Hailey Update

Thank you for your kind thoughts and words and for praying for Hailey and her family.

I talked with my sister-in-law after school today; Hailey had a blood transfusion yesterday and responded well to it. There are 2 acute types of leukemia (AML and ALL); Hailey has both but moreso the ALL, so they will be giving her the treatment for ALL, which is a 2 year treatment. She will be having a port put in tomorrow and at some point in the near future, they will be checking her bone marrow.

I asked Sylvie (my sister-in-law) how Brian & Becky knew that Hailey was sick, and she had asked them the same thing. Last Sunday, their sister visited with Brian & Becky and mentioned that Hailey looked pale...but she does have blonde & blue-eyed parents...and then the sister noticed a bruise on Haileys head and asked how she got it. Brian & Becky didn't know how she got it, and then that night there was a bruise on her bottom. They took her in to emerg...emerg tried to take blood but had trouble due to all the baby chub, but managed to get some through her jugular and said it was thick. They said that if she wasn't better by Friday, then she needed to see her Family Doctor. So on Friday, her family doctor sent her to the Children's Hospital for tests, and came in at 10:00 that night with a box of kleenex.

How your life can change in a matter of hours. But we know that God hears and answers prayer - just look at Tigger.

On the homefront, we had a busy weekend which was a lot of fun, so you can look forward to pictures tomorrow. Trust me, the pictures are cute. Cute cute cute.

Urgent Prayer Request

I received an e-mail from my sister-in-law this morning, that her neice who is 7 months old, has just been diagnosed with accute leukemia. It is aggressive and is in her liver and spleen and the doctors will be doing more tests to determine the best way to treat her. At this time, she has been given a 50-50 chance. Please pray for Brian, Becky, and baby Hailey; I know they would appreciate it.

Baby Hailey is in a children's hospital in the same city where Tigger was born, so I know medically speaking, she is in very good hands. And I can relate somewhat to how Becky must be feeling, since Hailey is their 3rd child...when she is at the hospital with Hailey, she will have tremendous guilt for not being home with her other two children, and if she is home with her other two children, she will feel tremendous guilt for not being at the hospital with Hailey.

Thank you.

Angst and Oy

It's school picture day. Need I say more?

You'd think having 3 boys in school, we wouldn't have angst and oy over picture day, but we surely did this morning. Zoomer is old enough to look after his own clothing, and he chose the silk shirt we bought in China. Pure silk. Made from the silk worm. For a teenager. I don't know what I was thinking at the time I bought it - it's a beautiful shirt - I must have been whacked out on something...too much pizza topped with corn and peas maybe...don't laugh, it actually tasted good. I'm not happy with his choice of t-shirts he chose to wear underneath his silk, but I didn't bother to mention it because it was just a battle I would not have won.

I asked Shaggy what he wanted to wear today - a suit. I said no. We agreed on a church shirt and tie. Yesterday I found some old ties of my Dad's in the basement - Recycle Matters stopped by and took away many many bags of clothing that we no longer need, so in the midst of packing up clothing to give away, I found the ties - and of course, smack-dab in the middle of the tie that Shaggy chose to wear today was a stain. So we went to tie #2. Same thing. And tie #3 as well. And he doesn't like the 4th tie, but it is free of stains so he's stuck with it. Apparently my Dad was not the neatest of eaters when wearing ties.

I asked Tigger what he wanted to wear today - his chicken costume for the Harvest Party. Need I bother to tell you what my answer was? He's stuck wearing what I gave him to wear. Except last night when I was doing laundry, there were no school pants to be found for him. In the clean laundry nor the dirty laundry. I finally did find a pair that worked. I think when I had him clean his room the other day, he must have just shoved all his clothes under his bed. And I did lift the blanket to look under his bed, but I didn't get on my hands and knees to make sure nothing was shoved way back there.

Thumbelina and I are going to go shopping today. We need to buy some props for Shaggy's Harvest Party costume - he's going to be a sack of potatoes. The theme this year is Farming/Harvest. Tigger is a chicken. Let me rephrase that - Tigger's costume is a chicken. Here, this will help:

Chicken Little?:

No, it's just a bogus chicken farmer:

My brothers are so embarrassing:

Liberace's got nuthin' on me:

Like my trippin' piggie tails?

I've Irritated My Son

There's this card game that we used to play waaayyyy back when we were teens, and all I remember is mass chaos as people are trying to trade cards and yelling out 2 - 2 - 2 or 3 - 3 - 3 or how many cards they want to trade.

So Zoomer was telling me he was playing Dutch Blitz. And I asked him if that was the game where you yell out 2 - 2 - 2 to trade cards. And he said, No, you asked me that the last time I played Dutch Blitz. And I said, Well what's that game where you yell out 2 - 2 - 2? And he said, I don't know.

