A Valentine's Day Grouch

Yep, that'd be me.  Snarly with the kids this morning and sure to be snarly later on today.  I still need to bring a snack over to Caleb's class and reschedule my worship team practice yet again.  Not to mention pick the rest of the music, put it in the computer that sends it to the projector, and get it to the right person.   Man, am I ever being whiny!

My day will get better.  Once I do all those things it will feel like a load has been lifted and I'll smile again - probably just in time for Luke to get home.  I might go buy some fresh lobster for supper and we'll have us a Valentine's day feast after the kidlings are all tucked into bed.  The thought of that is cheering me up already!  A little seafood, a little wine, a nice conversation with my very funny husband, and a cuddle on the couch while we watch a movie.  Sounds like heaven.

*I just got a phone call from school.  Ethan forgot his valentines at home.  Aaaagh!*

Famous relatives

Luke and I were watching Hockey Night In Canada on Saturday and who should pop onto the screen but good ol' brother-in-law Ken!  No, he's not one of the jovial folk with a microphone in their hand, but the somber, watchful security man in the toque on the bottom left.  The lucky guy got to be security for Ron MacLean, famous Canadian sportscaster.  Ken, I don't know how you pulled it off, but I hope you got to talk to him a bit.  I can't believe you got to meet him!  It should've been me!

9 Already?

I can hardly believe Caleb turns 9 today.  It seems like only yesterday I was in the hospital in High Level competing for the one and only delivery room with another couple from Rainbow Lake!  And won it, of course- the competitive gene runs strong in my family.  Caleb is no exception to that rule.  Sports, sports, cars, and more sports.  Right now hockey is the main thing but soccer also has its day, as does running, biking, and countless other such occupations.  He is such an awesome kid.  Smiles alot.  Likes TV a bit too much, but what kid doesn't!   Happy birthday, son!

 

Yes, this was the temperature the last two weeks.  During the day.  Talk about bone-chilling cold!  It's been much warmer this week.  Thank goodness, because today my house will be full of boys celebrating Caleb's 9th birthday, and I'm hoping they will play outside in the enthralling (to them) mounds of snow the grater and front-end loader have left on our lawn.  Caleb and Ethan have also been adding to the pile by dragging large blocks of snow and ice from the school grounds to our house with the help of their sleds.  Endless entertainment, I tell you!  Of course, Titus is much more his mother's son and prefers the warmth of the indoors.  I'm hoping that the lure of many new children outside our house will prove too much for him to bear and he'll head out sooner or later! 

Yeah for Christmas!

I've been busy trying to figure out my Christmas present. Yep, I got a Mac! How much fun is that? I've been moving stuff over from my old computer, which is taking a while. Hence, no pictures. But I thought you might enjoy this youtube of apple ads. I know I did!

Home again, home again, jiggety jig

*This is not our house, not our suit of armour. Just one I drive by on a regular basis!

Yes, we're back. The whirlwind trip to Manitoba in a little car is now a thing of memory, as is Christmas Eve in Saskatoon with nowhere to eat except the local 7-11 (due to everything closing at 7 pm). Just one of the many adventures of taking a roadtrip during the holidays! Luckily we knew where all the trucking stops were, so we were able to eat breakfast on Christmas morning before hitting the road out of Edmonton and getting back home to bare cupboards. Good thing the family party was on Christmas day - we made it there in time for supper!

Hope your Christmas was as blessed as ours. We are truly grateful for our loving families who welcome us with open arms. We thank God that we all belong to His bigger family and that the celebrating will not end someday. What a gift He gave. His Son. I cannot even fathom how painful that must have been. Merry (belated) Christmas!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Yes, Christmas has officially landed on our doorstep. Last week I went to a Secret Prayer Sister Christmas/revealing party on Monday (I was my best friend's prayer sister and my mom was mine! So cool for my first year!), a Baking Exchange party on Thursday (thanks Jana! My freezer's stocked.), Luke's work Christmas party on Friday, two hockey games on Saturday, and a quick trip down to Edmonton on Sunday to see Van Halen. I'm exhausted. Luckily caffeine is plentiful and I was able to stay alert on the snowy roads home this morning. I left Luke in Edmonton to write an exam so I had some serious alone time for five and a half hours - it's been a while since that has happened! I actually came up with a brilliant plan to tie the separate parts of the Sunday School Christmas play together. Now to write it up and get it sent out to the right people before Sunday! Wish me luck!

