After Asia...

it's January, I mean February already

2010-02-03T13:42:00.004-05:00

Where did the month of January go, we got through our 30 days of Christmas and then after that it just seemed to get swallowed up. We did not have lots of plans but yet the month is gone. In fact we tried to stick pretty close to home and have some quiet time while we could because we knew that things would start to get busy again and busy they are. In Feb. we have plans every single weekend including a weekend of cub camp. I am tired just thinking about how busy we will be.

We are all home today well me and the boys as it is PD day or as Calvin says a PDA day. Calvin is playing school and Fudge is sitting, yes just sitting. Why is Fudge sitting you might wonder... because he decided to turn on the outside tap on Sunday to get some water to make ice. Not a good plan and perhaps it may of been forgivable if he had not left the tap RUNNING and came inside. The cellar has water in it, the pipe froze and is now the tap will not stop dripping. He is in trouble. So he is sitting today, the boredom might do him some good.

Leaving the tap running was just the icing on the cake so to speak It was right up there with last weeks jumping out of the barn doors (again) and swimming, yes swimming in the puddles in the driveway in snowsuits that are not designed to be quiet that wet.

All that being said I do not even have a picture of any of these things to show you, the camera has not been out. I will do my best to fix that and take some pictures sooner rather than later.

PS Haloscan is shutting down, sad but true and I did not like the comment software they are replacing it with so I guess I am going back to blogger comments, not that it matters really as I am not blogging much anymore and most you read this on cracbook as a note and comment there... but I just thought I would let you know.

December 2009

2009-12-27T10:41:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from my end of the world to yours.

lucky me

2009-12-19T09:20:00.002-05:00

I have a post in my head, a post with knitting pictures, amazing! But not today, today I am here to send you to visit the Heartline Runners blog and donate to their most worthy cause of getting a vehicle to transport pregnant woman so that they can give birth in their birthing center or in the hospital if necessary. An admirable cause to contribute to at Christmas and they are getting close to their goal.

I found them through Corey's blog and entered her raffle, her raffle is over but you can still donate to the cause. So take a minute today because every cent helps.

I have almost stopped laughing

2009-12-01T14:02:00.003-05:00

Earlier this morning the phone rang, we have call display and there was a pit in my stomach the moment I saw that it was the school bus company. I answered the phone thinking that I was going to hear about Calvin hitting, kicking, spitting, being rude, something along those lines but no it was none of those things. The bus driver was calling to let me know that I should be expecting a call from the schools because the children missed the bus this morning ( there was no reason to miss the bus they left in plenty of time to make it to the end of the driveway). They missed the bus this morning but instead of coming back to tell us they missed the bus they decided to walk to school along the HIGHWAY, a major highway where cars are driving past at 100km/h and anyone could of stopped and taken them to god only knows where.

Luckily for me another bus came by and picked them up and took them to school, ( I am still giggling) and I am sure she lectured them along the way about how unsafe it is to try to walk to school. Now I must take some credit for this little escapade because we have threatened to make them walk if they miss the bus and so I guess they decided I would be mad and so they best start walking.

But oh my goodness walking along the highway all the way to school, it's a few km away and I can't even imagine how long it would of taken them to get there and I had no idea. I tried to explain to the bus driver who called that really I understood the serious nature of her call and I would talk to them because it was a safety concern and such but since I could not stop laughing I don't think she believed me.

Both of the principals have also called, one acting as though we had encouraged them to jump off a bridge and the other laughed and said that he used to say the same thing to his kids but no one ever took him seriously. He also mentioned that although Fudge seemed to understand why the adults where concerned he noticed a little glimmer in Calvin's eye - there is a reason I call him Calvin here.

Those monkeys keep me on my toes, that and the fact that our annual christmas tree party is this weekend and there are 85 people coming over to my house!

PS I will not joke with my children about walking to school anymore
PPS I will also not joke about a whole lot of other things any longer!

adoption is a blessing

2009-11-20T10:09:00.003-05:00

Just in case you didn't realise that I think adoption is an excellent choice, there are famous people backing me and my opinions up - fancy that! If you are local to my end of the country and want to come to some post adoption stuff drop me a line and I'll hook you up.

I am off to do crafts with my monkeys.

bullets

2009-11-02T14:05:00.003-05:00

I think all posts ( as few and far between as they are) may exist in this format I like it!

The boys were Mario and Luigi, they enjoyed there night even though we didn't stay out to long, there was no one out there and few houses had lights on!

I was recently swarmed by ladybugs, here are a 1/16 or so of the ones that came at me well I was trying to put up the storm door!
Calvin has decided that being involved is the cool things to do ( it keeps him outta trouble) he was recently on the cross country team and was beyond proud of his Jersey - this would be him pretending to run in the playroom

I am really tired this afternoon and sadly a nap is not in plan
I went for my H1N1 vaccine today and did not have to wait all day, 3 hours start to finish and I must say it wasn't so bad - it must off been the good company. The boys can bring on the germs now and I will not end up sick. I will get them immunized when it does not take 3 hours of waiting in line.
We have no milk and little food in the fridge so I really need to get of the computer and get my butt to the store before I have to pick up the boys.

It is a sad state of affairs

2009-10-16T14:46:00.002-04:00

They are beginning the mass exodus and I am not going, it is a sad state of affairs. Those of you who are knitters know exactly of which I speak. They have started to depart and gather and I am home doing dishes ( well I should be doing the dishes but I can't do that and type) and canning pears. I like pears but I think that perhaps Rhinebeck holds a little more excitiment than a weekend home alone with my monkeys. You see I am not at the happiest palce on earth this weekend because P is away and there is no way that I was taking the monekys to Rhinebeck, it is my fun and I wouldn't want them to realise that it is fun to go and frolic with friends while fondling yarn.

That being said I must go and get them from school... next October can't arrive soon enough.

Busy with life

2009-10-13T08:51:00.004-04:00

So we decided to finish the junk room this summer. There have been some pictures but I thought I would give you some good before and after shots. It really was a room full of junk much of had been there since before I lived in this house

We sorted and pitched lots of garbage. It was a long haul, especially since there was a another room full of junk that we also sorted and made into a cold room, just beyond the door in the picture above this one.

Look at what a few months, a lot of work and some creativity has done. That box on the wall hides the electrical panel. There is an outside door, a storage cupboard(wine rack) and lots of toy storage.

There is an entrance for the monkeys and an extra cupboard for toys and such, it still needs to be painted.

There is a family room space, I figured you didn't need a picture of the TV, it's a screen that makes noise and pictures.

There is a subliminal message for the kids on the wall.

I have also been processing food, lots of food, there are tomatoes of every type stored in every possible way.

There is fruit canned and waiting to be canned

and there are lots of green tomatoes waiting to be salsa. We had serious frost here this weekend
, we picked the tomatoes and turned on the heat. I won't tell you what I found in the furnace when I changed the filter!

Oh and how could I forget, Fudge is 8! We had a video game party complete with Wii Remote cakes and homemade pizza - they were happy boys!

PS - we stil have a resident chipmunk, anyone got any humane ideas for getting him out?

Alvin, Simon, Theodore

2009-09-17T09:19:00.002-04:00

The boys are back at school, it makes me happy most days! I am busy trying to get the rest of the reno's done so I can move on to other things like finishing that shawl that I started this summer and putting the garden and it's reamining produce to bed for the winter.

The weather is cooling and some chipmunks decided out house was the place to be. There were 2 here the other day, we chased one out and then there was another that I couldn't catch. I think that he has taken up residence in my bedroom ceiling - lucky me.

It's not an exciting post but a post it is. I must get to pizza crust, paint and laundry becaue I am running away to toronto tomorrow for a night with some friends and a much needed break.

summer 09

2009-09-04T10:47:00.002-04:00

(Click on the collage to make bigger)

As you can see it has been a long and boring summer and there was no fun had by anyone big, small, with shells or with wings. There are also a few pictures in there of our summer reno project ( before, during and almost finished) which was a huge task and a strain on the monkeys patience but one that they are excited about none the less. I must now be off to deal with the back to school stress that is cuasing all sorts of interesting moments around here.

pushed over the edge

2009-08-14T15:42:00.005-04:00

I try not to write to much here about my journey as parent. I have lots of reasons for that - it's a small town, stuff on the net is really public, I don't know how the boys would/will feel about it - so I often just try to blog about the good bits and make reference to the bad on occasion and move on.

The problem with all that... is some days when you have this great blog post in your head about all sorts of the good things that have been going on and all the fun you have been having and you have a limited amount of time to post it/write it as there are 7 million things going on and then your kids mess up and make you really angry - (you know the kind of angry I mean, don't pretend for a minute that you haven't been that angry at someone at some point) it's hard to sit and type a lovey dovey post about fun stuff.

Sometimes parenting is hard, sometimes there are moments when I think that perhaps it will never be good again. I am having one of those moments and I know that eventually it will pass and all will be good again, maybe. I trust that they will pull it together and not try to see just how close to the edge they can push me for a few days. Then it will happen again because that's the journey, that's our life.

So for now I am going to sit here, enjoy my gluten free beer, breathe deep and wait for P to get home because I told them they would be on time out till dinner - that's kind of a long way off, like 3 hours - but then P can play good cop when he gets home.

PS one of the really fun things I wanted to tell you about was our upcoming cottage visit with the boys little bro and big sis... we are off tomorrow morning. Here are the boys up to there usual antics with the little brother.

Freud

2009-08-09T10:13:00.001-04:00

She is alive, has 2 broken legs and is down to 4.8lbs. She will heal with time and I am in awe of the fact that she made it home

10 days later.

2009-08-06T21:20:00.001-04:00

This afternoon while I was busy putting up drywall and insulation ( another story) and the phone rings, it’s P , “send the kids down the driveway with treats” it takes a bit back and forthing to figure out what he is talking about and then the penny drops.
Freud, our cat had reappeared. She disappeared about 10 days ago and since we live in the country we thought that she was food for something bigger and faster than her. But no, she was hurt and somehow managed to make it all the way home on 2 paws as both on her right side seem to be injured.
I am bit astonished that she made it home as I had written her off given that she has never been gone for more than 2 days before. I will take her to the vet in the morning, hopefully the hurt paws are nothing to serious because aside from that she is the same fabulous and aloof girly that she has always been. She has spunk and some serious determination but after remembering that Digit made it home last year I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised at the ability of a determined cat.

here's to a year

2009-07-24T22:35:00.001-04:00

of early mornings and long nights
of angry boys and happy boys
of learning and loving
of movies and playmobil
of lego and lazy days

of trial and error
of smiles and tears

of good days and bad days

of new things and old things made new

of smiles and cuddles and being a family

I am not sure how it happened but it has been a year. We've done amazing things and although there is no sugar coating around here and I won't pretend for a minute it has been easy. I wouldn't change it for anything. Here's to many more July 24ths

so... ummm.... yeah...

2009-07-21T08:42:00.007-04:00

I am still alive, lots of reasons for not posting but most of them have to do with the chaos that has been being a parent in the summer. We are busy! Here's a quick play by play -

- had the rest of a great westcoast vacation complete with mice in my parents bathroom, bon ton cake and trying to wrangle 7 cousins from 0 to 12 into pictures and make them all smile at the same time

- home to a happy hubby and a few days to get back into the routine - very important around here

- Calvin's 9th birthday, boys, water, fruit, cake balloons - need I say more

- 3 days of running summer camp at the university in the city, (which took 3 days to set up for and 1 day to clean up).

- lots of days hanging out at home, breaking up arguing children, playing at the local splash pad.

- strawberry picking x2, freezing, eating making jam... yummy jam

- My birthday, always a good day.

- the garden, which actually sucks up tons of my free time

Today we are off to the lake because it is actually nice and we friends with cottages, we have other plans to do the same thing next week! I have lots of posts in my head about what has been up with the boys these past few weeks but I have to find time to get them out of my head and into the computer.

