Thursday, February 27, 2014

A free moment

I know I just posted last night, but the timing of my morning has been such that I have time and leisure to write more again today.  The hot water in our house has been a brownish-orange colour for a while so I called our property managers about it.  This morning it is being replaced :)  Great thing about renting through a property management company!  Since I got distracted in the girls' room yesterday in my cleaning I didn't wash the floors, so when I got home from dropping boys off at school and Girlie off at preschool I started getting the floors ready for scrubbing.  Before I filled the bucket, though, the utility van pulled up and he turned the water off.  So I'll be doing dishes and floors later today,  and instead I am sitting at the kitchen table with snack and coffee, going to write.  Then tackle the girls' clothes.  Going through too small stuff and putting away the clean clothes I did yesterday.

For the last two mornings all I've wanted to do was curl up with my coffee and not move.  Not because I'm sad, although there is more than likely still alot of that kicking around in my mind, but because I want to be lazy.  It must be contagious since Sergeant has had a difficult time getting out the door for school these last two mornings too. 

Last night I made a fun "kitty cat" hat for Girlie for preschool, and the others want one too now, so there has been construction paper, scissors, crayons, and glue sticks around the diningroom and kitchen.  And I'm loving the creativity!  Smarty made a blue fin tuna, both boys were making and decorating cupcakes (complete with cherry on top!), Monkey was of course scribbling on paper not to be left out.

When I showered this morning I came out to see the kids pretending to paint themselves with hair elastics.  And there were blankets covering the livingroom floor as a basket for kittens (the kids being the kittens). Messy but fun.

It's really easy to get bogged down here.  With the cloudy weather and the insane cost of living, it's not hard for this prairie family to get to missing "home".  We keep busy and trundle along, though.  This last weekend was absolutely gorgeous so we walked along the pier, took in some sunshine and fresh air.  Sunday we left for church early and drove along the ocean for a bit.  Windows down, salty air blowing into the van.  It was refreshing. 

I am really looking forward to the boys' no school day tomorrow.  Their first one since Christmas break.  And then one more week until Spring Break!  Hubby is doing a course here, started Monday and it goes for three weeks, but because of the way the course is run, he's been able to come home earlier in the day!  I've really enjoyed that, and so has he. 

But I guess I'd better get busy here before having to go pick Girlie up.   Hopefully when I get back, the water heater will be completely installed and I'll have water again!

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

more adjusting

Another couple of weeks that seemed to fly before I could get to sit down and write.  Hubby got some compassionate leave starting on the 12th so he could stay home with the kids while I flew back to Alberta for my sister in law's funeral.  I was very grateful to have the chance to be there and spend time with some family.  Heartbreaking. 

Flew back home on the 16th, coming in at 10:30pm, with Hubby leaving for a short sail the next morning.  So we are now trying to get to normal, whatever "normal" is. 

As far as the kids go, it's more of the same.  Growing like weeds, getting smarter everyday.  Sergeant is becoming so confident in his reading, Smarty has been practicing reading out loud, which we've noticed has helped in his speech and how clear his regular speaking is understood. 

Girlie has been up and down, very happy then horribly upset and about nothing in particular.  Yesterday the world was ending because I only brought my own water bottle when I picked her up instead of hers.  Nevermind the fact that when I bring hers she only wants to drink from mine anyway.  Grr.  But that should settle as we get used to life again.  So many changes so quickly with me leaving and then Hubby so quickly after.

But now we're all home, all settling.  Smarty is going to a birthday party this weekend, Sergeant has his next birthday in three weeks.  Eek!  So he's staring to plan what he would like for food, cake, people, games.  Smarty is trying to help and encourage the guest list to include some kids from his class.  Sorry, but this is your brother's birthday, not yours!

This last Sunday we hosted a baby shower for a colleague of Hubby's.  A itty bitty little girl, so small and light.  The kids had a blast blowing balloons up, trying to tidy the floor, eating food.  And holy cow, there was alot of food!  Good to connect with other people too.  And talk baby.  Because everyone loves babies!

Something has come up in trying to get to the root of some behaviour we've been seeing in the kids.  When asked why there has been more anger, more meanness, our poor Sergeant said that it was because he missed the prairies and could we please pray for Alberta and Saskatchewan because "I just miss them so much!"  It was heartbreaking, but allowed us to open the conversation about why we're here and how long we can probably expect to be here before a more western posting.  After a couple nights of talking about this, they seem to be better.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Roller Coaster Ride

It's been a week of ups and downs.  Last Friday Hubby and I met with the oncologist to get results for some blood work and the CT scan.  We were elated to find that everything was clear, no signs of cancer anywhere else.  So from here he has blood work every three months, a CT scan every six months, and of course self checks every month and come back in if something starts feeling "not right".

Yesterday morning my sister in law (brother's wife) died from her battle with lymphoma.  Just under two years ago she was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma while pregnant with their second child.  They went through treatments, delivered a healthy baby girl, then more treatments and was declared cancer free just before Christmas 2012.  Last May she was back in hospital and found that it had returned and returned with a vengeance.  Both Hodgkins and non-hodgekins this time.  She did stem cell treatments, they raised money for further chemo, but with infections in the lungs, pneumonia, and other difficult hurdles, she was let go.  And will be sorely, horribly missed.

So that has been the big up and then down.  Other than that, I think things are doing pretty well.  Smarty had a referral to the speech language worker through the school for an assessment and we were told that, aside from remembering to breathe and slow down, his issues are all developmental so they'll get better as he gets older.

Sergeant was "Star of the Week" a couple weeks back (they take turns) and so yesterday he brought home a booklet made up of pictures and sentences from the class about his "About Me" poster.  And he and Smarty went over to a friend from school's house for a couple of hours after school Thursday without me, so they were feeling all grown up!

Girlie has decided that lipstick is THE THING and has begged me to buy her some.  So I picked up some lip smackers for her.  Monkey thinks it's awesome too.  The plus side of this is that it's encouraging me to wear lipstick more.  The down side is that Hubby doesn't really like to kiss me with it on :( And trying to find a balance between acknowledging that make up can help you feel good but it isn't necessary to make you beautiful.  Already these problems!  I was hoping for waiting until they were a bit older before it happened!

Monkey is starting to communicate with word-type sounds!  This is so exciting!  And since the last of her teeth have decided to come in, she's a bit less grumpy!  Yay!!