She's back!

Actually, Olivia's been back for over a week now. She was gone for six days. We've been fighting through two nasty infections she came home with. She's on four different types of medication, poor girl. But, she's been a trooper through it, even though I tasted one, and it had to have been the absolute worst-tasting stuff I have ever encountered. It's great to have her back; our house was definitely not the same without her.

In less than two weeks she starts preschool. I attended the Annual Meeting the other night, and joined the Cleaning Committee. It's a co-operative, non-profit preschool, which relies heavily on parental involvement to make it work. Every parent has a turn to be teacher's aide, so every fifteen classes, I get to see what it's like to handle fifteen four-year-olds. I really have to hand it people who are called to teaching, and do it well. I remember a couple of month ago, we were looking after two of Donnie's nephews, Sam and Isaac, who are four and eight. Ok, I say 'we', but really, I was laid out with the flu, and not too useful. Donnie had to run out for fifteen minutes during lunch, so I looked after the kids. I'm used to just one child, so having three was quite a change. And challenging. Especially when you've just gotten up after being asleep for 32 hours straight, and they all needed something at the same time...

"Can I have a napkin?"

"I need a juice."

"Can you cut mine up into smaller pieces?"

"Are you getting a puppy?"


On an entirely other note, I've actually started sewing some stuff. I've had a pair of pyjamas cut out for Donnie for the last several months. It was supposed to be a birthday present, but it didn't really get off the ground. His birthday was in May. But I tell you, these are going to be worth waiting for. Burgundy silk charmeuse piped with this.

There's even a monogram on the shirt pocket. He can channel his inner Hugh Hefner.

Olivia's been helping me, too. She sits on my lap and presses the buttons on the machine. When she tires of that, she takes a scrap of fabric and creates 'shirts' for all of her dinosaurs.

It's going to be a long two weeks...

A couple of weeks ago, Olivia and I were having breakfast. It was an ordinary day, and we were talking about just ordinary things. Probably T-Rexes. It seems to be the topic of choice around here.

Out of the blue, she looked up at me and said, "Mom, I remember your bad years. At the blue house."

The house we lived in the States was blue.

I was stunned into silence as she explained, "It made you sad, and it made me angry. But I take that bad stuff out of my brain,"

She moved her hand toward her forehead and made a grabbing motion.

"And I throw it away."

She moved her hand away from her head and shook it open.

She is on a two week vacation with her dad right now, so I don't know if I'll be writing much for the next little while. I'm finding a lot of things to do to keep busy.

It helps a lot that I am with an incredibly patient, caring man who understands that this is a really difficult time for me, and supports me even though this is a really hard time for him too.

August is supposed to be a hot month...

Apparently, not.

For the last two days, it's felt more like a late September or early October day. It's been overcast and cool, and nothing like the sunny, hot days that I normally associate with August. It was a perfect morning to sit and read the paper, drink coffee and listen to some jazz.

Along with the cherry tree, and the raspberry canes, we have two apple trees in our yard. These are just the apples that blew off the tree in the last windstorm. The really do look pretty sitting on the counter in my grandma's bowl, but they really do need to be used for something. Olivia and I used two of them in apple scones. It was so nice to actually use the oven, since I don't do a lot of baking in the summer.

After the mixing and tasting were done, and the scones had been put in the oven, Olivia ran to her room.

"I have a great idea, Mommy!"

She ran back to the kitchen with her tea cups and saucers and teapot. "We can have a tea party!" So, the three of us sat at the kitchen table, sipping milk from her tea set, and enjoying our scones.

It's nice that we can enjoy the simple things in life.

Back from vacation!

So now we're home from our vacation. Actually, we got home Monday night, then I had to go into work Tuesday, and yesterday everyone felt crappy, so I haven't done much.

Our vacation was great! This is a picture of the first display you see at the Royal Tyrell. It is pretty amazing, even more so if you are as obsessed with dinosaurs as Olivia is. And, Donnie and I even learned stuff...like lions and camels were indigenous to North America. Who knew?


The day after the dinosaur museum, we did the Calgary Zoo. Again, very cool, but by the end of it, my feet hurt, and I couldn't wait to go back to the hotel and put my feet up.

We stayed in Calgary for a couple of days, and exciting me was asleep by 9 o'clock every night. We hit some really great bookstores, and Olivia found a copy of my favourite book from when I was her age...Robin Hood (the Disney version), complete with the record in the back to play along with the book.




After Calgary, we went up to Edmonton for a wedding. Olivia loved getting dressed up, and her hair done. I think I used about half a bottle of hairspray and a dozen bobby pins to get her hair to stay in place. The dress is one that I made last year (to go to a wedding), and it still fits. Actually, it fits better this year than it did last, and it will probably still fit next year. It's nice to get a few wearings out of something that was a fair bit of work to do.

I took two of the sweaters that I'm working one with me, thinking that with all the driving, I'd get a lot done, but that didn't really happen. Oh well.