Wounded Dragonlets...
I’ve just about had enough of the Canadian Health Care System in the past week. The fact that so many cuts have absolutely cannibalized what used to be the pride of our country while millions of our tax dollars were spent funding bogus Sponsorship events in Quebec or lining the pockets of politicians and ad executives is enough to make me SCREAM!
Thursday night, Erin had her first mountain bike accident and we spend over 4.5 hours in the Emergency Department of the hospital, 4 of which was just waiting for a chance to get down to X-ray! She was scrapped up and shaken, but the right hand pinkie finger that she landed on with most of her weight was just badly sprained rather than broken. She has it “dummy splinted” to her ring finger and we’re waiting to see if the swelling will go down. Nick felt horrible because he was the one who took her out to the trails so that they could both try out their mountain bikes and apparently Erin’s front tire caught his back one as they came down a slight hill a bit too close together. Considering the fact that there were people in the Emergency department who’d been there for over 7 hours, we got off lightly, but it has left a very sour taste in my mouth to see the Prime Minister who campaigned on fixing health care beg for more time in office until the full extent of the Sponsorship Scandal is known.
Friday night was family activity night at St. Pat’s right after Nick and I finished our deep water running class, so we dried off and met the girls in the gym for some summer fun of badminton, beach balls and frisbees. Unfortunately as Nick tried to show Bethany the neat trick of “skipping” the frisbee off the floor first, she rushed forward to try to catch what she thought was a low throw and the frisbee bounced right up into her bottom lip, curling it over the bottom teeth so that they went right into her lip and started the blood flowing everywhere. Bethany is like her father and goes absolutely WHITE at the sight of blood. I don’t think I realized how many freckles she had until they all stood out against her pale face! We got some ice and managed to staunch the flow of blood, but her lip puffed up like crazy which scared her further. “Can lips break forever, Mommy?” she kept asking. I explained how fast mouths heal and sure enough by this morning at the bus stop, there was hardly enough to show off to her friends except on the inside of the lips where the scraped area is trying to make new skin. Poor Nick felt horrid and hardly even cracked a smile when other people started teasing me that I would be next! Had she needed stitches, it would have been HIS turn to go sit for hours at the hospital... if I’d been able to pry my little Bethany possum from my body.
Now the house is quiet on a grey, rainy, cold May morning. It looks and feels more like November outside unless I take in a deep lung full of air. Then I can smell the wet growing things making the most of this moisture. I have paperwork to sort through and a missing receipt to find in the chaos of my office. We received a damaged pile of patterns on Friday from the US Post Office that looks like HALF of my last Hoffman shipment in pieces, so I am hinting for the insurance receipt that seems not to be in the postage file. Sigh! I think if I wrap my claws around something warm and put on some good tunes, I can pretend that I am actually looking for treasure in the piles instead!
Monday, May 16, 2005
Sunday, May 08, 2005
The Mothers In My Life...
It was, despite the pounding 40 mm ( almost 2 inches) of rain and high winds, quite a wonderful Mother’s Day! I woke up early in the morning to the sound of the rain and wind lashing against our bedroom window. The sound of running water always produces a rather predictable result with me... and I needed to leave the warm coziness of our bed for the bathroom. Peering out into the back yard, I could see that a rather large pond was forming at the end of the deck and so raced downstairs to be sure that nothing was coming in the basement windows again. The sound of Mommy thumping down the stairs in her bunny slippers woke the girls, who were then in a panic about getting my Mother’s Day gifts to the table before I got there. They decided instead to pounce on me the moment I returned upstairs and present me with presents in bed! They were quite keen to serve me breakfast in bed as well, but the thought of bits of Shredded Wheat finding its way into my bed sheets or frozen blueberries hitting the duvet cover were enough to have me begging for breakfast at the dining room table “fancy restaurant style”. I was ordered to remain in bed until they were ready. When Nick and I were called down (after much cupboard slamming and thumping sounds), we found the table set up for a romantic candlelight breakfast with the frozen blueberries and milk in their own special containers and water in fancy glasses near our lovingly pulverized Shredded Wheat biscuits. Erin explained that the candles were left alone because “they weren’t allowed to touch the matches yet!”
Erin and Bethany both sing in the Sunbeam Choir at church. They repeated their new song from last Sunday night’s concert where many of them got stage fright in front of such a huge audience. Bethany had missed her closing solo entirely and had to repeat it under prompting from the director, so this morning she was in an absolute panic that she would “mess everything up and ruin it again!” I explained that making a JOYFUL noise did not mean making a PERFECT noise... but when one of the boys doing a solo right before her failed to get out of the way to let her to the mike, she missed her cue during the first practice and promptly burst into tears. She and I spent minutes cuddling while the senior choir practiced their number. One of the older girls in the Sunbeam Choir who is also quite shy, like Bethany< came over to tell her that she got scared too having to start off the whole song. With encouragement from everyone and some clever blocking by the Choir director to get one boy away from the mike as soon as his turn was done to make room for Bethany, things went much better during the second rehearsal. When it came time for the performance during the service, everything went beautifully. Erin’s confident solo carried all the way to the back of the church and she anchored most of the piece without overpowering everyone else. Then, as the end drew near, Bethany approached the mike, took a deep breath and out came this lovely sweet voice to close off the piece with her solo. As soon as she was done, her face split into this radiant grin that I could just make out through the tears of pride and joy streaming down my face.
After church we raced home to check on the backyard, run the pump for a bit and then grabbed the lobster out of the fridge to head down to spend the afternoon with Nick’s Mum and Jerome. We had a wonderful feast with homemade rolls, light salads, lobster and a lovely low-calorie dessert she’d created. They’ve been losing weight steadily since Jerome’s heart problems at the beginning of the year, so it was nice to have a meal that satisfied taste buds without making us feel stuffed. We curled up in the living room and Mum (I stopped calling her by her first name recently because she really is my “other mother”) showed me how to turn my 10 skeins of wool into balls. I’d spent almost 2 hours grumbling and untangling one skein the night before to wind it into a single ball. As I held the wool skein on my hand, she showed me how to create a ball of yarn that I’d be able to draw the wool from the center instead of the outside. It does cut down on the amount of escaping and rolling your ball of wool does as you knit!!
We drove home before dark past swollen rivers and almost flooded roadways to call my own Mom and wish her a Happy Mother’s Day. I then tucked Bethany into bed, got Erin set up for her 20 minutes of French reading and disappeared down here to reflect on Motherhood and the women who have mothered to me in my life.
I have been blessed to have a Mother who took the time to make things with us, left little notes, inspired us to find our wings even as she longed to keep us close to home, showed us that it was never too late in life to try new things and always made us feel loved, even when we fought with her. Her example gave me so much to draw from as I became a Mother myself. She still chuckles sometimes when I call to say “SORRY!!” for stuff that I did as a child now that I can see it from the parent’s perspective!! While she told me many times when I was young that I would understand better when I became a Mother, she has never said “I told you so!” in all the years that have proved her right!
Instead of a “Monster-In-Law” that some describe, I found in my husband’s mother a wonderful lady whose creativity and pursuit of excellence I can very much understand, whose compassion and determination I try to emulate and whose objective tenderness I have come to appreciate and treasure since it comes without the parent/child ties that sometimes get so tangled. Between Mum and Mom, I have great women to keep my own journey through Motherhood a bit saner.
There have also been other strong women who have “mothered” to me at various times in my life whom I also think of on this special day. Mothering does not necessarily have to involve the act of giving birth to forge those ties of heart or spirit between lives. The physical act of bringing a new life into this world does not create a Mother in the truest sense of the word... I doubt that I could ever put it into words that would do justice to the power, the empathy, the compassion, the vulnerability, the sacrifice, the separation, the terror, the pride, the fears, the joys, the dreams and the depth that true motherhood calls forth from a person who “mothers” to another. Those gifts and memories, those deeds and bits of wisdom become a part of my own Motherhood tapestry that will someday weave on without me as the thread is picked up and continued on.
It was, despite the pounding 40 mm ( almost 2 inches) of rain and high winds, quite a wonderful Mother’s Day! I woke up early in the morning to the sound of the rain and wind lashing against our bedroom window. The sound of running water always produces a rather predictable result with me... and I needed to leave the warm coziness of our bed for the bathroom. Peering out into the back yard, I could see that a rather large pond was forming at the end of the deck and so raced downstairs to be sure that nothing was coming in the basement windows again. The sound of Mommy thumping down the stairs in her bunny slippers woke the girls, who were then in a panic about getting my Mother’s Day gifts to the table before I got there. They decided instead to pounce on me the moment I returned upstairs and present me with presents in bed! They were quite keen to serve me breakfast in bed as well, but the thought of bits of Shredded Wheat finding its way into my bed sheets or frozen blueberries hitting the duvet cover were enough to have me begging for breakfast at the dining room table “fancy restaurant style”. I was ordered to remain in bed until they were ready. When Nick and I were called down (after much cupboard slamming and thumping sounds), we found the table set up for a romantic candlelight breakfast with the frozen blueberries and milk in their own special containers and water in fancy glasses near our lovingly pulverized Shredded Wheat biscuits. Erin explained that the candles were left alone because “they weren’t allowed to touch the matches yet!”
Erin and Bethany both sing in the Sunbeam Choir at church. They repeated their new song from last Sunday night’s concert where many of them got stage fright in front of such a huge audience. Bethany had missed her closing solo entirely and had to repeat it under prompting from the director, so this morning she was in an absolute panic that she would “mess everything up and ruin it again!” I explained that making a JOYFUL noise did not mean making a PERFECT noise... but when one of the boys doing a solo right before her failed to get out of the way to let her to the mike, she missed her cue during the first practice and promptly burst into tears. She and I spent minutes cuddling while the senior choir practiced their number. One of the older girls in the Sunbeam Choir who is also quite shy, like Bethany< came over to tell her that she got scared too having to start off the whole song. With encouragement from everyone and some clever blocking by the Choir director to get one boy away from the mike as soon as his turn was done to make room for Bethany, things went much better during the second rehearsal. When it came time for the performance during the service, everything went beautifully. Erin’s confident solo carried all the way to the back of the church and she anchored most of the piece without overpowering everyone else. Then, as the end drew near, Bethany approached the mike, took a deep breath and out came this lovely sweet voice to close off the piece with her solo. As soon as she was done, her face split into this radiant grin that I could just make out through the tears of pride and joy streaming down my face.
After church we raced home to check on the backyard, run the pump for a bit and then grabbed the lobster out of the fridge to head down to spend the afternoon with Nick’s Mum and Jerome. We had a wonderful feast with homemade rolls, light salads, lobster and a lovely low-calorie dessert she’d created. They’ve been losing weight steadily since Jerome’s heart problems at the beginning of the year, so it was nice to have a meal that satisfied taste buds without making us feel stuffed. We curled up in the living room and Mum (I stopped calling her by her first name recently because she really is my “other mother”) showed me how to turn my 10 skeins of wool into balls. I’d spent almost 2 hours grumbling and untangling one skein the night before to wind it into a single ball. As I held the wool skein on my hand, she showed me how to create a ball of yarn that I’d be able to draw the wool from the center instead of the outside. It does cut down on the amount of escaping and rolling your ball of wool does as you knit!!
We drove home before dark past swollen rivers and almost flooded roadways to call my own Mom and wish her a Happy Mother’s Day. I then tucked Bethany into bed, got Erin set up for her 20 minutes of French reading and disappeared down here to reflect on Motherhood and the women who have mothered to me in my life.
I have been blessed to have a Mother who took the time to make things with us, left little notes, inspired us to find our wings even as she longed to keep us close to home, showed us that it was never too late in life to try new things and always made us feel loved, even when we fought with her. Her example gave me so much to draw from as I became a Mother myself. She still chuckles sometimes when I call to say “SORRY!!” for stuff that I did as a child now that I can see it from the parent’s perspective!! While she told me many times when I was young that I would understand better when I became a Mother, she has never said “I told you so!” in all the years that have proved her right!
Instead of a “Monster-In-Law” that some describe, I found in my husband’s mother a wonderful lady whose creativity and pursuit of excellence I can very much understand, whose compassion and determination I try to emulate and whose objective tenderness I have come to appreciate and treasure since it comes without the parent/child ties that sometimes get so tangled. Between Mum and Mom, I have great women to keep my own journey through Motherhood a bit saner.
There have also been other strong women who have “mothered” to me at various times in my life whom I also think of on this special day. Mothering does not necessarily have to involve the act of giving birth to forge those ties of heart or spirit between lives. The physical act of bringing a new life into this world does not create a Mother in the truest sense of the word... I doubt that I could ever put it into words that would do justice to the power, the empathy, the compassion, the vulnerability, the sacrifice, the separation, the terror, the pride, the fears, the joys, the dreams and the depth that true motherhood calls forth from a person who “mothers” to another. Those gifts and memories, those deeds and bits of wisdom become a part of my own Motherhood tapestry that will someday weave on without me as the thread is picked up and continued on.
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Home Sweet Home...
I finally arrived home late Monday afternoon.. almost 20 hours later than I was supposed to thanks to Canjet’s lack of planes and communication. While I was thankful for the hotel room Sunday night and the token meal vouchers, I wish that they’d been more up front with all of us on the two flights that ended up being canceled. It wasn’t until we all gathered at the airport lounge the next day that we began to piece together what we think must have happened.
When the first plane was affected, they looked at which flight had the least amount of people booked on it (the Moncton flight) and delayed then canceled that one. When the plane arrived late from New York for the flight that needed to go to Halifax... it was mysteriously canceled after the waiting flight crew was sent off somewhere. Many of the people on that aborted Halifax flight believe that their plane was instead commandeered to head down to Florida and rescue the stranded passengers there to bring them to Toronto. A few of them ended up on our newly created Monday 12:35 pm flight. At least.... it should have been 12:35.
Most of us got to the airport in plenty of time. I even managed to find some “Make it up to the Kids” goodies while waiting. I also did a cartoon sketch of a dragon stranded in a waiting lounge with other passengers as the rain pours down outside with a caption that reads “Really? My flight was grounded due to bad weather too!” As the time to board the plane grew closer, the girl at the check in counter came on the intercom to explain that although the plane was ready to go, they were still waiting for the crew that was being bussed in from Hamilton!!! You should have heard the groans, screams and general cries of outrage when that announcement was made. They did give the crew a standing ovation and round of cheers when they did arrive, and we all clapped ourselves silly when the plane finally took off. I didn’t kiss the ground when I arrived safely in Moncton, but the thought did cross my mind. Instead, I headed home to hug my family!!
Now, I am tackling my last two big deadlines for May 1st... then I can’t wait for life to switch to a calmer pace... I have a dragon to finish stitching!
I finally arrived home late Monday afternoon.. almost 20 hours later than I was supposed to thanks to Canjet’s lack of planes and communication. While I was thankful for the hotel room Sunday night and the token meal vouchers, I wish that they’d been more up front with all of us on the two flights that ended up being canceled. It wasn’t until we all gathered at the airport lounge the next day that we began to piece together what we think must have happened.
When the first plane was affected, they looked at which flight had the least amount of people booked on it (the Moncton flight) and delayed then canceled that one. When the plane arrived late from New York for the flight that needed to go to Halifax... it was mysteriously canceled after the waiting flight crew was sent off somewhere. Many of the people on that aborted Halifax flight believe that their plane was instead commandeered to head down to Florida and rescue the stranded passengers there to bring them to Toronto. A few of them ended up on our newly created Monday 12:35 pm flight. At least.... it should have been 12:35.
Most of us got to the airport in plenty of time. I even managed to find some “Make it up to the Kids” goodies while waiting. I also did a cartoon sketch of a dragon stranded in a waiting lounge with other passengers as the rain pours down outside with a caption that reads “Really? My flight was grounded due to bad weather too!” As the time to board the plane grew closer, the girl at the check in counter came on the intercom to explain that although the plane was ready to go, they were still waiting for the crew that was being bussed in from Hamilton!!! You should have heard the groans, screams and general cries of outrage when that announcement was made. They did give the crew a standing ovation and round of cheers when they did arrive, and we all clapped ourselves silly when the plane finally took off. I didn’t kiss the ground when I arrived safely in Moncton, but the thought did cross my mind. Instead, I headed home to hug my family!!
Now, I am tackling my last two big deadlines for May 1st... then I can’t wait for life to switch to a calmer pace... I have a dragon to finish stitching!
Monday, April 25, 2005
Grounded Dragon Stuck In Toronto
Well.... I never made it home last night to the utter dismay of my girls. The flight to Moncton was cancelled entirely. In an Amazing Race moment, four of us tried to jump on a flight to Halifax and then rent a car to drive to Moncton... but just as we got our luggage back, raced up escalators and went to the head of the Check-in line, they cancelled that flight as well!So I got on a hotel shuttle and spent another night in a Toronto hotel room. At least I got some stitching done! I just can't wait to hug my family!!!! By 4:00 pm today I should be there.. they created a new flight just for all us strays. I certainly wish this dragon had wings of her own!!
Well.... I never made it home last night to the utter dismay of my girls. The flight to Moncton was cancelled entirely. In an Amazing Race moment, four of us tried to jump on a flight to Halifax and then rent a car to drive to Moncton... but just as we got our luggage back, raced up escalators and went to the head of the Check-in line, they cancelled that flight as well!So I got on a hotel shuttle and spent another night in a Toronto hotel room. At least I got some stitching done! I just can't wait to hug my family!!!! By 4:00 pm today I should be there.. they created a new flight just for all us strays. I certainly wish this dragon had wings of her own!!
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Stuck When I Want To Be Home!
I finished teaching my classes at the CSNF in Toronto this afternoon at 4:20 and raced right to the airport to check in for my 6:30 flight home. I was so excited to get a connection that would have me on the ground by 9:30, which meant that Nick could meet me at the airport!
When I arrived here, I discovered that Canjet was flying one plane short... so my flight had been rescheduled to leave here at MIDNIGHT! Wannnnnhhhhh! I can feel for all the scrambling they've had to do, but compared to our experiences in the US this past March Break, flying on Canadian airlines leaves a LOT to be desired... no meal voucher, nada.
Now I'm going to be flying home through icky weather, heavy rain and only getting home sometime after 2:30 pm. There's only one thing to do... go find a comfy seat and stitch!
I can't wait to hug and hold my family once I make it home!!