So he's continuing to tell me about the game and in the middle of his sentence, I said, Rook! Is it Rook where you shout out 2 - 2 - 2? And he said, I don't know. I've never played Rook.

And he's still trying to tell me about the game and again I interrupted him and said, Maybe we played it with Dutch Blitz cards. I just remember shouting out 2 - 2 - 2 and trying to trade.

He left the room.

Seriously - what game am I thinking of???

Friday Night Date Night

You know the romance is gone when there's nothing left to do but spend your
date night at the Super Store.

That quote is from Mr. Happy. About our date last night.

Yesterday afternoon Mr. Happy told me that if I could find a babysitter, he could take me out to dinner. So I did and he did. Except he had to work late, so our date didn't actually start until 7:00 pm, when we dropped Zoomer off for his activity (he went through a corn maze with the kids from church). Since we are nearing the end of our fourth decade, we decided it was better to stay in town and dine at one of the fine establishments offered to us. Because we didn't want to stay out late and drive to another town. Because we are turning into old fogies. I told him no McDonald's, no Wendy's, no Arby's. That left little else. Seriously. We live in Small Town, No-where-ville, Great White North.

So out of the 3 restaurants left to choose from, we decided on the one at the mall. And I say mall very loosely. I just personally find it sad when the 2 main stores at the mall are Giant Tiger and Food Basics. With little else in between. I promise you, I could not make this up if I tried. But at least they have those handy-dandy You Are Here signs at each entrance...wouldn't want to get lost in the mall, you know.

After our meal, which was good - thank you for asking, we attempted to walk through the mall. And saw 3 of our employees. Talked to them for a few minutes and then decided to go to Zellers to buy Zoomer some new jeans.

Drove to Zellers - at the other end of town - took all of 3 minutes to do - and the parking lot was dark. At 8:00 on a Friday night. Very weird, especially since Friday night is a big shopping night here in No-where-ville. I think they must have had some sort of system malfunction or something. I asked Mr. Happy if I should go knock on the door to see if anybody could let us in...anyway, we decided to go to the Super Store, which was beside it. Because the Super Store is not just a grocery store. It is so much more.

We bought Tigger a chicken costume for the Harvest Party - this year's theme is farming/harvest and I just don't have the time or energy to be creative. So a chicken he will be. And we bought a case of halloween chips for the harvest party and a container of jujubes. That were old a chewy. And we forgot to buy milk, so somebody will have to go back today and get some milk.

And this is when Mr. Happy said that you know the romance is dead when you spend your date at the Super Store. Personally, I think the romance isn't dead, but rather that's how we know we are living in No-where-ville...when there's nothing left to do but go to the Super Store.

But our town is starting to grow. Wal Mart is being built, Home Depot is coming to town, as is Staples, and another restaurant. Apparently.

You are so jealous. I can tell.

TGIF

It's been a very long week here in Jaj-ville. Each day I awoke thinking it was the next day; imagine my disappointement when I realized there were still 4 more days left of the week. Last night I did not sleep well. There was a smell keeping me awake, and I can't put my finger on what it was. Mr. Happy was slumbering blissfully. The smell was unpleasant, hence why I kept waking up smelling it...I was even beginning to wonder if a mouse had died somewhere in a wall. Despite the outdoor traps, the mice are finding their way back into the house; I haven't seen any evidence of them yet, but I have heard them running about.

This morning one of the child's woke up very grumpy. Extremely grumpy. Actually, I woke up grumpy when I should have let him sleep. Haha. Good one, Jaj! I feel bad for his teacher. He seems to be having a rough week and just loses it for no reason. Really, when your little brother leans against the wall and accidentally turns the light off, that isn't a good reason to scream. At least Thumbelina wakes up with a smile every day.

Thumbelina is enjoying her breakfast at the moment - mandarin oranges, grapes, toddler o's, cookie...actually the cookie made it's way to the floor. She's not a cookie person. Last week, when we were on our shopping expedition, she ate a goodly portion of her BFF's watermelon. I was finally able to procure some yesterday. It isn't as easy to find now that it's not in season. Mr. Happy bought the wrong kind of fruit last week because of the watermelon shortage - mixed fruit - with pineapple, peaches, pears...Miss Thumbelina was not at all happy with it and ate everything except the pineapple. Oh, and she likes bananas too. So why am I telling you all this? I really don't know. My brain seems to be all mushy due to the lack of sleep, and for some bizarro reason, I thought you might find it interesting. But I'm bored to tears so you must be too. And since I've already spent the last few minutes typing this out, it's staying.

Today I might start making the Christmas gifts for my nursery workers. Which means I get to do some scrapbooking! I am making a little booklet type thingy, that they can fill up with 10 pictures or so. That's the plan, anyway.