Hockey and Computer Woes

*from Titus' perspective*

I've been trying and trying to post but my silly internet connection has really been messing me up. I detest going with a new internet provider but I absolutely abhor having one thrust upon me just when I've gotten on a first name basis with the original one. Ok. Whew. Enough complaining.

Caleb and Ethan are loving hockey this year. They're both on the same team and, so far, on the same line. Caleb is playing center and scoring goals, and Ethan's been on left wing. It is so much fun to watch. I'm afraid I'm one of those moms, though. You know the ones. Always yelling and telling the refs what to do. Good grief. I didn't realize I had reached the embarrassing stage until Luke came to a game with me and had to almost shush me a few times. When a man as loud as my husband has to tell me to be quieter - well, let's just say the devil may have had to shovel the snow off his sidewalk for the first time.

Titus and hockey have had a rough go of it. He finally had a practice tonight that didn't end in him laying on the ice for five minutes while having a mini tantrum. A step in the right direction. For a boy who expects perfection from himself all the time, hockey has been his nemesis. This is a kid who cries if he can't draw a letter just right, never mind skating with a bunch of awkward equipment on and chasing the ever-elusive puck around the ice. On his first game he gave up on the puck and started slashing the other team with his stick whenever they came in reach. Oy vey. I think we've been watching too much Hockey Night In Canada.

Well, have a good day and try to stay warm (we almost hit -30 C last night)!

*Titus' first hockey game*

Life as I know it

I really wanted to put some photos up on my blog, but I can't seem to find my plug-in thingie for the camera. I wish I could say this was a rare occurrence, but things tend to get lost in this house. I usually have a general idea, but ... let's just say my junk drawer in the kitchen has gotten a wee bit out of control! Organization is definitely not a gift of mine. I try to blame it on being artistic, but that is a rather lame excuse.

Well, life has been a bit busy around here. Luke has been gone for most of October. First, to get a car from the States with a side trip to visit his family in Manitoba, and then to go hunting in the great white north with his Rainbow Lake buddies. He's coming home today (yeah!) but will be off again on Friday for the Promise Keepers convention in Calgary. It wouldn't have been so bad if Thanksgiving hadn't been last weekend! As it ended up, the boys and I got our fill of turkey at the church supper. You can always count on Mennonites and their converts to have a gourmet feast on all the good holidays!

Hockey season is here again (it kinda feels like it never left!) and all three boys have joined up. Yes, I said three. Titus has taken to his skates this year, and I have apparently become the one hockey mom who needs to go out on the ice with her child. Thankfully Luke will be there on Thursday! In the dressing room, all is good. Titus wants to get out there and do his thing. However, the minute we get on the ice, the waterworks and whining start. We go off the ice for a break - happy. Back on the ice - sad. Despite everything, he can now skate without a chair and get up by himself. Go figure! Caleb and Ethan are on the same team this year, which is nice. Their practices are so organized and chaos-free. They can even get most of their equipment on by themselves. Hooray for growing up!

