Tired Arms

I'm learning 2 new skills and they make my arms tired. I worked on both of them today.

Ice skating and knitting.

Both make my arms tired. I wouldn't have known that either of them were such a good upper body workout until I tried them. But when you're as tense as I am while participating in these activities, your arms get tired.

Yes! I'm gonna be so buff!

By the way, I was trying some Olympic moves on the ice today. I turned in a circle. I had a bit of trouble stopping, but I did turn in a circle.

Kendall was a bit better at the Olympic moves. I asked him to skate without his hockey stick. (It seems to be a bit of a crutch for him on the ice.) He said it felt awkward to skate without the stick, but agreed to demonstrate. Then, at my urging, he skated backwards and did some fancy tricks when I begged for a pirouette. He also did some scary tricks, including skating straight at me full speed ahead. There I was, directly in his path, balancing on my ice skates. I couldn't move. (For 2 reasons: I was frozen in fear and I couldn't move.) He flew toward me then screeched to a halt a few feet from me.

Kendall was happy to get his hockey stick back after the pirouettes and triple axles. With great relief he said, "I feel like I need to take a couple slap shots after that!" and raced off toward the goal with the puck.

An Olympic Dream

Thank you to Rodney and Nathalie Coeller for making this Olympic dream possible.

There is an abundance of enthusiasm in this house lately. (Okay I'm faking it a bit.) But Kendall and the boys are LOVING the Olympics. It is fun to follow.

Kendall and Eli are true Canada fans. I tend to cheer for Canada- I'm here so I may as well. And Evan... Well, for reasons unknown to the rest of us, Evan is a die hard USA fan. It makes us laugh. I'm not sure if he started out just trying to be disagreeable with Eli or what happened. One day I heard them arguing about Canada vs. USA issues and Eli told traitorous Evan to "get out of Canada!"

Let me pause a moment and ask him. Ohhh. It is clear now. I just asked him why and he said, "Cause it has stars. And I like stars." He also added that if the US isn't playing, he cheers for Canada.

So, our family is divided, but tonight we're all wearing our Canada jerseys. And that's why I am thanking the Coellers. They bought all of us jerseys for Christmas in hopes of a moment just like tonight.

A Silly Streak

Today Eli brought home a not-so-happy note from his teacher. It seems he is sometimes "disruptive" in his classroom. We weren't shocked- we've heard from teachers before that he has a... silly streak. We took time to discuss it with Eli.

He claims he is bored. They have to sit and hold still so much! Then, a profound exclamation from the boy: "Kids are made to run around!"

Hmmm...I've noticed. (going crazy here)

Temptation

Eli was sent to his room when he chose not to obey me. I went to talk with him and told him that before we move on, he would need to apologize to me. (I don't actually know how I feel about forcing an apology, but for better or worse, that was how I handled it.)

I told Eli that I didn't just want him to say "I'm sorry," but to say "I'm sorry for...." and let him fill in the blank.

After awhile, I went back to his room to accept the apology.

"I'm sorry, Mom, for disobeying you and tempting you."

Suppressing a smile, I accepted his apology. Then I asked him, "How did you tempt me?"

"I don't know. I don't know what that means!"

Well. We worked on a definition. And while I may have been tempted to lose it with him, I'll take responsibility for that.

Fragile

Yesterday afternoon Evan started a major wrestling match when he decided to keep a video away from his brother. With great conviction, he said, “It’s fragile.”

“Evan, do you know what ‘fragile’ means?” I asked.

Evan answered, “It means special.”

It was funny watching them wrestle over the movie. It brought back memories of how you have to use every available appendage in these matches. Eli had Evan pretty well pinned with the movie just out of both of their reaches. Evan stuck his foot out and tried to grab it that way. Never Give Up.

I let them wrestle, though, as so often happens, it eventually turned into a less happy event.

Later Eli and I explained the true meaning of ‘fragile’ to Evan.

He seemed to grasp the meaning: “So when Samson had long hair, he was fragile!”

Now we need to work on the facts in our Bible stories.

An Amendment

This is an amendment to my prior post...

Eli explained at supper that he wasn't embarrassed of my stocking feet. He was just concerned that there would be a fire alarm and I would have to go outside without shoes.

How considerate. :)

I've written before about how Mr. Eli was not excited about the idea of me being in his classroom. I was slightly annoyed to find that the "being-embarrassed-of-Mom" stage was here so early.

However, it is important to me to be in his classroom while I can. If I'm not working and have no children keeping me at home, I want to spend time in his classroom. So, I arranged with Eli's teacher to go to his classroom once a week.

Well, silly Eli betrays his true feelings every time I go to his class.