I finished teaching my classes at the CSNF in Toronto this afternoon at 4:20 and raced right to the airport to check in for my 6:30 flight home. I was so excited to get a connection that would have me on the ground by 9:30, which meant that Nick could meet me at the airport!
When I arrived here, I discovered that Canjet was flying one plane short... so my flight had been rescheduled to leave here at MIDNIGHT! Wannnnnhhhhh! I can feel for all the scrambling they've had to do, but compared to our experiences in the US this past March Break, flying on Canadian airlines leaves a LOT to be desired... no meal voucher, nada.
Now I'm going to be flying home through icky weather, heavy rain and only getting home sometime after 2:30 pm. There's only one thing to do... go find a comfy seat and stitch!
I can't wait to hug and hold my family once I make it home!!
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Toronto Bound...
I get on the plane tomorrow morning at 6 am to fly up to Toronto for the Spring Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival. I’ve survived the barfies and 2 week queasies that came with that rotten flu, celebrated both my girls’ birthdays, finished another major graphics assignment, nursed everyone else in the family through another round of head colds and tried to keep on top of things with what still feels like only half of my regular energy.
I had to admit to myself after the flu that “Dragon of the Deeps” was NOT going to be ready for Toronto. It was so hard to feel like I had “failed” a deadline of my own making... but the design is turning out so much better than I expected that I refuse to cut corners and rush it. The border just “sings” and I think I might even like it better than the one in Moonlight Guardian! I know that I can release it through Hoffman for the June show in Columbus.... but it still feels strange. A decade ago, I would have gone the week or two on 3 hours sleep a night to get it done. Does that make me wiser now or less single-minded?
Mum and John are here to help with the girls while I am away, especially important since the teachers are on Work To Rule and the daily schedules are all wonky. Bethany isn’t quite as sad... or wasn’t until I tucked her into bed tonight. How do I explain to her that as much as I love her, I also really enjoy the time being away and “ON” like I get to be at these shows. Meeting stitchers and spending time amid so many different crafts is one of the most wonderful things about the Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival. It is unlike any show I have ever attended. I get SO inspired to try crafts of all kinds... that I hope my inner batteries get a real boost.
Once I get through May 1st, I hope life will return to a more reasonable pace and I can catch up on all my e-mail. I guess the April Fool’s joke is that my website got stuck in a time warp of that weekend for the whole month!
I get on the plane tomorrow morning at 6 am to fly up to Toronto for the Spring Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival. I’ve survived the barfies and 2 week queasies that came with that rotten flu, celebrated both my girls’ birthdays, finished another major graphics assignment, nursed everyone else in the family through another round of head colds and tried to keep on top of things with what still feels like only half of my regular energy.
I had to admit to myself after the flu that “Dragon of the Deeps” was NOT going to be ready for Toronto. It was so hard to feel like I had “failed” a deadline of my own making... but the design is turning out so much better than I expected that I refuse to cut corners and rush it. The border just “sings” and I think I might even like it better than the one in Moonlight Guardian! I know that I can release it through Hoffman for the June show in Columbus.... but it still feels strange. A decade ago, I would have gone the week or two on 3 hours sleep a night to get it done. Does that make me wiser now or less single-minded?
Mum and John are here to help with the girls while I am away, especially important since the teachers are on Work To Rule and the daily schedules are all wonky. Bethany isn’t quite as sad... or wasn’t until I tucked her into bed tonight. How do I explain to her that as much as I love her, I also really enjoy the time being away and “ON” like I get to be at these shows. Meeting stitchers and spending time amid so many different crafts is one of the most wonderful things about the Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival. It is unlike any show I have ever attended. I get SO inspired to try crafts of all kinds... that I hope my inner batteries get a real boost.
Once I get through May 1st, I hope life will return to a more reasonable pace and I can catch up on all my e-mail. I guess the April Fool’s joke is that my website got stuck in a time warp of that weekend for the whole month!
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
I HATE Being A Barfy Dragon!
Yesterday was horrid. The one thing I hate most in the world is being sick to my stomach. For some reason, when I had all the morning sickness while carrying Bethany inside me and gallbladder attacks during my pregnancy with Erin, the nerve that triggers the gag reflex got out of whack. If I am sick to my stomach at all, it just keeps going and going and going.
I know to get myself right to the hospital, so once we got our girls to the neighbours for breakfast and off to school, Nick drove me right to Emergency before heading off to work. I will say this for our medical system - if you are being violently ill to your stomach, they get you off into a room rather quickly!
Since it has been over a year since my last “barfy adventure”, the standing order for Maxoran was no longer on file. It actually took two separate drugs in two sequential IVs to shut everything down and made for a very long morning in a short hospital bed.
Once I was released, I crawled into bed and pretty much stayed there until this afternoon. I stirred my own bubbles out of the glass of ginger ale... but it’s not quite the same as having your mom do it. Funny how easy it is to feel like a little kid when you are sick. The girls were actually a big help because they knew I just wasn’t up to much.
I hope I can curl up on the couch and stitch a bit tonight.
Yesterday was horrid. The one thing I hate most in the world is being sick to my stomach. For some reason, when I had all the morning sickness while carrying Bethany inside me and gallbladder attacks during my pregnancy with Erin, the nerve that triggers the gag reflex got out of whack. If I am sick to my stomach at all, it just keeps going and going and going.
I know to get myself right to the hospital, so once we got our girls to the neighbours for breakfast and off to school, Nick drove me right to Emergency before heading off to work. I will say this for our medical system - if you are being violently ill to your stomach, they get you off into a room rather quickly!
Since it has been over a year since my last “barfy adventure”, the standing order for Maxoran was no longer on file. It actually took two separate drugs in two sequential IVs to shut everything down and made for a very long morning in a short hospital bed.
Once I was released, I crawled into bed and pretty much stayed there until this afternoon. I stirred my own bubbles out of the glass of ginger ale... but it’s not quite the same as having your mom do it. Funny how easy it is to feel like a little kid when you are sick. The girls were actually a big help because they knew I just wasn’t up to much.
I hope I can curl up on the couch and stitch a bit tonight.
Monday, March 21, 2005
Of Floods and Stresses, Swim Badges, Pant Hems and Hamsters!
What an odd mix in the title .... I know. Coming back from vacation is always a bit stressful as you have to leave behind the carefree days of very little schedules and structure to jump back full tilt into activities, responsibilities and MOUNTAINS of laundry, but last week was so wild that I didn’t even have my computer on for 48 hours!!
We arrived home half a day later than expected, having volunteered to be bumped on an overbooked flight from Detroit to Bangor, Maine, thus earning our tickets for next year’s Spring Break, only to find a note from our cleaning ladies telling us that our basement had flooded! There had been a rain storm with high winds on ground that was still very frozen, so much of the water around the city had almost nowhere to go. They’d managed to catch the worst of it in my office and the family room with the wet/dry vacuum and set the dehumidifier running, but I still lost a few boxes of product to some water damage for stuff that had been down on the floor. I also wanted to be sure that everything was nice and dry before powering up either computer! I guess we were lucky compared to some of the people in town who actually had INCHES of water in the basement instead of just puddles, but it made coming home to reality a bit more abrupt than we wanted.
As soon as the computers were back on, I jumped right back into a huge assignment for one client with two complex layouts and way too much information to fit in them. Nick also had a week at school with the principal out on preretirement leave, but neither of the 3 Vice-Principals really in charge of more than their own section. Murphy’s Law demands that that’s when everything will go “snakey-bananas” right?? Right!
By Friday, we were all feeling tired from a week back, so we had a fun family evening to relax. Saturday morning, both girls were tested during their last swim lesson of this session and passed their levels with flying colours. Bethany completed Level 3 in the red cross series while Erin passed Level 9!
After lunch on Saturday, we took Nick off for some much needed wardrobe upgrading and found a wonderful outfit for his job interview today. He is applying for a Principalship of an elementary school here in town for next year and is both thrilled and nervous to have the interview fall on this, his birthday. The pants of the outfit needed to be hemmed right away, so we took a walk to the pet store in the same complex to see what they had.
I’ve been missing Nipper incredibly since her passing after Christmas, but we wanted to get through March Break before adding a new hamster to the household. The shop where we’d purchased Nipper had a litter of babies that were almost ready for sale, but they would be one step even more inbred than Nipper since it was two of her siblings that mated. Diabetes being so hereditary in Dwarf Hamsters, I just wasn’t willing to take that chance again. It hurts too much to say goodbye to them when they die so quickly!
We saw one little dwarf hamster in a cage all by itself (or so we thought) and asked the clerk if we could see it up close. She smiled and told us that this new batch had just arrived from the breeder and were VERY friendly! She poked the bedding and revealed a few more fast asleep, but the little one we’d been watching walked right over to her and climbed into her hand! She handed him to me and he promptly tried to climb right up my coat sleeve with nary a nip or nibble!! What a change from Nipper who certainly lived up to her name and only achieved marginal tameness at best. He clambered out of my hand to Erin’s and then back into mine, sniffing everything in sight, and we just beamed at the store clerk and yelled “SOLD!” All the way home, he kept sticking the tip of his nose out of the holes in the box to sniff the air and “wuffle” his nose about, so Wuffles he became. He is the friendliest little fur ball I have ever seen and even Nick has held him!
Welcome to our home, Wuffles!!!
What an odd mix in the title .... I know. Coming back from vacation is always a bit stressful as you have to leave behind the carefree days of very little schedules and structure to jump back full tilt into activities, responsibilities and MOUNTAINS of laundry, but last week was so wild that I didn’t even have my computer on for 48 hours!!
We arrived home half a day later than expected, having volunteered to be bumped on an overbooked flight from Detroit to Bangor, Maine, thus earning our tickets for next year’s Spring Break, only to find a note from our cleaning ladies telling us that our basement had flooded! There had been a rain storm with high winds on ground that was still very frozen, so much of the water around the city had almost nowhere to go. They’d managed to catch the worst of it in my office and the family room with the wet/dry vacuum and set the dehumidifier running, but I still lost a few boxes of product to some water damage for stuff that had been down on the floor. I also wanted to be sure that everything was nice and dry before powering up either computer! I guess we were lucky compared to some of the people in town who actually had INCHES of water in the basement instead of just puddles, but it made coming home to reality a bit more abrupt than we wanted.
As soon as the computers were back on, I jumped right back into a huge assignment for one client with two complex layouts and way too much information to fit in them. Nick also had a week at school with the principal out on preretirement leave, but neither of the 3 Vice-Principals really in charge of more than their own section. Murphy’s Law demands that that’s when everything will go “snakey-bananas” right?? Right!
By Friday, we were all feeling tired from a week back, so we had a fun family evening to relax. Saturday morning, both girls were tested during their last swim lesson of this session and passed their levels with flying colours. Bethany completed Level 3 in the red cross series while Erin passed Level 9!
After lunch on Saturday, we took Nick off for some much needed wardrobe upgrading and found a wonderful outfit for his job interview today. He is applying for a Principalship of an elementary school here in town for next year and is both thrilled and nervous to have the interview fall on this, his birthday. The pants of the outfit needed to be hemmed right away, so we took a walk to the pet store in the same complex to see what they had.
I’ve been missing Nipper incredibly since her passing after Christmas, but we wanted to get through March Break before adding a new hamster to the household. The shop where we’d purchased Nipper had a litter of babies that were almost ready for sale, but they would be one step even more inbred than Nipper since it was two of her siblings that mated. Diabetes being so hereditary in Dwarf Hamsters, I just wasn’t willing to take that chance again. It hurts too much to say goodbye to them when they die so quickly!
We saw one little dwarf hamster in a cage all by itself (or so we thought) and asked the clerk if we could see it up close. She smiled and told us that this new batch had just arrived from the breeder and were VERY friendly! She poked the bedding and revealed a few more fast asleep, but the little one we’d been watching walked right over to her and climbed into her hand! She handed him to me and he promptly tried to climb right up my coat sleeve with nary a nip or nibble!! What a change from Nipper who certainly lived up to her name and only achieved marginal tameness at best. He clambered out of my hand to Erin’s and then back into mine, sniffing everything in sight, and we just beamed at the store clerk and yelled “SOLD!” All the way home, he kept sticking the tip of his nose out of the holes in the box to sniff the air and “wuffle” his nose about, so Wuffles he became. He is the friendliest little fur ball I have ever seen and even Nick has held him!
Welcome to our home, Wuffles!!!
Friday, March 04, 2005
Taking Time To Be...
The chaos of post Nashville has finally calmed down just a bit and everyone is on the mend from the colds, asthma attacks and general mayhem. I’ve managed to nurse everyone back to health without getting more than the sniffles.
Now, as everyone else in my family will be enjoying March Break, it is time for me to unplug from the world a bit and just take the time to be...
...time to be with my family and remember that they come first.
...time to just lose myself in the pleasure of trying out a box of new crayons in a colouring book or just drawing in my sketchbook for the sheer pleasure of it instead of to come up with ideas.
...time to catch up on sleep.
...time to laugh more with my kids.
...time to spend evenings with my husband where neither of us are batching leaflets as we chat.
...time to go out to a movie or dinner or maybe both!
...time to recharge my hug batteries.
...time to just watch the world around me go by and not fill every moment with things to do or deadlines to meet.
I think I am going to enjoy this!
The chaos of post Nashville has finally calmed down just a bit and everyone is on the mend from the colds, asthma attacks and general mayhem. I’ve managed to nurse everyone back to health without getting more than the sniffles.
Now, as everyone else in my family will be enjoying March Break, it is time for me to unplug from the world a bit and just take the time to be...
...time to be with my family and remember that they come first.
...time to just lose myself in the pleasure of trying out a box of new crayons in a colouring book or just drawing in my sketchbook for the sheer pleasure of it instead of to come up with ideas.
...time to catch up on sleep.
...time to laugh more with my kids.
...time to spend evenings with my husband where neither of us are batching leaflets as we chat.
...time to go out to a movie or dinner or maybe both!
...time to recharge my hug batteries.
...time to just watch the world around me go by and not fill every moment with things to do or deadlines to meet.
I think I am going to enjoy this!
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Tired...But Happy!
My ears are still ringing a bit from the concert tonight. Even though it was a Monday night and a school night, it was the Kaylan Porter concert here in town! Erin’s best friend stood in line and bought our tickets when they expanded the venue since we were stuck in swimming lessons that day, so tonight was their first concert experience. It was an enjoyable show, but the seating was so tight that I finally moved back two rows to a section of empty seats where I could put my legs sideways a bit. I could see the expressions on Erin’s face as she and her friend giggled and screamed their way through the evening beside her friend’s mom and grandmother, but I wish I could have shared more of the time with her.
We came home late and I got her tucked into bed before coming down to the office to update the website. I am really proud of the sample chart for HOPE, but I am really ready to crawl into bed now that all the files have been transferred over to the site. I wonder if the snowstorm that’s supposed to barrel down on us soon will keep everyone home for a quiet day tomorrow?? I’ll wait and see...
My ears are still ringing a bit from the concert tonight. Even though it was a Monday night and a school night, it was the Kaylan Porter concert here in town! Erin’s best friend stood in line and bought our tickets when they expanded the venue since we were stuck in swimming lessons that day, so tonight was their first concert experience. It was an enjoyable show, but the seating was so tight that I finally moved back two rows to a section of empty seats where I could put my legs sideways a bit. I could see the expressions on Erin’s face as she and her friend giggled and screamed their way through the evening beside her friend’s mom and grandmother, but I wish I could have shared more of the time with her.
We came home late and I got her tucked into bed before coming down to the office to update the website. I am really proud of the sample chart for HOPE, but I am really ready to crawl into bed now that all the files have been transferred over to the site. I wonder if the snowstorm that’s supposed to barrel down on us soon will keep everyone home for a quiet day tomorrow?? I’ll wait and see...
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
The Struggle To Breathe...
It’s been a rough week since coming back from Nashville. I fought my own cold for a few days, then Bethany’s cold got worse and she spent a few days home with me last week. Erin started to get the sniffles and went for the follow-up visit with our family doctor to see how she was responding to her asthma medicine, then headed off to Winter Guide Camp for the weekend.
Bethany loved being an only child for almost 2 days! She kept grinning and looking around the house saying “I have Mommy and Daddy ALL to myself!” We even took her to a hockey game on Saturday night but had to leave in the middle of the second period when she started to fall asleep against us!
Erin came home from the weekend at winter camp with lots of wonderful memories and stories about tobogganing down “Death Hill”, but her cough was almost nonstop and taking her breath away. We went up to the clinic that night where the doctor on call suggested adding some bronchodilator to help her breathe better and reassured me that when anyone with asthma gets a head cold, it makes the breathing more difficult. We headed home hoping the new medicine would make breathing a bit easier.
Halfway through school on Monday, Erin had to come home. The teacher explained that she was coughing almost nonstop and seemed unable to catch her breath. She was right!! Erin could hardly move without setting off a round of chest-shaking, rattly coughs that left her winded and sore, so as soon as Nick got home to be with Bethany, we headed off to the Emergency Department after the “Tele-care” phone medical service advised us they would probably want to do a chest X-ray to rule out pneumonia or bronchitis.
It was one of those nights when the waiting room at Emergency was a veritable canvas of all that can go wrong in a growing city. We knew that she wouldn’t be as high a priority as breaks or cuts, but there seemed to be an endless supply of accidents, heart attacks and other emergencies coming into the trauma side. At times, over half an hour would go by without anyone new being called down to the non-acute side. I watched the faces of other parents as they waited with sick children, knowing that their expressions of helplessness mirrored my own. It was the most horrible sound hearing her cough so hard behind the mask they’d made her put on as soon as we arrived, knowing that I couldn’t take that pain away or make it any easier to breathe. I watched the resigned look on the faces of the adults, injured or elderly, as they waited for attention that might take hours and hours to receive. It made me angry to think how hard our current Prime Minister campaigned in the last election about improving Health Care and waiting times. How can such a rich country like ours have a health care system that is falling apart at the seams?
We read, we talked, we walked, I knit and wrote in my journal. Finally, almost 5 hours after arriving, we were taken down to one of the non-acute rooms where we waited to see the doctor. Once he examined her and listened to her lungs, he ordered an aerosol mix of medicine and oxygen administered by mask to help stop the coughing spasms and then told us we’d go for the chest X-ray after the medicine. I will never forget watching the panic look in Erin’s eyes as the misty mask closed over her nose and mouth switch to relief as she was suddenly able to take deep lungfulls of air without coughing for the first time in almost 24 hours.