Did you know that on Friday the boys will of been here for a year, amazing. It is causing all sorts of stress in their little worlds but we are working on it.

One week done, one to go

2009-06-15T14:50:00.003-04:00

And I think that it is safe to assume from the looks on their faces that they are having fun. We had a busy weekend with the cousins and friends. Lots of fun was had at the beach and amusment park ( except for the spinny ride that made me ill!) and just spending time together. My sister comes tomorrow with her kids, the rest of the week will be busy with all these monkeys running around.

with apolgies to Mr. C.Moore

2009-06-11T23:51:00.009-04:00

T'was the night before Friday when all through the suite, not a creature was speaking,

not even a cheep.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

while visions of peacocks danced in their heads.

I in my nightgown, sat down with a cap (night cap that is) and settled myself in for a long evening nap.

When out in the park there arose such a clatter, I stood from my chair to see what was the matter. A goat stood, right there on the lawn and without much ado

he told me what made him sadder.
His friends had been shorn without any warning and their fleece lay about as if we were suffering global warming
I dreamed of the spinning I could do with that fleece but was called by the children who give me no peace

The goat went away to another friend and the fleece was left for someone else to defend.

(perhaps the very nice dulcimer man who let the boys take a pic with him and entertained us at lunch on the wharf)

we're here

2009-06-10T11:23:00.007-04:00

and we are happy, need I say more

adoption

2009-06-03T08:45:00.007-04:00

First off thank you for your comments on my last post, I haven't had a chance to respond but I appreciate them. Lyn's memorial will be on Saturday and although I did look into trying to get to the west coast a few days earlier I could not of gone because the boys don't have passports, they don't even have birth certificates with their new last name. So I won't being going.

But I am heading to the coast on Monday for 2 weeks and am looking forward to the smell of the ocean and some time on the island.

Last week I went away for 3 whole days!I stayed in hotel, I ate out, I talked to other adults. It was great, but it wasn't a vacation. I went to do some training to help provide post adoption support in my county. Right now there are no established services for families after adoption and we definitely need some. So I went to take a class to be PRIDE trainer.

PRIDE - (Parent Resources for Information, Development, Education) is a great program that we took before we adopted, it is mandated in the province of Ontario. At the time I found the whole thing to be a bit of a waste of time, but now looking back and reviewing the material again a year later I feel really differently. It's a great program and does teach you a lot about how the system works and what it may be like to be a parent of kids from the system.

One of the movies that you watch during PRIDE is Multiple Transitions, it's great. (You can watch it here or click the link). It talks about the journey children go on as they enter into care and begin to move around. It is a journey my boys went on, it's sad but at the same time a compelling piece.

PS Thanks Lisafor posting the link!

A good Woman

2009-05-26T20:42:00.003-04:00

A beautiful woman died today, in fact one of the most beautiful woman I have ever been privileged enough to call family. She was one of those old family friends who your parents talk about with awe, but who you never get to see enough of. She was a strong talented woman who taught me to stand up for myself, to believe in my dreams and reach for the stars.

I was lucky enough to get to see her last year when P and I went to Mexico and I am so glad that I did. We spent a great day cruising through the city and talking about life, love and family.

Lynn sang, oh did she sing and when my brother got married she sang at his wedding. Ever since then this song has made me think of her fondly and wish that she was not so far away. Now I will remember her when I hear it and know that I am privileged to of had her as a part of my life

What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They're really saying I love you.

I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world.

random wed - on wed - how novel.

2009-05-20T16:49:00.004-04:00

I'm tired
We gave one of the dogs away last week. Bella was a sweet girl but if I has known that we were getting boys I never would of kept her last spring when I was selling the rest of the litter. I miss her but it is better and by all accounts she is doing great and happily chasing her new Papa all over the place.
The boys are having a really hard time with the fact that she left, they are not saying it but showing us with all sorts of brilliant and exhausting ( for me) behaviour.
I should be making dinner.
It is really windy today and I keep having to fix the clothes on the line
Much of the vegetable garden is in, my room can almost stop being a greenhouse.
I am going to away ( without my boys) next week to do some training to help provide some much needed post adoption support in my county. I am excited.
We are leaving for Victoria in 18 days - boys are excited - I get exhausted just thinking about them contained in a plane for 6 hours. There is no amount of coffee that can give me the energy I will need that day.
I am looking very forward to being near my ocean for awhile, I miss my ocean when we are apart and yes it is my ocean, the rest of you can share it if you like but it is mine.
There has been some knitting on a Tomten jacket I started last summer but I picked up other needles to knit the sleeves and the gauge is looser, I am trying to decide whether to frog the sleeve or just live with it loose.
I have also been knitting finger puppets and socks that I have also been knitting since last summer.
I want to be knitting a shawl or something else just for ME!
JoVE is dangerously close to actually moving here to my end of the world and I am excited to have her around the corner in country terms
Other fabulous women are planning on moving this way this fall and that really excites me as well.
School is almost done which excites and terrifies me at the same time. I am done with lunches and homeowrk and teachers.
It is my nephews 7th birthday today, when did that happen, isn't he still just a little.
The boys keep harassing me and calling me so I guess that means I really should move on to making something to feed them. THe fresh air diet doesn't seem to be filling up their tummies.
I got a fabulous mothers day gift from this etsy shop, it's really cute, I also have some of her earrings that say knit and purl. She's local and that makes it even better.
I'll be back later when my children have been fed a few meals

PS - I mailed my boys someI love you cards this week, it was reallly cute to see their faces when they figured out that I had sent them mail. It wasn't my idea but I'll take the credit.

but we were looking for bugs....

2009-05-13T13:12:00.004-04:00

Not sure if you can read that but it 1939, this wall has been here since 1939

The boys decided they should take it apart to look for bugs. They told us it was because they liked to play with rocks and look for bugs.

I think that they have been cured of their need to play with rocks and our garden is a lot less rocky now.

an open letter

2009-05-06T14:13:00.002-04:00

Dear Blog,

I am sorry that I have neglected you over the last weeks, things have been very busy. I realize that you require my time and energy to run properly but we are at a point where just about everything requires time and energy from me in order to run smoothly. A girl can only do so many things before she falls into bed at the end of the day and although I appreciate all the great people you have introduced me to and all the friends you have helped me to make you are no match for the garden.

We are heading into the planting season and what little extra time I have is spent getting my hands and feet filthy. I love that it is warm enough to work the earth, that plants are growing and summer is coming. I would rather be outside than in most days and if I am outside I playing with dirt not typing.

So dear blog I am sorry if you are feeling abandoned, I will do my best to tend to you more closely in the coming weeks, although you have to compete with 2 boys who have very busy schedules and a garden who will demand more from me as the summer progresses rather then less. Perhaps you will be happy with pictures, lots of pictures and not to many words.

Thank you for understanding
J.

PS - there has also been some knitting but I didn't want to make you feel too jealous all at once.
PPS - just to remind you that we have been at this for 5 years this month, can you believe it!

Daily Drama

2009-04-23T16:53:00.002-04:00

So we try around here to do our part to be more green and energy conscience, we dry our clothes on the line for as long as we possibly can without me losing a digit to frostbite. I am happy to dry my clothes on the line, happy to do a load or 2 each day and walk them to the back of the house and hang them up. Happy to do it as long and the damn clothes pins stop self destructing! Okay I can appreciate that they are inexpensive to begin with and that really there is probably no quality control inspector at the clothes pin factory but seriously to lose that many ( out of a brand new package) in one day all because of a little wind is a bit extreme as far as I am concerned. I will save my rant about my inability to buy more bamboo clothes pins for another day

Upon retrieving the boy from school today the first words out of his mouth...
C: Mom, I got hurt today
Me: I see that, what happened
C: Well I was playing water buffalo's (Water buffalo's what happened to dino's and tigers) at recess and I didn't see N. and I ran into his head with my head.
Me: oh my, is he ok?
C: Yeah I got the worst of it because I was the bigger water buffalo.
This would be the same boy who narrowly and I mean narrowly missed getting his eye poked out by his brother with a stick a few weeks ago, same eye. Good thing Children's Aid knows us already!

and just cause he is so darn cute and was having so much fun.

Helpless

2009-04-21T16:28:00.003-04:00

My day has been consumed by something that I must speak of cryptically and as much as I want to make it better it is something that I can do nothing about.

A foster child in my town is in crisis and I want to make it all better. I want to explain to all the people involved that child is acting out because she feels as though she is not being heard. She is trying to get the adults who control her life to say that they will not abandon her. She is screaming at them to leave her and yet that is the last thing that she needs at this point. she is tryign to get people to listen and they are not really listening, well they are listening but just to the wrong things.

She needs those adults to hold her and love her and tell her no matter what she does they will not leave her. They aren't saying that. They are tired and worn out by her behaviour. They love her but are spent by the constant pushing away, she is afraid of attachment, afraid of being loved and they are at the end of their rope. Like most kids with attachment issues she is a master manipulator and is doing an excellent job at winning over people outside her home and convincing them that she is poor and mistreated.

Tragically they (the guardians) are controlled by the system and the system has to investigate the situation. I am unsure as how it will turn out, I know what is in the child's best interest may get over looked because there is only so much people can handle.

I want to make it all better but I am helpless in the situation. I have said my piece to those who would listen and now I have to sit back and watch.... it is very hard to do!

I never do this

2009-04-15T10:19:00.003-04:00

I almost never add stuff to my blog from TV or YouTube, it's just not something I do. But I was reading at Woolyheaded this morning and she posted this, I was intrigued

Susan Boyle on Britain Got Talent
by dwarthy

It was amazing, it's always nice to see Simon try to cover his butt. Make sure you have some Kleenex nearby and then show it to your kids - what a lesson!

Spring has Sprung

2009-04-14T12:22:00.003-04:00

It has taken awhile but spring is finally here out in the country! We had a great Easter weekend, this is from church on Sunday, Fudge is going through that "can't not make a face stage" - I'll embarrass him with them later in life.

We spent most of Sunday celebrating with friends in the city, it was a great day with tons of great food! Being Ukrainian is always a good thing during the holidays. It was inters ting to watch the boys work out what Easter meant in our house. Fudge had a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that we go church for Easter, a lot of church. He kept talking about the chocolate and the Easter bunny. P and I decided to keep the chocolate to a minimum and filled eggs with lego instead. They each got only as much chocolate as they could eat in a day without getting sick and that was the deal, it all had to be gone or it was mine. It also meant that they had to get really early if
they wanted to look for eggs before church - they did and it went well. They were hyper but it was all good and they had a lot of fun.

Calvin discovered that there is no Easter bunny, which is fine with me. He caught me filling eggs one day and the gig was up. We did have to make him stop teasing Fudge though because Calvin just couldn't not tell Fudge that he was naive to believe in such a thing! He did not want to be reminded that just a few short weeks ago he still did. That being said they enjoyed the treats and now that it is over we are back to no white sugar and no candy - life is better that way.

Now that spring is here we are heading in to the garden season. I have things growing in the window upstairs and am dreaming of days in the garden. There are a few things that are already on their way. This is our asparagus patch, I started it last year from seed so we can't harvest from it till next year but I am excited. We are also going to add some more crowns to it this year so that next year we can really enjoy it! ( I had to put my hand in the pic so that you could actually see the plant) We also have some Egyptian walking onions that came from JoVE's house last year, they are well on their as well.

Oh and I didn't even tell you about the narrow misses on Friday, the boys are working on the theory of nine lives - I am sure of it.