As for me, I'm doing my thing. Last Saturday, I decided that a new fallsy dress for Thanksgiving was in order. I found a tutorial and whipped it up that evening with some fabric that I had in my stash. Unfortunately, it didn't look that great on me. At all. I'm to short and "voluptuous," as my mom likes to say! Oh well, it was nice to actually make something clotheswise for a change. Another thing I've been working on for the past four or five months is a memory quilt for my Grandma's birthday on Saturday. A lot of work, but lots of fun! There was quite a bit of hand work, which always prolongs the process, but I'm at the point now where I just need to put pictures on fabric and tie them on the quilt. I'd show you a picture, but ... ! I'm also doing a little bit of volunteering over at the boys' school while Titus is in preschool. Yesterday I spent all morning with a couple of kids from Ethan's class making apple dolls. Those things are so utterly cool! I may have to make one of my own!

So, that's the Willms update. Sans pictures. You'll just have to use that imagination. Especially for me on the ice with Titus. In a black winter jacket. That someone managed to dust with Dr. Scholl's foot powder. Which I had no idea about 'till I got home. 'Nuff said.

Another Autumn

Yes, the days do fly by quicker and quicker. Seems like only yesterday when I was impatiently waiting for the snow to go away! I love watching the fields grow and ripen - what is it about golden grass that fills my heart with joy?

On a totally unrelated note: I was talking with Titus yesterday after music practice, asking what he did while I was singing. "Oh, just colouring and glueing and scissoring." Why can I never come up with awesome words like that?

Another thing - where did the phrase "shake a stick at" originate? You know; "There were too many trees to shake a stick at." Does that even make sense? Anyone?

Grammer School

Well, I've been checking out preschools for Titus to attend this fall. After last year and his "imaginary" school, I thought the time was right for a foray into the real thing. Naturally, I started looking at the one closest to home. I went to the registration meeting and was tremendously disappointed with the lack of organization and professionalism. Not only were there no registration packages, but no formal anything to base any sort of decision on. Parents came, saw the school, wandered around aimlessly, signed a mailing list, and left as bewildered as when they arrived. I asked a few questions after I had discerned who was on the preschool board, but they seemed to know only a little more than I did.

A month later, the registration package arrived in my mail. I opened it up, read the first page, and put it down again. I then got a phone call from the teacher telling me that the wrong package had been sent and to expect another. Yesterday, I received the latest one and proceeded to go through it. I soon discovered that I am a grammar snob. Somehow, I don't seem to care what kind of program they are offering or what method they use. If they can't write it out properly, or get someone to proofread their work, I get too upset to look past it. Apparently they are only "excepting" 24 students. And the teacher is "nearly" a facilitator of learning. I mean, come on people! Put that together with run on sentences and words out of place, and I go nuts! I don't mind bad grammar in, say, a blog, or something informal and personal, but in a business or school? Something professional? From someone who has been to college for 4+ years and has a degree in Education it is appalling.

So there's my rant, and I'm guessing that it is not all grammatically correct. In fact, I know it isn't. I do, however, want my son's teacher to take this seriously even though it is only preschool. Right?

Great Mosquito War of 2007

Yes, that is a dead mosquito. Slightly mangled. And it's all his own fault!

Sunday night we were the victims of a raid on our bedroom by the relentless invader Mosquito. The Mosquito tribe attacked us in the style of guerilla warfare, complete with camouflage and subterfuge. We responded with a method of seek and destroy that seems to be so popular with the U.S. army nowadays. Battle was joined for nearly half an hour with a dozen casualties for the Mosquito invaders. The reason for the assault - a window mysteriously open in our room. Who was their inside man? We may never learn the identity of that perfidious traitor, but through criminal profiling we have learned that he is very young, between two and four, and has blonde hair and blue eyes. When we catch the perpetrator (and we will!) he will face the severest penalty of the law in Willmsland.

All about the color

Ok. This is the before picture of my beautifully orangy bright kitchen. I loved having an orange kitchen - so cheerful and happy to see me in the morning. Luke, on the other hand, had some choice words to say about it. I think "ghastly" summed it up quite succinctly in his mind.