The chest X-ray was clear and the doctor spent a few minutes with me explaining how to modify her medications until she gets through this cold. We arrived home shortly before midnight and I tucked her into bed, glad that she’d be able to sleep better than the night before.
She’s been home with me for 2 days now and slowly getting better as the cold virus works through her system and stops making the asthma worse. It does make me glad that I can rearrange me schedule to work around what she needs... or batch orders beside her as we work on the homework they sent home from school. This will be a learning curve for all of us and I doubt that I will ever take breathing for granted again.
But I have also learned that I would trade my drawing hand, my worldly goods, almost anything short of my soul to keep either of my children from suffering... I hate not being able to “make it better”!!
It’s been a rough week since coming back from Nashville. I fought my own cold for a few days, then Bethany’s cold got worse and she spent a few days home with me last week. Erin started to get the sniffles and went for the follow-up visit with our family doctor to see how she was responding to her asthma medicine, then headed off to Winter Guide Camp for the weekend.
Bethany loved being an only child for almost 2 days! She kept grinning and looking around the house saying “I have Mommy and Daddy ALL to myself!” We even took her to a hockey game on Saturday night but had to leave in the middle of the second period when she started to fall asleep against us!
Erin came home from the weekend at winter camp with lots of wonderful memories and stories about tobogganing down “Death Hill”, but her cough was almost nonstop and taking her breath away. We went up to the clinic that night where the doctor on call suggested adding some bronchodilator to help her breathe better and reassured me that when anyone with asthma gets a head cold, it makes the breathing more difficult. We headed home hoping the new medicine would make breathing a bit easier.
Halfway through school on Monday, Erin had to come home. The teacher explained that she was coughing almost nonstop and seemed unable to catch her breath. She was right!! Erin could hardly move without setting off a round of chest-shaking, rattly coughs that left her winded and sore, so as soon as Nick got home to be with Bethany, we headed off to the Emergency Department after the “Tele-care” phone medical service advised us they would probably want to do a chest X-ray to rule out pneumonia or bronchitis.
It was one of those nights when the waiting room at Emergency was a veritable canvas of all that can go wrong in a growing city. We knew that she wouldn’t be as high a priority as breaks or cuts, but there seemed to be an endless supply of accidents, heart attacks and other emergencies coming into the trauma side. At times, over half an hour would go by without anyone new being called down to the non-acute side. I watched the faces of other parents as they waited with sick children, knowing that their expressions of helplessness mirrored my own. It was the most horrible sound hearing her cough so hard behind the mask they’d made her put on as soon as we arrived, knowing that I couldn’t take that pain away or make it any easier to breathe. I watched the resigned look on the faces of the adults, injured or elderly, as they waited for attention that might take hours and hours to receive. It made me angry to think how hard our current Prime Minister campaigned in the last election about improving Health Care and waiting times. How can such a rich country like ours have a health care system that is falling apart at the seams?
We read, we talked, we walked, I knit and wrote in my journal. Finally, almost 5 hours after arriving, we were taken down to one of the non-acute rooms where we waited to see the doctor. Once he examined her and listened to her lungs, he ordered an aerosol mix of medicine and oxygen administered by mask to help stop the coughing spasms and then told us we’d go for the chest X-ray after the medicine. I will never forget watching the panic look in Erin’s eyes as the misty mask closed over her nose and mouth switch to relief as she was suddenly able to take deep lungfulls of air without coughing for the first time in almost 24 hours.
The chest X-ray was clear and the doctor spent a few minutes with me explaining how to modify her medications until she gets through this cold. We arrived home shortly before midnight and I tucked her into bed, glad that she’d be able to sleep better than the night before.
She’s been home with me for 2 days now and slowly getting better as the cold virus works through her system and stops making the asthma worse. It does make me glad that I can rearrange me schedule to work around what she needs... or batch orders beside her as we work on the homework they sent home from school. This will be a learning curve for all of us and I doubt that I will ever take breathing for granted again.
But I have also learned that I would trade my drawing hand, my worldly goods, almost anything short of my soul to keep either of my children from suffering... I hate not being able to “make it better”!!
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
There’s No Place Like Home....But Getting There Bites Without Ruby Slippers!
I’m home from Nashville and finally coherent after a day of mostly sleeping and fighting some nasty cold/flu symptoms. Quite a few of us at the show were hacking, stuffy and scratchy-eyed by the end of the weekend, so perhaps it was something with the climate system... or just that you get so tired getting ready for a show like this, you are more prone to germs.
The show was a blast! We had a great response to the Fantasy Faire pieces for 2005 and people seemed a little less shocked to see us all in full garb this year. We did make a very impressive bunch as we walked down to breakfast the first morning in everything from leather and swords to velvet and satin. As soon as I get some of the pictures from folks with digital cameras, I will try to add them to the site. The response to the new designs was great as well and I am hoping to put them up on the site by the end of the week.
Traveling back and forth to the show was NOT fun. Going out, I was just ahead of a snowstorm and the plane took off 2 hours late, so I had very little time in Toronto to get through customs and onto my next plane. Luckily it hadn’t been a tight connection or I would not have made it to Nashville!! Coming home, I ran into ice rain through Chicago and Toronto, so the flights were late and the turbulence pretty icky. I got home about an hour later than they’d scheduled. My big plastic tote on wheels was also smashed beyond repair. One handle got sheared off completely and the top lid was cracked in several places. Thank goodness the models weren’t in there since I sent them on to A Stitch In Time where we will be visiting in just over 2 weeks! We had to tape it shut in Toronto with bright Orange tape that read DEFECTIVE on it. I felt like screaming at them “You are the ones who made it that way!” but there wasn’t time to raise a fuss in TO when I had a connection to make. Nick had a good laugh as I dragged my “defective” trunk over to the counter in Moncton and filed my report.... but it WAS Valentine’s Day, so he didn’t try to tape any scraps of that to my butt. Instead, there was a lovely pair of earrings waiting for me in a little velvet box on the seat of the van and the girls took me out to dinner. We settled for something fast because I was SO tired. I was fast asleep before 10 last night and went right back to bed once I got the girls on the bus this morning.
Tomorrow, I will spend unpacking, sorting, filing and getting the site updated as quickly as possible with the new releases. Boy, it is good to be home!!!
I’m home from Nashville and finally coherent after a day of mostly sleeping and fighting some nasty cold/flu symptoms. Quite a few of us at the show were hacking, stuffy and scratchy-eyed by the end of the weekend, so perhaps it was something with the climate system... or just that you get so tired getting ready for a show like this, you are more prone to germs.
The show was a blast! We had a great response to the Fantasy Faire pieces for 2005 and people seemed a little less shocked to see us all in full garb this year. We did make a very impressive bunch as we walked down to breakfast the first morning in everything from leather and swords to velvet and satin. As soon as I get some of the pictures from folks with digital cameras, I will try to add them to the site. The response to the new designs was great as well and I am hoping to put them up on the site by the end of the week.
Traveling back and forth to the show was NOT fun. Going out, I was just ahead of a snowstorm and the plane took off 2 hours late, so I had very little time in Toronto to get through customs and onto my next plane. Luckily it hadn’t been a tight connection or I would not have made it to Nashville!! Coming home, I ran into ice rain through Chicago and Toronto, so the flights were late and the turbulence pretty icky. I got home about an hour later than they’d scheduled. My big plastic tote on wheels was also smashed beyond repair. One handle got sheared off completely and the top lid was cracked in several places. Thank goodness the models weren’t in there since I sent them on to A Stitch In Time where we will be visiting in just over 2 weeks! We had to tape it shut in Toronto with bright Orange tape that read DEFECTIVE on it. I felt like screaming at them “You are the ones who made it that way!” but there wasn’t time to raise a fuss in TO when I had a connection to make. Nick had a good laugh as I dragged my “defective” trunk over to the counter in Moncton and filed my report.... but it WAS Valentine’s Day, so he didn’t try to tape any scraps of that to my butt. Instead, there was a lovely pair of earrings waiting for me in a little velvet box on the seat of the van and the girls took me out to dinner. We settled for something fast because I was SO tired. I was fast asleep before 10 last night and went right back to bed once I got the girls on the bus this morning.
Tomorrow, I will spend unpacking, sorting, filing and getting the site updated as quickly as possible with the new releases. Boy, it is good to be home!!!
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Nashville Bound.....
Well, I am pretty much packed and ready to go. I’ll get the girls on the bus this morning and come home to check through my list one last time before heading to the airport for about 10 am. I am ahead of the snowstorm that is headed our way, but still not sure if that will make going through Toronto any trickier. We are supposed to get most of the snow late this afternoon and into tomorrow, so I am very glad to be leaving this morning.
My hair is now red with highlights to add some fun and punch to the weekend with the sword. I love changing my hair style or colour to suit my moods!!!
Regardless of how this show goes, it is fun to see fellow designers and shop owners who have grown to be friends over the years. Working “in isolation” though connected to the whole world is a bit weird for an extrovert, so it is fun to have weekends like this where I get to totally immerse myself in activity and crowds... then come home to rest and be creative again.
Time to get some girls ready for the school bus!!
Well, I am pretty much packed and ready to go. I’ll get the girls on the bus this morning and come home to check through my list one last time before heading to the airport for about 10 am. I am ahead of the snowstorm that is headed our way, but still not sure if that will make going through Toronto any trickier. We are supposed to get most of the snow late this afternoon and into tomorrow, so I am very glad to be leaving this morning.
My hair is now red with highlights to add some fun and punch to the weekend with the sword. I love changing my hair style or colour to suit my moods!!!
Regardless of how this show goes, it is fun to see fellow designers and shop owners who have grown to be friends over the years. Working “in isolation” though connected to the whole world is a bit weird for an extrovert, so it is fun to have weekends like this where I get to totally immerse myself in activity and crowds... then come home to rest and be creative again.
Time to get some girls ready for the school bus!!
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Luckily I Love What I Do...
When worlds collide......... I just finished saving all of the illustration files, fonts, etc. to CD for the illustration/design job I have been working on since early December. Almost every deadline I had tried to set with this client (in order for things not to clash with Nashville) was ignored, so here I am less than 48 hours before my major trade show of the season, burning the midnight oil on something other than my own stuff.
Luckily I am pleased with how these illustrations look... but I am too tired to really do any back flips. I still have to pack tomorrow so that it won’t be another late night before I go. Yawn.... off to bed at last!!!
When worlds collide......... I just finished saving all of the illustration files, fonts, etc. to CD for the illustration/design job I have been working on since early December. Almost every deadline I had tried to set with this client (in order for things not to clash with Nashville) was ignored, so here I am less than 48 hours before my major trade show of the season, burning the midnight oil on something other than my own stuff.
Luckily I am pleased with how these illustrations look... but I am too tired to really do any back flips. I still have to pack tomorrow so that it won’t be another late night before I go. Yawn.... off to bed at last!!!
Monday, February 07, 2005
B is for Bethany... B is for BARF!!!
It’s the sound that every parent dreads... the sound of their child being sick in the night. I was still downstairs in the living room, around 1 am Sunday morning, signing and numbering charts for our Limited Edition design being released in Nashville when I heard that horrible sound of someone being violently ill. I raced up the stairs to discover Bethany on her hands and knees in bed wailing because she’d just barfed all over “Monster” her favourite stuffed animal!
Having been so violently ill during both pregnancies, I can totally sympathize with those gut-wrenching heaves that leave you breathless, but I also am totally paranoid about being sick myself because that reflex got so damaged it can no longer shut down on its own. Once I start, I need a drug called Maxoran to turn it off, which is only available in an IV here in Canada... so I usually let Nick do Barf Patrol.
This time, I was the one wide awake and available, so I helped Bethany get to the bathroom and began cleanup duty while she stayed near a toilet. I kept having flashbacks to how wonderful it felt to be taken care of by my mom when I was sick as a child... and they were warring with the voice in my head screaming “Oh my gosh! This is SO gross!! This has to be one of the ickiest things about being a parent now that diaper changing is over!! How did this much stuff come out of such a small tummy... Ewww! What is that??...How will I ever get Monster clean again?? What if I start barfing before Nashville?? Where is the Lysol?? Oh please let me get through this! Make it go away!!”
I finally woke Nick to get his help because we needed to clean right down to the mattress. Then I had to wake Sue in the basement to put everything in to soak. A very good friend of ours (one of my “Twisted Sisters”) stays with us overnight every second month when her kids have custody with his parents here in town. I’m not sure she signed up for that type of wake-up call when she checked in for the weekend, but we’ve seen each other through much worse!
I got our Barfy Bunny info some new jammies and back into a clean bed. There were a few tears about not having her purple teddy to snuggle with but I assured her that Monster would be all clean and fluffy by the following night. I then changed into my own jammies after scrubbing myself with antibacterial soap and tried to get to sleep.
Any Mom or Dad will know that when your child is sick, you sleep with one ear open, listening for them, so I was able to get up with Bethany the next 4 times before the waves finally stopped and my poor barfy princess was able to sleep at last. The skin on my hands was looking a little raw from all the antibacterial soap and scrubbing... so I slathered on the moisturizer and got some sleep.
It’s now Monday morning and Bethany is feeling fine. Like most flu bugs, it swept through her and was gone in less than 24 hours. I got her off to school with Erin and have started to pack for Nashville.... hoping that there won’t be a Barfy Dragon before then!!
It’s the sound that every parent dreads... the sound of their child being sick in the night. I was still downstairs in the living room, around 1 am Sunday morning, signing and numbering charts for our Limited Edition design being released in Nashville when I heard that horrible sound of someone being violently ill. I raced up the stairs to discover Bethany on her hands and knees in bed wailing because she’d just barfed all over “Monster” her favourite stuffed animal!
Having been so violently ill during both pregnancies, I can totally sympathize with those gut-wrenching heaves that leave you breathless, but I also am totally paranoid about being sick myself because that reflex got so damaged it can no longer shut down on its own. Once I start, I need a drug called Maxoran to turn it off, which is only available in an IV here in Canada... so I usually let Nick do Barf Patrol.
This time, I was the one wide awake and available, so I helped Bethany get to the bathroom and began cleanup duty while she stayed near a toilet. I kept having flashbacks to how wonderful it felt to be taken care of by my mom when I was sick as a child... and they were warring with the voice in my head screaming “Oh my gosh! This is SO gross!! This has to be one of the ickiest things about being a parent now that diaper changing is over!! How did this much stuff come out of such a small tummy... Ewww! What is that??...How will I ever get Monster clean again?? What if I start barfing before Nashville?? Where is the Lysol?? Oh please let me get through this! Make it go away!!”
I finally woke Nick to get his help because we needed to clean right down to the mattress. Then I had to wake Sue in the basement to put everything in to soak. A very good friend of ours (one of my “Twisted Sisters”) stays with us overnight every second month when her kids have custody with his parents here in town. I’m not sure she signed up for that type of wake-up call when she checked in for the weekend, but we’ve seen each other through much worse!
I got our Barfy Bunny info some new jammies and back into a clean bed. There were a few tears about not having her purple teddy to snuggle with but I assured her that Monster would be all clean and fluffy by the following night. I then changed into my own jammies after scrubbing myself with antibacterial soap and tried to get to sleep.
Any Mom or Dad will know that when your child is sick, you sleep with one ear open, listening for them, so I was able to get up with Bethany the next 4 times before the waves finally stopped and my poor barfy princess was able to sleep at last. The skin on my hands was looking a little raw from all the antibacterial soap and scrubbing... so I slathered on the moisturizer and got some sleep.
It’s now Monday morning and Bethany is feeling fine. Like most flu bugs, it swept through her and was gone in less than 24 hours. I got her off to school with Erin and have started to pack for Nashville.... hoping that there won’t be a Barfy Dragon before then!!
Friday, February 04, 2005
Goodbye Nipper!
Nipper did pass away peacefully in her sleep. We woke up to check on her yesterday morning and though the soft, furry little body was still there, the spark was gone along with her life's breath.
I have just finished washing her cage pieces and taking it apart to put away until we add another little furry bundle to our lives in a few months. It was hard to do and yet wonderful closure as well. Harder yet is to see her box every time I open the freezer.
I can hear the “ewwws” right now. It will be winter here for quite a few more months and the ground is far too frozen for a proper burial. I had wanted to take Nipper’s body out to the vast woods near our house and find a little hollow beside a tree to place her in and put a nice rock over the body. She’d always tried so hard to escape while she was alive that I thought she’d appreciate being in the wide outdoors as a final escape... but the kids figured out that some of the other things in the woods might eat their beloved Nipper.
I tried to explain about the body just being a shell... I tried the “Circle of Life” kind of thing from Lion King about food chains... but instead, Nipper is now tucked in a little cardboard box, carefully shrouded in tissue, with a label to mark the box like a headstone. Erin even illustrated around my words.
I finally had to make a drawing to go with my website update because it was such good therapy to draw a dragon cradling a little hamster in her claws as she cries.
Now if I could just stop talking to the hamster that is no longer here.....
Nipper did pass away peacefully in her sleep. We woke up to check on her yesterday morning and though the soft, furry little body was still there, the spark was gone along with her life's breath.
I have just finished washing her cage pieces and taking it apart to put away until we add another little furry bundle to our lives in a few months. It was hard to do and yet wonderful closure as well. Harder yet is to see her box every time I open the freezer.
I can hear the “ewwws” right now. It will be winter here for quite a few more months and the ground is far too frozen for a proper burial. I had wanted to take Nipper’s body out to the vast woods near our house and find a little hollow beside a tree to place her in and put a nice rock over the body. She’d always tried so hard to escape while she was alive that I thought she’d appreciate being in the wide outdoors as a final escape... but the kids figured out that some of the other things in the woods might eat their beloved Nipper.
I tried to explain about the body just being a shell... I tried the “Circle of Life” kind of thing from Lion King about food chains... but instead, Nipper is now tucked in a little cardboard box, carefully shrouded in tissue, with a label to mark the box like a headstone. Erin even illustrated around my words.
I finally had to make a drawing to go with my website update because it was such good therapy to draw a dragon cradling a little hamster in her claws as she cries.
Now if I could just stop talking to the hamster that is no longer here.....
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
To Everything There Is A Season....
Our lives are such a tapestry of light and dark threads, weaving in and out of our life’s design. Today contained so many joys and sorrows, frustrations and blessings that it reminded me how unique and precious each collection of 24 hours truly is. It never passes this way again in quite that combination.