The boys came thumping in to the house on Friday afternoon sobbing. Fudge fell and hurt his ankle. Fudge... how did you hurt your ankle? Jumping out of the barn windows he says calmly. The barn "windows" are the second story doors where one would throw the hay out into the barnyard below, it's about 10 feet up. Let's not talk about the fact that they are not allowed in the barn without an adult. Full of sympathy for the poor child I sent him back outside once I made sure he hadn't broken it. Not 10 minutes later Calvin comes in screaming about how Fudge poked him in the eye with a stick. I know what your thinking, not really in the eye, Calvin is just being dramatic. That's what I thought too, but no it actually did happen. Luckily for everyone Calvin closed his eye and Fudge hit his eyelid.

I think that childhood should be described as series of near misses.

up.

2009-04-09T06:52:00.002-04:00

It's early here on the farm, I have been up for some time, someone was snoring... must of been the dogs. Right.

Things around here are okay, busy, exhausting at moments but we are all doing well in the general scheme of things. School seems to be going a little better, there have been some meetings with staff about behaviour and emotional verses chronological age. It seems to of helped. We have an IEP meeting this afternoon, I may feel less positive after that,
but perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised.

We are all eagerly awaiting the reappearance of spring, it was spring and then it started snowing the other day, we have had more snow in April then we did in all of March! It makes for wet kids and sad tulip bulbs. The weather is supposed to turn for the weekend and I have all my fingers crossed that it does.

I hear footsteps upstairs, it is almost as if Calvin has an internal alarm that lets him know the mornings that I am up early, he always seems to wake long before the regular time if I am awake. On that I should be off but before I go there are some pictures for ya'll.

Last weekend JoVE and Tigger came of to make pysanka, it was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it. I am hoping that we can make some more before the end of the week.

ohhh, ohhh I almost forgot, if you come here because you are an adoptive parent or are interested in how adoption effects parents or you feel as though you are the only adoptive parent in the world who has wanted to strangle your sweet children you need to go and read this journal article, then you need to pass it on so that others realise that they are not the only ones. It is also available on the JSW website but you need to member or sign up to be a member and it is free from authors site. While you there read up on Beyond Consequences... it's brilliant.

Here are the pictures

2009-04-02T14:21:00.003-04:00

It's official now!
with the california cousins

making memories

It was a lot of fun

We went bowling with friends

Some of us were not so good at rolling the ball

They loved the drum at the museum

and the puppets
and the tractors

and I loved the day old lamb, I need one or two or half a dozen

Done

2009-04-01T09:59:00.006-04:00

Thank you for all you kind words and good wishes as we celebrated last week. It was a good day and fabulous weekend with my sister and her kids. It is quiet here this morning, very quiet and I am enjoying a latte and some silence. Here are some pictures from our weekend to entertain you while I enjoy the quiet for a few more hours.

* ETA*
Never mind, blogger doesn't seem to want to play with me today, I would have to upload the pics one at a time and I do not have the time or the patience for that. I will make it to the coffee shop tomorrow afternoona and spend some time uploading them there.

It's all good.

2009-03-25T13:07:00.003-04:00

I have been saying that for years and this morning I found myself remembering that sometimes it is just that - all good.

I woke up this morning at 6:30, glanced out the window and saw the most beautiful sunrise, it was amazing, knowing it was going to be a long day I rolled over and got a little more sleep. The boys got up happy and excited about the coming days and it was a pleasure to get them off to school. I heard birds this morning, not just one or two but a springtime chorus of birds singing as I took the dogs outside. It was a good start to the day and caused me to stop and think for a few minutes about the last year of our lives.

Last year at this time I was plowing through a homestudy and feeding puppies at all hours. I was dreaming and wondering about kids, foster kids, adopted kids, little feet and voices in our house. I wondered what it would be like to be a parents to more then a pack of animals I called my children. Could I do it? Would I be a good Mom? Who would be here? What would there stories be?

If you had asked me then where I would today I probably would not of known what to say. Life has a way of taking the path you least expect when you least expect it. When the social worker first told of us the boys I said no - I didn't want a separated sibling group, I wanted the whole group. Then she told us again about them and I let go of my expectations, I let go of what I thought about what it was that I wanted and I decided to trust that whatever kids ended up here were the ones that needed to be here. I heard more about my boys, more about their story, the things that they would needed, the things they liked and the things they disliked and I knew that these were the boys for us.

In July we met 2 sweet boys, one very scared of yet another move and one who needed to fill the silence with his words and actions. Those little boys needed a family and we were it. 2 weeks later they moved in. It has been a long 8 months, it has not been easy and I never for a moment thought it would be but I do not regret a minute of it either.

Calvin helped me hang laundry on the line today and I thought to myself about how far he has come in the last few months, what a different little boy he is now. Fudge got organised with a minimal amount of prompting yesterday - a huge step for him - he ahs changed so much from the little boy who wouldn't even talk to me when we met. They have grown in the last 8 months, physically of courses, as all children do. But more importantly emotionally, they are more sure of themselves, many behaviours have disappeared or only come out when they are stressed. They believe us when we say that they are staying, they don't ask when they are moving anymore. They are excited to meet new family and friends instead of just terrified, like they were in the summer. They look forward to and talk about our future together as a family. It's all good.

Tomorrow we go to court, we get the stamps and that is it, they will be ours or we will be theirs depending on your point of view. It's going to be a good day with lots of celebrating and enjoying being together. My sister is coming from sunny California and we will gather with family and friends to celebrate again on Friday.

I'll be back next week with pictures and such. It's family first around here for the next few days. It's all good though.

Because she is fabulous

2009-03-21T09:57:00.004-04:00

She, being my older sister (who is flying here all the way from sunny CA next week to be here for the boys adoption day) asked me to tell you all about this really fun thing that my BIL is doing. Since he's a great guy and since it is a fun project I think you should click on through and take a look. If you are a twitter addict you might really like some of the cool stuff you can do using both programs, go read the blog to find out more.
The kid channel is lots of fun if you have small people who like little bits of songs or have short attention spans ( not that I would know any of those).

spring madness

2009-03-19T09:20:00.005-04:00

Spring has sprung here and that means that I would rather be outside than in at the computer, that and it is March Break which means that the boys are home, which means I am outside.

We all survived camp and had lots fun and way to much sugar! We are having a fairly quiet week around here. Epic games of monopoly, seed planting, dentist appts for me and Calvin ( I now have some very pricey crowns that I have needed for a long time and C is about to get a retainer), therapy and yesterday we went out with firends to Mer Bleu and watch chickadees eat seed out of the boys hands - fantastic! (I'll show you as soon as S. emails me the pictures - hint, hint, hint)

To keep you amused here are some pictures - there has been lots of talk about adoption day this week and the conversations cause much stress that is then relieved in typical little boy fashion - being silly. This was Monday night.

In 10 minutes or less.

2009-03-10T09:01:00.002-04:00

I have 10 minutes to post and then I have to get myself out the door because Fudge has play therapy this morning and then Calvin has attachment therapy this afternoon and I am insane for booking them both in the same day - there really wasn't any other choices this week. I wanted to post though so here I am.

Tara was here from Sudan I drove into the big city for dinner and knitting. It was great fun. I miss knitting with friends but the drive seems like such a long one now that I am busy with small people.
The sock that I have been knitting since July now has a heel, yes since July. There has been little knitting around here.
Fudge told us last night that he "purple diarrhea", we were a little taken aback and then realised he meant verbal diarrhea. He also told P. that the violence in the guided imagery on his ipod needed to be changed. P was confused and talked to him about the violence and where it was in the recording - he meant violin.
I got to go seed shopping with Jo and company this weekend, I love planning the garden, it makes me happy for spring.
We are going to cub camp this weekend, I am bringing my pillow ( new and very comfy) and buying some earplugs to block out the snoring leaders.
We had some lovely spring like weather this weekend and I was lulled into a false sense of spring. It snowed yesterday and will be cold again later this week.
It looks as though (cross your fingers) the adoption will go through at the end of the month, the paperwork has all now been filed and we are just waiting for a time to show up. We keep telling the boys the boys that they will stamp our family name on their foreheads, they don't believe us.
Calvin earned his badge at cubs this week, if I had known how happy it would make him I would of pushed him a little harder to get it done. Nothing like seeing a little man very proud of his accomplishments.

There's more but time is up, I'll be back but probably not before spending a weekend sleeping on the floor.

this ones good!

2009-03-02T12:40:00.003-05:00

Let me set the stage:

A sunny but cold Sunday afternoon in the country, 2 boys are playing nicely in the yard of the old farm house. The dogs are barking at the kids and Mom is in the house making dinner. Mom decided to take advantage of the calm while the roast cooks and heads upstairs to watch the remainder of last nights movie ( the one that got turned off due to exhaustion) She is happily watching the movie with P, she hears the children come in and out a few times but they are happy. The movie ends, she decides to change into a t shirt and just as she is doing that the bedroom door flies open - the child is reminded that closed doors mean that you need to knock first. The child clothes the door and knocks, I say to wait, he says it's really important!!!! I need you right now. We leave the bedroom wondering they have gotten themselves into this time.

"Fudge is bleeding" Calvin says ( remember he is Calvin for reason)
"Why is Fudge bleeding? " I ask calmly
"Because he stuck his tongue to the metal pole"
" He did WHAT!"
By which point I had reached Fudge and he was indeed bleeding, he didn't just stick his tongue to the cold metal pole he stuck his tongue and his lip to the pole and then pulled himself off. We calmed him down, got the bleeding to slow a bit so we could asses the damage and as the crisis passed I asked Fudge if he knew what would happen when he stuck his tongue on a cold metal pole - wait for it...

"Yes" he says " I did it once at school when I was 5"
"So what on earth would make you do it again" says the reasonably calm parent.
"Calvin told me to" he says

Fudge got ice cream for dinner.

Calvin is in trouble, Calvin knew damn well what he was up to. Calvin has to clean the boys room, he is banned from the playroom for a week and had to surrender his new favourite stuffie. I think, given that he did not have a tantrum as the punishment was decided, (with his input) that he understands that he made a really poor choice this time around.

hurmph

2009-02-26T09:08:00.003-05:00

Still feeling under the weather, not so much sick anymore as just miserable, grouchy and tired ( no smart comments about that is the way I normally am). The boys also have the cold so we are going through tissue around here like it is going out of style. But we shall survive.

Things have been busy, there are lots of scouting things going on and school seems to be demanding a great deal from the boys as teachers try to get the last of the marks they need to have for report cards next month. It is wearing thin for the boys and they are showing their displeasure with the amount of work by beating up on other kids for looking at them sideways.

They are a bit of a force when they gang up on someone else, I wouldn't want to be the one getting hit. That being said I certainly am not encouraging the behaviour but am at a bit of a loss when it comes to getting them to stop. I think that the school should be doing something and they are not really doing much at all except lecturing them. That is bit like lecturing a puppy not to chew, it is what they do, they aren't going to stop just because you say to. The boys will defend one another at all costs because one another has been the only constant in the last 3 years of their lives.

Yesterday I got called in to talk to the teacher after school ( never a good sign) both boys were in trouble for various things. Then it came out later that they had also got in a fight with another kid at recess but didn't get caught ( he is a bit if a bully as was probably just as guilty so he didn't tell). We feel strongly that aside from talking about behaviour things that happen at school need to be dealt with at school otherwise the boys will always be in trouble. Yesterdays events were fairly serious and yet nothing was really done, standard school consequences but they seem to be willing to give the boys a break because of who they are and what they have been through.

So they spent yesterday afternoon playing separately until dinner and then once P was home we spoke to them each on their own about what had happened and about respecting other peoples space and such. It went well with Fudge, not so much with Calvin and surprise, surprise Calvin really didn't want to go to school this morning. Yes we have talked about home schooling as a piece of the solution but Calvin really needs to learn to be socially appropriate ( I know there are other ways to do that as well), Fudge loves school most of the time and I don't know if I am up to it.

