Hug Your Children

Last night I participated in the Candlelight Walk for Missing Children. It's been over two years since my co-worker's son went missing, and still nobody knows what happened to him.
Even after raising money, attending the walk, and taking part in the candlelight vigil, I can't feel any better. I am someone on the outskirts of this tragedy, yet I feel so devastated for this family that I can't even begin to fathom how they must feel.
Back when we first heard that he had disappeared, I think what horrified me the most was his age. And specifically, that he was 18, and I had assumed there would come a time in my not-so-distant future that I could stop worrying about my boys. This proved to me that you can never stop worrying about your kids.
And so, last night, after witnessing enough raw grief to last a lifetime, I was so happy to find the boys still awake when I got home. Thankfully they are still young enough that I can cuddle them and they don't complain when I won't let go. I don't want to ever let go.
And I want them to read this one day and realize that being a parent is hard on so many levels. I hate being the "brush your teeth, clean your room, get those pj's on and GET TO BED" mom - but what I do is to shape them into awesome human beings. But I do promise (right here, in writing) that I'm going to enjoy my time with them more. And the laundry can wait while I play with my kids. Because what if I don't have all the time in the world?
Excuse me while I go crawl in bed with them again.
But first, look at this face. His name is Bryan Braumberger.

Because someone should tell you before you make the same mistake

So I read this tip in some magazine not too long ago - "If you run out of shaving cream, use conditioner! It will give you a close shave AND moisturize your legs at the same time!"

And it does.

The problem is, hypothetically, that if you shave your legs with your husband's conditioner, and your legs start to tingle fiercely afterwards, again hypothetically of course, that it might already be a TAD too late to rectify the mistake of using a HAIR REGROWTH AND THICKENING FORMULA CONDITIONER. (Hypothetically speaking) ON YOUR LEGS.

Yours truly,
Sasquatch

We're in!

We're not exactly unpacked yet, but we are moved in!

Our boys are over the moon and love the new house. Imagine our joy to discover there are boys next door, they go to the same school AND they enjoy playing hockey and riding bikes! In fact, the older boy remembers playing hockey with Ethan at recess all last year. Ethan just remembers playing hockey with "some big boys". Since we moved in, the boys have had a lot of fun running around the house, playing in the back yard, building tons of Lego, and of course playing with the boys next door.

Meanwhile, I have been attacking the pile of boxes. Our bedroom and the bathrooms are looking pretty good and the kitchen should be done by tomorrow. We are picking up another couple of pieces of furniture this weekend, so by this time next week I hope to feel a little more settled!

As for the boys' rooms, besides getting beds and dressers ready on the first day, I am putting them off. The garage is full of boxes of kids' toys and I don't want to bring them inside! Truthfully, the boys did not miss any of those toys that will have been packed away for close to three months. All we had at our temporary home was Lego and a few outdoor toys. Granted, come winter we will want something to occupy them indoors, but I am SO reluctant to bring all that stuff in. I am going to wait until they're in school and take a whole load to Toy Traders and the Salvation Army. Um, no, the boys don't know that yet!

It's awfully hard to sit here when there are boxes sitting in my line of sight. So... hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go!

One Sleep

This morning I was trying to work at the kitchen table since Mike was using the laptop table in the living room. It was only a minute before the boys invaded, my files were spattered with oatmeal, and Mike was asking me to move so he could get at the coffee maker. I moved to the living room where Jack made several attempts to spill my tea while jumping on the couch, making it impossible for me to write anything on these oatmealy work files that didn't look like a second-grader's penmanship (sorry Ethan).
But tomorrow we move. I relish the thought of SPACE.
Hallelujah!

Camping 2009

We have fulfilled our annual camping obligation - something the kids love and Mike and I barely tolerate once a year. It was fun to go to Sooke, see Briana, Rob and the kids, and get away from home for a mini-vacation before the big move-in date. However, camping is not our favourite activity so although the boys loved it, we spent three days feeling a little cold and miserable. Dinner times were a highlight, 2 am freeze-your-face-off-and-shiver-in-your-sleeping-bag was a lowlight. The younger cousins enjoyed themselves with a little horseplay:
(Kieran is 6 weeks younger than Jack - look at the size difference!)
While the older two got to go salmon fishing with Mike, Rob and Rob's dad. Here are the results (OOH AHH):

Bedtime was "great":

Playing on the beach was lots of fun for four adventurous boys:

But I fell on the stupid stone steps and twisted my stupid ankle:

(It's better now, thanks for asking)
It was a nice mini-getaway and now we are sad to see the last of summer leak away. I feel like I am trying to hold water in my hands, grabbing onto the last couple of weeks of summer play. And some days I want to toss all the summer away and get back to a routine that works for grumpy boys. Like today.
They are in YMCA day camp this week, a real old-fashioned kind of camp where they canoe, hike, and learn archery. But all Ethan can talk about is how scratchy the arm band is and how he is NOT wearing it all week. It's going to be a LONG week until we cut that sucker off. Also, he doesn't like the extra armband that shows he's allergic to peanuts. He says other kids keep asking why he has a pink one too and it makes him feel stupid. I feel for the poor boy but MAN! It has been a long night.
It's getting late and I have a ton of work to do before I teach tomorrow so sayonara. We'll chat after camp ends!

Juggling

I stopped to breathe for a moment today and realized how long it's been since I posted. I can blame lots of things, but it all boils down to the fact that summer messes up our routines. So all week long, I juggle, juggle, juggle our activities but surprisingly nothing seems to get done.

I am working, of course, 2-1/2 days per week - so that puts a damper on beach days. But I am lucky that it's usually only one full day in the office and the occasional meeting on-site; the rest I do early mornings or after the kids are in bed. But right now, it is so hot that I am having trouble focusing on work so I think I will consider tonight a write-off and watch our new DVD purchase of True Blood. Goody goody; can't wait!

