Closing Down

Yep, closing down. No big shock there. I'm having trouble uploading pictures these days, I don't have time to screw around with it and I can't say that I have much to say these days anyway so, that's it, that's all.

Our snail-mail address remains the same, phone number is the same too, we even live in the same house in case you want to come out and see us in person. The blog will stay up for a while (considering I haven't taken down the one for the trip to China yet and our son's been here for almost two years now) and then it should also disappear.

Dawn

Remembrance Day 2009

We once again took in our local community's Remembrance Day ceremony today. They do a lovely job. This year was a little more meaningful than other years since a friend (and fellow FE) of DH's died in Afghanistan this summer. His helicopter crashed as they were taking off from an enclosed area. A door gunner was also killed in the incident. It was very touching when both their names were read out in the list of the fallen during today's ceremony.

While the kiddies don't really get the significance of the event (and I'm not sure I want them to just yet), the ceremony is becoming a family tradition for us. What this really means is that we remember to take pictures. So, here are the comparison pictures from last year and this year.

J. was so cute this year. He insisted on wear his 'baptising clothes'. DH convinced him that he could wear jeans with the shirt vest and tie rather than the whole outfit. He was so proud of his outfit. As soon as he had it on, he ran into E's bedroom (where she was getting ready) and said, 'E., you think my outfit is really nice, don't you.' She told him that she did indeed think it was a great outfit and he was thrilled.

"The Conversation"

J., E. and I had 'The Conversation' a while ago. The one about where babies come from. J. had been asking questions on and off over the past couple of months about bio-moms, adoptive moms, babies, breast-feeding, etc. so I kind of knew it was coming. Adding to their understanding, this summer we saw Ice-Age II. In the movie a baby wooly mammoth is born (see September 13th post). You don't see the birth, but one minute the mother mammoth is in labour, the camera pans away and the next minute she has a crying baby beside her. After much discussion the kiddies decided that the baby must of come out of the mother's trunk.

So, we're sitting at the table having lunch and the kids start talking about where babies come from. I can see J's wheels just a-turning and finally he says,

'Mom, if babies come out of an elephant's trunk where do people babies come from? Womens don't have any trunk.'

O.k., what do I do now? I don't want to lie to him or make something up because I know this is going to come up again and again. It's also important for them to understand where babies really do come from so that they will have a better grasp of their adoption history. So, I suck it up and tell them the cold, hard truth...

'They come out of their bio-mama's virgina.' I say cringingly.

There is a split second pause as they process this information (and, I'm assuming from their reactions, get some kind of visual of the situation) and then E. gags and yells 'Oh SICK!' as J. breaks out in uproarous laughter. E. then informs me that there is no way (in hell) that she is ever having any babies.

Now, a month or so later, they both seem to accept the situation (although E. does not appear to be changing her mind). I've even heard them discussing who's virgina who has come out of (yes, this is very creepy, but it is the reality). They seem to find the G.G. (great-grandma) and Lao-Lao (grandma) connection the funniest with the Mamie and Papa connection running a close second.

Yummy, Yummy Cheesecake

For those of you who live close to us I'm wondering if you want to purchase 1 or a couple of Yummy, Yummy cheesecakes. They come frozen, but pre-cut into 14 pieces. This means that you aren't 'forced' to eat the whole cake at one time, but can eat it piece by piece while leaving the rest for a later date. They are $18.00 per cake and come in plain, caramel apple and, my two personal favs - turtle and triple chocolate flavors.

I've got cookie dough in buckets for sale too - $16.00 for a 4lb pail. Peanut butter, double chocolate, monster, white chocolate macadamia nut and my very personal fav. - buttery shortbread.

Looking for some instructions

Does anyone have the instructions for or know how to play the old game Scrabble Brand Alphabet Game (1972)? I have 39 of the 50 letters, all the game cards, the board and the spinner, but we don't know how to play it.