I am at a bit of a loss, anyone out there got any creative ideas for getting kids to stop hitting?

ick

2009-02-24T09:21:00.002-05:00

Fudge very generously shared last weeks cold with me and the rest of the family. He is on the mend and the rest of us are declining quickly. I am off to bed with a cup of tea, knitting and some chick flicks while to boys are at school. It is days like this that make me happy I am not homeschooling because I really need a nap and it is only 9:20.

still working

2009-02-17T10:38:00.006-05:00

The washer is spinning, wrrrr, wrrr, wrrr, making all the sounds it should be making. I am reading blogs and drinking coffee. The wrrr, wrrr, wrrr, stops, then starts, I wonder why that happened then it happened again and again. By the 4th time I started to worry, the last thing we need is to have broken washer. I head upstairs to check it out. Fudge is standing in front of the washer, I ask what he is doing, he says " I was trying to see how it works but every time I opened the lid it stops" The washer isn't broken, Fudge is disappointed, laundry continues.

Fudge is home today, he woke in the night sound like a dying seal, almost croupy (is that a word? ) I gave him his puffer and settled both the boys back to bed, he got up this morning and had a mild fever, still sounded like his lungs wanted to leave his body. I kept him home, he seems fine until he coughs or sneezes... I'll give him to the end of the day and then decided whether he is sick or not.

We had a good weekend, yesterday was Family Day ( a new holiday here) and we went into the city to make snow angels at the hill. The idea was to get kids to make snow angels to represent all the kids in care in Eastern Ontario, it was a good idea, but there was not enough for the kids to do once they finished their angels. We came home and headed to a friends house where the boys ate way to many marshmallows and thought that walking over a hot coals in their winter boots might be a good idea (the boots and boys survived).

P solved my laptop issues by getting me a new one for valentines day, I got him a mug, he got me a laptop - alas it is a very nice new toy and all the keys work. Now comes the huge job of transferring the files from the old computer, which has all the files and pictures from the computer before that one as well. I also needed to get a new Internet card. We use Rogers wireless to have internet at home, to make a very long story short. I spent 105 minutes on the phone with customer service on Saturday, that is almost 2 hours standing in a Rogers store with my 2 children to get a new piece of hardware so that I can get online. I did get what I wanted and boys were amazingly well behaved but the 50 or so silly pictures of them on the model iphone will be amusing to someone at some point.

I am off to do laundry... good times.

protection

2009-02-13T08:57:00.005-05:00

As a parent there is only so much I can do to protect the boys from the big scary world. We have spent the last 2 weeks fighting the "system" to protect Fudge from something we did not feel was in his best interest. It seems to of worked but the battle isn't quiet over yet, I also can't really talk about it here but lets just all cross our fingers and hope our fighting for what is best for him has worked.

But then there are the choices he makes all on his own, the ones I can't protect him from. At Beavers last night we made valentines for people we love and some paper flowers. Fudge is not in my group so I didn't know who he made his for till we got home

F - Mom can I leave my flowers in the car so I won't forget them
Me - Why in the car bug, who are they for?
F - Hazel
me - Who's Hazel?
F- She a girl at school, I keep telling her that I love her and she always says ewww gross and runs away. You said to make the flowers for someone you love.
me - Oh, well you better bring them in because I don't know whose car you'll be going in tomorrow. ( cause what do you say to that!)

The poor little guy, I was hoping he might forget about them between last night and this morning but the first thing out of his mouth was "where did you move the flowers to Mom?" I moved them out of the reach of the dogs but perhaps if they had eaten them the poor little guy would have a easier day at a school.

Sometimes wearing your heart on the outside makes life really hard.

you think that perhaps we have to much wine...

2009-02-10T10:21:00.004-05:00

It's 10:15 am, Fudge just brought me a plastic glass full of wine - it took everything I had not to laugh at him. We started buying Naked Grape in boxes recently, smaller footprints, environmental choices and all that jazz. The boys have been told they are not to to touch the boxes, they have both tried it out, playing with the tap portion and moved on. That being said, the box is on the counter in the kitchen, in plain view. I heard Calvin, saying "no Fudge, your going to get in trouble!" but I ignored it, Calvin remembered that they are not supposed to play with it, Fudge disregarded the the warning and went ahead. Wanting to do something nice for me, nothing like a large plastic cup of wine first thing in the morning!

Did I mention that it is a snow day and they are both home all day.

My weekend, in pictures

2009-02-09T15:29:00.001-05:00

Left to Right

P thought burning the house down might be a fun way to start off the weekend, thank God for smoke detectors, we need a new frying pan
peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, need I say more
We got a new bed this weekend, it was supposed to be a king but the stairs didn't want to play that game so we had to go down a size, it was going to take another 10 days but i came close to tears at the store and all of a sudden there was one for us. Now we have a queen with a king size quilt which is something we had been talking about for awhile anyway.
The delivery guys scratched up the stairs, i had to fix the paint, not really their fault it is crappy paint.
Calvin went to a cub thing on Saturday, he didn't put on his snow pants and came home with boots so wet they were dripping - I am not sure exactly how this happened, that he got that wet but he did.
Wine, Naked Grape in a box = happy
It warmed up here yesterday, this fell off our house, that is my foot, a size 8 to give you a sense of how big it is.
Clay is good for my monkeys
Knitting is good for me, no matter how small the project.
more clay, the other boy did that one
Board games, also good fun on a Saturday afternoon.

Random Wednesday but on Thursday because I did not have minute to myself yesterday.

2009-02-05T09:29:00.007-05:00

It's still winter, I am mostly tired of winter and it is not really even close to over yet.
It's Feb., P is a therapist, people are sad and tired of winter and he is very busy, that makes me sad and tired but it happens every year at this time.
We went sledding last week, it was super fun, the boys were impressed that I got on a sled too.
We bought a new bed last week, it comes tomorrow, I am beyond excited about it, yes it's just a bed but a nice bed and I thin that this is first time I have ever actually gone out and bought the bed I wanted. Shopping for it with Calvin and Fudge was amusing to say the very least.
I yelled at Calvin this morning over something really dumb, Calvin loses it when we yell at him. I feel bad but I am human and he was really pissing me off. I will not be surprised when the school calls and tells me he has hurt another kid and needs to come home.
My GP is driving me crazy, anyone local know a reasonably competent dr. who is taking patients, I know that is a rare occurrence in Ontario but I thought I might ask.
I am in a knitting funk, to tired to follow a pattern but I have been spinning some this week.
The school board has still not taken me out of the computer and my cell phone keeps ringing with requests for me to go and teach.
My day today needs to include talking to almost every member of the team that supports the boys as we try to iron out the last of the adoption details.
My coffee cup is empty, I need to make something else hot to drink because it is winter and cold.
The boys have decided that making tea for us is a good idea, I mostly support it but I am a bit concerned about Fudge and the kettle, it might end badly.
I think I should make tea and go spin, it will calm me down.

fudgeisms

2009-02-02T09:43:00.004-05:00

Fudge is a character, that's putting it mildly. He is funny, has a wicked sense of humor and has personality to burn. He is always saying things that make us laugh out loud, sometimes you have to be careful because if he catches you laughing he'll keep up the show until all hell breaks lose.

The other day we were sitting at the table, he pipes up that he is going to have a baby ( he knows basic facts of reproduction but apparently was a bit confused). I correct and tell him that he can't have a baby, he is adamant that he can and so we have the sperm and egg conversation again. He says "well how does the sperm get there"? Before I can answer him, he comes up with an answer on his own. I know, it goes out my penis, down my leg, out my toe, across the floor, into the girls shoe, up her leg and into her privates, then the baby grows and comes out her belly button. This proclamation created much giggling between the boys and before we knew sperm was finding all sort of creative ways to travel and it babies were being farted out.

They never did get the correct information, they were far to silly by that point to listen to me but I did by them a body book, not a tell all book but a general book, it's good and has 2 pages on how babies grow but not how they get there... cause we all know it's a toe to toe thing.

a thought, a prayer

2009-01-30T09:12:00.003-05:00

Tragically a child died yesterday, he was not a child I was ever lucky enough to know well, I met him once or twice in passing, (he was friends with a dear friends children) but a beautiful young man he was. His name was Nicolas and after a long battle with cancer he died yesterday. A community of children is mourning his death and I hope that wherever you are you could say a prayer for his family and for his friends who are struggling to understand why it is that children have to die.

Blogging

2009-01-28T09:26:00.005-05:00

It's odd this blogging thing. When it started I was in Asia, I was single, I was teaching, I was pretty carefree. Someone on the Knitty boards sent me to Brainylady because she was in Taipei and I was moving there. I thought blogging would be great and so I started. It was a travel blog of sorts with lots of teaching stuff and some ranting about living abroad. Occasionally there was knitting, not so much knitting but some. I started to meet some other bloggers and got involved with some swaps... it was fun since I was overseas and lonely and candy deprived. I discovered that bloggers came and went and that was just the way that it was. I met some people live and in person early on, I have met many more since and others I still only know virtually (that's enough links for me!). Not to mention all the local knitting pals who also blog.

It's hard to explain to people who don't blog what it is like to develop friendships virtually and then have them move into live and person friendships. Early on in the blog thing I found/met MamaCate, she had a friend blogging on her account, that friend lived in Ottawa, that friend wanted to go to Rhinebeck in the fall of 2005 and so did I. I called her, offered her and her daughter a ride and the rest is history. That friend has become one of the nearest and dearest that I have, she and her partner have bought a farm minutes away from ours and I am over the moon excited at the thought of them being that near by.

In a world where so many people live so far away from there families, building friendships that are like family has become very important. It is amazing to me that blogging has led to those relationships in my life. I have struggled lately with the whole blogging thing and talked about it a bit here but I have worked out for myself where the boundaries need to be for me and my family and decided that I am going to stick with it. After all it has led to great friendships and if that is the only reason I do then that is reason enough for me.

look at this

2009-01-27T09:21:00.004-05:00

I'm here again, I think I have my groove back (even if I still don't really have a working K on my keyboard), it just took a awhile to find it and decided where on earth I was taking my blog.

So this morning I rolled myself out of bed at 7:05 ready to go make cookies for P to take to work with him ( he feeds kids cookies every Tuesday) and I walk down the stairs in house where everyone is still sleeping, I love it here in those moments, and the cold hits me like a wall. WTF, it should not be this cold in here. I wander over to the thermostat and it is a whopping 9.5 degrees in my house - lucky us since it is -25 or so outside 9.5 is almost balmy, right. So I start trouble shooting in an attempt to make the heat go on, even though what I really want is a cup of coffee. I changed the batteries, reprogrammed the time after changing the batteries, fiddled with the settings and still no luck! Grrr I really need coffee and I must make cookies. So I paused - breathed and decided there was nothing to do at 7:10, except, perhaps make coffee.

So coffee was brewing, cookies were baking and I came back upstairs to rouse the boys and fill P in on the status of the very cold house. We decided the furnace was indeed broken and that someone would have to be called, so I got the boys going, got the dogs out and started looking for a furnace guy. I like to do business with people we know and so I called last family that the boys lived with because he is a furnace guy, but he doesn't do oil... he knows someone though, can't find his number, he'll call back. It is now almost 8, boys are making a nuisance of themselves because the broken furnace has meant a change in our morning routine, after a change in our evening last night because P had to work late, and thus behaviour is not quite up to the norm, there was much silliness and arguing going on because I left them alone in the kitchen for 4 minutes while I tried to find someone to fix the furnace.

Buddy calls me back with the other Buddies number and I call him, we are a little far for him but given that he doesn't have any other calls today he'll come now. Great except that today is Family Literacy Day and Fudge's teacher asked me to come in and read to his class, so I had to call and reschedule that so I could be home for the furnace guy. Meanwhile the boys are continuing to drive me insane because I dared to do something other then give them my undivided attention. Calvin needs his Zoobat mask from Halloween so he can be his favourite book character for school and it can't be found anywhere. Do children ever learn that telling mom you need something 5 minutes before you need it is not a good plan? And that it most likely will not be found in the time provided.