"Mommy!" he has said in an excited voice when he's seen me. Or he comes over to me and sheepishly wants a little side-hug. One evening he even went so far as to say that "Centers" was one of the best parts of his day because Mommy was there. So I know his true feelings.

Not to say there's none of that "being-embarrassed-of-Mom" stuff going on. Today I was with his small group for a few minutes. I was in my stocking feet because it is Canadian etiquette to leave shoes at the door. Outdoor shoes are not supposed to be worn inside the school. Students and staff have indoor shoes, but it isn't uncommon for parents to simply leave their boots at the door.

I was sitting on the carpet and I noticed that Eli gave me a once-over. Then he suggested, "Mom, you should get indoor shoes." Poor guy. What an embarrassing Mommy.

Family Day

Today was Family Day in Ontario. Yes, that is a provincial-wide holiday complete with no school or postal service. So, we got together with our closest extended family- Karen, Daryl and Dominic. The boys and I have really latched onto this idea of them being our cousins. Karen is Kendall’s 2nd cousin, therefore, Dominic is the boys’ 3rd cousins. But we leave out the numbers and just say “cousins.” The boys love Daryl who tries out all kinds of WWF moves on them and Karen surprised Eli throwing him in the snow today. We had lunch together, then went out on snowmobiles.

It was hard to believe that we’re halfway through February and this was our first time out on snowmachines. But there has only been enough snow for snowmobiling for about a month and, of course, we have to find snowmobiles to borrow.

We explored an island, checking out a high spot for future use. (camping or bonfire) We're on a hill way above the lake. If you look closely, you can see the ice road far below.





With cousin Dominic.



We met some other friends at the beach. (Beautiful day for the beach, by the way.) The have a mini snowmobile, which the boys loved. I'll try to post videos sometime soon.

Happy(?) Eli

Today Eli got to have a party at school. He got to show us all his valentines and have a sucker for his after-school snack. He got to play on the computer for 15 minutes. He got to hang out with a family of 5 boys all evening. He got to watch a movie and eat popcorn.

He was happy all the way home. He was happy while getting ready for bed.

But, like so often happens, his outlook turned negative as he crawled into bed. Kendall started to ask him, Didn't he have fun with his friends tonight?

In a light-hearted tone I started explaining how everything goes downhill for Eli at bedtime. I went on and on about how Eli's memories of the day become tainted and unhappy. (Which is so often true.) I finally ended my silly little monologue with "and life just stinks!"

Eli took me seriously: "It does! Because I can't get anything violent!"

Hmm... Apparently our young son is harboring some bitterness over his (perceived) lack of violent toys.

So we ended the evening with some violent hugs and kisses and finally closed the door to a giggling boy.

Goodnight.

Farting

Eli had really bad gas the other day. It was to the point that I could walk into a room and know by the odor that he had just left the room. It was bad and he knew it.

The next morning I heard Eli let out an exclamation of frustration. He still had gas. He said, "I wonder if I'm at the age where you have a lot of gas."

From what I've heard, since he's male, that age never ends.


Evan has his own gaseous issues. He told me one evening that he had farted at school. I asked him if it was funny or embarrassing.

He said, "Kind of funny. I don't think anyone heard it because I was sitting on a mat. But I laughed a little."

Photos

Here are some of Kendall's pictures from his trip. They are posted on facebook. At the bottom of each photo, you can see his comments.

Click here.

To Make a Long Story Short...

Oh wait, this is perhaps the longest post ever. Bear with me…

What a weekend. Friday finally (slowly) arrived. Thursday I got all ready for a trip to Winnipeg with the boys. Getting ready included things like getting activities and snacks for the trip (we don’t pass any fast food during the 6-hour drive to Winnipeg), going over my directions and studying the map (I’ve only been to Winnipeg one time 10 years ago), setting up the DVD player in the car and checking out movies at the library, and loading my ipod.

I needed to go for an immigration physical sometime in Winnipeg as part of my application for permanent resident. The doctor’s office agreed to fit me in on Friday so that I wouldn’t have to make the trip again in February. So I also needed to get special photos taken before I left and make sure I had all my paperwork in order. Getting ready for a trip is always stressful to me, and even more so with the immigration things I would be doing in Winnipeg and the fact that I was doing it on my own.

Did I mention that the roads are snow/ice covered? When Kendall drove to Winnipeg last week, the roads were dry. Saturday after he left, it rained (almost unheard of in January). Everything was covered in solid ice. (I had to crawl into the back seat of my car from the front and kick the doors open because they were so frozen shut.) Anyway, after the ice, it suddenly got very, very cold. At a certain temperature, salt no longer works on the roads and we’re stuck with ice. So I’ll just say that I didn’t feel the safest driving down the highway.