Dawn

Trip To Quebec - Part 2 (Which Was Really Part 1)

We spent the majority of our summer vacation with our family, but as usual we didn't take a lot of pictures. Here are a couple we did remember to click though:
We went for a cruise on the St. Maurice with Mamie and Papie. It was so relaxing that J. fell alseep (No, I didn't get a picture of that). J. and E. also had their first Movie Theatre experience with Mamie (and us). We saw Ice Age II. They were really intimidated by the darkness, how loud the sound was and by the 'scary' parts of the movie, but they stayed for the whole thing. J. talked about the movie pretty much non-stop for the next two days. He was really processing everything that had gone on. Some of his observations were:

• The way the bad dinosaur was pushed off a cliff at the end was the same as the way the witch was killed in Hansel and Gretel.
• Babies must be born out of elephants' trunks. A wooly mammoth has a baby in the movie. She's huffing and puffing and panting one minute, the camera pans away and in the next shot of her she has a little baby in her 'arms'. Where else could it have come from?
• The three baby dinosaurs' mom was mad because she couldn't find them, but Syd (some kind of sloth like creature) was doing a good job looking after them so they were O.K.
  
  Papie made the kids a cardboard house in the backyard and the kids had lunch with their cousin in it.
  
  
  
  

We spent the second week of our trip at DH's sister's place. Here she is with her daughter.


J. was baptised into the Catholic church while we were there. He's thrilled to now say that he's a Catholic like daddy and E., but he has a little way to go before he really knows what that means.

He loved being dressed up with a tie (just like papa) on the day he was baptised.

We all got together and spent a beautiful afternoon at a wave pool. Our niece had to convince us to go, but once we got there it was great! I got my first sunburn in about 15 years while we were there. Waterproof sunblock doesn't mean the same thing to me as it does to the manufactuers I guess.

We went to St. Zotique beach and met up with some dear friends. I stayed at her mom and dad’s house in Ottawa during those crazy days just before we went to get Jay-Jay. Another friend was also there. One of the other families with a boy.

We were even lucky enough to spend an hour with Anmei (a.k.a. Kaitlynn). She was one of Jay-Jay’s good friends when he lived in the orphanage in Danyang. Like Jay-Jay, Kaitlynn also now has a sibling that is the same age as her. All the kiddies are 4 years old and they really enjoyed playing together even though their primary languages are different (mine prefer to speak English while Anmei and her brother prefer to speak French)

Finally, we got together with some other families from the same adoption agency as us.

All in all, a good weekend in Montreal.

Why Snakes Hiss and Other Things I Learned on Vacation

We're back from La Belle province where we spend 2 1/2 weeks. The weather was truly mostly yucky, but I managed to get a royal burn on my shoulders. It happened on one of the two beautiful/hot days of the trip. We were at a wave pool, I had on what I thought was waterproof sunscreen and I got fried. My babies were spared due to the fact that they genetic heritage is -thankfully - more adapted to the sun than mine is. The burn happened just over a week ago and my skin is starting to peel. I have now learned why snakes are grumpy and hiss a lot. Molting is damn itchy and extremely annoying. I wish I could rub against a tree like a snake does to get this skin off!

On this trip I learned that travelling with four year olds is much easier than travelling with almost-three-year olds. These kids can travel. Between planes, long car rides and traffic jams (in Montreal of course) these kids did it all in style. They can now be thrown completely out of their routines with very little side effects for us. Yippee. Late breakfast/lunch/supper/bedtimes made them a little grumpy, but we didn’t have many drag-out, knock-em-down tantrums like we’ve had in the past.

Being 'bored', on the other hand, is deadly. Lots of trouble when we just hung-out for an entire day. We've traded the need for a strict schedule for the need to have something to do.

On this trip I remembered how I love Old Quebec. It helped a lot that we had a gorgeous day to enjoy ourselves (the other beautiful day of the trip).

On this trip I learned that two years of not seeing people in person doesn’t mean they aren’t special friends anymore. We got to catch up with lots of friends both in Quebec City and Montreal. Those pictures to come in the next post because I'm tired of fighting with the formatting when I add new pictures.