The boys finally got ready, without the mask, and in Calvin's case almost without a lunch as they are responsible for packing their bags in the morning. I shoved them out the door with P, only to hear later that in the 10 minutes in takes to get to school Fudge hit Calvin and pitched a bit of a fit about not getting to listen to the CD he wanted because it is in my car, not Dad's.

Then I sat down with that coffee I had made earlier and waited for the very nice furnace man. He came, he cleaned an electrode, he charged me 160 bucks and he left. He was a very nice man but it took him 10 minutes and it cost me 160 bucks, all he used was screwdriver and a rag.

Amazing. I think I made the wrong career choice

Remember that you're perfect,

2009-01-26T11:03:00.007-05:00

Remember that you're perfect, God makes no mistakes - Welcome to Wherever You Are by Bon Jovi

As I was looking through adoption blogs this morning I stumbled across one that is written by a girl who has Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD)* and writes a blog about adjusting to her adoptive family and her attempt to be a regular kid. She has one of those music players (I usually find them very annoying) but it was playing Bon Jovi and I could handle that so I left it on and sometimes listening to a song at just the right time makes all the difference.

Welcome to Wherever You Are sort of sums up the last 6 months of my life, well not just mine but ours as a family. Becoming a parent has been a struggle, a struggle that I can't even begin to explain on many levels. However the biggest challenge has been trying to teach Fudge and Calvin that this is the last stop on the train, that no matter what we are the forever family that everyone promised them for so long. That in itself creates issues for the kids and then when you add in the first 7 years of their lives it is no wonder that we are all struggling. But it is a good struggle and every now and then I step back and look at how things are going and gives me hope that we are all going to make it through.

It's hard though, these aren't regular kids and being their parent isn't the same as being the parent of kids who you have raised from birth ( adopted or bio) because so many adults have messed up with these ones. The boys have learned to care only about themselves ( and occasionally one another) because caring about other people means that you are going to be hurt when they leave you or make you leave. And the struggle to teach them to care extends beyond just family but to friends, schoolmates, pets and even possessions. And often what works one day to deal with rage, an argument or tantrum will not work the next - gotta be creative and consistent at all times.

All that being said it is where we are right now and in week we will be a different place and 6 months from now it will be different again. It's a good challenge.

* my kids don't have RAD but I found reading J.'s blogs fascinating, a bit like climbing inside Calvin's head some days and hearing it from his perspective.

me again

2009-01-24T09:48:00.002-05:00

DSCF0232
Originally uploaded by bagknitter

Two things – this is a porcupine in our front yard and the K is not really working on my keyboard so you may notice it missing on occasion!

Things around here have settled into the organized chaos that I think is my life with children. We are getting back into routines after the chaos was that 6 weeks of Christmas (we celebrate twice). My parents came for Christmas 2.0 in January and then stayed for the boys baptism. It was a good visit and Fudge and Calvin really enjoyed having grandparents to spoil them and take them places that I would not normally go.

The rest of our life is busy but good and as I settle into routines, again this is one of the routines that I need to get back into. I was motivated to blog today because I heard some news yesterday from a dear friend and I was thrilled. Nevertheless, since she has not blogged about it yet and it is not my news to share I can’t really say anything. I was hoping perhaps she may have posted about but she hasn’t so I’ll keep my mouth shut for now (I do have a great post in my head about it when I can share it).

There is some knitting going on, a little (very little bit of spinning) some dreaming about the garden, some moving of furniture and reorganizing some spaces and a lot of laundry. It amazes me the amount of laundry that 2 small boys produce!

I’ll take some pictures of the knitting soon and be back.

PS - the boys have been here for 6 months today - amazing huh

fudge and calvin

2008-12-30T14:12:00.001-05:00

fudge and calvin
Originally uploaded by bagknitter

It's been quiet around here, there are a number of reasons for the silence and although I don't feel as though I have to justify the silence on my blog I do want to say that it is because we are busy ( that and I can't seem to access blogger) that things are quiet.

There is a lot going on in our lives that I can't blog about as well, adoption is complex, this is a small county and I frankly I couldn't even begin to explain most of it. Then when I can blog about stuff, like the melted zipper on fudge's coat, christmas fun, solstice, yummy food, good friends, boy antics, knit stockings and the driveway of doom (saturday was dreadful on the driveway) I can't get into blogger to do it. I get frustrated and walk away.

I am going to make an effort though to post about stuff that I can talk about, not because I feel obligated to but because I like blogging, I enjoy the conversations that arise and I like having virtual friends in my living room. IEspecially friends that have moved past the virtual stage and have become very dear to me over the last few years.

So there it is, I'll be aorund some and not around some - I visions of some poetic post about how complex things have become around here and in the end I couldn't make it sound right so I just started typing and it may not be to poetic but it gets the point across.

So where ever you are and whomever your with - May 2009 bring you love, peace and joy.

I am off to buy a new coat for fudge!

halloween

2008-11-14T12:24:00.002-05:00

halloween
Originally uploaded by bagknitter

well I can't seem to blog! sad but true for some reason blooger will no longer play on my home home computer and unless I go through flickr there is no way to tell you anything. I have all these great stories and stuff to share and yet I can't get it out here. Has anyone else had trouble with blogger or is it just poor little old me. I am thinking about switching to typepad... but not sure how to import all the old stuff over there.

Anyway here's a funny for the day! In the car last week P was explaining to the boys that during hunting season it is really important that they stay in the yard right around the house and not going playing in the fields around the house (normally they have free run of the place). So he explains that a hunter may mistake their movements for a deer and shoot them, or they may just be in the wrong place and get hurt - to which Fudge pipes up - yeah but they would say they were sorry!

October 28, 2008 - yes this is today!

2008-10-28T14:19:00.001-04:00

WTF - need I say more!

rhinebeck '08 ( how's that for creative!)

2008-10-23T13:22:00.007-04:00

Before I blather on about my weekend, as a small boy in my house turned 7 recently and I neglected to blog it - mostly because it was a brutal parenting weekend but I have recovered and the grandparents expect at least one picture! This is Fudge at a friends house on his birthday which was also thanksgiving - we were busy! His party is this weekend, so there should be more pictures.
Frankly there is not to much to say about Rhinebeck that hasn't already been said. It was a great weekend and I enjoyed every single moment of it - except the massive crowds on Saturday. There were tons of smiling faces there and I took few pictures but here are some - like 4 because frankly I did not remember to take my camera out of my bag enough and when I did the pictures were less then stellar - so here they are in no particular order
I could save this one for Saturday sky but I won't, Sandy already saw it. I took it on our way to Tivoli to have dinner with a bunch of great ladies and Mr. Celia - we got a little lost due to the beauty of the sky but we got there eventually.

Celia came from CA and this is Keri ( Jeanie designer) at the raverly meet up, I also have pics of Steph and a few other folks but posting bad pics is never nice - so imagine them there - well unless you know them really well and stupid pictures and bad ones are not the same thing at all.We stayed at the Mariott in Poughkepsie, it was quiet there this year but ther were friends to knit with( I know I didn't get you all but that is it for the link fest!). And of course I was there with Sarah and Jo - I have stupid picture collection of Sarah going, I like this one.

Our room didn't have a fridge - we improvised - Canadians with knitting and cold beer ( or in my case coolers)are happy.

stay tuned for birthday parties, boy antics and perhaps some knitting as well

back from Rhinebeck!

2008-10-20T08:29:00.002-04:00

I'm back - there are pictures, there are stories but there is no time - perhaps tomorrow

more antics

2008-10-01T11:06:00.005-04:00

Most days start out really pretty around here, I enjoy the silence while I am the only one awake and the some mornings there is a beautiful sunrise to start my day. But before I know it the boys have to be out the door to make it to the bus. Then it seems as though I never have enough time to get everything done before they come home. Last week I was getting stuff done after school, the boys were outside, I thought they were playing on the hammock - they weren't
They were colouring the deck for me, funny I didn't know that it needed colouring
Then they washed the deck - the tooth brushes were very effective - and all I could find! Red and Blue come off easily but there is still some purple and green out there.

Last weekend we went to Toronto for a wedding, much fun was had by all. We spent lots of time swimming in the hotel pool and had a fun trip to the ROM. The boys also found the subway and streetcars thoroughly entertaining - so exciting in fact that Fudge left his jacket on one!

Tonight I am off to Cub camp with Calvin, nothing like a night outside in 0 degrees to make you love your nice warm house. I have new hand knit socks to wear ( I finished them awhile back but didn't post them) - yipee for socks!

PS - I know where I'll be the 3rd weekend in October and I know some others who will be there too- anyone else coming to play.

aww, ain't that cute

2008-09-23T12:58:00.003-04:00

they built a little snake house, but wait that snake looks awfully realistic (the mom reaches out for the snake) a little screech is heard - it looks real because it is! I know where they found it and as soon as they get home from school the deceased snake ( it was already dead when they found it) will be returning the yard to decompose in piece.

See why I call them Fudge and Calvin!

I must get back to the laundry and tomato's - Good times around here.

newkrainians

2008-09-15T10:49:00.007-04:00

So we were all in the car the other day coming back from church, for some reason we were talking about being Ukrainian, - now lets be clear, I am 1/2 Ukrainian but it is the piece of my family heritage that I identify with most strongly and I am Ukrainian catholic. P is also Ukrainian catholic and so by because we are a family we keep telling the boys that they are Ukrainian to! - okay so back to the story - the youngest, who will now be referred to as Fudge ( from Judy Blumes amazing Fudge books because he is a little bit to much like that curious young lad) pipes into the conversation "well I am not newkrainian!" and we start to tease him a bit, "yes you are, your stuck with it" and he is adamant that he is not, so fine we drop it with him but still continue the conversation, after a little while he come up with "okay I guess that I could be newkrainian" to which P responds" yep just for the first year and then after that you get to Ukrainian like the rest of us. Fudge was a bit lost but we thought it was pretty funny

Smiling boys, now the other boys, who we are going to refer to here as Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes because boy oh boy is he rather Calvin like) decided that it would be appropriate to give himself a hair cut at school on Friday - after I got over the - you did what moment! - I calmly responded with, "I 'll have to take a picture of that for my blog!" I wonder how obvious it will be by picture day in 2 weeks.

The lost wallet has appeared, given the shape that it is in I imagine that it ended up in a dumpster some where and then was found and dropped in a mail box. All of the cards that are easy to steal were gone but the thief wasn't to smart - they left my birth cert. and SIN card in the wallet along with the movie tickets certificate and all my teaching cards. So although it has been a tad inconvenient I do have my wallet back, although it is rather bruised but I will happily use it again until it actually falls apart and now I have less things to replace, I am left wondering why they left the cards that they did and not my aeroplan card or the boys health cards... I think it was just a lack of higher brain capacity, a smart thief would of stolen the things they could steal my idenity with.

And finally I got a great new toy this week, I was recently genrously rewarded for some volunteer time that I spent working a camp earlier this summer and so with the gift card and some of our hard earned pennies I bought this, and it took the pictures in this post, I am loving it!

this is my life

2008-09-09T09:13:00.008-04:00

get up ( in the dark!)
breakfast
lunches
school bus
can/dry/freeze veggies
feed myself
more veggies (see previous veggies)
pick up boys
veggies
dinner
reading
bed for boys
veggies
feed dogs
sleep
repeat
But it's a great one, my life I mean but man it's busy. So this is yesterdays haul from the garden ( not including the apples) and I have been canning and drying apples and making apple sauce. I made the fatal error of not picking zucchini for a few days, now we have zucchini big enough to use as baseball bats - lucky us!

We are drawing to a close on the garden season and I must say that as much as I love all the food in the winter I am ready to be finished with the canning for this year. Tragically the tomatoes have not done as well as I would have liked and so I have to make sauce because most of the tomatoes are cherry ones.

