl’s age at the time (hint: If he needed her mother’s permission to shoot the photos, she was obviously underage as an adult would not need any parental consent for modeling). I don’t care because what he did was a crime. It was a crime and he KNEW it was a crime, he admitted his guilt, and then he ran away so that he couldn’t be sentenced because he was SCARED.

You know, scared, probably kind of like that young girl was.

I don’t know how long we’ll have to wait to find out whether he’ll be shipped back to the U.S. to face his crime but I hope they throw him on a direct flight back and that any leniency he was promised before he bolted three decades ago gets tossed out the window. He raped a 13-year-old girl and there is no excuse for that and I would personally like my kids to live in a world where money, fame, and talent can’t buy your way out of justice.

What's been up around here

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Sherry

Wow, remember when I used to update here daily or almost daily? With all the other blogging I do for work I often find myself comatose in front of the TV at night instead of being able to concentrate on anything else. Let’s see, what have I missed?

Last week I went to my first PPO meeting. I had a good laugh when it was over because I had told George that this year I was just going to be a member, volunteer for things at the school (stuff like movie night, carnival, etc), and that I was not going to run for any of the executive positions.

So naturally I came home having become the secretary. Of course. It’s not a problem though, all I have to do is take notes, then type up the minutes and email them to everyone else. I tend to take notes for my own purposes anyway so it’s really an easy and natural extension for me to do it for the others too.

Things got pretty busy on Friday straight through the rest of the weekend, but it was all the good kind of busy. On Friday morning George’s dad came by and Breanna and I went with him to the school’s Terry Fox Run. They do it at the high school because they have a seriously beautiful field, and they have a big sound system so they can play music to keep the kids motivated (though they still need occasional rests since the field is HUGE).

On the other hand, we were all pretty motivated to keep moving because it was so chilly that morning! Just like the last two times, Breanna was very eager to take part and she actually ended up running and walking more than Hayley did. As for Hayley, she had a fantastic sleep later that night because between walking to the high school, doing the run, walking back to her school, playing outside at lunch, and then having gym for final period (plus the exhaustion of school in general), she was completely wiped out.

Saturday found me packing up my camera bag with all my lenses and my flash for my very first professional photo session. That was exciting! The gospel singer that George worked with over the past couple of years needed pictures taken for his album cover, the back photo, and the CD face so I went to his church and shot a ton of different pictures. Although there were many to choose from, we immediately found the front and back cover photos and will use a black and white version of the back photo for the CD face.

The album is titled “Dear God” so we went with the concept of him writing a letter to God. He’s ecstatic with the results, which makes ME happy too. I can now officially add “photographer” to my resume… Yay!

On Sunday we went to the Shriner’s Circus which was a lot of fun even though it was completely insane trying to find seats inside the tent. We ended up with George and Hayley sitting on one side of the aisle and I sat on the other side with Breanna on my knee because there was no way we were going to find four seats together. Next time we’ll know to show up at least an hour early!

We had a good time though. I have mixed feelings about the circus because of the animals, but the elephants seem to be very well taken care of. I love watching the acrobatics as well, it’s so exciting to see people do all these wild flips and jumps when they make it look so easy.

(Do you see that guy in the second photo? He’s sitting on a thick rope and he freaked me out so badly that I thought I might throw up just from watching him. He swung around so high, right up to the top of the tent, and even hung by his knees and one time he dangled by one foot which was when I nearly passed out. Seriously, I’m freaking out just thinking about it. It was amazing but I’m glad it didn’t go on too long because I would have needed an EMT.)

Hayley seemed to enjoy it and I know that Breanna was very excited. She loved everything she saw, but I think the cutest moment was when three women were doing an act hanging from circles up near the top of the tent. At the end of their act, they all started spinning and glitter fell to the ground; Breanna looked at me with big eyes and an even bigger smile and shouted, “they’re fairies Mommy! They’re real fairies!”

And now it’s back to the grind. I’m sort of surprised to find out that it’s already Tuesday since it somehow still feels like it’s only Monday. That’s always a good thing, I love when the week goes by faster than normal.

Now if only I could make myself go to bed earlier, then I wouldn’t be so tired, plus the week would zoom by even more. I’ll have to work on that, but I don’t think I’ll hold my breath. It’s hard to win the fight against my night owl self – after all, it’s been winning for 35 years and counting!

Maybe I’ll just have another coffee instead.

Birthday lunch and turning seven

Posted on September 24, 2009 by Sherry

Before we left for Halifax (sigh, Halifax), we had figured that we’d have Hayley’s birthday party on September 19th since it was Saturday and the day before Hayley’s actual birthday. Then we realized that after a three-week trip we might be sort of short on funds for such an event. We ended up postponing the party until October 10th which will work much better. Also, since it’s Thanksgiving weekend one of our friends has offered to roast a turkey and we’re basically going to have a big turkey dinner for the party which should be awesome.