Time Flies When You Don't Sit Down

Time has just FLOWN by since DH came home. He has been at home - not working - for the past 5 weeks as part of the post-deployment stuff and I couldn't tell you where the time went. So here are some bullets of what we've been up to (and why I haven't posted):

• hired contractors to finish our back deck. It needed railings and we had them add two sets of stairs.
• stained said additions to deck (mostly DH, but I helped when I was home)
• hired same contractors to mud, sand and prime garage
• painted garage walls - just didn't have time to do the floor, but since most of our stuff is in our neighbour's garage we need to get on that too.
• changed all the furniture around in the house = stuff that didn't fit into any rooms is jammed somewhere where it's not supposed to be - yuck, I'm not good at living in disorganization
• had a garage sale to try and clear out some of above stuff - sold some, but not enough so all got crammed into the basement (can't put it in garage).
• bought shelves and organized basement - much better, but still have a pile of last of 'stuff' to go
• changed the fan in the kitchen (no, not me)
• cleaned out the crawl space (umm, no, not me)
• kids did gymnastics and soccer, so sat in gym or outside on field two nights a week- don't have a single picture of them doing it - what has become of me?
• planned for, tested for and completed report cards - ugggg (that was me)
• started planning for next school year (also me)

So, after two years of living in this house, we feel like we have finally moved in. I still need to reorganize my teaching materials and get the office back into shape, but we have finished most of what we wanted to do and we did it all over the last 5 weeks. I think hubby was thrilled to go back to work and get some rest :-))

Babies are doing well. They are actually little children now and this summer they've started looking like that. E. loved gymnastics and can't wait for it to start again next year. J. hated soccer (he doesn't like getting pushed) and can't wait for gymnastics to start again next year so he can go too. He was allowed to join E.'s last class and he did very well for his first gymnastics class so we promised to sign him up. He doesn't want to wear a bodysuit though.

He's Home!

He's home. I can't stop smiling. Things are great. My nerves are intact. We've already bought a new tv and changed all the furniture around in the house. It actually looks like a home now. Who knew that you could use all the same furniture you already had in the house, put it in different rooms and have a whole new house. Lovely, refreshing.....

Will write more and post pictures at a later date. Right now I'm going to have a bath and then sit beside my honey to watch a little tv.

Last post from Afghanistan.

Yep, this is the last post I am going to write from here. I stopped flying a few days ago and am now getting ready to leave in the next few days. As you can imagine, I am pretty excited to be going home. I miss my family and can't wait to see them.

I can honestly say that I had a really good experience here. Everyone on my Flight worked hard and made this tour a success. The flying was the best flying ever. It is extremely fun and interesting to fly over such different landscape. As a supervisor I was faced with many new challenges and found it very rewarding. So overall, this was a very good tour.

Of course I can't forget my wonderful wife who has worked even harder than me at home, doing her everyday work at school and then coming home to our children to do the never ending chores. As she mentioned in her last post, I was at home for 6 months for two parental leaves. Of course it was easier because she came home at night and every weekend. I was never abandoned to do everything on my own. What she has just accomplished deserves a commendation for all of the time and dedication she has invested. I am extremely grateful to have D. I know that I am extremely lucky to have a woman who is willing to support me the work that I love to do.
Thank you D.
No, my nose is not brown! I am just trying to thank you for who you are.

How I Know He Gets It

I was going through the blog and found this post done by DH which reminded me that....yes, he gets it. The post if from July 11, 2008. I was working for an oil company and he was in the last month of the parental leave he took for J.:

As for myself, well I am really enjoying the time spent with my children. I have to admit that yes, it is hard sometimes. Man oh man, there is always something to do in this **&@** house.

O.k., he didn't do 5 months of it, he wasn't trying to work at the same time, he didn't have to run everything by himself since I came home in the evenings and was here on the weekends, and the kids slept later because they weren't going to a babysitter each morning and he wasn't completely exhausted all the time, but he still had a taste for what it can be like. Well, since writing that paragraph maybe I've changed my mind. I'm not too sure that he does get it........ Oh, it is so worth it though just to have my babies with me. I guess I can't get what he is going through either. Guess that's marriage.