On another note I have discovered that losing ones wallet is a huge inconvenience, well I lost it but I know where I lost it and when I lost it but it is what the person who found it did with it that is causing the inconvenience because the person who found it did not bother to try and find me or leave it in a place where I could go and retrieve it but instead decided to take the money ( 12 bucks or so) and run - lucky me.

So that's it, not to much else to say, I am hoping to make it to knitting on Thursday afternoon and perhaps I could take photos of some of the other things in my world beside just the veggies, but maybe not.

Since it is the first day of school

2008-09-02T08:59:00.010-04:00

I had these grand plans for this fabulous blog post all about the fun summer that the boys and I have had - days at friends cottages, fishing, tubing, rock climbing, ping pong, swimming, boating, s'mores for the first time, adoption parties, apple picking and generally just having a great time learning to be a family. I came to the coffee shop, got settled and hooked up to the high speed, plugged in my memory card and found this

and this

oh and this one too

Sad but true, the boys played with the camera on Sunday, they did ask first and some how managed to erase the 2 weeks of pictures that were there - luckily I downloaded a bunch of them earlier in the summer or else we would of had none! So there are no fun apple picking ( although we will do that again), rock climbing or adoption party photos - there are the ones that I had taken in the first 2 weeks, so for your amusement, (in no particular order) a collection of summer memories.

And just in case you thought that this was a knitting blog, here is a hat, one of only 2 things I managed to finish this summer. There is a sweater, a tomten jacket and summer slip socks on the needles at the moment. I am looking very forward to knitting on weekday afternoons now that the boys are at school.

I am exhausted

2008-08-14T08:04:00.003-04:00

as all new parents are and I imagine should be.

As tired as I am things are going well, the boys are great, summer is fun and we are all learning all sorts of great new things - kleenex shredded into the fan is not a good idea, watching Nim's Island on a crazy busy day is a good idea, trying to ride the puppy is not a good idea but turning bunkbeds into tents was a great one. It's a learning curve for all 4 of us but it's all good

I have pictures of boys, veggies and knitting and I will get to posting them eventually but not today. Just wanted to say hi as I know that some people have been checking for news here.

2 feet

2008-07-26T08:18:00.003-04:00

I'm a jump in with 2 feet kinda girl and I always hope that the whatever I'm jumping into is going to work out in the end. It may not be the best way but it is my way.

We have been "with boys" for 2 days and we are all still here. Things are going well - I am not going to say it's easy but it's good. In this case jumping in with both feet was a good thing, I could not imagine separating the boys, they are far to close to even imagine what that would be like. Jumping in with 2 feet has also proved successful in another case, a time when I took a big step but good one and the other part of that big step is celebrating his birthday today.

So Happy Birthday to my favourite pirate P. - hope it's the best one yet.

The day of J.

2008-07-18T12:33:00.006-04:00

The day of J has drawn to a close for another year - it was good day, P and I went to a friends cottage with the boys for the day. We arrived home exhausted but happy. Before I retired for the night I managed to block Jeanie which I finished at knitting on Wednesday night. Here she is in all her glory - I didn't use sock yarn, instead I used Hacho by Mirasol Yarn and decreased the center repeats to 6 ( I think)

And as promised some pictures of the last week with the boys - sadly the camera didn't make it out yesterday but there was much fun had, these are from earlier in the week.

walking along the river
looking for and finding frogs!
at the splash pad
having a great time!
I am off to see if I can rent Kung Fu Panda... do I need to tell that it wasn't my idea.

what's in a name

2008-07-12T08:24:00.005-04:00

Earlier this week one of the social workers came over to talk about the boys and to have us sign some paper work. One of the things that she asked us about was names - what would be changing their last names to and did we want to change any of their other names ( they each have 3). I was sort of shocked because the boys are 6 and 8 - old enough to know all of their names and know that their birth mom named them. I hadn't ever even considered changing anything about their names unless the children wanted to. One of the boys has the same middle name as P and that is kinda neat but I really would ever think of changing anything else - I even feel a little odd about changing their last names but a family with all those different last names would be a challenge

As a result I have been thinking about what a name means and our attachment or lack of attachment to a name. I have 2 names that I love but I know lots of people who could take or leave the name that their parents gave them - some people do. But I can't imagine if my name were any different, I didn't change my last name when I got married either and I do wonder how the boys will feel when they are older about their names? How does a name effect your self of identity or belonging? These boys have had a rough couple of years but does their name still provide a sense of belonging to their birthmom?

Of course I don't have any answers but lots of questions! But to move on...

So it happened, we met the boys and it was great. They are fabulous small people, things where tense at first with the adults ( us, foster mom and social worker doing all the talking) but then P pulled out his cell phone to add a birthday in and that was it, they were won over by the technology and the rest of the visit went pretty well. We left on a good note with a request for us to bring a game next time and we will see them again tomorrow and then every other day this week. Transitioning is an interesting process - I would of assumed that it there was a bit of a standard procedure but there isn't so the foster mom and I worked out what we thought looked reasonable and now that they know we aren't monsters with 4 heads (no comments from the peanut gallery) I think that things will go well. I know how nervous and stressed I am about the whole thing I can't even begin to imagine how they feel - especially since they have moves so many times already.

So my world revolves around the boys at the moment but in between the moments there are other things, like gardening and knitting - yes knitting! But I don't have any pictures of my knitting, although I am almost finished Jeanie - like about an hour from being finished. Instead I offer you a HUGE potato from the garden, My hands are not very big but the potato was tough to hold, as you can see and I was impressed. Jove and I have picked a some already and I was forced to pick a few more last night because the puppy decided that she should have a nap in a nice shady spot, on the onions and under the potato plants - luckily for the puppy it was only one plant.

Done - now with pictures

2008-06-22T18:23:00.003-04:00

Done it is all done! The homestudy was signed off on Friday, they think that we are sane enough to be parents ( tee hee, us sane!) and we met with the boys foster parents to set up a transition schedule, they will be moving in at the end of July - very exciting. In order to get the home study finished I have been running around getting things done and they are all done! Yippee for us.

Pillows have been made, every house needs yarn themed pillow cases.

The boys room is finished - it was a lot of work
Quilt covers are sewn
A TV room was created
The carpet has been removed and the stairs painted

The yarn storage facility is finally all organised - some of the grey drawers have been replaced with bins with lids though - no moths are welcome here.
The front flower bed has all these great plants that attract butterflies, this one lingered for quite awhile yesterday
This is Bella, looking like an old man, she does it well. She is so the 4th - there are almost no pictures of her
Oh and the garden is finally all in, most of it has been in for awhile but yesterday and today I got the last 2 beds planted. I love eating from our garden, we have lettuce and spinach at the moment with lots of other great things just around the corner.

Okay that's all I have for you today, no knitting around here at all for quite some time although I am hoping to get Jeanie finished sooner rather then later and there are some socks that are on the go and some that are finished and waiting for fall to arrive. I'll save that for another post though

I thought I might never know....

2008-06-09T21:19:00.005-04:00

A number of years ago before my Gramms died she told me one day that she was in love, it was another love for her as my grandfather had died a number of years before and she had met another man. I very clearly remember her saying " I never thought that I would feel this way again", she never ever thought that she would really love another man again in her lifetime. I remember listening to her and wondering if I would ever feel that way - I mean here I was in university with boyfriends and such but no one who I thought was the one person I could be with for the rest of my life, I wondered if I would ever know what it was like to love someone like that - would I ever really know or was I destined to jump from one relationship to another wondering if this person was the one.

Little did I know at the time that person I would fall in love with was already there, already loving me. Two years ago today I married that man, the man who courted me from a distance, afraid that I might choose another over him. No other man was to be chosen, because he is the one for me. A happier woman I could not be today, why, because I married a man who loves me to the moon and back - what more could I ask for.

shhh don't tell

2008-06-07T20:23:00.003-04:00

The silence around here is ending but I would not be surprised if it is replaced a new silence - but a good one.

How's that for cryptic.

In the fall P and I started the process of becoming foster parents - we thought that we would be good at it and in Ontario it is the same process as adopting, that is to say a long one that involves a complete home study and a list as long as my arm of things that had to be done to our house to make it "safe" ( like installing child proof locks on the cupboard where the cleaning supplies are kept - which I did the other day and then proudly announced to P that it was " done" only to find that the key to open it (a magnet) was inside the cupboard!)

So we did all those things and a few weeks ago the social worker came back and mentioned that the 2 boys she had in mind to live here had become crown wards and needed to be adopted, would we be interested in adopting instead. After much thought and a lot of talking we decided that we would be and so if things go according to plan we will parents in July. There are still lots of hoops to jump through and nothing is for sure yet but we are hopeful that this is going to work out. We won't know for sure till all the i's are dotted and the t's crossed but so far everything looks good.

I'll keep you posted but in the mean time I have rooms to paint, curtains to sew and gardens to weed. No shortage of work to do around here, luckily for me I have great friends who are helping out when I am panicking - thanks to help from JoVE and company the garden( which is also partially their garden) is now in in and weeded - one less thing to worry about for now, till the weeds decide to grow some more.

all in all it's good - really good. I am off to enjoy the last of beautiful day, summer is finally here.

off by 3

2008-05-27T09:17:00.003-04:00

I am off by 3 days, I am now 3 days into my 5th year of this blog - amazing! I started blogging because I was travelling and I am blown away by all the fabulous folks that I have met and become friends with as a result. I won't bother with a link fest because you know who you are and I don't have the time.

Things continue to be busy - I am home, gardening, knitting and working to finally get this house finished. I have pictures from my trip but I'm at home and we all know how much dial-up likes pictures. I must go teach some little angels how to be better angels so this is all there is for today... here's to 4 years blogging, great friends and hopefully more years as well..

still here,

2008-05-15T00:51:00.003-04:00

well not there but here and there instead.
There have been walks

trips to the beach

airplane rides

fresh seafood - yeah for markets

and my beloved ocean - there is something about the pacific that makes me happy

All is well, life is good and I am on my way to visit my parents next. I'll be home next week and now that life will be a little calmer ( less dogs and more gardening) I will update you on life, knitting and some of the other things that have happened on my trip - like lunch with other bloggers.

Have a heart update

2008-04-22T13:45:00.003-04:00

Today is Larissa's 20th birthday, and the beginning of a new chapter in her life - this morning at 1am she went into surgery to receive her new heart. As of 7am her heart was pumping on it's own and she is now doing well in the icu. She still has a long road ahead of her - so say a pray, cross your fingers, do whatever it is that you do - she needs all the help that she can get now. While you are at it please remember the family who lost a son this week, for Larissa to live someone else had to die and as hard as that is I am so grateful that they decided to help another person live by donating his organs.

PS - there are pictures of Larissa and the blanket, but they are on her camera, not mine - it'll have to wait. I never did get around to thanking and linking to each fabulous person who contributed 1, 5 or 12 squares - know that I thank you and so does Larissa.

the last one

2008-04-18T16:10:00.004-04:00

This is their last picture, after a trip to the vet yesterday the first one left last night and the rest will go through out the weekend... except for 2, Phoebe is staying until her family moves at the end of April and Bella is staying forever - I know, I know another dog, don't start. I love her, I bottle fed her, I can't let her go and besides once you have 3 what's one more.

Life is busy, lots to do inside and outside and things in our world are changing - not things I can really talk about now ( no I am not pregnant and everyone is fine) as time goes on and they all sort themselves out and then I will talk about them. Until then my presence will continue to be sporadic and some what vague - sorry.

But, on the good news front, I get to go west next month, first to sunny San Fransisco to play with my sister and then home to play with the rest of the family for a few days, this year P is coming for the Victoria part too! I'm looking forward to playing with my siblings munchkins, it's been a year and they tend to get so much bigger in a year.

sprung

2008-04-06T08:44:00.002-04:00

Spring
has
sprung here!
and the puppies are busy being cute...

