The plane ride to Ottawa was great. The ride to the airport was tough. My lil bug cried, yelled and was hysterical for over 40 minutes. She demanded that we turn around NOW. She did not want to go to the airport. She wanted to stay with grammy. My mom finally managed to have her fall asleep in her arms while she paced outside the airport terminal in the arrivals drop off zone. I bet alot of people were hoping that the screaming child was not going to be on their flight. Well, no need to worry. She had a nap and life was rosy again. She finally picked up on monkey boy's excitement and loved the plane ride. The excitement even caused the two munchkins to stay awake the whole time (arriving at midnight or 10pm their time). Yet, they were perfect! They were ideal travellers! I'm not just tooting my own horn as I received multiple compliments from passengers and staff.
We arrived to a house in a state of disarray though relatively clean. J had slaved over the house, wiping down walls and counters, cleaning bathrooms, setting up bedrooms, etc. We had our floors refinished before the kids and I returned. It looks great though it created quite a dusty mess. The floors look so much better that we have voted not to return our hand-me down futons (which are now close to 20 years old) and IKEA chairs to the living room. They shall remain downstairs, amongst the boxes, piles of stuff and kid's toys. Now the task is to find replacement furniture. Our friends are placing bets on us. They think we will not have real furniture for 6 months. They recognize how slow we (i.e. J) can be in purchasing large ticket items. I desperately hope we can prove them wrong.
On top of the disarray caused by refinishing floors, we have also had to deal with a carpenter ant infestation and now mice. Frack! I hate pests!
BTW I've discovered that packing is fun compared to unpacking. I absolutely hate unpacking. What a huge annoying chore. An almost impossible chore to complete if you have two kids hanging around and demanding attention. Geez, can't they feed themselves :)
On a happy note, we've already reconnected with a couple of great friends. First, we were invited to monkey boy's gal pal's birthday party at a local hobby farm. It was a hoot. Monkey boy held hands and played with his friend the whole time. It was like they hadn't been apart for 9 months. Secondly, we had a picnic supper at our friend's house, Karen and John. The supper was great even though we had to transfer ourselves from a park to their house due to rain. Again monkey boy reconnected with his bud, E. They got along famously and the two little sister's enjoyed each other and tagged along after the older ones. It was such a pleasure for us to be in the company of friend's.
I will miss our families in Alberta, immensely. However it is nice to be home...even if there is more chaos than sanity.
About Me
- Pam
- I'm a healthy well-rested creative adventure seeker...in my techno-colour dreamworld. In reality, I am a mother, partner, library technician, and lazy bumpkin.
Westjet cancelled my flight this morning. I'm now stuck riding on a crowded airplane, leaving Calgary at 6pm arriving 11:48pm in Ottawa with two already overtired kids. What joy! What luck! I guess the stress of spending yesterday packing, finishing off some photo albums for the parents, sending letters and pictures to family and shipping 3 more boxes to Ottawa was misguided. At least I'm all set to go so today is a "free" day.
I think the zoo is calling our names...that should kill at least 3 hours of what is going to be a VERY long day.
The countdown to our return to Ottawa is in full swing. We celebrated monkey boy's 5th birthday, my dad's 65th birthday, and J's 39th birthday during the first half of this month. Yup, there are way too many Taurus males in my life.
We've moved. We enjoyed our time at our Ranchlands townhouse rental. It was sad to leave the house with the beautiful view and easy access to our favourite haunts. It was also sad to see how much stuff we had accumulated since moving to Calgary. We arrived with approximately 10 boxes and 4 suitcases of household items. We left with significantly more despite donating 2 large bags of clothing.
The move to my parent's house went fairly well. We managed to move everything in 3 loads (1 in the back of my parents Chevy truck and 2 in our RAV4). We spent an excessive amount of time cleaning but at the end of the day we left the place better than we received it. My folks were great by not only helping us move items but taking care of the kids for a night and half day.
Currently we reside in my parent's basement. A pretty sweet deal considering they just moved into a gorgeous brand new bungalow, they are not charging us rent or utilities, they provide child care, cook some of the meals and have cable (woohoo). Yes, Jim and I have to sleep in the common area but that is only because our two munchkins cannot sleep in the same room. Monkey boy is a light sleeper and lil bug snores and wakes frequently with crys and nightmares. I am sure we will have some "testy" days, as my mom would say, since my dad and I tend to butt heads and everyone is use to doing their own thing. However it is a nice way to end our sabbatical in Alberta. The kids love their grandparents and we will know that they have a special bond with them when we leave.
As the last days in Alberta tick away, I still hope to visit the Royal Tyrell museum in Drumheller, Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in Southern Alberta (about a 45 min drive from the in-laws in Claresholm) and see those Rocky Moutains up close one last time.
My husband is a wise shopper. He spends countless hours researching the details on big ticket purchases. We talked, test drove and agonized over a car for at least 5-7 months. It took well over a year for him to buy his latest camera. Yet when a sale sign is displayed in a store his meticulous shopping sense can go out the window. He has been very successful at times with his sale obsession. I will give him credit for those trendy $8 jeans he found. However some of his bulk sized purchases of food have been wasted on us.
Now if you keep in mind his weakness for sale items, it is no surprise that a contest may pique his interest. Last month, he responded to a U of C alumni contest and won tickets for a dance production at the University of Calgary theatre. On the surface it sounded like a great opportunity. Unfortunately, I, his grumpy wife who does not handle surprises well, was not so thrilled by the "win" as it meant going to the show that night. Well, J convinced me it was a good idea by rounding up my mom to babysit and bribing me with a promise of dessert.
We barely made it there in time but we managed to sneak in during a brief pause in the dance production. The avant garde multi-media performance featured a dancer, artwork, a clarinetist and film-making. Icarus Fried was ... bizaare. We sat through the whole production. We sort-of liked aspects of it. We admired the talent of the performers. Yet we left shaking our heads, saying "what the hell?" and feeling that sometimes avant garde goes too far. We agreed that the performance would have made more sense "if only we had smoked some dope."
In the future, I am sure J will be a little more selective when entering contests. Yet we will always have this event to make us chuckle. We had a nice time together even if I never received my promised dessert.
Music captures and captivates. Add a beautiful stop motion video to the song and I'm wrapped into a dream blanket of peace and awe.
The Calgary Stampede sponsored Aggie Days at the beginning of the month. We took the C-train down to the Stampede grounds. A ride which thrilled the wee people to no end. We met J's folks to take in the event. The kids experienced a Stampede-style pancake breakfast, watched farriers compete to shoe horses, saw some animals up close and sat on small tractors. Lil bug delighted in watching the 4-H rabbits hop through an obstacle course. Monkey boy was out of sorts so he mostly moped and meandered through the event. In hindsight, it was not the best family event for us. It was unbelievable crowded. Our viewing of the animals came at the cost of pushing our way through throngs of people and their strollers.
We finally ended our visit in the Rural Routes and Acreage Lifestyle exhibition. This section of the event featured exhibitors selling farm equipment, decor and goods as well as highlighted tourist regions surrounding Calgary. The kids found themselves running from tractor to tractor to try them out. Grandma had a blast taking pictures of them.
The highlight for J and I was getting a glimpse of our favourite TV star...Terry Grant. Yep, you read that correctly, the one and only Terry Grant who is the star of Mantracker was at the High River exhibit. Very cool. J took a picture but neither of us felt like showing our crazed fan behaviour so we bypassed the line to receive a signed autograph. Hmmm, perhaps I will regret that move. At least we have pictorial evidence.