It's Different Being Four

Today is E.'s Birthday. She is now finally 4 years old and loving it.

We spent most of the afternoon at an indoor playground. She LOVED it and her and her brother were a hoot to watch. E. was fearless when it came to climbing, sliding and trying new things in the play area. She has just blossomed over the past couple of years into this adventuresome, confident, friendly little missy who knows how to take care of herself rather than needing constant reassurance from mom. Incredible. It really hit me today at the play area that I am just so proud of her.

Anyway, here is her Fourth Birthday Interview:

Here are some pictures of her and her brother whooping it up in the play area:

Afterwards we went for 'drinks' and then headed home to answer all the phone calls that came in wishing E. a happy birthday. Daddy made a big effort and Skyped in even though it was something like 2 a.m. his time.

Happy birthday my sweet little missy. We love you and are so excited to see who you are becoming.

Four is Best

J. was very excited to turn 4 years old today.

For the next two days he really is the older brother....... he's the big brother....... he..... the man. He told me over and over again all day long that he was 4. 'I four now Mama, I four.'

We had a family birthday party (with my side of the family) this afternoon after naps. We actually celebrated both kids' birthdays today with the family. We'll have a 'friends birthday bash' once DH gets back from the resort.

I made an absolutely horrid looking birthday cake that the kids decorated with smarties. It was supposed to be Pablo from the Backyardigans. I started with good intentions, but after an hour of just making icing this morning I gave up the ghost and just slapped on what I had made and was done with it. The kids loooooved the cake and called it their Pablo cake. I'm buying their cakes from now on in!

Last year's cake. This year's cake.

Kids look pretty happy about it and they were proud that they put the smarties on themselves.

Happy birthday little man. We sure are proud of our four year old son.

A Day of Doing Nothing

O.K., I'm so over this being a single parent thing. Today I figured I did nothing, but I couldn't figure out why I felt so tired this evening. Reflecting back on today I realized that my definition of 'doing nothing' has become completely warped!

A day of doing nothing:

• Up at 6:30
• Breakfast at the counter - tea & bagels for mom; cereal - one with milk, one without - apple, milk in cups and half of my bagel for kiddies.
• Baths and hair washing for kiddies
• Shower and hair 'styling' (read: shoty blow-dry) for mom
• Throw a load of towels into the washing machine
• Strip beds
• Put new sheets on my bed
• Throw kids sheets downstairs to wash after the towels
• Watch Cinderella - for the 5th time
• Start load of kids sheets
• Watch taped episode of Survivor while listening to whinning about watching Survivor
• Make lunch
• Eat lunch
• Clean-up from lunch
• Dress kiddies into outside-appropriate clothes (No, you can not wear only daddy's T-shirt to play outside)
• Put sunscreen on both faces (god they love that :-( )
• Helmets on, bikes out
• 1 hour bike ride (They ride, I walk - not looking for a repeat of incident with E. careening down a hill into bushes last year).
• 45 minutes at the park
• Come home - the long way
• Take down Christmas lights
• Shovel last of snow off patio
• Convince kiddies to now go inside
• Make supper - a good one this time (pork tenderloin, noodles and veggies) - while trying to keep J. awake since he didn't nap today (He fell asleep while playing the computer as I was upstairs making supper. I hear him cry in frustration and say that he can't hear Reader Rabbit on the computer. I call down supportively, 'You're the one that messed it up son. I'm sorry I don't know how to fix it. You know you have to wait until dad comes home' (the speakers haven't worked for 4 months) Anyway, about 2 minutes later I hear E. call, 'Mom, J. is sleeping.' Yeah right. Whatever. 'He's just pretending,' I call, but go to look anyway. The kid is passed out on the keyboard of his computer......drooling! I am NOT exaggerating. He is out like a light.)