WHACK!

2008-04-04T11:09:00.002-04:00

That would be the sound of me being knocked on my butt by strep - after a week of being ill I finally went to the Dr. she told me it was a virus, I asked her to humour me and check for other things - lo and behold it is strep, she called me yesterday and called in a prescription, hopefully I will be better once the antibiotics start to work.

I wanted to take some pictures of the bits of colour emerging in our front garden but is is freakin SNOWING today and although the purple, green and white may be a neat picture I just can not bring myself to do it - enough with the snow already.

The puppies are good, getting big - they have there own blog now, it will only exist till they are all sold but there is more puppy cuteness there. There has been little knitting or anything else for that matter, sleep and puppy care are about all that has been happening here.

where did March go

2008-03-25T19:08:00.003-04:00

I am not sure where this month has gone but it's almost finished and it seems as though it has barely begun. So well I try to decide where the month has gone and cast on the second front on my garter stitch jacket ( that isn't garter stitch) let me amuse you with more puppy pictures. Speaking of which, if you live in the area and know someone who might want a puppy leave me a comment (we are selling them but really just to cover our costs) and I will forward all the relevant info along.

going, going

gone

show me some love

comfy?

In no particular order

2008-03-16T10:02:00.003-04:00

We still can't get to the mailbox, and this is after a few days of melting!

More puppy pictures, I had vision of taking pictures of my knitting with the puppies and then decided against it, to messy!

Our eyes are open and we can see and hear now too.

We have had to move to 2 food bowls, some feel the need to sit in their food while others prefer to just eat.

How cute is that, even if it is a littel blurry. I need to play wiht my camera settings, most things are blurry and I am not sure what to do - perhaps I should read the book that comes with the camera.

broken

2008-03-11T17:47:00.003-04:00

My direct line to Mother Nature seems to be broken, if yours is working can please let her know that I can handle the additional snow we will get tonight but the wind has got to stop. If it must blow for some reason could it please blow in the same direction that it was on Sunday because at this moment all the snow that drifted to the south side of the house is drifting north back across the yard and landing in the narrow path that I managed to dig causing a great deal of extra work for me. Yes, yes I understand that we can't go around making demands every day about the weather but seriously folks, I think I might just stay inside until the snow melts, floods my cellar and forces me out to make sure that the pump is working so that we don't float away.

PS The snow bank at the foot of the driveway of doom is bigger than I am, by a lot and shovelling out our mailbox was a waste of time because there is not way I have enough muscle to move a snow bank that high.

now with pictures.

2008-03-11T08:11:00.004-04:00

As you can see we had a little snow this weekend. It took hours to make a path from the house to the cars, that is after we found a way out of the house. When I got up on Sunday morning I could not open the front door or the back door which we never ever use. The screen where frozen in the windows and so I couldn't climb out that way either. P. had to go out the cellar door and walk all the way around the house to shovel the snow from the the front door so we could out.

The tire swing is hiding, there was more snow here but it drifted a lot overnight and most of it ended up in the fields.
There is a truck and a stone wall under there somewhere... the snow pile on the other side is higher then the white shed ( for those of you who know where the white shed is).

Ignore the ugly paneling that still lives in this room and look at the snow against the window - there is a little roof about 2 feet below that window. While I was trapped in the house for 3 days I got some knitting done. I have finished the back of the garter stitch jacket which is really not garter stitch at all - at least not according the pattern I have. Then I picked up a friends sweater to do some mending, it is a fav. or hers and I thought it wouldn't be to hard. 5 hours later it is fixed, there were lots of holes and the cuffs had to be cut off and reknit because of the holes in them. It was a big job and all day I kept saying that it was a good thing that I love her because otherwise I would of said, too bad, so sad for you. Now I seem to be developing a cold, a cold on the week that a friend (the sweater friend) is coming to play and don't have to work at all.

And because they are so cute a puppy picture, their eyes are open and they are becoming very roly poly - it's fun to watch them change so fast. They have tripled in size in 2 weeks.

snowed in

2008-03-10T13:02:00.002-04:00

It's 6:49 and we are still snowed in. We knew this would happen but we were not expecting it to be this long. Our snow plow guy has had a few very bad days and a truck that is not so interested in behaving. He promised he would be here today, he has 5 hours and 10 minutes. I have pictures but as usual blogger doesn't want to play with me today, I'll try again tomorrow

Snow Day V 8

2008-03-06T17:23:00.002-05:00

I believe that yesterday was the 8th snow day that our local school board had, it really was a snow day and we were snowed in until after 9 pm. Luckily for me though Tara is not afraid of a long walk up the driveway of doom and she arrived on my doorstep last night in time for some dinner. It was lovely to see her, we ate, playted with puppies and even knit a little. If you need puppy fix go to her blog, she has lots of good pictures and since she posted them I am not going to post more of the same picture.

I am looking forward to a weekend trapped in my house with a good book and some wool. I think that when the next storm rolls in I won't be going anywhere for awhile. That's all I have for you today... well except for the fact that the puppies started opening their eyes this afternoon. They are getting cuter.

moving along

2008-03-02T09:24:00.003-05:00

Jeanie is 1/2 finished, I have hit a bit of a snag but I am sure I will get the groove of it back shortly.

The garter stitch jacket is about to be cast on, I am hoping I can plow through it in order to wear it sooner rather than later.
Our Have a Heart Afghan is nearly complete but Larissa has MRSA and I am not sure that I will be allowed to give it to her... I need to talk to her mom first, it may have to wait until she tests negative and is no longer in isolation.

FYI - I thought puppy pictures were cuter than my 1/2 finished knitting. Some people were wondering what breed they are - Mama is Rottweiler/Doberman and Papa is Bull Mastiff Rottweiler but they all look like bull mastiffs

dancing

2008-02-27T17:06:00.004-05:00

I have spent my day dancing with puppies because one only weighs 8.5 oz and I want to insure that she doesn't get squished to death by her siblings who weigh a pound! I will eat, sleep and breath puppies for the next 10 days or so until they are big enough to fend for themselves. I don't think there will be much knitting but I can promise you lots of puppy pictures.

they have arrived...

2008-02-26T11:06:00.003-05:00

10 puppies on the 25th, that makes Sarah and Britt the winners. I'll work out prizes and such at some point. I'm tired, so is Chudder so that is all you get for today.

They are still there

2008-02-22T18:18:00.005-05:00

You may want to get in on the action if you haven't yet joined the puppy pool... she is still pregnant and I just came back from the vet. Only one of you is remotely close to the number of puppies that may be in there, I have a rough idea but those little guys are hard to count on an x-ray. I am hoping for everyones sake that she has them this weekend but she doesn't seem to interested in my wants or needs. It's been a LONG day and I am off to chill for a little while with The Amber Spyglass, I'm loving it!

contest continues

2008-02-18T09:05:00.003-05:00

I didn't think anyone would actually figure it out, I mean really 8 pieces of wood on a bedroom floor could be just about anything unles of course you have built a similar thing before. And for some reason blogger won't let me post a finished picture so I can't even have you continue to guess what it may be... so instead, if I may, a new contest.

The Puppy Pool - yes we are expecting pupies. We have a very pregnant dog ( the big black one) and she is expected to have puppies sometime in the next 10 days or so, we really don't know when but she is very pregnant!

If you want to play along leave a comment with the date that you think the puppies will arrive and how many puppies you think there will be. There will be 2 prizes one for the date and one for the number of puppies. In the event of a tie I will randomly draw a name for each prize. You can enter until they arrive, the puppies that is. But I honestly can't give you a better timeline then sometime in the next 10 days... it may even be 12 days if my math is really off.

Prizes will be similar to those described in the last post and will be sent out after puppies have arrived and my life calms down a bit.

PS You will see the finished whelping box when blogger feels like playing nicely again.

creating a contest

2008-02-16T08:55:00.003-05:00

It's not knitting but it has to be done. I haven't finished it yet, it needs to be assembled and a tarp needs to be added. If you can figure out what I am building (and I haven't phoned you looking for one) leave me a comment and the first person to guess correctly will get a skien of sock yarn... or some other fibery goodness in the mail. Unless of course you are not a knitter and then I will send you something else that you will love.

There are some clues here, in the description and the picture, well sort of, let's just say that this room is usually full of stuff.

one word, (well not really)

2008-02-11T12:48:00.000-05:00

Dyed

Seaming

Transferring

Knitting

Things are happening, life is busy, my head is down and I am trying to get this blanket finished, I am still waiting for some squares to arrive in the mail and when I am done a proper thanks to all those who have helped out. While I knit the blankets border I am finally adding my CD's to my computer (909, 2.4 days of music) because P bought me a shuffle. He has a 8g Ipod and so I decided I didn't really need one as well, but I had been eyeing these cute shuffles and so he brought one home last week - what a sweet boy. Seams are calling, gotta go

blue

2008-02-04T13:47:00.000-05:00

my hands that is, I have been dying wool this morning and I was to lazy to find some gloves. The wool is from the garter stitch jacket, I have wanted one for awhile but my LYS never had the colours I wanted and then I got a gift card for Christmas for the LYS. So I bought a white one kit and dyed it with wiltons food colouring. I am rather happy with the results but the camera is MIA, when I find you can see what I did. I have also been tidying and doing laundry. I think that perhaps laundry should happen without any human intervention, just put the stuff in the washer and it could come out washed dried and folded - maybe someone could get on that.

Have a Heart Blanket Update

I have lots squares, thanks everyone (if you still have one email me and we will arrange a pick up) and now comes the task of putting the thing together. I went out last Friday night (in a huge storm) and met up with a bunch of great women (she has pictures) to start seaming. It was a good time but we still are not finished and I really want to give it to her next week... so if you are free this Friday night (feb 8) I will be at the Bridgehead at Carolina and Wellington again at 7:00 pm. I still have 2 pattern books and some sock yarn to give away as thank you's - so come out and help and you may go home with a treat.

Hope to see some of you local folks there, I am off to fold laundry - good times

Cats! (and other random things)

2008-01-30T15:41:00.001-05:00

The cats are up to their usual cat like antics! They both enjoy laying in the bathtub, under the tub, on the edge of the tub, you get the picture. Both yesterday and today they decided that they should leap into the tub as soon as they see a person get out, sadly, although the person may be out of the water is not - my kitties don't like water. Why they both did the same thing 2 mornings in a row is a bit of a mystery to me though. They have also discovered that it is a great deal of fun to unroll the toilet paper, even more fun when there is a brand new roll. THe Bathroom door is now closed.

The heart blanket is coming along, I have a large pile of squares on my dining room table along with needles and some treats (yarn and books) to share with people who come out to help seam on Friday night. Details - Friday Feb 1, First Friday Knit Nite at the Bridgehead (Carolina and Wellington), around 7. I am shamelessly taking over and enlisting people to help sew together squares - beside I am giving away free stuff, yo know you wanna come and help. If you still have a square drop me a line and we will work out a pick up/drop off. I got some squares in the mail today, very exciting.

I have spent my free time this week working on this - it was dead easy and I love the way that it looks. There was an old trunk in the summer kitchen, we hauled it out this summer and cleaned it off. Then it sat for 6 months while I got organised. P and I put together pictures from our families ( plus 2 that the person who grew up on this farm gave us), I colour copied them, glued them down, applied numerous coats of Shellac and ta da a coffee table that has heaps of storage! I really like it and given the age of our house it fits in well.

distractions

2008-01-25T11:32:00.000-05:00

I can hear you, but where are you?

123 on Eeyore, come out, come out where ever you are

Fine then, I don't want to play with you anymore!

Here I am, let's play again, again

( this was an even better picture before they decided to stop playing!)

This rather amusing event unfolded last night while I was on the telephone in the office, I missed all the best pictures though while I waited for my flash to recharge. But it was fun to watch.