To everything there is a season and sometimes those seasons collide in such holy paradoxes.
...Like finding out that a colleague’s daughter had lost her battle with cancer on the same day Bethany discovered buds on some of our bushes (pretty unheard of here in the Maritimes this early)
...Like hearing some exciting news from my brother and sharing all the joys of their impending addition to the family this summer, but having to cut the call short as my daughters realized that our hamster was dying.
...Like cuddling...really cuddling a tiny, furry body in my hands with ease for the first time because she has always been so hyper and great at biting.
...Like taking such joy in working on an illustration project about such gloomy subjects like Stress, Anxiety and Depression.
... Like working on an anthem at choir tonight that had a whole section in a minor key that made the major resolve that much more beautiful at the end.
...Like hearing from another friend that she too has doubts sometimes because the stuff she creates just looks like “her stuff” to her instead of like the artwork she admires that others create.
...Like feeling far away from family today only to have my sister call with the same urge to hear a voice and feel close despite the miles. Would we have such quality talks if we were in the same city or would we each get busy with our own schedules?
Without contrasts, everything would be a dull average grey existence. Without opening our hearts to love, despite the risk of loss, we would never experience the richness or depth of feelings that we can when we are willing to take risks... to dream impossible dreams.... and to never stop reaching for those stars.
Our lives are such a tapestry of light and dark threads, weaving in and out of our life’s design. Today contained so many joys and sorrows, frustrations and blessings that it reminded me how unique and precious each collection of 24 hours truly is. It never passes this way again in quite that combination.
To everything there is a season and sometimes those seasons collide in such holy paradoxes.
...Like finding out that a colleague’s daughter had lost her battle with cancer on the same day Bethany discovered buds on some of our bushes (pretty unheard of here in the Maritimes this early)
...Like hearing some exciting news from my brother and sharing all the joys of their impending addition to the family this summer, but having to cut the call short as my daughters realized that our hamster was dying.
...Like cuddling...really cuddling a tiny, furry body in my hands with ease for the first time because she has always been so hyper and great at biting.
...Like taking such joy in working on an illustration project about such gloomy subjects like Stress, Anxiety and Depression.
... Like working on an anthem at choir tonight that had a whole section in a minor key that made the major resolve that much more beautiful at the end.
...Like hearing from another friend that she too has doubts sometimes because the stuff she creates just looks like “her stuff” to her instead of like the artwork she admires that others create.
...Like feeling far away from family today only to have my sister call with the same urge to hear a voice and feel close despite the miles. Would we have such quality talks if we were in the same city or would we each get busy with our own schedules?
Without contrasts, everything would be a dull average grey existence. Without opening our hearts to love, despite the risk of loss, we would never experience the richness or depth of feelings that we can when we are willing to take risks... to dream impossible dreams.... and to never stop reaching for those stars.
Monday, January 31, 2005
Being A Ding-A-Ling...
It was two hours that I could have used to do work tonight... but ever since they switched the hand chime practice to Monday nights, right after the girls have Junior Choir, Erin and I have joined the Belles. We played for the first time on Sunday with the full choir and it turned out so well that everyone broke into applause!!
It is fun to learn a new skill. Frustrating at times, but also incredibly joyful and fun. I did learn that I need to ring my chimes left handed. By the end of the day, my right hand is tired from drawing, mousing or stitching and I don’t want to risk any injuries.
I needed the joy of losing myself for that time tonight before I hunker down to finish this illustration assignment that has landed right amid preparations for Nashville due to the client taking Christmas to relax instead of meeting deadlines.
I almost think that we should have to try something new every season... or every year to keep us fresh and having fun. When you think of the awesome amount of information that children learn all the time, perhaps getting our older grey matter to move a bit more would keep us all younger in mind, body and spirit.
I think I like being a ding-a-ling.... though some of those who love me would say that I always have been one!
It was two hours that I could have used to do work tonight... but ever since they switched the hand chime practice to Monday nights, right after the girls have Junior Choir, Erin and I have joined the Belles. We played for the first time on Sunday with the full choir and it turned out so well that everyone broke into applause!!
It is fun to learn a new skill. Frustrating at times, but also incredibly joyful and fun. I did learn that I need to ring my chimes left handed. By the end of the day, my right hand is tired from drawing, mousing or stitching and I don’t want to risk any injuries.
I needed the joy of losing myself for that time tonight before I hunker down to finish this illustration assignment that has landed right amid preparations for Nashville due to the client taking Christmas to relax instead of meeting deadlines.
I almost think that we should have to try something new every season... or every year to keep us fresh and having fun. When you think of the awesome amount of information that children learn all the time, perhaps getting our older grey matter to move a bit more would keep us all younger in mind, body and spirit.
I think I like being a ding-a-ling.... though some of those who love me would say that I always have been one!
Sunday, January 23, 2005
The Storms Of Life...
The winds are howling down the street again like white winter wolves. This is our third blizzard in a week with some of the coldest temperatures we’ve ever seen in between the storms. Certainly a week to make lots of soups, stay inside.
This past week has also been a stormy one in our lives. Friday morning, Nick’s stepfather had to be airlifted to Saint John to the hospital that specializes in cardiac care. Nick left work as soon as he could make arrangements and then drove his Mom down there. By the time they arrived, the hospital has performed some tests and discovered that the blockages they could see didn’t match the level of pain Jerome was experiencing, so they decided to schedule further tests rather than perform surgery. They got him fairly stable, so Nick and his Mom spent Friday night in a local hotel but then woke up to all the storm warnings about today. Since most of the tests needed to wait until Monday, Nick and his mother decided to be snowed in here with us instead of a hotel room there, so they came home late last night and were with us when the blizzard began after church. As soon as the snow stops and the roads are clear, they will head back down to Saint John.
The girls have been great, especially Erin. She is on that brink between child and young woman.... incredibly helpful and wise beyond her years one moment and then a giggly little girl then next... but she has been great to have around.
All of the snow and all of the upheaval have made me do a lot of thinking about the storms that happen in our lives. Unlike the weather radar or forecast, we can’t always know what lies around the corner in our lives. Sometimes they are things which can be prevented or foreseen, but many times they catch us unawares, like a sudden snow squall, mud slide or giant wave.
I have comforted my girls as they wrestled with the mortality of those they love for the first time in a tangible and personal way. I have learned that I can pray in my sleep because I have drifted off in the middle of one prayer only to wake up midway through another. I have rejoiced in the everyday moments of silliness that still happen in the midst of stormy times and I have continued to get ready for the show in Nashville or help with Sparks bowling tournaments and Sunday School or prod Erin to work on her big book report because Life must go on, even in the midst of what feels like total chaos.
Today in the middle of the storm, a flock of tiny birds came to perch on our Mountain Ash and eat some berries. Every time a strong gust of wind would blow one off mid much, they would flap to a different branch and peck at a few more berries. Finally they flew off as a group to seek shelter in a thicker tree, but the storm did not deter them from getting their food. They didn’t wait until it had passed, but just braved it instead to get what they wanted.
One of my favourite posters when I was younger showed a grove of birch trees in the snow and carried the words “A tree which learns to bend with the winds of a storm will not be broken or uprooted.”
I think I shall try to be a flexible tree instead of a solid one... maybe I will lose less branches that way!
The winds are howling down the street again like white winter wolves. This is our third blizzard in a week with some of the coldest temperatures we’ve ever seen in between the storms. Certainly a week to make lots of soups, stay inside.
This past week has also been a stormy one in our lives. Friday morning, Nick’s stepfather had to be airlifted to Saint John to the hospital that specializes in cardiac care. Nick left work as soon as he could make arrangements and then drove his Mom down there. By the time they arrived, the hospital has performed some tests and discovered that the blockages they could see didn’t match the level of pain Jerome was experiencing, so they decided to schedule further tests rather than perform surgery. They got him fairly stable, so Nick and his Mom spent Friday night in a local hotel but then woke up to all the storm warnings about today. Since most of the tests needed to wait until Monday, Nick and his mother decided to be snowed in here with us instead of a hotel room there, so they came home late last night and were with us when the blizzard began after church. As soon as the snow stops and the roads are clear, they will head back down to Saint John.
The girls have been great, especially Erin. She is on that brink between child and young woman.... incredibly helpful and wise beyond her years one moment and then a giggly little girl then next... but she has been great to have around.
All of the snow and all of the upheaval have made me do a lot of thinking about the storms that happen in our lives. Unlike the weather radar or forecast, we can’t always know what lies around the corner in our lives. Sometimes they are things which can be prevented or foreseen, but many times they catch us unawares, like a sudden snow squall, mud slide or giant wave.
I have comforted my girls as they wrestled with the mortality of those they love for the first time in a tangible and personal way. I have learned that I can pray in my sleep because I have drifted off in the middle of one prayer only to wake up midway through another. I have rejoiced in the everyday moments of silliness that still happen in the midst of stormy times and I have continued to get ready for the show in Nashville or help with Sparks bowling tournaments and Sunday School or prod Erin to work on her big book report because Life must go on, even in the midst of what feels like total chaos.
Today in the middle of the storm, a flock of tiny birds came to perch on our Mountain Ash and eat some berries. Every time a strong gust of wind would blow one off mid much, they would flap to a different branch and peck at a few more berries. Finally they flew off as a group to seek shelter in a thicker tree, but the storm did not deter them from getting their food. They didn’t wait until it had passed, but just braved it instead to get what they wanted.
One of my favourite posters when I was younger showed a grove of birch trees in the snow and carried the words “A tree which learns to bend with the winds of a storm will not be broken or uprooted.”
I think I shall try to be a flexible tree instead of a solid one... maybe I will lose less branches that way!
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Once In A While Days.... TWICE!
Monday the winter winds howled down the street and made it almost impossible to see the houses on the other side. The snow whipped sideways in a mad ballet that scoured some spots of the lawn bare and piled huge drifts elsewhere. Since school was canceled and most of the city was at a standstill, we stayed warm and cozy inside as a family. Nick and the girls treated it like the unexpected holiday it was and I puttered around getting stitching and some computer work done. I was a bit leery of the power with the high winds, so I didn’t try to do anything too essential or crucial on the computer.
Tuesday, the sun came out and the mercury plunged! The girls were heartbroken that there was all this new powdery snow but almost -30 Celsius with the wind-chill!!
Today, we woke up to hear that school was canceled because of another storm about to sweep down upon us, but though the skies looked heavy, there wasn’t a flake of snow to be seen. Our school district is the largest one in New Brunswick with over 12,000 of the 16,500 students being bused, so I am glad if they err on the side of caution. There would never be enough buses to get everyone home in a single run if the storm got bad enough to cancel midway through the school day.
Nick’s mother stayed with us overnight because her husband, Nick’s stepfather, had taken a turn for the worse at the hospital and she didn’t want to be 45 minutes from town if the storm hit or he needed her by his side. We all left the house by 9 this morning to sneak in a few errands or hospital visits and by 11:30 am the snow had begun to fall. It is now fast and furiously white again outside our windows, but the girls did get a good play with the neighbourhood friends for half an hour in the fluffy flakes and returned home totally snow covered and soggy as only kids playing in snowdrifts can get.
They are watching some of the DVDs we picked up with their hands curled around mugs of hot chocolate. Nick and his mom are upstairs too, which has given me the time to run downstairs and do a bit more on the computer. Just one chart left to get camera-ready for Nashville, then it is time to print and assemble the stock to take with me in a few weeks.
I sure hope these storms sweeping up the East Coast take a break that weekend!!!
Monday the winter winds howled down the street and made it almost impossible to see the houses on the other side. The snow whipped sideways in a mad ballet that scoured some spots of the lawn bare and piled huge drifts elsewhere. Since school was canceled and most of the city was at a standstill, we stayed warm and cozy inside as a family. Nick and the girls treated it like the unexpected holiday it was and I puttered around getting stitching and some computer work done. I was a bit leery of the power with the high winds, so I didn’t try to do anything too essential or crucial on the computer.
Tuesday, the sun came out and the mercury plunged! The girls were heartbroken that there was all this new powdery snow but almost -30 Celsius with the wind-chill!!
Today, we woke up to hear that school was canceled because of another storm about to sweep down upon us, but though the skies looked heavy, there wasn’t a flake of snow to be seen. Our school district is the largest one in New Brunswick with over 12,000 of the 16,500 students being bused, so I am glad if they err on the side of caution. There would never be enough buses to get everyone home in a single run if the storm got bad enough to cancel midway through the school day.
Nick’s mother stayed with us overnight because her husband, Nick’s stepfather, had taken a turn for the worse at the hospital and she didn’t want to be 45 minutes from town if the storm hit or he needed her by his side. We all left the house by 9 this morning to sneak in a few errands or hospital visits and by 11:30 am the snow had begun to fall. It is now fast and furiously white again outside our windows, but the girls did get a good play with the neighbourhood friends for half an hour in the fluffy flakes and returned home totally snow covered and soggy as only kids playing in snowdrifts can get.
They are watching some of the DVDs we picked up with their hands curled around mugs of hot chocolate. Nick and his mom are upstairs too, which has given me the time to run downstairs and do a bit more on the computer. Just one chart left to get camera-ready for Nashville, then it is time to print and assemble the stock to take with me in a few weeks.
I sure hope these storms sweeping up the East Coast take a break that weekend!!!
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
What’s In A Name....
Sometimes filing systems (or retrieval systems) utterly fail because of a name. I’ve spent the better part of today looking through hard drives and zip disks to try and find the final version of a chart and symbol key I need to get to the printer tomorrow. I finally decided to rechart the darn thing since it was only 60 x 60 stitches... but I’m still frustrated.
Of course I get to blame it all on a very good friend of mine, Letha from Fantasy Crafts, because she is the one who helped cause the title confusion in the first place. I suppose that I should explain a bit...
In a few weeks, those of us taking part in the Fantasy Faire ‘05 at the show in Nashville are each going to launch a limited edition fantasy design. We are each going to print only 1000 of our design for this project and make it available to shops that attend the show. They may reorder from us later until the 1000 are all gone. Each one will be hand numbered (and in my case also signed) so that the stitchers know they have something unique.
So as we sat down this summer to bounce ideas around while sharing a room in Columbus, I explained to my roomies, Letha and Teresa, that I was planning to create my own mythical character that incorporated elements of my favourite fantasy creatures.... but that I was stuck for a title. Letha came up with one that had us all in stitches (though I can’t for the life of me figure out how to share it here without offending someone) and the darn title stuck. While I came up with my own title of “Imagination Knows No Bounds”, the other one kept getting stuck in my brain.... so I have NO idea what I called the file when I put it into the computer before stitching it. I checked under all of the possible variables and titles or combinations I could have come up with and found.... NOTHING!
So now at last, it is recharted and can be imported into the layout program. I have matched colours to the stitched model under my Ott light, double-checked braid colours against the model and my early pencil notes etc.
Sigh! A mind is a terrible thing to misplace. I shall be much more careful naming things from now on!!
I did promise more giggles in these blogs... Here’s a joke from one of Erin’s back issues of Chickadee magazine that had us all groaning at supper a few nights ago...
What is chewy, growls and wears bandages??
A Gummy Mummy!!
Sometimes filing systems (or retrieval systems) utterly fail because of a name. I’ve spent the better part of today looking through hard drives and zip disks to try and find the final version of a chart and symbol key I need to get to the printer tomorrow. I finally decided to rechart the darn thing since it was only 60 x 60 stitches... but I’m still frustrated.
Of course I get to blame it all on a very good friend of mine, Letha from Fantasy Crafts, because she is the one who helped cause the title confusion in the first place. I suppose that I should explain a bit...
In a few weeks, those of us taking part in the Fantasy Faire ‘05 at the show in Nashville are each going to launch a limited edition fantasy design. We are each going to print only 1000 of our design for this project and make it available to shops that attend the show. They may reorder from us later until the 1000 are all gone. Each one will be hand numbered (and in my case also signed) so that the stitchers know they have something unique.
So as we sat down this summer to bounce ideas around while sharing a room in Columbus, I explained to my roomies, Letha and Teresa, that I was planning to create my own mythical character that incorporated elements of my favourite fantasy creatures.... but that I was stuck for a title. Letha came up with one that had us all in stitches (though I can’t for the life of me figure out how to share it here without offending someone) and the darn title stuck. While I came up with my own title of “Imagination Knows No Bounds”, the other one kept getting stuck in my brain.... so I have NO idea what I called the file when I put it into the computer before stitching it. I checked under all of the possible variables and titles or combinations I could have come up with and found.... NOTHING!
So now at last, it is recharted and can be imported into the layout program. I have matched colours to the stitched model under my Ott light, double-checked braid colours against the model and my early pencil notes etc.
Sigh! A mind is a terrible thing to misplace. I shall be much more careful naming things from now on!!
I did promise more giggles in these blogs... Here’s a joke from one of Erin’s back issues of Chickadee magazine that had us all groaning at supper a few nights ago...
What is chewy, growls and wears bandages??
A Gummy Mummy!!
Sunday, January 09, 2005
More Than Just A Symbol...
My finger feels naked. I keep touching my wedding band and missing the special band of 5 diamonds just above it.
Friday night was an awesome workout of Deep Water Running. For anyone who has never tried it, you wear a floatation belt and do all kinds of running, skiing and cycling motions in the water for an hour... and boy can you ever work up a sweat!! Nick and I are absolutely hooked and Erin loves the chance to earn some baby sitting money by staying right in the fitness center's TV room with Bethany while we are in the pool a few meters away.
Saturday morning when I woke up however, my engagement ring snagged on the comforter and I looked down to realize that one of the claws on the outside most diamond had sheared off and that the stone was gone!
Seventeen years ago when Nick and I first began to look at engagement rings, both of us were on a very tight budget. He was working for one of the group homes in the city and trying to supply teach because there just weren’t very many teaching positions available unless you could speak French to teach Immersion. I’d just moved down and found a job at a local radio station writing commercials in the copy department for $13,500 (ONLY because I had a University degree. They’d been hoping to pay someone about $10,000) Most of the engagement rings we’d been looking at seemed way beyond our means when we had a wedding to save for and IKEA or yard sale furniture.
When the local Birks Jewelers has a ring setting sale, where you could look at lots of setting and which stones to put in them, I took along a very special pin that my grandmother, Jet, had left to me. We incorporated five small diamonds from that pin into a ring that I could wear all the time. As an artist, I use my hands all the time and didn’t want something I would have to take off a lot, so we chose a setting that would hopefully stand the wear and tear without snagging on things all the time.