Anyway, back to the list:

• As supper is cooking, vaccuum the main floor area plus the stairs since going to the park means copious amounts of sand coming in from the front door - oh yeah and I dumped a bunch of grass around the house because I raked the front lawn yesterday wearing jeans with the bottoms rolled up and then wore those same jeans around the house for over an hour before I figured out where all the dried grass was coming from.
• Eat (an event, let me tell you)
• Clean-up from supper - while 'helping' (mostly nagging) kiddies to put on PJ's
• Pull sheets out of the dryer
• Go upstairs and make their beds
• Convince them to stop playing and come upstairs
• Brush two sets of teeth
• Wash one face (E. left and I didn't have the energy to make her come back - do you think her face will fall off during the night? - oh crap, I put sunscreen on her earlier....she needed her face washed - too late)
• Kisses and hugs and to sleep they go
• Oh, wait a minute....E. calls that she needs socks on
• Try to convince her that she doesn't (since she didn't wear any last night)
• She remains completely unconvinced
• Go back upstairs 3 minutes later because E. is having a tantrum about not having socks on
• Put the !#%^& socks on
• All is quiet
• Post on the blog

And that, my friends......was my day of.......doing nothing. What the heck is happening to me?

News from Afghanistan

Hello everyone.

I was talking to Dawn a few days ago and she mentioned to me that it would be nice if I wrote a little something on the blog about being here in Afghanistan. She said that many people had been asking about it and may find it interesting to read about it. So where to start?

I arrived here on December 19^th, yes, just before Christmas. At work, we had been training for a long time in preparation for this deployment. We didn't really think that we were ever going to come here though. Rumors had been floating around for so many months that no one believed them anymore.

Coming back from my parental leave with J, I said right away that I was interested in coming over and had my name put on the list. You must think that I'm crazy to want to come here don’t you? Well, I've always thought that if you are going to have to go somewhere, it is better if you have the right attitude and go headfirst. Being in my profession, I knew that I could be ordered anyway to come, so why not volunteer? I would probably come sometime soon anyway. Coming on this tour rather than on Edmonton's next rotation also likely means a shorter tour (4 ½ months) versus a nine-month tour next year. So I would say that this was a very good decision, don’t you think?

Before coming here I was nervous about the whole experience. Just like everyone else, I had heard a lot on TV and we all know that this can be deceptive. I did not know what to expect. So when I arrived, I was actually pleasantly surprised at the atmosphere in the camp. It's a huge camp that's about the same area of the city of Spruce Grove. The people in camp are very relaxed and we have many services that help make our life better while here in Kandahar.

Before talking about the good things though, I should talk about what is difficult about being here first. Eh….let me think……ah, I know. Well I work seven days a week, no days off. The guys that work for me do get some time off though. They get one day off for every eight days and they can have a morning or an afternoon sometimes depending on the flying schedule. When flying, my routine is fairly consistent. I go in to work to do the preflight inspection of the aircraft, we then have crew briefs and go do a mission. These can last anywhere from 3 to 8 hours of flying. We come back and do the debriefs, etc. A normal flying day is often twelve hours of work. We do all types of missions, but I can’t really go into them in detail here due to security, but if you have been listening to the news, you likely have a fair idea of what we're doing.

So days are long, we are busy and no time off for me. Hard isn’t it?

If I’m not flying, I go in to the office and do administrative work. That means doing subordinates' evaluations, arranging for the maintenance of our equipment as well as all the other little tasks that are required to make an organization run smoothly in a theater of operation like here.

I sleep in a big type of tent with seven other guys, Our rooms are divided by tarps. Not much privacy and lots of good odors. We also live close to a 'poo pond'. That's where all of the grey and black water goes. Mmmmm smells like…..

We live in a very dusty environment too where grass is absent. When it is windy, we see dust storms. If you can imagine seeing a snowstorm in Edmonton, a dust storm is very similar but the only difference is that instead of snow, it is sand. We get those once in a while.

We live beside the airport, so it's also noisy all the time.

Not much to do other then work, eat and sleep.

Of course I miss my family a lot! Being away from them is very hard and I miss being with them. (Nice, we get one line. )

Now, lets talk about the few good things about being here.