Anyway, I woke up bright and early Friday morning, long before it was light. I pulled the boys out of bed and took them to the running car. And we were off by 5:45. In spite of my tension on the road, it was absolutely beautiful. The snow is very thick on the trees and the moon was full. Between the snow and the moonlight I could see fairly well, which felt a lot safer with the always-lurking moose. The sunrise was gorgeous. So, it was a long trip, but 6 hours and 15 minutes later we were at the doctor’s office for my immigration physical.

Kendall arrived at the Winnipeg airport at 12:45. He knew he would have to wait on me for awhile. We left the doctor’s office by 1:45 and had a rather stressful drive to the airport. At the airport I took a slow pass by the arrival area, hoping that Kendall would be looking out the window and come running after us. That didn’t happen, so I had to find parking. Well, the parking lot was full and I felt very stressed. Finally, we found parking and rushed into the airport. And there he was. I’m not much of a crier, but I cried when we saw him. It was so good to see him. I had missed him so much and even though I felt like the time went really well, there was just an underlying stress the whole time. And it didn’t help that I had just been navigating a new city by myself while shushing the boys and not being able to find parking.

The boys saw a play area in the airport and wanted to play a bit. And then….well, (I just asked Kendall how I should say what happened next. He says that I should say, “We had different expectations and I started crying and scared Kendall and he thought I had gone over the edge. The end.”) My side of the story says that we left the airport and then….well, had different expectations for the afternoon….

Basically, we got into a spat right from the get-go and I started sobbing. I sobbed. And I sobbed. For a long time. The boys were slightly dumbfounded. Like I said, I don’t cry often. I’ve cried more while Kendall has been gone, but I don’t think the boys ever knew. I know it was a release of a week and half of a lot of tension and being strong and trying not to be afraid.

Eventually, I did stop crying. Kendall and I figured out a plan for the afternoon, which included needing to be at a radiology clinic sometime before 5:00pm for a necessary chest x-ray (a requirement of the immigration physical).

Unfortunately, traffic was much, much worse than expected and we got the radiology clinic at approximately 4:58. I jumped out of the car and flew into the clinic. The woman behind the desk saw me and immediately turned off the lights. They were closed. There was no reasoning with them. No matter that we lived 6 hours away and that the clinic would not be open again until Monday morning. I got teary again. (And, on the other hand, because of working at a doctor’s office, I realized that you just cannot always make other people’s emergencies your emergency. And she did have to get to daycare to pick up her child.)

We weren’t sure what we were going to do. They told us about another place where I could get a chest x-ray, but they said I would wait for hours there. Do we do that? Or stay in Winnipeg until Monday morning? I’ll say that I was disappointed and we’ll know that’s an understatement.

So, off to the hotel. We had a voucher for a free night at a Best Western. I had booked a room ahead of time. This Best Western had a pool with a waterslide. I had really wanted to be sure that this voucher would work at this hotel. When I called ahead, the woman I talked to said, Yes, no problem. She took my information and a credit card number for incidentals. After I got off the phone with her, I looked over my voucher some more and saw some details that concerned me. So I called her again and said that I just wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t fall through any loop holes. She reassured me that, Yes, everything would be fine. The room was ours. It was going to be great.

We pulled up at the hotel and I ran in while the men waited in the car. Uh oh. They couldn’t find my reservation. Oh well, where’s the voucher. I hand her my voucher. Oh no, you can’t use this here. Calmly I explain. She says, Sorry, we can’t accept this voucher. I politely stand my ground. She goes to the back to call someone. I’m sorry, we can’t accept this voucher. I still politely stand my ground: I think Best Western needs to honor what they told me. She goes to the back to make another phone call. And what do you know, I start crying. I. Never. Do. That. No, no, not me. (Okay, so Judy caught me in the freezer aisle at the grocery store last week and asked me how I was doing and made me cry.) But trust me, this is not the way my normal self works. The woman kindly asks me to take a seat while she does some more checking. I tell her I’m going to run out to the car.

I get in the car and start sobbing. Woo wee, my men were concerned about this bawling stranger. We sit there and I try to collect myself. Pretty soon, the woman runs out to our car and says, We can give you a room.

Wow, I’m thinking I need to work on the skill of crying on command. Evan even had a suggestion for me: “You should cry like I do. Lay down on the floor kicking and screaming.”

After we got to the promised room, we made some calls and found out that they can do the chest x-ray for me in Red Lake. (Hoping it’s true.) After that, we had a wonderful time. And I don’t think I’ve cried since. :)

So, we’re getting back into a routine and I am LOVING having Kendall around again. Oh yeah, and I lost my voice. I don’t really feel sick, but my voice is just really messed up. Stress? Lots of talking? Lots of crying? Who knows.