Coping

I spent 4 hours this morning marking essays. I spent the afternoon and evening playing with James. Now my eyes are so tired they hurt to stay open.

James watched a documentary on the atomic bomb while he was in Moncton. This was the synopsis he gave me:
Atom bombs are soo powerful. They are super powerful! (IF) one was dropped in New Brunswick, you would feel it in Chicago. Did you feel it? (I replied that I was not born when the bomb was dropped) Did Oma feel it? The bomb was made after WWI and used in WWII.
WWII ended when they buried bombs in a field and there was a flood and some of the bombs blew up. That's how it ended.

Luke

Today was a very full day!
At 2am my neighbour (the teacher) decided she needed to put the garbage and recycling out. The thing about green bins is they are very loud at 2am!

I got James his breakfast and got ready myself and headed to work- marking essays today. Then I went my Rustle to photograph more items for Kijiji.

Then James and I spent an hour working on schoolwork from his Reader Rabbit book.

Then I loaded the kijiji stuff while James played pirate-opoly (monopoly for pirates!), made dinner, took James to the splash pad, played baseball with him and mowed the lawn. Since the vacation, I am having to deal with some behavioural problems but we are doing well at working through them. I am trying really hard to help James understand the underlying issues beneath things, like getting him to understand the 'why' of things not being ok.

Before he went to bed, we read the first chapter of Luke. I gave him the choice of the 4 gospels to read and he picked Luke. I thought he was now old enough to handle reading a real Bible, as a pose to a children's Bible and he was. I was quite pleased with that. He really liked how God shut Zechariah up. (He liked it so much he was rolling on the floor laughing!) Then we got to the bit about Elizabeth being to old to have children and getting pregnant because God is able. At this he piped up "Oma does not have children!" and I said that no she didn't but that she used to. I asked him if he knew who Oma's children were. He smiled and said "You" and I told him he was right, and who else? He hesitated, then finally said "Karrie?". And so I realized that James doesn't really have a good grasp of our family dynamics. He knows uncle nat, but he does not connect that he is my brother. Ah, well. He loves him anyway!

James and I did watch Big brother yesterday. I'm not sure how much of this years' cast I will like but I hope they have potential. I was not happy about Jesse going back in the house as I didn't like him last year. I was rooting for Jessica. Ah, well. We'll see how it all pans out...

a new gap

James had a new gap in his teeth when he returned. But he didn't lose a tooth! Weird- the loose tooth is just bending, but in a fixed way. This is him trying to show me, but effectively blocking the photo:

This picture you can see a gap on the top teeth, which is NOT a lost tooth and on the bottom the gap from the tooth he lost in June.

James had a great trip and a great time in Moncton and was rip roaring ready to set up his next trip. He wants to go to St. Catharines now! He doesn't want to return to Moncton for the funeral. Myron said that it will be around the 3rd week of August. James does talk about Granny a fair bit. The funeral might be good for him? He seemed to have a great time out there so I'm not sure why he wouldn't want to return.

Myron was pretty tired after the trip, so I drove home from the station. I'll be driving James with me to work every day next week as he is attending a soccer camp there.

what can i do?

In the situation of a family member dying it is difficult to know what to do. A number of people have asked me what they can do. And, well, I'm not sure I know what I can do myself! But I think that when the boys return on Thursday, maybe if you want to hang out and talk with Myron that might be helpful for him. I'm not sure, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Yesterday, I worked at RMC during the day. Michelle had invited me for dinner at 6pm. So, when I returned home from work instead of getting dinner ready or cleaning things up and being busy. I sat down and watched "The stepford wives". It was a pretty hilarious movie and I enjoyed it very much. I also enjoyed being at Michelle's very much. Her stawberry pie = AMAZING. If she didn't work at the hospital, she could make a living baking the pies. Seriously.

When I got home I watched the train wreck that was the evenings Bachelorette episode. Normally, ABC tries to hide who is going home each episode. So, if you see a preview and it looks like a guy is in danger of getting cut, he's probably the safest one there. BUT this week I think it was so obvious to everyone, they gave up and didn't try to hide it. Wes was going to (finally) be cut.

But, before we get to Wes' date (which was conveniently last) we have to go through the other dates. The Reid and Kip dates seemed nice and similar enough for her to make the same comment about both of them "It was like I was out with my boyfriend". Yes, just a different boyfriend each day.

So, let's skip to Ed, who had been gone from the show for a couple of weeks. Ed seems a nice enough lad, but when he talks to Jilli a lot of the time he doesn't LOOK at her, which is a bit worrying to watch, for her sake. He is the only one who gets to do the fantasy suite bit. Though Jilli is clear they will keep their clothes on. I was a bit disturbed by her having to say this because if you are seeing 4 guys would you really consider sleeping with 4 guys in 4 nights? Eww. Since Jilli had some control over this whole thing, if she didn't want to use the fantasy suites, she could have just told production and not have this akward moment on each date.

Now, the Piece de Resistance- the date with Wes. The go biking and have a akward picnic. Then the go to get changed for dinner. Jilli comes out in a lovely red dress. Wes. Did Wes change? He looked the same as we last left him. Not dressing up for dinner, he. They have more akward conversation at dinner. Jilli wants to know "how to defend herself" when "people like Jake confront me". This raised my eyebrows as I didn't consider what Jake did as "confrontation". I would say he came to tell her the truth. She did not need to 'defend' anything as he wasn't 'attacking' her. But interesting that that is how she percieved it. He did turn out to be correct in the end and his 'confrontation' may have saved her from picking him as the final guy. Who knows?
Anyway, when the fantasy suite card comes, she says 'skip it' and he knows that he is going down.

And so we move on to a weird rose ceremony. First, Jilli is wearing this weird ostrich feather dress/skirt. And the host Chris is gone. I can't remember a rose ceremony without the host. Who will tell us it is the final rose today? And then there is noone to tell Wes to walk out with Jilli. There was a big gap without the host! So, she walks him to the car and in the car he pronounces his result "First guy to get to the final 4 with a girlfriend!" Nice Wes. Such a proud moment.

Then we have the previews for the next few weeks. They did not preview the Hawaii 'problem' (which may have been a guy getting sick, they they played up earlier in the season) but they did play up that the final rose ceremony may not be too smooth. They made it sound like the guy she picked has some concerns that he brings up after that he probably should have brought up before. So, it's not all smooth sailing for Jilli. Well, the Bachelorette has certainly been a learning experience for her!

Marla

If you were at Rustle today or on Facebook, you may have heard that Myron's mom died yesterday.

I think it happened quickly. From what Myron said she was in the hospital as they were working to sort out her medications but they thought she would be out soonish. But on Friday night her liver started shutting down and then on Saturday morning she passed away.

She gave her body to science (not organ donation, which is quick) so they will keep her body for a bit and then they will do the funeral when science is done. So Myron and James are planning on returning as scheduled on Thursday. And I guess the details of the funeral will be decided when it is known when it will be.

Myron told James on Saturday evening and James called me and asked me if I knew Granny had died. I said yes. Then he asked me what the score in Thursday's soccer game was. So I'm not sure he has a grasp of the impact of this.

Al spoke today about hearing truth. Which was a bit amusing because I've had a hard time hearing anything all week. I woke up last Sunday with my ears feeling like they needed to pop but could not. And they stayed like that all week. But this morning when I woke up they were pretty close to fine. So I'm pretty happy about that.

I watched a movie called "The truth about Juliet" and there is a guy who knows the truth about Juliet and debates for a while if he should tell Juliet's boyfriend the truth. Finally, at the end of the film he does tell the boyfriend the truth about Juliet and he does not believe him. Sometimes, people only believe what they want to believe and the truth does not matter so much.

I made a vegetarian lasagna today and brought some over to Tim and Tracey (who just had a baby girl) and gave some to Karen, who came over for a visit. Karen also ate some of my cookies, which she declared were the best cookies she had ever tasted. I have had a couple of people say that about this recipe, but the boys don't like it and always ask me to do plain chocolate chip cookies instead.

Step painting

Before



After 1 coat of paint



It tried to rain as I started to paint but apparently the good weather prevailed. It looks nice, but I used 3/4 of the can on the first coat. I'm hoping the second coat doesn't need as much paint! Down the center I added some non slip grit as after I paint, it tends to be pretty slick.

Last night I posted a bunch of items on Kijiji. One of these items was a dog exercise pen. Do you know how much DEMAND there is for these things? I didn't. I had it sold within 4 minutes of posting and put a sold sign on and yet people are still emailing me offering more than the asking price! Who would have thought? So at noon, I'm off to meet the people from Picton who rescued a pug and want an exercise pen for him/her.

I'll do the second coat in the late afternoon and if the weather station is correct that will give it Sunday to dry before the rain comes Mon-Wed.

I'm doing a meal for Tim and Tracey tomorrow so I'll probably bake a large batch of cookies tonight some for their meal and some for Rustle tomorrow.

Update on Kim's mom

The chemo seems to have worked for Kim's mom. The tumors are all gone!!!! The one on her head is now a hole in her head (like a baby's soft spot). Completely gone. They are planning on putting a plate in where that one used to be to protect her head. She has returned to her normal personality as well. Very good news!

I am working on painting the front step this morning.

12

Yesterday I worked 12 hours as we had some major things to finish up before my boss went to France. I came home, talked to my mom on the phone, then talked to Kim, then Zully on the phone as well. I made some leftovers, which I ate watching the end of a CSI Miami. I was pretty tired at this point so I wrote some emails, read some Proverbs, had a bath, made my sheepish water bottle and went to bed. I don't know how people who regularly work 12 hour shifts do it!

Today, I popped by Rustle to photograph the latest items for Kijiji. I got to see 'touch lamps', which I had never seen before! Al plugged one in and if he touched the base, the light would do different things. I was worried there was a short in it and it wasn't electrically sound. But apparently they work on a change in capacitance. Neat.

After that I went to the doctor. This was really no help at all. She looked in my ears and said they looked fine and if they were still bothering me in a week to come back. She looked at my face and said it looked fine but to come back if it was still bothering me. So, apparently she subscribes to the 'wait and see' approach.

There are all kinds of mini-cadets around RMC now school is out. They are 12-16 years old and they take training (for what I am not sure) in the classroom next to my office. Yesterday they were learning some chants so they were quite loud. Today they are not doing chants, but the leader keeps having to yell "Pipe down". Maybe he brought it on himself by making them yell yesterday.