Last week both kids were in camps - Ethan in French camp and Jack in bike camp. Camps seem like a really good idea, and they do enjoy them, but oy vey - the driving back and forth! The coordinating of lunches and snacks! Remembering which kid needs a swimsuit on which day! And the spanners in the works, like being told it's Christmas in July day on Friday, so please decorate your bikes accordingly. Excuse me, but Christmas decorations are in the bottom of a POD somewhere I have no idea where. So thankfully I was able to borrow a few items from Susanna and Jim. Jack did great at bike camp, and really enjoyed himself. He SO needs a bigger bike, though! And Camp Bons Jeux was lots of fun for Ethan, too. Until the last day where we got the phone call that Ethan choked on a grape at lunch.

Um, what? Yikes!

I jetted out there as soon as I could, after dropping Jack at home. So we got the call about 12:10, I left here as soon as I got the message at 12:25, and got there at 12:55. He had spit up the grape so they weren't sure why he was still carrying on like a banshee. He could breathe fine, and he was talking normally, but he was SO upset, and spitting drool everywhere. They had tried popsicles and ice cream to calm him down and soothe his throat, but nothing was working. He calmed down somewhat for the drive home. We were just going to drop his buddy Victor at his house before going straight to the clinic. We were almost home when I asked Ethan to take a small sip of water. He did, and started choking and spitting into the bowl I had put on his lap. Next thing you know - GIANT puke - and he said, "Oh that feels better". I screeched to the side of the road, got him out onto someone's lawn, and what was glistening in the midst of the enormous barf pile? A grape, that's what. So by this time he'd had the grape lodged in there for 1 hour and 40 minutes. I bet THAT was comfortable! No wonder the poor kid was upset. I felt bad because we thought he was doing his usual drama thing. Anyway all's well that ends well. He's good and the car needed cleaning anyway. Silver lining.

It's 9 o'clock, the kids are still awake, and Mommy needs (another) beer. So I am signing off for now but promise to catch up again soon. Until then!

Two Amazing Shows

This weekend I have been so fancy and cultured. All of that is about to change since I have just sat down with popcorn and a drink to watch episode 2 of season 11 of Big Brother. Oh yeah.

On Friday night I went to the movies with the girlfriends. SOMEONE decided it would be a good idea to see My Sister's Keeper. Oh sister mercy me it was brutally heart-wrenching. In preparation for the show I had a purseful of Kleenex, popcorn, candy and a drink. In retrospect: one purseful = not enough Kleenex.

It only took approximately seven seconds for me to start crying. And that's how I spent the next eternity. My shirt got soaked to my belly button so I decided to craft a tear-catcher. I molded a wet Kleenex to the bridge of my nose and layered a dry one over top so it stayed nicely plastered there, catching all the tears before they could saturate my shirt further. All I could taste was salt and it wasn't from the popcorn because I discovered I couldn't actually eat while sobbing. Jen caught me with my tear-catcher mask on though, so that was a little embarassing. More embarassing, however, was when I leaned over to Jen to whisper "My head is going to explode" (because I was holding back all the sobs) and instead of whispering, as soon as I opened my mouth, my sobs DID explode and I showered us both in slobber and snot. And then we both started laughing, which was completely inappropriate at that moment and oh my GOD I was laughing, sobbing, just an overall disastrous mess. It was exhausting.

We took the boys down to - surprise! - the beach on Saturday afternoon. It was a blast! The water was so warm, and the shallows went on forever. We were wave-jumping and the boys were screaming with excitement. It was pretty perfect. The boys weren't wearing their swim clothes but were full-on swimming and the sand that came out of their underwear later could have filled a small sand box. Mar and Aaron came by after, and they had a bag of goodies for the boys that they'd picked up at the Tour de France. Just to fill you in, all four of us get up every morning to watch the Tour stage of the day. We have contests throughout the day and award each other the yellow jersey, green jersey, polkadot etc. Jack always gets the white jersey since he's always the youngest rider. So we are a little Tour-obsessed as a group, and more than a little jealous that Aaron and Marzia just happened to be at the right time and place to see a stage in the south of France! They brought the kids back all this swag, free stuff that was chucked at them from the Caravane before the riders came through in the peloton. It was like Christmas!

Then Saturday night I had a great dinner at Brix in Yaletown to celebrate Kim's birthday. It was a very nice evening out, lots of fun, and fantastic food. Mike did not have such a great night. He took the boys to an outdoor movie night on the beach. It was Monsters vs. Aliens so it sounded like a good idea. Nope. They got there at 8 pm with their chairs, and set up near some school friends, but the movie didn't start until after 10. The boys lasted a few seconds and both started to scream to go home. Jack got scared by "lightning" and Ethan by who knows what, and they both cried the whole way home. Mike said it was a LONG walk.

Today the boys got to see Grandma again after her three weeks in Florida. This week she is packing up and moving out, so they were busy helping her with that. I, on the other hand, had a matinee ticket to Les Miserables at the Stanley in Vancouver. I went with the theatre crew and the show was absolutely incredible. It was way better than a previous production I had seen, and even sounded better than some recordings I've heard from Broadway and London. Wow. My friends Chad and Erin have two talented children, Jack and Emily. Emily was one of the stars of the show - she played young Cosette and she just flat-out rocked. I also may have fallen in love with Enjolras. He was dreamy (in a Victor Hugo revolutionary way). And the men in the show could SING. What a great show. It's held over until August 2nd and I highly recommend it if there is any way to find tickets.

Big Brother is over, now I'm watching Dog the Bounty Hunter. I have fallen so far, so fast.