Hearts

2008-01-21T15:47:00.000-05:00

I have squares from a variety of great blogger friends, some from fabulous blogless friends and more promised or on their way - yes the last one is coming from Africa!

As I type they are blocking on the bed in the guest room, well the 26 or so that I have already are blocking... so they will all be close to the same size.

Larissa is doing really well, they took her off the ventilator late last week and most of her chest tubes have been removed, she is slowly getting better and used to the bionic heart that she has at the moment. I have managed to keep this littel project a secret so far and I'm looking very forward to surprising her and her mom with this blanket. Thanks again for all your help, knitters are amazing.

If you still want to knit a square there is still time whether you are here or elsewhere, the more the merrier as far as I am concerned. If you are local and free on Feb. 1 some of us are getting together to knit at the Bridgehead on Carolina and Wellington, I'll be there with squares, yarn and needles to start seaming, anyone who helps out gets a chance to win some free yarn ... who doesn't need free yarn! More details later and on the Yahoo group site as well.

Yesterday

2008-01-17T08:13:00.000-05:00

Yesterday while I was taking down out Christmas stuff, my childhood arrived in my front yard. It looked like this and a nice man in a big truck managed to get it as close to my front door as possible with the snow and such.

My parents decided that since I am an "adult" (ha ha ha) and have a house that it was time for my stuff to no longer be in there shed... so it was packed and shipped across the country and arrived with only one or two dents, I thought that I might amuse you with a few pictures although some of the best stuff was found once the camera had been put away, well not awaybut out of my reach. There are some stunning barbie clothes that think were my sisters before they were mine and a variety of very essays full of teen angst - oh being 15 was so tragic! There is some of my grandmothers things that I had wanted and some that I did not know existed as well as a few treats.

As a child a enjoyed (was obsessed with) Annie, I had Annie everything and I must say that since it is the best movie of all time my obsession was completely normal. My mom found this plate somewhere... and decided I needed it. It goes very well with the life size Annie doll, her wardrobe ( all the outfits from the movie) and my Annie dress from when I was 6.
The was also a very well loved (read broken)Fisher Price Sesame street playhouse,
I remember being rather hard on it and I also remember taking it
apart, some of the pieces are missing and so are some of the screws but I love the old FP stuff and had I know when I was little what it was worth now I wouldn't of taken it apart.

It's funny how when we are little things seem s so BIG, this painting was done by my grandfather and it is only about 11x14 but I remember it being sooooo big as a kid, there was one of each of us and they hung in the stairwell, I was shocked at how small it is.

To go with the art, toys and furniture there was some clothes. I think I come by my knitting addiction honestly, the dress and cape in the back are crotched (by my mom?) but my mom knit the dress and my grandma the cardigan. There is also a pink poncho, I thought I was so cool when I wore it.

Tomorrow ( or soon) I will show off the squares I have for Larissa's Heart blanket, I received some at knitting last night and had promises of more. Thanks to everyone who is working on/has finished one or more, I really appreciate the help and I know the blanket will be appreciated as well.

Have a Heart?

2008-01-15T13:41:00.001-05:00

I am still looking for some more heart squares ( see last post for details), I have about 15 promised and could use that many again.

If your local and at knit nite tomorrow I will hit you up in person... you've been warned. I stole the picture from Kimberli's blog, it seemed to fit.

Have a heart?

2008-01-09T17:39:00.000-05:00

Two posts in one day, i think that is a first for me!

I know that we are constantly being asked to knit for a good cause and that plenty of bloggers put out requests for us to knit things for charity. I have in the past jumped on other bandwagons and got out my needles but this time I have my own wagon to stand on and I am hoping that some of you can help me.

Larissa is 19, I used to teach her Sunday school, she was mischievous ( to say the very least) but I loved her spunk and admired her spirit. She has moved in an out of my peripheral vision over the years as I have come and gone from the church that her Mom goes to. About 6 months she got sick, then she got sicker and to make a long story very short she is now waiting (desperately!) for a heart transplant. She went into the hospital just before Christmas in critical condition, so critical in fact that they had to take her off the transplant list because she could not survived a transplant.

She has undergone a number of surgeries and is now being kept alive with an LVAD, (read about it here - yes the same thing Denny had on Grey’s anatomy. They brought her out of sedation yesterday and she is doing well. As long as they can find her a heart quickly she will survive (I waited to post this until I was reasonably sure that she was going to make it through this tough patch).

So while she is waiting I thought that I (with some help) might entertain her with a heart blanket for Valentines Day… so wanna help, please

Knit a square that measures 5 inches by 5 inches with a heart in somewhere, however you want to put a heart (big or small) in the square is up to you. Be creative, use up your scraps or whatever you want. I would prefer (for ease of seaming) if they were DK or Aran weight but I am pretty flexible.

I need the squares by Feb 7 and if email me bagknitter(at) yahoo(dot)ca I will arrange to pick them up (locally) or tell you where to mail them.

Thanks so much in advance, I am a big believer in the power of positive thinking and hope that I (we) can help Larissa with the very long road that is ahead of her - her and her family.

catch up

2008-01-09T11:49:00.001-05:00

Much has happened here in the last week both and out of the house. I finally have a little time to come up for air, well there has been air throughout but no moments to sit down at the computer for enough time to actually do anything other than a quick email check.

A few of my friends from away came for New Years, much fun was had and some alcohol was involved. We were quite sober though when we buried J in the snow and then M jumped on her, nothing like a good play in the snow! I took them back to Toronto last week and we went to see We Will Rock You - it was really good, awesome in fact. If you get the chance to go I would definitely recommend it.

The next day I made a "quick" (sort of) trip to Romni and stopped by Purple Purl but it was closed, sad but true. Then I got in the car and headed home, exactly 24 hours after I left.

I came home and started cooking and I cooked for 2.5 days so that we could have Christmas on Jan. 6 - Ukrainians are lucky that way. It was great night and I must say the food was fabulous and completely gluten free, a bit of a challenge when cooking Ukrainian food. Wait it there was one dish that I couldn't eat, P is throwing Kutia on the ceiling in this picture, since the main ingredient is wheat kernels I am not sure that I could find a reasonable substitute.

Monday was my last day off - well technically I am off today too but that always happen in supply teacher land - random days of not working especially just after a school holiday.

Stayed tune for pictures of my green, green front yard and the river that is running through the driveway of doom due to a very rapid Jan. thaw that means P has to get up in the middle of the night to turn the sump pump so the cellar doesn't flood!

conspiracy

2008-01-04T19:48:00.000-05:00

blogger hates me ( yes I know that I say that a lot), I am not sure where the pictures have gone, they were there when I posted and now they are gone. I won't have time this weekend to do anything about it so y'all just have to wait. Till Monday or so to here about all the fun stuff that went on this week and see the rest of the pictures

more mexico

2007-12-31T11:11:00.000-05:00

*edited to put the pictures back!

I can't seem to upload pictures from home any other way than 4 at a time from Picasa and I have not made it to the coffeeshop in town or in the city so this is all you get for today. I am off to make maple custard with blackberry sauce as we have 4 friends coming for dinner - 2 from far and wide who I don't get to see very often.

look closely and you and you'll see him

What's not to love about this picture - he didn't buy it though

It's very hard to take whale pictures from a sail boat when you are seasick, they were huge! but that is hard to show you in a photo.

Happy New Year from our house to yours

mexico

2007-12-28T12:45:00.001-05:00

Okay, here's as many as the dial up connection will allow at the moment - more to follow with words too!

I'm back

2007-12-28T09:40:00.001-05:00

Well I am back from Mexico, rested and relaxed. It was a good week except for when P fell out of the kayak and broke his foot and when I spent the whale watching trip seasick - aside from that it was a really good time. I have lots of great photos and such but that requires soemthing other than dial up - so you'll have to wait.
Merry Christmas from the snowy end of the world.

snow day v.3.0

2007-12-16T16:09:00.000-05:00

This would be my 3rd snow day this winter and winter hasn't even actually started yet!But that's okay, I am sad that we had to cancel our dinner plans but aside from that we did not have anything major to do as we knew the storm was coming and I ran most of the trip errands earlier this week. P and I spent the day in the safety of the house, the driveway of doom is not to be messed with on a day like today, especially when you try to open the front door to this - at that is after I had already shovelled, twice! That being said we have enjoyed our snow day, we played cribbage and Keesdrow - a very fun game that I got as a gift yesterday(if you like scrabble you'll enjoy this)

So just to amuse you and show you how much snow we really have gotten I have a photo from a few weeks ago, nice snow, nice tire swing, our falling down fence...

This the same tree today, the angle is a little different because I didn't feel like walking across the yard but the tire swing is almost covered and it's usually about 12 inches off the ground!
I also thought that by venturing outside I could take a picture of my Jeanie progress but it was a bit of a challenge, the snow is falling to fast to take a reasonable picture

I came back in to take a better photo of the cables, I am not very far, row 25 or so but I am really liking it. Alright I am off to find food and shovel some more, I think I will be shovelling for a long time!

PS I am very happy that it is snowing today and not on Tuesday, I would be very sad if that was the case.

we pause

2007-12-12T17:40:00.000-05:00

for a moment so I can frog row number one, when casting on Jeanie, it is always helpful to start with row number 1 rather than 2. First 1 then 2, I need to keep saying it so I don't do it again!

Christmas in the air

2007-12-11T12:31:00.000-05:00

So I had this great post planned with all these random photos and blogger will only upload this one, so one it is. We put up our tree on Friday night, it's wider than it is tall, it brings Charlie Brown tree to a whole new level, but once we got the ornaments on it looked a little better, yes only a little.

We had out annual Christmas perogie/tree cutting party on Saturday, it was loud and messy, exactly what a big party should be, successful to say the very least. The kids really enjoyed the undisturbed snow, once they discovered the side of the yard that the dogs don't visit. They built a great fort and once the snow melts I will have some sticks to clean up.

This week brought shopping for the Christmas hampers, shopping for other people is always fun and some shopping for our trip. We are off to Mexico on Tuesday and I needed a new bathing suit, bathing suit shopping is not a task that I enjoy, I enjoy it even less in December when the stores are packed with shoppers who act as though they are the only people in the world that matter. After much humming and hawing I found a suit that I could actually wear in public that did not coast an arm and a leg and so I bought it. The only problem is the plastic beads that adorn the straps. Why on earth do they feel the need to add cheap plastic beads to an otherwise functional bathing suit - I think the beads and my hammer need to meet in close proximity to one another before the suit gets packed. I also got the lucky job of trying to find a pair of sport sandals for P, he has size 13 feet, we live in the land of ice and snow, it took 5 stores and then I hit the jackpot, there are stores that leave there sandals out past August it just takes some effort to locate them.

Oh look, I am allowed to upload another picture now but only one more, it's a conspiracy I tell you! Here is P's finished hat, in black and white to hide the fact that it is a very blurry photos. I can't link to the pattern because It's from Spin Off, Fall 2007, it was a super quick knit and it is nice and cozy - at least that is what he tells me.

Alright I am off to do the very last of my holiday shopping, I just need one more thing!

safe

2007-12-06T08:25:00.001-05:00

The driveway has been plowed - twice and is now safe for cars to use, we have a lot of snow here, I hope that this doens't keep up all winter!

The driveway is so safe that yesterday when I dropped my wallet in front of our mailbox (at the end of our drive) it was till there 4 hours later when we came home... some panic was involved when I discovered it missing but all is well now.

The new Knitty is up and I am itching to cast on for Jeanie, I saw it at Rhinbeck and I really, really need it. Perhaps it will be my Mexico knitting - we are leaving in 12 sleeps! I also finished a hat for P (watchman's cap using the ringwood stitch pattern, inspired by a hat in Spin Off), it is the same wool as my Coronet but in black, he likes and when we are both home in daylight I will take a picture.

My perogies are made, there are a few hundred in the freezer - with and without gluten and I am off to make meringues - yummy