fall is here

Thanksgiving 2004

10 Ways I know Fall is here:

1. The boys come down in their shorts and immediately go back upstairs to put pants on

2. Sterling wearing his ski jacket in the house

3. Blow drying their hair in the morning

4. Wearing an undershirt every day

5. Watching all the squirrels gathering supplies for the winter

6. Falling leaves

7. Having to scrape the van windows this morning!

8. Putting the heater on in my office

9. Suggesting the boys wear their vests on top of their bunny-hugs to school

10. Not having to leave the bathroom window open for a little chill in the bedroom at night

For all those things and the way my mood suffers so much in the fall, I have to say that in some weird way it is my favorite season. It is definitely the most beautiful.

Happy Friday

thinking

Been talking to a lot of people lately about how the things that are going on in the world are affecting them and how hard things seem to be (are) right now. I know speaking for myself, life is overwhelming. It is so easy to wallow in my own self-pity and forget about all the wonderful things that are going on so I thought I would mention some of those, if for no other reason than to remind myself.

A new baby coming to Kelly and Petrica next month
A long awaited trip for Stan and Shirley at the end of the month - hurray!
A new start to soccer season for Kaeden - something he has been wishing for for months
A new maturity for Sterling - a sense that he is really coming into his own - wonderful to see
Saturday mornings on the football field for Craig - the best day of the week
Winter in the sun quickly coming for mom and dad
Ken coming home soon and Jessica and Emma so excited

and that have each other

Got to keep remembering that last one
love to all

starting again

So, I wrote this long post about how much I love Wednesdays and everything that is so great about them and then everything imploded. My stupid kid (ya, go ahead, call Social Services - today he is stupid) - got into a fight at school. What an idiot. What's worse is that there was no, "oh, I shouldn't have done that". Nothing. All over a stupid ball and a place in line. I guess when you are that age that is a major deal but geez, kid - think!
We had big plans for today, me and my boys. Now, one of them is in their room until supper time for narking and the other is in his room until tomorrow for being STUPID and lippy. I am not opposed to narking, don't get me wrong. In fact, I like a good nark every now and then. What I don't like is when one tells on the other just to be spiteful. Because then I have to be spiteful and really folks, it is all about me.
So, there you have it. On the upside, I don't have to help HIM with his homework - he'll be doing that on his own tonight.
As an aside, the other him, that will remain nameless, qualified for the Harrier team and will be competing for his school next Thursday. Good job, kid!

brace face

Taking a break from blogging. Will try and be back at it next week some time.
s

This guest edition of the blog is provided by:

Shoreline Welding Ltd
Sonic Body and Paint Shop
Reptile World
and
The Vineyard (that would be the name of my house)

It happened just today. That fateful moment we knew would happen eventually. Moving in we were fully prepared for what awaited us, yet we truly believed this problem only affected others, not us. We were sure no one near us could possibly suffer this terrible fate. Then it happened. Emma had riden her tricycle into the neighbors garage. The neighbor, Lola* (*names have been changed to protect the identity of the victims), was trying to get her children in the car. The oldest child, Hamish*, had electric guitar lessons. The middle child, Bartholemew* had a school thing. The youngest, Oncha*, was simply along for the ride. When I left the garage with my child the neighbor started screaming with force. I thought it was the last straw with her children and quickly grabbed my phone to call social services. I turned quickly to stave off any abuse and that is when I saw her face contorted with the hysterics that were escaping her lungs. It was there, right in front of me. There was nothing I could do. As the danger fled and safety was marginally restored I examined more closely the perpatrator of the damage. We all breathed a sigh of relief when we saw it was a huge fear, but not our worst fear. Once a small degree of calm returned we heard the sound that broke our hearts. It was Bartholomew, weeping from the hysterics brought about by his mother and I. The other children, mine included, were beside themselves trying to piece back their shattered lives. As we worked as a team to calm Bartholomew, only one question escaped our lips... Would it be back? Can we continue to live like this? We will have to wait and see.

** click to enlarge picture

I'm not complaining - really I'm not

Yee Gads - sometimes I think those were the days when we had nothing going on and we were home all the time and I was bored out of my skull. No, that's not really true, but boy, being busy is really hard sometimes.

This week is very busy with TKD tonight, Ortho tomorrow AM, football and TKD tomorrow night. Friday is a free day - thank you. Saturday is insane. Sterling has football pictures on Sat at 9, bowling at 11 and a birthday party at 2. I know I am missing something in there but right now can't think of what that is. Did I mention Craig is playing football and reffing? He is working so hard right now he definitely needs to get out there with his buddies. Sunday is football and we play in Markham so we need to be out of the house by 7:30AM. Ah, what we do for our kids.

Don't get me wrong - I am not complaining (not really), but boy am I overwhelmed sometimes. You know the weird thing? Some people might read this and think that our kids are too busy, that we have them in too many activities, but it actually really works for us. The boys still have lots of time to do their homework, play with friends, be on the computer or watch TV and they even get meals.

Did I mention that Spanish starts Tuesday and Soccer starts on the 18th? I won't even get into that.