However, I didn’t want to just let the weekend of Hayley’s birthday slip past unnoticed so we decided to invite her two best school friends over for a birthday lunch on the Saturday. These two kids aren’t even in her class this year, but they still all play together at recess and lunch so it made sense to have them over.

We had some lunch and birthday cake and we played a few games like Freeze Dance; it was also Talk Like a Pirate Day so I made them walk the plank, arrrr. That went over so well, they begged to keep playing it long after I expected them to get bored with it.

On Sunday we got up and went to one of those traveling fairs that set up in shopping mall parking lots. The kids went on a few rides and had a lot of fun. Breanna’s a bit of an adrenaline junkie apparently, and she was walking around with that crazed “NOW WHAT?!” look for much of the morning. She was royally pissed that she wasn’t big enough to be allowed on the ferris wheel, let me tell you. She also really wanted to go on the roller coaster by herself but we had run out of tickets by that time and had to go to a birthday party, so she’ll have to try it next year.

That afternoon we had a birthday party for our friend’s daughter. I wondered if Hayley would be upset about going to someone else’s party on her real birthday but she wasn’t bothered at all. As far as she was concerned that just meant more friends, more cake, and more games.

After the party wrapped up we gave Hayley her gifts from us. We’ll still get her an extra gift for her party, but her main gifts were a CD player (she has a stereo but the CD player has become temperamental lately and doesn’t always work so now she can either listen to this one with headphones or hook it up to the stereo) and a microphone. She was especially excited about the microphone. We hooked it up to the kids’ computer which then plays through our sound system. Now she can load up a video on YouTube (especially fun are the ones that have the lyrics on the screen) and she can sing along. Once she gets used to it I can try her on some karaoke videos too.

All in all I think it was a pretty good weekend! Unfortunately Hayley had caught a cold last week (right on schedule, first week back at school for her, happens every year) and while she was over it by Saturday, it hit my like a freight train on Sunday. By now I’m mostly better, thanks to putting vapor rub all over my forehead to ease the pain in my sinuses but I’m still pretty tired. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be starting back on the illness cycle that comes with school, yippee!

I can’t believe my first baby is seven years old now – that’s just crazy!

New beginnings

Posted on September 18, 2009 by Sherry

Even though school started at the beginning of September, obviously Hayley missed it since we were in Halifax. In the end she missed eight days; it could have been seven since we got back on Thursday but I knew she was exhausted so I kept her home to get her back on a normal schedule and started her this past Monday.

She was very nervous because her homeroom teacher is her French teacher and she was convinced that she wouldn’t be allowed to speak English at all and that she’d have French all day long. I continually reassured her that it only meant she had French first thing in the morning while the other class had English, and that they would then switch. I also told her that her teacher understands that it’s an English school with French immersion and that all the kids are at varying levels of comprehension and that she would certainly help her out if she didn’t know how to say something properly.

Hayley was excited on her first day of school, mostly because she wanted to see her friends, but at the end of the day she discovered that I was right. It’s still pretty intensive with the French but it’s the same amount and program that she would have had if she had ended up in the other class. She was also thrilled to find out that her teacher from grade one would be teaching her math this year.

The week went pretty well. She was very unenthused about going to school on Thursday and there were some tears based on the fact that she felt like she was getting sick but she had no fever and had missed those eight days so I smiled brightly and sent her off to school anyway. Luckily no one from the school called to say that my daughter had H1N1 and to come pick her up, but she was right in the end – she was getting sick and has a bit of a mild cold now. Oh the joys of being back at school! Still, at least she had a great day.

In the agenda they have, there’s a place each day where you can circle a smiley face to represent how the day went. There’s a happy face, a neutral face, and a sad face. I was amused to note that she had originally circled the neutral face but then later erased it to choose the happy face, so I’m glad I made her go.

Friday was a ped day because Thursday night was a parents’ general assembly and meet the teacher night where you can learn a bit about the curriculum and how the teacher works the classroom. Her homeroom/French/drama teacher is super nice. Her English is very good but she explained that she encourages the kids to use French 99% of the time unless they’re really struggling because if you’re always speaking in English how on earth are you ever going to learn French? She has helpful signs placed around the classroom with common phrases including “Est-ce que je peux aller a la toilette?” (“Can I go to the bathroom?”) and whatnot to assist the kids in expressing themselves.

Her English teacher (or rather, her Language Arts teacher) is awesome. I love her classroom. They have a great program but she also has free time activities that she has set up into stations for the kids to help them learn some independence. They take about 15 minutes each day and the kids can choose what they want to do – there’s reading (and they can read anywhere, even sprawled on the floor), writing (Hayley chose this one all week, you can write anything you’d like), listening to audio books while watching the words on screen, or reading with a partner.