We took it to another jeweler's on Saturday and sent it off for an estimate of how much it would cost to replace that diamond and transfer the other stones to a similar setting. When they looked at the ring with a magnifier, they could see that at least 2 of the other settings were also close to being worn away. I certainly have no intention of losing any more of my “Jet sparklies”.
I suppose I should be impressed that I’ve been married to Nick long enough to wear the ring out before the man... I had the pleasure of knowing I’d been married to him longer than my own parents stayed together last summer... but it is amazing how much I miss wearing my ring! It is one of those perception shifts. I looked at all the new, sparkling rings while we waited at the jewelry store and remembered when MINE looked that new. I don’t really feel as if that much time has passed... and yet I know that Nick and I have also been worn and weathered by over a decade and a half together. Neither of us is quite as shiny and new as we were the night we chose that ring and also purchased a sofa bed - our first piece of furniture we bought TOGETHER.
I’m still not sure which purchase that night terrified us the most!
My finger feels naked. I keep touching my wedding band and missing the special band of 5 diamonds just above it.
Friday night was an awesome workout of Deep Water Running. For anyone who has never tried it, you wear a floatation belt and do all kinds of running, skiing and cycling motions in the water for an hour... and boy can you ever work up a sweat!! Nick and I are absolutely hooked and Erin loves the chance to earn some baby sitting money by staying right in the fitness center's TV room with Bethany while we are in the pool a few meters away.
Saturday morning when I woke up however, my engagement ring snagged on the comforter and I looked down to realize that one of the claws on the outside most diamond had sheared off and that the stone was gone!
Seventeen years ago when Nick and I first began to look at engagement rings, both of us were on a very tight budget. He was working for one of the group homes in the city and trying to supply teach because there just weren’t very many teaching positions available unless you could speak French to teach Immersion. I’d just moved down and found a job at a local radio station writing commercials in the copy department for $13,500 (ONLY because I had a University degree. They’d been hoping to pay someone about $10,000) Most of the engagement rings we’d been looking at seemed way beyond our means when we had a wedding to save for and IKEA or yard sale furniture.
When the local Birks Jewelers has a ring setting sale, where you could look at lots of setting and which stones to put in them, I took along a very special pin that my grandmother, Jet, had left to me. We incorporated five small diamonds from that pin into a ring that I could wear all the time. As an artist, I use my hands all the time and didn’t want something I would have to take off a lot, so we chose a setting that would hopefully stand the wear and tear without snagging on things all the time.
We took it to another jeweler's on Saturday and sent it off for an estimate of how much it would cost to replace that diamond and transfer the other stones to a similar setting. When they looked at the ring with a magnifier, they could see that at least 2 of the other settings were also close to being worn away. I certainly have no intention of losing any more of my “Jet sparklies”.
I suppose I should be impressed that I’ve been married to Nick long enough to wear the ring out before the man... I had the pleasure of knowing I’d been married to him longer than my own parents stayed together last summer... but it is amazing how much I miss wearing my ring! It is one of those perception shifts. I looked at all the new, sparkling rings while we waited at the jewelry store and remembered when MINE looked that new. I don’t really feel as if that much time has passed... and yet I know that Nick and I have also been worn and weathered by over a decade and a half together. Neither of us is quite as shiny and new as we were the night we chose that ring and also purchased a sofa bed - our first piece of furniture we bought TOGETHER.
I’m still not sure which purchase that night terrified us the most!
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Technology Can Be Hard On The Head!!
I am much calmer this morning. Yesterday was a technological nightmare that had me in tears by late last night. We decided to get high-speed internet for my Macs at last since there is a new feature that will let me put our fax number onto the home phone line while still keeping the same fax number I have always had and not tying up the phone line. Technology has changed so much since I first started freelancing a decade ago, but the learning curve can be hard on the head!!!
Our friendly Internet install technician came and spent over 2 hours here! My big desk was too heavy for him to get at the phone jack in the wall to do more than just plug things in, so he had to wire it to the panel to the house. Then it turned out that my new Mac was newer than their install software... but we only figured this out after spending 45 minutes trying to figure out why it wouldn’t respond to what they wanted it to.
I didn’t want to use my new Mac for much on the Internet to keep it safe, but you do have to be able to go on-line now and then to send in registrations etc., so I’d bought a router to let me have both machines get on the Internet at the same time. The only problem is that the Aliant technician couldn’t help (wasn’t his place to do so in the first place) and then the Router instructions didn’t work for the first 2 hours of trying to get my LAN (Local Area Network) set up right. By the time we got the girls to bed, I was ready to eat any chocolate left in the house, pour a big glass of Baileys, cry or beat my head against the older computer’s screen. All of my office furniture was pulled to the middle of the room and what had once been set up just the way I wanted was now in shambles... and still didn’t work.
Those of you who deal with computers and their quirks each day for wiring and networking purposes now have my UTMOST respect!!!
Finally this morning, after calling a Mac wizard and having him fix everything in less than 5 minutes, I am all hooked up.... but I have discovered that I need 16.75 feet of cable to put all my furniture back... and only a 15 ft. cable!
I guess the furniture can stay in the middle of the room until Nick gets home with the car tonight and I can get a 20 ft. cable from the store....
Sword play had to be easier on the head... if not a little more deadly to the body!!!
I am much calmer this morning. Yesterday was a technological nightmare that had me in tears by late last night. We decided to get high-speed internet for my Macs at last since there is a new feature that will let me put our fax number onto the home phone line while still keeping the same fax number I have always had and not tying up the phone line. Technology has changed so much since I first started freelancing a decade ago, but the learning curve can be hard on the head!!!
Our friendly Internet install technician came and spent over 2 hours here! My big desk was too heavy for him to get at the phone jack in the wall to do more than just plug things in, so he had to wire it to the panel to the house. Then it turned out that my new Mac was newer than their install software... but we only figured this out after spending 45 minutes trying to figure out why it wouldn’t respond to what they wanted it to.
I didn’t want to use my new Mac for much on the Internet to keep it safe, but you do have to be able to go on-line now and then to send in registrations etc., so I’d bought a router to let me have both machines get on the Internet at the same time. The only problem is that the Aliant technician couldn’t help (wasn’t his place to do so in the first place) and then the Router instructions didn’t work for the first 2 hours of trying to get my LAN (Local Area Network) set up right. By the time we got the girls to bed, I was ready to eat any chocolate left in the house, pour a big glass of Baileys, cry or beat my head against the older computer’s screen. All of my office furniture was pulled to the middle of the room and what had once been set up just the way I wanted was now in shambles... and still didn’t work.
Those of you who deal with computers and their quirks each day for wiring and networking purposes now have my UTMOST respect!!!
Finally this morning, after calling a Mac wizard and having him fix everything in less than 5 minutes, I am all hooked up.... but I have discovered that I need 16.75 feet of cable to put all my furniture back... and only a 15 ft. cable!
I guess the furniture can stay in the middle of the room until Nick gets home with the car tonight and I can get a 20 ft. cable from the store....
Sword play had to be easier on the head... if not a little more deadly to the body!!!
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
The Ties That Bind Us... And Set Us Free!
It has been an hour now since the house fell completely silent except for the sounds of the washer and dryer going at full tilt and the clickety-clack of my keyboard as I caught up on e-mail in a quiet, empty house.
YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO! (A dragon skids through the living room in her cozy but ugly wool socks on the hardwood floor)
Though it was hard for the girls to leave for school today, knowing that Nanny and Grr would be gone by the time they got home, they knew that they had an April visit to look forward to. MY grandmother, Jet, always insisted on planning the next visit before anyone parted company and I am glad that my Mom and I have both tried to keep up that tradition. It makes saying goodbye much less painful somehow. I still prefer the French expression “A la prochaine...” which means “until the next one”.
I had a hard time saying goodbye to my Mom and stepfather too. It was a great visit this time, especially with the holidays to celebrate, and I will miss being able to hug them in person. I’ll be glad to get back to less sweets in the house because I have almost no willpower when it comes to stuff like candy, ice-cream and chocolate. Losing over 40 pounds with Weight Watchers helped me accept that it was OK to know that I couldn’t be strong and resist certain foods... I just don’t keep them in the house very often to tempt me! I do much better saving them for an occasional treat ... or waiting for when company comes.
This holiday season has also had me thinking about how I define “Family”. Having special men in my life like my stepfather, John, or my step-father-in-law, Jerome, has given us relationships with people who might never have become part of our family if my parents or Nick’s parent had remained married. Here are two men, who despite not being biologically related to either of us, have brought so much extra love, warmth and laughter into our lives and the lives of our daughters. Sometimes ties of the heart can run as deeply as those of blood.
Jerome has been in the hospital for a few days now. It looks as if he will have to have another angeoplasty in Saint John, but there is still no word on when that might be scheduled. After a wonderful Christmas Day and Boxing Day with them, it seems hard to see him winded and weak. Technology is certainly amazing though, so we are hopeful that everything will go smoothly.
I also had the chance to hear from my brother and sister over the holidays as they each celebrated with THEIR families in countries on the other side of the world from me. Some ties run so deeply that even distance cannot disturb that connection.
Yet, as glad as I am to have all these wonderful, loving connections in my life, including those 3 most special people in my life that live right here with me, I am also skipping through the house today and enjoying that quiet head space to get my work done.
YIPPEE! YAHOOOOOO! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!
It has been an hour now since the house fell completely silent except for the sounds of the washer and dryer going at full tilt and the clickety-clack of my keyboard as I caught up on e-mail in a quiet, empty house.
YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO! (A dragon skids through the living room in her cozy but ugly wool socks on the hardwood floor)
Though it was hard for the girls to leave for school today, knowing that Nanny and Grr would be gone by the time they got home, they knew that they had an April visit to look forward to. MY grandmother, Jet, always insisted on planning the next visit before anyone parted company and I am glad that my Mom and I have both tried to keep up that tradition. It makes saying goodbye much less painful somehow. I still prefer the French expression “A la prochaine...” which means “until the next one”.
I had a hard time saying goodbye to my Mom and stepfather too. It was a great visit this time, especially with the holidays to celebrate, and I will miss being able to hug them in person. I’ll be glad to get back to less sweets in the house because I have almost no willpower when it comes to stuff like candy, ice-cream and chocolate. Losing over 40 pounds with Weight Watchers helped me accept that it was OK to know that I couldn’t be strong and resist certain foods... I just don’t keep them in the house very often to tempt me! I do much better saving them for an occasional treat ... or waiting for when company comes.
This holiday season has also had me thinking about how I define “Family”. Having special men in my life like my stepfather, John, or my step-father-in-law, Jerome, has given us relationships with people who might never have become part of our family if my parents or Nick’s parent had remained married. Here are two men, who despite not being biologically related to either of us, have brought so much extra love, warmth and laughter into our lives and the lives of our daughters. Sometimes ties of the heart can run as deeply as those of blood.
Jerome has been in the hospital for a few days now. It looks as if he will have to have another angeoplasty in Saint John, but there is still no word on when that might be scheduled. After a wonderful Christmas Day and Boxing Day with them, it seems hard to see him winded and weak. Technology is certainly amazing though, so we are hopeful that everything will go smoothly.
I also had the chance to hear from my brother and sister over the holidays as they each celebrated with THEIR families in countries on the other side of the world from me. Some ties run so deeply that even distance cannot disturb that connection.
Yet, as glad as I am to have all these wonderful, loving connections in my life, including those 3 most special people in my life that live right here with me, I am also skipping through the house today and enjoying that quiet head space to get my work done.
YIPPEE! YAHOOOOOO! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Tired Of Being A Whiny Dragon....
After the holiday chaos and almost a week without computers while we switch things around in the basement office, I can get back to blogging at last... and yet I don’t really feel like saying much because it feels as if I am always whining.
I posted a notice to a Yahoo group about a copyright abuse today and basically got “trashed” for saying anything. As tempted as I was to reply and repost, I really didn’t want to get into a cyber pissing match with a group who is convinced that they aren’t doing anything wrong.
I think that as I look forward to the next year, I would like to put more of my energies into the things that still bring me joy and explore other aspects of what it is to be creative or seek to create things so that the entries in this blog are more fun to read. For those of you who have slogged through entries with me over this past year... THANK YOU. I promise that in 2005 entries will be shorter, more often and more amusing!!
To give you a grin... here is a cyber version of the much belated verse that is going out to family and friends as our After Christmas Letter!!
As we sat down to scribble out
A charming Christmas letter,
It was so full of blah, blah
That we thought a verse was better.
It’s short and sweet and to the point,
Yet keeps you all updated
On everything that’s going on
And what’s got us so elated.
Bethany has started school
And is learning how to read,
With swimming, Sparks and choir,
She’s a busy girl indeed!
Erin is in a 4-5 split.
She is loving Girl Guides too,
piano, gym and swimming,
plus she measures 5 foot 2!
Nick’s now in Petitcodiac,
As the K to 5 VP,
With a whole wave retiring
Soon a principal he’ll be?????
Jennifer still works from home,
Creating things to stitch,
Yet building on the freelance art,
‘Cause cross stitch has been a ........ little bit slow!
So there you have the year’s big news
We tried hard to keep it terse...
But friends, just like in marriage,
Must take us for Better and Verse!!
After the holiday chaos and almost a week without computers while we switch things around in the basement office, I can get back to blogging at last... and yet I don’t really feel like saying much because it feels as if I am always whining.
I posted a notice to a Yahoo group about a copyright abuse today and basically got “trashed” for saying anything. As tempted as I was to reply and repost, I really didn’t want to get into a cyber pissing match with a group who is convinced that they aren’t doing anything wrong.
I think that as I look forward to the next year, I would like to put more of my energies into the things that still bring me joy and explore other aspects of what it is to be creative or seek to create things so that the entries in this blog are more fun to read. For those of you who have slogged through entries with me over this past year... THANK YOU. I promise that in 2005 entries will be shorter, more often and more amusing!!
To give you a grin... here is a cyber version of the much belated verse that is going out to family and friends as our After Christmas Letter!!
As we sat down to scribble out
A charming Christmas letter,
It was so full of blah, blah
That we thought a verse was better.
It’s short and sweet and to the point,
Yet keeps you all updated
On everything that’s going on
And what’s got us so elated.
Bethany has started school
And is learning how to read,
With swimming, Sparks and choir,
She’s a busy girl indeed!
Erin is in a 4-5 split.
She is loving Girl Guides too,
piano, gym and swimming,
plus she measures 5 foot 2!
Nick’s now in Petitcodiac,
As the K to 5 VP,
With a whole wave retiring
Soon a principal he’ll be?????
Jennifer still works from home,
Creating things to stitch,
Yet building on the freelance art,
‘Cause cross stitch has been a ........ little bit slow!
So there you have the year’s big news
We tried hard to keep it terse...
But friends, just like in marriage,
Must take us for Better and Verse!!
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Deck the Halls with Tons of Patterns....
Be careful what you wish for.... you just might get it.
I had given up on two of my designs being picked up by one of my distributors. After all, I’d sent the samples off in July and never heard a thing. Last Friday, my fax beeped and across came the order, which must be in the USA at its destination on the 28th of December. Yikes!! One of the designs was no problem because No Late Knight Snacking is already printed up, but Dream Sampler is one of the designs which I had only been printing out the covers myself for the chart packs. This works well for anything under 300 of a design because the cost per cover is about the same and I don’t have to carry the inventory around already paid for but waiting to sell. Luckily, the printer I work with was able to find some press time this week and I will hopefully have all the newly printed covers in hand by tomorrow at the latest to batch with the pages and stuff into bags. Since stuff with the chain stores also has to be boxed a certain way (100/box) I also ordered boxes to put them in since chart packs are bigger than the boxes I had made to hold leaflets a few years ago. (That was another learning curve and I will be using up that size box FOREVER!)
So as soon as school is out for the holidays, tomorrow, I am putting my family (along with some of the company we are expecting this weekend) to work so that this second pattern can ship out on Monday. I sent the other one on ahead last night with Purolator because I know how badly the holidays are going to muck up shipping deadlines.
I’ve also been totally enthralled with an illustration project that is certainly getting my hands back in the habit of using pen and pencil instead of needle to capture images. I should hear back from that client about the approval on the pencils tomorrow so that I can move on to adding colour. Yay!
My office looks pretty crowded with patterns waiting to be assembles, so I couldn’t resist the title of today’s blog. One of the hazards of a home based business is that your halls get decked (or blocked) with things other than holly and mistletoe... but next week it will be such fun to sleep in a bit!
Be careful what you wish for.... you just might get it.
I had given up on two of my designs being picked up by one of my distributors. After all, I’d sent the samples off in July and never heard a thing. Last Friday, my fax beeped and across came the order, which must be in the USA at its destination on the 28th of December. Yikes!! One of the designs was no problem because No Late Knight Snacking is already printed up, but Dream Sampler is one of the designs which I had only been printing out the covers myself for the chart packs. This works well for anything under 300 of a design because the cost per cover is about the same and I don’t have to carry the inventory around already paid for but waiting to sell. Luckily, the printer I work with was able to find some press time this week and I will hopefully have all the newly printed covers in hand by tomorrow at the latest to batch with the pages and stuff into bags. Since stuff with the chain stores also has to be boxed a certain way (100/box) I also ordered boxes to put them in since chart packs are bigger than the boxes I had made to hold leaflets a few years ago. (That was another learning curve and I will be using up that size box FOREVER!)
So as soon as school is out for the holidays, tomorrow, I am putting my family (along with some of the company we are expecting this weekend) to work so that this second pattern can ship out on Monday. I sent the other one on ahead last night with Purolator because I know how badly the holidays are going to muck up shipping deadlines.
I’ve also been totally enthralled with an illustration project that is certainly getting my hands back in the habit of using pen and pencil instead of needle to capture images. I should hear back from that client about the approval on the pencils tomorrow so that I can move on to adding colour. Yay!
My office looks pretty crowded with patterns waiting to be assembles, so I couldn’t resist the title of today’s blog. One of the hazards of a home based business is that your halls get decked (or blocked) with things other than holly and mistletoe... but next week it will be such fun to sleep in a bit!
Thursday, December 09, 2004
The Season of Unexpected Gifts...