Thumbelina is finished with her breakie and needs me to clean her up now. Happy Friday.

This Is For You, Uncle Lewis

So Tigger has a Music test tomorrow - Grade 3, and the new thing he's learned are slurs, ties and staccato.

Me: Tigger, notes that are joined in counting are called what?

Tigger: Ties!

Me: Good! And notes played smoothly together are called what?

Tigger: Slurs!

Me: And notes played like raindrops are called what?

Tigger: Tobacco!

Pictures!

Since this was Thumbelina's first time tromping through the leaves, she wasn't too sure what to think about it all:

But the more noise they made, the more she liked it:
This is fun!
If I walk fast, I make even more noise!
I tried to bury her legs in the leaves, but she was a little hesitant about being up close and personal with it all:

This is my favourite picture...I think I'm going to frame it:
So much more to do:
Like sitting in the leaves over by the plants:
Oh look!
It's Lola:
Thumbelina was so cute:
She was chasing her shadow!
And it kept moving away from her:

Thanks for stopping by:

Fall Fun

I took Thumbelina to our Pal's house yesterday to play in the leaves. Because the leaves at our house are still mostly green and on the trees. Alas, blogger is unable to upload pictures at this time, so you'll just have to take my word for it that Thumbelina had fun. At one point, she even looked up into the tree and signed more. How cute is that!

So this morning, one of the childs woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I don't know why he was so grumpy. And it wasn't even the teenager, so we can't blame raging hormones. At least he was spared the dreaded bed-head...one less thing to have to battle about...he really, really wanted to take his brother's basketball to school today. I told him he couldn't. Not until he starts doing better in spelling. Spelling is his worst subject, so he just gives up and doesn't even try. I want him to try. He's not too keen on the trying part. We'll see how his test goes today.

Mr. Happy has a supper meeting tonight in another city, so he has my truck, because he's taking some of the guys from the barn. He can fit more people in my truck than his truck, despite his truck being a four-door. Anyway, I keep looking outside and not seeing my truck, so then I start to think I'm not home...

Did I tell you that Thumbelina and her BFF had a play-date on Friday? At the Mall! There's no better place to meet up with friends! The girlies were so cute, being pushed through the mall in their strollers, side-by-side. Our adoption agency is having a party in a few weeks for the kidlets, and it was requested that they wear their Chinese outfits. H&M just happend to have little silk outfits, so we bought them matching dresses. AND our guide that we had in China will be there. So we're all pretty excited about seeing her again and showing off the girlies.

That's about all that's happening here. It's quiet at the moment, which means we should be in for a super-duper day. Hopefully blogger will get the picture problem fixed and I'll be able to post some later on.

Jokes, Jokes and More Jokes

Zoomer told me a blonde joke the other day:

How did the blonde die raking leaves? She fell out of the tree.

So I told him a blonde joke:

Three blondes are sitting in a bar chanting “51 days”. After a while the bartender says to them, “Ladies, for the past 3 hours you have been sitting here chanting 51 days. Why?” The blondes stop chanting and lookup. “Well,” says one of the blondes, “we just finished a puzzle.” “So, what does that have to do with anything?” the bartender asked. “Well the box says 3 to 5 years. We finished it in 51 days!”

Of course I changed 'the bar' to 'a restaurant'...you know...just in case he decides to tell that joke at church or something.

So now my boys are constantly bugging me to tell them blonde jokes, since I mentioned that I save all the ones that come my way.

Tonight the boys were telling jokes at bedtime tonight.

Shaggy's:

Hey Mom - What time is it if there's 5 bears chasing you? Five after one!

Tigger's:

Hey Mom - how is Winnie the Pooh like Smokey the Bear? They both like honey!

Shaggy's:

Hey Mom - There was this guy and he was riding a horse. They were riding along the road, and in the middle of the road was this dog. The dog said, "Hi." The man said, "I didn't know a dog could talk." And the horse said, "Neither did I!"

That Shaggy is quite risible, isn't he...despite being a bit maladroit at times. But then, aren't we all?

Carpe Diem

Yesterday we went back to the Fair. And we actually had a good time, despite the near triple digit temperatures and the crowds of people. I can honestly say that yesterday was the first time I've ever in my life come home from the County Fair with a suntan. We're usually wearing our long-johns and parkas. I kid you not. And the poeople! What's wrong with today's society when everybody goes to the Fair instead of staying home enjoying their turkey dinner?

So yes, we lived for the moment, enjoying the sun, the rides, the games, candy apples (only Tigger - Shaggy got himself grounded from anything remotely resembling candy) and pogo sticks. Life can't get much better than that. We even saw old friends that we haven't seen since I think our wedding. He was known as Pond Scum in high school. Terrible, isn't it? And to this day the nickname Pond Scum always comes to mind when I think of him.