My big new beginning came about during the general assembly. The school’s Governing Board had three openings since other parents had left once their kids graduated. A friend of mine asked if I’d run for one of the positions and I confessed that I’d really love to although I was nervous at having to give a speech if more than three people were interested and a vote was necessary. When nominations opened, two people were nominated right away and then there was a moment of silence. My friend and I looked at each other and I nodded so she threw my name out there too.

Luckily for me no one else ran so there was no need to do a speech to convince people to vote for me. I’m good at writing speeches but I can tell you from my leg-shaking nerves (literally) at my sister’s wedding, speeches are scary for me – it’s the whole panic attack issue. I can talk in small groups but getting up in front of a gym full of other parents, most of whom I don’t know, well. Augh. I would have done it if was necessary and I had my reasons for wanting to run ready in my head but I’m just relieved that it wasn’t necessary.

And so now I’m suddenly a part of a board that makes an awful lot of decisions about the school, including allocating funds, programs, and much more. I’m very excited about it. I’ve always wanted to be a big part of my kids’ school and the past two years I’ve let my panic issues stop me. This is the year that I stop letting it dictate my life and take it back a bit. I’m looking forward to doing this. I also joined the PPO (Parent Participation Organization, pretty much the same as the PTA in the U.S.) and that should be fun too.

It’s a whole new year, let’s see how it all goes. I still can’t believe I’m the mother of a grade two kid!

Things we did before we left

Posted on September 15, 2009 by Sherry

I was in Halifax for three weeks. Originally we weren’t sure we could even go and I was considering the fact that I might have to fly out by myself, stay for three or four days so I could attend Amanda’s wedding, and then come back home. I wasn’t looking forward to flying alone and I was sad at the thought of George and the kids not being there with me (not to mention being sad about the whirlwind visit). Then it worked out, I took my work with me, and we got to spend three great weeks in a place that I love tremendously.

It wasn’t long enough but as far as getaways go, you can’t really ask for much more than that.

After the wedding we were very tired and just lazed around with Breanna napping and even I fell asleep beside her for 20 minutes. I was abruptly woken up by George who told me that it was the final day for a ride on Theodore the Tugboat, something we really wanted to do with the kids. After Sunday it was going from daily outings to weekends and we were due to leave on Wednesday so we had to rush to catch one of the last two rides out that day. It was crazy but we made it in time for the 3:30-4:30 outing and it was so worth it.

(That picture cracks me up because only George looks happy, but Hayley was just mid-blink while Breanna was temporarily nervous when we started to move; she was fine once we got going!)

He’s a rather pleasant looking guy isn’t he?

The whole trip takes an hour and a guide gives a history of the harbour and all the boats and whatnot in it. She does it in a way that is interesting for adults but still fun for the kids and they were all laughing. Hell, even I laughed a few times, like the time she warned us all to duck as we approached the MacDonald Bridge because Theodore had “bumped his head on it” last week, and the way she told us all to try to touch the bridge on the way back with the caveat to avoid sticky spots because people like to leave their chewed gum up there.

On Tuesday I had to pack everything up for our Wednesday morning departure but before I did that I asked George if we could go back to Point Pleasant Park one last time. I needed to see the harbour-turned-ocean once more before I could leave. And so we did, and as though we didn’t already have enough shells, we combed the beach for more, then we bought amazing fries and sat to eat them overlooking the water.

I wasn’t happy to be leaving on Wednesday but by 8:45 we were off, stopping quickly in Truro for breakfast at McDonald’s, and then we drove to Grand Falls, New Brunswick where we had decided to spend the night in a nice motel. The drive out had been too much for one person to deal with so stopping was a better idea. It was quite nice there, with comfortable beds, a nice standard of cleanliness, free continental breakfast, and a play area for kids which was nice after seven hours in a car.

We left at roughly the same time on Thursday. I don’t sleep well the first night in a strange place so I got very little sleep (and it was broken to boot) so I was too queasy to hang around for breakfast; George and I downed a coffee, the kids drank juice, and we took our muffins to eat in the car. The drive felt longer than it was, but we actually made excellent time, managing to avoid all traffic and arriving back in town before 3 pm. I hadn’t wanted to leave Halifax but by Thursday I just wanted to get the hell home already and it was good – or as good as it can be – to be home.

I had the best time in Halifax. It was the perfect blend of excursions, relaxing downtime, and fun. I’d say I’m hoping to do it again next year but frankly I’m hoping our next drive out will include a U-Haul trailer hitched to the back of the car as we journey off to our new Halifax home.

Keep your fingers crossed, okay?

RIP Patrick Swayze

Posted on September 14, 2009 by Sherry

I still have things I want to share about our last days in Halifax and Hayley’s first day in grade two today. But right now, I’m just so sad that all I can say is “Nobody puts Baby in a corner”. I hope he’s at peace after such a long, hard fight.

Chaos Theory

Author Archives: Sherry