Sometimes, in this season of lights in the darkness and thoughtful gifts, come presents that just cannot be wrapped in shiny paper. Yesterday was one of those unexpected presents as Mother Nature sent a horrid combination of snow, ice rain and finally huge, fluffy flakes to cover up all the sleet. Schools in most of the Province were closed, so Nick and I got to slip back into dreams under our nice warm duvet as soon as they announced the closures at 6:15 am. I was just surfacing from the last traces of a dream when Erin came barreling into our room two hours later in a panic. She’d just woken up and looked out to see that there wasn’t much snow on the ground, but didn’t see the ice rain. She assumed that we’d all overslept and that she was going to be late for school which was due to start in 5 minutes!
Once the girls realized that they had a snow day, the whoops of joy began. I made them blueberry muffins for breakfast while they hid upstairs practicing a Play that they intended to put on for us as soon as we’d all eaten. Sure enough, they treated us to a hilarious production of “The Odd-Coloured Reindeer” in which Bethany played two roles, her favourite being Rudolf’s odd-coloured daughter. This reindeer was PINK, so she had on one of Erin’s dresses, black socks on her hands and feet for hooves and then the headband antlers that come out with the decorations once a year. Since they were bright red instead of brown, the story was adapted to include the fact that her antlers glowed too!
After they cleaned up the “set”, they moved on to a massive Barbie game in the basement, a session of dress-up where I had to keep encouraging them to put on just a bit more clothing (it wasn’t THAT warm in the basement!) and finally a puzzle session in the living room. Luckily, they cleaned each thing up before moving on, but it was giddily exhausting to watch them play!
I still managed to get quite a bit of work done and even some stitching, but it was fun to have two different kinds of soup simmering on the stove and the sounds of giggles in the background. Nick braved the storm to get a few groceries, but the rest of us just stayed cozy in the house and celebrated this unexpected pause in a most hectic time of the year.
Sometimes, in this season of lights in the darkness and thoughtful gifts, come presents that just cannot be wrapped in shiny paper. Yesterday was one of those unexpected presents as Mother Nature sent a horrid combination of snow, ice rain and finally huge, fluffy flakes to cover up all the sleet. Schools in most of the Province were closed, so Nick and I got to slip back into dreams under our nice warm duvet as soon as they announced the closures at 6:15 am. I was just surfacing from the last traces of a dream when Erin came barreling into our room two hours later in a panic. She’d just woken up and looked out to see that there wasn’t much snow on the ground, but didn’t see the ice rain. She assumed that we’d all overslept and that she was going to be late for school which was due to start in 5 minutes!
Once the girls realized that they had a snow day, the whoops of joy began. I made them blueberry muffins for breakfast while they hid upstairs practicing a Play that they intended to put on for us as soon as we’d all eaten. Sure enough, they treated us to a hilarious production of “The Odd-Coloured Reindeer” in which Bethany played two roles, her favourite being Rudolf’s odd-coloured daughter. This reindeer was PINK, so she had on one of Erin’s dresses, black socks on her hands and feet for hooves and then the headband antlers that come out with the decorations once a year. Since they were bright red instead of brown, the story was adapted to include the fact that her antlers glowed too!
After they cleaned up the “set”, they moved on to a massive Barbie game in the basement, a session of dress-up where I had to keep encouraging them to put on just a bit more clothing (it wasn’t THAT warm in the basement!) and finally a puzzle session in the living room. Luckily, they cleaned each thing up before moving on, but it was giddily exhausting to watch them play!
I still managed to get quite a bit of work done and even some stitching, but it was fun to have two different kinds of soup simmering on the stove and the sounds of giggles in the background. Nick braved the storm to get a few groceries, but the rest of us just stayed cozy in the house and celebrated this unexpected pause in a most hectic time of the year.
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Higher Callings???
After positing my last blog about all the chaos, I can honestly say that I’ve been VERY glad to do what I do from home over the past week. Last Thursday night I didn’t feel well, so once the kids got off to school Friday morning, I crept back home and into bed until Bethany got off the bus that afternoon. I found another instructor to handle my circuit training class for Saturday morning and just slept off an awful flu that consisted of aches, chills and feeling carsick most of the time I was conscious. By Sunday, I was feeling Human again (funny... that expression always makes me think of talking candlesticks and singing clocks since they added the song to the Beauty and the Beast DVD!)
Sunday afternoon, Erin started to come down with it and has been home shivering and feeling miserable for 2 days now. Last night, she handed me a note that told me how glad she was that I worked from home so that I could be there when she was sick.
Yes, I sometimes want to pull my hair out trying to be a wife, mother and small business owner, but in the long run, I wouldn’t walk in anyone else’s shoes. I just got a new illustration assignment that will keep me busy for the next few weeks and give me some great additions to my portfolio... plus I can’t wait to put up some of the surprises for the holidays on my website!
They say there may be a snowstorm or freezing rain storm for tomorrow morning.... Hmmmmm. I wonder how hard my husband and kids will be doing their storm dance??
After positing my last blog about all the chaos, I can honestly say that I’ve been VERY glad to do what I do from home over the past week. Last Thursday night I didn’t feel well, so once the kids got off to school Friday morning, I crept back home and into bed until Bethany got off the bus that afternoon. I found another instructor to handle my circuit training class for Saturday morning and just slept off an awful flu that consisted of aches, chills and feeling carsick most of the time I was conscious. By Sunday, I was feeling Human again (funny... that expression always makes me think of talking candlesticks and singing clocks since they added the song to the Beauty and the Beast DVD!)
Sunday afternoon, Erin started to come down with it and has been home shivering and feeling miserable for 2 days now. Last night, she handed me a note that told me how glad she was that I worked from home so that I could be there when she was sick.
Yes, I sometimes want to pull my hair out trying to be a wife, mother and small business owner, but in the long run, I wouldn’t walk in anyone else’s shoes. I just got a new illustration assignment that will keep me busy for the next few weeks and give me some great additions to my portfolio... plus I can’t wait to put up some of the surprises for the holidays on my website!
They say there may be a snowstorm or freezing rain storm for tomorrow morning.... Hmmmmm. I wonder how hard my husband and kids will be doing their storm dance??
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Of Santa Parades, Crazy Days, Hurt Hamsters and Introspective Moments...
I’m sure that some of you thought I’d disappeared forever. Maybe many of you even stopped checking this page for entries.. I am sorry. I know that when I hide from my journal or my blog, it is because I am wrestling with issues that just can’t make it into words yet. Being glib and funny seem to come very naturally, but the deeper emotions are so much harder to put into words. It is far easier to get caught up in the whirlwind of daily life and not have to think about things too deeply.
November was a very introspective month. With the rise of the Canadian dollar, the exchange on all of my cheques from the USA suddenly became 20% smaller and ate up the margin I normally relied on to cover the added cost of shipping from Canada etc. This, coupled with a soft market right now in cross stitch really made me spend some time questioning what it was I had chosen to do as a career. Nothing like navel gazing to get you stuck in one of those endless loops of self-doubt or rationalizing. Being the optimist, I also hated sounding negative every time I sat down to write an entry in my journal or for the blog. I started this as a way to offer people a better insight into what the life of this designer is really like (as opposed to the millionaire myths that float around some of the pattern trading groups out there!) and so the last thing I wanted entries to turn into was a giant pity party. Introspection and self-analysis are also things that are much harder to do in public that in private.
Spending time thinking and listening for that still small voice that whispers into the quiet of your questions was a big help. When it came right down to it, I knew that I would never walk away from designing cross stitch completely... it was too much darn fun to play with all the fibers!! There are also things that I can do with needle and thread on fabric that I just can’t duplicate in illustration. But... I did realize that I have to be able to adapt the business to my needs instead of running to try to make the business everything. After a LOT of late nights, I decided not to do the show in Columbus next summer because the chaos this year of traveling to a trade show during the last few weeks of school was just too hard. I hate being pulled in half like that between Mom and business woman. One of the most wonderful things about having a distributor is that I CAN release new designs without being there in person. No... it won’t have as much impact as being there to meet shop owners and show off my stuff, but the sense of stress got much better after making that decision.
One of the other hard things to face was the realization that I was going to have to put my prices up a bit for 2005, something I had put off for over 2 years. It’s not going to be a huge jump, but any time things get more expensive instead of less, there is always grumbling. I did just that in the movie line last week when we went to an evening show instead of a matinee. OUCH!
So, as I was doing all this deep introspective thinking, I also threw myself into a few projects. Nothing like making yourself so busy that you don’t have too much time to think!! Erin and Bethany’s school had a float in this year’s Santa Claus Parade, held last weekend, and I had suddenly gone from doing a sketch of what the float could look like to actually painting the props and spray painting drop cloths for side banners in a garage in almost subzero temperatures. We kept the bay door open for ventilation, but I was still a pretty dizzy dragon by the end of 8 banners. They had talked about getting school kids to cut out letters from construction paper and gluing them on to the banners... but since it rained heavily last year, I knew that was not going to be a very good idea. Grabbing a few cans of spray paint, I got into graffiti mode and even put some of the letters backwards since the theme of our float was “THE SOUNDS OF CHRISTMAS OOOOOPS!” We had a house with a chimney and Santa’s boots sticking out, skaters falling down, kids wrapped up in the ribbon from presents, a mom holding a tray of burnt gingerbread men (black foam meat trays cut in gingerbread shapes) and a tree tipping over with a doll sized angel that I made by covering a fabric softener bottle and coat hanger arms with a comical doll stitched from my old pink long underwear. It was the only pink fabric I had in the whole house and no car to go fetch some. Necessity is the mother of invention, but I have warned Nick that a new pair of long underwear might be nice to keep the dragon toasty through the deep dark of winter!! I also learned how to convert sound effects files to mac format and burn them to CD after a production friend of mine mailed me sounds of things breaking to use but in a Windows format! All in all, the time was well spent. Erin had an awesome time singing in the school choir on the float even though it meant repeating the same song for two hours and Queen Elizabeth took first place again in the Elementary/Middle School category!!!
This is the time of year when there are so many events on the calendar that it is hard to remember who needs to go where if you don’t write everything down. Getting things written on the proper day also helps! We had a mini crisis last night because Erin was being enrolled as a Girl Guide, but I had written the event on the wrong week! A quick call to the leader confirmed the real date, but I felt pretty silly admitting I’d written it down wrong!
Amid all this event chaos, we also had the trauma of our hamster Nipper getting hurt! Monday night is garbage night, so in the afternoon, the girls and I always let Nipper out of her cage into a “scurry maze” (made of taped together cereal, pasta and poptart boxes) or into the big rubbermaid bin with a kleenex box house and some toilet paper tubes to crawl through. Last week Erin had also added a Barbie toy castle because it had a little door to crawl through, but I was worried about the steps on it leading to a tiny second level. This time, I asked her to just put in the kleenex box and tubes. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice that the castle was also in there until I turned and saw Nipper on the upper level stuck halfway in trying to go over the crenellations of the castle top. I scooped her up to keep her from falling over and put her down in the bin, only to notice moments later that there was blood!! We got her scooped into her clear ball so that I could try to find out what she had hurt, but her back end and feet were so covered in blood that I couldn’t tell where it was coming from!
By this point, both girls were in absolute tears and hysterics that our hamster was going to die! I put on a thick pair of rubber gloves and managed to get a squealing, nipping hamster onto its back in the palm of my hand to check on her and sure enough there was a laceration right in her groin area where she’d gotten stuck on the castle. OUCH! Erin began to wail at this point because she felt guilty but I popped the hamster into the carry box we used to bring her home from the pet store and began to comb the yellow pages for a vet who handled smaller animals. I discovered that Dwarf Hamsters fall under the “exotic” category and made an appointment to visit one across town, then called the cab company. Traffic being what it is in our city from 4 - 5pm, the taxi pulled in almost 35 minutes later (35 very LONG, tear-filled, box-scrabbling, hamster in box in Bethany’s hat to keep it warm minutes) right behind Nick’s van. Imagine getting home from a hard day’s work to two hysterical daughters trying to tell you about a bleeding rodent (a type of animal you have a barely contained loathing for anyway) and how we need to go RIGHT AWAY to the vet. Poor Nick!
We got Nipper seen by the vet and his two assistants (one to examine, two to hold) and were told that she was too tiny for stitches in that area or a bandage (since other things need to be able to get out) but given good tips on how to care for her and what to watch out for. Nipper spent two nights in a rubbermaid tote lined with a soft towel and kleenex box to hide in, but moved back to her cage this morning and has been running on her wheel like crazy. She is eating and drinking well, so we’ll just hope things work out for the best. It is funny how quickly we get attached to our furry little friends.
So there you have most of the crazies of the past month in a nutshell. I’m still going to be designing cross stitch... in fact I am absolutely hooked on stitching the border for my new Dragon of the Deeps... but I have also wanted to do illustration from the time I was 11. It is time to chase that dream as well and diversify a bit.
Life is just too short not to try chasing your dreams with all that is within you.
I’m sure that some of you thought I’d disappeared forever. Maybe many of you even stopped checking this page for entries.. I am sorry. I know that when I hide from my journal or my blog, it is because I am wrestling with issues that just can’t make it into words yet. Being glib and funny seem to come very naturally, but the deeper emotions are so much harder to put into words. It is far easier to get caught up in the whirlwind of daily life and not have to think about things too deeply.
November was a very introspective month. With the rise of the Canadian dollar, the exchange on all of my cheques from the USA suddenly became 20% smaller and ate up the margin I normally relied on to cover the added cost of shipping from Canada etc. This, coupled with a soft market right now in cross stitch really made me spend some time questioning what it was I had chosen to do as a career. Nothing like navel gazing to get you stuck in one of those endless loops of self-doubt or rationalizing. Being the optimist, I also hated sounding negative every time I sat down to write an entry in my journal or for the blog. I started this as a way to offer people a better insight into what the life of this designer is really like (as opposed to the millionaire myths that float around some of the pattern trading groups out there!) and so the last thing I wanted entries to turn into was a giant pity party. Introspection and self-analysis are also things that are much harder to do in public that in private.
Spending time thinking and listening for that still small voice that whispers into the quiet of your questions was a big help. When it came right down to it, I knew that I would never walk away from designing cross stitch completely... it was too much darn fun to play with all the fibers!! There are also things that I can do with needle and thread on fabric that I just can’t duplicate in illustration. But... I did realize that I have to be able to adapt the business to my needs instead of running to try to make the business everything. After a LOT of late nights, I decided not to do the show in Columbus next summer because the chaos this year of traveling to a trade show during the last few weeks of school was just too hard. I hate being pulled in half like that between Mom and business woman. One of the most wonderful things about having a distributor is that I CAN release new designs without being there in person. No... it won’t have as much impact as being there to meet shop owners and show off my stuff, but the sense of stress got much better after making that decision.
One of the other hard things to face was the realization that I was going to have to put my prices up a bit for 2005, something I had put off for over 2 years. It’s not going to be a huge jump, but any time things get more expensive instead of less, there is always grumbling. I did just that in the movie line last week when we went to an evening show instead of a matinee. OUCH!
So, as I was doing all this deep introspective thinking, I also threw myself into a few projects. Nothing like making yourself so busy that you don’t have too much time to think!! Erin and Bethany’s school had a float in this year’s Santa Claus Parade, held last weekend, and I had suddenly gone from doing a sketch of what the float could look like to actually painting the props and spray painting drop cloths for side banners in a garage in almost subzero temperatures. We kept the bay door open for ventilation, but I was still a pretty dizzy dragon by the end of 8 banners. They had talked about getting school kids to cut out letters from construction paper and gluing them on to the banners... but since it rained heavily last year, I knew that was not going to be a very good idea. Grabbing a few cans of spray paint, I got into graffiti mode and even put some of the letters backwards since the theme of our float was “THE SOUNDS OF CHRISTMAS OOOOOPS!” We had a house with a chimney and Santa’s boots sticking out, skaters falling down, kids wrapped up in the ribbon from presents, a mom holding a tray of burnt gingerbread men (black foam meat trays cut in gingerbread shapes) and a tree tipping over with a doll sized angel that I made by covering a fabric softener bottle and coat hanger arms with a comical doll stitched from my old pink long underwear. It was the only pink fabric I had in the whole house and no car to go fetch some. Necessity is the mother of invention, but I have warned Nick that a new pair of long underwear might be nice to keep the dragon toasty through the deep dark of winter!! I also learned how to convert sound effects files to mac format and burn them to CD after a production friend of mine mailed me sounds of things breaking to use but in a Windows format! All in all, the time was well spent. Erin had an awesome time singing in the school choir on the float even though it meant repeating the same song for two hours and Queen Elizabeth took first place again in the Elementary/Middle School category!!!
This is the time of year when there are so many events on the calendar that it is hard to remember who needs to go where if you don’t write everything down. Getting things written on the proper day also helps! We had a mini crisis last night because Erin was being enrolled as a Girl Guide, but I had written the event on the wrong week! A quick call to the leader confirmed the real date, but I felt pretty silly admitting I’d written it down wrong!
Amid all this event chaos, we also had the trauma of our hamster Nipper getting hurt! Monday night is garbage night, so in the afternoon, the girls and I always let Nipper out of her cage into a “scurry maze” (made of taped together cereal, pasta and poptart boxes) or into the big rubbermaid bin with a kleenex box house and some toilet paper tubes to crawl through. Last week Erin had also added a Barbie toy castle because it had a little door to crawl through, but I was worried about the steps on it leading to a tiny second level. This time, I asked her to just put in the kleenex box and tubes. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice that the castle was also in there until I turned and saw Nipper on the upper level stuck halfway in trying to go over the crenellations of the castle top. I scooped her up to keep her from falling over and put her down in the bin, only to notice moments later that there was blood!! We got her scooped into her clear ball so that I could try to find out what she had hurt, but her back end and feet were so covered in blood that I couldn’t tell where it was coming from!
By this point, both girls were in absolute tears and hysterics that our hamster was going to die! I put on a thick pair of rubber gloves and managed to get a squealing, nipping hamster onto its back in the palm of my hand to check on her and sure enough there was a laceration right in her groin area where she’d gotten stuck on the castle. OUCH! Erin began to wail at this point because she felt guilty but I popped the hamster into the carry box we used to bring her home from the pet store and began to comb the yellow pages for a vet who handled smaller animals. I discovered that Dwarf Hamsters fall under the “exotic” category and made an appointment to visit one across town, then called the cab company. Traffic being what it is in our city from 4 - 5pm, the taxi pulled in almost 35 minutes later (35 very LONG, tear-filled, box-scrabbling, hamster in box in Bethany’s hat to keep it warm minutes) right behind Nick’s van. Imagine getting home from a hard day’s work to two hysterical daughters trying to tell you about a bleeding rodent (a type of animal you have a barely contained loathing for anyway) and how we need to go RIGHT AWAY to the vet. Poor Nick!
We got Nipper seen by the vet and his two assistants (one to examine, two to hold) and were told that she was too tiny for stitches in that area or a bandage (since other things need to be able to get out) but given good tips on how to care for her and what to watch out for. Nipper spent two nights in a rubbermaid tote lined with a soft towel and kleenex box to hide in, but moved back to her cage this morning and has been running on her wheel like crazy. She is eating and drinking well, so we’ll just hope things work out for the best. It is funny how quickly we get attached to our furry little friends.
So there you have most of the crazies of the past month in a nutshell. I’m still going to be designing cross stitch... in fact I am absolutely hooked on stitching the border for my new Dragon of the Deeps... but I have also wanted to do illustration from the time I was 11. It is time to chase that dream as well and diversify a bit.
Life is just too short not to try chasing your dreams with all that is within you.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
The Joy Of Amazing Your Kids.... (or Watching Their Eyes Shine)
Sometimes, being able to make a dream come true for your children is worth its weight in gold. Long before I began to design needlework, when I first moved to Moncton to find work and marry Nick, I ended up in radio. I wrote copy at one of the local radio stations that used to bear the call letters CKCW and CFQM (the Country sister station). Eventually, I learned to do some voicing as well as radio cut-ins before moving on to work at an ad agency. I stayed in touch with a few friends, including Terri who came with me to Retreat this past weekend. It was during the drive up that I learned this year’s Canadian Idol, Kalan Porter, was coming to the station today for some interviews and to meet some contest winners. Terri also mentioned that some of the staff were bringing their kids to meet him at a separate, private event in the afternoon. So, knowing how much Erin “idolized” Kalan, I asked if we could be included. It never hurts to ask, right?
I found out yesterday that our attendance at “Operation Kalan” was approved by the powers that be, but only if I promised to keep the whole thing secret. I asked Erin to come right home after school because we were going somewhere as a surprise... but left it at that. When she came home, I made her change into a nicer top and brush her hair, so she was immediately suspicious. Just before the taxi arrived (This happens to be Nick’s week to be the driver in the car pool) I told her that she might need to bring the envelope on the kitchen table along with us. Inside was the drawing that she had made of Kalan and the runner up Teresa, right before the final night of the contest. I’d mounted it to some scrap booking paper so that there was room for his autograph if she wanted to keep it, or a message from her if she chose to give her drawing to him. The look on her face and the screech she let out were priceless.
Off we went to the radio station, about half an hour early so that we could get inside before the fans arrived. Sure enough, by the time Kalan and his entourage pulled up, there was a crowd of screaming teenagers (and some adults too) outside in the parking lot, trying to get a glimpse of their Idol. Into the station he came and I watched Erin become totally star struck and shy. She even tried to hide behind the door when he came into the boardroom! There was more time before his radio interviews than they had expected, so they decided to do the staff meet & greet early. Other people introduced themselves and got pictures, then Erin shyly gave him the drawing and posed for pictures. The glossy photo slicks had to be saved for the session with the contest winners, but they made some black and white photocopies which he autographed for both my girls and the other guests, much to Erin’s delight. Then, the girls and I posed with him for a family shot while Terri used my camera.
I must say that this gracious and talented young man was warm, inviting and as impressive in person as he was on TV. When it came time to leave the station, about 10 minutes before Kalan’s departure, many of the people in the crowd kept asking why WE go to be inside. I just ushered my kids through the chaos to where Nick was waiting and replied with a VERY satisfied grin “I used to work here!”
Pulling a few strings and watching your oldest child go to bed with stars in her eyes..... priceless!!
Sometimes, being able to make a dream come true for your children is worth its weight in gold. Long before I began to design needlework, when I first moved to Moncton to find work and marry Nick, I ended up in radio. I wrote copy at one of the local radio stations that used to bear the call letters CKCW and CFQM (the Country sister station). Eventually, I learned to do some voicing as well as radio cut-ins before moving on to work at an ad agency. I stayed in touch with a few friends, including Terri who came with me to Retreat this past weekend. It was during the drive up that I learned this year’s Canadian Idol, Kalan Porter, was coming to the station today for some interviews and to meet some contest winners. Terri also mentioned that some of the staff were bringing their kids to meet him at a separate, private event in the afternoon. So, knowing how much Erin “idolized” Kalan, I asked if we could be included. It never hurts to ask, right?
I found out yesterday that our attendance at “Operation Kalan” was approved by the powers that be, but only if I promised to keep the whole thing secret. I asked Erin to come right home after school because we were going somewhere as a surprise... but left it at that. When she came home, I made her change into a nicer top and brush her hair, so she was immediately suspicious. Just before the taxi arrived (This happens to be Nick’s week to be the driver in the car pool) I told her that she might need to bring the envelope on the kitchen table along with us. Inside was the drawing that she had made of Kalan and the runner up Teresa, right before the final night of the contest. I’d mounted it to some scrap booking paper so that there was room for his autograph if she wanted to keep it, or a message from her if she chose to give her drawing to him. The look on her face and the screech she let out were priceless.
Off we went to the radio station, about half an hour early so that we could get inside before the fans arrived. Sure enough, by the time Kalan and his entourage pulled up, there was a crowd of screaming teenagers (and some adults too) outside in the parking lot, trying to get a glimpse of their Idol. Into the station he came and I watched Erin become totally star struck and shy. She even tried to hide behind the door when he came into the boardroom! There was more time before his radio interviews than they had expected, so they decided to do the staff meet & greet early. Other people introduced themselves and got pictures, then Erin shyly gave him the drawing and posed for pictures. The glossy photo slicks had to be saved for the session with the contest winners, but they made some black and white photocopies which he autographed for both my girls and the other guests, much to Erin’s delight. Then, the girls and I posed with him for a family shot while Terri used my camera.
I must say that this gracious and talented young man was warm, inviting and as impressive in person as he was on TV. When it came time to leave the station, about 10 minutes before Kalan’s departure, many of the people in the crowd kept asking why WE go to be inside. I just ushered my kids through the chaos to where Nick was waiting and replied with a VERY satisfied grin “I used to work here!”
Pulling a few strings and watching your oldest child go to bed with stars in her eyes..... priceless!!
Monday, November 15, 2004
Retreat Bliss and Back To Reality...
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of getting away from it all, especially if your are going to a wonderful location with other women you admire, great food, laughter and a whole weekend in which to stitch!!! For those of you who have never been to a Stitching Retreat, I highly recommend it... you will be hooked!
This time, I brought a new friend along. Terri is a diehard stitcher and has helped me in Nashville before, but she’d never been to Retreat, so I coaxed her into coming. We drove up at supper time on Friday and discovered that most of the people were already there, set up and stitching away! We found some space on the stage and set up our stitching nooks then made our way down to one of the cabins to claim some bunk space. I always take a mattress from one of the top bunks and just sleep on the floor because for some strange reason, bunk beds aren’t made long enough! Once we got our gear into the cabin and our bed space staked out, we trudged back up to the main lodge with the last of our stitching accessories and snacks in time for the 7:00 pm registration.
The rest of the weekend went by in an absolute blur. From late night snacks and silly jokes to the Saturday morning craft sale at a nearby church, from Silent Auctions and raffles raising over $700.00 for charity to an ornament exchange, there was never a dull moment. I even got plenty of stitching done!! With the peace and quiet of someone else cooking all the meals and no small children or husband to interrupt, I was able to spread out all my floss, braid and overdyeds to get the border of my new dragon just the way I wanted it at last. I stitched up the whole top band, including the beads, so I am hoping that “Dragon of the Deeps” will be ready for Nashville. I also worked on stitching up one of my Dragon Doorstop painted canvases and finished knitting a scarf.
One of the other cool things about Retreat is that some of the stitchers form little circles and give themselves names or themes for each retreat. The group from Fredericton took the ornament I designed for this year’s Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue and each made up their own version using my design and Tracy’s button (she is part of their group). It was such fun to see a dozen versions of the ornament hanging from people’s lights!!
Saturday was made even cozier by the fact that the snow began to fall early in the morning and kept up all day. Many of us stayed up late on Saturday night because you just don’t want that Retreat magic to be over. We found out on Sunday morning that Nova Scotia had been blanketed by more than 35 cm (more than a foot!) of the white stuff, but Moncton got less than 15 cm (approx. 6 inches). We were all so cozy and warm that it made us feel very much in the holiday spirit for the ornament exchange.
After lunch on Sunday, everyone packed up and headed home much refreshed (except those heading home to Nova Scotia). Terri dropped me off at St. Pat’s where Erin was having her swimming lesson and then it was off to church for the taping of the Sunbeam Choir’s two songs for a CD that our church is putting out. Erin was very proud to have a solo verse but found it strange to listen to her own voice when played back. Having worked in radio for many years, I am used to how different my voice sounds on tape to my own ears, but this was her first time hearing how she sounds to others. We finished just in time to head to the movie theater to see The Incredibles (though we missed the trailers and the first 2 minutes of the movie) and we laughed ourselves silly as a family.
Nick was wonderful and took both of the girls to choir tonight so that I could finally get to my blog and recapture some of that peaceful feeling that tried to evaporate at bedtime last night when they were both grumpy. I think I can handle reality now... at least for a little while!
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of getting away from it all, especially if your are going to a wonderful location with other women you admire, great food, laughter and a whole weekend in which to stitch!!! For those of you who have never been to a Stitching Retreat, I highly recommend it... you will be hooked!
This time, I brought a new friend along. Terri is a diehard stitcher and has helped me in Nashville before, but she’d never been to Retreat, so I coaxed her into coming. We drove up at supper time on Friday and discovered that most of the people were already there, set up and stitching away! We found some space on the stage and set up our stitching nooks then made our way down to one of the cabins to claim some bunk space. I always take a mattress from one of the top bunks and just sleep on the floor because for some strange reason, bunk beds aren’t made long enough! Once we got our gear into the cabin and our bed space staked out, we trudged back up to the main lodge with the last of our stitching accessories and snacks in time for the 7:00 pm registration.
The rest of the weekend went by in an absolute blur. From late night snacks and silly jokes to the Saturday morning craft sale at a nearby church, from Silent Auctions and raffles raising over $700.00 for charity to an ornament exchange, there was never a dull moment. I even got plenty of stitching done!! With the peace and quiet of someone else cooking all the meals and no small children or husband to interrupt, I was able to spread out all my floss, braid and overdyeds to get the border of my new dragon just the way I wanted it at last. I stitched up the whole top band, including the beads, so I am hoping that “Dragon of the Deeps” will be ready for Nashville. I also worked on stitching up one of my Dragon Doorstop painted canvases and finished knitting a scarf.
One of the other cool things about Retreat is that some of the stitchers form little circles and give themselves names or themes for each retreat. The group from Fredericton took the ornament I designed for this year’s Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue and each made up their own version using my design and Tracy’s button (she is part of their group). It was such fun to see a dozen versions of the ornament hanging from people’s lights!!
Saturday was made even cozier by the fact that the snow began to fall early in the morning and kept up all day. Many of us stayed up late on Saturday night because you just don’t want that Retreat magic to be over. We found out on Sunday morning that Nova Scotia had been blanketed by more than 35 cm (more than a foot!) of the white stuff, but Moncton got less than 15 cm (approx. 6 inches). We were all so cozy and warm that it made us feel very much in the holiday spirit for the ornament exchange.
After lunch on Sunday, everyone packed up and headed home much refreshed (except those heading home to Nova Scotia). Terri dropped me off at St. Pat’s where Erin was having her swimming lesson and then it was off to church for the taping of the Sunbeam Choir’s two songs for a CD that our church is putting out. Erin was very proud to have a solo verse but found it strange to listen to her own voice when played back. Having worked in radio for many years, I am used to how different my voice sounds on tape to my own ears, but this was her first time hearing how she sounds to others. We finished just in time to head to the movie theater to see The Incredibles (though we missed the trailers and the first 2 minutes of the movie) and we laughed ourselves silly as a family.
Nick was wonderful and took both of the girls to choir tonight so that I could finally get to my blog and recapture some of that peaceful feeling that tried to evaporate at bedtime last night when they were both grumpy. I think I can handle reality now... at least for a little while!
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Of Head Colds, Family Ties and Remembrance Day...
I haven’t had much energy to blog because I have been fighting a miserable head cold since last Friday that is just finally breaking up. Monday morning once the kids got off to school, I just crawled back into bed even though I had work to do. I think sometimes that investing in companies like Kleenex or Halls would be very profitable!
This was also a wonderful week for hearing from family. I’d been pestering my little brother Zach (from Dad’s second marriage) who is off at his first year of University. We’d sent a care package for his birthday that was going to arrive late but then his blog went silent for over a week and I began to wonder if our cookies had sent him to the hospital or something. It just turned out that his group project had to be completely reworked and the code for their game rewritten. (He’s at DigiPen in Seattle studying game design)
I also had a wonderful phone call with my Dad and then Tuesday a parcel arrived from my sister in Japan... a belated birthday parcel that made me squeal when I opened it and gave both girls a severe case of jealousy attacks. Laurie knows that I love Anime and hamster stuff, so I got stickers and an adorable colouring book that had Bethany in tears until I promised that she could colour a few pages with me “on days when she was really good!” (what a Mom to bribe her kid like that!) We actually coloured one page yesterday afternoon and I have never seen a more colourful bunny in all my life! Laurie had thoughtfully tucked little “unbirthday presents” for both the girls and Nick in the parcel, so she is still considered the best Auntie/Sister-in-law on the planet, but it was a bit hard to convince the girls that all the other stuff, no matter how cute, was MINE!!! Who says you are ever too old for toys, stickers or Manga (comics)??
Today, both girls took part in the Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Moncton Coliseum. Bethany was quite worried because her Sparks leader had stressed how important it was to be quiet during the service. This morning there were tears as we got into her uniform when Bethany sobbed “But Mommy, I can’t be quiet because I’ve never been quiet unless I am asleep and even then you tell me I talk in my sleep sometimes and I don’t think I can do this because it isn’t fair to ask little kids to be quiet when we learn to talk and don’t know how to be quiet for more than one whole minute!” She and her Sparks group were VERY well behaved and far less wiggly than the other Sparks unit or the Brownies directly behind them. The leaders sat them down quietly whenever possible and that also helped.
Erin was quite proud today because she got to carry the Westmoreland Division Girl Guide flag and lead in the Guides. She told me after the ceremony that it also helped to have the flag pole to clutch during the one or two moments that she felt dizzy. The Guides remained standing for the full ceremony. Only one of them got dizzy enough to need to sit down, but quite a few of the Air and Sea Cadets fainted or had to be led away to the First Aid Station. Must be the heavier boots and full dress uniform that makes them more prone to passing out.
The rest of the day was fairly quiet. The girls head off to Nick’s mother’s for the weekend and I am off to a cross stitch retreat weekend (YAY!) with no phone, no kids and all my meals taken care of. It doesn’t matter than I have to pull the mattress off the bunk bed and onto the floor in order not to have most of my legs from the calf down hanging out into space... this is time to get away and stitch to my heart’s content (or design!) Nick will also have some wonderful alone time and the freedom to work at the church pancake breakfast this Saturday without worrying about the girls.
Sometimes, when we spend a little time away from those we love, we learn how glad we are to have them in our lives. Strange isn’t it.
“Let there be space in your togetherness” - Kahil Gibran
I haven’t had much energy to blog because I have been fighting a miserable head cold since last Friday that is just finally breaking up. Monday morning once the kids got off to school, I just crawled back into bed even though I had work to do. I think sometimes that investing in companies like Kleenex or Halls would be very profitable!
This was also a wonderful week for hearing from family. I’d been pestering my little brother Zach (from Dad’s second marriage) who is off at his first year of University. We’d sent a care package for his birthday that was going to arrive late but then his blog went silent for over a week and I began to wonder if our cookies had sent him to the hospital or something. It just turned out that his group project had to be completely reworked and the code for their game rewritten. (He’s at DigiPen in Seattle studying game design)
I also had a wonderful phone call with my Dad and then Tuesday a parcel arrived from my sister in Japan... a belated birthday parcel that made me squeal when I opened it and gave both girls a severe case of jealousy attacks. Laurie knows that I love Anime and hamster stuff, so I got stickers and an adorable colouring book that had Bethany in tears until I promised that she could colour a few pages with me “on days when she was really good!” (what a Mom to bribe her kid like that!) We actually coloured one page yesterday afternoon and I have never seen a more colourful bunny in all my life! Laurie had thoughtfully tucked little “unbirthday presents” for both the girls and Nick in the parcel, so she is still considered the best Auntie/Sister-in-law on the planet, but it was a bit hard to convince the girls that all the other stuff, no matter how cute, was MINE!!! Who says you are ever too old for toys, stickers or Manga (comics)??
Today, both girls took part in the Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Moncton Coliseum. Bethany was quite worried because her Sparks leader had stressed how important it was to be quiet during the service. This morning there were tears as we got into her uniform when Bethany sobbed “But Mommy, I can’t be quiet because I’ve never been quiet unless I am asleep and even then you tell me I talk in my sleep sometimes and I don’t think I can do this because it isn’t fair to ask little kids to be quiet when we learn to talk and don’t know how to be quiet for more than one whole minute!” She and her Sparks group were VERY well behaved and far less wiggly than the other Sparks unit or the Brownies directly behind them. The leaders sat them down quietly whenever possible and that also helped.
Erin was quite proud today because she got to carry the Westmoreland Division Girl Guide flag and lead in the Guides. She told me after the ceremony that it also helped to have the flag pole to clutch during the one or two moments that she felt dizzy. The Guides remained standing for the full ceremony. Only one of them got dizzy enough to need to sit down, but quite a few of the Air and Sea Cadets fainted or had to be led away to the First Aid Station. Must be the heavier boots and full dress uniform that makes them more prone to passing out.
The rest of the day was fairly quiet. The girls head off to Nick’s mother’s for the weekend and I am off to a cross stitch retreat weekend (YAY!) with no phone, no kids and all my meals taken care of. It doesn’t matter than I have to pull the mattress off the bunk bed and onto the floor in order not to have most of my legs from the calf down hanging out into space... this is time to get away and stitch to my heart’s content (or design!) Nick will also have some wonderful alone time and the freedom to work at the church pancake breakfast this Saturday without worrying about the girls.
Sometimes, when we spend a little time away from those we love, we learn how glad we are to have them in our lives. Strange isn’t it.
“Let there be space in your togetherness” - Kahil Gibran
Friday, November 05, 2004
First Snow Crazies
Funny how two girls that are usually such bed slugs in the morning both leapt out of bed with wild shrieks this morning when their Daddy told them it was snowing! The fat, white fluffy flakes had turned to sleet and slush by the time we went up to the bus stop, but both girls were taking great delight in making tiny piles of slush to jump on and spattering me with “wet slush guts!” Yeeeesh!
I’ve assigned this morning as “catch up on e-mail” time since it is so easy to get impossibly behind when over 80 messages a day come in. I’d love to delegate that task to someone, but since Erin isn’t old enough yet to be a computer helper, I try to keep on top of things as best I can. I have over 750 in the box right now and need to weed that down to at least 650 by filing, sorting and saving them to disk. That should clear up some memory in the e-mail program and stop it from being grumpy.
Yesterday was the only sunny day since last Saturday and I ran around the house in a blaze of energy sorting and tidying, getting laundry on the line and sketching out ideas in the sunshine at our dining room table before Erin took it over with her homework. We knew that being in a 4-5 combined class would challenge her, but the homework has been exceptionally heavy this week and she felt very overwhelmed by bedtime last night. It was the first time she looked at me at 8:30 at night and said “I just want to go to sleep, my brain is tired!” She leapt out of bed to see the snow and then remembered a small assignment that wasn’t in her homework book so she raced downstairs to copy out her verb conjugation of MANGER (to eat) 5 times before breakfast. The average rule of 15 minutes per grade level certainly didn’t apply this week, but she’s learning to get things like projects and book reports done steadily instead of waiting for the end of November deadline. I’m also learning from her as well. So often, I end up with crazy, last minute deadlines... but since Toronto, I have been doing well at keeping ahead of the game and not giving myself too many “superwoman” goals. Now that I’ve written that down in my blog, I hope those don’t end up being famous last words!
Funny how two girls that are usually such bed slugs in the morning both leapt out of bed with wild shrieks this morning when their Daddy told them it was snowing! The fat, white fluffy flakes had turned to sleet and slush by the time we went up to the bus stop, but both girls were taking great delight in making tiny piles of slush to jump on and spattering me with “wet slush guts!” Yeeeesh!
I’ve assigned this morning as “catch up on e-mail” time since it is so easy to get impossibly behind when over 80 messages a day come in. I’d love to delegate that task to someone, but since Erin isn’t old enough yet to be a computer helper, I try to keep on top of things as best I can. I have over 750 in the box right now and need to weed that down to at least 650 by filing, sorting and saving them to disk. That should clear up some memory in the e-mail program and stop it from being grumpy.
Yesterday was the only sunny day since last Saturday and I ran around the house in a blaze of energy sorting and tidying, getting laundry on the line and sketching out ideas in the sunshine at our dining room table before Erin took it over with her homework. We knew that being in a 4-5 combined class would challenge her, but the homework has been exceptionally heavy this week and she felt very overwhelmed by bedtime last night. It was the first time she looked at me at 8:30 at night and said “I just want to go to sleep, my brain is tired!” She leapt out of bed to see the snow and then remembered a small assignment that wasn’t in her homework book so she raced downstairs to copy out her verb conjugation of MANGER (to eat) 5 times before breakfast. The average rule of 15 minutes per grade level certainly didn’t apply this week, but she’s learning to get things like projects and book reports done steadily instead of waiting for the end of November deadline. I’m also learning from her as well. So often, I end up with crazy, last minute deadlines... but since Toronto, I have been doing well at keeping ahead of the game and not giving myself too many “superwoman” goals. Now that I’ve written that down in my blog, I hope those don’t end up being famous last words!
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Of Hissy-Fits and Hamster Wisdom
It’s one of those cold, grey, rainy days in November that really lets you know Winter is on the way... just cold enough to make being wet miserable as you stand waiting with your children for a school bus that has yet to meet a regular pickup time. I walked home trying not to step in any puddles since my boots seem to have sprung some new leaks, knowing that it was going to feel wonderful to wrap my hands around a mug of warm tea as I blogged this.
It has been raining and cold since Halloween night, so perhaps it is getting to the girls, but they were just horrid to each other yesterday. I had the van in order to take Erin to the doctor’s for a follow-up to make sure that her tonsils were going back down after the last infection and tried to do most of my messages before I picked them up from school. During the one stop I couldn’t put off and was looking forward to the most, they got into a huge fight in the store and Bethany ended up having one of those total meltdown hissy fits that I haven’t seen in ages. Absolutely mortified but sticking to my guns of “This is not how we behave in a store we are leaving NOW!” I handed the book making papers I’d wanted to play with back to the sales clerk and told him that I would be back to shop sometime without my children before marching them both to the van. Before we had children, I can remember seeing other kids have hissy-fits in stores and thinking to myself, rather smugly, MY children will never do that!! I am sure seeing my two at their finest yesterday was a wonderful form of birth control for any single people in the shop. The amazing thing is how quickly tantrums like that blow over in children. Perhaps they haven’t yet mastered the adult art of holding a grudge. Within half an hour of getting home, Bethany wandered down from her room with a hand drawn “Sorry” card to Erin and I. Erin was more reluctant about saying sorry back to her sister, so perhaps she is already learning what we adults should not be proud of knowing... how to keep anger inside and let it smolder. At least by this morning, all seemed to have been forgotten and forgiven.
Coming down into the basement with my mug of tea, I peeked in on Nipper, our dwarf hamster, who was curled up snugly in her nest of shredded kleenex and toilet paper. We just learned a few days ago that the fluffy bedding we’d been buying at the pet shop was probably not the best thing for her to sleep in since arranging it can sometimes harm their little cheek pouches. Kleenex and toilet paper will be much cheaper anyway and she certainly has had fun shredding it even smaller than we provided it to make herself cozy.
I watched her twitch in her sleep and felt a bit envious at her wisdom. Nipper obviously knew that this was the time of wet, cold day where one should just snuggle up somewhere cozy and do very little. We’ve just put the fuzzy “Brunswick” sheets on our bed (sometimes called health sheets and oh so wonderfully cozy) and the urge to crawl back under them was pretty tempting... until I thought about the heart attack that might give our cleaning ladies this morning. I don’t wake up from naps very well and nothing is scarier than a grumpy dragon with bed head! I shall have to pass on that Hamster wisdom for now and get my work done...
It’s one of those cold, grey, rainy days in November that really lets you know Winter is on the way... just cold enough to make being wet miserable as you stand waiting with your children for a school bus that has yet to meet a regular pickup time. I walked home trying not to step in any puddles since my boots seem to have sprung some new leaks, knowing that it was going to feel wonderful to wrap my hands around a mug of warm tea as I blogged this.
It has been raining and cold since Halloween night, so perhaps it is getting to the girls, but they were just horrid to each other yesterday. I had the van in order to take Erin to the doctor’s for a follow-up to make sure that her tonsils were going back down after the last infection and tried to do most of my messages before I picked them up from school. During the one stop I couldn’t put off and was looking forward to the most, they got into a huge fight in the store and Bethany ended up having one of those total meltdown hissy fits that I haven’t seen in ages. Absolutely mortified but sticking to my guns of “This is not how we behave in a store we are leaving NOW!” I handed the book making papers I’d wanted to play with back to the sales clerk and told him that I would be back to shop sometime without my children before marching them both to the van. Before we had children, I can remember seeing other kids have hissy-fits in stores and thinking to myself, rather smugly, MY children will never do that!! I am sure seeing my two at their finest yesterday was a wonderful form of birth control for any single people in the shop. The amazing thing is how quickly tantrums like that blow over in children. Perhaps they haven’t yet mastered the adult art of holding a grudge. Within half an hour of getting home, Bethany wandered down from her room with a hand drawn “Sorry” card to Erin and I. Erin was more reluctant about saying sorry back to her sister, so perhaps she is already learning what we adults should not be proud of knowing... how to keep anger inside and let it smolder. At least by this morning, all seemed to have been forgotten and forgiven.
Coming down into the basement with my mug of tea, I peeked in on Nipper, our dwarf hamster, who was curled up snugly in her nest of shredded kleenex and toilet paper. We just learned a few days ago that the fluffy bedding we’d been buying at the pet shop was probably not the best thing for her to sleep in since arranging it can sometimes harm their little cheek pouches. Kleenex and toilet paper will be much cheaper anyway and she certainly has had fun shredding it even smaller than we provided it to make herself cozy.
I watched her twitch in her sleep and felt a bit envious at her wisdom. Nipper obviously knew that this was the time of wet, cold day where one should just snuggle up somewhere cozy and do very little. We’ve just put the fuzzy “Brunswick” sheets on our bed (sometimes called health sheets and oh so wonderfully cozy) and the urge to crawl back under them was pretty tempting... until I thought about the heart attack that might give our cleaning ladies this morning. I don’t wake up from naps very well and nothing is scarier than a grumpy dragon with bed head! I shall have to pass on that Hamster wisdom for now and get my work done...
Monday, November 01, 2004
Silences... Spirits... and Saying Goodbyes!
I’ve been quiet these days since getting back from Toronto. Partly because I needed some time just to hear myself think after the chaos of getting ready for the show. As an extrovert, I love to spend time with people like that... I get recharged in so many ways... and yet it still takes a lot out of me, so I think I just gathered in on myself for a while, unsure of what to say next.
There have also been two precious daughters that wanted a lot of attention once I got back and had lots of events & projects lined up. We got through parent/teacher interviews on Wednesday night and then I had the girls home with me for 2 days while there was no school. We carved SIX pumpkins this year and despite the awful drizzle tonight, most of them stayed light until the end. The girls and I had a very damp, chilly time trick or treating, but I popped them in the bath once we got back home and made them some Lipton soup before they sorted out their “loot” and scarfed down a few treats. It was a much better night that a year ago when I discovered that Bethany had broken out with her chicken pox 14 days after her sister as we were taking off her costume!
Silences sometime give us the break we need to really think about things. Last Monday night, I played for almost 5 hours at making an Inspiration Journal... a book of quotes and colours and things to read over when my batteries are feeling low. It uses a lot of the same techniques as scrapbooking... but the book itself is also the project. I had a blast just playing with colours, textures and lettering. It wasn’t something as work... just sheer play. Friday night, I made my second one as a tribute to a wonderful man in our church family who passed away this week. I wanted his family to know how much he had touched the lives of everyone in our family over the past year and let them know that we will miss him too. Today, we said goodbye to him in a glorious celebration of his life. The word funeral doesn’t quite fit. I sang in the choir and many of us kept the tears from flowing too heavily until we’d finished the last triumphant anthem. Then, it was safe to let the tears spill over. Erin found this death especially hard because at 9, she is just becoming aware that she too may have to face goodbyes like this someday. It made her sad to know that her friend, Sarah, had lost her grandfather. Not only did she ache for Sarah’s loss, she was shaken to think of how that might feel if she were to lose someone she loved that much. Sharing in the celebration of his life today and being there to give her friend a hug when most of the grown-ups were paying attention to each other seemed to really help.
Spirit is up at last on the website as a Halloween treat (though she’ll stay on the newsletter until December and then move to the samples page) and it feels odd to wrap up that series and say “goodbye” to it as well. It has been satisfying to create something that tried to encourage others to share their time or talents to make the world a better place.
As I move on to some new projects and challenges this month, I am going to try to get back into the habit of blogging. I find that when I let that , or my journaling, slip through my fingers and days run into each other, I am somehow more out of touch with myself..... and besides. The more my hands are on the keyboard, the less likely they are to raid the kids Halloween treats!
I’ve been quiet these days since getting back from Toronto. Partly because I needed some time just to hear myself think after the chaos of getting ready for the show. As an extrovert, I love to spend time with people like that... I get recharged in so many ways... and yet it still takes a lot out of me, so I think I just gathered in on myself for a while, unsure of what to say next.
There have also been two precious daughters that wanted a lot of attention once I got back and had lots of events & projects lined up. We got through parent/teacher interviews on Wednesday night and then I had the girls home with me for 2 days while there was no school. We carved SIX pumpkins this year and despite the awful drizzle tonight, most of them stayed light until the end. The girls and I had a very damp, chilly time trick or treating, but I popped them in the bath once we got back home and made them some Lipton soup before they sorted out their “loot” and scarfed down a few treats. It was a much better night that a year ago when I discovered that Bethany had broken out with her chicken pox 14 days after her sister as we were taking off her costume!
Silences sometime give us the break we need to really think about things. Last Monday night, I played for almost 5 hours at making an Inspiration Journal... a book of quotes and colours and things to read over when my batteries are feeling low. It uses a lot of the same techniques as scrapbooking... but the book itself is also the project. I had a blast just playing with colours, textures and lettering. It wasn’t something as work... just sheer play. Friday night, I made my second one as a tribute to a wonderful man in our church family who passed away this week. I wanted his family to know how much he had touched the lives of everyone in our family over the past year and let them know that we will miss him too. Today, we said goodbye to him in a glorious celebration of his life. The word funeral doesn’t quite fit. I sang in the choir and many of us kept the tears from flowing too heavily until we’d finished the last triumphant anthem. Then, it was safe to let the tears spill over. Erin found this death especially hard because at 9, she is just becoming aware that she too may have to face goodbyes like this someday. It made her sad to know that her friend, Sarah, had lost her grandfather. Not only did she ache for Sarah’s loss, she was shaken to think of how that might feel if she were to lose someone she loved that much. Sharing in the celebration of his life today and being there to give her friend a hug when most of the grown-ups were paying attention to each other seemed to really help.
Spirit is up at last on the website as a Halloween treat (though she’ll stay on the newsletter until December and then move to the samples page) and it feels odd to wrap up that series and say “goodbye” to it as well. It has been satisfying to create something that tried to encourage others to share their time or talents to make the world a better place.
As I move on to some new projects and challenges this month, I am going to try to get back into the habit of blogging. I find that when I let that , or my journaling, slip through my fingers and days run into each other, I am somehow more out of touch with myself..... and besides. The more my hands are on the keyboard, the less likely they are to raid the kids Halloween treats!
Thursday, October 21, 2004
There’s No Place Like Home!!
Toronto was a blast!! I had such fun meeting people in my classes, watching them be creative, sharing laughs or chocolate and being around people who share a love of making things with their hands. I also found far too many tempting things on the trade show floor from new wools to knit with and beads to play with as well as new colours to inspire stitching designs... but it is also really good to be home!
Even though I grew up in a bustling city (Montreal), I have gotten quite comfortable with the pace of life here in Moncton over the past 16 years. I prefer the time it takes for me to get anywhere, the cost of cab rides, the friendliness of the people and the selection of shopping. The only thing I might miss is the vast selection of ethnic foods to enjoy or the access to a wider variety of entertainment (musicals, plays, more movie theaters etc.) The whirlwind pace of Downtown Toronto was fun for 5 days... but I am glad to live where I do.
Easing back into the post show routine was a bit more hectic this year because I wanted to spend time with my Mom and John, who just left yesterday, still had two graphics projects that were at the approval stage so now I want to have them wrapped up, invoiced and paid for, plus I had a few commitments that I had set up before the show. Yesterday, I went along as a helper/volunteer when Bethany’s Kindergarten class visited an orchard about 20 minutes outside of Moncton. She was THRILLED to have her Mommy along... and I had all of the adults in stitches because I discovered that I fit even worse on a school bus that I do on a plane! I had to duck to walk down the aisle of the bus, then I couldn’t get my knees in the seat, so I had to turn sideways a bit and put my knees out into the aisle. It makes sense when you think about it. Very few people getting on a school bus are 6’5”!!
Watching Bethany and her friends each pull a crunchy red apple off the tree and then having her beam at me in the tractor pulled wagon as we bumped along back to the main building made me realize that I love having control over my hours (well... at least control over when I choose to do something else and make it up later at night!) and being able to fit adventures like that into my schedule!
So now I just have to sift through all of the e-mail that came in while I was away and get Spirit ready to go up on the site next Sunday night (October 31st). I guess I can resist the urge to just hide in bed and catch up on sleep!!
Toronto was a blast!! I had such fun meeting people in my classes, watching them be creative, sharing laughs or chocolate and being around people who share a love of making things with their hands. I also found far too many tempting things on the trade show floor from new wools to knit with and beads to play with as well as new colours to inspire stitching designs... but it is also really good to be home!
Even though I grew up in a bustling city (Montreal), I have gotten quite comfortable with the pace of life here in Moncton over the past 16 years. I prefer the time it takes for me to get anywhere, the cost of cab rides, the friendliness of the people and the selection of shopping. The only thing I might miss is the vast selection of ethnic foods to enjoy or the access to a wider variety of entertainment (musicals, plays, more movie theaters etc.) The whirlwind pace of Downtown Toronto was fun for 5 days... but I am glad to live where I do.
Easing back into the post show routine was a bit more hectic this year because I wanted to spend time with my Mom and John, who just left yesterday, still had two graphics projects that were at the approval stage so now I want to have them wrapped up, invoiced and paid for, plus I had a few commitments that I had set up before the show. Yesterday, I went along as a helper/volunteer when Bethany’s Kindergarten class visited an orchard about 20 minutes outside of Moncton. She was THRILLED to have her Mommy along... and I had all of the adults in stitches because I discovered that I fit even worse on a school bus that I do on a plane! I had to duck to walk down the aisle of the bus, then I couldn’t get my knees in the seat, so I had to turn sideways a bit and put my knees out into the aisle. It makes sense when you think about it. Very few people getting on a school bus are 6’5”!!
Watching Bethany and her friends each pull a crunchy red apple off the tree and then having her beam at me in the tractor pulled wagon as we bumped along back to the main building made me realize that I love having control over my hours (well... at least control over when I choose to do something else and make it up later at night!) and being able to fit adventures like that into my schedule!
So now I just have to sift through all of the e-mail that came in while I was away and get Spirit ready to go up on the site next Sunday night (October 31st). I guess I can resist the urge to just hide in bed and catch up on sleep!!
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