february, 2006

february 19

i've just held my first crop since moving to Canada [which, for the record, is almost 3 years]. maybe i'm settling down here! sascha kindly took the children to sports class, then to science world for the rest of the day so it was very peaceful - just the sounds of the cropping and pasting.

thursday evening we went to a white spot restaurant drive-in for dinner [drive-in rather than drive-thru - the sort where they bring big long trays to your cars with your dinner on them]. we decided it's a great idea. i like it because in theory you could wear your pjs and sascha liked it because you don't have to watch the kids eat which makes your dinner all the more appetizing! it was whilst waiting for the drive-in food to arrive that we discovered that toby can read perfectly well upside down. we were listening to him read his school reading book when sascha turned around and pointed out to toby that he had the book upside down. since he was already halfway in, he didn't seem to see the point in correcting it so finished the story like that. he's a funny kid that one.

another relative contacted me about the website this weekend - my mum's cousin linda - who also lives in canada, but unfortunately on the opposite side. she forwarded me a great photo of my great grandmother as a baby. i really have to make an effort to update the info. and photos on the heritage section of the site with all the great material people keep forwarding to me.

sascha and i just finished 'we love katamari' - a fantastic game. very happily bizarre. quite a contrast from the james bond game we were playing on friday night. as one fan said 'it will put a big grin on your face and sunshine in your heart'.

the weather has been amazing in february - brilliant sunshine everyday so far. i've seen mountain ranges i didn't even know existed. it's starting to get colder with some arctic weather blowing our way, but it's still above 0 degrees for the most part. it's a very nice break from the record breakingly rainy january.

february 12

so my dad [or mrs doubtfire as he liked to be known while he was here] had to go back to england. i'm left having to make the children's breakfast, school lunches, sand down bookshelves etc. alone - it's very inconvenient!! it was great to have him here. we went out to a few places [the bug lab, watermania, monster trucks show and dad went to a bike show] but most of the time we hung out organizing the garage, putting up a million shelves etc. - it was great.

i was having a hard time the day my dad left and when i picked the kids up from school i was telling toby i was sad because grandad had left. he stopped for a moment and then said 'hmm.. well then, you know what i should do? .. i should give you a big snuggle every morning and every night to make you feel much better' [and then gave me a very nice sample snuggle] and it worked :-) i don't think i'd felt so warm and fuzzy since the first time aly looked up at me while i was breastfeeding her and gave me a big smile as if to say 'oh - it's you who has been feeding me all these weeks - thank you'. KIDS what would i do without them. the following day i needed to see aly's teacher so i picked her up from kindergarten. unfortunately i forgot to tell the afterschool teacher that he DIDN'T need to pick her up so we were both there. doh! getting into the car i said to aly 'oh, i'm a naughty mommy not telling jeremy i was coming to pick you up today' she replied 'you're not a naughty mommy - you're just a forgetful one'. you spend all those years comforting your children - it's nice to get some back!

this week the kids were successful in the public school montessori lottery. we found out on the tuesday evening and had to have them registered at the new school by friday afternoon. i'd never been to the school or met the teacher or anything so it was a weird decision to have to make. in the end we opted out for many reasons including because it was the other side of richmond, we didn't really want to pull this kids out of their community, they have a great school to go to already and neither of us are really sold 100% on montessori.

i just read that 'Gamers are as good as bilinguals at solving mental problems'. well thank god for that. i can come to terms with the fact i'm completely incapable of learning a new language and concentrate on the gaming :-)

february 1

no sooner do i complain about the weather than it gets worse. yesterday, i believe we broke the record for the wettest january. [having said that, the day after i complained on my blog, we did have a single beautiful clear day where the mountains emerged, glistening in the sunlight].

enough about the weather.. so my dad is here to take care of me. sascha and i have been making full use of him. the first 3 nights he was here we went to see coldplay [which was fantastic - even better than i expected], then i went scrapbooking while sascha went to victoria for the night, and then we went to see harry potter [at long long last - but it was worth the wait]. since then, besides cooking and helping with the children, he's been working on a backlog of maintenance jobs at home and also at work. i only took him to work to change some bulbs and put up a mirror, but being the perfectionist building surveyor he is, he noticed that the gutters needed cleaning and next thing i knew he was up a ladder covered head to toe in bits of old leaves and mud! now he's worried that someone should 'really see to the moss build up on the roof' so he might be back next week! as you can imagine, i'm thoroughly enjoying it all. aly and toby are very happy. the trip was a secret and aly was crying with joy after he surprised them at school on his first day here.

3 long lost members of the milligan family [my mum's side of the family] emailed me last week after reading the heritage album on this site. all added various different pieces of information or photographs for me. the 11 year old son of one of my dad's cousins also emailed a month or so ago to let me know i had missed his dad off one of my pages. it very weird but very cool!

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