One other thing before I let you get back to work - why do the gaming people at the fair insist on wearing freaky costumes? Seriously, my heart skips a beat when I see someone walking down the midway all decked out in black, with a black flowing cape and a ghoulish mask on. What are they trying to hide? Not to mention it scares the little kids as well. I guess mostly me, though, because my kids never mentioned anything about them.

Anyoo, enjoy your day!

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Turkey Day to all my fellow Canucks! Awesome weather, isn't it. I think we're going to be in for a shock when Fall actually arrives. Until then, my clan is content to wear t-shirts and shorts.

• So last night we were at church. And as Shaggy and I were walking out of the auditorium, he decides to swing from the door post - there are 3 doors separating the auditorium from the foyer, with a post in between each door - the doors are all open before and after the service. As he did it, I thought to myself, At least he didn't do a cannonball when he got baptized...{a side note here - Shaggy & Tigger were baptized 2 weeks ago and we have it on film...it will make you laugh, but I don't know yet how to shorten it down from 5 minutes to 2-3 minutes...but it will make you laugh...not as much as the cannonball baptism, so maybe you'll just chuckle instead} so where were we. Oh yes, Shaggy swung from the door post from the inside of the auditorium to the foyer. And then as I'm walking, I heard this huge bang; it sounded like a bomb or a gun shot...but having never really heard a bomb or a gun shot in real life I couldn't be sure. So I looked across the foyer at the family with their 2 month old baby, hoping it wasn't the car seat that got dropped...so then I looked down at my flute that I was carrying, hoping that the case hadn't opened, spilling my flute everywhere...and then I looked behind me. And I saw the door post on the ground. And there's Shaggy standing there with a sheepish look on his face. Metal on ceramic tile makes a huge booming sound. Oy. At least at church, people have to be forgiving, right? You don't suppose they actually know that my child can be fiendish at times, do you?


• Friday afternoon our social worker came for our 6 month post-placement visit. It's a requirement from China. I was very happy to show off Thumbelina, so I was looking forward to the visit. China also requires pictures to be sent, showing Thumbelina's life here in the Great White North and with her family, and of course I don't have a picture of the 6 of us together. We had our family portrait taken 3 weeks ago, but we don't have any pictures back from that yet. And we're getting more pictures taken the end of this month. My girlfriend had warned me about the pictures - her social worker was very fussy about which ones needed to be sent to China, and the ones that she thought should have been sent, didn't get chosen by the social worker. So I was nervous and had about 80 pictures ready for our social worker to go through...I didn't think 80 pictures was too bad out of the thousands that have been taken since March. Anyhoo, during the visit, as we're looking through pictures, Miss Thumbelina decided that right at that moment would be the perfect time to try to climb up onto the piano bench...the piano bench comes up to about her chest. She got her foot up there quite easily...and then fell smack onto her side...onto the hardwood floor...with our social worker watching. And I was trying to stop Thumbelina from climbing up onto it, but I wasn't fast enough. Oy. In front of the social worker.


• So this past week was our local fair. It actually ends today. Yes, we will be spending our Thanksgiving at the Fair instead of with family. Remember last year when we boycotted the Fair and went to Florida instead? Well, we couldn't do that this year because Thumbelina isn't officially a Canuck yet. And we boycotted the Fair because it's too expensive...I know, I know, that doesn't even make sense to go to Florida because the Fair is expensive. Whatever. Anyhoo, we went to the Fair on Thursday after school, because Shaggy really wanted to see the Monster Trucks, and because the boys had Friday off of school, so it was okay to have a late night during the week. The school gives the kids the Friday off to go to the Fair so then everybody can have a 4-day-weekend for Turkey Day. So while the boys were watching the Monster trucks, Thumbelina and I walked through the buildings. A couple of times. And I've seen everything I need to see at the Fair and I'm all Fair'd out. But we still have to go this afternoon. And Mr. Happy is just thrilled beyond thrilled that we get to go back again, because he's such a people person. Yes, that was sarcasm.


• Being that today is Turkey Day, I'd just like to share with you all that I'm Thankful that I wasn't alive during the 16th Century. Mr. Happy and I watched Elizabeth last night (stayed up waaaayyyy too late, too) and really enjoyed the movie. Mr. Happy said I wouldn't have done well living in the Medieval Time. I told him I'd have had to have been royalty to even just survive it. So I'm Thankful that I'm living in the 21st Century instead of the 16th.

Have yourself a wonderful day!

Shaggy on the Cannonball - I love the expression on his face:

Way up at the top ready to be dropped:

My beautiful girl:

Shaggy & Tigger on the kite thingy ride:

The Fair at night: