The weekend ~ part 2: the details

Friday: All systems go - and pretty much on-time too. A small miracle to get everything and everyone in the van and on the road before 11am. The ride out to Brandon included a couple stops along the way, quite a few text messages between vehicles as we traveled together (or not) with Carrie & the Petrowski's (they took the backroads....we went that way last time - never again), the kids played gameboy/ds systems and watched DVD's (Holmes on Homes of all things) or listened to Aarica's Faith Hill CD the whole way and were relatively entertained with little bickering and Owen slept for awhile - which helped with the lack of bickering. After last years trip to Yorkton and the trouble Aarica had hearing the DVD player's speaker from the very back of the van, Aunty Sue gave us an adaptor that hooks up to the DVD player and plugs into the tape player of the van so the sound goes to the van's speakers. What a great gift for Aarica to hear what we hear.
We packed food & drinks to take with us which helped limit the cash output from buying food on the road and it limited our stops to bathroom breaks only....if you don't count Carrie getting stuck at the gas station in Teulon for 15mins waiting to pay for her pepsi and bag of chips - darn fried chicken! ;o)



Once we reached Brandon we checked into the Royal Oak and took a quick look around, got settled, unpacked and relaxed for a few minutes before we had to get Emily into her Poltava costume and over to the auditorium for her groups' first dance. They danced in the 2nd session of the day and by the time the 2nd session started it was already half an hour behind schedule - a good idea of how things went the rest of the weekend as far as schedule times went. The girls did great and earned a Bronze medal for their work.


Back at the hotel, while waiting for PizzaHut to be delivered - Al took the 4 kids to the pool for some fun. After we ate poolside, the adults hung out and the kids visited with friends for a bit until the pool area was locked up for the night after which, a bunch of us headed back to our room. We talked, laughed, drank & had some fun. We got the kids all asleep by 1am and everyone got a good nights sleep - even though our room was incredibly hot. The a/c doesn't get turned on in the hotel until mid May and the temps on Friday got up to about +25. Even with a fan the hotel provided and the window open, the room didn't cool off much over night and it was over 25 in the room at 7am when we woke up.


Saturday: Owen, typically NOT a morning person, was amazingly easy to get out of bed. He was SO excited to be dancing in his very first competition. Everything was going so well until he scalded his hand in the bathroom and then when I tried to get to him I smashed his poor toes under the bathroom door. Oh Boy did he scream and cry! I felt SO bad but eventually we managed to get him calmed down, got him into his Poltava costume (he looks so cute in Garrett's old shirt!) and over to the auditorium half an hour before his dance at 9am.......not to worry though - they were behind schedule again - after only one session. When they finally got onstage they were priceless! Ya they forgot some of their choreography, but their footwork was amazing and they did a great job regardless. So cute and so brave to get up there at 5yrs old and preform on such a huge stage infront of so many people. The adjudicator really liked the quality of their footwork in their dance - high praise for such little ones and they walked away with Silver medals! Two dances down and one to go later in the day.


Back at the hotel, we had a quick(ish) breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then the kids headed to the pool for some fun. Owen did not have much fun though. He did something to a toe on his 'not smashed' foot so both feet hurt and he wouldn't put them in the water...plus the water in the big pool was FREEZING cold. Al insisted they put icecubes in it. At least the pool was cool...unlike our room which was still quite warm. After playing in the pool, we hurried to get Emily's hair braided and into her costume and back over to the auditorium where her mixed boys/girls group was doing their Hutzel dance - Emily's favorite! Owen fell asleep on the way from the hotel to the auditorium and we carried him around for an hour and a half while waiting for the session to begin. The photo posted in part1 was from that nap. Too cute with his butt in the air. That kid doesn't nap often but when he does he does it well - he was passed back and forth a couple times and set down on the bench for awhile. He woke up in time for the next session. It was the first time we got to see this dance and it was so amazing to watch. They definately deserved the GOLD medals they received for this dance!




And that was the end of our required dance attendance for the weekend. I'd hoped to go back and watch the Jr & Sr Hopak dances later that night but we ended up grabbing some takeout which I brought back to the hotel and then we went and met up with Ron & Janice at the Keystone center to watch Derrian play hockey. We had a nice (although short visit) with them and did some catching up on what our families have been up to since they moved out to Brandon 6months ago. I wish we'd had more time to spend with them but we decided to head back to the hotel and get in a quick swim before the pool closed and I wanted to soak in the hot tub - unfortunately they closed down the hot tub so that didn't happen. Saturday night was a quiet night - everyone pretty much kept to their rooms and had an early night.


Sunday: Up early and packing in a hurry. We needed to be on the road early. No chance to swim. No time to go watch some dancing. Tyler had to be in Winnipeg by 12:30 (at least I thought he had to be there by 12:30 but infact he didn't need to be there till 1) Since we got there just after 12 we had time to grab a quick lunch at Timmies before going to the bowling tournament. Tyler had some rough luck. He was bowling good but just couldn't get those pins falling the way he needed them to - leaving corner pins standing and hitting headpins too often. After 4 games he ended up in 14th place. I think he was disapointed in himself, but I'm just so proud of all that he's done with bowling this year. His game has really improved. Bad me - I took no pictures at the bowling tournament. I think by this point I was so tired I just plain forgot about the camera.


We finally got home at 5pm Sunday. A long busy weekend over. We sat and watched a movie and everyone was in bed by 10. We were lucky to get home so early - alot of the other dancers in our group didn't get back till after 10pm. Really really long weekend for them. So competition weekend is over for another year. I'm glad it's done but can't wait till the next one. A couple more weeks of practices before concert and then dancing's over till September. Bowling is almost done too. Oh whatever will we do with ourselves on Wednesdays and Saturday's till then?

The weekend ~ part 1: a photo-commentary

and that pretty much says it all!

Overwhelmed is an Understatement

I'm making lists (4 of them) and checking them twice (an hour) and no it's not to see who's naughty or nice....I already KNOW the answer to THAT question....and was reminded of it in full force tonight when I took all 4 kids with me to 'pick up a few things' at Fields (think Zellers in a smaller size). By a few things I mean bathing suits - the worlds worst thing to shop for - ever...unless you are a guy of course. It took 4.5 seconds for Owen to pick one (not that he needed a new one but it was a good way to keep his mind off the half size skateboard I've been avoiding buying him for weeks) but getting new ones for the girls was a totally different story. Emily wasn't too bad although it would have been easier a week ago when the rack of suits was FULL. Somehow we managed to find 1 that fit her but Aarica was another story. Women's bathing suits just aren't made to fit a 16yr old built like her - but we managed to find one, after trying on about six, that wasn't too revealing, fit well in all the right places & it looks pretty good on her. She's happy. I'm happy - as a mother with 4 kids in a store can be I guess. There were some moments where I could feel the grey hairs sprouting - like when Owen was looking under the changing room door (egged on my his brother who to this moment claims his innocence) or when Aarica and Tyler had a spat in one of the aisles or when Owen decided he'd had enough and started running around and saying 'you can't get me' with this evil tone. My tone must have been moreso but it didn't even phase him......but the phrase "you will spend the weekend sitting BESIDE the pool watching the other kids play if you don't get your butt back here NOW!' seemed to catch his attention. There were a couple other moments but those were the highlights. So we finished our shopping and almost got all the things on list #2. I gave up before I got to the bottom of it and called it done. List #1 was taken care of partially by Alan and Owen earlier in the evening and it consisted of grocery shopping. List #3 is in progress and I'm just waiting on the 8th load of laundry for the day to be done so I can finish it up. List #4 is kind of a 'if i get a chance, these things should be done' list and it's 50-50 on if it will get done or not. Why all these lists? Because we are going on a road trip tomorrow morning. Am I ready yet? NOT EVEN CLOSE! At 8am this morning I was close to tears at the thought of all the things to do today.....that weren't even ON any of the lists, never mind the ones that are, so I'm completely overwhelmed. The idea that a vacation is a relaxing thing is something of a mystery to me. I'm failing to see the 'relaxing' in any of this. Hopefully I'll feel different tomorrow night when I'm sitting beside the hotel pool with a glass of wine in hand.....darn I forgot to go pick up a couple bottles of wine!

Technically there is very little 'vacation' to this whole trip, but it's as close as we get each year so I like to pretend we are actually on vacation. Humor me and go with it. We are heading out tomorrow morning on a 3 hour tour (hmmm, that sounds familiar - wonder how that little trip turned out?). It's approximately 3 hours to get from home to Brandon which is where the Gimli Barvinok Dance Club is in the Troyanda Ukrainain Dance Competition this weekend. As competition weekends go (this is our 4th year), this year seems kind of laid back to me. Emily dances Friday night at 5. Owen dances at 9am Saturday morning and Em dances again at 3 Saturday afternoon - and then we are done. No costume changes in a hurry. No rushing and fussing. Should be plenty of time to sit and watch dancing or hang out at the hotel & swim and visit with all our friends - cuz there are a whole lot of us going to Brandon this weekend. At least that is my master plan. :0) I'm also looking forward to visiting with family/friends that moved out to Brandon last fall. We miss them and can't wait to meet up with them.

Now originally, I was thinking 'wow, our schedule is great. our kids don't dance Sunday so we can sleep in, hang out some more, do a little swimming before we check out and then maybe watch some dancing before heading home' *sigh* So not the case though. Tyler qualified to represent Gimli in the Junior catagory at the YBC - Bowler of the Year tournament which is...........Sunday in Winnipeg. Yikes! We have to get up early and maybe the kiddos will get in a quick swim before we have to pack up and get out of there to make it back to the city in time for Ty's tournament.

I started this blog 2 years ago - in 2006 right before we went to Brandon for dance competition. Let's do a little comparing - Back in '06, I only wrote a couple posts then kind of forgot about my blog and this year I've already posted more than I did back then. That year it was Tyler and Emily dancing and this year it's Emily and Owen. That year I woke up Sunday with a pinched nerve in my neck and by the time we got home I was in agony and this year my neck has been burning and tingely all week - I'm taking my 'magic muscle relaxers' just in case. Last time we had car trouble on the way home from Brandon and it was a long long long drive home and this year we've been having trouble with the van again so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we don't have any problems this time. Maybe we should just stay home. I got a big box of CTMH scrapping stuff on my doorstep this afternoon. I could easily amuse myself with paper, pictures, scissors & glue all weekend.......or not. So it's off to Brandon we go. Creativity...with paper will wait and with any luck at all I won't forget my camera and I'll put it to good use this weekend........hopefully taking lots of pics of my great kids - with medals around their necks!!!

Why I Returned to Blogging

I'm very much a person that needs to get my thoughts out of my head - or they tend to haunt me. Talking to someone would seem a logical track to take in such instances but writing them out works better for me - plus there's nobody talking back while I'm trying to think. I tend to keep what I'm really thinking to myself until I can't take it anymore (not a good thing) so by at least writing things down I can express what's on my mind and then deal with it.

So....on to the events of last Friday which brought about a frenzie of feelings and a resulting pity party and led to me being online all day doing some surfing for resources of various types. Eventually I ended up at a site that listed some parent blogs and I started reading a couple. One in particular really caught my attention and for the next 3 days, whenever I had a spare moment....and even when the moments weren't really 'spare', I found myself pouring through this mom's blog - reading 3 years of archived posts with an obsessive need. This woman, a married mother of 2 young girls, living in the US. A young professional, a woman with passionate posts about religion, politics and many many things. Most touching to me is how she is a strong advocate for her oldest daughter who has Down's Syndrome.

Why was I drawn to her posts so much. Because my pity party was about just how hard it is for me to be a good advocate for my daughter. We had been to see the Children's Special Services Social Worker on Friday morning and as always, after we left then the words I'd wanted to say, the feelings I wanted to express came pouring out. I 'vented' to those that would listen but honestly what good does that do my daughter. I should have spoken up at the meeting and said my peace then - only that's not me. I don't think quick on my feet and only after the fact do things come to mind that I want to say. Why were we at the CSS offices? We'd been called in because with A turning 16 (omg...how can THAT be?) in a couple weeks, the process of transfering her case over to Adult Services is begining. So we had to sign paperwork authorizing the CSS office to access her school records, particularily any phychological assessments. And to that I say - hahaha....good luck finding anything since it's been a requested item on her IEP for years and I've yet to see any concrete documentation that any sort of testing has been done - ya....really good advocating on my part huh. (Bad Mommy Advocate example #1) So we sign the paper - that for the record didn't even have our daughter's name written anywhere on it! and I had to point out that fact to the SW. After that was done we moved right along to I believe was the true reason for this wonderful meeting. You see I'm a jaded person so I tend to think there are alterior motives for things people say and do. Would the fact that A is turning 16 soon and it was time to being the transer to Adult Services have even come up this week had it not been April? April is funding month and in my experience that is when we 'hear from' our SW. She has to put A into the budget, so I guess now is a good a time as any to 'check in' with us and see how we are doing not that we talked about 'how we are doing' but rather what sort of services can the SW pop into the budget for this year. In the past this has been them paying for her (and an assistant) to go to camp for a week... effectively using our allotment of respite for the year. Well, last year A decided she didn't want to go to camp and even though the SW tried a couple times to convince her, she does not want to go this year either. I think i've finally caught on to this game. They want her to go to camp for the simple fact that it is a number they can plug into their budget for the coming year. "oh look what we've done for A this year....we spent $800 on 'respite' care for this girl and her stressed out family" Now don't get me wrong....I value the assistance and money spent on camp but in hindsight it sure made any other sort of support non-existant...not that in my jaded eyes I think there would have been much other support given. In addition to camp, a string of workers over the last couple years have also been taking A out for a couple hours each week to various activities - special o swimming or just hanging out and some experiences were better than others - and ironically this is usually the time of year that our SW magically finds a new worker for us. While it's nice to have that break for a couple hours it's not what i would call 'support'. Anyway, since she's refused to go to camp this year we now have a meeting with yet another new worker and since we (her father & i) couldn't come up with things for them to do together last friday, we are to "bring some ideas" with us to the meeting with the new worker next week. Why is she getting paid and yet I'm the one that needs to do the brainstorming...... AND THIS.....is the 'programming' that I am now going to have to fight for the next 2 years till she is 18 for the Adult Services division to continue. Continue? continue what programming? And just to clarify - many of the people who have worked with A over the years as a worker have been truely amazing people and we value their help highly....I'm just disapointed in the level of services provided by the people higher up in the food chain - the social worker(s).

Right at this point I'm damn frusterated and feeling very unworthy as an advocate for my child -- and for the rest of my family. I dropped the ball many years ago and stuck my head in the sand and feel a whole ton of guilt at the moment after reading how others' are advocates for their children. Bad Mommy Advocate!

Two Words That Make Me Cringe ---- Science Fair

Isn't it bad enough I had to endure Science Fair as a kid. Why now I am subjected to the pain of it all over again through my child? It's just not fair! ha ha....i'm sure there's a punny joke in there about it being fair....science fair - but I'm not in a joking mood.

My son, bless him - he's a good kid and all, is NOT a project kind of kid. Never has been. Can't see him ever being one. Coming up with an idea and making a plan. Organizing thoughts and facts and information. Understanding the information, processing it and then creating an imaginative display - complete with...oh i dont' know....some creativity. Not his strong traits. Oh and while I'm a really good procrastinator - he's the KING! He can make something that only takes 10minutes stretch out to last hours. Now I know how frusterating it was for my mom - raising me. Only difference was I would eventually get down to business and get the work done and more times than not, the pressure of the looming deadline resulted in a much better final product - that's just the way I am. My son has the procrastination thing down pat but the 'get it done' part.....not so much.

So I'm learning a whole lot about solar panels, seen the inside workings of a solar garden light and am trying deperately to explain things to him and guide him in hopes that he will figure out how to get this project done with as little assistance from me as possible. Face it, I'm finished school and don't get extra mommy credit for the brilliance & creativity of this project so he needs to do it himself. It's just hard to watch him struggle, knowing he's in over his head because he's just not a project person. It was also hard to dish out money today for things like printer ink ($56!) and a box of solar lights ($20) so he could do this project. These items were NOT in the budget....and the ink is something I've needed for the last 2 weeks for work and I've been unwilling to 'find' the money elsewhere in the budget for myself but somehow made an exception for just for him. *sigh* the sacrifices we make for our kids. Now I just have to figure out which bill is going to be short on the payment this week because of it.

Dont' BUG me. I'm busy!

Spring brings about all sorts of little bugs, both good and bad, and I guess it depends on your perspective which category each falls into.

There are the *germy bugs* that seem to be floating around and while any sane person would say these are most definitely a bad thing, if you look at it as a reason to lay on the couch watching movies because you just don't feel 100% then it's not so bad. Honestly though - I could do with a little less snot and such around the house. Everyone is taking turns complaining about sore throats and having the sniffles/cough. Ironic, yet not surprising, is the fact that the ONLY person to test positive for Strep was the one that did not have complain of a sore throat. His only 'symptom' was a 3 day fever with pitiful looking basset hound eyes and extreme lethargy (translation...he was whiny and clingy) - not something our family doc was concerned about and I'm sure he only took a swab to humor me. Ha Ha. Who got the last laugh on that one. Anyone else with a disgusting looking throat and just generally feeling icky tested negative. Natch. I hate germies....they always make me look like an idiot at the doctors office.

Then there is the *spring cleaning bug*. Cleaning wouldn't be considered a plus on my part normally. Though I like things clean, I tend to overdo it in a frenzy and then regret it when I can't move for 3 days. Right now I'm in the anxious part of this bug cycle. I want things cleaned, purged, de-cluttered. I just don't have the time or energy right at the moment to do anything about it which is making me slightly edgy. Its on my list of bugs to deal with soon though....once I get rid of the snot clogging up my mind so I can think clearly. On this note the *spring cleaning bug* seems to dwell well with the *home reno bug*. I've been told that termites can do a number on a house when they infest....but I've been given strict instructions that I cannot search online and buy a box of termites off ebay or some other such place. Personally, I think they would take care of a whole lot of my housing/spring cleaning issues right quickly. The idea has been vetoed though, so I guess I'm on my own. Drat!

There's the *creativity bug* that bit me hard a couple weeks ago and I actually got some scrapping done. Woohoo! I like this bug - a lot. I just wish everyone would stop 'bugging' me so I could spend some quality time with it. Again the germy bug is a factor in this one. Snot and creativity don't mix well.

The *blogging bug* of course has bit me, which seems quite obvious since I'm here. This seemed like the easiest 'bug' to deal with today. Although not so easy as I had to wrestle with creating a new Google account so I could transfer my blogger account to it. So, even though blogging is not something I should be doing as I have so many other things with higher priorities on my todo list today, it is the one thing that's been eating at me for a couple days and I figured the best thing to do is embrace it so I can move on to other things. There is actually a reason I've been bitten by the need to blog again. I've been drafting some blog posts about the events that led up to this and they are on my newly created list of blog topics to write about. I've got good intentions about blogging often so they should be posted soon.

Probably my least favorite bug right now is the *sibling bug* This one is nasty and shows no sign of leaving my house anytime soon although the spring factor seems to be exaggerating the infestation. Spring Break - mano-y-mano, quality time with the whole family home isn't always a good thing. Tensions are high and while nobody was thrilled to be going back to school this week.....I sure was, for a little peace and quiet. Although in retrospect, sibling incompatibility spread out through out the day seems a little easier to deal with than the influx of miserable that seems to well up in them all day while at school and explodes outward the moment they walk through the back door at 4:00. It's almost like they get home and realize....'oh yeah....YOU live here too!' The fact that the other children dare to exist seems to weigh heavily with some members of the sibling population around here. Not fun...and a *bug* I could do without. Anyone know any exterminators?

In a nutshell, those are my *spring bugs*. Right now I have the youngest of the sibling population at home with me today. He's taking a 'mental health day' as he absolutely refused to go to Kindergarden this morning. Not something I normally give in to but he was a cranky, whiny little thing last night, fell asleep on the way home from daycare and then wouldn't sleep last night. He was a sack of joy this morning and I figured better a day at home with me...and no siblings....so he can decompress, than to send a truly miserable 5 year old to school for his wonderful teacher to deal with along with 20 other kids. Also, he's been complaining about a certain kid in his class that's causing grief. "I don't want to go to school. *B* is always bugging me. " There's that *buggy* word again. I guess everyone's entitled to avoid dealing with *bugs* once in awhile and luckily I have a parent conference coming up and the issue will need to be addressed.

Off to see what my cute little bug is up to.....maybe he can distract me a little longer from my todo list for today. Procrastination is an art form.
~ K