Now for the end result. A much tamer, safer, and not so in-your-face yellowy color. Official name: Sahara. Truthfully (and I reeeally hate to admit it) it fits into our kitchen better. The wood seems like just wood and not something that totally clashes with the walls. It mixes well with the countertop, the lino, the backsplash, and pretty much everything else. So, while I am sad to see my bright kitchen go, I am happy to be in a place that is not at odds with itself. Luke's just happy it isn't orange!

Sickness

Remember when I spouted the drivel that my cold was the "best bad cold ever"? I'm sure you could see the writing on the wall. Well, "best bad cold" turned into "most miserable long cold" that I've had to deal with in quite a long time. It was sooo bad that I stood up in the middle of movie night with Luke and went to bed, groaning and holding my head and being generally the biggest baby ever. Of course, now I'm all better and the memories are fading fast, but at the time it was not good. I couldn't even knit! Or read!!! Thank goodness no one else in the house seems to have caught it. Which, in and of itself, is rather remarkable since I touched most everything they ate, wore, and slept in.

Well, this weekend was good since Luke was home and I was feeling exponentially better every day after Friday. We had a campfire behind the house and roasted weiners and marshmallows (does anyone know how to make s'mores?). We flew a new dragon kite that I picked up in Costco and managed to get it caught in some power lines (very embarrassing for us adults). We went out after church to a brunch buffet and stuffed ourselves silly. We went swimming. And then, on Monday, we painted the kitchen. It was a beautiful (to me) orange, but Luke was not liking it. Apparantly it reminded him of A&W. So now it is a kind of yellow called Sahara. It is really nice. I wish I had pictures for all the fun stuff we did, but I managed to forget the camera, or forgot to take pictures. Sorry! Next time, I promise!

New hobby

Can you believe it? I am apparantly going about my life as if time doesn't even exist. I took up knitting. Yep. I can just see you shaking your head now. Luke sure did, and managed a nice little roll of the eyes to go along with it. It is rather fun and a way for me to not feel totally useless when I sit in front of the TV for Heroes or Lost or Survivor. I am creating. It feels good. And the boys are totally enthralled with the process. "Use this one now, Mom!" "Ooh, that looks good, Mom!" "Make me a sweater, Mom!" It's nice that they get all excited like that, makes my day. Of course, I learned just in time for me to get bowled over by a head-plugging cold. So I sit and I knit and I let Luke do little things for me. This is the best bad cold ever!

Soccer

Yes, soccer season is upon us. One nice thing about soccer is the hours. I don't have to get up at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning just to take a tired boy to the rink. Another nice thing - soccer equipment is shin pads and shoes. No big bag to lug around, no fifteen minutes getting everything on, no stinkiness taking everything off. Sigh*. Did I say how much I love spring?

Getting older, wiser, and more mature

OK, maybe not the wiser and more mature part, but I am getting older. In fact, I had a birthday last Sunday and turned 31 years of age. Or, as my Uncle Bob would say, I am now in my 32nd year. It was a good day - no cooking for me! After church we went to Uncle Jack and Auntie Cheryl's house for some yummy BBQ fish (with burgers on the side for the boys) and raspberry shortcake. Mmmm. And then we were off to my parents for faspa and chocolate cake. Luke (the brother, not the husband) was up from the endless prairie of Saskatchewan, unfortunately without his bride (we missed you Lindy!). Eric came after work with a beautifully pregnant Jana. Even my cuz, Keri, showed up. Of course, we couldn't stay too long since we had two children who came down with fevers during the course of the day. Yep, the neverending merry-go-round of illness struck again. Last week was Ethan, and he managed to pass it on to Caleb and Titus this week. Sorry, no pics!

On Monday, Heather picked me up for a little birthday shopping without the kids. Do you know how long it's been since I tried something on in a dressing room without a small child trying to open the door whilst I am in a state of undress? We then went out to Earl's for supper.

Of course, a birthday isn't a birthday without a present. Let me just say, my life is now complete.