No cooking! No cleaning dishes! No laundry to do! I actually load my dirty laundry into a bag and they give it back to me 24 hours later nicely folded. Not bad! When my day of work is done, I’m done! No appointments, no running around for groceries or Walmart, no baths to give, no nothing. I can sit on my bed and read, go on the net or watch a movie. When I go to bed, I don’t have to get up in the middle of the night for anyone. Of course I do get up sometimes for an early mission but I usually have uninterrupted sleep.

In camp, my living quarters are close to a boardwalk where we have a Burger King, a Pizza Hut, a Tim Hortons and a few local merchants where we can buy local crafts. We have a gym, a video store to borrow DVDs and a TV room where we can watch the news or sports.

So really, it is not that bad here. Of course we do work hard and long hours, but we also have time to relax. All those commodities, do help people to be able to focus and concentrate on what we're here to do. We do need to pay attention while flying and do need to be well rested all the time.

Flying here is very interesting. Looking around shows a very different landscape then what we are used to seeing. There is no modern construction here in Kandahar city. Everything is constructed of mud and basic materials. There is a lot of sand. The first time I saw a desert, I was very impressed. Man, that is a lot of sand. The sand dunes are impressive too. They're just like in the movies. There is some vegetation starting to grow now because summer is arriving. There are a fair number of poppy fields as well, grown mostly for heroine production. There are also lots of mountains in and around Kandahar. The elevation here is 3 300 feet above sea level and temperature can easily reach 50 degrees Celsius during the summer months and about -5 during the winter.

The average life expectancy for a person from here is 44 years old.

Since we're not allowed to leave the camp, every Saturday, local merchants come from the city and set-up kiosks to sell gifts and souvenirs to the military. It's like a flea market. It is expected that we will have to bargain a lot. A merchant will ask about 50 dollars for something and you should be able to leave paying only about 15 to 20 dollars. They sell local handicrafts and DVD's with all kinds of TV series on them.

Anyway, I could probably keep going like that about nothing and everything but it will be enough for today.

Our replacements have started arriving now and we are scheduled to leave soon. I can't wait.

As I said, we do work hard but I have to say that Dawn is working harder then me. She works and when she comes home, she is alone to do all of the other chores that need to be done. (umm, is that brown I see on your nose babe?) I can’t wait to be home to be able to be in my team again and do my share with the people I love and care about, home sweet home.

Talk to you later and see you soon.

J-P from Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Oh, My Babies :-)

So we're driving home from visiting my older sister's place (she lives about 15 minutes from us). It's close to 4:00 pm and the kiddies didn't have their nap today because we were at a birthday party in the city and then we dropped in on my sister and her family for a visit. So as we pull onto the highway leaving there, E. asks:

"Am I having a nap today Mom?" (Translation: Even though we're going home, I've missed the time to have a nap, right?)

M: "No E, you've missed your naptime. Just like we talked about, you're not having a nap today."

J: "I not having a nap either?"

M: "No, J. you won't have a nap either."

J: "I no need a nap I tink. I a big boy."

E: "I don't need a nap either."

M: "No, you didn't have naps and you're not even grumpy."

J: "I no grumpy (duh, as if....I'm way to grown up to nap)".

E: "I'm not even tired mom. I don't nap anymore."

J: "Oh no, I not tired mom."

So we drive past the road to my mom's place (we've been on the highway about 3 minutes) and I point it out. They oohh and ahhh appropriately.

We drive past the town about 3 minutes past my mom's place and I point it out. No comments from the peanut gallery. I stop at a red light about two minutes from my last comment and look in the backseat:

Ah, guess we still need naps...... Yeah, I tink.

Watch the first 10 seconds of this video on Utube before reading on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mVEGfH4s5g


So, we're watching the Beyonce video Single Ladies (our new fav.). J. watches the first couple of seconds of it and then asks,

'Mom, why they are running around like that?'
M: 'They're dancing.'
J: 'Oh.......Why they put their arms up like that mom?'
M: 'It's just part of the dance J. They're dancing like that.'
J: 'Oh.....They must be doing ballet I tink.'


Well, they are wearing black body suits, so I guess it could be ballet.