Busy, busy, busy

Wow, has it really been so long since I've posted? Gotta say that it doesn't seem that long ago! So much has happened. The kids have been sick, then well, and now sick again. First time was some sort of flu (a lot of laundry came of that!) and now there are stuffy noses, coughs, sore throats, and in two out of three cases a fever. Thankfully the first illness only stopped long enough to say hello to me, and this one has ignored me entirely. So far. I think. My poor children and husband, on the other hand, have taken the brunt of it.

Next on my busyness list is keeping a clean house. I know there are some of you out there that this comes quite natural to, but for me it's a struggle against my innate procrastination and laziness. Wow, was that L word ever hard to write! It's been two weeks and I think that I wouldn't have been too embarrassed if anyone had dropped in, which is a major step in the right direction for me.

I am also one of the music team leaders at church, and that tends to take up a lot of room in my brain on the weeks we lead worship. Too much, in fact, and much of it unnecessary. A lot of it is panic because too often I have forgotten to contact someone or do something that should have already been done.

Thank goodness for the boys. They are so precious, even though my mountain of laundry gains new height daily (can someone PLEASE tell me why little boys and mud are so attracted to each other! Three, yes, three pairs of pants a day for each child!). Caleb so cheerful, Ethan so cuddly, and Titus so funny. Really, what more could I ask for?

Let's Get Real Monday

Well, I decided to take part in a little something called "Let's Get Real Monday". Randi from the I have to say... blog has been hosting this for quite a while and I decided to play along. The topic this week is about my favorite things. So here goes...

My favorite movie is and always has been The Princess Bride. However, I am quite partial to British movies like Waking Ned Devine, The Full Monty, Calendar Girls, and Ladies in Lavendar. I don't know why, since I'm not a Britophile, but that type of humor is my cup of tea!

My favorite food is ... OK, I can't think of just one. Mennonite food as a collective, maybe. And Italian. And Mexican. Anything that is guaranteed to add a little jelly to the belly. ( I know. It's sad. Why, oh why, don't I crave salad?)

My favorite saying is "I love you mommy" followed closely by the exasperated way Caleb says "Mom" when I am acting silly.

My favorite song (lately) is "I Don't Feel Like Dancing" by the Scissor Sisters.

My favorite household chore is laundry, which is good since with the three boys that seems to be all I do.

My favorite verses are Romans 8:38 and 39 - "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall by able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Little Dancing Mennonites

Yes, those are my two eldest. Dancing, if you can believe it. To Ukrainian music, of all things. At their school on Friday, it was the culmination of their Ukrainian days. Every year their school honors a different culture - last year it was the French Canadians. This year the kids learned to dance Ukrainian, created poppy paintings, cross stitched poppy pillows, and made enough food to feed the many children and their families. Ethan's grade 1 class made perogies (not just cooked, but did the filling and stuffed the dough and folded it into pockets) and Caleb's grade 2 class made meatballs. There were cabbage rolls and beet borscht. It was impressive to say the least! And felt very familiar. It's easy to see what Mennonites picked up while they lived in the Ukraine (besides the dancing). So, here's to the Ukraine! I thank them for teaching my great great grandparents the delights of borscht, paska, perogies, and many other delicious foods that have been so incorporated into my own heritage. I just wish I didn't like it so much!

Ethan's last hockey practice

Thursday nights were always Ethan's hockey practices. After tonight they are no more, and Ethan moves up a level from Jr. Novice to Sr. Novice to play with Caleb next winter. Of course, we will still be going to Jr. Novice practices because of Titus. Oh, yeah, Ethan is the one on the furthest left, good old number 13 like his Dad and Grandpa. Eth sure improved a lot this year, and spent more of the practices and games on his skates than on his butt. The whole family got to skate with the team tonight and I got to show the boys how horrible my skating really is. I have no problem picking up speed, but stopping is another story. Titus even got out on some skates for the second time and did waaaaay better than I had expected. No tears, no tantrums, no whining. Just skating. I have to say, for such a dramatic child, this was almost miraculous. Sure hope it continues into next hockey season!