Sweater Dress & Fun in the House

I think this video speaks for itself. She just appeared wearing this one afternoon after her nap.

Here's a new game they invented this week. ummm..... the clothes you see at the bottom of the stairs are on their way to the laundry room. Yeah, I don't just leave piles of laundry willy-nilly around the house......most of the time.

Bullets - Mental Health Issue

• It's not good for your mental health to be sleep deprived because your son is waking up at 4am every morning.
• It's not good for your mental health to have a son that is sleep deprived because he is waking up at 4am every morning and who is therefore having great difficulty listening to and following instructions about not touching every fuckin thing in sight.
• It's really not good for your mental health when this happens in the weeks leading up to your period.
• It's really, really not good for your mental health when all of that happens while you are trying to figure out how you are going to fit assessment exercises into you lessons at school before report cards when you know you are losing a whole week of classes due to Spirit Week.
• It's really, really, really not good for your mental health when all of that is going on and it's been too cold for children to play outside for the past month (umm.... both your children and the one you teach).
• It's also not good for your mental health when you are in a constant time crunch, but you run around collecting stuff, creating a care package for your husband, delivering it at 8:30 on a freezing cold night because you had Parent-Teacher interviews to someone who will take it to the base for you only to get a phone call 3 days later informing you that the package cannot be sent because it contains liquids (which is the one thing your husband REALLY, REALLY wants and that you had to run around to 3 different groceries stores to find enough of the only, single kind that he likes) which are the very same liquids that you sent to him the month before that he was absolutely thrilled to receive and so you have to drive to the base - 45 minutes from where you live - to pick the boxes back up and then you fall asleep at the wheel on the way back from there at 2:15 in the afternoon because of.....well....see the first bullet. That one is bad for both your mental and physical health actually. Not too good for the kid in the backseat either.
• A dirty house is not good for my mental health. Cleaning it isn't too good for it either :-))
• It is good for your mental health when you finally give in and buy pull-ups for your son and he sleeps until 6:15 the next morning and most mornings after that. (Don't ask me why he was waking-up though. The pull-ups are dry every morning anyway.)
• It is very good for your mental health when your husband sends you a dozen roses when you are very, very close to tipping over the EDJJ (and maybe taking a couple of them out with you - mostly the bigger J.).
• It is also very good for your mental health to be surrounded by family, neighbours and friends who are willing to help you by:
• shoveling your driveway after 3 days of snow
• taking your kids to gymnastics so you can get some work done
• keeping your babies all day even though they're only supposed to be there for the morning
• ordering a meal by e-mail to be delivered to your family on a day when there are no groceries in the house
• bringing us our favorite meal from our favorite restaurant so I don't have to cook or clean-up on a Saturday evening
• picking-up one child from the babysitter while I take the other child to an appointment
• It's also very, very, VERY good for your mental health to hire someone to clean your house one a week when you are living as a single, working, little-kids-having parent. Why oh why didn't I save myself a lot of grief and do that as soon as I found out he was leaving?

It Takes a Village

Yes people, it takes a village to get report cards written around here. Yesterday my wonderful babysitter offered to keep my kiddies all day so I could get a good jump on my task. I got all my comments written for Math and got started on the Language Arts comments. This afternoon, my brother-in-law (well and my sister) came and took my kiddies to a couple of hours of 'gymnastics', thus allowing me to further my cause (so to speak). It is now 9:00 pm and I am finished writing. I will still go back and review the comments over the next few days, but I am basically done (sigh of relief). I know that I write way too much in the comments section of the reports. I'm sure parents don't even read them, but I just can't help myself. Someday I'll learn to use the cut and paste comment bar to greater advantage, but for now.....who cares.....I'm done! Oh yes, I did a little report card math yesterday just to make myself feel better because it was taking so long. I figured out that if I spent 15 minutes on each child in each subject it would take me 11 hours to finish the reports. It took me about that. Oh and uh.....I'm not posting a picture of what I look like at this moment. I did shower today, but that's about it :-).

I really would like to add something more interesting (such as copious whining) to this post, but I simply cannot stand to spend another second on the computer tonight. Later.